The Xanga frontpage lists featured posts. “Featured Content” dates back to the earliest days of Xanga, but I really have to shake my head at some of the “content” linked there presently. I think they may have hit their nadir by featuring some guy’s very first post… which he didn’t even write; it’s just the automatically-created, generic first post. I can only guess that he must have many friends who recommended said post and pushed it up the featured list. It’s kind of hard to take a “Featured” list seriously if this is what’s featured. But it just goes to show you that not much has changed; Xangans then and now are concerned with being popular– the majority of them anyway.

On a related note, I’m trying to finish this grad class and the next-to-last assignment was an essay on an ethical dilemma in education. I chose to write about whether teachers should censor themselves online; where is the line between professional responsibility and the right to personal expression? I didn’t think it was very good, but my instructor called it “outstanding” and wants to keep a copy on file as a model for future students. Maybe I should write the “not my best work” disclaimer every time I submit. 

Over the next three days I’m attending the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference which just happens to be hosted here in Denver this year. Some of these techie-teachers kind of scare me. They toss around jargon that quickly confuses outsiders or newbies. And they love Twitter. I do have a Twitter account, but hardly use it. It’s the one Web thing that I have never been able to just pick up and figure out right away; I don’t understand what all the @ and # are for. I need Twitter for Dummies. But, I’m sure I will learn a lot… which I won’t be able to apply since it’ll be a decade before we have sufficient technology in my school to do so. I shouldn’t be so negative; we did get a lot of classroom tech last year– every teacher has a laptop, every room a digital projector, and several of us have document cameras (like me) or Smartboards, or both. I asked for the document camera last year instead of the Smartboard because it was one-third the cost of the Smartboard and I understood we were in a budget crunch and even though these requests went to the PTA, I thought it was pretentious to ask for such a big-ticket item under such a financial atmosphere. Apparently, that didn’t stop some of my colleagues– and the PTA bought their Smartboards. I guess I learned a lesson; put principle aside when you can ask someone else to buy stuff for you.

Hard to believe June is almost over. Enjoy these last few days. 

If you have one, are one, or remember one; today is a special day. Whenever I want to come back to blogging and start to consider other avenues, I always remember that if it weren’t for Xanga, I’d've never met my wonderful wife and have four beautiful children at home. 

As for this here Xanga, I don’t have any specific plan yet. I’m just going to try to post on a frequent basis and see what develops. I’d eventually like to commit to a weekly format again. The main concern is that I don’t let it lapse once school starts again.

Recently I was at my mom’s house back in suburban Atlanta for a few days, for my niece’s wedding which did not happen, but that’s a different story. Since moving to Colorado in July 2002, I have only returned home four times. Each time, it seems I discover something new. This time, I found (well, I think she found at some point, but it was laying out) my very first journal, given to me on Christmas 1984. I thought it may be interesting to recount what I wrote back then.

Sunday, January 27, 1985

This is my first entry, but hopefully not my last, in this journal. This is in no way unique. On the contrary, it initiates me as one in a crowd as large as the one that flocked to the L.A. Memorial Colosseum last year to see the Summer Olympic Games! But, let us get down to business.

Today the graphite marks chronicle two events that happened this month, on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th. The first is a date when I went with Dad to his office. I helped take inventory (the IRS still stands strong, doesn’t it?) Later, we went to Granny’s Kitchen for lunch. From there he took me home.

The latter one, and more major, was going to my old friend Jeff’s house. We tried to play Trivial Pursuit. Unsuccessful. Anyway, we went to see Pinocchio later in the day. That night, Jeff’s dad brought home an IBM PC. We had lots of fun with it. There was one game where you were boss of an oil company. In one you played football. There were many other games we played, but those were the best and the ones we played the most. I spend the night. Overall, it was lots of fun. (Once I jokingly thought that PC meant “Perfect Computer”). 

Funny how some things change and others, not so much. I can’t help but reflect upon how this very first entry discussed time with my dad. How fitting for today. My father passed away just over seven years ago, but the memories of him shall always remain and be treasured. I hope that you treasure your fathers, or fatherhood, just as much, today and everyday.

It’s summer, which means I’m coming back. Hopefully for longer this time. Maybe for good, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For right now, anyone who reads this should be almost as excited about the prospect as I am.