Warning stream of consciousness ahead!
Well I guess it all really started from a magazine. Today at work we recieved our regular subscription to Museums magazine. It sounds really exciting, I know but in it was an article by an interesting woman who I sheepishly admit I thought was a man because it was about gaming. She wants to use gaming in all sorts of great ways, including saving the world and having a game designer win a Nobel Prize. In the article she talked about happiness and how video games are really great at producing happiness based on some basic principles happiness researchers (yup they exist) have found. This all connected to museums because she thought museums should be at the forefront of creating happiness and that they could use the principles of gaming to do so.
Sooooo I've been thinking lately about my degree topic (educational technology) and how the part I'm really interested in is individualized instruction. I really think that's where technology has a chance to shine instead of just being annoying and hard to work/incorporate into the classroom.
When I first heard about gaming and ed-tech I thought, 'eh'. I've seen Scott play and play and play and didn't really want to have much more involvement than that. But when my professor described the way games can become really great individualized instructors my interest was piqued.
Anyway, back to Jane McGonigal, who happens to be the lady I was talking about earlier. She's awesome. I found her blog and she has some great stuff there and great ideas in general. I am always a fan of the "make the world a better place" ideas. But doing that while having fun is even better. She talks about how people spend 20 hours a week on World of Warcraft and compares that to the amount of time it's taken to build Wikipedia to it's current state. Basically WOW players could have make Wikipedia in a few months. She also links to this site where you play a game of exchanging and building on ideas the Signtific Lab. Their name bugs me because I always want to pronounce the G. So that was interesting, so is her Top Secret Dance Off. You can browse her blog for yourself to find all these crazy things.
I don't know if this gets anyone else excited, but I can't wait for the future and to meet people like her and to create games to educate people well and change the world and GRRRR just DO something with my life.
p.s. I was going to make a super secret dance and post it, but I made the super secret dance video and decided that it should remain secret.
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Monday, December 31, 2007
Last post of 2007
The last weeks of 2007 have been busy ones. Scott and I flew to Des Moines Iowa the weekend before Christmas. We had good timing since they had a storm the day before we flew in. The runways were snow covered and the wind made the snow blow along the ground, either the snowflakes were very small or it was just pieces of snowflakes being blown along like dust along the ground. I tried to get a picture but it wasn't really possible.
Scott's mom picked us up and we decided that we'd need to stop at Walgreens since Scott's bag hadn't arrived with us despite the 3 hour layover and the fact that my bag made it there. We made the hour long drive to Toledo where Scott's Mom, Susan tried to drop off some stuff in a storage unit. Of course we realized once we pulled into the driveway that it was a solid sheet of ice and that we'd have to do some major manuvering to get back out. Scott and I got out and pushed and we managed to skate our way back out again. Later that night Scott's bag got delivered too, so everything worked out.
We opened presents at Scott's grandparent's house on Christmas eve since we'd have to head back to Des Moines on Christmas day to catch our flight to New Mexico. We had a nice time playing cards with his family and even managed to go for a walk out into the cornfields for a mini photo shoot.
We got to New Mexico with no problem and my Aunt Luella and Uncle Diego picked us up for the 3 hour drive to Farmington. We got to have another Christmas dinner and presents there.
It snowed enough to make the roads slick, but as ususal for NM snow it melted before noon.
My sister Erin will be graduating soon, so she wanted to try taking some senior pictures, but it was so freezing and windy that we didn't get much done. When the snow is outracing the car then you know it's windy. Hair blowing straight up in the air doesn't make for the most attractive pictures.
It was a short visit, but we also got to have some coffee with Chris and Tammie Billey of Largo Photography. We also got to meet their son Treston who is even more adorable in person than in pictures :) Scott got a mentos and coke rocket launcher in his stocking, but we didn't want to carry the soda so we launched it before we left.
Afterwards we headed back to Albuquerque so we could catch our flight the next day back to New York. I took some pictures of the NM scenery along the way.
Again we got lucky since we flew through Chicago and they'd just had a very large snowstorm the day before. We got home all in one piece and with lots of extra goodies. It was very nice to see everyone. It may have been a whirlwind trip, but it was definitely worth it!
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We opened presents at Scott's grandparent's house on Christmas eve since we'd have to head back to Des Moines on Christmas day to catch our flight to New Mexico. We had a nice time playing cards with his family and even managed to go for a walk out into the cornfields for a mini photo shoot.
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We got to New Mexico with no problem and my Aunt Luella and Uncle Diego picked us up for the 3 hour drive to Farmington. We got to have another Christmas dinner and presents there.
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Afterwards we headed back to Albuquerque so we could catch our flight the next day back to New York. I took some pictures of the NM scenery along the way.
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Saturday, November 17, 2007
Altercations
I know time is flying when I look at the last Blog post and that was Tuesday, and I'm already almost to Sunday before I even start to think about writing the next one. Well I've thought about writing another but haven't had a moment to get any further than that....
Thursday I had Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I took my camera so that I could get pictures since we went to the "little's" school. I even had a mini photoshoot with my little, and she took my current facebook profile picture. It was great to share that with her, since usually we're concentrating on other things. After that I had to run to my rescheduled photo class.
Friday night I went with Scott to a first year grad school student party. The school gives them money to throw a party for the incoming students. We had a good time teaching these East Coast kids how to play King's Cup. Scott nearly got into an altercation with the police when we were walking to the subway, they asked him to step aside so he did, but not as far as they wanted him to. I dragged him far far away from them, not wanting to have anything bad happen. It's been in the news lately that the cops shot a teen boy armed only with a hairbrush. Understandable if the kid was threatening to shoot them, but they did fire 20 times. I certainly didn't want to take any chances.
Saturday I got up and headed into the city for my last Saturday photography workshop. I sat at the front of the Path train to get some pictures of the tracks. I was looking out the window taking pictures when a lady conductor came up to me and told me that I was going to have to delete my pictures of the train. I tried to just put the camera away hoping that she'd see I wasn't trying to do anything bad, and she insisted that I delete them. I tried confuse her with a little bit of technical jargon about formatting cards and fragmentation and how I didn't want to lose my other pictures, but she was having none of it and went to call security. So I took my card out and stuck it in my camera bag, she came back and still insisted that I hadn't deleted anything and I couldn't delete things with my card out, so I reached into my bag and pulled out my other card that didn't have anything on it, and acted like I was going to delete stuff. It ended when I finally told her that I had "the utmost respect for her and her position" and that I certianly wasn't trying to do anything malicious. She finally seemed satisfied and walked away without ever seeing me delete anything. I think she must have just been on a crazy power trip, but I was shaking like a leaf. I am not a fan of confrontation. It was definitely more the principle of the thing. Taking a picture is harmless, the MTA subway system lets you take pictures all you want. I know, I looked up the rule and memorized that it is Article 1050 section C. Ha, it made me laugh that the lady was giving me this whole speech about how I couldn't take pictures because they wanted to preserve what little security they had. That didn't make sense to me at all, especially since the part of the tracks we were on could clearly be seen by walking alongside the tracks from a public sidewalk. I may have to write to the Path train people about getting that rule changed. It's really ridiculous and not worth me or anyone else having to be harrased over it. People who want to do harm won't get any more info from pictures they can take from a car since it's obvious that anyone can see everything that would be in that picture anyways.
If that wasn't enough, I left the Path train and hopped on the subway, I saw an open door that I thought looked interesting and I took a picture. A maintenance man came up to me and asked if I was taking a picture. I said yes. He said I wasn't allowed to! I promptly recited the article and section where it said I could and he started yelling at me telling me that he didn't care that I couldn't take a picture back there etc. and to get on the train. Which I was happy to do since it pulled up just then. A sympathetic bystander asked if the guy was yelling at me for taking pictures and shook his head. That made me feel tons better since I was starting to feel really accosted.
I mentioned my experience to my professor who has consistently told us that we are within our rights to do these kinds of things, which is true since we're in public spaces. A perfect teaching example came about when we were walking with him taking pictures and he stopped in the street to take a picture of the back of a hotdog vendor cooking at his cart. When the guy turned around and noticed he got crazy angry and got right in the teacher's face yelling and screaming that he was going to call the cops. So my teacher said ok, call the cops. So the man gets on his cell phone and finally out of my teacher's face and so my teacher took some more pictures of him! I think it was to prove a point, but it was a little antagonistic. By that time we were done there so we decided to move on and the guy kept walking with us for 5 or 6 blocks, staying on the phone with the cops who I assume were telling him that we were doing something perfectly legal. We finally ducked down into the subway to ditch the guy.
Phew, I won't need any more confrontation for at least a year. I don't know what's so intimidating about a camera. I can understand someone asking nicely that you don't take a picture, like some construction workers did, then my professor talked to them and the guy that was waving us away started posing and getting his buddies to pose too. I'm more than happy to respect people's wishes, I just don't want to get yelled and screamed at. I think New York makes people a little crazy.
Trivia for the day: (I learned this in college) You have a greater chance of being killed by lightning than a terrorist.... which means people should stop freaking out about me taking pictures!
Thursday I had Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I took my camera so that I could get pictures since we went to the "little's" school. I even had a mini photoshoot with my little, and she took my current facebook profile picture. It was great to share that with her, since usually we're concentrating on other things. After that I had to run to my rescheduled photo class.
Friday night I went with Scott to a first year grad school student party. The school gives them money to throw a party for the incoming students. We had a good time teaching these East Coast kids how to play King's Cup. Scott nearly got into an altercation with the police when we were walking to the subway, they asked him to step aside so he did, but not as far as they wanted him to. I dragged him far far away from them, not wanting to have anything bad happen. It's been in the news lately that the cops shot a teen boy armed only with a hairbrush. Understandable if the kid was threatening to shoot them, but they did fire 20 times. I certainly didn't want to take any chances.
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| From 2007.11.17 |
Saturday I got up and headed into the city for my last Saturday photography workshop. I sat at the front of the Path train to get some pictures of the tracks. I was looking out the window taking pictures when a lady conductor came up to me and told me that I was going to have to delete my pictures of the train. I tried to just put the camera away hoping that she'd see I wasn't trying to do anything bad, and she insisted that I delete them. I tried confuse her with a little bit of technical jargon about formatting cards and fragmentation and how I didn't want to lose my other pictures, but she was having none of it and went to call security. So I took my card out and stuck it in my camera bag, she came back and still insisted that I hadn't deleted anything and I couldn't delete things with my card out, so I reached into my bag and pulled out my other card that didn't have anything on it, and acted like I was going to delete stuff. It ended when I finally told her that I had "the utmost respect for her and her position" and that I certianly wasn't trying to do anything malicious. She finally seemed satisfied and walked away without ever seeing me delete anything. I think she must have just been on a crazy power trip, but I was shaking like a leaf. I am not a fan of confrontation. It was definitely more the principle of the thing. Taking a picture is harmless, the MTA subway system lets you take pictures all you want. I know, I looked up the rule and memorized that it is Article 1050 section C. Ha, it made me laugh that the lady was giving me this whole speech about how I couldn't take pictures because they wanted to preserve what little security they had. That didn't make sense to me at all, especially since the part of the tracks we were on could clearly be seen by walking alongside the tracks from a public sidewalk. I may have to write to the Path train people about getting that rule changed. It's really ridiculous and not worth me or anyone else having to be harrased over it. People who want to do harm won't get any more info from pictures they can take from a car since it's obvious that anyone can see everything that would be in that picture anyways.
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| From 2007.11.17 |
If that wasn't enough, I left the Path train and hopped on the subway, I saw an open door that I thought looked interesting and I took a picture. A maintenance man came up to me and asked if I was taking a picture. I said yes. He said I wasn't allowed to! I promptly recited the article and section where it said I could and he started yelling at me telling me that he didn't care that I couldn't take a picture back there etc. and to get on the train. Which I was happy to do since it pulled up just then. A sympathetic bystander asked if the guy was yelling at me for taking pictures and shook his head. That made me feel tons better since I was starting to feel really accosted.
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| From 2007.11.17 |
I mentioned my experience to my professor who has consistently told us that we are within our rights to do these kinds of things, which is true since we're in public spaces. A perfect teaching example came about when we were walking with him taking pictures and he stopped in the street to take a picture of the back of a hotdog vendor cooking at his cart. When the guy turned around and noticed he got crazy angry and got right in the teacher's face yelling and screaming that he was going to call the cops. So my teacher said ok, call the cops. So the man gets on his cell phone and finally out of my teacher's face and so my teacher took some more pictures of him! I think it was to prove a point, but it was a little antagonistic. By that time we were done there so we decided to move on and the guy kept walking with us for 5 or 6 blocks, staying on the phone with the cops who I assume were telling him that we were doing something perfectly legal. We finally ducked down into the subway to ditch the guy.
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| From 2007.11.17 |
Phew, I won't need any more confrontation for at least a year. I don't know what's so intimidating about a camera. I can understand someone asking nicely that you don't take a picture, like some construction workers did, then my professor talked to them and the guy that was waving us away started posing and getting his buddies to pose too. I'm more than happy to respect people's wishes, I just don't want to get yelled and screamed at. I think New York makes people a little crazy.
Trivia for the day: (I learned this in college) You have a greater chance of being killed by lightning than a terrorist.... which means people should stop freaking out about me taking pictures!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Greenwich Village Halloween Parade
Any adventurous people who like Halloween should definitely come visit me in New York at the end of October next year. I will show you a good time. Marching in the Village Halloween parade is an experience not to be missed. I tried to convince many friends here that they should join me, but they all either watch from the sidelines or pass altogether. When you're watching from the side, you really don't get to see everything, and you're so crammed in with other people that the only costume you'll probably see is the tip of some Wizard's hat. Of course there are the stiltwalkers and the amazing animatronic statues that tower over everyone's head, you'll see all twelve of those. But you won't see and experience the thousands of costumed people walking in the parade, and get people to clap for you, scream at the sight of you, cheer you on, laugh at you all while you have actual elbow room. Last night I headed down to Scott's lab and we got dressed and walked over to the start of the parade. That is the worst part, where you are standing in a large crowd of people who suddenly take up more room than they usually do, due to extra appendages and props. But once the cops let you out of the starting gate, it's smooth sailing. You can walk at your own pace and choose which band or musical float you want to walk by and dance with. You get to see everyone's costume, and everyone gets to see you. I had many small children tell me that I won, that I was the best costume they saw that night, which was a pretty great accomplishment considering the creativity that was on display. 
Of course, for all I know they could have said that to ten people that night, but I still felt proud. Two separate girls called me "cute" which I thought was a funny way to describe my costume, and many people did double takes as we walked by. A mime and a headless person, in love. That's an interesting plot line. Anyway, enjoy the pictures for now, and make plans to visit next year!
Of course, for all I know they could have said that to ten people that night, but I still felt proud. Two separate girls called me "cute" which I thought was a funny way to describe my costume, and many people did double takes as we walked by. A mime and a headless person, in love. That's an interesting plot line. Anyway, enjoy the pictures for now, and make plans to visit next year!Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Fall Adventure
It's been awhile, but I've been busy. Lots of good news to report. Last week we won all three sets of our volleyball game. Whooo hooo! No games this week, so hopefully we don't lose our momentum. This weekend Sky, Anna, Scott and I all went on a road trip to Salem. It was great! A nice fall trip. The leaves hadn't really started changing too much yet since the weather has been so warm, but it was still nice to see the New England Coastline. Salem is about 10 miles outside of Boston, and it's a funny little town. 
Of course it's famous for the Salem Witch Trials where they burned a lot of innocent women at the stake for being "witches." These days it's just a nice town that really likes Halloween. There were people already dressed up in costume just because it was October. We went to the psychic fair, Scott got his Aura read, and Sky and Anna had a Tarot card reading. 
All very amusing. We saw a historical play where we were the audience/jury for a witch trial. Then in the end we convinced our hotel to bake a pumpkin pie that we brought them since Anna really wanted some and we couldn't find anywhere but the grocery store to buy one. The next day we tried to visit a cranberry bog but didn't quite succeed.
Instead we walked around in a corn maze, even though there was no one there for us to pay. I'll have to try to find a cranberry bog next year.
After traveling through 4 states we added a new one to the list, and stopped for lunch in the 5th state, Rhode Island. Providence is a nice town and we found the Brown University Campus and relived our college days sitting on the lawn. The buildings were all quite beautiful, and it made me think for half a minute that it would have been nice to go to school there. Then I remembered that it would be cold in the winter and was glad that I didn't. All in all it was a fantastic weekend. We love hanging out with Sky and Anna who are so fun and such great friends. This last picture is of a sign post that I saw in Providence covered with staples from flyers that have been posted there. I thought it looked neat.
Oh one more good thing. I heard from the camera repair people that they would fix my DSLR under warranty. Now I just hope it gets back to me in time for my class.
Of course it's famous for the Salem Witch Trials where they burned a lot of innocent women at the stake for being "witches." These days it's just a nice town that really likes Halloween. There were people already dressed up in costume just because it was October. We went to the psychic fair, Scott got his Aura read, and Sky and Anna had a Tarot card reading. 
All very amusing. We saw a historical play where we were the audience/jury for a witch trial. Then in the end we convinced our hotel to bake a pumpkin pie that we brought them since Anna really wanted some and we couldn't find anywhere but the grocery store to buy one. The next day we tried to visit a cranberry bog but didn't quite succeed.  |
| From Salem Fall Tr... |
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| From Salem Fall Tr... |
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| From Salem Fall Tr... |
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| From Salem Fall Tr... |
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Denver Day 2, 3 and 4
Last Sunday morning Sarah and I awoke bright and early to go meet Mike aka Match.com man for a hike in Denver's lovely mountains. When we got to the appointed parking lot and found it completely full because that's what every other person does on Labor Day weekend in Denver we decided to try going a littl further. We ended up parking near the Buffalo. For those of you who haven't been to Denver, they have a herd of Bison hanging out by the highway. I forget the point of them, perhaps it's a preserve or some such thing. I just remember always seeing them as a kid and they're still there now, so if they're there to make Buffalo burgers they haven't all been eaten yet. So we consolodated cars and hopped in with Mike and Wilson (Mike's West Highland Terrier) and went up Mt. Macy.. Marcy? 
Some mountain with an M I think. We parked and headed up a trail, only to find that it was just the one that went around the lake. I think we were trying for a more strenuous hike, so we decided to blaze our own trail. With the combination of our concern for Wilson's hiking ability and my guilt at going off the trail after having seen a large billboard admonishing me to "Stay on the Trail." We didn't hike for very long before turning around. The sights were quite lovely of course, the usual mountain scenery. I was trying out a new camera that wasn't digital so you can't all enjoy them just yet. I'll probably develop them and get digital copies made so if they're good you can see them later. Back down the mountain we went and considered stopping for Pizza as planned, but we all ate some power bars before our not so strenous hike and weren't very hungry, so we just headed home. I forget what we did then, Sarah did we go shopping? I think we bought some peaches I'm not sure what else but eventually invited Mike over for some non-existent stakes poker and a Dairy Queen run.
Monday, Sarah had to do her fantasy football draft picks so she showed me around her office and did that while I looked online for a hair salon. Since I couldn't find a place willing to cut my hair we went over to Taste of Colorado and sampled the wares of different booths. The way it works is you buy tickets and then you can redeem them for a "taste" or a full portion depending on how many tickets you want to spend. I tried some pasta and barbeque and corn on the cob. There were also a lot of freebie things that Sarah and I tried out. After we watched an icecream eating contest we got some free icecream and topped it off with a fruit kabob and some kettle korn for dessert. It was a very hot day, and we both got a little sunburned but I was alright with that since seeing the sun feels like a novelty these days. We walked back to Sarah's car and tried to find a salon again with no luck so we went home and made peach cobbler.
Tuesday morning we headed for the airport at the crack of dawn and saw the sun rise over the Denver airport. I still think that place looks more like a group of teepees than the mountains it's trying to imitate. Not much happened on the way home. The bus took forever and it took me nearly as long to go 10 miles as it did to go 1000 miles, but what can you do?
p.s. I wrote this yesterday, but waited to post it since Picassa was being weird and I didn't want to have to upload each picture individually. Picassa is still being strange so I'm just posting it minus a few pictures.
Some mountain with an M I think. We parked and headed up a trail, only to find that it was just the one that went around the lake. I think we were trying for a more strenuous hike, so we decided to blaze our own trail. With the combination of our concern for Wilson's hiking ability and my guilt at going off the trail after having seen a large billboard admonishing me to "Stay on the Trail." We didn't hike for very long before turning around. The sights were quite lovely of course, the usual mountain scenery. I was trying out a new camera that wasn't digital so you can't all enjoy them just yet. I'll probably develop them and get digital copies made so if they're good you can see them later. Back down the mountain we went and considered stopping for Pizza as planned, but we all ate some power bars before our not so strenous hike and weren't very hungry, so we just headed home. I forget what we did then, Sarah did we go shopping? I think we bought some peaches I'm not sure what else but eventually invited Mike over for some non-existent stakes poker and a Dairy Queen run.Monday, Sarah had to do her fantasy football draft picks so she showed me around her office and did that while I looked online for a hair salon. Since I couldn't find a place willing to cut my hair we went over to Taste of Colorado and sampled the wares of different booths. The way it works is you buy tickets and then you can redeem them for a "taste" or a full portion depending on how many tickets you want to spend. I tried some pasta and barbeque and corn on the cob. There were also a lot of freebie things that Sarah and I tried out. After we watched an icecream eating contest we got some free icecream and topped it off with a fruit kabob and some kettle korn for dessert. It was a very hot day, and we both got a little sunburned but I was alright with that since seeing the sun feels like a novelty these days. We walked back to Sarah's car and tried to find a salon again with no luck so we went home and made peach cobbler.
Tuesday morning we headed for the airport at the crack of dawn and saw the sun rise over the Denver airport. I still think that place looks more like a group of teepees than the mountains it's trying to imitate. Not much happened on the way home. The bus took forever and it took me nearly as long to go 10 miles as it did to go 1000 miles, but what can you do?
p.s. I wrote this yesterday, but waited to post it since Picassa was being weird and I didn't want to have to upload each picture individually. Picassa is still being strange so I'm just posting it minus a few pictures.
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