Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Tag: family

  • Review: Roots: The Saga of an American Family

    Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley My rating: 5 of 5 stars This historical fiction novel covers this history of the a black family. How their ancestor started in Africa, was brought to America as a slave, and how the family fared under that despicable institution. Alex Haley learned the stories…

  • Drinking Sweet Tea

    … from a glass which my mother gave me from my grandmother’s estate. There is nothing physically valuable about it. Just simple melted silicon with maybe sulfur. (Maybe they are something friends who collect things from the 60s and 70s would like.) Found them on listed on Etsy as: Amber Yellow circle ring pattern glasses: 3 Nice…

  • Social Ghost Archetypes

    I met Allie for the second time at a birthday party. The birthday girl is a Social Tech Ghost. Allie is a Pseudonym Surfer and former Dunbarian. Another person at the party is an Infrequent Checker. I decided these remain legitimate strategies to keep from getting drawn into spending too much time online. Since I like…

  • Merry Christmas

    So far it has been a good day. My grandmother the whole family has rallied around appears to be improving. The rest of the family are doing well. Friends are scattered to the four winds to visit with family. I am content. It as been a good year. Met some awesome people Pilgrimage Reading goal…

  • December Dilemma

    From a CNN article, For Many, December’s a Dilemma by Joe Sterling (mentioned by Phillipe Copeland): Navigating the Christmas season can be a challenge for the millions of people who don’t celebrate the holiday. Many acknowledge and sometime embrace the season’s customs, such as gift-giving and sending out greeting cards, while at the same time…

  • TED Talk: Taryn Simon

    My favorite quote from Taryn is, “Photography threatens fantasy.” Disney uses intricate interior design, photography, and video to construct fantasy. Advertisements, magazines, weddings, and portraits are about showing others the ideal instead of the reality. Have you seen the Dove Evolution video? (This one has music and singing by a Baha’i musician Devon Gundry.) What about…

  • Stalking Students

    On the BLKBRD-L email list is a discussion about proving students are cheating. Any time the topic comes up, someone says a human in a room is the only way to be sure. Naturally, someone else responds with the latest and greatest technology to detect cheating. In this case, Acxiom offers identity verification: By matching…

  • VistaSWAT

    Do you run one of these versions of the former WebCT products? CE4.x CE6.x CE8.x Vista 3.x Vista 4.x Vista 8.x If so, then you should join us for the next Vista SWAT web conference call Thursday, May 14th (and every other Thursday). We help each other solve issues and better understand how to use / run the product.…

  • Resolutions For 2009

    Read 10,000 pages of science, economics, health, history, or policy books. For 2008, it was read 25 books. This year, I thought to change it page-based as the previous one shied me away from larger books. Two 350 page books vs one 700 page book shouldn’t be a concern. See Reading for last and this years’…