Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Summer 2010 update

I am sitting in a computer lab at the state (soon-to-be university) college, co-teaching the summer course that I've taught for a couple of years. One of the features of the class is we teach teachers to make webpages. In years past, we've taught them how to do Netscape Composer. But we decided "screw that old school nonsense!" and now we're teaching them how to use Blogger not just as a blogging tool but as a web page too.

Which got me to thinking.

I have been remiss in updating the official (a)musings journal because it has just become too much work. As much as I do love Dreamweaver, and designing graphics, and layouts and whatnot.... it has become too much.

Also, the stupid company that used to do my comments changed their format and I can't get it to run on my journal. The web is progressing beyond what I'm comfortable doing by hand.

And spending 25 bucks a month to host thousands of entries when I can do it for free up in here.... it's a no brainer.

So I'm transitioning all my old archives over here, and will begin writing more regularly here. I am using the post options feature here to date stamp all the old entries correctly. Some will be slightly edited so that discussions I have with myself about layout changes and colors and stuff will just go away. So the ebb and flow of entries will still be what it was over the last 9 years.

The other journal will go away, eventually. So update your bookmarks. I will keep my domain and host my portfolio there, but that is about it.







The last time I wrote was when Jess graduated from high school. Two months gone. A lot has happened and not a lot has happened.



Shakespeare started for Geoff, and he had a spectacularly fun time this year. I was worried about him going into the program with all female directors because he usually has "issues" with being told what to do by women.



But his attitude going into the program was fantastic, and in checking in each day with the directors all I got was great feedback about how funny and smart and entertaining he was. I couldn't believe it was the same boy as last year. He loved the play (Two Gentlemen of Verona) and had a very funny part that suited him wonderfully. My inlaws and my mom came up to see him in the play and a good time was had by all. Here's a photo of Geoff as Thurio, with the lady Sylvia beside him. He is in love with her, but she loves Valentine... and Proteus also loves her and chaos ensues. Funny chaos. Geoff was fantastically great. The first night he did a perfect deep voice and the second night he insisted

Othello started, and my inlaws got to see that too. This year I'm tour coordinating again, which brings me incredible joy because otherwise I would have literally nothing to do with my life other than apply for jobs, do laundry, nag Jessica to do the dishes. And we all know how damn exciting that is.

The show is amazing, I think they've outdone themselves in awesomeness with this presentation. If you live north of Boston, do go see it? Check the website. You should know where it is by now, and if you do not, you can leave a comment here and I'll respond.

So I'm here teaching this class now. When I agreed to it I didn't know it would be Shakespeare Tour Week, so my mind and heart are kind of thinking about the kids today. They are in north andover, and hopefully right this minute are running a workshop with kids at the library where they're playing. I wish I was there to see it.

But making money is good too. I'm happy to get paid. And I love this -- teaching people how to use powerpoint and blogger is a lot more fun than... well, laundry, dishes and applying for jobs.

Well -- this has taken 2 hours to write. I'll post it and get back to class.