Yerba Buena Free 4 All

Museum: a building or place where works of art, scientific specimens, or other objects of permanent value are kept and displayed.

I found out about a cool even on Saturday. The Yerba Buena Free 4 All. 12 Museums, 1 day, free admission. All in downtown SF. So, I took my son and we went.

We got going a little late, but manged to make it to the Cartoon Art Museum, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Museum of Craft and Folk Art. Not sure if the Craft and Folk Art Museum is really worth a revisit or not, but the other museums were cool.

This was the best exhibit: Dark Matters: Artists See the Impossible
This one was the internet-eavesdropping installation Listening Post by Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen. It was thought . We didn't get to stay for too long because we got a late start, but this is the one I'd go back to see again.

Who is Horatio Caine?

Connections: associates, relations, acquaintances, or friends, esp. representing or having some influence or power.

I think Horatio Caine is just The Bomb. Why may you ask?

Cause the guy can do anything. The episode I watched last night on A&E (which network, by the way, does NOT seem to be about Art and Entertainment any more but more along the lines of Any Episode that produces ratings) hmmm... anyway, Season 3 Episode 26, titled 10-7, was a Very Good Example of the fact that if you work with Horatio, nothing is impossible.

MY synopsis of the Plot based on:
"Who is this Horatio Caine guy anyway?"

Bomb goes off killing people. Fingerprint is found on bloody knife. Delko tries to ID print and computer comes back with Print Identified but he can't access the database for the print. Delko exits stating that there must be some issue, leaving Horatio alone in the room.

Horatio logs on with his Super Secret ID and immediately is able to access Super Secret information that the print belongs to his brother Ray.

Horatio discusses situation with Super Secret Goverment Spy Guy. Horatio gets information from Spy Guy without volunteering anything in return and then tells Spy Guy that he will "clean up his mess." Spy Guy is left speechless.

Horatio then talks to Ray (somehow finding him instantly - how?) and finds out that Ray's son is being held hostage. Horatio helps Ray rescue his son and AT THE SAME TIME helps Ray to stage his own death so no one will be chasing him anymore. Horatio then assures everyone that Ray is dead, including Spy Guy and Ray's wife. Everyone believes him.

At the end of the show Horatio has SOMEHOW arranged for Ray, wife and son to fly off to Brazil in a Lear Jet!

Yes. Horatio Caine is Mega. Click here (warning: language) to see if YOU are as Mega as Horatio Caine. (Spoiler: You won't be. Nobody is. But you can try.)

Just in case you haven't heard enough - you too can Experience the Awesomeness that IS Horatio Caine.

Laptops and Life

Dismay: to surprise in such a manner as to disillusion.

My sister, who although a great person in many ways is a bit lacking in tech knowledge. She wants a new laptop, but when she went looking for one she was overwhelmed with all the "tech speak" (i.e. let's create a list of specifications that no-one but a certified tech geek will understand) so, of course, she gave me a call.

Luckily, I've been researching a laptop myself being totally fed up with this lovely computer that I was provided with when I was hired.

Yeah. You're right. It's an iMac. An ancient iMac. Plus the Powers That Be locked the rights to the system down so tight that you can't say... update Internet Explorer so you could, you know, maybe get on and check email and such things as that. Which is interesting since we (the teachers) are all supposed to be happily online connecting in the virtual world.

You can't connect a LCD projector to this thing either, because Mac, in their infinite wisdom decided that since the system was self-contained such things as exterior video ports were completely unnecessary.

I could go on about my total disgust with my current work computer, but since that isn't what I actually wanted to talk about let's go back to the actual topic which is:

The Joys of Ordering an HP Laptop
So, I've researched computers ad nauseum and decided that an HP Pavilion would fit the bill nicely for both of us. I got myself a Pretty Good HP Pavilion, nothing super special but with the specs I wanted. I ordered my sister the Special Edition (otherwise known as ICY, so cool and hip it came out white) from HP. She's a little paranoid about computer failures, so she also got the 4 year warranty and as a bonus the car adaptor.

Just to recap. I ordered one computer, with warranty and an AC car adaptor. I finalize the order, HP sends me an email saying that they got my order. Then this morning, I get another email saying that my order has shipped.

"Wow," I think in surprise. "That was stellar fast!" I'm especially thinking this because the estimated build date was Nov 12. So, I open the email which states that they are going to send me PART of my order so I can be even more happy. So, what exactly are they sending me?

The AC car adaptor and the warranty. Oh yeah, that's SO useful without the computer. For some reason I'm more dismayed by this than ecstatic.

Geeking Out

Geek: a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference).

I went to a Technology Math and Science Seminar a few weeks ago. I ended up at the Chocolate Technology Affair. Not only did we get to play on nice new up-to-date computers (a rare event if you happen to be a teacher) but the instructor also handed out chocolate during the presentation. What could be a better combination? Chocolate AND computers.

The seminar was all about Web 2.0 tools. Which I really knew NOTHING about. But I've been spending a lot of time learning over the last few weeks about the new functionality that is available and it is Totally Cool. She showed us lots of new fun web tech stuff.

So, here's what I've done so far.

• Created a wiki for my math classes on Peanut Butter Wiki
• Also found out about WikiSpaces another wiki creator which is free for teachers.
• Created a new family group website for our family to stay in touch at Nexo
• Downloaded a couple of YouTube videos with Javimoya
• Played them for my class using Wimpy Standalone FLV Player

Found a TON of cool interactive math java applets including:

• House of 3d
• Graphing Calculator
• Linear Inequalities Applet

I'm really excited about it because this means I can create my math website without having to FTP anything, changes happen instantly which is very cool. The other thing is that I can create a class wiki where my students can go in and be interactive. I'm thinking about how I want that all to work.

I'm back

Hiatus: A gap or interruption in space, time, or continuity; a break.

I was blogging fairly regularly and then I just stopped. I'm not sure why because I've gone back and read through my old posts and some of them were quite good. Some were even humorous, which was one of my goals with the blog. Re-reading them also brought back some good memories, which was one of the reasons I wanted to do this in the first place.

So, I'm going to start this up again.