Television and Common Knowledge
been trying to get to this for a year or so, but even though it's an e-book, I never think to "read" on the computer....
I'm trying out Twitter--hoping to keep abreast of CCCC happenings, good presentations, etc., as well as the SXSW event. Twitter's good if you can't be everywhere at once and want to be...but meanwhile I'm trying to find out what it really is good for, what not to do, and why to use it.
I read so many things online and do so many things online that I can't keep track of it all, but I'm going to attempt to for at least a week or two and then update this blog space to reflect that.
I guess you could count the 3 hour nap I took this afternoon a "vacation-y" thing to do, even though it's more of a Sunday thing to do. Tonight Dan and I took the dinner Dan had been making all day over to a friend's house, where we had the best ham ever, his garlic mashed potatoes, freshly picked beets, a blackberry/peach/banana salad, and his homemade chocolate chip cookies. Um-um-good! Plus, I got a wonderful neck rub, and then after we left, we drove down the road a bit in the deepening dusk, spotting four or five deer in a field, passing the peaceful Slippery Rock Creek, and taking in the fresh, cool, evening air with the moonroof open.
Yesterday, with it being the very first day of August, I vowed to do something every day in August that was SUMMERY or VACTION-LIKE, in order to stretch out the summer as much as I can. So, yesterday, I browsed around the store The Amish Buggy in Erie, like a tourist, and taught summer school (that only counts once as a summery thing--any more days of counting it turns it into a SCHOOL-LIKE thing, rather than summery thing. But I did wear Bermuda shorts to class (!) so I guess that counts.
Today, I went down to the Farmer's Market in Slippery Rock and picked up some ripe, juicy peaches, a pint of blueberries (not enough even for the two of us for a week; we have to go back and get another if we can), a plastic container (a pint?) of blackberries, and 2 ears of corn called Ecstasy. Really, they are JUST EARS of CORN. Anyway, I hope to get out later today and attend our neighbor's famous annual Pig Roast, a huge bash where the neighbors two doors down invite the entire neighborhood (everyone in Applewood Meadows), all their friends, and probably all their friends' friends. I can already hear the thump, thump of big bass speakers that they must have set up. This is one of those times when I wish I could drink beer again (not that can't, I just choose not to). It's usually a pretty good time for all and I reckon it can get a lot more crazy when you've had a few. Maybe I'll ice down a few O'Doul's just to get the flavor.......That's a good summery thing to do, too!
Okay, back to work, but meanwhile, I'll upload a few photos from earlier this summer....
It's been so long since I wrote on this blog that the technology has probably already changed on me!! Well, with the spring sabbatical and my shoulder surgery and being unable to write for so long, it put a crimp in my blogging. Then all the changes with my parents occurring.....and then being soooo sick for ALL of April and then Dan's dad dying, it's been an unusual and emotion-packed year. Now I go back to teaching in a few weeks, but probably will go through even more transitions. We have no more children at home anymore, so that's something to get used to. It's nice at times, but often more just weird or overly quiet. Especially since Monk isn't around even to call. I will get back to putting pertinent things in here soon.This post will be my entry back.
A federal appeals court today made a startling decision about the privacy of emails: they determined that 3rd part ISPs must consider their subscribers' message content private unless they notify them that it is not or allow them permission to read them, if I read this article right. That is a turnabout from what we've been expected to believe, essentially, as the writer of this article describes, making email more like a sealed letter than an open postcard.
Julia Vallera has created these readable private/public t-shirts that have QR code on them that are readable by cell phones after you take a picture of the code that's on them. Incredible!
Also loved the link she put on there-- textually.org--that features a "juice bag" at the top of the list, a tote bag that charges all of your electronic gadgets while they're in there.
With IPods connected so directly to personal listening, I always wonder why there isn't an easy just-as-small gadget or accessory to go with it to turn it into a personal stereo. Sure, there's IHome, and all these cool speaker setups, but this one gadget seems just right to fit the bill (not trying to sound like a commercial or anything...): the Sandbar
Soundmate. Although I have to give up my regular-size 80GB IPod this week, this thing would be good to know about if/when I get another.
Last month the Pew Internet and American Life Project posted a report called A Typology of Information and CommunicationTechnology Users in which they classified 10 types of tech users. Their survey began with 26016 random telelphone numbers, with 16,652 actual working numbers, and they received responses from 4001 people 18 or over, recording a 30 percent response rate. Here are their categories:
I would say I'm either a "Connecter" or "Productivity Enhanncer" in terms of technology. The survey measured people and their technology use in terms of 1) assets, 2) actions, and 3) attitudes. The top 4 categories were referred to "Elite Technology Users" (which would be my category, I guess), which turned out to include 31% of American adults. Of course, reading the "Omnivores" category, I think a lot applies to me as well.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 |
