hypermiling - one way to save

In theory, hypermiling means besting any car's Environmental Protection Agency fuel efficiency estimates for hybrids, sport utility vehicles and everything in between.

Behind the wheel, it's a different approach to driving: going at or below the speed limit; accelerating slower; coasting more and using the brakes less (when safe); timing red lights to idle as little as possible.

The techniques sound simple enough - though there are more advanced ones, such as shifting into neutral and turning the car off while coasting down a hill, and then restarting - but stopping yourself from pressing the accelerator out of habit is easier said than done.

The concept also predates the current spike in gasoline prices. But judging by online discussion boards and blogs, there seem to be lots of new, interested practitioners, looking to squeeze as many miles per gallon as possible.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.

For more details visit Hypermiling.com

Deja Brew Bottling night

I missed the brew night but couldn't miss the bottling night. That is when you get to take home the goods! The trunk was filled with a few variety cases so I'll be set for most of the summer with this selection:

Off Kilter Scotch:

Full-bodied & malty, a Scottish style strong ale.

Honey Summer Ale:

A slightly sweet, honey kissed summer ale by Eric

Killer Honey Ale:

A smooth red ale, light hop palate and good malty character

Oktoberfest Beir:

A slight fruity accent with a deep gold color

The Rock:

A Brewery in Latrobe, makes something similar to this

Red Head Ale:

A lighter red, it is well rounded and ends softly.

If you are in the Shrewsbury, MA area you should check out Deja Brew. Visit their web site here

My prior visits (some with pictures) are recorded here.

A little work with a little refreshment is a good thing!

East of Shirley - New CD

Last October Dolores and I got to hear East of Shirley perform in Chelmsford, well they just released their first CD, A Thousand Sarajevos.

Good quality music! Well worth listening to.

Visit their MySpace page for samples here

Visit their website here

Their next local gig will be back at the Java Room in Chelmsford on August 23rd.

Rainbow Red: stand out in chaos

Rainbow_Red_stand out in chaos, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Do you thrive on chaos?

Do you need peace and quiet?

Amy Palko has a rainbow challenge underway for those looking to practice their photographer's eye. This is one in a series of photos I created as part of the challenge.

I am working on purple. I don't have too many of them yet.

Where do you find purple?

Rapid Fire Learning

June has come and is almost gone; time again for Rapid Fire Learning. Dwayne Melanson kicks off the monthly look back at what the learning opportunities were with a great posting about a wild west horseback ride that takes you back to the days of cowboys.

I was not on a horse recently but the month seemed to have galloped by so here we go with the recap:

1 - "duty, honor, country"
There was a Baslocks reunion at the beginning of the month as we got together to celebrate Nathan's graduation from West Point.

2 - You don't need to go far to feel as if you have left this country.
This was the experience as the soccer double header took place in Foxboro's Gillette Stadium. The second game between Brazil and Venezuela took us to another world.

3 - "Knowledge synthesis: This, in fact, is the skill of the future. With search technologies bringing us more information than we can possibly assimilate into productive action, we are more in need of the ability to merge concepts into a new, comprehensive understanding."
You can read the full posting here. Isn't this what the Joyful Jubilant Learning group is all about?

4 - A new set of priorities has been lined up and a new podcast introduced.
Some of my time spent on Franklin Matters will be shifted to return to Jerry's Story. The details can be found here.

5 - A summary of life long learning culminated in the posting early this month announcing the male members of my honorary "board of directors". The female members will be announced at an appropriate time in the future.

What did you learn in June?

PodCamp Boston 3 - July 19-20

Good links to get you started with PodCamp Boston 3:

Confusing Message?

Confusing Message?, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Are you creating some confusion?

Do you have too many signs up?

What is your message?

Now available on a mobile phone

Trying it out to see how it goes. As this service is "free", they do put in sponsored links at the beginning and end of the top 10 posts viewable on the mobile phone.

That may be the straw that breaks this camels back. I have avoided all ad requests thus far.

So this may be a short trial. If you do want to check Steve's 2 Cents on your phone go to this link

All feedback is welcomed!

Franklin Matters now has a podcast

The podcast for Franklin Matters is now available via iTunes. There is a box on the right column of the Franklin Matters page so you can subscribe and listen via your iPod or other MP3 player.

I have created a group in Facebook: "I Believe Franklin (MA) Matters". For those who use Facebook, this will provide an opportunity to spread the word.

Rainbow challege

I find Amy Palko's rainbow challenge a good thing to do to reinforce looking for things. Once I find them, I try to capture their essence from a respectful point of view. I took a good bike ride today and spent about two hours riding around Franklin, stopping here and there for a photo.

One realization, not new, just reinforced, today is that some colors are more likely found together; like yellow and green, or blue and green.

Have you noticed this?

What colors do you see together?

The best of the photos has been posted to my Flickr group for the rainbow challenge. They can be found here.

I have 15 red, 9 yellow, 16 green, and 18 blue. I need to work on purple.

If you were to pick one of each which ones would you pick?

Rainbow: Red - fire extinguisher

Rainbow: Red - fire extinguisher, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Amy Palko has a rainbow challenge underway for those looking to practice their photographer's eye.

I took a series of photos around the house looking for Red. It was a good exercise to find what we did have that fit the bill. Part of the goodness was to also figure out how to depict the object/item in a good way to show the redness.

What red items can you find around your house? your office? your town? where ever you see red?

Morning sunshine - redux

Dipping into the archives from 2 years ago, you can view this morning scene

What is it like for your morning today?

Big picture milestone

I had recognized last week that I had achieved a milestone here at Steve's 2 Cents with my 2,000 posting. I went back to check across my blogs to see what the total is since September 2004 when this all officially started:

Blog	Posts	Status
Steve's 2 Cents	2007	Active
Franklin Matters	782	Active
Passion 4 Good Customer Experience	626	Hibernating
Hitchhiker's Guide to Blogosphere	493	Hibernating
Passionate Runner	490	Hibernating
Tertiary Education	328	Hibernating
quiet poet	202	Active
Jerry's Story	81	Active
	5009

This excludes posts on 100 Bloggers, Team Synergy, and Joyful Jubilant Learners.

Note: The total above for The Hitchhiker's Guide is an estimate of my own posts and less than the total for the blog itself. This was a joint effort with others involved over time.

I guess I have been busy :-)

There is plenty in the archives if you want to go looking. The links to each of the blogs can be found along the left column in either the active or inactive categories.

Homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, originally uploaded by shersteve.

One benefit of having the oldest daughter comie home after graduating from college is for me to come home from work and find a fresh homemade strawberry rhubarb pie. With rhubarb from our own backyard.

Yummy!

Thanks, Allison!


PS - She needs some practice. As my father used to say, "Every night for a week should be good":. :-)

Honorary Board of Directors

This was originally posted at Joyful Jubilant Learning
-----------------------

In this month’s celebration of men I would like to acknowledge the male members of my inspirational and honorary Board of Directors. Yes, sometime I’ll reveal the female members. It is only fair to provide equal attention. This time is for the men. If there are modern day heroes, these are ones that have worked for me.

The first, without question, is my father, Gerald Sherlock. Recording and sharing his life story is one of my projects. It has been on the back burner while Franklin Matters took some priority but time will be allocated to swing back to Jerry’s Story. I have recordings to edit and many pieces of the story to follow upon. Jerry has a few more years to talk about as we are just getting into the 1950’s when I came along into his and mother’s life.

Representing the athletic endeavors I attempt from time to time:

Bill Bradley The former Senator from NJ, the former forward for the NY Knicks. I read with great interest his story as told in John McPhee’s book “A sense of where you are”. The tips and tricks that Bill used drove my basketball preparations.

Edwin Moses between 1977 and 1987, he won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races) and set the world record in his event four times. Edwin was superbly prepared for each race. He also advanced the technique in the intermediate hurdles becoming the first man to stride between in only 13 steps. I attempted the hurdles but was no where near as successful as he was. None the less, he was a great inspiration.

Representing the poetic writing I attempt:

Robert Bly I first saw Robert when I was a student at Assumption College. My work study job assignment was to video tape the lecture series on campus. I’ll never forget his reading when he tried on his “death mother” mask to read his poem, “Counting Small Bone Bodies”. The horror of war was made more horrible with his remarkable performance.

Billy Collins He created the paradelle as a parody and inspired me to create sherku. You can read more about Billy’s influence on the origin of sherku here. I had the opportunity to meet Billy a couple of times at the Dodge Poetry Festival, once getting an autograph of his for an important person.

Representing business inspirations:

Kirk Weisler – I encountered Kirk at a Help Desk Institute conference. I was attending a full day session on metrics and reporting. His full day session was next door and they were having way-too-much-fun. I needed to find out more about who that was. I didn’t need to wait too long. He was part of the conference welcome session and did a skit mimicking Forest Gump. I juggled my prepared schedule to attend one of his track sessions and have been an admiring follower since. His Thought for the Day (T4D) is well worth the daily dose of an email.

Mark Hurst – One of the more interesting folks I found early on in my blogging days. I found his newsletter and subscribed learning all about “good experience”. This resonated well with me as I had been striving for that in my own work. I managed to attend his conference, Good Experience Live in 2005 and have also managed to attend each one since then.

Representing new media aspirations:

Chris Brogan & Christopher S Penn – In social media, Chris and his good buddy, Christopher S Penn, have few equals. Chris had let Rosa Say know about the first PodCamp Boston. Rosa posted the notice on Talking Story where I found it. Now, for an unconference, a free conference on podcasting, to be held here in Boston… well there was no chance I was not going to be there. I signed up on the wiki, and volunteered to work at the registration desk with Sooz. I met Chris there, attended his session and have been helping with PodCamp Boston since then. Christopher S Penn, is a co-founder of the PodCamp movement. From that first weekend, the PodCamp movement has continued to grow and evolve to be held around the world. If you wanted, you could attend a couple of events a month. Through Chris and Chris, I have been exposed to new technology and how it can be applied. I have been exposed to so many people doing really good work that I don’t believe I could have accomplished as much alone. In fact, much of the technology I share with this JJL Community comes from Chris and Chris either directly or indirectly via the connections they enabled.

Representing the teacher training education I received during my college days:

Mike O'Shea, who had a passion for Irish literature and theater
Joe O'Brien, who has a passion for teaching and process
Robert Cormier, who had a passion for running and exploring limits

These teachers were all associated with Assumption College, my alma mater. They have moved on from this world but I am sure they are continuing to inspire from where they are watching over us.

I feel honored to have been able to work with and learn from these individuals; most directly, some indirectly. I can return the honor in two ways: one, with this public acknowledgment of their place on the honorary Board of Directors; two, with my own daily performance. If I do what I need to do, I should be able to reflect something of them in all that I do.

Do you have a "Board of Directors"? Who would be on it?

Another Steve Sherlock in the news

The vanity feed turned up a news item on another Steve Sherlock, this time from Clarksville, Tennessee:

In what became a marathon of persistence, a termination appeal hearing was conducted at the Clarksville Human Resource Department’s meeting room. The hearing was for Clarksville Fire Dept. Engineer Steve Sherlock in his quest to continue his service with the city’s fire department.

The hearing panel consisted of City Councilman Geno Grubbs, Sharon Hurst [CPD employee], and City Councilman Richard Swift. The hearing was conducted under a rotating police presence.

For over seven hours, the career of CFD engineer Steve Sherlock’s future with the fire department was up for review. During the tedious ordeal, testimony was given that reflected on past city government policies and practices which affected the ability and practice of city employees doing business with the city.

After reading the full article, it seems like he was being set up and the decision to not proceed with the termination is a good choice.

New Podcast available

I have created a new podcast and the first posting in the series is now available at Franklin Matters.

In my ongoing evolution as a blogger and media maker, I have created this podcast to explore the format for what matters in Franklin, MA. This continues my public service to my fellow Franklin citizens and voters. It should allow for me to also save some time. The amount of time it took to create the segments of each of the Town Council, School Committee and other meetings I recorded was not justified by the amount of listeners and readers that activity generated.

I will still attend as many meetings as possible. I will still record them where possible. What I will do now is to incorporate the key segments into the podcast rather than post the meeting in its entirety.

The reduction in time spent should allow me to resume my other podcast project recording my father's life history, Jerry's Story.

For those interested in Franklin Matters, if you are not already subscribed, I would encourage you to do so.

For those interested in Jerry's Story, if you are not already subscribed, I would encourage you to do so. More episodes have already been recorded and just need editing to get them published. With the "freed up time" now available, you should see the continuation of Jerry's Story soon.

If you have not subscribed to Steve's 2 Cents, I would encourage you to do so. This simple and free action will enable to you continue with me along this journey through the web 2.0 and social media explorations of my life.

MBTA Commuter Rail alert for this weekend

Saturday and Sunday June 14th and 15th

All Providence commuter rail trains will operate on Track 2 between Canton Junction and Mansfield.

Ruggles commuter rail station will be closed, to all commuter rail traffic; customers are advised to use the Orange line from Back Bay to Ruggles throughout this weekend with service returning to normal Monday, June 15th Saturday, June 14th and continuing through Tuesday, June 17th

Hyde Park Station will be closed to all commuter rail traffic. During this time all trains scheduled to stop at Hyde Park will make a special stop at Readville.

Saturday and Sunday - The trains will depart Readville at the scheduled Hyde Park departure time.

Monday and Tuesday - The trains will depart Readville two (2) minutes earlier that the scheduled Hyde Park departure time.

Customers should travel on the #32 MBTA bus from Hyde Park Avenue to Readville or to Forest Hills station where they can also pick up the Orange Line, to and from Boston.

Trains will depart South Station and the normal schedule departure time throughout this disruption.


Expected Delays

Saturday, June 14th passengers for all Needham, Franklin and Providence Line trains should expect delays of 10 to 15 minutes due to the various track work projects.

Sunday, June 15th Franklin and Providence Line passengers can expect delays of 10 to 15 minutes.


For the week of Monday, June 16th through Friday, June 20th

Passengers traveling on the Franklin, Stoughton and Providence Lines should expect residual delays of up to 15 minutes due to this project.

We apologize to the regular riders of these trains for any inconvenience this may cause.

Commuter rail service information is available on the MBTA website at www.mbta.com, or by calling the MBTA Customer Support Services Center at 617-222-3200.

Milestone - 2000 posts

The 5 for Friday post was a milestone, my 2000th post since September 2004.

Thank you all for coming by to read and comment, that keeps the energy flowing.




Updated: yes, if you saw 5000 that was a typo, my eyes weren't sufficiently open to catch that error. :-)

5 for Friday

5 for Friday, lets catch up on some good ones I found recently:

1 - some personal financial advice:

If I could only share one piece of personal finance advice to grads or to just about anyone, it would be this:

Only borrow money to pay for things that increase in value.

It's a short list: your business, your house and your education, mostly. Stocks if you're smarter than me. That's pretty much it.

From Seth Godin, read the full posting here.

2 - a new word, busker:

My favorite busker this year was a very young woman - maybe 12. Long blond hair in a pony-tail. An unspectacular costume - black pants and beige sweater. She unfolded a small silver performance pad, placed a huge pink ball in the middle, and dropped a hula hoop over that. Then she took a fiddle out of its case, and tuned it.

And then - quicker than I can describe - she somehow was balanced atop the ball - rolling it forward and back - while keeping the hula hoop going - moving it up and down her body - while playing a lively tune on her fiddle and singing. Amazing!

From Robert Fulgham, read the full posting here

3 - some advice on strong passwords

Google engineer HongHai Shen wrote a blog post about password security on Wednesday, acknowledging that fanatical devotion to strong passwords -- generating a random eight character string every two or three months -- probably isn't necessary for everyone. But he still believes passwords should be chosen with care. "Whether it's for your Google account, your banking center, or your favorite store, choosing a good password and keeping it safe can go a long way toward protecting your information online," he wrote in his blog post.

From InformationWeek Daily, read the full article here.

4 - A good idea to help exercise

Well, not exactly what you might think. Elderexercise, is an idea that Claude of Blogging in Paris and I are trying out with a small group. Some of us need a little more than good intentions to exercise on a regular basis.

It's simple enough. On a closed blog, each participant identifies goals--lose five pounds within the next couple of months or use a pedometer to keep track of walking.

From A Little Red Hen, read her full posting here

5 - an idea to recycle a stadium?

The Guardian reports on an emerging scheme to make London's stadium for the 2012 Olympic games a portable affair. Post-Olympics, they would deconstruct it, and send it to the next Olympic city host (perhaps Chicago). Reduce, reuse, recycle, indeed.

Read the full article from the Artful Manager here

Enjoy your Friday!

"the willfully unimaginative see more monsters"

JK Rowling's commencement address at Harvard is making the rounds and with good reason. If you have not stopped to spend the twenty minutes viewing it, please mark this link and when time permits, do so.

My favorite quote from her talk:

"I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing a outright evil act ourselves, we collude with it through our own apathy."

It is well worth your time!

override failure reasons

my 2 cents on the recent failure of the Franklin override can be found here. A sad situation. One I believe some voters in Franklin will come to regret having stayed away from the poll to vote on.

System broken?

from David Warlick at 2 Cents Worth comes this tidbit:

Update: I think that more to the point is that my state, North Carolina, needs 10,000 new teachers every year, and all of our schools of education graduate on 3,500. According to a May 2002 Raleigh News & Observer story, only 2,200 of those teachers enter the classroom.¹ We can’t afford to send teachers out ill-prepared. Again, no blame to a system that’s worked for years. The blame goes to those who remain satisfied with a system that’s worked for years. We need to hack that system.

Read the full posting here.

Angel Band new release

Listened to Brad Paul on WGHB-97 FM during the afternoon Saturday while I was out and about doing errands via the car. He was talking with David Bromberg and Nancy Josephson. Nancy sings with Jen Schonwald and Kathleen Weber as Angel Band. Great harmonies!

David and a few good friends serve as the "chum" to back up the ladies. A nice combination.

I heard them and went to iTunes to buy their new release. Not often I do that!

If you are interested in some good folk harmonies, you should give a listen to Angel Band.

A sad day for Franklin

The voters have spoken and it is what it is.

Teaching for the Future - Dr Scott McLeod interview

Dave LaMorte who does a good podcast called Teaching for the Future has a recent episode with Dr. Scott McLeod whose work has been referenced here previously.

Dave and Scott discuss a posting that Scott made about some YouTube videos showing disturbing teacher-student interactions in the classroom that was captured by student cell phones.

They thoughtfully explore multiple aspects of this story, amongst them:

• Once a video is posted of one of these incidents, what should you do?
• What do you do to help avert these kinds of incidents?
• Should cell phones be allowed in the classroom?

Well worth a listen. Click through to Scott's site to review his original posting.

With PodCamp Boston 3 on the horizon, this is the kind of stuff you can find amongst the podcampers. Dave and I worked together on the Welcome Desk for PodCamp Boston.

Are you going to be at PodCamp Boston 3?

It is a good reason to come to Boston in July!

Knowledge networks

I am on the ad-hoc Mentor Steering committee at work. I had the opportunity to met with others of like interest around mentoring on my recent Denver trip and picked up this link to three key skills for survival today and forward.

• Knowledge synthesis: This, in fact, is the skill of the future. With search technologies bringing us more information than we can possibly assimilate into productive action, we are more in need of the ability to merge concepts into a new, comprehensive understanding.

• On-demand learning: This is pivotal to fulfilling the knowledge-sharing needs of today’s top executives. To meet the demand, successors require highly tuned skills in cultivating multiple developmental relationships concurrently, and they need the freedom to access mentor resources.

• Global reach: This is essential for commanding mastery of top enterprises. The Web can bring the world to our desktops, yet many people still rely solely on temporary cross-cultural assignments to build this awareness. It is possible for successors to have diverse cross-cultural relationships without leaving their offices.

The full context for these three bullets can be found here.

How do these talk to you? Do you agree or disagree?

Curious to know. Drop me a line to explore further.

Cell Phone Study

WASHINGTON - Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.

The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States.

It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.

The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.

Read the full story here

This story caught my eye for a couple of reasons. One my daughter attends Northeastern. Two the privacy concerns are suspected and that is what concerns me.

There seems to be an implied distrust of these researchers. Can't some folks just naturally do what is right?Dealing with the data in an aggregate format should be fine.

Room for improvement on both sides. One; on the researchers to be more explicit about the steps they took to cut off the conspiracy theorists. Two; on the writers part to just present the data without creating hysteria.

West Point Graduation 5/31/08

One of our good family friends, Nathan Bastian, graduated with honors from the US Military Academy at West Point, NY on May 31, 2008. It was an honor for us to participate in this special event. The following video attempts to capture some of the flavor of the pomp and circumstances for this event.



To Doug, Cathy, Jennifer, Brian and the remainder of the Bastian family, you have every good reason to be proud. Nate will be a good officer in the US Army.

Congratulations, Nate!

Coworking in Austin

Good article on coworking in Austin, TX.

... although the contractor/subcontractor relationship has been around for a while, technological developments are making it really take off: mobile phones, laptops, and high-speed internet connections in particular.

Certain trades, such as graphic design, web design, and marketing, are particularly amenable to this sort of work organization. These trades' work is largely comprised of one-off engagements and mediated largely through digital technologies. So we're seeing a lot of people who work when they like, where they like, especially as contractors or freelancers.

Read the full posting here.

Do you know anyone coworking?

Gillette Stadium transforms magically

Gillette Stadium transforms magically, originally uploaded by shersteve.

This photo mosaic attempts to convey some of what the transformation felt like on Friday night at Gillette Stadium. The New England Revolution played the first game of a double header. They beat FC Dallas 2-1 in the first game which was decently attended, approx 11,000 or so.

It was hard to calculate as the stadium from the second half of the Rev's game until 9:00 PM continued to get filled with a steady flow of fans mostly wearing the gold and green of Brazil.

Final attendence was reported at 54,000 plus.

The place was rocking!

This YouTube clip captures some of that rocking feeling!

This YouTube clip captures the entrance of the Brazilian and Venezuelan national teams.

After Venezuela jumped to a 2-0 lead, the place seemed to quite down somewhat. The Brazilian team got booed as they headed to the locker room at the half. They made a spirited effort to comeback during the second half but the scored remained 2-0.

We were fortunate to see all five goals for the evening scored in front of us. The Revs scored twice in the first half and surrendered a late goal to FC Dallas as that game finished 2-1. Both Venezuelan goals were in front of us. The first was an officiating mistake. The line judge was out of position to call an offside on Venezuela and the player ended up one-on-one with the goalie. The second Venezuelan goal was a good move on their part assisted by a break down on the Brazilian defense.

My seat neighbor, a Brazilian native now living in Clinton, MA was happy to have such a community feeling in the stadium. He was a little upset that his team did not play good defence like the Boston Celtics.

What would Ben do?

What would Ben do? Yes, that Ben.
Benjamin Franklin, for whom this town is named.

Considering that he gave us books instead of a bell because sense is better than sound, I expect he would vote for the override. Ben did say:

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

Approximately $250/year is what it would cost Franklin to pass the override to save 47 school department positions (45 teachers, 2 administrators).

$5 a week.

Less than a dollar a day.

It pays "the best interest"!

---------------

For more information, check out the override at a glance here, my summary from last year (which oddly except for the days and dollar amount still applies logically to today) and consider cruising amongst all that has been written on the override here.

Cast an informed vote on June 10th!

Dogwood bloom, the weight of water

Dogwood bloom, the weight of water, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Following the inspiration of Amy Palko's posting, I took a few minutes between activities to take a breather. The ground was too wet to sit on. No time to grab a chair or blanket. Time enough to grab the camera.

The backyard is fully green now with blooming June glory. The trees have filled in shutting off the views into the neighbors yards and in to the new development encroaching into our previously empty back space.

The dogwood caught my eye weighed down with the rain. A gentle but persistent rain today. It will be heavier they say before it ends. For now, a gentle mist even as I come out into the yard. My shoes getting wet. They will need to get wiped before returning into the house or I will hear of it.

The dogwood weighed down with water. Water droplets so small. So clear. How can they weigh so much to bend the tree and branches down?

Water the fluid of life. The fluid of cleansing, of renewal, of baptism.


Note: the sherku that resulted from this can be found here

Creating Lifelong Learners - Mathew Needleman

Found via Dr Scott McLeod a wonderful resource focused on Creating Lifelong Learners!

The listing of recent posts should provide something for you to dig into:

• Computers: They’re Not Just for Games Anymore
• Smaller Classes/Greater Achievement?
• Comprehension Strategies: Part Two Where Are We Going Wrong?
• Comprehension Strategies: Part One Why?
• Google Literacy Project Page

I explored the Google Literacy Project Page for quite sometime.

Enjoy!

Link love from the Boston Globe

Thanks to the Boston Globe for adding this site to the listing of local blogs. A little confirmation of the selection I made for my name tag when I first went to PodCamp Boston. While others were referencing their podcast or vlog, I wrote that I was a "local blogger".

And if you are coming here from the Boston Globe link, I hope you find something useful and informative. If you do not, please let me know.

South Station - New info signs

South Station - New info signs, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Coincidence?

The new signs fond previously were over the intervening days in various stages of installation until finally last Thursday they were actually running test patterns. I was running for the train and was without my camera last week.

Yesterday there were tests being conducted. It sounds like the announcements will be automated and timed to deliver the text on the sign as the trains are called.

Today, I catch up to Amy Palko's request for a time capsule picture, low and behold the signs were operational. My camera was ready this time.

Coincidence? No, destiny!

PodCamp Boston 3 - July 19-20

Directions and transportation information (parking or T) has now been updated on the PodCamp Boston 3 web site.

I hope to see you there!

Home sweet home

The hectic travel (both business and personal) schedule experienced over the past 6 weeks is not complete. It was all good and full of wonderful learning. Much writing to catch up on now.

For those interested in the Franklin Override coming up June 10th, the audio segments for the information session held on 5/28/08 are now available. Posting these segments pushed Franklin Matters over 700 posts since it began in November 2007. So if you thought I have not been writing much here, that may be a bit of the reason why.

The West Point graduation this weekend saw the Baslocks get together to congratulate Nathan on his great accomplishment. Second Lieutenant Bastien is now off for 60 days of vacation time before heading to work on a Fulbright Scholarship in the Netherlands in September. What an honor it was to witness this graduation! Pictures and some video (with a little luck) will be coming up this week.