Posted in Techie Stuff on 19 September 2009 | 1 Comment »
So, during a work break (which turned out to be most of the day, to be perfectly honest), I decided to use Audacity (open-source software) to do some multi-track recording of some music…yes, there is a way for me to play multiple instruments at the same time…hee-hee.
Here’s my first production…
Posted in Techie Stuff on 15 June 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Welcome to any new visitors from the ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) conference who may be seeing my blog for the first time!
Ok…so the ASEE camera caught me in the act of dancing at Stubb’s BBQ. Thanks to National Instruments and Freescale for hosting a nice party…here’s hoping I win the drawing for the Kindle or Lego Mindstorm…(hint, hint)
Now a picture of me riding the mechanical bull might have been more surprising to my nuns back in PA, or maybe not…in any case, I’m guessing my spinal surgeon would not have approved of me taking a turn in the saddle, so I resisted the urge to tame the “wild beast.”
Check out the ASEE conference blog at: http://blogs.asee.org/annual2009/
Posted in Catholic, Feminism, People and culture, Techie Stuff, tagged Vatican, women on 10 March 2009 | 4 Comments »
So, as I squeeze a bit of school work between the wash and dry cycles of my laundry, I thought I’d take a short break to share with you Rome’s bit of wisdom commemorating International Women’s Day…
Vatican: Washing Machine Liberated Women – World news | Newser
The Vatican’s newspaper appears to have come out in support of the washing machine as God’s greatest gift to women in the 20th century, Reuters reports. A weekend article in l’Osservatore Romano suggested that the time-saving gadget polls ahead of birth-control and suffrage in liberating the fairer sex. It’s called “The Washing Machine and the Liberation of Women—Put in the Detergent, Close the Lid and Relax.”
I must admit that I wouldn’t want to go back to the days our elder sisters describe…standing over vats of scalding water, risking fingers and hands operating huge mangles. However, I can’t seem to put the washing machine over the right to vote or to work outside the home as the most significant contribution to the liberation of women.
I don’t know about you, but my experience with time and labor saving technologies is that once I begin to reap the benefits of these technologies, the bar is raised and I am expected to add additional work to my already full plate. Is that your experience as well?
Posted in Nun, Outdoor and nature, Techie Stuff on 6 March 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t know…it’s just my caption for the picture (see below) I snapped from the back yard of one of our sisters who lives in Florida. Sr. C. has been in Florida for many years, since before I entered the Baden CSJs, so we hadn’t really met properly. But since she lives only 2 hours from the friends I’m visiting, I went down to Cooper City for an overnight to visit and to help her with some computer problems. Fortunately, I was able to help her get her computer running smoothly (running Windows XP with 256MB of RAM is a good way to go crazy….upgrading to 1GB was like giving her a new machine!)
Where's the party?
Posted in Techie Stuff on 16 February 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I know they delayed the date for the transition from analog broadcast TV to digital, but I couldn’t help getting a few giggles out of this video clip. Note that there are plenty of younger technophobes out there, so you may know of people this reminds you of.I do need a laugh, and hope this brings a smile to your face.
Posted in People and culture, Random thoughts, Techie Stuff on 12 February 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been noticing for several weeks now that the post that has been getting the most hits on this site is the one I wrote last June about the Furry Convention in Pittsburgh. I can’t for the life of me figure out why that somewhat frivolous post has generated so much traffic on this blog. Anyone care to offer an explanation? Real or fake…we can just have fun with this one…
Posted in Spirituality, Techie Stuff on 31 January 2009 | 3 Comments »
(or, a bunch of geeky profs who think they can sing, shout and clap)
I’ve been waiting to blog about this for a few weeks, and the sound clip that accompanies this post is finally available. One of the presenters at a entrepreneurship education conference I recently attended composes and records music. John Tanner of Tanner-Monagle, Inc. brought his “studio” along to the hotel and did a participative session in which we actually laid down several rhythm tracks, and a vocal track. (He also added piano, drum, bass, and some other vocal effects to liven it up.)
So, without further ado, here’s the wolfpack theme song:
The composition was based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling:
Now this is the law of the jungle -
As old and as true as the sky;
And the wolf that keep it may prosper,
But the wolf that shall break it may die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk,
The law runneth forward and back -
And the strength of the pack is the wolf
And the strength of the wolf is the pack.
-Rudyard Kipling
If you have not guessed, it is all about teamwork and mutuality. Good message not just for engineering profs but for all of us global citizens…
Posted in Catholic, People and culture, Techie Stuff on 29 January 2009 | Leave a Comment »
ZENIT – Benedict XVI’s Message for Media Day
Check out the above link to Pope Benedict XVI’s message for World Communications Day (January 24.) The title of the message is: “New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship.” It’s good to see that he is knowledgeable about the ways people are using these technologies. Proud to be a blogger and Facebook citizen today!
Posted in Techie Stuff on 10 January 2009 | 1 Comment »
So, if you’ve been following my Twitterings or Facebook page, you know that I had a bit of a rough time trying to do one of my classes online while I’m here in Phoenix for a meeting. I always seem to have misadventures that cause me to run around like crazy and get rather frustrated…
Anyway I arrived here at the hotel Weds. afternoon with plans to do one class at 9:00 Thursday night and the other at 6:00 Friday morning. I got all unpacked and hooked up my computer to the DSL connection…dead! After some fussing around with Tech Support, and having a technician come and swap out the modem, there still was not a resolution. So off I went to my meeting, expecting that things would be ok when I returned to my room.
Nope…so I had the hotel move me to a different room, and I was all set, or so I thought, as I began to get re-settled after 11 pm.. The connection wasn’t exceptionally fast, but acceptable… Off I went Thursday morning to the meeting and returned before 8:00, plenty of time before the 9:00 class. So I got the computer turned on and put my feet up to relax for a while.
At 9, I entered the classroom and everything came to a screeching halt…my connection failed miserably, and I had not even taken note of the phone call-in number. I finally managed to get that phone # and called in to let the students know I was relocating to the hotel lobby to use the wireless network there. (Good thing I had an old phone card with 15 minutes left on it, as I left my cell phone back in Detroit, and a newer 800-minute card had expired – always read the small print!)
I ducked in the business center for a quieter place than the open lobby, and guess what…no connection! I finally had to switch to one of the hotel computers, but couldn’t use the full functionality of the Wimba Classroom environment, including audio (my phone card didn’t have enough minutes to get through class…frustrating to say the least )….but we muddled through. And I even stayed up an extra hour re-doing a summary of class to post online for the students - don’t you know, the connection was fine when I returned to my room!!
Fortunately, everything worked beautifully Friday morning. I think the students appreciated my efforts to meet them, even though they might have preferred to just cancel class altogether.
The take-away from this little story…technology is great until you really have to depend on it. Always have a Plan B!!
Next time…some pics from here and a brief side trip to Sedona.
Posted in Techie Stuff on 19 December 2008 | 2 Comments »
You might expect that after such a long hiatus from this blog that I’d have something profoundly spiritual to write about…
…..well, you’d be wrong….I’ve had quite an “interesting” day, so I’m going to use my little soap box here for a bit of a rant session. Perhaps the thing that might be of interest to you as my readers is that we religious do have very human responses to frustration.
Anyway, in just a few hours, a major snow storm is supposed to hit here in Michigan…6-10 inches before the end of tomorrow (Fri.) I had been thinking, “so what”, because my roommate recently got her snow blower repaired after two winters of us having to shovel snow.
When I got up this morning, I found a note from her asking me to look in a couple of places for the key to the machine…seems in the 2 years it has been broken, she has lost track of where she put the key…
I had no luck, and I searched some other places in addition to those she suggested…by then, I was running late for my meeting at work, and rushed off. After the meeting, I tried to find a way to get a replacement key before the snow hit…the closest place I could find was Flint, which is about 50 miles away.
I could not get through by phone to this Sears Parts & Service Center, so I called the 800 number to see what I could do. The operator confirmed that the keys were available at the Part Center and took my order and payment. I asked what time they closed, because if they closed at 5, I would have had to ask a friend who lives closer to Flint to pick up the keys, but the sales person checked and told me they were open until 7:00. No problem, I thought…my not insignificant time spent searching for the missing key and locating a replacement was about to pay off, or so I thought…
Fighting rush hour traffic, I made it to the Flint facility at 6:20, only to find that they had closed at 5:00. I was so frustrated I was about ready to scream! All that time and gas spent, and we still have to shovel tomorrow.
I called back the 800 number to complain and to make arrangements to have them change the order to allow me to pick it up at a closer location, since I wasn’t going to drive that far again for such a small purchase. The sales person I talked to this time basically said, “tough luck.” There was no way he could change or cancel the purchase, that I’d have to call the service center directly…aaagh….but if they don’t answer the phone, how can I call them…that’s why I called the 800 number to begin with… Strange that I placed the order through the 800 number, but they are not the ones who can cancel or modify it…
So, is this the end of the story? Not yet! After I broke the news to M. about our shoveling date tomorrow, I got to thinking about going to work and getting a toggle switch and soldering iron to go in and replace the ignition switch with the toggle so as to be able to turn it on and off without a key. Since I had no idea how long and how hard it was going to be to get to the switch connections…I opted to act on some new info from my roommate. Turns out she has a friend with a Craftsman snow blower…some web research revealed that the 2 models take the same key…home free, I thought!! Just borrow that sucker and take it to Meijer’s to get a copy so we have it for the next day.
Not so…the first Meijer’s I went to…the key shop was closed…so off I went to the next closest….it’s 10pm by now…I showed the key to the woman at the service counter….they don’t have the ability to make these strange keys…
So I used this disappointing turn of events to justify buying some Dove bars. $3.50 for 4 Dove bars was cheaper than buying a whole bag of popsicle sticks from the crafts department, And of course, I would have to eat a Dove bar before I could carve a key of the proper shape from that stick.
M. does not want to chance using a wooden stick in the ignition switch for fear it could break off, so we are down to trying to use a screwdriver to turn it on, or see if Ace hardware has a key or anything we can use to start and turn off the machine, or shovel.
This has not been nearly as funny as it has been frustrating, but I’m sure it will be a funny story that endures once I get my patience back…it’s now one of many key stories that will become part of my repertoire.
Well, my eyelids are drooping, so I need to sign off…more later…
But that’s not the end of the story…
