Monthly Archives: May 2005

Good news, bad news

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Michele is feeling much better right now. In fact, she has been feeling well enough that I have been able to be in the office the whole week for the first time in quite a while. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we are not sure yet about what is causing her condition. Also, we continue to be pretty discouraged about other things in our life right now. Specifically, we would like to leave this area to move back to Illinois to be closer to our families. We have been asking for God’s guidance and direction. He recently made it clear that we will be here for at least a while longer than we had thought (and hoped). Rather than being able to leave an unhealthy and negative environment behind us, we continue to have to cast our cares upon Him in order to make it through each day. Maybe that’s the main lesson for us in these difficult situations: to learn that He is in control, always, and that His will is best.

Cronin responds

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Some time ago I wrote a rather negative response to a rather negative online editorial by Blaise Cronin, dean of IU SLIS, about blogs and bloggers. Cronin strikes back with a weak attempt at seizing some kind of moral high ground about freedom of expression and the need for “civility and decorum.” While I do not agree with many of the things written about him by others that Cronin quoted in his column, all I could think of while reading his response was something like: “Oh please, spare me.” Something I wrote about him (“This guy is another guy whom I’ve never taken a liking to, although unlike Gorman, I know next to nothing about him other than that he tends to be controversial.”) was quoted and noted down as part of “irrational likes and dislikes” that “routinely trump logic and suasion.” Again, I say to myself, “Oh please.”

His response strongly reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies, Casablanca, in which Captain Renault (played by Claude Rains) closes down Rick’s bar saying, “I’m shocked, shocked, to find gambling going on here!” at the same time as he pockets money from his gambling winnings handed to him by one of Rick’s staff.

A busy several days

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I’ve been very preoccupied by other matters for several days now (including a trip to see family in east central Illinois) but hope to get back to posting more routinely in the next few days.

One thing I’ve learned in the past few days is the exposure that having a blog can provide, for good or ill. You just never know who might be reading your blog and finding out all kinds of things about you that they otherwise wouldn’t know! This blog is primarily for me — a personal outlet. I realize, obviously, that it is “out there” in the public domain for anyone to read. But that reality can be somewhat abstract until you happen to meet a complete stranger who asks how your wife is doing, or comments on the nice photos of your kids that he or she has seen on your blog. It gives you a weird, almost uncomfortable, feeling.

No answers, yet

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Michele writes the following about yesterday’s visit to the neurologist:

I went to the doctor today and there is not a lot of new information. My blood tests are elevated but only
slightly. This is good and bad, if they were drastically off then it would be clear what the problem is but because they are only slight it is hard to determine a specific cause.

The dr. ordered a Lyme Disease Titer and I had that drawn today so hopefully in a few days we will have a better idea if it is Lyme Disease.

The dr. feels that there is a possibilty that it is Wilson’s. She wants me to see an opthamologist to have a slit-lamp test (from searching the web, it looks like the regular eye exam light they use to check the interior of your eye, the thing you rest your chin in and press your forehead forward) to check for Kayser-Fleischer rings around my corneas. These are rusty brownish green deposits around the colored part of your eye that are indicators of Wilson’s Disease. As soon as I am able to get the tests done
we may be able to eliminate a few diseases!

So, no answers, yet, but we feel like we may know more soon.

New link for photos

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I’ve installed the Flickr gallery plugin for WordPress (with much difficulty and troubleshooting of PHP code, unfortunately) and now have a photo gallery set up. I’ll add a permanent navigational link on the righthand side of this blog in a bit. The only set of pictures available are the latest (March 2005) studio photos of all of the kids, which is worth seeing!

I’m still learning the ins and outs of Flickr but I like what I see so far, especially the ease this service provides in publishing photos to be shared with others. I will be adding many more albums as I can.

Funny things kids say

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Michele wrote the following to describe some funny things the kids said last night: “Tonight in an attempt to get out of the house, we went to get dinner and for a drive. After picking up McD’s for the kids we went to get the van washed. As soon as we got in line Brinley started begging Steve to turn around. She kept saying ‘Let’s just wait til later, Daddy. Let’s just wait.’ After lots of begging she finally said ‘Daddy, let’s pray.’ It was so cute. Steve and I could not stop laughing. We never thought we would have to pray before entering a car wash!

Late in the trip Steve was saying something to Tristan and out from the back comes ‘I can’t hear you, Dufus here keeps talking.’ Tristan is so quick sometimes! Poor Keegan (aka Dufus)!

Just a few minutes later we passed a house that was VERY low to the ground (couldn’t tell if it was collapsed or was partially built underground) and Tristan heard us talking about it and offered up ‘Maybe tiny people live there.’ He was very matter of fact about it and Steve and I just cracked up. As we were laughing Tristan turned to Keegan and shrugged his shoulders and said ‘I can’t help it.’

Kids are so amazing sometimes!”

Amen.

House of Flying Daggers

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Last night Michele and I got to see a movie my brother, Dan, had highly recommended: House of Flying Daggers. Since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of my all-time favorite movies, I looked forward to comparing it with this one that is somewhat similar in style and setting.

Some impressions:

  • eye-popping cinematography, such gorgeous colors and scenery
  • very good casting and acting
  • some of the fight scenes definitely topped the stunning scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, including a whole segment shot in a bamboo forest that puts the ostensibly similar scene in the other movie to shame
  • the ending scene, shot in a sudden, blinding snowstorm, was beautiful but really stretched the limits of believability
  • overall, some other adjectives that attempt to capture my impressions include gorgeous, rich, lush, romantic, incredible, lyrical, tragic, stunning.

If you can’t tell, I loved it.

Faculty Technology Days session on Weblogs and Wikis

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D’Arcy Norman Dot Net » Blog Archive » Faculty Technology Days session on Weblogs and Wikis

I was thinking as I read about this upcoming session at the University of Calgary, what would happen if I proposed something like this for the faculty at my school? Maybe I’m just in a negative mood, but frankly, I think most of them would stare at me as if I had grown a second head. Faculty as a whole are very, shall we say, low tech. I mentioned the word ‘wiki’ a couple of times in some IT meetings and was greeted with the “two-headed-stare.”

On the positive side, I have been able to participate with other librarians in training sessions on new technology for faculty each summer. This year in addition to a mini-conference called “Technology for Teaching,” a new opportunity for faculty technology learning is being planned. This session will be on hands-on, one-on-one learning opportunities. I’m not sure whether or not I will be asked to participate in this yet.

My overall frustration is with the technological illiteracy so prevalent at my school, especially among faculty. This, in spite of the constant pep talk by one or two IT-related administrators about how great we are, how we are doing such great things, how we are so advanced technologically. Bunk.