Clearly, I shoudda gone into (American) football.
Oct 19 2008
hmph.
I don’t know about this article from the NYT, which sings the praises of Apple and argues they should focus on the iPhone as it’s product with the greatest potential.
Why don’t I know about it? Well, yesterday I stopped by Future Shop to pick up an iPod Touch and they were completely sold out. The salesguy said, “We got some in yesterday but they are gone today.”
Somehow, I don’t think the sales of the iPhone are on the same level.
Mind you, I’m not really sure why the Touch has suddenly taken off like that. When I was in the same Future Shop 2-3 months ago, they had plenty of iPod Touches. I know, because I played with one. Is it that someone blogged about the fact that the Future shop price for the Touch is about $30 less than the Apple Store price?!
Most annoying part of this is that it means I need to fly away on Thur night without any music on me.
Oct 12 2008
Healthy Choc chip Muffins
I recently made these yummy apricot, oat and bran muffins, but they only received critical acclaim from adults in the immediate vicinity. After I found one squished at the bottom of a lunch bag with only the tiniest of bites taken out of it by the biggest apricot lover I know… *and* after I’d been told that it didn’t “taste like any muffin I’ve ever eaten”, I decided action had to be taken.
Google found me “healthy choc chip muffin” recipes galore, but honestly they weren’t really *that* healthy. Too much sugar and fat in them.
So, in the end, I substituted the apricots for chocolate chips (PC decadent ones at that) and used unbleached white flour rather than whole wheat and viola, healthy chocolate chip muffins.
Oct 12 2008
Technology in education & the OLPC
There is an interesting post over at The Education Policy Blog on Technology in Education: A ground map part a revision 2.
What are the implications therein for OLPC? The author refers to “old” vs. “new” technologies wherein “new” are the ones whose use is still being negotiated. I suppose that the OLPC fits there under the “new”. But the real question for me is “how is the negotiation of OLPC use going?” What is the process for adopting these “new” technologies in classrooms and why does it take so long? And where and why does it fail?
Then again, the post’s author goes on to state that the discussion is not *just* about “digital technologies”. Fine… & true. Here he evokes Schumacher’s appropriate technology and Donald Norman’s Design of Everyday Things.
Possibly the author needs to think about different uses within different cultural contexts — he gives a mention to socio-economic disparities between have and have-not schools, but could also go deeper into the implications there (OLPC fits here because it is aimed at have-nots and not haves… but many of the people using them in the West are haves). So, it is a good thing that this is what he plans to do next in this series of posts.
Just some thoughts of my own on this.
Oct 11 2008
Fishbone Sculpture
Hyperallergy girl… shudders.
Yeah, looks cool, but fishbone sculpture? Surely that can’t be good if you happen to be me.
Oct 11 2008
Guardian’s Top 200 Universities WorldWide 2008
I have no clue what criteria they used, but I got my PhD from # 41. check it out.
Oct 11 2008
Religulous
My mother mentioned Religulous in something like 3 emails before I went to see it. And I can see why she thought I should see it. It was the most amusing film I’ve seen about religion in a long time.
Oct 05 2008
Sleep
I had this problem during the PhD. Actually, tbh, I’ve always had this problem… not so much the sleeping at one’s computer the next day, but the tossing and turning and worrying about why I’m not asleep.
Oct 04 2008
Celebrating in Style
A friend of mine knows how to celebrate her 30th in style, let me tell you. I spent the day with her and other [female] friends at The Yoga Garden. We started out with a yoga class, ate lunch, and then just hung around drinking tea and catching up.
I’ve been really stressed out lately, but now I feel so centred, calm and alive.
I haven’t done Yoga since I was in TO working on the PhD and then it was at home in the basement with a tape on the telly. I think the thing is to do yoga in the forest with a view of a lake and the fall leaves all around.
In the haste to leave this morning, I forgot to take my camera (!) A real shame since the leaves are in full swing here. It was beeeeautiful.
Oct 04 2008
Arayuma
Last week I was at The Herb and Spice to pick up some samosas and as I walked in there was a [cute] guy with a demo table set up to try & promote The Arayuma product line.
He was offering me a deal, buy two boxes of tea and get a box of chai for free. So I did.
I’m not a big fan of tea in a bag, but this bag is biodegradable… and so far the tea has been really good. Fairly traded & organic from Sri Lanka. Imported to Canada by a family buisness.
I didn’t think of it at the time, but I wonder whether it is from the farm of Rory Spowers who wrote the book A year in Green Tea and Tuk-Tuks?
Try it, you might like it.