Hats off (or on) to the Royal Couple!

Congratulations to the lovely couple!

The love fest was celebrated by the Brits in all kinds of interesting ways...the hats, of course,



and even the nails!


So, let's all hoist a pint in celebration of love and romance!

Look what $100,000 will buy you!

I meandered through Vashon Island last week looking for property (or really vacant land) with my little spot of sunshine in tow (herein referred to as Miss Zippy until further notice, based on the fact that not only can my 16 month amazingly articulate granddaughter walk and run, she can nimbly walk backward with absolutely no hesitation). The house in the same neighborhood as Miss Zippy's is for sale, but at $849,000, it's a little steep for my budget. I'm sure it's a great deal, considering it's on the water, has its own beach, breathtaking views, and is gorgeous and very roomy. In the Bay area, $849,000 won't buy you anything close to the beach! Have a look at it:


So, unless I can find 11 friends/BFFs that want to co-own this beauty for a month of fun each and every year (for each investor) in the surf and sand, the casual search continues.

I did notice that for under $100,000, Country Living has several homes listed in their Real Estate Sampler (each month has a different theme...this month's is homes for sale that are priced under $100,000). Have a look:


For the low, low price of $99,500., this baby can be yours. Here's the catch: It's in Texas. I repeat, Texas.

How about this one?
It's only $69,900 in Wallace, Idaho. I must remember to tell my friend Wilda (and her family, whom I adore) who I've been plotting and scheming with for years to open a Bed & Breakfast with once we "retire", that I've found her B & B in a town that shares her last name! (Oops. I just clicked on this and realized that the picture is crappy. Click on the photo itself and you'll see the real charmer here. Sorry about that.)


Here's another bargain at only $38,800 in Skidmore, Missouri. I don't know about you, but I can't imagine life in "Skidmore", MO. Better than that, this property is listed by the Twaddle Realty Company. Seriously. Twaddle. In Skidmore.

Click, click, click! go the keyboards

Moving right along with the "Professor Mom" series, the week ended with a workshop on Procrastination and Time Management. It was fairly well attended by young and old alike, and I was even asked how to get a messy teenager out of bed to clean her room on her only day off. Hummm. I wasn't exactly counting on parenting issues to be brought up, but, oh well, off we went on a quick sidebar.

The most distracting portion of the workshop was that several students were typing on keyboards during my presentation. The workshops are all held in the Library/Technology Center, in one of the "smart" classrooms, and there is a computer at each seat. There is nowhere else to sit, so I assumed (oh, so erroneously) that the students would sit there and not actually use the computers. Normally, one would only hold classes in such a room when the students were supposed to be using the computers, but there I was, in what we refer to as a "computer lab", completely distracted by students furiously typing away while I was speaking, and showing, I might add, my highly entertaining audio/visual aids, I mean multimedia/Vimeo video.

I tried to ignore the click, click, click of the keyboards until I could stand it no more. At one point, as I was talking about all the things we do to avoid getting to the task at hand that we are procrastinating about, I cleverly segued into a remark that this was, in fact, a workshop on PROCRASTINATION AND TIME MANAGEMENT, and NOT a typing class.

Excusez-moi. Pardonnez-moi. My bad. I was sweetly informed by a student attending the high school plus college academy that resides on our campus that they were "journaling" as they listened to my presentation, and this a was "required" part of their attendance in this workshop.

Then, just as sweetly, a student in the back piped up "They aren't all journaling. You got a couple a gamers back here".

The only time I did NOT hear the click, click, click of the "journalizers" was when I played this video on procrastination:

Procrastination from ism studios on Vimeo.

Google's giggle

A friend sent me this video, produced by Google, that is pretty funny. Check it out, and be sure to click on the "Try Gmail Motion" button at the end:

A new way to communicate
The mouse and keyboard were invented before the Internet even existed. Since then, countless technological advancements have allowed for much more efficient human computer interaction. Why then do we continue to use outdated technology? Introducing Gmail Motion -- now you can control Gmail with your body.

Sorry, I uploaded it and it was too small, so you don't really see the whole thing. Just click on the link below and you'll get the full effect!

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

SNAP! goes the pencil

This month, I'm presenting a series of workshops for students where I work. The topics were chosen by the students themselves, based on requests by students utilizing the tutoring center. We've got "Test Anxiety" (that was yesterday and again in a couple of weeks, because, really, who doesn't get a little anxious when confronted with a test?); "Procrastination and Time Management" (also offered twice this month, due either to its popularity or statistics on the pervasiveness of it on college campuses, or maybe both); "Oral Presentation Anxiety" (or stage fright), and "Note Taking and Memory Strategies".

I decided I would insert a video with a vivid description of what test anxiety feels like, rather than have the students suffer from "death by PowerPoint". In the regular, semester-long class I teach, I frequently use what 'back in the day' we used to call audio/visual aids, but heretofore will be referred to as 'multimedia'. I found a video that is short, to the point, and short. Really short. Less than one minute of freedom from the "death by PowerPoint".

It's kind of mean, really. I mean, these students came to the workshop because they were all a bundle of nerves to begin with. Of course they know what test anxiety feels like! Did I really find it necessary to shove their faces in it?

Why, yes indeedy, I did. After all, I want to be a "with it" kind of lecturer that uses a multitude of teaching approaches. (As an aside here, being referred to as lecturer is fine...however, I do enjoy being referred to at home as "Professor Mom" or "Dr. Mom", and yes, feel free to bow your head ever-so-slightly, yet reverently, or perhaps a very simple and elegant and, I might add, an almost imperceptible curtsy, like you were meeting the Queen Mum and all.)

So, that said, here's the video (it's short):

Test Anixiety from Eric Sims on Vimeo.