Hacking a Birthday Cake

My wife is a junkie for those competition cooking shows on the Food Network. They gather together a group of chefs and challenge them to create a cake or an ice sculpture or gingerbread house based on a certain theme in a limited amount of time. Don't tell my wife, but I now find that even when she isn't home, I will turn on one of these shows and wish I had followed my dreams of becoming a chef or at the very least, landed that job I wanted when I was 16 at Dunkin's Donuts.

Coolest thing I've seen watching these programs. That sugar can be blown and shaped in the same way that glass is blown and shaped. The added bonus.....you can eat your mistakes and failures. I am so going to try this soon!

Anyway, a friend was throwing a birthday party for a mutual teaching buddy. She asked me if I would make the cake and I said sure even though it was the next evening and I didn't have much time to prepare. I approached it just like a food network challenge. I had a time limit. I had my building material. The birthday girl's passion is Earth Science. She loves those rocks with maybe dinosaurs coming in a close second. So, I had a theme. I knew I didn't have the skill yet to blow a dinosaur out of a lump of melted sugar so I ran down to the local toy store to look at the plastic variety. I found a six inch tyrannosaurus and I was off and running.

I built a base out of a 9 X 13 chocolate cake. I created a tranquil lagoon out of cream cheese frosting tinted blue. It flowed off the side of the cake as a majestic waterfall. (As majestic as a two and half inch drop can get!) I piped a happy birthday message on the lagoon along with a few lillypads in green. I tried to create a frosting frog but ended up scratching that idea as it always ended up looking like that slime monster from Ghost Busters. Then I created a barren landscape with chocolate frosting and topped that with broken malt balls to give it a rocky appearance. I was going to try to create some sugar trees but time was running out and I needed a nap before the party. So, I just finished it off with the plastic dinosaur.






My only competition at the party was a pan of brownies. The woman who made them beat me hands down in terms of taste. Although, I think my presentation and adherence to theme made me the overall desert winner!


Happy Birthday Cyndi!

Gyrobike

A few years back another technology teacher and I had seen a video of a robotic leg that used gyros to help it balance. Later we sat drinking refreshments, eating pretzels and wondered why gyro technology had never been applied to wheelchairs or bicycles. I guess it has, at least for bikes. A company called Gyrobike has developed flywheel technology for your family bicycle. It should make learning to ride a bike easier since it is will be easier to balance at slower speeds. Here's a quote from the website that explains why:

Gyroscopes are spinning wheels that exhibit a special property called precession. When a force is put at the top of a spinning wheel (such as a rider falling on a bicycle), rather than falling, the gyroscope simply turns, or precesses, in the direction of the fall. This occurs on normal bike wheels when the bike is traveling at higher speeds. Hence, it is easier to ride a bicycle once you "get going". GyroBike takes advantage of this property even when the bike is moving slowly. The fly wheel inside the GyroBike spins independently of the bike wheel. Thus, even when a rider is moving very slowly on his or her bicycle, the precession of the GyroBike is still felt. If the rider begins to fall, the GyroBike causes the front wheel to precess under the rider's weight, restabilizing the bike.

See this article to learn a bit more about the four engineering students who developed this idea as part of a class project at Dartmouth.





[Image: Captured from Wired:"GyroBike Teaches Kids How To Kill a Spill":http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2006/04/gyrobike_teache.html

Funny: Senior Moment

Only funny if you learned to type before word processors otherwise just odd behavior. Ask your grandparents...they will explain it.

How a Dog Drinks Water

Cool slow motion video of a dog drinking.

How do you think your pup gets the water into his toothy little muzzle?

• Suck it in like a Hoover deluxe.
  
• Create a ladle with their tongue.
• Doggie magic.

My guess was wrong. Watch the video and see if your's is better.

The video is from a television show called Time Warp on the Discovery Channel. I've not seen an entire program, but after watching a few clips on YouTube, I think I'll set my Tivo to catch a couple.



[Image: Captured from video, "Exclusive time warp discovery ultra slow dog drinking water": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWlVbgCKjkk&eurl=http://www.google.com/reader/view/]

Voice Exercise

This is a short follow up to yesterday's post regarding Set Your Voice Free: How to Get the Singing or Speaking Voice You Want by Roger Love. I neglected to say that the book does include sections on how to care for your voice and exercises specifically for speaking. It was written for both singers and speakers. He has several other books out and one is specifically for the speaking voice. I went with Set Your Voice Free because of a recommendation. I am pleased with the results I got and may check out his other book for speakers. (Anybody out there a little wiser in the ways of the voice have any recommendations. Maybe my music teacher friends....Steve?....Chuck?)

One fun exercise I might recommend from the book for those presenters who speak in a monotone voice with no inflection or passion. The author suggests you write your lecture out and then sing it. Not to the kids but in the privacy of your own home, while hiding in the basement if you want. (Note...Roger Love doesn't actually say to hide in the basement, that's my own spin on places to practice.) It helps build some different phrasings and inflection that will then be reflected when speaking the lecture. I've had young teachers ask me for advice on this in the past and I was at a loss as to what to tell them. Now I'll suggest they sing their lecture to the melody of "Happy Birthday" or "Old Macdonald" or possibly Madonnas, "Like a Virgin". Or maybe I'll just suggest the book.

[Image: "Sing"; Flickr: Uploaded on April 6, 2008 by ktylerconk: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ktylerconk/2394470300/]

Strengthening my voice

I get hoarse or loose my voice every year during the first two weeks of school. I believe this is related to not talking near as much during the summer as I do when teaching. I read something a few months back about professional speakers needing to take care of their voice as much as a professional singer. I thought, well I may not be a Anthony Robbins or Conan Obrien or Larry the Cable Guy, but I sure do use my voice professionally. Every day.

I decided to do a little research into the whole thing and found several referrals to a book called, Set Your Voice Free: How to Get the Singing or Speaking Voice You Want by Roger Love. I figured what's the worst that could happen....?

• I'm out a few bucks and I still get a sore, tender throat at the beginning of the school year.
• I still get hoarse but I am able to sing like a nightengale.
• I strengthen my voice and I am able to project out into the classroom with such amazing clarity that people travel from other countries to hear me recite this years bus schedule.
  
• My teacher friends laugh and point at me and won't let me sit with them during lunch.

I was willing to take the risk. So, I bought the book and read it. Unhappily, I discovered the voice exercises I needed to do were singing exercises. Even if you just want to improve your speaking voice, the author still asks you to do the singing activities. Interesting but I wasn't sure I was ready to sit in my office singing scales while my wife, the neighbors and the dogs listened from the sidelines. I'm shy!

I eventually put the exercises onto my iPod and practiced them in my truck. I can work through the basic scale exercises in the time it takes me to drive to my gym. Other than the occasional odd look from folks sitting next to me at a stop light, it was easy to do while I drove. I did this roughly 3-5 times a week for most of the summer.

Did it help?

After two weeks of classroom instruction, I would say yes. My speaking voice seems stronger and my voice felt a little tired just one afternoon out of ten days, but never sore or hoarse. I have also noticed some improvement in my singing voice. I can recommend the book and the exercises as being helpful to me.

My training for speaking in the classroom consisted of "Don't mumble and face the children." Considering that presentation is such a large part of our job, might it not make sense for teacher's in training to get some help with their speaking voice? If I had, maybe I wouldn't have suffered through a quarter century of the September Sore Throat Syndrome.

[Image: "Day8-A little Froggy": Flickr: Uploaded on January 8, 2008by John Carleton: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johncarleton/2178902878/]

Funny: Google Maps gone wrong

Source: xkcd: http://xkcd.com/461/]

Prosthetic Arm Update

Here are a couple of updates on the prosthetic arm Dean Kamen is working on. I blogged about this about a year ago. It is an amazing piece of engineering.



Found this video via a short article on BotJunkie. Picture from another short article on Wired.

Hiding a Lav Mic

My students don't like to use the lav mics when videotaping. The main reason given to me is that they don't like how they look with that ugly "black thing" hanging on their clothing. The second reason is they don't want to take the time to set up a secondary mic. In regards to taking the time, I can usually win them over after they have had to re-shoot footage several times because of bad sound. In regards to the first reason, I am going to show them this video from Videomaker that describes several ways of hiding a mic. I like the clever idea of hiding a lav mic inside a pen that then sticks up out of your pocket. I am also going to be adding some medical tape (attaching mic to skin) and some moleskin (lessens the effect of cloth rubbing against mic) to our video tool kit.



[Image: "Sony ECM-CS10 Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Business Microphone": Captured from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-ECM-CS10-Tie-Clip-Style-Omnidirectional-Microphone/dp/B000246SKU/ref=tag_tdp_sv_edpp_i]

DiveCam

Here is a Wall Street Journal article, Now Diving: Sir Isaac Newton, describing the camera setup used to film the divers at the Olympics. Basically, they drop the camera at the same time the diver jumps and the two fall at the same speed.

"When you stand up there," he says, "it makes you marvel at what these athletes will do. We were thinking: What must it be like to plummet from that height? How can we capture the sensation?"

The falling camera rides a rail on the inside of the pipe. A glass strip runs along the pipe's full length; the camera takes its picture through the glass. From the diving platform to the water line, the glass is smoky. Below the line, it's clear, so the camera need not adjust its exposure as it streaks into underwater darkness.

They have a little flash movie demoing how the camera moves here.

[Image: Captured from "Beijing's Diving Eye": http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-flash08.html?project=DIVECAM08]

Ergonomic School Furniture

I once asked a class of eighth graders to re-design a school classroom. Cost was no limit. What I got was essentially 25 different versions of a home entertainment center. If I wanted to kick back and watch a movie and have a snack, I could have found the perfect design. A place to learn...not so much.

This site for an ergonomically designed elementary school desk got me to thinking about that project again and how I might do it now. I made a couple of mistakes with my lesson plan. First, we should have spent some time defining the purpose of a classroom. How is it used? What is essential? Identify the things they didn't like about their own classrooms.

Second, I started too broad. I should have had students think about various components of the classroom first before I asked them for a complete plan. Sometimes it's helpful to start with the big picture and then move down to the components. In this case, I wish I had started with some of the details and then worked up.

[Image: Captured from website: Perch: http://www.perch.ie/]

Funny: Cell Phone Karma

Most Important Factor in the Classroom

David Warlick's was recently blogging about Doug Johnston, an educator from Minnesota. David was pulling quotes from a presentation Johnston was giving at a leadership conference . Some of the statements peaked my interest and I googled my way over to Johnston's website where I spent some time reading and exploring. He has a page called My Biases where he lists his beliefs about education, technology and several other topics. I enjoyed reading them and was inspired to load up my own word processor and start my own list. I'll share one of mine.

The single most important factor in any classroom is the teacher.

This is a humbling and an empowering belief on my part. It is also handy to chant when you are short on supplies, desks or half your computers have crashed.


[Image: "Teaching": Flickr: July 25, 2007 by jmurawski:http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmurawski/902479272/: Modified with cheesy special effects by Al Gunn ]

How to Innovate Without Extra Money

Today is my first day back with students. It's the real start to the school year. The first few weeks can sometimes be overwhelming when you start thinking about all the hurdles and expectations. I've seen many a young teacher with sweaty brow and shaking hands stumbling through the hall ways during the first week mumbling, "It's too much. It's too much."

My advice: Relax and look for the good things. It is so easy to get caught up with the problems, the lack of resources, and bad coffee. You'll do fine.

In that vein, I thought I'd share a positive article from Edutopia.com called "Overcoming Technology Barriers: How to Innovate Without Extra Money or Support" It's written with the struggling teacher in mind, giving him or her some advice on how to start using technology in their classrooms now. Don't wait for your state or district to come through with those funds, all you need to be innovative is you. Here are the main points:

• Innovate with the Tools You Already Have
• Seek Out Free, Easy-to-Use Digital Resources
• Overcome Your Fear of the Unknown
• Start with Small, Fast Projects That Enhance Learning
• Learn with Your Students
  

The article is a quick read and it might get you motivated to stretch a little this year. Here are a couple short quotes if you are too stressed to read an entire one page article:

Of course, teachers don't need to wait for districts to create formal opportunities for professional growth. "Find someone to learn with, a study group or buddy in your own building or in another school," Conery says. "Take a unit you love and talk about how you can infuse technology to enhance learning and go even deeper."

It's not about the stuff," Carleton emphasizes. "It's about making connections and working with what you already have.

[Image: "No money in Switzerland": Flickr: Uploaded on November 12, 2006 by pug freak: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pugfreak/295278828/]

Editing to Music

One last idea from the Videomaker Conference I recently attended. This technique was discussed in a session on Editing the first day and then we got a chance to try it out during the Premiere workshop the following day.

Most folks who edit have edited something to match the beat of a song. Determine the count of the music and then time your cuts to that rhythm. I teach this to my students usually in reference to creating a music video. What the conference showed me is that you can use a music selection to create the rhythm of your video but it does not have to be the music you use in your final production.

I didn't really see how this might work until I tried it. I cut a short piece to match the beat on "Moonlight Sonata". Then I experimented with changing the background music. Some songs were a faster tempo. Some slower. Some about the same. It didn't seem to matter. The edited video flowed nicely with any of the selections. Even when the cuts didn't fall on any particular beat, the two tempos just seemed to meld. Fascinating.

The presenters did warn us that if the tempo changed drastically it might not fit. (But even then, sometimes it does.) I'm excited to try this out with my students.

[Image: "Feel Music": Flickr: Uploaded on May 5, 2006 by XŤЯΣΛМ i: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtream_i/140875083/]

Record some Ambient Noise

Another useful idea I got from the Videomaker conference.

When filming on location record 30-60 seconds of the ambient noise. If it's a room full of people, have them sit quietly for that time period. This little bit of static noise is great for when you have a sound glitch in the editing room and have to cut it out. If you leave that sound hole it will be noticeable when you play it back as even the quietest location has some kind of ambient noise.

In the past, I have cut out bits of quiet background from other parts of the video to cover this kind of glitch. Having this band aid bit of background noise makes so much more sense. I'll be adding this to the list of things my students need to do when they are filming on location.

[Original Image: Flickr: "Listening during a TA development Session": Uploaded on July 11, 2008 by k. erickson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iskr/2658978480/: Modified by Al Gunn]

What if the U.S. won no Olympic medals?

Interesting thought from The Two Million Minute Blog regarding the Olympics.

What if the U.S. won no gold, no silver and no bronze medals? Even worse, what if the U.S. team finished 25th in the medal competition – way behind both smaller and larger countries? Would we handle it with the same nonchalance we have about our children ranking 25th in the world in mathematics? Would it merit a Blue Ribbon panel whose recommendations are never implemented? Would it generate a brief mention in the news and then pass from our minds?

Hmmmmm? I don't think we would take it very well.

[Image: "Raising the Olympic Flag": Uploaded on February 28, 2006 by Tzatziki: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wing-mui/105967616/]

Funny: Committee of Clocks

[http://www.nearingzero.net/master.html: ‘Cartoon by Nick D Kim, nearingzero.net. Used by permission.]

Light Source

Handy rule of thumb I got from the Videomaker Conference last week.

"The bigger your light source the softer the shadow.

The smaller your light source the harder the shadow."

This helps explain why a light diffuser softens the shadows on your talent. It's bigger so the shadows are softer. The sun is a small source and will give you a hard shadow. Clouds will diffuse the sun's light making it a bigger source which then softens the shadows.

This is one of those handy references that kids (and their doddering old teacher) can remember when lighting a shoot. I'm not enough of an expert to know if this holds true 100% of the time (and I neglected to ask this question) but it worked with every example they showed us.

[Image: "Sun sets for the last time in 2008": Flickr: Uploaded on March 2, 2006 by Pandiyan: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pandiyan/106707806/]

The Groucho Walk

Another little tid-bit I picked up at the Videomaker conference last week.

If you need to walk and film at the same time and don't have access to a truck or any kind of stabilizer. Walk like Groucho Marx. The exaggerated walk helps steady the shot.

I looked for an example of this on the web for you folks who are too young to remember a Marx Brothers film. No luck. I did find a few references to this style of walking for people in law enforcement or the military who are shooting a gun. It does the same thing....keeps your upper body stable.

Essentially, keep your knees bent and your torso a little lower to the ground. Then walk. It looks weird but it works. I've included another tutorial from Videomaker today describing some other techniques for keeping your camera steady.



While searching for the Groucho Walk, I did spend a lot of time reading about Groucho Marx and watching some clips of his movies. It was a fun search. I'll leave you with a few quotes:

“One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know.”

“If you've heard this story before, don't stop me, because I'd like to hear it again.”

“I was going to thrash them within an inch of their lives, but I didn't have a tape measure”

“If I held you any closer I would be on the other side of you.”

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

[Image captured at http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/shokoff/Filmhome.htm]
[Quotes gathered from ThinkExist.com: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/Groucho_Marx/]

Lonely banjo player looking for other pickers. No long term commitment!

Have you ever been sitting in the backyard with the banjo on one knee and a fresh mohito on the other frailing a lonely song because all your picking buddies are out of town or they have a job? A job that doesn't allow for mohitos in the middle of the day let alone any banjo picking.

Or, maybe it's the middle of the night and it's humid and the sheets are clammy and you just had that dream. You know, the one about a mountain sized lizard with sub-prime teeth and budget-cut eyes chasing you through the school's hallways and all you have on is a pair of underwear. That embarrassing pair hidden in the back of your sock drawer because they're bikini briefs, pure silk and have "hot papa" stenciled in pink right across the fanny. And, and in your dream, all the children are laughing and screaming "Run hot poppa, run." while your principal is standing there saying, "Can't you control your classroom Mr. Gunn?"

That dream.

It wakes you up and drives you out of bed to the refrigerator looking for pickles and salami. On the way to the ice box, you grab the banjo with the idea of playing the night heebi-jeebies away and wish that you had a picking buddy to play with you there in your dark kitchen. But your picking buddies all frown on being called in the middle of the night to come over and play. Their wives already disapprove of you because of your mohito habit.

What's a picker to do?

Go to Mando Jam! This website comes out of Maine where the proprietor, Adam, records songs and lists the chord progressions of each song. You can pick along. It lets you play with someone else anytime you want.

Patrick Costello over at Tangier Sound pointed his readers to this site. If you have the time, visit his blog and take a look at the new line of banjos he and his "Dear Old Dad" are creating. He demoed the Somerset S-2 recently. Impressive.

[Image: "Al in a field": Feel free to use this picture if you ever need a shot of a man sitting in a field playing a banjo.]

Three Point Lighting

I mentioned learning about Three Point Lighting at the Videomaker Conference I attended. While looking through some of the Videomaker tutorials, I ran across this one that demos the process. While videos and diagrams are helpful, I still found watching someone do this in the flesh to be an invaluable experience. If you ever get a chance, have a knowledgeable person demonstrate the set up and describe what each of the three lights are supposed to do.



The three articles Mark mentions at the end of the video are bookmarked here for your, and my, easy reference.
Illuminations: Why Three-Point Lighting?
Illuminations: Applying 3-Point Lighting
Light Source: Lighting Women/Lighting Men

[Image: "I know I'll never have to turn that light on again": Flickr: Uploaded on January 24, 2006 by eqqman: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eqqman/90571238/]

Funny: Lesson in BBQ

VideoMaker Conference

I spent this past weekend at a VideoMaker Conference held in the Denver area. The first day, The Basics of Video Production, was divided up into four sections: Camcorder Overview, Choosing the Right Microphones, Editing Techniques and Lighting Techniques. Mark Montgomery, Technical Editor for Videomaker was the presenter for each session except Editing Techniques which was given by Boyd McCollum, a documentary film editor. I took something valuable away from each session. (How often can you say that about a conference you've attended?) My only complaint is that it was a lot of information for two days. I'd prefer a more hands on approach but if you are looking to get a lot of information in a hurry, this might be the workshop for you.

My favorite session on the first day was Lighting Techniques. There was a general discussion of lighting and equipment, including some inexpensive alternatives. The best part though was lighting up a volunteer using a three-point setup. I've done this before following diagrams from a book on lighting. I always felt like I was stumbling around in the dark. (My students usually groan after a comment like that.....feel free to groan in the privacy of your own home.) Seeing how Mark adjusted each of the three light sources based on the room made it all click. I think I finally get it.

The second day was a hands-on workshop using Adobe Premiere. I've been using Premiere for a couple of years and I am proficient enough to put together a video. I am pretty much self-taught from books and videos. What I discovered from this workshop is that I've been doing many tasks the hard way. If you are an advanced user, this would probably not have been as valuable to you. If you are a rank beginner, this might have seemed overwhelming, although there were a couple of beginners in the group and they were able to keep up. If you are like me (advanced-beginner?) this workshop might prove valuable to you. Of course, it is only a one day workshop and Premiere is a huge program so don't plan on becoming an expert from one day of instruction.

I would recommend the VideoMaker workshops to anybody at a beginning or intermediate skill level. If you are a teacher looking for college credit or continuing-ed credit be aware that the conference isn't accredited (at least for Colorado). I got it approved by my district ahead of time. That will make my district happy and help me eventually reach a pay raise. That will make me happy.

Check out the Videomaker conferences. They travel to various cities throughout the year.

[Image: "Videomaker Logo": Captured from Videomaker Home Page: http://www.videomaker.com/: Aug 2008]

Google's advice to students

The Google Blog recently had a post about what they are looking for in an applicant's educational background. Their answer to "What are we looking for?"

At the highest level, they are looking for non-routine problem-solving abilities.

They want people with the following skills: analytical reasoning, communication skills, a willingness to experiment, team players, passion and leadership.

Their advice for what a student should take in school is:

It's easy to educate for the routine, and hard to educate for the novel. Keep in mind that many required skills will change: developers today code in something called Python, but when I was in school C was all the rage. The need for reasoning, though, remains constant, so we believe in taking the most challenging courses in core disciplines: math, sciences, humanities.

And then keep on challenging yourself, because learning doesn't end with graduation.

Point your students to this page when they ask what classes they should take. (Maybe your school counselors too.)

[Image: Flickr: "365:Prarie Dog":Uploaded on April 9, 2007 by Speshul Ted: http://www.flickr.com/photos/speshulted/452968691/: Creative Commons]

Funny: Bee Boys

Thanks to Neatarama for this one.

Who controls television content?

Neatorama had an interesting piece recently called, "Who owns what on television?" I was facinated to see how a few corporations control most of the big media outlets. I think I probably already knew this, but seeing it all laid out was pretty eye-opening. If I were teaching at the moment, which I'm not cause it's the middle of summer vacation, I'd bring this up as a topic of discussion.

As an example, the graphic here, shows all the stations owned and operated by Time Warner.

I'll bookmark this page and come back to it in September to show my media classes.




[Image captured from Neatorama: http://www.neatorama.com/2008/07/07/who-owns-what-on-television/]

Funny: Simon's Cat 'TV Dinner'

Hacking my plum tree

Last winter we had a storm that took out about a third of the branches on an ornamental plum in my back yard. All the area that is clear sky in the first picture was filled in with lovely foliage. There is a chair there sitting below the tree and it's empty because what we used to call the "shade garden" has now become one of the sunniest spots in the yard. I used to go there every morning with a cup of coffee and watch the flowers grow. Now I go there to work on my tan.

The orange day lilies are the only happy recipients of this change. They like their bed a little sunnier and have given us a great show of color this year. But, day lilies are not the boss of me! I want my shade back.

While trimming the dogwood to the left of the tree last week, I cut out a nice sized cane that had a beautiful "v" shape to it. I was wishing I could magically graft it onto the plum when I noticed a long sucker coming up along the trunk of the plum where my shade branches once waved proudly. I was about to prune it off when I remembered how my wife and I had once shaped the angle of branches on some young fruit trees. We learned this from an episode of Victory Garden years ago. Essentially you can guide a trees growth by forcing the young branches to any shape you want by attaching them to forms or lengths of wood.

I grabbed the dogwood branch and cut it into a more manageable size. I then tied it to the plum trees trunk and gently bent the sucker to match the "v" shape of my dogwood guide and tied it down. You can see my sloppy rope and knot work in the picture below.

If this works, the branch should grow out into the open area and in a couple of years give me the shade that I miss. I'll check the branch this fall and decide then if I should remove my guide or not. I may leave it on to give it a little extra strength over the winter months.

Check back in September for an updated picture.

Hiking Poles

My knee has been giving me problems the last few months. I fell during a hike a few weeks ago and that made me decide I needed to do something a little different. What might that be, you ask?

Give up hiking?

Go to a doctor about my knee?

Hike those flat boring trails around lakes and such?

Nope. I decided to buy some hiking poles. I've seen many hikers using these poles recently and had a couple of friends recommend them. I figured they couldn't hurt. That is until I looked at the cost for poles being recommended to me. Yikes!

I finally decided on the ones shown here mainly because of cost. If I bought them and found out I didn't like them I wouldn't be out a hundred bucks (or more). These two set me back about $30. I picked them because of (1) price, (2) they seemed solid when I put all my weight on one and (3) the grips were comfortable.


The section of trail shown here is an example of some of the hardest terrain I might run into in my hikes.

Rocky.

Not quite steep enough that you would have to scramble (use your hands).

Lots of places where it's like you are climbing stairs only the risers make you lift your foot higher than 10 inches.

This trail leads to the summit of Green Mountain just outside of Boulder,Colorado. It is part of a series of trails that start at Chautauqua park right on the outskirts of town. From where I live (in suburb of Denver) I can reach the trail head in about thirty minutes. It's where I go when I want to hike but don't want a long drive. I thought it would be a good place to try out my new poles.


I started off up the trail and for about the first 10 minutes, I hated them. They felt awkward. I had to get the hang of where to place them so I wouldn't trip over them. They were noisy. Every time their metal tips hit the ground they made a "thok" sound or if it was rocky "tink".

"Thok thok thok thok thok tink tink tink thok tink thok."

There was no way I was going to sneak up on anybody this way.











About the time I got to this vista looking back over Boulder, I started to change my mind.

My balance was better. Even with my tender knee, I never felt unsteady.

Going up stair step type formations in the trail were much easier because I could use a little arm strength to help me out. It was like having built in rails.

By the time I got to the top of the mountain and could look out over to the veiw to the east (the last picture), I was sold on them. I'd be using these for at least this season.

On the way down, I lengthened the poles and found they were just as helpful. Going down usually hurts my joints more than going up. I have to say, it seemed to be less stressful on my knees, once again because I was taking some of the weight with my arms.

I did take one nasty slide on the way down on some loose gravel and put all my weight on one of the poles to catch myself. It bowed but did not crumple and I was able to regain my footing without any embarrassing falls on my posterior.

So here is what I think from one hike.

Cons:

1. Noisy.
2. Take some getting used to especially where the trail narrows. In areas where it is narrow and surrounded by brush, they can get tangled up with your legs and make you curse. Curse bad words that your mother would be dissapointed to hear you say.
3. Stopping to take a drink, blow my nose or take a picture was a bit of a bother. Too many things to juggle.

Pros:

1. Made going up and down stairstep formations much easier.
2. Seemed to take some of the stress off my legs and transfer it to my arms and shoulders. (Which are aching right now by the way.)
3. Kept me from falling a couple of times. (Although I'd like to think my cat like reflexes would have saved me if I didn't have the poles.)
4. Worked nicely in areas where I was moving from rock to rock. Helped me keep my balance while I checked for footing.

What do I think about my cheap poles versus some of the more expensive ones? Not sure yet. Let me get a few more miles on these and I'll let you know.

[All images taken by me during my hike in Chataqua Park 7/12/2008. Feel free to use any of them although if you use the one of me, could you Photoshop my belly to that of a twenty year old sprinter. Please.]

Funny: Brussels Sprouts

[Image: captured from http://www.nearingzero.net/master.html]

Stop Motion Animation

Neatorama posted a stop motion animation from PES recently and I liked it so much, I used it as one of my Friday funnies. I was curious about PES and went over to their site to look around and there is lots of great stuff. [Warning---there are a few things here you don't want to show in your classroom, so as always, preview anything you might present to the children and save yourself a trip to the principals office.]

Adam Pesapane is the animator and brains (camera?) behind PES. One thing I love about these films are their use of everyday objects presented in a different way. Clown heads become the flame discharge on a gun (Kaboom). Post-it notes become pats of butter (Western Spaghetti).

He also has a few films that aren't stop motion. For example, "Dogs of War" intermixes some old war footage with modern footage to great effect. I'm going to show this clip to my video students as an example of good editing.

I've embedded a short video from the site made by Adam on the making of "Kaboom". He explains some of the objects in the film and why he used them. This video by itself is a nice piece of film making. Head over to the site and spend an hour or so watching some great little films.





[Image captured from "Making of Kaboom On PES website: http://www.eatpes.com/]

We don't need no stinkin' tent poles!

We laid the tent out flat in a perfect place and staked the corners down. My friend (who shall remain anonymous as I don't want to disparage her reputation in any way) and whose tent we were trying to put up said, "I don't see the support poles."

"Check the bag again."

"I did."

"The car?"

"I did."

"The ground between here and the car? Your other bags? Under the car?"

"I did, I did, and I did!"

She crawled into the tent and laid inside the puddle of canvas with her face pushed up against the mesh of one of the windows. She said, "This isn't so bad. We could just sleep in here like this."

The day before leaving I had taken the rope I usually carry out of my camp box in an effort to consolidate. I should have left out the bottle opener. I never need to open a bottle anymore....pretty much everything I drink now comes out of a pop top. I said, "There has to be something we can use to suspend the tent at least a little bit."

We dug through our supplies looking for twine or string. Finally, staring at my camp box, I realized that the two straps holding the lid on might be able to work as a single support if we could get the tent under a low enough branch. I told my friend (who I have now given the nickname of "Tent-Pole -Girl" which is a friendly mocking way to remind her of her mistake, after all, isn't that what friends are for?) "Hey Tent-Pole-Girl! We need to find a low hanging branch. Maybe we can use these to hold up the center of the tent." I held up the straps.

"Cool and don't call me Tent-Pole-Girl......Old Man."

"Sticks and stones, yadda, yadda, yadda! Find a tree....Tent-Pole Girl."

"Old Man Who Forgets Everything."

"Tent-Pole-Girl."

"Old Man Who Has a List of Every Picky-Uny Thing."

"Tent-Pole-Girl who might have remembered the tent poles if she had a list!"

"Old Man who.......oh wait. How about this branch?" She pointed at one that wasn't too far from the original campsite.

"Pretty good. But the ground is a little slanted."

"Don't have much choice."

"You're right. Lets give it a try."

We jury rigged something that allowed us to suspend the tent at least enough to get it off our faces. We couldn't figure out how to completely get the rain tarps on the tent. If a storm came, we'd have to relocate to the car. Other than that it was workable.

"You are a genius!"

"Yes, I know Tent-Pole-Girl. With age comes wisdom."

"No. Really. You amaze me."

"Enough Tent-Pole-Girl. You are embarrassing me."

"OK...but I just wanted you to know what I thought. And one more thing..."

"Yes, my admiring young friend who is in awe of everything Al."

"Call me Tent-Pole-Girl one more time and I will rub raw bacon on your sleeping bag and you can discuss your cutesy nick names with Smoky the Bear when he comes looking for a pork treat in the middle of the night!"

As it was, other than sliding down the slope to the bottom end of the tent and having to scootch back up once or twice every hour, the night was a peaceful one with no rain. We woke early the next morning and went for a hike in the Poudre Canyon.

Our new motto: "We don't need no stinkin' tent poles!"

[Image of fully assembled tent with poles is from the Coleman web site: http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=2000000134&categoryid=11020]

Funny: Western Spaghetti (Stop Motion Animation)

Thanks to Neatorama for the link to this clip.

Beautiful shot taken on the Sourdough trail near Ward, Colorado.

Colorado Moose

Ran across this fellow eating aspen bark while camping near the Poudre Canyon in Colorado. I've lived most of my life in this state and it's the first time I've ever seen a moose in the wild here.

There is another one a little further back in the brush that was camera shy, but this young bull struck this pose just for us.

Those Pesky Thank Yous

How many times have we had to sit through the million thank yous that need to be said at the beginning of a big meeting or conference. It's important to acknowledge the folks who put a program together but for most of us sitting in the cheap seats, it has little or no meaning. I ran across this great idea on Cool Tools that was described by Seth Godin on his blog.

Briefly, the suggestion is to build a PowerPoint presentation that can be run in the front of the room before the conference formally starts. The slide show is made up of all the people involved who deserve to be thanked. When you come up to the podium say, something pithy like:

"Let's give a big hand for all the folks who put so much work into making this thing happen. Yeah baby!"

Face the screen and applaud the slide show. Turn it off and then face your audience and get things started. (Adding in the "Yeah Baby!" is my idea and is optional.)

[Image: "supermom with the superyawn - _MG_6221": Flickr: Creative Commons: Uploaded on November 24, 2006 by sean dreilinger]

Funny: Ready for Children?

[Cartoon from XKCD: http://xkcd.com/441/]

Altoids Survival Kit

OK, the Altoids themselves aren't going to save your life, except in the case of a really important blind date and the unfortunate loss of your toothbrush. The idea here, is that the tin itself can be turned into a container for a handy little survival kit. Ron Hood, a survival expert, designed this set-up and briefly explains the reasons behind most of the contents. He mentions the "Rule of Threes" but didn't elaborate. I couldn't easily find any information regarding this on his site, so I did a web search and found many places that mention the concept. This page had an understandable explanation.

Briefly, The Rule of Threes refers to the general parameters that you can live three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. When going out into the wilderness supplies should reflect this thinking. Pack and plan accordingly. The Altoids survival kit was designed with these rules in mind.

Hood has something called the "Survival Cheat Sheet" in his kit. I found a link to a pdf file and printed it out. It's font is way too small for my old-man eyes and would be useless to me out in the wild. Further searching led me to this Army Survival Manual. It looks like some of the material in the cheat sheet was pulled directly from this source but it's 646 pages would be a bit bulky for an Altoid tin. If anybody has a source for a "cheat sheet" that is a little more legible, leave a response.

Lastly, remember that I am a school teacher who has never had a survival experience other than being dropped into a classroom of rowdy 7th graders. My best advice in a situation like that is to give each child an Altoid and pray for the bell. If you head out into the wilderness with a tiny-tin of supplies because I thought it was cool, you may be cursing me with your last breath as you lay dehydrating in the summer heat. Ask someone who knows first! Remember.....I am the guy who heads out into the woods with a camp box the size of a baby rhino. Condensing everything down to one Altoid tin blows my mind.

[Image: Captured from http://www.survival.com/best.htm]

Camp Box

When I was a kid back in the dark ages, my dad would come home and announce that we were going camping. Mom gathered up the needed supplies and off we went for anywhere from a couple of days to a week of living in the back country. I don't remember much of what mom had to do to prepare except that she had a wooden camp box with all the essential items. She added a few days worth of food and away we went. I've camped off and on as an adult and I've tried a couple of times to recreate a usable camp box. So far, I've not quite managed it. Either my mom and dad were really organized or I'm being too picky about what I want to take. My box is way to small for all the things I think I need.

I had a friend tell me that last time she went camping, she had a cooler and a plastic sack of supplies. Everything was cooked off the grill at the campsite or suspended above the fire with a green stick. She mocked my camp box as I loaded it into the car for our simple overnight trip. It worked out OK although I don't think I've convinced her of the logic of the thing yet.

We were at a site with no tables, big rocks or handy stumps so all tasks had to be done on the ground. I had everything I needed to prepare our meals and clean up but my old crickety back was complaining about all the stooping. Now I am thinking a small folding table might be handy.

Will my list of necessities ever end? Will I eventually give up my quest for the perfect camp box and just buying a Winnebago?

[Image: Picture of my camp box]

Dog Prosthesis

While driving through a back street in Boulder, Colorado last week on my way to a hiking trail, a dog ran in front of our car. That wasn't all that unusual and we braked to keep from hitting him. The unusual part was that he had a home made prosthesis built from what looked like old bicycle wheels to hold him upright. I couldn't tell if he was missing his legs or if they were damaged but he seemed to be able to move just fine.

I wondered if it was this kind of behavior that got him into that doggy wheel chair in the first place.

This article made me think of that back street dog. Her prosthesis is more sophisticated and a little more polished but they both get the job done. [Note: The video doesn't show Hope using her prosthesis....wish they had included a little footage of her in action.]

[Image: captured from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1028681/Pictured-The-puppy-born-legs-whos-using-model-aeroplane-wheels-around.html]

Funny: I Feel Good (stick animation)

Hang up and Drive

Interesting video on multi-tasking by John Medina,the guy who wrote Brain Rules. I haven't read the book but I've seen several little snippits about his work and am thinking it needs to go on my to-read list. For years I've had students (and adults) tell me they could do two things at once. I've always argued that they were really just switching focus. Sometimes really fast. Research may support my opinion for a change. (I'm marking this date on my calendar!)

Medina says that talking on a cell phone while you are driving is like driving drunk in that it decreases your ability to make fast decisions in the same way. (I am paraphrasing here so please watch the video and don't quote me as your source...even though I was right this time....did I mention that I was right?)

So, the question in my mind is not that we immediately stop kids and adults from multitasking but how do we utilize our ability to switch tasks to the best of our brains ability. We need a new word here to describe quickly changing tasks. Something catchy like speed-task, sequa-task, task-task, fast-task or tasoogle!

"Mom, today in tech class we learned to tasoogle between google and yahoo while building a collaborative wiki in our moodle space."

My only question after this, is why do I doodle and draw pictures while I am listening and taking notes? What is it about my learning style that drives me to draw? Am I switching between the two tasks of drawing and listening or is the drawing enhancing my listening? Maybe I'll read the book to find out.






[Image:"Shut up and drive";Uploaded on September 5, 2007 by Schodts; http://www.flickr.com/photos/schodts/1330843003/]

The Lessig Style

I'm a fan of Stanford professor Larry Lessig. Both his presentations and the way he designs them. I first stumbled across one of his talks at the TED site, How Creativity is being Strangled by the Law. I tried to explain the power of his talks to a friend and the best I could come up with were two words: minimal and compelling.

A physicist, Chris Tunnell, wrote a nice piece about the Lessig Style. The author discusses how using these same methods have made his own presentations more popular. He listed the following keypoints of the Lessig Style.

• Minimal Text
• XML Tags
• Re-using images
• Knowing your next slide
• Blank slides

I might add only one item to the list and that is that the presentation is driven by the content. In most cases I feel like Lessig could lose the slides altogether and I would still listen. The slides support him not the other way around. The only thing I don't think I will use in my own presentations are the XML Tags. It works for him. The tags create his "style".

There are lots of Lessig presentations on the web but what I like about the TED presentation I've linked to is that you can see Lessig as he is talking. It's more like what I would expect in a classroom. You don't have to agree with him to appreciate his craftsmanship. Check him out.

[Image captured from TED talk: How Creativity is being Strangled by the Law: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/187]

Funny: I Will Derive (music video)

I never advanced as far as calculus, yet, I still thought this was funny.

Puppet building

Gryphern has created a cool DIY video on making a puppet that uses some internal linkages to control mouth movement and to wag it's tail. The action is run by your hand on the under-belly of the puppet. There are some nice illustrations to show how the linkages are put together along with some close-up shots of the tricky parts. The puppet takes little in the way of tools so is accessible to most folks, even with limited resources.

Puppet making is one of those seemingly simple activities that can teach multiple lessons and skills. Design. Simple machines. Construction.

Then when the puppet is done, a whole new set of lessons and skills can be developed. Writing. Storytelling. Drama. Oral Presentation.

I loved getting my middle schoolers to build puppets. They complained at the start as it being "for little kids" but as the projects went on, they always got more into it.




[Image captured from "How to make a puppet that bites and wags when held": Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LBhoCtEKhE]

Slowing down for the summer

School is out in my neck of the woods.

Since my audience is mostly educators, I am assuming, that like me, a lot of you will be taking summer classes and starting those summer projects.

I'm going to cut back on the number of times I post a week to just a couple times a week. Probably Mondays and Wednesdays.

No promises though!

I'll start blogging more often in mid august when I return to school and the demands of life take on a different flavor.

Relax and enjoy the slower pace.

[Image: "Garden Contemplation" taken by Lari]

Funny: My homework ate my...

[Image:‘Cartoon by Nick D Kim, nearingzero.net. Used by permission.’]

Quick Forms using Google Docs

I read about this Form function in Google Docs, then watched the embedded video below and was blown away. I know that I got here a few months after the party started (it was released in January) but it looks like it is going to be a great tool for educators. Right off the top of my head I can think of the following uses:

• Collect student information on first day of class
• Collect information from staff
• Create a fast survey
• Create a quick quiz
• Collect data from friends and family (birthdays, anniversaries, etc)

I'll share my progress as I experiment with this over the next couple of months and prepare some things to start the 2008 school year. I am jumping in with a quick one question survey for my readers as my first try at creating a form.


I'll post the information I gathered in a week and give some feedback on how well it worked.





[Image: Flickr: "Survey Says..."; hfabulous: http://www.flickr.com/photos/henryfaber/230444653/]