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Between tasks, I decided to join in on the fun this morning. So, here is my gratuitous picture of myself at work (with TweetDeck on my laptop – follow me @markomni):

Yeah, it’s not a good picture, but it certainly is gratuitous.

Also, no more javascript injection on my blog

There once was a time that I posted multiple entries in a day on my blog, and on a regular basis. My most active month on the blog resulted in 30 posts. That was December 2005, the end of my most active year on my blog, averaging almost 19 posts per month (ppm). I slowed down a bit in 2006, averaging just over 11 ppm, and I averaged 14 ppm in 2007. So far in 2008, I have averaged just under 9 ppm. Since may, I have not had more than 7 posts in a single month. December is almost over, I’ve averaged only 2.5 posts per month since September, and that includes this post! I have managed to always have at least 2 ppm since my first post on February 28, 2003.

Then came October of last year. All of a sudden my wife is on Facebook trying to communicate with current and former students. I decided that if my wife had finally bit the bullet on this, I might as well, too. Pretty quickly after setting up my profile on Facebook, I jumped onto Twitter. Between being able to tweet from my cell phone and getting Twitter to update my Facebook status, I had quick access to microblog on-the-go. Unfortunately for my blog, that meant not sitting down and hammering out posts.

This post is itself an example of this. I originally started writing this post in September, but it had sat untouched as a draft since September 25th. Why? Because it was much more convenient to microblog on Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, BrightKite and TwitPic, than it was to open up my WordPress admin page and finish the post. I even found it easier to just share the interesting things I had read in Google Reader, or post links to other cool things using delicious.

Of course, it didn’t help that I was spending eight hours in class every Saturday and an additional five to ten hours per week on homework. So, I guess in addition to Facebook and Twitter, I can blame my lack of blog activity on grad school, too.

We’ll see if I can bring the activity up a little bit during my short break (only to see the activity plummet again in mid-January as the new quarter starts). We’ll see how that goes.

I spent most of today just relaxing in Hersch and Liana’s house. This morning I helped Hersch prep beef in a red wine and tomato sauce, very similar to a beef burgundy. I helped with the broth, watching the water boil before added a stock base. For the most part, I watched him put it all together and do the knife work. He tried to teach me what he was doing, but I knew a lot of the basics already from the many hours of Food Network I have watched, wishing I could do those things myself. After mixing all of the ingredients together by 10:00 a.m., we left it to simmer the rest of the day. I think I have the basics for the dish down, and I might try to make it when I return to Schaumburg. My attempt at it probably won’t taste anywhere near as good.

For the rest of the day, I ran a few errands at the local market between Rock Band sessions and No Country for Old Men. I thought the movie was very well made, but not one that I would watch again any time soon. With Rock Band, I continued playing the drums today and got much better at it. I’m only on medium difficulty right now, but I’m progressing with just about every song I play. I found out that Rock Band has a PS2 version, but there is also a Wii version on the way. I won’t necessarily have to drop $300+ on an XBox 360 or PS3 to enjoy Rock Band later on.

I looked up some things to do in Vancouver, but I am not seeing much I want to do other than general sightseeing up there. I don’t know yet when I’ll head up there, but I think either Thursday or Friday. I don’t think I’ll have time to go on Saturday, and going tomorrow is just too rushed. I think I will try to head downtown and walk around a little. The 10 day forecast says that it will be mostly cloudy tomorrow. That should be OK for walking around.

I think I’ve finally adjusted to Pacific time. I’m going to head up to bed and read before I fall asleep with my laptop burning my legs.

Here are just a few things for tonight:

• I have only been using twitter for a few weeks, but I am to the point where twitter is on the fritz again and I don’t know what to do. It’s the strangest feeling.
• I ordered that Garmin StreetPilot c550 from Buy.com the other day, but they haven’t shipped it yet. I’m going to be leaving for Seattle next Friday, and I’m worried it might not get here in time. Update: According to FedEx, it should arrive on Tuesday.
• Miro has been acting up a lot lately, unexpectedly skipping to the next video, only playing audio for some video, and doing similarly bothersome things. I’m starting to wonder if I should check iTunes for some of the video podcasts I subscribe to in Miro.
• I really want a Drobo, but I can’t justify spending almost $700 for the storage robot and NAS accessory. Even with the $50 off with the “CALI” coupon code, it’s still too expensive for a system that does not come with any disks.
• I haven’t watched tonight’s episode of Lost. My internet just got slow because Miro kicked in. I’ll have to try to watch that tomorrow before I see the other cast of Evita at HEHS. Update: I did watch Lost, and it was pretty good, but not my favorite. They are starting to tread in waters that may be too far off shore to get back.

That’s pretty much it for now. I’m going to try to get some sleep. I’ll be hitting the ICE conference in the morning, checking out what’s new on the educational technology front.

About forty minutes ago, I heard this thump sound from outside. Dixie started barking and ran for the window to see what was going on. I thought nothing of it at first, thinking that perhaps it was just some snow and ice falling from the roof. While I was sitting in the dining room, I could not see out the front window because of the glare from the indoor lights. When Dixie continued to bark, I went to the window to check things out.

(continue reading…)

On most weekdays, I have a morning routine. Assuming my alarm wakes me up, I get up sometime before 7 and hit the bathroom. I pop in my contacts and I shave. It is at this point every morning that I also think to myself, "Self, you should probably just get in the shower now instead of whatever it is you’re going to do." However, I inevitably do what I do next instead of getting into the shower, and this is almost always a timely mistake.

Happy New Year to all! I’m tired and I’m going to sleep for a very long time.