And Now a Normal Day

I get to do a lot of really cool stuff for my job. Yesterday, in addition to finishing a paper (see previous post), I accepted a very persuasive invitation from Gardner Campbell to attend his next big party, the 2006 University of Mary Washington Faculty Academy on Instructional Technologies. I will be following in the footsteps of Those Called Br*an (the one with the y and the one with the i both presented last year). It looks like an awesome event and I’m really looking forward to going.

I also had two business meetings in Second Life. No, really. My boss, who is a digital immigrant (don’t get the reference? Here’s the PDF) with all the right stamps on his passport, gave me a tour. The role-reversal was a little surreal, but I’m looking forward to working more in Second Life.

Today, on the other hand, is a perfectly normal day. . . so far . . .

Lovely San Francisco

I spent yesterday in San Francisco, planning a Pachyderm presentation with Peter Samis and Larry Johnson. After the meeting Peter and I engaged in a spontaneous critique of the artwork on the wall in the meeting room (it was surprisingly good, given that it was hanging up in a hotel). Peter is wicked smart, especially about modern art, and endlessly creative. He has also met all kinds of interesting people (there is some photographic evidence to support this) and tells the best stories. Mostly he did the critique and I did my best to follow along and contribute where I could :-)

I’m not a city girl but I love SF. It’s just weird enough to please without being terrifying, and there is beauty around every corner.

Well, here we go.

The thing about free advice is that a lot of it is given that ought to be followed, but isn’t. Take, for example, the free advice I was given just yesterday, on an airplane, by Brian Lamb. I even asked for this particular bit of advice, by the way, and even had to pester Brian a little bit to get it, since by nature I think he prefers not to tell people what to do. I asked about blogs.

Specifically, I asked about a good way to get started with blogging. Brian gave me some excellent advice, which he says was given to him: Spend a couple of weeks reading blogs, and maybe commenting here and there, and then when you are comfortable, you can start your own. Don’t rush it.

I have to admit, this is good advice. Yet I am at this very moment ignoring it completely.

Brian gave me another tip, which I will follow: Don’t feel like you have to have a full-blown blog on your first day. I’m easing into it. So, hello world (at least I don’t have to say 10 PRINT “hello world” ; to make this work). Let’s just see where we go.