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 ...

iPods and Hearing Loss

This Sunday I went walking / jogging in my neighborhood. I was headed down a "larger" street in the area: Over 2 lanes wide with a grass area divider between the two streets. Trees are planted in this grassy divide. On the OTHER sidewalk going in the other direction was another walker / jogger. I wasn't looking directly at him or paying any particular attention, but as I got closer, I could hear a sort of "hiss". Again, I wasn't paying attention to anything in particular, but this sound made me wonder. It sounded like a faint steam hiss. As I began paying attention I realized there were rhythmic beats in the "steam", sort of like tic, tic, tic ... I started looking around and realized that the sound was coming from the guy across the street ... I then glanced at him and realized that he had some white earbuds in place and was walking while listening to his music player (probably and iPod). He didn't even look at me, he was groovin' to the beat. I could hear from ACROSS THE STREET! I couldn't tell what song or distinguish any lyrics, but I could actually hear that he was listening to something!!! Whoa.

Read this


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Crab vs Pipe

This is a video taken in 6000 feet of water. An undersea robot is sawing a 3mm wide slit in a pipeline. The pressure inside the pipeline is 0 psi, while the pressure outside is 2700 psi, or 1.3 tons per square inch. Then a crab comes along.... Link

TechnoFrustration

I'm sure that there are some of my non-techie friends out there get the impression that I never have trouble with technology. I know that some of them are really luddites at heart and would be happy if we could go back to the days of the carrier pigeon and making our own soap. I know that many of that many of them have experienced frustration with technology and probably think that I never do. The truth is, I often do. Most of the time I just push forward with persistance and determination because I need to do that to get the job done. I've encouraged them to do this and I try and model how you "usually" can win against the technology gremlins ... most of the time.

Yesterday, I got fed up and felt the techno-rage well up inside me. Within 48 hours the following things happened.

The back button on my browser would not work while I was working on Cal State work. No explanation.
I couldn't log on to AOL. No explanation.
Zip file wouldn't extract on one computer. No explanation.
iPod wouldn't connect. I think the HD is going bad. No explanation.
Car wouldn't start.
My new Palm has software install "issues" and kept losing data.
A CD jams in the powerbook while I am teaching at Cal State.
Couldn't find a paperclip to eject the CD. I later realize that the new PowerBooks do not have a manual paperclip eject feature anyhow.
Palm won't turn on in the morning. Not at all. I had to do a hard restart.
HD on the work iMac won't mount. I think it's fried.
Now my iPod connects fine.
CD finally ejects out of computer fine. A few seconds later I find a paperclip (ironic).
Student's midterm didn't upload to WebCT. I saw the student do it. Student failed to have a copy of the midterm as instructed.
Another site person has moved forward with technology without approval again.
The iPod starts making clicking noises.
My OPTICAL mouse cursor was sticking (like a mouse with a dirty roller / ball) ... But there is NO roller! ... and yes, it was on an "optically viable" surface. No explanation.
The iPod mounts irratically.
My brand new Palm will not turn on at all. It's fully charged and the reset button will not even bring it up.

GPS The Movie???

Geocaching in the media becoming “mainstream”?

I was just sent this tip from one of our podcacher.com listeners (Borten): GPS The Movie

Several months ago, geocaching was apparently part of a story in the TV show “Law and Order”. I didn’t actually see the episode, but I have heard that the show did a poor job of representing our “sport” by having the cache container actually buried. (Caching veterans know that this is a no-no and goes against the rules).

I realize that Geocaching is a growing sport and may not have yet reached the kind of critical-mass-awareness to consider it mainstream just yet. I often wonder what “outsiders” (or muggles as we cachers sometimes call them) think of this arguably odd hobby?

I’m sure many of you have had the same experience: At some point you are talking to someone and the topic (Geocaching) comes up. They are curious (or you just want to share) and you try and figure out a way to explain it. At first they give you a polite smile and nod their head: you realize they still don’t get it. So you try to use metaphors and examples. Some of them may become intrigued enough to try it, and ONLY then do they really “get it”. Has this happened to you?

I took a peek at the movie trailer and it seems as though they are trying to sell it as a suspense thriller. From what I gather from the clip, there is some kind of crime committed and people are going to get hurt. … Great, just what our hobby needs … bad press about “weirdos” going through the woods on a hunt with the threat of danger, death and scary music ever present. I realize they are in the business of selling movie tickets and that a movie about a wholesome family with kids going out to interact with each other, excercise and enjoy the outdoors may not be a big seller, but … come on!

What do you think about this? Is this the kind of image we want to present about our community?

SD CUE

I had a great time at the most recent SD CUE Fair (San Diego, Computer Using Educators). The cost is reasonable, it's local (no long drives or hotel), they have great local speakers, but most importantly it gives me a chance to connect with some of the most innovative, creative and energetic tech using educators from around the county.

I had a chance to chat with some old friends as well as make some new contacts this time around. In particular, I'm excited about some possibilities surrounding podcasting, blogging, and geocahcing (as they relate to education). I'll keep ya posted!

I also had a chance to sit in on some great sessions. I'm amazed at how often I can get a few "golden nuggets" from any session, even those subjects that I know a thing or two about! I'm always learning how much I don't know, and sharing what I do with others who may have not known what I know ... Did that make sense?! Anyhow, very groovy!

One of the tidbits that I picked up was a site called Bloglines. Essentially it's a service where you can store RSS feeds (such as blogs) to organize and help you read them in a "one stop" way.

Geocaching in Education

Here's a story of how one teacher is using Geocaching in Education! Story

I think this is great! Geocaching can involve a lot more than just “following the arrow to the tupperware”. Although Sandy and I like the cache-and-dash / drive-up style caches that let you quickly boost up your total-find scores, we really enjoy puzzle caches that challenge you in more ways than one.

I truly believe if you can “engage” your students, you’re gonna get them to learn. Geocaching can be a very engaging experience, it has very tangible and definable goals. In addition to getting kids off their GameCube-Butts (don’t get me wrong I’m an xBox owner myself!) and getting excercise, I believe it fosters socialization (funny how you often end up talking and getting to know the people you cache with!) and helps develop puzzle-solving skills.

SD CUE and the Weekend

Upcoming this weekend is the annual San Diego CUE (Computer Using Educators) conference. This is a great resource for teachers who use (or are thinking of using) technology in their classrooms. I've always found that these "mini-conferences" are great ways for local teachers to see, learn and be exposed to ways that technology is being using in classrooms in San Diego.

Here is a link: http://www.sdcue.org/

This is going to be a somewhat busy weekend. Friday night is the Kazakhstan get together for a bunch of us who have been out there. From what I understand there will even be some people from Kazakhstan visiting out here who will also be there! Cool. We are to bring some type of dessert dish. I suggested to Sandy that we should bring something called "eyeball suprise". She was not amused.

I just found an article that is one link between education and podcasting. Cool!

http://tinyurl.com/d84uq

Anniversary in Idyllwild

Just got back from our anniversary weekend up in Idyllwild. That was my first time there. A nice little small mountain town. It was a great get-away, very relaxing. I was actually able to sit and play the uke for a bit too! I had the time to really play and focus. I'm amazed at the depth of that little instrument. Most people think of the Ukulele as a whimsical "toy", but if played well it can be an amazing instrument. Check out music by an artist called Jake Shimabukuro for an example of awesome Uke playing!

Here's a pic that I shot of the local mountains near sunset.

It was nice to get away from the "heavy" tech use for a couple days. I say heavy because there was still a small amount of electronically driven things we had with us. My iPod and a set of small portable speakers is always good for some background music. I carried around the DSLR and had some interesting conversation with some local shop owners about photography and art because of that. We did bring a laptop and watched one episode of TNG one evening.

When we got back home (Jake still has his cathoder and head cone on), Sandy and I recorded show #21: The geocaching proposal story part 2. We haven't gotten a lot of response from our recent shows and it makes me wonder if anyone is listening to us anymore. Sandy and I came up with this idea that's related to geocaching, but we'll have to see if we can make it happen.

TinyURL

Okay I just found this cool site:

http://www.tinyurl.com

Here's what is does: You paste in the URL from a webpage that could be long, huge and complicated and it spits out a simple, compact URL for you to use instead! An important use for this would be when you post a link to a complicated URL in a EMAIL. Many times the links "break" and the user can't get to the page. These won't break and don't expire. Very cool!

The new Mac

We recently received shipment on our new Mac (iMac) the other day. Finally! My old home computer was an old iMac (Graphite edition. See pic on the right) running OS 9. I remember how blazingly fast that computer seemed to be when I first got it. I remember how much storage space I thought I had. I remember how I thought that 128mb of RAM was great and huge! In the last few years, I've run out of space, the RAM is not large enough, it would lock up and crash many times. I was not able to run the latest, programs any longer. Features that I wanted / needed to use were not available for one reason or another. We have set aside the old iMac. We're not sure what we're going to do with it. I'll probably scrub it clean and reinstall the OS to get it up and running, but again, I'm not sure what the best use for it will be.

On the other hand, the new iMac is great. A 17" LCD screen. 2GHZ processor, and 1 gig of RAM. A CD DVD burner combo. We are using an external HD (250 gig) as backup. I've installed the newest version of photoshop and dreamweaver on it. Very nice! The machine is fast and very capable of running the latest software. We have enough space to begin creating files (movies for DVD burning etc.) in the applications. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the new Photoshop CS2. But it's vast and there is a LOT to learn! Sandy is learning Dreamweaver as she is diving into web design for fun and (possibly) profit!



Back to my thoughts about the "progress" of technology tho: It amazes me how quickly technology can become outdated or falls short of our (new) expectations. You wouldn't think of a computer as a "disposable" item like a lighter or a pair of chopsticks, but in the long run they really are. After using the tool for a given amount of time it simply will no do what you need it to and so you get a new one. The old one has lost so much value and is almost worthless. Almost; some of the heavy ones make good doorstops. I have an OLD toshiba laptop that I still hang on to. I used it in my first years of teaching. It has a monochrome (black and white) LCD screen. VERY dim. And basically all it can do now is simple word processing and a spreadsheet. The problem is, how do I get my work out? It doesn't have USB and if I put the file on a floppy where will I use that floppy elsewhere? The thing is heavy and the battery last just long enough for it to boot up so it can shut down.

I wonder how long it will be before the hot iMac we just bought will be turned into a doorstop?

By the way, since buying the iMac that we did, Apple has come out with a newer, slimmer, faster iMac with built in camera and upgraded mouse. I kid you not.

Vacation Pics

Pics

When you get to the picture set, you can click on "view as slideshow" or simply look at each pic one at a time.

Hit the ground running

We're back from our week galivanting about California. Since I'm no longer a K - 12 teacher, I don't get my summers off any longer (they were nice). In fact, summertime is actually a very busy time for the technology department at our district. We perform maintenance, upgrades, and many other changes that are best to do when teachers and students are not in session. This 1 week getaway was my one therapeutic chance to get away from it all for a bit. It was nice to drive away from the voices of so many obligations calling out for attention.

I remember the summer of my first year teaching. I was getting "real" paychecks for the first time and stretched it to go out to Europe on a backpacking trip for 6 weeks. I'm really glad that I went when I did. I look back at all the years since then. Every year I had to work summer school or otherwise supplement my income and would not have had the opportunity to go. These days I am lucky to get 2 weeks in a row, very lucky.

On this trip we drove up the coast on Friday night and reached Santa Barbara. On Saturday we had breakfast and walked the pier. We also hid a podcache in Santa Barbara as well. We then drove up to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle. On the way up we stopped by Sandy's Aunt's house to take a look at it. They are interested in creating a website to help promote the rental of the house. It's a nice beach house in Cayucos (near San Simeon).

I'll post some picture soon.

CSUSM frustration and a vacation

The start of this semester at CSUSM has begun with many points of frustration. I teach an ED 422 class at Cal State University, San Marcos. It's a technology course for individuals seeking a California Teaching Credential. There have ALWAYS been problems and glitches, but this year I'm running into quite a few. I've taught this course for 5 years now. First there are technical problems. For some unexplainable reason, they YahooGroups resource that I've always used each year is having problems. Many students are having problems downloading assignments and readings. Argh! I've started loading the documents directly to my server, as a quick solve, but why isn't YahooGroups "working"?

The other concern at the start of this semester is the ability of certain students to follow directions. Several of them seem to have difficulty following directions. They are turning in things that they do not need to, they are not turning in things that they need to, they are turning in assignments in formats other than what I have requested, they are mis-labeling assignments turned in, they are turning in assignments late, just to name a few problems. My written directions are clear (in my humble opinion) on my website, but some students have not read them or have chose not to follow them. I've given verbal directions in class, sometimes to the point of being comical because I've repeated myself several times, and yet I have still received work that reflects that they did not hear, understand or care to follow the directions.

This year there are also many of them who needed to add the class. I didn't have the heart to turn anyone away this time. So many of them had desperate needs to take this class, this semester. I have a large class this semester. My concern is the amount of attention I will be able to give to each student. Large class sizes were always the thorn in my side when teaching in the K - 12 classroom, the rules don't change when teaching at the university. There is a threshold point somewhere at which the quality and focus of my instruction decreases in direct correlation with class size.

This year my vacation falls on the 4th week of teaching. I will be giving the class an assignment on Ethics and Copyright during this time. I'm really looking forward to this trip. I feel burned out in certain areas. The trip to Kazakhstan was much more of a business, working trip than it was any form of vacation. I kept running into people, once school got back into swing, that had pleasant, restful sounding vacations. When I they asked, and I told them I went to Kazakhstan, they often commented that "Wow that sounds fun, did you have a good time?" Although it was a great experience and I wouldn't have passed it up, it wasn't a break in any shape or form. It was exhausting. We got back on the weekend, had a couple days to recover (from a 13 timezone difference) and I headed back to work that week.

Work at EUHSD is a bear right now. High expectations and low resources. Argh! Sandy and I have been asked to lead a Bible study when we get back. I'm excited but a bit concerned about the time once again. Podcasting is going well, but in the "growing" stage right now takes time to promote and grow the business. We just got back from a fun, but tiring, geocaching picnic event in Los Angeles. We introduced many geocachers to the concept of podcasting. Fun stuff.

CSUSM, Family and Katrina

The first night of class went well last night except for one thing, there are too many students and not enough sections available. If all the students return next week that were trying to add this week, I WILL have to turn many of them away. Ug! I know that some of the students are in dire need to take the class, and others are taking it because it's convenient at this time. I wish that there were some way to make sure the students with the greatest need get priority. Unfortunately there is no mechanism set up to do that. As I said: Ug.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. We are spending Fri night, Sat and part of Sun with the France clan at some cabins down by the beach. There will be Mom and Dad France, 4 Husband/Wife couples and kids. There may be other people visiting us at the beach as well. This oughta be pretty cool! Monday we'll be going over to another family member's house for a pool party. The pool party has become traditional get together each year and should be fun too!

Sandy and I did a show recently that didn't have anything to do with geocaching. We mentioned the thoughts we had about the hurricane disaster down in the Gulf and let our listeners know that we put together a bunch of links to help them donate or help out if they were inclined to do so. I got into work today and spent a little time catching up on the headlines before things got rolling. I'm saddened at the state of the situation. Apparently no significan response or help has arrived. There is rampant looting and violence. Thousands and thousands of people are stranded without food, water, shelter, etc. There is no electricity, there are no bathrooms. People are in panic and have stolen guns to use against others. There are dead bodies around. The police are outnumbered and outgunned. It's very sad. Sandy and I will be contributing a portion of the monthly amount that we typically set aside for our church (tithe) to sent toward the relief effort out there. I feel so helpless living way out here without any real way to send help except through money.

Getting Busy

This Thursday is the first class for the next ED 422 semester. I'm really looking forward to teaching again. Although things tend to get busy fast (Bible study starts up at about the same time that CSUSM starts up) I think I'm ready to get rolling. At least this year I don't have band rehearsal every Monday night any longer.

The new activity that Sandy and I will have to make time for is the Podcacher recording that we typically do on Sunday night for a Monday show. Sandy and I are still working out some bugs, but the production and post production are starting to become quicker and more efficient. One thing that we did new with this last show was house in on a new server (libsyn) to try and solve the download problems that have happened with some of our listeners. We are still waiting for more feedback, but one person has already written us and said that things are much better.

We'll see.

We had a "root analysis" meeting at work today. The meeting was fascilitated by our new assistant superintendent of Businiess Services. He led us through a 4 hour discussion in an attempt to reveal the core or root causes to some of the problems that we are experiencing. In this particular case we explored the issue of technology. I was really glad that we had the opportunity to run this excercise regarding technology. I have the opinion that there are many aspects regarding the complexity of the management of technology that most people are not aware of. I'm happy to raise awareness with this important issue when possible.

A busy weekend

It started off on Friday afternoon after a long day at work. We went to go see Lee Ann Williams (my secretary's daughter) in Grease. That was somewhat of a late night. Saturday morning we slept in for just a bit, but then had to get rolling. Our nieces and nephew needed to be watched for part of that day. During that time I had to head out to Church to rehearse and play for the praise band. Things went well. I got home after church (about 8:00pm) and began working on the Logo for PodCacher.com. I finished early in the morning of Sunday. Went to bed around 2:00am and got up early to go play in the band at church for both services. Got off work and hunted for several caches in the Vista area. Headed home and went to Fry's to pick up a recorder for the phone. (to do phone interviews for Podcacher) Got home and was exhausted. Took a nap and woke up at 5:30pm. Rushed out the door to get to the geocacher pizza party. Stayed until about 9:30, then drove home. Got home and began working on the podcast show for Monday morning. Recorded the show and went to bed around 2:00am. Got up at 6:00 to try and get to work. They want directors to come in 30 minutes earlier than we have in the past from now on.

A techno-horror weekend

Technology is a great thing ... most of the time. Being a techno-geek means putting up with the unexpected and expected frustrations of using advanced, cutting-edge technology that may just decide not to do what you want it to do. If this sounds like the beginning of a rant, it is.

It's Monday at work and I have just left behind one of those weekends where you wish you had simply gone to the beach with a good book and the only technology you had was your (analog) watch. No cell phone, no MP3 player, no palm, no digital camera, no voice recorder, no LED mini light on my keychain. Yup, one of those weekends.

Technology is a double edged sword. When it functions the way in which it was designed AND meets your expectations, life is good. When it fails to do either or neither, sales of sledge hammers at Home Depot rise.

I have a pretty high tolerence for techno-frustration I would think. To be a self proclaimed techno-geek you have to develop thick skin toward things that have circuits in them. I realize that my cell phone probably has more computing power in it than the rockets of the early NASA space vehicles, but that doesn't make me feel any better. It's not the occaisional or sporadically distributed experience that really get me, it's when my technology decides to gang up on me with relentless zeal like HAL, SKY-NET, or the WOPR. (BTW if you can name the references that I just made you too are a techno-geek, live with it). It's the gremlins that get me. Bugs. Murphy's Law.

Went out to record a FTF Podcast and the MiniDisc record stopped recording. It didn't stop giving me information that it was recording mind you, it simply stopped recording the audio to the disc. A FTF is one of those experiences in audio recording that you can't duplicate. It's a "live" documentation of a one time event. So it's a real bummer when you don't get it on the first take. The recorder was passing audio to my earphones telling me everything was okay. The readout on the MD display was showing the db monitor gleefully flicking away telling me everying was okay. The timer was counting out the time passed on the recording telling me everything was okay. Not until we got home to check the reading did we find out that there was a problem. There were files there alright, several minutes long in fact, but they were blank. It was like the time jump in CONTACT. I didn't even have any static on my recordings though. The files were obviously corrupt. I couldn't fast forward through them either. So we lost all that data.

Later on the same hike, my digital camera fell over into the hard packed dirt of the trail. I had mounted it on my walking stick as I have done so many times in the past, but today a breeze came by, at the precise moment to blow it over. SMASH! I have a picture of black when the timer took a picture.

The real pain came later Sunday night. Sandy and I planned and then began recording for our Monday podcast. One thing after another went wrong. Too many to describe or explain here. But VERY strange quirky things happened. Again and again. By 2:00 am we called it quits.

I've become a flickr junkie

Okay one on of the coolest photo services out there (and there are quite a few) for sharing albums, quickly organizing and uploading pics is flickr. This company has recently been bought by Yahoo!, so I don't think they are going to go anywhere. (One of my main concerns when I first "cling" to a new dotcom. Sandy and I are using this service in conjunction with our new podcasting endeavour at www.podcacher.com.

The photo on the right takes you to one pic of my photo sets, but the thing that I've begun to get hooked on is checking out other people's photos. Some of these are GREAT! With the advent of digital cameras, there are a LOT of blossoming professional looking pics out there. On the main page of flickr they put links to random new photos. Very cool and geeky indeed!!!

Podcacher.com is starting to grow

An endeavor that Sandy and I have begun to see grow is our site: http://www.podcacher.com. Currently we jumped from around 120 listeners to about 180. The main reason for this is because we have begun to ask other podcaster to post our "promo" on their shows. In particular a show called MacCast (one of the top 10 shows) ran our promo. This caused the leap in our listenership. We'll see where this goes. Right now Sandy is learning a great deal regarding PHP and MySQL. This is something that I don't have time to learn AND Sandy is brilliant at picking stuff up like this.

If you haven't already check out the site get on over there and sign up!

The week before things get rolling

It's a Friday here at the School District and we are ramping up for a new school year. There will be many changes this year . We have a new superintendent: Ed Nelson. Ed will be taking over the position from Dr. David Hughes who has been our leader for the last 5 years. Steve Boyle, formerly principal at EHS will be the new Asst. Supt of Human Resources. Bob Calkins the Asst Supt of Business Services will be replaced by Barry Dragon.

I'm really hoping that we can make some positive stride and progress this year. There is currently rumor that we will have a approval to hire another technician. Currently we support approximately 2,500 computers with 6 technicians and 1 supervisor, a very challenging task. Each technician is responsible to maintain and support his local area network and approximately 600 computers. Many of the the computers were purchased in 2000 and are deteriorating.

SonnyPortacio.com Online

SonnyPortacio.com is now online. On this site you can also find a link to some pics from our Kazakhstan trip.

Learning new things

This was a great weekend. It started off by sleeping in (always a good start to a weekend in my humble opinion). Mom (France) and Sandy's sister, Sheryl came over with Joshua. We had a small birthday celebration for Sandy, we shared pictures from our Kazakhstan trip and Joshua got to learn the wonders of a super-soaker squirt gun.

Sunday we went to the later church service because Sandy was going to serve for the first time in the Children's Ministry. Sandy has always enjoyed working with kids, she did so for several years at her church in Florida so I'm sure she going to do great and fit in just right! The sermon was good. Larry was the one who taught. It was about a Family Makeover (Ephesians 6: 1-4) and the roles of parents and children. He did a great job of giving examples and making it practical.

After church we headed out to visit with my mom. We gave her some of the Kazakhstan gifts that we had brought over (chocolate, a little felt camel, etc.) and took her out to lunch. During lunch we showed her some pictures from our trip on the laptop. After lunch we headed out to do some geocaching. (My mom LOVES geocaching!). Afterwards Sandy and I spent some time at the zoo and headed home.

Once home, I put the final finishing touches on the PodCacher website. I learned a lot trying to figure out how to get our podcast "live". Success! I love learning new things!

Back from Kaz / New WebSites / The 4th

Kazakhstan Emblem

The 4th, 2005

We've just gotten back from our trip to Kazakhstan. We've got lot's of stories and and (of course) photos to share. I will create a website with the photos and some explanation of our activities. While out there I also recorded audio. Sandy and I recorded an audio journal almost everey day of our visit. It contains our reflections and thoughts of our experience. I was also able to capture 5 stories that were written and presented by Kazkhstan educators as part of our program. I'll be working with these audio files, adding sound effects and music in post production and creating CDs for distribution.

I've created 2 new web sites: podcacher.com and sonnyportacio.com. The PodCacher website will be devoted to geocaching and podcasting (hence the name). Podcasting is the big rising star and buzzword in technology right now. Apple just released iTuned 4.9 with podcasting. This has really exploded the podcasting community. Sandy and I will be putting together periodic podcasts discussing gear, paperless caching, favorite caches, etc. Another idea is to create a "PodCache": We will create a podcast with specific directions to a cache. No GPS required! Not sure where this will go or what it will lead to, but it sounds like fun.

Sandy and I went down to San Diego bay to watch the fireworks for the 4th. Knowing that it was going to be a traffic jam zoo, we took our bikes on the roof of our car. We parked a decent distance away, rode the bikes in and locked them up and I snapped some photos. After the last fireworks, as predicted, a traffic zoo. Sandy and I got on our bikes, scooted out of the traffic, got to our car and easily drove out of there. I need to remember the "anti-traffic bike trick" for times just like these.

Prepping for Kazakhstan

Today Sandy and I spent a good part of our Saturday preparing for our trip to Kazkhstan. I'm really excited to get out there again. Two years ago I went out there and spoke on 2 topics. We presented at a university in Almaty called Kimep. I spoke on Project Based Learning / Multiple Inteligences and on the Ethical Use of Technology in Education. This year I will be sharing information on what teachers in the U.S. are expected to learn (in the teacher credentialling program) regarding the use of technology in the classroom. I will also be teaching simple web design and discuss the educational implications of this resource as well.

Geocaching, PodCasting, Star Wars and New Resources

Our Geocaching Growth Group
Originally uploaded by portacio.

The last few days have been VERY cool in the life of this TechGeek.

1) We recently took some friends Geocaching. Several people from our Growth Group (Bible Study Group) were interested to do this as a "social". (See photo) I had a great showing some newbies the sport / hobby. I think we have some converts: they were "dormant" geocachers that only needed their first taste to "bloom".

2) PodCasting has a lot of potential. Steve Jobs recently (this weekend) announced that the next version of iTunes (coming out in 60 days) would allow people to track RSS feeds and easily subscribe to podcasts. Sandy and I have something in the works right now for our own podcast. STAY TUNED!

3) Sandy and I went to see Star Wars III last night. Ohhhh my! What a nice wrap up to a 6 movie dynasty! Of course being the StarWars Geek that I am, there were times that I was squirming in my chair seeing / hearing significant Star Wars references in the movie that I didn't have time to comment on DURING the movie. I later chatted with Sandy about those references. She thinks I'm too much of a geek but says she still loves me anyhow.

4) New Internet Resources: I have found flickr.com. This allows you to upload photos, share them with people, let them see a slide show AND best of all: easily upload photos (as the geocaching photo on this post) to a blog! Oh yaaa!

Spending my holiday working on SPHS

On Thursday I came to work on the SPHS problem. I realized that things didn't look good in getting the campus up by Monday. This week I had Friday off for Spring break.

Sandy came and worked with me on Friday all day at SPHS. A team of us worked at a blazing pace assembly line style trying to configure computers to prep them to be usable on Monday.

Today (Sat) we came in again and worked all day. I had hoped that we would have been able to solve the problems by mid day, but that was not the case. We've been here all day and it looks like we still may not be done by the time Sandy and I will need to leave to go to church. Everyone else who has worked here gets paid, overtime in fact. I am not so fortunate.

Tomorrow, Sunday, will be our only free day on my 3 day holiday that I can actually take advantage of.

Gadget Alert

Several weeks ago I got a gift certificate to Fry's (one of my favorite stores, as if you couldn't guess that one). I was given the gift certificate as a thank you from someone (Isabel) who I recommended as a Masters candidate to the Pepperdine Masters program. I had taught in the program one semester a few years back. One of the profs that interviewed her said "If Sonny says your good enough to get in, your in." Very flattering.

Anyhow back to the originally scheduled story here: I finally went to Fry's to geek out a bit and spend some of the gift certificate that was burning a hole in my nerdy pocket. Sandy came along. After searching for a Phillips keychain camera (they didn't have it), a midi pre amp for my "recording studio" (they didn't have it), I finally bought a 20Q handheld game (by Radica). It is a portable pocket version of the 20Q "game" online. Okay this thing is way geeky cool! The website says it's an experiment in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and is very impressive on it's own. What really impresses me is the handheld device. It was actually able to guess what I was thinking (common everyday objects) usually within 20 questions. Stuff like stop sign, shoes, dental floss, and asparagus! The thing is about the size of a bar of soap. It's hard to believe that it contains the data and programming that it must have to decide what questions to ask and a huge database to match the responses against! 15 bucks at Fry's.

This coming weekend

I'm really looking forward to some time off this weekend. The current plans are to visit the Anza Borrego state park once again to get another look at the wild flowers. This year has been an amazing year of rains for Southern California, a record year. Because of the combination of rain and sunshine, this year has seen the biggest wildflower bloom since, some say, 1993. Sandy and I will be heading out there as my "not a morning person" body will allow me. I hope to get more photos of the wildflowers in bloom, hopefully some good enough to frame and hang. And of course, we'll have to log in some time geocaching out there too. The last time we were out there we found several caches in quick succession, pushing the so called limit of being no closer than .1 mile from each other. Hmph!

I also need to get my bike repaired sometime soon. A few weeks ago I took a good spill in the dark on one of our night rides. I came down pretty hard, but fortunately the only casualties were my new riding jacket, and my bike. Nothing that can't be fixed, I hope. Anyhow last night I tried to get my bike on the rack to take it to a bike shop, and the rack broke ... Ggrrr. With the weather turning to as nice as it is I really want to get out there and ride.

Next weekend Sandy will be going on a Christan Womens retreat and my brother and I will be heading to Big Bear to do some snowboarding. It should be fun.

Monday after a busy weekend

Back here at work on a Monday trying to squeeze in some quiet time to write this next installment for this blog. The weekend flew by and we mostly did work.

Saturday I got up early. Sandy was going to teach (for the first time) Inspiration. 2 teachers showed up. She did a really good job. I was impressed. The technology failed for the first hour. It was very frustrating. The tech who set up the laptops apparently did not test them to find out if there would be any problems. This (the failure of technology when I am presenting) has happened repeatedly over this last school year. I have been to EHS to speak about technology and the equipment has not been set up. I have been to VHS to train on GroupWise and the equipment was not set up. I have been to OGHS to teach on GroupWise and the equipment was not set up.

After the Inspiration training we went back home, worked on CSUSM things, then went to church. Church was good. The pastor who spoke (Chris Brown) did an excellent job of teaching. He illustrated in a way that he always does; very down to earth and entertaining, but but very poignent at the same time. He spoke about how Christ was coming into Jerusalem on a colt and the significance of this time.

Afterwards, Sandy and I came home watched the last hour of The Hunt for Red October and went to sleep. (We didn't have enough time to finish the movie when we started it several days before)

The next morning we got up early to get going out to San Clemente. My sister in law, Sheryl, was going to speak at her church to be comissioned to go on a mission trip to Malawi (East Coast of Africa). She will be leaving in about a week. Afterwards we visited at their house for a bit we left for home at about 2:30. It was fun to visit with them and just hang out. We got to play a game of Sorry which took a bit of time to play as we spread it out over eating and talking. I got to see Jon's work on his bike carrying cases. He's done some good work here. He's taken military ammo cans and converted them to carry gear for his motorcycle. It's amazing what he's done and it's turned out great.

After we got home we planned out some caches to do. We got some caching in and crossed over the magical 200 mark. Woohoo! We saw some VERY creative and clever caches. One was set up so you went to one way point and had to find a long stick with a hook on it. Then you had to go to another waypoint and the cache was high in a tree disguised as a bird feeder. It was hanging from a weight and pulley system. You needed to use the stick from the first way point, and pull down the bird feeder. Very clever. Another cache we did that day sent us on a search to find a missing "dog". The first waypoint was a sign stapled (high) to a telephone pole that said they had lost a dog. The telelphone numbers to call were actually lattitude and longitude numbers. Then we did a few more waypoints and finally got to the final cache. It was near the humane society and it was IN a stuffed animal (dog) and fit the theme quite well. Very impressive.

On other news I survived and apparently did good enough on the audition to play for North Coast Church. I'll be playing there for the first time in April. I'm really looking forward to that. For this first time they want me to play acoutic guitar, but not sing. They've also told me that they may need me to play the djembe (drum) at times as well.

Another Rushed Lunch

Only 10 minutest to write this time.

Poor Sandy woke up in the middle of the night and was sick. So far, I haven't been stricken with the stomach thing that got her. I'm hoping it wasn't the salmon that we had for dinner last night.

Drove to work listening to Dread Zeppelin, a funky band. They cover Led Zeppelin songs, sung by an Elvis impersonator, with a Reggae style ... seriously.

Got to work and forgot that my computer was still taken apart (just cables). We unplugged it and plugged in another computer that also didn't allow me to work. I finally worked on Linda's computer yesterday just to try and get work done. After getting my comptuer up and running, I am now convicted. I NEED a new computer. There is something seriously wrong with this computer! After clicking on a Word doc, it takes over 3 minutes for me to actually work on it. If it isn't the doc I need, and open another ... it'll be another 3 minutes. Argh! I've already put in an order for a new computer and am just waiting ...

I've started another blog, this one with a professional bent to it. The idea is to write a blog for the school district regarding technology. Teachers will get my point of view (somewhat edited of course) that explains events, concerns, activities, etc. from my point of view. We'll see if this works.

Lunchtime at work

I only have a few minutes left of lunch to post: I'm a little concerned at this point about 2 things coming up. 1) My class at CSUSM. I have some catching up to do. I need to grade some assignments and firm up the final activities for the rest of the semester. 2) My audition tomorrow night (Tues) at North Coast Church with Andy. I'm pretty confident, but want to make sure I put my best foot forward. He asked me to bring both my acoustic and electric guitars and audition both of them. He wants to see if I can lead (sing and play the acoustic) songs. Again, since I've been doing this already for the last 5 years, I'm pretty confident, but still uncertain how much skill he is expecting from me. I've never had voice lessons or anything like that and am unsure if that is a major factor or not. Linda did say to make sure that I told them about the "extra" instruments that I play: Sax, didgeridoo, harmonica, recorder, djembe, etc. and that they might be able to use those as well.

Back from PS

I just got back from PS and found that incidents have happened while I've been gone. Students at one of our schools has been caught logging on using a teacher's computer. Just a quick summary, the domain controller at SPHS was recently hacked and compromised. In order to repair and safeguard the network, we had to take it down. At this point we were very clear that students are not to log in to computers at all. If they did, they would have unrestricted clear access to some very sensitive areas of our network.

This can't continue! I'm going to talk to the assistant principal at the school on how we should proceed.

It is very frustrating to hear from staff that our network is slow, or that technology never seems to work. Then I hear that the same users are doing things that directly impact the network. They complain about conditions, but don't contribute to a solution, only more problems.

On another topic: Sandy and I got back to find a message on our answering maching from Ann, the person coordinating the trip to K this year. She said that she didn't need me to come along this year. Sandy and I didn't know what to say. We were so upset and frustrated. We don't understand. How could they not need me to come out there with the team? This one is going to take a lot of prayer and "cooling off" before I call her to discuss and try to understand.

On yet another topic: I was able to visit my brother out at the zoo that he works at in Palm Desert. He is the only Vet Tech for the entire zoo. (It's a small zoo with 1 Vetrenarian and 1 vet tech). I was really impressed and amazed at what my brother is doing these days. He works with rattlesnakes, cheetahs, and camels. Amazing stuff really.

Geocaching in PS

A cool hobby! Check out geocaching.com if you haven't heard of this activity yet.

My wife and I did some caching in PS while we were there. We only have 2 more to go to cross over the big 200! While we were out there we met Daryl (WestCoastAdmin). Got to chat a bit about Virtuals and such. What are the odds of running into him? Strange huh? I'm glad that I was "civil" about the way in which I handled the Point Loma Lighthouse issue.

Sandy and I had a great time caching. I always have a good time caching with her. She is as intense (if not more so) as I am about finding the cache! During one night hunt we were almost over run by people jogging in some sort of race. Okay, that's too much of an understatement: They were running wearing lingere, pajamas, and nighties (even the men). The first "group" of people we saw were women carrying open sacks of flour wearing "teddies" and devil horns. These women would drop a handful of flour every so often. We figured they were marking a trail. Sure enough a bunch of people came later and were following the flour trail.

That night we were also in hunting for a cache in a graveyard. GC takes you to some "unique" places to be sure. Unfortunately we were not able to find that cache.

Out at the CUE Conference in PS

I learned about blogger.com from Bernie Dodge a the CUE conference. He did a session on Blogs and Wikis. I've heard about blogs for sometime now and (incorrectly) assumed that there were essentially discussion groups. Apprantly there are some subtle distinctions. I'll give this service a try and see how I like it.