a bit of an explanation of why I have not been around

By: teacherken
Published On: 4/28/2007 5:38:20 PM

Hello.  I thought I owed the RK community a bi of an explanation for my non-visibility recently.  There are several issues, one has been professionally related responsibility, and the other has been technological.  I will explain more fully below the fold.

Trust me, I have been reading, even if rarely posting.
Professionally related - I attended a Yearlykos fundraiser in DC for which I was on the host committee.  At that event I was able to talk with several senators and a few more house members.  From those conversations I have been in contact with staff members dealing with education.  Other than teaching, my highest priority has been to do what I can to keep NCLB from being reauthorized in anything like its current format.  I have been spending a lot of time utilizing my newly developed contacts to that end.  This is an ongoing process, so I will not have a lot of time in the near future for other blogging endeavors.

And life was complicated by a cat jumping on my laptop - I had modified things so that as a screen saver the screen would rotate through a batch of photos.  That became irresistable to one of our 5, who promptly jumped at the image full force, popping the screen somewhat out of the frame.  I took the machine to the Apple store, still operable.  we quickly came to the conclusion that the 650 dollar expense on a 2.5 year old machine was probably not worth it, so I had to replace it.  I am typing this on a brand new machine.  But I had to leave old laptop so that they could migrate all my software and files over for me.  In the interim I was limited to an older desktop with obsolete browsers.  And the migration was incomplete - somehow the Firefox download did not come over, so I have lost all those bookmarks, which I will try to back up from the old machine and burn on to a CD which I can use to upload them here. If not, well, it will be a timeconsuming process to replace several hundred necessary bookmarks.

Anyhow, I appreciate all the activity here, I do read, and when I have something Virginia relevant I will be around to post or comment.  Although until my AP students sit for their exam on May 7, I will have very little spare time - extra help afterschool every day this forthcoming week.

Peace.

Comments



"A cat jumped on my laptop" (relawson - 4/28/2007 6:50:06 PM)
Sure, I've heard that one before ;-)  Did you borrow that from one of your students???

;-)



You mean, the students who said that (Lowell - 4/28/2007 6:53:11 PM)
the dog ate their homework?  Ha. :)


how I wish it were just a fantasy (teacherken - 4/28/2007 9:51:58 PM)
but no, it was a very expensive jump.  Trust me, the bank account funds I was planning to use for some political contributions has now very much dried up. 


I have more laptops than I care for (relawson - 4/28/2007 10:56:19 PM)
Of course, I'm a software developer so I gets its par for the job.  I wish I had a cat to destroy things every now and again.

I went to Japan for 2 weeks last year and spent very little time online - I left my laptop at home and had occasional access to a computer.  It was the most relaxing two weeks in a long time.



I've missed your writings (PM - 4/29/2007 6:47:12 PM)
BTW, I recently bought a new HP laptop -- it's really nice.  But I was typing fast and hit the edge of a key and it popped off.  After much research -- I found it's very difficult to put a key back on.  (Of all things, I found a long how-to online, with pictures, by an Iraqi on how to replace keys -- it is very difficult.)  Fortunately, it was under warranty -- and HP replaced the whole keyboard in a couple of days.

Anyway, maybe with summer approaching we'll hear more from you.