Gift ideas anyone?

I couldn't resist re-posting this from Awful Library Books.

Mission Impossible

Dilemma:
You teach a blogging class at the local library. The class is tonight, but your boss tells you the internet is down for the rest of the day, but the class is still going ahead as scheduled.

Your mission:
You have 1 and 1/2 hours to build a new 1-hour curriculum still based on blogging WITHOUT using the internet. Go.



So when I was something like 12 years old I lived in San Diego, and I was lonely (frowny face). So one day my brother came to visit and I asked him how his college classes were going. He told me that he learned how to make web pages, and I asked him how. He realized that he could show me how to do a few simple things on my computer.

So he had me open up Notepad (of all programs!) and showed me how to save a web page file right on my computer. Then he taught me little html codes that I could type in, and when I opened it in Internet Explorer - voila! Italics! Underlining! Titles and headlines! Images and links! Oh, I felt so special.

When I got to high school and there was a web page creation class I thought, "Awesome, I'm practically a pro already." So I took the class and learned how to do even MORE stuff and create even fancier pages - like with borders and dancing images, the best 1999 had to offer!

Then I got to college, and it turns out some of that dinky "web experience" meant that I could do little odd jobs at my brother's office. So I did that, and I learned how to do more and more and more... with a lot of help. And then I flexed my web-page-creating muscles and felt so powerful, mwa ha ha!

And then one day I had to teach a class on blogging with NO internet. And I remembered those very early days when I was just typing in puny html codes on my computer and watching them come to life in Internet Explorer - without actually needing to use the internet.

And that's how I figured out how to teach a WHOLE HOUR of blogging with no internet connection.

*bow*


(Some notes if you feel like you need some explanation: understanding even very basic html codes can help you understand blogging better. Most of the time Blogger.com creates html code for you, but knowing what html code looks like and how it works can help you to fix problems, edit things, and even add code from other websites - like adding videos from YouTube. VERY handy. By the end of tonight's class, my students could recognize what the code looks like when Blogger adds an image for you, and the knew how to move it around or add text before and after. They also knew how to tell the difference between what code looks like for an image, what it looks like for a link, and even what it looks like for something big like a YouTube video. I was so proud.)

I really do fantasize about this

I know. I know if you know me and you've ever seen my office you're eyebrows are up right now and you're like, "THIS is your fantasy?" But it totally is. I fantasize about having everything in clear plastic boxes lined up neatly on shelves that span the entire wall. With LABELS. And I would totally dance around like that, even PREGNANT, if that's what my office looked like.

**Deep sigh**

Blogging Class

Tonight we started another 7-week series of the blogging class at my library... which I'm teaching. So needless to say now that tonight's class is over, my hands are swollen and I'm still a little shaky.

Can I just tell you how baffling it is for me, how utterly confusing and startling it is, when people laugh at my jokes? I think I must react like a surprised animal, snapping my head back and looking from side to side trying to figure out what's going on. I just don't feel like a funny person - I think I assume that when people I'm talking to one-on-one laugh, they are being polite and saving me the humiliation of just staring at me when I make a joke (thank you, people). But in a classroom situation, you are one of a group, and you don't have to do anything you don't want to do (and believe me, people don't... the phrase, "Please wait until everyone catches up" is useless in a large group). So it's startling when not just one, but SEVERAL people start chuckling and I realize it's in response to me. Nothing freaks me out more. And I mean that in the best possible way. Pleasantly baffled, you could call me.

We had 19 people there tonight. When I taught the blogging series last time, I had a grand total of 8 people through all of the classes. This is 10 people more. And there were CHILDREN. (Actually they did awesome, and supported my theory that maturity is higher in children than young adults). But it all went well. No one glared at me or threw anything or walked out, and that has to equal success, right?

A gem

Saw this amazing video on another blog today.

This video was created by a FAN of the song - it's not even the official video. But I've watched it several times already, I'm mesmerized.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

At first, as stunning as the visuals of the video are, it was kind of hard for me to relate to a song about two guys. Then I went to the creator's website and read a bit about the video from the his point of view:
"Even though the song involves two guys, I really tried to connect their relationship to the relationship with my wife. The theme of fighting to keep a relationship together is universal."
"For me the song is about insecurities in a relationship that can bubble up. Then having to soldier through your hurt feelings and let the other person know you'll be there no matter what."

That seems really true to me. Relationships go through rough patches, and it's important to make sure each of you knows that you're committed to staying, so you can work whatever it is out.

Food for thought

Yesterday a kid about 4 or 5 years old was climbing all over the furniture in front of me, so I gave him my stern librarian face and shook my head. He came up to my desk and started asking me all these questions:

"what's this?" A stapler.
"what's that do?" It staples things.
"what's that for?" It turns on the lights.

And the whole time he was looking all around my desk, back and forth.
Then he looked at me and said, "Well, you don't have any candy, so..." and walked away.

Give me back the mortal coil

I've been having insane dreams for the past few weeks. Last night was an hours-long whopper, but I'll just relate my favorite part. I was in the forest at this campsite (no, family, not the location of our recent family reunion), and these wolves were hunting me down this dirt path. Well, they were sort of stalking me and I was backing away from them slowly. But if they got too close, I'd lift up my jacket to make myself look as big as possible and ROAR at them, and they'd back away freaked out, but then they'd start advancing up on me again. So I roared at them like 5 times but they were getting used to it and coming closer and closer, and suddenly over my right shoulder this gigantic head came into view and lifted itself up several feet above my head and really ROOOOOOAAAARRRed. It was a freakin' bear. A freakin' gigantic bear. And you know what my first in-dream thought was as this happened? Can you guess??

"I HAVE to blog about this."

Yeah. So there you go.