So it goes.

I write like
Kurt Vonnegut

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I don't know why I think this is so funny.

Edit: On further review, this is seeming more and more ridiculous with each passing time I put in samples of my writing. I kept getting Vonnegut, and was pretty pleased with myself, and then I got Dan Brown. Hardly in the pantheon. Then I just got H.G. Wells.

So it goes.

Thank you, Captain Obvious!

I think I scared my kids when I yelled at the t.v. tonight. Seriously. I mean SERIOUSLY!?!
Don't text while READING TO YOUR KIDS?!?

I can't think what I might have texted while I was reading to my kids:
"No way! I cnt blve this junie b! LMFAO!"
"Alxndr had a trbl hrbl no gd vry bad day. LOL BOO HOO."
"Wish sam i m wld go away. Dont like grn eggs n ham either."
"I wldnt do that harry. vldmrt will own u."

Seriously.

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Wake UP!

We've reached our destination in Quebec, the Chateau Grande Alle. It's Quebec City Summer Festival up here, and the Grande Allee is closed down. Outside we can hear some band playing "Ring of Fire" and "Folsom Prison Blues". They're singing it in English.

We've scoped out the site of tonight's ARCADE FIRE concert. As we were walking around looking for food, we heard loud music from somewhere out on the Plains of Abraham. A slightly closer listen revealed: SOUND CHECK! So we heard some freebie Arcade Fire, and even heard "Wake Up" from a distance, where we were eating. Never mind that the music playing at the sidewalk bistro was a mix of Jason Mraz, All-American Rejects and Lady Gaga, among others. We got pretty geeked to hear the strains of our favorite song of the past year or so.

Concert starts at 9:30--we'll be headed down soon to stake our claim on prime territory for the show. We're pretty pumped up about this concert.


Post-concert update: One of the top three concerts I've ever attended. Man, they put out a lot of energy! For "Haiti", they brought up the 14 or so members of the opening band RAM, from Port-Au-Prince. Regine's family is from Haiti, and today they launched an organization called KANPE for Haitian relief. They also pledged to match up to $1million of their own money if people text "STAND" to 30333. Each text sends $5 to KANPE.

QUIZ: Tech Savvy Teaching: How Do You Rank? | Edutopia

This is for my teaching friends:

QUIZ: Tech Savvy Teaching: How Do You Rank? | Edutopia

You Want My Business? Don't Be a Jerk.

I've been holding on to this for a while, but I feel like I need to say something.

At heart, I'm a boycotter. When something about a business ticks me off, I take personal action. About ten years ago or so, someone gave me a gift card to Wal-Mart. I already didn't like their business model and the way they treat their employees, so my plan was to go in, buy some socks, and recover the cash. Well, of course they don't do things that way (to be fair, neither do most businesses, which is why I hate gift cards) and they wouldn't give me cash back on my socks. So since that time I've boycotted them.

The power of the purse is important, but I really doubt any of the businesses or establishments I've boycotted feel the direct impact of my withholding business. But it makes me feel better about not supporting something that troubles me on a deeper level.

And sometimes my boycotts lead to some personal level of sacrifice, which makes me feel better, too. There is a place in town that serves pretty good coffee, and a mean reuben. And they no longer receive my business. It bums me out because I enjoyed their service very much until I could no longer support them on a moral level.

During the school year this year, my wife and her Sunshines were out for a walk. I'll spare the details of where the walk took them, but they were on the property of a local store, headed to where they were going. No one was loitering, no one was stealing, no one was vandalizing. The owner of the store physically accosted one of the students when he wasn't doing anything wrong. Now mind you, sometimes these kids do something wrong. Sometimes they are not the best-behaved kids. But this time they were minding their own business, getting from point A to point B. And one was physically assaulted by a grown up who should be able to control himself.

Unfortunately no charges were pressed, so it's not really a matter of public record, and being too specific might be viewed as slander. I'd love to make it a public crusade, because grown-ups should act like grown-ups, and bullies should be put in their places. But it does make me feel better to put this out there, as a cautionary tale: you do things I don't like, you lose my business.

My Personal Learning Network

(Note: this is a cross-post from my other blog, "Mr. Buck's Room".)


Over the past couple of weeks I've been motivated by my master's program to develop a "personal learning network". What was once just "messing around on the internet" now has a real name and a real purpose...sometimes. My personal learning network has, to date, consisted of two things: blogging, and then there's everything else.

I've blogged for a while, intermittently, about whatever struck my fancy. I've blogged about my life, things I like, things I don't like, things of beauty, things of ugliness. If you care to check in, here's the link to "There's Always Someone Cooler Than You" (rarely scientific in nature, so it's not very relevant but this is the internet, and it is all about personal choices). I've learned by periodically writing in that blog, but it's been a sporadic pursuit. Fits and starts, but it's been around for a couple of years, so it's kind of a habit.

Then there's "everything else". I've tried numerous tools that have seemed promising, but for whatever reason, I've quickly abandoned. I have numerous podcast subscriptions clogging my iTunes, but I rarely listen to them. I've participated on a couple of Ning networks, a few wikis, I'm a member of a couple of message boards, and I've recently begun an Edmodo account and a Twitter account. So far the Edmodo account seems promising as a way to disseminate and share information and thoughts between students, teachers and classes. I invited some of my colleagues to check in on the Edmodo site, and I'm grateful to those who did: as a result I've been able to better understand how the tool might be utilized in my class, and how I might administer it among the students in my school.

But Ning is a pay site now, and I am not willing to pay. And Wikis seem unwieldy and difficult to keep up with--I may mess around with PBWorks a little to find out for myself, but I don't really foresee them meshing with my world view.

Meanwhile, I am a member of a group called "Sons of Sam Horn", a Red Sox fans online community. Most of the time, the analysis and discussion surrounding the topics is far better thought-out and presented than that on official sites or through traditional news sources. This has, in an indirect way, suggested to me the power of Web2.0 and a group of people who share a passion.

Finally, I'll comment on Twitter, but I'll limit it to 140 characters or fewer: It's good for getting news, but I don't see myself contributing much.

Mr. Buck's Room

I'm doing a little cross-pollinating here. As a result of taking a web-tools course for my master's program, I've started a new blog: Mr. Buck's Room. I've posted a new diatribe on why I (and, by extension, the entire American educational system) should teach more 21st century skills and Web 2.0 skills. I'm enjoying a course that encourages me to be a little provocative; I'm hoping to draw a distinction between my online voice and my serious researcher voice. Anyway, jump over and check it out, if you're so inclined.