Daily Work: Update, Upkeep (fortunately not upchuck)

It’s Groundhog Day, which means I am to regale my brother-in-law with “I got you babe.” We have no excuse for this tradition really.

I had my update with Sharon, and went over my list of things I need to do and whatever I had questions about. It’s my first update since January 6 because of various things that kept both of us from being in the office at the same time during my scheduled update this last month.

Spent the rest of the day doing various odds ‘n’ ends, mostly upkeep and maintenance. Updated the virus checker on the server. I’m considering buying something else for it. This version just isn’t updating automatically for me in the way that I’d like. Did editing work on a 6-8 lesson on science and science fiction. We got a first draft of an interactive that we’re designing in house. It will let students make book covers and dust jackets. I hope to have it live by the end of the month, but we’re doing testing for now.

I am going to be nudged about the book manuscript again soon. At least that’s the word I was given today. It’s so hard to carve out time for it or concentrate when there are so many other things that I have to get done at work. Everything else seems to have unyielding deadlines, and as a result, I never get work on it. Sigh. I really have to get more done more quickly.

MarcoPolo has brought the LinkScan work in house. Took them a while to get things set up and configured. Yesterday we got the first report on broken links in over a month. Made my first pass through the document tonight. Because it’s on a different server, we lost our configuration set-up so things that were set at exceptions are showing up as errors again. Sent out a list of the changes that I need MacroPolo to make this evening, after I had to type it twice because of Exchange server nonsense.

In the News: Who Writes Politician’s Blogs?

I was intrigued by Dear Folks: No Time to Write, which talks about politicians who supposedly start blogs and then don’t post anything. I thought it amazingly naive to think that all these politicians are writing their own blogs. Sure, just like they all write all the letters that go out under their signature and all the speeches that they give. Uh-huh. Now don’t get me wrong, as someone who is unendingly behind on her own blog, I am in complete agreement that when people say they are going to write these things, they need to follow-through. But it seems to me that the problem is more likely a staffing issue. I wonder how many of the politicians even know that they are supposed to be posting?

Windows Resources: Surviving IT Lockdown

Geek to Live: Survive IT lockdown – Lifehacker—information that you hope you don’t have to use, but that you know you better save.

In the News: Framing Internet Use in Elementary School

I wish that I’d saved the RSS feed description on BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Net abuse ‘starts in primaries’. The article is about kids plagiarizing and what not. Misusing online resources. Bullying. Problems with “e-safety” (please. e-safety?)

The feed description on Bloglines suggested that the Net was the actor and the students were the object of the sentence. Something like “Net abuses elementary and secondary students.” Probably someone’s error that has been corrected, but I found it interesting to blame the Internet as if it were a responsible participant.

Daily Work: Lesson Plans, Meetings, and the SOTU

Continued work on the dystopia lesson plan, which uses The Matrix to explore the characteristics of dystopian society in various texts. Unfortunately, I found that part of one text was borrowed from elsewhere, so I had to redo some of the work :(

Had another team meeting and discussed what we need to do to make the network files work better for us. Watched the State of the Union address, but didn’t really think it was all that amazing. Nothing new or catchy really.

For Mac: Tweaking iTunes

MacDevCenter.com — Tweaking iTunes—some basic information on how to take control of iTunes, in case it ever gets out of line.

Depression: NPR’s "The Hardest Work You Will Ever Do"

Heard “The Hardest Work You Will Ever Do” this morning while getting ready for work. It’s one of the This I Believe essays on NPR. It has some really good description of what depression feels like. The part where she talks about how it felt to have other people doing things, that’s how i feel. Course I have no one doing things for me. But anyway, I think that’s the best description. I know that I do hide a lot, even when I ask or pay people to do things for me. It feels wrong, and I feel stupid and foolish for not being able to do better. I don’t have problems like the author of this essay; but it really is a close description. So close, that I really don’t want to listen to it again, but I want to keep the URL handy.