Archive for November, 2010
I had to walk through this section. Didn’t want to risk riding on the road here, with cars slipping all over the place.
I eventually gave up on walking through the drifts and rode on the ice road. Studded tires are pretty amazing.
I had a meeting with a prof and grad student, and took the stairs up the education tower to avoid the horde in the elevators. These old stairways feel like climbing backward in time…
We went to watch Evan’s friend play hockey at the Bowness Sportsplex. It was a really great game, with lots of hustle. Good to see the kids having so much fun playing.
I had the task of piecing together bits of 40 year old plywood, to match the oddly shaped gaps on one wall of the house. A Skil saw is not a precision instrument. Not perfect fits, but good enough to cover things before the wrap and stucco are applied.
In reading some of the fantastic posts coming out of the recent conferences in Barcelona (see Scott Leslie’s work of art or Jon Beasley-Murray’s, or Brian Lamb’s recap or the rest of the planet’s stuff here and here ), I was struck by how much more impact the “non-educational” Drumbeat conference seems to have had, in comparison to the “educational” Open Education conference. Maybe it’s just that the people I follow are strongly in The Choir, so the OpenEd conference isn’t as revelatory for them, but it seems as though the more generally hackerish and cultural-focused Drumbeat conference caused more of a stir in thinking.
This is not a sleight against OpenEd, which by all accounts was a fantastic experience. It’s just that Drumbeat appears to have caused more of a profound, cultural(?) effect. I’m just interpreting based on the ephemeral tweets and more-rare blog posts posted by people who were lucky enough to be in Barcelona.
I’ve noticed a similar thing in conferences I’ve gone to. The “education” conferences had some interesting sessions, and provided a chance to meet some interesting people, but the “non-educational” conferences seem to really push me out of my comfort zone, and to more radically alter how I think about things (including, or especially, education).
It’s one of the reasons I love Northern Voice so much. It’s not an “education” conference. It’s a social/communication/sharing/culture conference, with an educational aspect. It’s the mix of people from various fields and walks of life, most of whom would never in a million years find themselves in an “education” conference, that makes it such a fascinating and compelling experience. One that has caused me to think (and rethink) each year I’ve gone.
So, while there’s still a chance I may be forced to attend an “education” conference for work, I don’t think I’ll be asking to go to any. I’m going to try to focus on the “non-education” events as much as possible (which, frankly, isn’t very often, given budgetary constraints on campus…)
Several times this week, I’ve received emails from users of UCalgaryBlogs. Awesome. People are really getting into it. These emails were asking for plugins and themes to be installed. Perfect! I put my email address in the header of the Dashboard for just that purpose – it’s super-simple for all users to get in touch with me for any purpose.
I realized with each of these emails, that it takes longer to respond “I’ll get to your request as soon as possible” than it does to just go into the admin dashboard and install what they’re asking. Seriously. It’s actually easier and faster to go ahead and implement new functionality, than it is to write an email to tell them that I’ll get to it ASAP.
3 times, I actually started writing the “Cool! Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll look into installing the Super Awesome Plugin That Does What You Need first thing tomorrow.”
3 times, I realized I could just pop into the Plugins section of the Dashboard, click “Add New” and install it in under a minute. It takes longer to write the polite email to explain potential delays, than it does to just go ahead and do it right then and there.
I love that.
We headed down to MEC to pick up some stuff to make me a little more visible on my bike, now that night riding season is here. I came out with a dorky reflector vest, a spoke light, and some reflector stickers for the bike frame. I should be pretty visible, now.
Also, these towers always catch my eye when I’m in this part of downtown. Something about the curved corners, tinted windows, and lines…
14 people in my house for dinner this evening, meaning I got to see a lot of this earlier.
clouds become momentarily lit from below, as the rising sun peeks through a gap.
early sunset, long angles, and layers of cloud combine to produce a gothic prairie sunset sky.