The 10th Planet???

News: There is an object out there that is larger than Pluto and is further out. It orbits the sun. (but so does a lot of other space "debris") Is it the 10th planet? Is Pluto a planet?

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The Tunnel

Hey, San Diego made international news!

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Things are rolling ...

How cool is it to not be sick? Very cool. Being sick sucks. I know that I don't have to tell you that, you've all been there. I'm not sure why it was such an annoyance this time. Maybe it's because I haven't been sick in a long, long time. Maybe it's because my annoyance began right at the begnning of my 3 day weekend. Maybe it's because things are rolling now and it's very inconvenient to get sick. The bummer now is that Sandy is sick. She doesn't have the same, flu, temperature, fever thing that I had, but instead has a nast cough and is sneezy. Ug. I'm still hanging on to a cough that won't go away and is a minor annoyance. In the big scheme of things, it's an annoyance. I am a bit uncomfortable, but I can still work and still do things. I can only imagine (and wouldn't want to) the health situations that certain people must deal daily that are far more than an annoyance. I think about all the people with truly debilitating and sometimes terminal conditions and feel blessed that all I have to deal with is a cough.

Growth Group has started up again (actually tomorrow night will be the 3rd week already). This should be a good quarter. We had 2 more couples join, so that brings our numbers up to a total of 12 people. We've already planned our service project as well as the social. The social will be (what else?) a trip to go geocaching after church one day. That should be fun.

Tonight will be the 2nd week for my CSUSM class. I'm looking forward to this semester. I'm teaching in a PC lab this time (last semester I was in the Mac lab) and it's large and oddly shaped for teaching. I have several enthusiastic students and I'm looking forward to learning from them and teaching them this semester. I "think" I have a total of 22 students at the time of this writing. Disappointingly, many students did not turn in their assignments on time (last night) and will be marked late for their first assignments. I hope this is not a continuing trend for the semester. Sometimes the beginning of the semester can start off bumpy as students are getting used to the tools ...

Sick At Home

Ug. I hate being sick. Friday morning I woke up with a cough. My secretary and one of the techs at work has had a cough for the last several weeks. Also my boss just got back from taking several days off because she was sick. The whole time, for the last several weeks I was doing really well. I wasn't sick at all. I don't get sick that often anymore. That's one of the side benefits of having been in the classroom for 12 years; a bullet-proof, cast-iron immune system ... almost. I remember my first few years of teaching, snffles almost all the time. Kids coming in bringing me the most exotic strains of bacteria and viruses. The really unusual one were delivered right after Christmas and Spring break or Summer when the student had the opportunity to travel and pick up stuff we don't have at home. I've been doing pretty well, but the last few days has not been status quo. I've been running and temp and don't feel like doing anything. I don't want to get on the comptuer (yet here I am), I don't want to play xbox, I don't want to watch DVDs. As I said, Ug.

We cancelled the game night we were going to host here at our house. I know that Sandy was really looking forward to it. So was I. I was also looking forward to this weekend off (3 days) to rest, recupe and prep for a busy year. It's a good thing I have 3 days.

ED 422 starts on Tues night. I think I'll be recording the audio from that first night because there is so much that we go over. I'm looking forward to another great semester with 422.

January 6th

Did you know that January 6th is when (some) Catholics and Christians traditionally observe the arrival of the Three Wise Men (Three Kings)? It is also the 12th day of Christmas (as in the infamous 12 days of Christmas)! The Feast of the Epiphany. When I was growing up, our family would treat this as the last day of Christmas. We'd keep decorations (the aluminum Christmas tree, the electric candles, and the nativity scene) up until then.

Tiny URL

In case I haven't posted on this site:

Have you ever seen an internet URL addres that was horribly long? Like this:

http://www.happynews.com/news/142006/missouri-researchers-find-largest-prime-number.htm

Nasty.

The problem with really long URL addresses is that they sometimes get "chopped off" or separated, especially when you paste them into an email. Then the person you send it to only gets part of the URL and they wonder why they can't get to your page.

By going to tinyurl and pasting in that huge URL above, the site generated this short URL instead:

http://tinyurl.com/cksgn

Go to both URLs and they should lead to the same place.

http://tinyurl.com/


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PodCacher Stats

Things change, they always do, but for now, today, Jan 4th, 2006, PodCacher.Com is ranked 25th out of 11,858 podcasts!

Woohoo!

Woohoo indeed ...


Edit Jan 5th: Our ranked has increased to 23rd!

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After The Christmas Holidays

I don't know about you, but I had a great Christmas season!

Life can get pretty busy sometimes y'know? I'm mean busy like "get up in the morning spend all day at work, get home shovel down some food, work into the night, then go to bed late tired so you can get up the next day" busy. That kind of busy.

This Christmas time was great. Not only do we get a chance to celebrate (the reason for the season) the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it also gives many of us a chance to "breath" and some time doing things that are not urgent, but very very important.

I was able to spend time with family. I feel really blessed that I can do that. We spent the first part of the day picking up my mom and then hanging out with the France clan. It was a great get-together. We ate, had some time to chat and play games (like croquet in the dark).

This season I had time to hang out with Sandy, skate, geocaching, watch several episodes of Battlestar Galactica on DVD (it's not as geeky as you might think), play some xbox, Myst, read Narnia, and just general "unwind".

Today I'm back at the grindstone, but with a renewed sense of refreshment and purpose. I'm ready once again to take on some "challenges".

Just what you need for Christmas

Just in case you were missing that Christmas feeling, here is a singing wookie, to lull you into the proper Christmas spirit ...


Chewie Sings

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Days off

It's SO nice to have some time off. Today was the first day off for Christmas break. Actually as a school administrator, I don't get the kind of breaks that I used to when I was a classroom teacher. Just one thing about being a teacher that I really miss. I have 4 days off, then I work on Tues and Wed, and then another 4 days off again.

Today we got almost nothing done. Almost. We went out to look for Sandy's skates. This year her main Christmas present is a pair of inline skates. Woohoo! I'm so excited! She's just learning how to skate, but I'm sure she'll pick it up. We need to find some good places for her to practice and then take her down to Mission beach to get some skating in.

Just in time for Christmas!

If you are done with your shopping and have too much time on your hands ...

Ya right ...

Go here:

http://www.pimpmynutcracker.com/

For Photo Lovers

This is a link I've saved / used when I need some photo inspirations for my own photography or just to check out other cool work that people are creating ...

Flickr's Last 7 days most interesting photos

It changes every time you visit it so you can "reload" and check out even more pics.

I love photos, looking at them and creating them. I've always appreciated good art, 2D, sculpture, etc. With the exception of simple sketches I've never had a much patience (nor talent) to create remarkable works. Not only that, I've always thought that, after all the work I might put into a "piece", in the end I would have one "thing", one painting, one sculpture, one drawing. That has it's appeal, but not if you want to share it with many people.

Enter the digital age. Anything I create I can share via files and pixels. Enter photography. Enter digital photography. Oh ya baby!!! I have always been a photographer, as long as I can remember (really). When I was a very young kid, I got a black and white (camera) that I had to load 120 size film by hand (no cartridges!). Later on I got a color, Kodak pocket instamatic. Oh man I was stylin' now!

In high school I was one of the school photographers for the yearbook and newspaper. I shot 35mm for the first time! I used an old Pentax (a range finder) and BW film. I developed all the prints in a darkroom at the school. I learned how to develop film from scratch, use enlargers, dodge, burn, create contact prints, etc.

In college I bought my first SLR. A Canon EOS (the original). I went through several more SLRs (all EOS), and loved to take pics, but didn't like the fact that I had so little control over the developing process. I didn't have a dark room and relied on a shop to make my prints. I couldn't crop, or manipulate my images in any way.

Along comes digital photography. Even with the first cameras (a Sony Mavica) that had low resolution, I KNEW it was going to revolutionize the photo industry. I kept reading article after article at the time that said that digital photography would NEVER replace film. I smiled as I knew, confidently, it surely would.

Today I shoot with a digital SLR (Canon 20D) and a digital compact (Canon G6). I love them both for different reasons. In my "darkroom" (Photoshop), I can crop, burn, dodge, and manipulate to my hearts content.

Photography allows me to be creative, to create art and memories. I love the techy side of learning how to use the tools (the camera and photoshop) to truly create new works that are from my mind and heart. It didn't take me years of practice (like painting) to create a piece of reasonable quality. The images that I've created can be easily shared, they are not the one of a kind works such as a sculpture.

Don't get me wrong, I will always love and appreciate good art of any sort, but for me, the ability to CREATE is second to none.

Easily Amused

Okay I admit it, I am WAY to easily amused. This thing had me all cracked up in a pathetic way. It doesn't take much I guess ...

The Button

CETPA, first full day

Hear my ramblings about the first day at the CETPA conference.

Listen

Traffic, CETPA and PodCacher Growth

Drove up to Santa Barbara today for the CETPA conference. Hear my ramblings about the car pool lane and the HUGE spike in PodCacher listeners.

Listen

Audio Problems

I've been stumped. I can't figure this one out. An audio, sound engineering conundrum.

Listen

Back from the PME

Listen

Just got back from the ultra geeky and very exciting Portable Media Expo.

I'm trying a new audio version of this blog. You can listen to it on the computer or download the file and listen to it on an MP3 player. You can also subscribe to this blog as a podcast (the feed link is on my main page) and get new shows when they are posted.

Too Much Time

... on someone's hands.

Why?

Go here

What do you need?

This is funny. Here's a free online fortune cookie or crystal ball.

Go to Google.

Type in "X needs" (including the quotes)

In place of X put your name. (i.e. for me it would be "Sonny needs")

It's hilarious to find out what you need.

Artificial Intelligence vs Natural Stupidity

I read to completely unrelated things today.

Several months ago I posted here about a new gadget that I got, the 20Q handheld device. It was a "game" that could guess what you were thinking about in about 20 questions. The online version was very impressive. It used a very complex system hooked up to a massive database to be able to guess what you were thinking.

Here's the link to the online 20Q game.

Apparently it's an experiment in Artificial Intelligence. According to the creators, the game "learns" as more and more people give it input. Scary, fun but scary. I wonder how long before it becomes self aware and decides that it doesn't need us puny humans any longer? :)

A fun, cool, geeky version of the game is here. You'll especially enjoy this version if you are a Star Wars geek like me. Turn up your speakers!

Okay, so much for the Intelligence, now for the Stupidity.

Have you been to the Darwin Awards website? The site is full of stories of people who have killed themselves and thus removed their DNA from the gene pool. The thought is by removing genes for stupidity from the human gene pool, the human race will evolve ... into less stupid humans ... over time ...

Here's another story that tells me it's going to take a long time ...