e-Learning 2.0: Blogs for everyone!

I just had a kickoff meeting with the broader, cross-college project team for AAA University's Web 2.0 project. I'm not very good at running meetings, but I feel like we accomplished everything we needed to accomplish.

I'm really stoked about this project. Using Web 2.0 tools to implement e-Learning 2.0 is a really exciting way to address a number of the broader issues that we have within this organization such as inter-department communication, knowledge sharing, knowledge management, standards, etc. It has surprised me how receptive others within the organization have been to the idea, and how swiftly my proposal gained traction with decision makers. I just hope that we can get this implemented in the right way, and that the employees find it as useful and valuable as we would like it to be.

Catch-up

Today is my birthday. Yippee.

More exciting than that is the work I got done on the front yard Sunday. We've been planning to put a rock pathway through the front yard all summer long, and on Sunday I finally made some real headway on it. I got all of the sod dug out and leveled everything at the correct depth. I would have finished more of it, but there was a very cold, stiff breeze blowing and after five hours in it I had had enough. I should be able to get all the stones in place this weekend with no trouble. Depending on how long that takes I may even be able to get the gaps filled between the stones and be done.

Yesterday I attended a demonstration webinar of the Xyleme LCMS. It was a very poor presentation, and I think most of my co-workers who attended were similarly tuned-out. The product itself looks powerful and interesting, though rather complex. It would certainly beat the LCMS we have in place now, but I think we're stuck with the existing one for another three years.

Just stuff

I'm sitting in the virtual lobby for a webinar that's supposed to start in about two minutes. What better time to write a blog post?

The short ribs last night turned out just okay.

Oh, heavens! Live video of the webinar presenters... headsets and all! Ack!

Anyway, the ribs. I cooked them at a little bit higher temperature than I should have, which sometimes happens with charcoal. The result was that they were a little tougher than I would have liked, but still good. The chipotle ribs had outstanding flavor -really good. The ones with the molasses marinade and onion marmalade weren't quite as good, but still worth eating.

I also started jogging again last night. That's no fun at all. The first couple weeks are always so difficult, and at this altitude it is even more so. The surprising thing is that I'm not really sore this morning. We'll see if that's still true tomorrow.

Edit:
I had to bail on the webinar about halfway through. The audio kept getting garbled, which made it very difficult to follow the speaker. No worries, though. They didn't seem to be talking about anything new.

The saddest day

Today is quite likely the last day of the barbecue season here in my corner of the world. Colder weather is beginning to settle in, and with charcoal at this altitude it is extremely difficult to grill when the temperature is below about 70. And so it is a sad day because it means I will have to put away the grill and resign myself once again to indoor cooking.

But not before I have one last round with the Weber. I'm taking off work early today to go home and cook short ribs - half with a molasses marinade and onion marmalade, and half with just a chipotle marinade. I need to remember to get the riesling into the fridge as soon as I get home!

Habit Forming

Blogging seems sort of pointless if you aren't going to do it on a daily basis. That's my problem, really: remembering to do it every day.

Since the whole reason I'm doing this is in support of my job, I think I'll try to set aside a little time each day at work to post. That should help me make it a habit.

Puppy britches

Finally finished the French drain on Tuesday. Very glad to finally have that out of the way. And just in time for football season to begin tonight, which is even more exciting.

Not much else happening today, at least. I have some odds & ends projects to tie up at work before we launch into a big push on a very large project that will easily take the rest of the year, and well into next.

The Web 2.0 thing last week went extremely well, and I had another meeting with the director of aaaU about it last night. One of these days I'll write a very long post about that initiative and why it's so important.

For now, feast your eyes on a picture of Cleveland.

Weekend

Labor Day Weekend was interesting. Sarah's parents arrived from Lewiston, Idaho on Saturday. They will be staying with us for a week. Sarah hasn't seen her parents in almost a year, so she was really excited to have them visit. The girls were really excited too, especially Skylor. Sky's favorite person in the world is her Grampa.

Hmm. My writing is especially dry and curt this morning. Must be because of the lack of sleep. Why am I lacking sleep? Mostly because of a little guy named Cleveland. Cleveland is the 8-week-old pug puppy my in-laws brought with them for Sarah. Man, she went nuts when she saw him. He's cute and all, but he doesn't let us get very much sleep.

I still haven't finished any of my projects around the house, including the French drain I started a couple weeks ago. I thought this weekend would be the weekend, but I had to spend Saturday helping get the house ready for guests, and Sunday and Monday I just didn't feel well. But the weather is supposed to be nice all week, so maybe it will get done over the next couple of evenings. Here's hoping.