Latest Crackpot Scheme – Learn By Going

Uncategorized
I've had the idea for immersive learning experiences for a while now, birthed mainly from my frustration that all of the cool internships, alternative spring breaks, and similar learning experiences seem to go to college students. There's some faulty logic out there where people think that you should stop learning or trying new things after a certain age. Poppycock, I say. Luckily, I'm at a place where I can give this a try, and my church is willing to give me enough rope to hang myself.
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Blowing off the dust

Personal, Uncategorized
It’s been nearly a year and a half since I wrote anything here. I feel like I owe some kind of apology, but why? One of the best things I have ever done for myself is to give myself permission to do what I need to do when the time is right. I have enough guilt out there for the things I “should” do that I don’t need to create more over nothing. Life happens and sometimes I find that I don’t have the emotional energy to write things that I think are worth reading. Since my last post, I took a half-time job, left that job, got another full-time job, moved 800 miles away, sold a house, bought a house, and had similar changes for the rest of the…
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Where You Been?

Personal, Uncategorized
Back in my podcasting days, podfading was the term used when a show began posting fewer and fewer episodes and eventually quit publishing altogether. Usually, it meant that the show’s creators might have moved on to some shiny new project. Perhaps they had not reaped the fame and rewards they expected from the difficult work of putting together a show. Maybe they just became bored. I don’t know if there is a similar term for blogging (blogfading?), but I keep thinking about this space and wondering if it just looks like another blog gone by the wayside. I think I may be a victim of my own standards. I wanted my writing here to reflect a search for authenticity; to communicate my own efforts to move towards a more authentic…
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Father’s Day Toys

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Long ago, my wife and I discovered that one of the keys to a happy marriage is to provide each other with lists of gift ideas or cold hard cash.  As callous as that sounds, I really enjoy my new Father's Day gifts from my kids.  With a little judicious use of eBay, and I got three gifts for the price of one.  In addition to the Orange Box on Steam (which allows me to get my butt regularly kicked by the other Olde Fartz in Half Life 2 Deathmatch), I picked up these two items: The Superman bobblehead, as shown here in its native habitat next to my Yoda bobblehead (I do NOT collect bobbleheads, by the way).  I was searching online for the Einstein Bobblehead from Night at…
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New Releases – Yay!

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I buy very few things sight-unseen.  Two notable exceptions are Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher and fantasy novels by Raymond E. Feist.  Both guilty pleasures, I anxiously await the latest installment in these sagas (well, saga may be too strong for these books, but the novels do create one long continuity in each case).   Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard practicing openly (complete with an ad in the Yellow Pages) in the Chicago area.  Unfortunately for him, he's one of those people that fate continues to kick in the privates.  If anything weird or evil is going to happen, it'll happen to or near Harry Dresden. Raymond Feist's novels of Midkemia span several hundred years, and I've followed them all from year one.  Feist has a rare…
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It’s Time for a Digital Comics Business Model

Ideas & Designs, Uncategorized
I think the e-reader evolution has just reached a tipping point.  In fact it's may just be my personal tipping point, since the release of the new Kindle 2 has generated a significant amount of gadget lust in me.  Every night at bedtime, I am faced with the 3 or 4 reading choices living on my night stand.  The idea of having an entire collection of books, magazines, blogs, and personal documents at my disposal holds a great deal of appeal.  By all accounts, the screen size of the Kindle and it's main competitor, the Sony 505, are plenty big for your average novel or plain text document.  At $300 - $400, that still makes them a pretty steep gadget investment.  The really drool-inducing gadget in this up-and-coming technology is…
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16 Random Things

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Part of creating a blog was the desire to be like the cool kids.  They all seem to have them.  It also seems as though all the cool kids participate in these "random things about me" chain letters on facebook and the blogosphere. I was really starting to feel left out, but Billy Flynn came through with an invitation.  I doubt if this makes me one of the cool kids, but I remain hopeful. I typically avoid this kind of forwarded e-mail / Facebook spam. I am an ordained Baptist Minister who now works in IT I have officiated at least 10 weddings. I forget exactly how many. The funeral count stands at 2. I weighed 4 ibs 8oz when I was born and was in an incubator for several weeks.…
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