Xmas Teaching

Well, it is the last day at school before vacation. One of the worst days to be a teacher. Class after class of empty nothing, filled mith candy and cookies and the same holiday specials. I threw on a few ol sham episodes that we did around Christmas. Man, I am so proud of some of the things we did. It makes me sad that I no longer do it.

In my classes we did secret Santa's. Some pretty funny gifts. My origional idea was to donate them all to toys for tots- man I am glad I didn't. Still, it seemed to fill a bit of that empty void. I don't know, it has all become way too commercial for me. What ever happened to just being thankful? Nothing screams "I am an American" more than this time of the year. Black Friday....Well, I am off to see what else Amazon has for 70% off. That stuff is so cheap right before Christmas.....Maybe watch some more old shams- Jamba Jim was so good...

No PC here.....Merry Christmas!

Disk Golf

My Brother in law, Eric forced me to play this new hippie game today at the Cape. It is golf, but you use disks instead of golf clubs. I had never heard of it before...I guess that it has almost a cult following...a bunch of hippies trying to play golf with frisbies. I have to say, it was fun. It was also free. My Brother-in law has his own disks and bag- kinda hard core. I guess that it is just as stupid as golf itself. We played 18 holes in the woods- most being par 4. I made par 3 times, and was in the rough most of the time. Instead of sand traps, I found myself in poison ivy patches most of the game. Check my web page for pictures of us playing.

Last Day of Summer...

The Summer winds are winding down. I once again become a teacher on Monday. Having time off in the Summer is with out a doubt the best reason to be a teacher. This Summer, my kids were the magical ages of 7 and 5. I had a blast being home with them: watching them grow and having the energy to play hard each day.

Now it is back to reality. The funny thing is, that just like my students, I will have a hard time getting to slep the night before. I always worry about first impressions, and how to set the tone for the year. You want to be liked...but you also don't want to be walked all over. It is a very fine line that I believe is set in the first 30 seconds of class. I am going to continue to try and blog my teaching life this year. Stay tuned to hear my stupid adventures....

Yard Sale

We are having our first yard sale this week. It is amazing how much junk we as human beings store and save, but never use. It is even stranger to me that there are yard sale groupies that go to these things. Looking at my driveway and garage, I can't believe anyone would want this stuff. Well, that is except my old Dreamcast and games.... I would want to buy them....maybe I will keep some of this stuff....

Tween Music

We just finished watching the super hyped High School Musical. Disney has been runing adds with the August 17th date all summer. I feel like our whole summer has been directed towards that date. Much like the "are we there yet question," I can't tell you how many times my kids have asked me when HSM2 is going to be on.

The real sad part is that I like the music. I like Hannah Montana. Drake and Josh...that theme song is catchy. I like that my kids at 5 and 7 already have strong musical tastes. It took me till the 5th grade till I bought my first music, the 45" of Queen's "Another One bites the dust," with the B-side, "Don't Try Suicide." I burned that record out.

It is catchy and fun. It is all that play in the car, and I even had some songs on the ipod last time I cut the grass.

Tween music may just keep the record industry afloat for a few more years. That is till all of their parents catch onto this whole download internet thingy....

iLife 08

iLife has become my bread and butter at work. When I first saw imovie and idvd 8 years ago at Macworld in NYC, I instantly knew that it could be an incredible tool for education, and pushed me into my current role of AV guy at Shepherd Hill HS.

Ilife inspired me to develop a whole course around it. I managed to build a studio, and began a morning TV show. I owe this all to the power and simplicity of iLife.

Each year, I look forward to iLife, and what new magic it will bring to my instruction. When Apple introduced the latest iLife, I watch with Christmas morning excitment that only Apple can bring.

So what do I think of an app that I base so much around? Mixed bag...

iMovie: Apple needed to bring this app back to the masses and let Final Cut be what it is: THE movie making app for pros. While the new scrub changes will let you make very simple movies, it has lost all of the digital efffect plug-ins. While this dumbing down is sure to please simple movie making mom and dads, it will force me to stick with the old version at school for now. We can't afford Final Cut on 20 computers- not to mention our old g4's would choke on it....
My advce- keep the old imovie around. Sure it crashes from time to time, but it does so much more, for so much less money. In education, that counts.

iPhoto: Love it. I am baffled as to why Apple did not move their cover flow tech into this. It seems made for it. I love the new .mac photo publishing. It almost justifies the $100 a year that I have been paying for the service. Check it-
http://gallery.mac.com/seancusick

iWeb: I just started playing with the old version to make this web page. I wish that it had more power- but I guess if you want a simple page it is ok. I wish that the newer version let you put twitter, blogger, .mac slideshows in a bit easier. Pasting code is so 1990's. I would say that it is a slight improvment over the last version, but nothing to really see here...move along....

Garage Band: This is my secret love. Late at night when all the girls are asleep, I jam with this and make really bad 80's pop tunes. The new version adds "magic Garage Band" which lets you make music in a much more simple way. If this brings more into the fold of home music, all good. I just wish that I had this back when I was in HS.

IDVD: New themes, but that is about all that I have found.

I would say this is still worth the 80 bucks. With all the extra time that Apple took (skipping 07, and moving into 08) I just expected more, not less.

Best Game Ever?

I somehow got Bioshock a few days early. ;-) I you have a 360, buy this game. If not, it is worth buying a 360 JUST for this game. The game looks like a next gen, next gen game.

Besides the tech side, the storyline is way cool. It keeps you interested, and feels fresh and new. How many games have you played under water, based in a story that is part Orwell, and part Blade Runner?

I would like to make a predicion: This game will sell a bizillion copies. I am going to be up very late the next few days....

Summer Winds....

I am a teacher, so I have the Summer off.  Well, I have the Summer to watch my kids full time....  Most summers, I feel free of work after about 2 weeks.  This year, I did not relax enough to catch my breath until the very end of July.   It was a hard year.   I hate the fact that I am already seeing those back to school ads.  It feels worse than being a kid.  I need to try to enjoy every last free minute- it is so easy to wish the days away....

I love the summer- now with kids, I find myself living through their eyes.  That feeling of, "there is nothing to do," or "I'm bored."  It is a challenge to keep them busy and not spend money.  

I re-did my web page this morning with a simple simpson theme.  I kinda like it.  If you are wondering how I made us into the cartoon family, goto www.simpsonizeme.com - It is a great way to make a new icon of yourself in this digital age. 

Hacking

I love to hack.  Love it.  I love making things do the things that they were never made to do; or even better- removing limitations and freeing the device to do more things.  I love the dark secrecy.  I love understanding things.  I love to hack.

It always impresses me that all things can be hacked.  It is like a mini war- the tech and media giants are frantically trying to preserve their eroding control over digital media vs. the hackers who work as a collective to reverse their efforts.  

Enter the iPhone.  Great little device- I adore it.  But, Apple has chosen to lock out many features that would seem obvious to include.  Things like real bluetooth transfers, custom ring tones, remote access of your itunes....  Within a week, the entire iphone OS was decrypted, and hackers were actively once again developing forums to share information learned.  

While one may argue the legalities of hacking- I see it as one of the purist of freedoms.  If you purchase a product, you should be allowed to do anything that you wish to it.  

Hack on.

The tooth has left the mouth

Julia lost her tooth last night.  The tooth fairy myth never captured my imagination as a kid- I still think it is lame.  The Easter Bunny HAS to be the worst myth ever.....but anyways.... My kids have put together that there are different fairies for different kids.  This works out well, as apparently they have a friend who gets letters with each tooth.  I had a hard enough time staying awake to slip the money under the pillow...

I met them half way and folder the bill in a funky way and signed it "Tink."  I am trying hard not to let all of these fleeting childhood moments race by... It sure made m smile to wake up with my daughter racing around the house with the news that the tooth fairy came.

Sometimes your kids will say something, and you try to figure out where they picked it up.  Today, Julia told me that the money was going to the poor people.  She told me that she does no need anything.  I guess hat we are doing something right as parents.

Loose Tooth.

Ah, the small excitement that a first loose tooth brings.  My youngest daughter has her first loose tooth.  She has been jumping for joy, giving us detailed updates.  And it made me think....  a simple wiggly tooth can make a 5 year old jump out of sheer delight.  The tooth fairy, the anticipation....  The simple things in life that are so easy to look past.  I try hard to realize this and appreciate the moment.

My daughter has devised a plan for me to rig a video camera so that we can film this "fairy" and try to figure out why she wants teeth anyways.  She has a whole studio set up in her mind.  I most likely will set something up when it does happen for her.  The lengths that we go through to propel an myth: a bad one at that...

So the bigger issue: what is the common rate a tooth fetches.  On one had, you don't want to drop a $20, but you also want to make sure that it is in line with all of their friends.  God forbid they think that somehow their tooth is less, which would lead to couch therapy 30 years from now.  "It all started when I only got $2 or my first tooth..."

Life at the Cape

We are at the Cape this week with the kids and Anne's family.  I set up a rig to use neighboring wifi in the house.  What I did was:  Mount an antenna on the side of the house, and run it to an old PC.  It picks up a weak signal 4 houses down.  It drops, but is available 90% of the time.

Next, I needed to figure out how to redistribute the signal so the whole house would have it like it was our signal.  I hooked up an old dlink router to the ethernet, hoping it would "just work."  It didn't.  After fiddling around for a few hours, I went into the pref of the connection, and changed the sharing to allow the pc to share its internet- whala.... we know have high speed on the Cape.  

Of course the whole reason to get to the cape was to escape daily life.  But, I have reached a point where giving up internet access does not make me feel relaxed.  It just makes me grouchy.

There is a project under way to bring high speed access for everyone on the Cape in the next 3 years.  Until that happens, does anyone really care if I mooch a bit of wifi on vacation?  Thanks.

iPhone

Well, I waited in line for over 5 hours on Friday for the iPhone.  I am an Apple fan, but not to the point where I do not see any faults and drink the Steve Jobs coolaid strait.  

First impressions:

It feels like a product from the future.  It really does.  It does the whole multimedia/internet/phone in your pocket thing.  Like the origional os back in 84', I think this is going to have a huge impact on future technology gadgets and computers.  The touch screen works well, and like many Apple products, it is real fun to use. 

My wife jokes that this thing is a chick magnet...everyone who sees you using it wants to try it.  Everyone has the same reaction..."I am getting one..."  We were at a minor league baseball game the other day the woman next to me asked if she could touch it.  I smiled and said only if it is ok with me wife....  She did not get it.

Apple stock: buy.

At&t stock: buy.

Apple seems poised to once again change the rules, and drag the entire industry into a new and better way of doing things.  As for faults, I just don't see them.  Edge is much faster than I thought, the keyboard is easy to use, and everything "just works."

Most of all....it is fun to use.  But isn't that what Apple always seems to pull out of it's Willy Wonka factory of delights?