Meant to post earlier but here’s Ryan Newman’s car for 2014 from pit road before the Southern 500
Category: Status
Game of Thrones
I had no idea how good Game of Thrones was until I started watching in the background while getting work done in the evenings (lots of late nights working recently).
I’m finishing the first season tonight. Wow.
Clear My Calendar for December 18-19, 2015
Redeem us from the prequels, Disney…
Star Wars: Episode VII will release in theaters on December 18, 2015.
It has also been confirmed that Star Wars: Episode VII is set about 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and will star a trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces. No further details on casting or plot are available at this time.
via Star Wars: Episode VII Set to Roll Cameras May 2014 | StarWars.com.
The Scene of the Movie Where You Help Me Out
R.I.P. Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Sad news. Amazing actor.
This might sound ridiculous like the scene in the movie where the guy is trying to get ahold of the long lost son you know but this is that scene. this is that scene…see this is the scene of the movie where you help me out.
Getting my Baby New Tires
Schaefer’s Not a Fan
First Lap @TooToughToTame
Awesome.
Dogfooding
After two happy years as a WordPress self-hosted install, I’m moving our 8th grade science class site/home/hub, GriffinScience, to Blogger:
GriffinScience: “Because we’ll be using Blogger as a main platform of interaction with the 8th graders next year due to our school Google accounts making that a no-brainer, I’ve gone ahead and moved GriffinScience from a self-hosted WordPress install to Blogger.”
I don’t think the students will mind or notice much, and it does make a good deal of sense to eat my own dog food if I’m going to encourage students to make use of our school’s Google Apps accounts and use Blogger (or Google Sites) as their digital portfolio’s home (of course I don’t mind if they want to venture out into WordPress or Tumblr or Posterous land as well).
For some reason, this makes me sad in a “but I’m a real geek!” way. It’s not that Blogger isn’t a proper blogging engine or geeky enough site… but I’ve always encouraged folks to dive into code and make their own templates or sidebars. Those are possible in Blogger, but it’s a little too graphical and “easy” in my mind. I need to get over myself, clearly.
Nevertheless, here’s to another few good years of GriffinScience.
Front Page Article on SpaceCam Launch
So incredibly proud of my students…
Science project takes off for Spartanburg Day School students | GoUpstate.com: “Nearly a month of calculated planning and scientific research flew up, up and away Friday afternoon over the Spartanburg Day School athletic fields and into a cloudy sky.”
Go read the whole thing.
Engineering Creativity
So how do we as teachers cultivate and encourage creativity in a human existence that doesn’t require as many gigs of organic memory?
LRB · Jim Holt · Smarter, Happier, More Productive: “It’s not that the web is making us less intelligent; if anything, the evidence suggests it sharpens more cognitive skills than it dulls. It’s not that the web is making us less happy, although there are certainly those who, like Carr, feel enslaved by its rhythms and cheated by the quality of its pleasures. It’s that the web may be an enemy of creativity. Which is why Woody Allen might be wise in avoiding it altogether.”
Fascinating read.