Early wintery blast

Well, what a week it's been locally. Monday evening, I'm busy at work and word starts filtering around that it's snowing outside. No way I thought! Snow isn't due around these parts for at least another month. I sheepishly stuck my head outside and it was confirmed very quickly. That's about the time when those familiar concerns started flooding into my head; the concerns of getting around the place when it's icy on the roads; the worry of slipping over and hurting one's extremeties (not to mention one's pride); the slush getting tracked into the house and car. Oh, if only winter would stay away a little longer. After all, if an Aussie was meant to get around in freezing conditions, surely he'd have been born in Iceland??

The snow came out of nowhere, with the Weather Channel totally missing its arrival. In its defence, the WC was covering Hurricane Wilma's attack on the Florida coastline. The problem with this early storm was that the leaves on the trees had not fallen yet, so the weight of the snow was just too much for some, the results being lots of downed trees and branches, and of course what comes with that is a loss of power and other services. Even this morning there are a lot of places around town suffering without power and heat.

I'm at my fav hangout, the Moose. The coffee's always great, and the breakfast just as I remember from the wimpy burger "cafe" at the top of the range road back in my hometown in Australia. I wonder why they called the place "wimpy"? Regardless, when I was a teenager, the wimpy burger joint was the only place open after 11pm, so it was the place to be if you needed a late night snack. Ahhh...old memories are flooding back into this old head of mine.

Quite amazing the brain...it stores so much, and can release information at will. Like, last week, one of my colleagues at work was wearing some kind of body wash or perfume...and a memory came back from my early teens. A memory of my first girlfriend, Barbara...she used a perfume just like that. I wonder whatever happened to her. I find it interesting how we come across thousands of people in our lives, and only a small percentage of them remain as friends/aquaintances. The rest come and go, some having an impact, others just like ships in the night.

It's busy here this morning, probably because it's cold and people are looking for somewhere warm and friendly to pass the time away. Because there's a University in town, there are always a few students hanging out as well. It's a good place to come! Hmmmm...getting slightly sleepy, probably a combination of lack of sleep (studying) and that the heat is turned up in here, so I might save this draft and finish it off at another time.....

Ok...it's now early morning the next day (2:12am) and I have been finishing off some web stuff I had to do for my "homework" for the week. I'm really enjoying the class, learning a lot about DreamWeaver and it's potential for the development of online course materials. I guess I should think about getting to bed sometime. My dog is sound asleep out in the loungeroom...I can hear her snoring out there. I guess she's had to put up with me doing it, so maybe she figures she may as well join in.

I had a fairly productive day...did my homework; did some reading for the other theory class (I don't enjoy theoretical classes much, so it is always a struggle to get the reading done); downloaded some podcasts onto my Mac, for later uploading to my iPod. One of the best podcasts I have subscribed to is called The Commute - it is the recorded commute discussion these 2 guys (known only as Voice 1 and Voice 2) have each morning and afternoon, as they make their way to and from work in Brighton, UK. One guy is Canadian, the other a Pom (Englishman). Their discussions are quite interesting, and it's nice being able to hear them discuss issues in which I am interested.

It was particularly interesting to hear them talk about the recent Ashes series, between the Aussies and the Poms, which unfortunately for me, the Poms won. All the same, even though we lost, hearing the Pom trying to explain the finer points of the game to the Canuck (a big hockey fan) was quite amusing. I love that about the internet - being able to jump into someone's life, and following along as they go about their daily chores.

Speaking of chores, I need to get to bed, because I have some chores to get through on Friday. Nothing exciting, but I need to get some sleep if I am going to be able to function as I should tomorrow.

Till next time......

Where did a month go?

Ok...so I see it's been a while since I've posted.

I remember when I did the last one, just after Katrina devastated New Orleans and surrounding areas. I was horrified - at the damage caused, the human suffering, and particularly the incompetence of FEMA, especially Michael Brown. What was the Whitehouse thinking when they gave him the job of controlling the emergency organisation. A total screwup, that continues to screw people as I type. There have been so many horrific stories to come out of this.

Anyway, enough about that. Every day one is reminded of how ineffective the current Administration is in this country. It's almost like the corporations are running the show, given the amazing laws that are passed by the country's lawmakers. I wonder how many of them are on Corporate boards?? Food for thought.

Not a lot has been happening since my last post. Work continues on its merry way. It's not my ideal job, but I do enjoy interacting with my work colleagues and especially so with those online. Not a bad job, getting paid to chat online with people, albeit work related. Study - hmmmm...am having some issues with one of my classes, mainly that the required readings and work for the week aren't being disclosed to us in a timely manner. It's bad enough when you are going to classes face-to-face and your teacher is disorganised. Online (which is how I am doing this Masters), disorganisation is a HUGE thing, especially if part of the assessment component involved working with others in a group session. That becomes extremely difficult if we aren't given ample time to arrange times to "meet" online etc. Anywho...suffice to say I am doing it tough in this class.

The other class, a hands-on one, is very interesting and I'm learning a lot about web design as it relates to the creation of online learning materials. We are using DreamWeaver as our creation tool, and whilst I've been using it for a while, I've never actually read the manual - this has meant that I've gone right through from start to finish, and have learned some really useful stuff along the way. I LOVE the whole idea behind CSS (cascading style sheets) - and realise how much easier it would have been to maintain previous websites if I had known how to utilise them. Right now we are working with layers, and I can see some definite possibilities there.

Well, time to get ready for work...I work 2pm - 12:30am 4 days a week. Some people wouldn't like that, but I really do, and the prize at the end of 3 days off. It's like having a long weekend every week!

Till next time...hopefully not a month's time...take it easy. :-)