It's such a great feeling to know you're alive...

Blog #2

Why I will always like Mr. Rogers:

1. He let us know that he was rooting for us and that he wanted us to succeed.

2. He had great common sense and was interested in substance over style.

3. He never displayed the need to be cool.

4. His motivations were founded in spiritualism rather than commercialism.

5. I still get sad when I realize that he passed away. I read an article about him and I am all teary-eyed. And I don't even feel silly about it. What a good man.

I can't believe I'm doing this...

I am a bit sad that I don't have time to learn about more features to put on my blog site. If I think about it though, I am now learning functions for my website. And on a rapid learning curve. I'm still surprised that I have a website. Silly me.

And just for a little background about us, here is my Site of the Day:

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm

setting up unix directories and then posting your webpage

Setting up your web page on pitt's homepage site:

To set up your public html directory:

Click on start button on bottom left of your monitor
Click on run
Type in: telnet unixs.cis.pitt.edu

What you type in:
pwd
cd public
pwd
mkdir html
ls
(UNIX should prompt you that there is an html directory by displaying html )

To transfer files to you html directory (rather spotty on this):

1. Go to your brower's url box and type in the url:
ftp://yourusername@ftp.pitt.edu (user name is the name you use to go into blackboard courseweb for example, jpw25 for jane willow)
2. enter your username and pasword
3. find public folder
I think the next two actions are right, but I have not done them:
find html
drag stuff into there.

To start a web page, save it and publish in from NVu to Pitt.edu:
(Don't put images in until you save it!)
Read the following tutorial that I found:

Nvu Tutorial 2: Adding Images, Changing Fonts, Changing Colours, Creating Links, Writing Your Content

Sincere thanks to Paul Peeling for providing much needed help and the help desk for helping me with some glitches that I could not get around. Kathy

Let the Sun Shine!

Baby, the moons are gone. I figured it out. Since I am new to the technology scene, I am so proud of myself. The culprits that need to be in trouble are in trouble. I'll clean up the other posts of the moons when I have Nvu installed, etc.

However... I really like blue moons :-).

Site of the Day

Site of the day:

To get an icon/link for Babel Fish, go to this website:

http://www.altavista.com/help/free/free_searchbox_transl

Sweet.

Cranky city

It is late. I am cranky. Posting solely to meet the requirement feels demeaning. But for perspective, I do not live in a war-torn nation. There, that made this seem harmless.

I do not think that my brain functions like a computer. I can not memorize all those terms and concepts for 2600. Especially when so many terms split hairs and cross-over and sound too similar. I say instead of a final, we just put all the computer and device components in our hands in class and talk about them, take them apart, etc. while we are actually touching them and looking at them. I'm assuming that we all want to learn.

When I was an undergrad freshman, I was friends with the med students that lived upstairs. I would quiz them for tests that required knowing many terms. I said to one of them, "how do you remember these terms in the long run?" He said, 'we don't, we just get through this test, then totally forget them so that we can memorize for the next test." hmmm... off to sleep. Night.

Insurance Post

We had a great study group this morning for 2600 midterm. Talking about the terms is so much more conducive to remembering items than just reading. Incidentally, we debated if the 3 required postings can all be in the same day. So this is an insurance post.

I want to learn how to put in some sound. Maybe Superfly.

Here is a link. http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/30/1441/59811
Good for a laugh and a frown all at the same time.

I got the previous link from Jane...
So my question is... was I using P2P even though Jane and I are not in a cozy little network?

My sincere (and dancing) typologies - 3rd post

I don't know how to make it not show up. I have enough to do. Determining wormy, crackerish type activity regarding moons is not in my plans. I know someone is laughing. Hardy Har Har.

Okay, so the website creation does not seem hard when the professor uses a WYSIWYG. I actually think that I will like the assignment because it is like a puzzle and allows for creativity.

shine on, shine on harvest...

See what I mean? There it is again. Haunting me. Well, I am afraid that as the week of studying/freaking out progresses, I will forget to blog. And blogging is 3 a week baby. So, my second blog's main theme is the Scout Portal record. I like the idea of a portal for objects, including websites. I have learned about many great websites from viewing other's additions on the portal's homepage. I hope that we will somehow be able to have access the database after we leave the University. Hmmm... is that possible?

someone needs to confess...

Okay, the preceeding sentence just shows up when I go to post any new post. Is someone playing with me? Do I have a virus? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

site of the week: http://www.eccentricgnat.com/nvu/index.html
NVu tutorial. Don't know if it is good because I am TOO NVu at it.

Like a five-year-old wrote in her school journal, "I have a bise day." ...(phonetics is the key)... Actually trying to memorizing 300 + terms and endless concepts is going to make the next week amazingly 'bise'. Good thing Mr. W. is funny. Best Steven Wright funny line of the night: He plays that Groucho song (sweet) and then dryly says, "I thought is was funny".

Thoughts on Scout Portal

If you get up one more time than you fall you will make it through.
Chinese Proverb

testing...123

Blogging 1, 2, 3...Blogging 1, 2, 3

I have to say that all my classes to this point did not have tests. Therefore, we got down the business of actually throwing ourselves into our projects. And I have to admit, I learned a lot more than I do when trying to memorize for a test. In one brain... out the other? Just my two cents... It is grad school and we are serious and one does not usually take tests in a work situation... However, study I will...

Low on the pyramid these days...

Mr. W. has gotten into his groove. And we students seem less tense as a result.

Based on class information, I will try to use more green space in my blog.

I am looking for blogs about healthy, good, easy recipes. Anybody have one or two? Mexican, Middle Eastern, Chinese...most venues are good.

Pitt has a policy that a student who takes less than two classes a term can not work as a student assistant. That also means a student can not do the reference internship at Hillman. That severely limits my ability to gain experience in the field. I would like to be proactive about changing this rule that is set up by the Employment office. Any opinions or ideas?

In closing, a quote by Abraham Maslow:

We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings.

i can feel the distance, getting close. Tori Amos

My ability to continue to take a position on something as absurd (and dirty) as mud has waned. Alas, I will find a new topic for this week's blog.

FYI- my keyboard is waterproof. No lie.

My friend Heather thought that blogging is one of the new forms of socialization. I think classifying it as a 'journal' hangs people up. It really isn't.

This picture is my friend who is graduating from high school this month...and going away to college. She and her friends used to play on our porch from the time they were 8. (before i had kids and became a grouch.) I am so sentimental I could get teary-eyed. Stop, time, stop!

Kathy

one small step at a time

After my mud story, I thought I would share this great article. In contrast to Julians latest 'macro change' post, this is a 'micro change' post- it definitely changed the constant restrictions I was placing on my children. Ever aware of copyright, I actually called Growing Child. They said, "post i- just give us credit. So here it is:

"Grandma Says" is a feature of Growing Child and we encourage you to > send your comments to: GrandmaSays@GrowingChild.com
DO YOU HAVE A RECIPE?
I swear this is a true story, told to me by another early childhood educator. A preschool teacher was visiting a neighboring preschool, known for its excellence. The visitor watched the children playing outdoors with some very messy material, mixing, stirring, and molding. She went closer and asked the nearby teacher what the children were playing with. The teacher replied, ‘Mud.” ‘Oh,” responded the visiting teacher. ‘Do you have a recipe for that?” Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I would want my children taught by an adult who needed a recipe on how to make mud! And yet, I fear, this is what we are coming to. The world that adults are trying to create for many young children is so sanitized and structured, so controlled and contrived, that the sheer joy of mucking about on their own is not available for many kids. In the opinions of many of today’s adults, children’s play materials are only valuable when they come in boxes for recommended age groups, sanctioned with solemn statements about the learning objectives contained within. There are no health or safety hazards, and most of the possibilities for play are clearly pictured on the box, including images of just who should be playing with the toy. In fact, if the children must live up to their parents’ dress codes of maintaining an immaculate appearance, these are the only kinds of play that are left for them. Having made my fair share of trips to the emergency room when my children were growing up, I do not minimize the need for care in keeping children safe, and of adult responsibility for supervising their play and activity. Children’s judgment is not well developed, admittedly. But I feel strongly that many of today’s parents are taking this responsibility to the extreme, so that childhood freedom and exploration are in serious jeopardy. Parents who would protest loudly if they were accused of depriving their children may need to re-examine the number of restrictions they place upon them. The deprivation of which I speak is the opportunity to initiate, to play freely, without some well-meaning adult interfering or suggesting tidier alternatives.The interference comes when adults decide activities are too messy, too noisy, too risky, too fast, or too silly; in short, too child-like. The disapproving attitudes that suggest that going down the slide head-first or mixing up a little mud are inappropriate actions serve to deprive children of making some discoveries that are their right to make.I am well aware that the world for my grandchildren and all today’s children has already shrunk their boundaries, as real dangers in communities must be recognized. I am simply urging that we not deny > them all the pleasures of childhood, in our pursuit of an image of childhood that would require a recipe for making mud.
© Growing Child 2006 Please feel free to forward this article to a friend. www.GrowingChild.com email: service@growingchild.com

BenShan is the Bogland Man

1. BenShan is the man. HOW GREAT when a man is in touch with his feelings.
ShanMam, come on board in bogland, we are waiting....

2. Since I am truly trying to be a blogster (why go halfway), I have some blog thoughts: There is no point to blogging if no one comments or interacts with your blog. That is just truly a diary, and why make it public? However, I am zapping this blog when the class is over...

3. 10 scout entries and counting. only 40 to go.

4. I think this blog is making me remember my world travelling stories. I forgot to tell about when our host suddenly stopped the car and left us in a field of sheep in Italy. Never a dull moment. But alas, I think my next story will be about Germany and the manual car. I told it tonight in the car and the main character, my husband, laughed a LOT, and so did the kids.

5. Blogging with new people can be full of angst. But when a friend views your blog, it is almost comforting. As if you say, I never did tell you that about myself, did I? And yet, several friends EMAIL me to talk about my blog, rather than commenting in my blog...interesting...

6. We saw Buckwheat Zydeco tonight with some friends at the Arts Festival. Great to be around live Cajun music. We were covered in mud as we spun the children around. They had a blast. Everyone else was rather clean. Get muddy people! Being upright sticks with awkward hesitation can not truly be our fate. Any friend who is reading us, call us when you want to see a FESTIVAL band, we may be able to go!

in search of...

Hello fellow 2600ers,

I am looking for a very part-time job in Pittsburgh.
I need your help.
I will not take your job or try to get promoted before you because I only take one class a term and it will be a while before I am looking for full time work.
I just need to obtain ANY library experience before I graduate.
I don't believe in sticking to the listservs to find a job.
So let's see how well this blog connection works.

If you know of a position in the LIBRARY where you work,
If you know someone else in a LIBRARY,
If your uncle Ed is friends with someone who works in a LIBRARY,
If you hire people in a LIBRARY

Please tell at least one appropriate person that I am looking because:
I am dependable.
I want to work the shifts that no one else does- Sundays, Saturday afternoons, evenings, even Friday evenings.
I have created and directed social service programs, created and taught FUN preschool activities and storytimes, and directed research studies- I am not afraid of hard work.
I am willing to do practically anything in a library.
I am not into gossip or backstabbing.
I will give you a homemade loaf of bread if I get the job.
and last but not least...I like to laugh and... here is the kicker... make mudpies! (see favorite activities)
If that doesn't convince you to pass my info on... then this is a critical blow to my 'pro' side of blogging.

Thank you for your eyes and ears. My resume is ready to email...
email: Katenjake@verizon.net