Thursday, November 24, 2011

Law in and out

Snow has come, the walks are shovelled, most of them.  And the University being a large institution, and the season being winter, has turned on the air conditioning.  Co-workers gather at the window to see the snow outside, hoping for spring inside.

Friday, November 18, 2011

metals and merit badges

What is old is new again.  How odd when you consider we continue to have the common denominator in the system.  I discovered today that there is a movement to give people online badges for learning.  There was even a competition for designing them.  Mostly Mozilla at the moment, and I can't say, cute as dinosaurs are, that I find the winner appealing, but, I think this is a great idea.  I loved sewing new badges onto my girl guide sash.  It is the best way to go; positive reinforcement. Best teaching method available my mother says, for dogs and children.  And husbands I can only guess. It also gives an online record of what you have learned, which can only be good for the resume. Mind you we will have to produce some standards, as will inevitably happen as the common denominator settles into its new environment.  The standards will hopefully help save us from such statements "are there any research" on the subject.  Oy.  "Is there any research" thanks muchly*.  But we shall not get me started on the fracturing of the language today.  Like wanting "a place on the table" during a negotiation.  It's a good thing 80% of our communication isn't verbal.

**Heard a Southern Gentleman use this word and I love it.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Happy Leopard contest!

Yes, it is true, they are having a contest and you can win a handmade book: The Pink Penguin.  You do need to produce a piece of art and send them a jpeg of it, it has to involve a "Painted Cookie" which is the name of the bistro in the story. Check out the details at Happy Leopard Chapbooks.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

S

Yup, the s-word has come.  Not that we are all that surprised it's just we had such a glorious fall.  I have seen since the leaves rolling along the surface of the snow like rushing hordes across the steppes, or the plains.  Tip to tip they turn, propelled by surface wind.  It is completely different from the way they move on the ground.  Or perhaps it is only that because of the snow their movements are so clear to be seen.  I also saw green leaves on snow as I walked home along the lower path by the river.  A whole section where the leaves would not give up summer and are now scattered brightly across the snow in blue shadows and yellow patches made by the setting sun.

100 more handmade books

Those babes and babers are at it again at Happy Leopard Chapbooks.  A new book is out in time for Christmas raising money for Farmers Helping Farmers. This story is a comic for grown ups about a pink penguin who "goes with the floe" to find out where he belongs in the world.  And he belongs on the Edge Islands at a cafe called The Painted Cookie.

Watch the Happy Leopard site, I hear there is going to be a contest!  You could win a book.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Today's count


November flowers!  And spring flowers at that. Two lady bugs, three people, two of them in red against the brown rust colour that most things are now.  And the few crabapples hanging on.

me vs the ipad: round four

Okay, this really was a physical fight.  The cases arrived for Georgina and Henry and I had to get them into them.  First I had to wrastle the cases free of their cases, known as packaging.  I find within, after a large knife and some tricky yanking are employed, a case which will allow each ipad to stand up like a little tv screen, a protective screen for that little screen and other odds and ends, such plug ins for all the holes that the ipads collectively have, instructions which make little sense, cardboard and plastic bags to protect the covers inside the plastic packaging. 

Soooo, first I am supposed to, and I do, separate the protective screen cover from its film and there will be static cling that will enable it to attach to Georgina's and Henry's faces.  Problem, the static for Georgina's film comes off on the film, so instead of a nice clear sturdy cover through which she can see out, and we can see in, she now has a thin cover that makes her look like a teenager's facial nightmare.  Henry's cover got its static right.  Then came the final knock down drag out.  Again, Georgina got the worst of it.  I had to push them into the little clips that hold them into their cases, and ... her cover won't shut.  Nope, no way, unun, forget it baby.  Henry's is little better, but with effort he can be contained into the tiny protective space.

But they do sit up nicely in the cases and now I have to wipe the finger prints off their mask and not off their faces.  Progress.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Random sample

The Law Library here has a wonderfully high ceiling.  In places, five stories.  I can stand on the third floor and look down on all the baby lawyers, and one must face facts, baby business people too, as they study.  I stopped to watch them today.  In the howl of the digital worship around the world I found what I saw enlightening, and to my paper booked little soul, comforting.  Of the 47 students I could see from my vantage point, 2 were asleep, 7 were working solely with computers, 8 were reading from paper (4 books, 4 printouts), the rest had computers and were surrounded by paper and were bouncing between the two technologies.  Like the pencils that went into space with the Russians, some technologies have staying power.  Even when new ones claim they are dead.