March 19, 2007
I Haven’t posted anything substantial in some time…and have felt for some time the desire to clean up this mess of a blog a bit…
What’s on the burners of the web-minded side of me these days?
Well, just added James Kingsley to the blogroll (clean up, did you say? How about, add to…)
Signed up for virb on a whim, as it was a jump on Andrew into the new trends of web 2.o…he isn’t convinced yet…and I can’t really say I’ll do anything substantial with it…but it beats myspace hands down in terms of design savvy.
Speaking of nothing substantial, Andrew got me signed up on facebook, which seems like a great connective tool if you want to stay in touch with your high school buddies…
Thinking a lot in terms of images and photo ideas these days…still ruminating there…
Just a few random updates.
Edu-blogging? I’ve heard of it…
February 15, 2007
I just want to express some angst towards WordPress via WordPress…
I recently started another blog writing assignment with a new class – what may very well be the last one, I might add…
So after sending all my students to WordPress to sign up, seeing as how it is so slick and organizable and all, we quickly discovered that they have blocked access for registering from people who use hotmail accounts.
The claim is that WordPress has recieved too many junk signups from hotmail toting members.
I have several words for this:
1. 1 gig of storage space – very nice, hotmail. Koodos to you on doing that…Now can you ditch the desperate dating service ads?
2. WordPress lost my class as new members, as most students were trying to sign up using hotmail, and I advocate for students not using personal or home email addies in their stuff.
3. It turned a quick signup activity into a several class long exercise in frustration…
I understand a companies’ insistence on trying to maintain some cleanliness in users, but blocking an entire user network based on email adresses seems a little extreme, and is very inconvenient.
The outcome is that several glitches later I have most students (finally) signed up on learnerblogs – which was harder than it should be….the clickable world is not so friendly…
and I have a few on blogsome (in spite of the ads…) and blogger (in spite of the sloppy design).
This experience could be my last foray into the world of classroom blogging…It took up way too much time, and created way too much frustration.
Bad wordpress…bad….
January 13, 2007
catalog shot
Originally uploaded by James Matthew.
Just looking over some pictures from the last year, and, without doubt, this is my favourite.
November 25, 2006
Sarah McLachlan’s video for “World on Fire” is stunning and beautiful in its simplicity (“There’s beauty in simplicity” – Conor Searl “Poet” )-
I showed it in several classes on Friday, and the discussion it generated was quite thought provoking.
I would encourage you to watch the video…it is worth the 3 minutes. (Big thanks to Mark and Mel for the heads up on both this and the ‘evolution’ video- you two are beautiful people!)-
world on fire
November 25, 2006
I just picked up a book of poetry from my fav. local used bookstore (about 3 blocks away. Hannah and I went for a stroll and some shopping…well, she played peek-a-boo with her toque while I perused the tattered poetry books…):
The Honeymoon Wilderness
by Pier Giorgio Di Cicco – current Poet Laureate of Toronto – his life is quite intriguing….wrote tonnes until 1986, then just stopped dead in his tracks (as far as writing goes) and joined a monastery, washing dishes for the other monks. He eventually became a priest.
This book was released in 2002 – his first release of a full collection in 16 years….should be intense.
I have barely cracked it open, but am already enjoying his style -
“The company of such men makes me
nostalgic. They were useless to everything,
but God”
- Pier Girogio Di Cicco – “Fraters” -
