Oh, no, no, no...I'm not going offline for good. This is my last post before I move. Please make a note, I'll be moving soon to
http://www.dailyokie.com/
And you'll be able to find my blog there. I'm going to complete this move soon, because I think it will be a better way to get to my site. I am currently hosting in my Comcast personal web space, and there's not too much of that, so I'm hoping that with Blogger's (i.e., Google's) hosting, I'll have enough space for everything and publishing this thing will be generally much simpler.
Now, lest we forget what this blog is really all about, let's get on with it.
Today's Chuck Norris Fact:
The grass is always greener on the other side, unless Chuck Norris has been there. In that case the grass is most likely soaked in blood and tears.
Today the Force was with me. I had two different situations where someone asked me about a computer problem, and in both cases, as soon as I approached, the computer mysteriously worked normally. I've had that happen before, but to have it happen twice in the same day is unusual. I'm like the little boy on Heroes...I can just make things work.
I'm teaching an introductory-level class this term, and all I can say is that it's a unique challenge. Too long had I taken for granted the ease of teaching students who were already well-versed in computers and had all the background of disk drives, network connections, internet connectivity, dual-booting...and now I have a class of 16 students, and for most of them this is only their first or second technical class. It's a totally different way of teaching to get through to them. There are so many concepts that I take for granted, that I have to remember to bring up for them. In some cases, I've had to go on 10-minute tangents in a lecture just to bring the students along to a certain concept the book talks about, or I've had to provide some unusual bits of context for the often-dry-and-tedious materials presented. Again, a fun and unique challenge. I don't know if I could do this all the time, but it's a nice change of pace.
One of life's great ironies is that we all PREFER low-maintenance things; low-maintenance cars, low-maintenance homes, low-maintenance obligations and duties, low-maintenance whatever. But all we seem to do is collect high-maintenance things, and it never gets better. Family, work, home, pets, cars, computers, relationships, none of these things ever seem to be low-maintenance. Perhaps what we should be teaching our children is that everything takes work...lots and lots of work.
Isn't it funny how new games and activities come out every year, nearly every day, and yet the old standards still hold so well? Gin rummy, poker, Monopoly, Risk, Charades...the list goes on. Same for kids: pick-up sticks, barrel of monkeys, marbles, jacks, jump rope, Go Fish...all the stuff our parents and grandparents played, and our kids are still playing them. Maybe that's part of the connection to the past. I love technology, and I love the Internet, but I sincerely hope that we never get away from those more social, more engaged activities and games.
Keep your eyes open for the URL change...it's coming soon! Thanks for reading along.
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