Congratulations, Ryan!!! Wonderful send off.
Now--- the world is your oyster-- not that that hasn't been so your entire
life.
But, now you'll have more time to pursue your dreams and fantasies.
I hope so, anyway :-)
Hugs,
Ray Ruiz in New Orleans
It figures! Now the world is my oyster, but I am allergic to oysters and mussels, (but not muscles).
On a side note, Ray is a B and B owner in New Orleans. Check out his site here. He is also personally responsible for our buying a condo in Pompano Beach, Florida.
We have never met Ray in person. We have never seen the condo that we bought. Funny world! Pin It Now!
Our website has tons of information, but it seemed that no one was bothering to look at it. Quite frankly, when we had guests, we would even forget what was there and searched for the information all over again.
I thought one solution would be to print out the site map of our site, so that people could scan it before asking, not that we mind the questions, but it is difficult being an walking encyclopedia. With these things in mind as well as to aid others we may never meet, I created a new blog.
It is called The BudaBaB Review. The format is quite different from this blog, so the very first thing is a START here with a brief tutorial. I would love for you to check it out. Bear in mind, this is a time consuming process and it is far from finished, so if you are interested, return often. Chances are there will be something different to entertain you.
Ah, the mystery student has identified herself. If I had a tidy list of e-mail addresses, I could have sought her out, but alas she had to step forward.
As a result, I realized I could have traced back her moniker, which I did today and found that she has been blogging also. I read some of it when I was taking a break from my writing and was struck by the depth and emotion in one particular post called "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone" on July 20th.
It is most likely the fact that I could relate so well to the sentiment, but I found it very powerful. With that, I sent it to Ron to read, who also was impressed without the ability to identify with the emotions. I want to recommend it here to others. I hope Andrea doesn't mind, but a public blog is meant to read and shared. http://virezma.blogspot.com/
One of the interesting and often joyful things about teaching university is that you get to know your students as students in the classroom, but you get to understand them as humans after they graduate.
One never knows the threads that run through life. I taught a course called "Religions Founded in the US" as an elective this semester.The class was small already, but one student came and went as she pleased. Mostly, she went, so we hardly saw her face. If I had to pick her out of a lineup, I would be pressed to get it right. She turned her paper in over a month late; actually, the last day of classes with a 'Sorry this is late' note. I sent it back with a 'Sorry you failed' note.
Alternatively, I have a student in my journalism program who was not able to be at the Blogging/Website presentation. He is a dual major with Biology and had a week long field trip. He desperately wanted to show off his well constructed blog that had received accolades from a US Professor of Microbiology already. We worked on Plan B. We attempted a Skype video call, but the quality was poor and the connection was uncertain in the room we were holding the presentation. He assured me he would work on it and let me know. We had discussed a video.
The presentation night, this last Tuesday,came and went with nothing from Mate. I was disappointed he had not gotten his act together in time. I did a minor presentation of his sites just as a courtesy, but not with the enthusiasm he could have done. I had sent a note to Mate telling him of my disappointment. He wrote back with despair, asking what happened to the video he sent along? He had arranged for one of his roommates to deliver it to me personally as she had a class with me on Tuesday morning.
Thursday I went in to sign grade books only to find a pen drive on my desk with a note.
Dear Dr. James, I was supposed to give this to you. It is late due to my own fault. This is from Mate. It has his video presentation for your Blogging/Website show. I hope you enjoy it. Anna
Anna is the student who appeared in my religion class as often as the Lady of Fatima appears in Budapest cinemas. If I had only known, I could have exorcised the situation in time to save Mate. Not that I needed the contrition, but I did feel for Mate's blind faith in a false prophet. I uploaded his work to YouTube instead. Here I give you Mate.
"You haven't blogged for days which makes me concerned. One of the (Hungarian) blogs that I had read for years has recently stopped being written...I'm sure that you'll continue writing it. It's just a matter of having topics to write about."
Well that is partially true, but the other reason is obsessions. A few weeks back I embarked on learning Joomla! a program for creating websites. I have a new website is development for professional reasons, but wanted to do a major overhaul of our B and B website as well. Learning from a book and YouTube videos is not the most efficient way to create exactly what you want. While a tutorial book is having me create a website for a fictitious ice cream company, with 3 different flavors in 3 different types of cones and sandwiches, it is stealing my precious time from the final creation.
After advertising for a Joomla! tutor locally, I did receive a number of offers. One such was from a retired British man who is living in the far reaches of Hungary in a small village I had never heard of before. With the power of the Internet, we have been able to collaborate successfully.
Nigel not only has the Joomla! technology down to a science, but he has a great eye for design. As hesitant as I am to admit it, web design is not my forte, though I do have an inherent sense for what design is appealing and which are total turn-offs. Nigel's suggestions have been top-notch. Using Skype, we have been able to create the site that I would have wanted, but would not have been able to accomplish without expert advice. I cannot wait to have the official "unveiling", but it won't happen until it is complete.
This, therefore, has been a primary reason for my absence. When I have free time to coordinate with Nigel's schedule, I am playing student. Nigel is quick and professorial in giving me plenty of homework. He has created two identical sites using different names on his own server, allowing us to work simultaneously as he leads me through the process.
When I am not co-constructing, I have an obsession and feeling of obligation to create as much content as possible to ensure Nigel that I am serious about my commitment to this endeavor. This does take time away from blogging, but I will try not to be neglectful in the future for fear of readers' concerns expressed and unexpressed. Oh, right! There are the teaching obligations too. Lest we forget, that is my primary responsibility.
In my journalism program, I teach a Blogging and Website course. The goal is to get students somewhat exposed to 21st century journalism. One would guess this generation is beyond blogging; however, it is not true here. This is a new experience for many of them at least writing in English. As such, I would like to post their sites here and encourage any and all to visit them, share them, but most importantly COMMENT. Comments will give them the boost to improve knowing there are others reading the blog besides their classmates, friends, and family. With that knowledge, they will take the blog more seriously and hopefully continue beyond this semester. Even if you only visit each one once, a few minutes of your time will be an immeasurable help.
Today is the first day in weeks that we have not had any rain within a 24 hour period. For a few days, I thought we would have to move to England just to see the sun shining more often.
With that dose of vitamin D pouring from the sun's rays, I was inspired to meet with a web designer to arrange the new site. This was the suggestion of a former student; they were once co-workers. The designer suggested something I had known about, but had never considered. Use WordPress for the website. I was under the impression it was only for blogs; therefore, it was off of my radar.
With this information, a search of templates produced an ideal one that I can modify with metaphor and create something unique, while still being professional. Following the tutorial, I was able to load WordPress into my domain, but the template failed repeatedly. Back to the hurry up and wait stage, I had to send a note to the designer telling him there was a page missing. He wrote me back with a different download link; the result was the same. After some back and forth name calling and rooting around, I found the defective files to delete them, trying from the beginning. It worked! One less book to order for now.
I was just discussing American slang with my students yesterday, so I thought I would have some fun with the title post. I stumbled upon some rankings for this blog. Out of 1000 of the top sites monitored by Feedjit, these are my blog rankings. It doesn't specify which Jacksonville, so how many do you think there are in the US? The answer is below.
You Rank #85 in: Aalborg, Denmark
You Rank #175 in: Jacksonville, United States
You Rank #390 in: Lőrinci, Hungary
You Rank #401 in: Budapest, Hungary
You Rank #584 in: Bangkok, Thailand
There are eight: Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas, Illinois, Texas, Alabama, New York, Oregon
I admit it, I am anal retentive, Type A+, compulsive. When something gets the best of me, I cannot function until I have solved the problem, made it as close to perfect as possible, pleasing to my aesthetic or practical values. My mental metaphor is that I am am a pitbull that has taken an bite of someone's leg and will not let go.
Hence, I changed the template of the blog yet again. When I had tried this template before, it became a jumbled mess. After sleeping on it a couple of nights, I solved the problem. this one is more pleasing to what this blog is all about. For now, I am content.
Now if only I could get Blogger to be consistent with the font and size in each post, I would really be happy. Though they are all set in Georgia Large, they do not all appear that way, which really drives me crazy!!
You may notice yet another political banner on the right hand side advertising for Frank Cotton for President. I came across an offer I could not refuse. Post a banner on your blog or website and they will send you a copy of the new novel by Mark LaFlamme Dirt: An American Campaign. After contacting them, they said yes, they would send me the book in Hungary, so I put a banner on the blog.
Today, the book arrived, but I could not remember seeing the banner lately and when I looked, it seems to have disappeared. So guilt and gratitude for getting a free book persuaded me to replace the banner and write this post. Along with the book, there was a campaign button, bumper sticker, and poster. All are displayed in my office at the university to confuse and confound my students.
I have not read the book as it did just arrive today, but I will submit a review once I have. It does look intriguing.
There are sites where you can 'stumble upon' interesting web sites by accident. I have never used those, because I know I would spend many more hours glued to the computer than I already do. After all, as a writer, a university instructor, and an ex-pat, there are a significant amount of hours that necessitate the use of the computer. Today, I just by chance came across this blog, which piqued my interest and I felt a compelling need to share it. Myself, I am not a map person. Regardless of just missing being an Eagle scout in Boy Scouts by one merit badge, maps are still an anomaly to me. However, when a good map comes along that does not require me to go from point A to point B, my appreciation level does go into overdrive. The map collections on this blog are fun, funny, weird, interesting, historical and generally amusing. http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/08/
If you go to the link, don't forget to return to me. : )
I was born in Long Branch, NJ on the Jersey shore and lived there until I was a junior in high school. From there, I moved to New Lothrop, Michigan to finish my last two years of high school. I returned to Michigan for one disasterous semester of college, but moved to Florida. I have owned a restaurant in PA, drove taxi in Jamestown, NY, and lived in Philadelphia before CA. I have a BA in Psychology/Sociology from Thomas A. Edison State College, a MSW (Temple University), and my Ed.D. from the University of San Francisco.
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