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The NFB (National Film Board of Canada) has just released an app for iPhones and iPods. I have been watching all my old favourites.
This one never fails to crack me up – if you substitute the piano for a computer you get a pretty good idea of how I wrote my dissertation. It is a wonder that I ever finished!!!
I signed up for a Twitter account ages ago, but still haven’t been able to figure out what the hype is all about. I enjoy blogging and facebooking and other online applications, but Twitter just seems a little dull to me. I want to like it — if only because the cute little bird on the logo is, well, just so. darn. cute.
Given how popular Twitter is I figure I must be missing something. I understand the basics of it, I think, but I just don’t find it all that interesting. Maybe there are ways to use it that I haven’t thought of yet — anyone care to share?
This morning I started doing a little online spring cleaning. (The dire need for the old fashioned version of spring cleaning in my house and yard is a totally different post). I noticed that I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by online stuff lately. My inbox is overflowing, I’ve always got 1000+ new feeds in my Google Reader, etc., etc. These kinds of tools are great, but I suspect I’m not the only one that has gone a little overboard in subscribing for feeds and updates. This stops now.
I spent the morning cleaning out my subscriptions on Google Reader. I re-organized folders, deleted subscriptions that no longer interested me and tried to declutter so that this goes back to being a functional tool instead of another source of angst. We’ll see how long this sense of digital cleanliness lasts!
I did it. I said I would never do it, but I did. I am now the proud owner of a macbook. hmmm… I knew it would be a good system, but there have been certain people in my life who have been, well, so darn obnoxious about their macs that I swore I’d never go over to the “dark side” just on principle. (note to my friends with macs — I’m not talking about you! 
)
I have a wonderful HP notebook called “Huey” (my dad named him) that I love. I mean, I LOVE Huey. I take him everywhere with me and he makes me happy. Huey just celebrated his 3rd birthday and I know that in laptop years that means he is a senior citizen. I didn’t want to wait until Huey was sick to get a new computer, I thought it would be better to get a new laptop while Huey was still happy and healthy to avoid the “ohmygodijustlostallmyfiles” panic. So, I knew I’d be getting a new system soon. Factor in the crappiness of Windows Vista and the awesomeness of Scrivener, and it was pretty much a no-brainer decision.
So, I’ve spent the day figuring out how Anna, my new macbook, works. So far so good!
Over at Read/WriteWeb there are two great posts discussing e-learning tools. All very exciting stuff!
And on the subject of e-learning, I am going to try having course blogs for the first time this year, although it is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. The blog for each course will be a central portal for information, handouts, pdfs of slide shows and other such things, but I’m also hoping it will be a space where students share their ideas about topics covered in class. I think when studying topics like visual culture, where there are so many different ways of thinking about images and ideas, space for exchange and dialogue is essential. I know that not everyone is comfortable speaking up in class, so the blog will provide an alternative way of discussing themes related to the class.
I’ve got several ideas for new research projects I want to pursue, but am feeling all over the map right now. I’m looking up a wide range of different topics, jotting notes in multiple notebooks and trying, of course, to fit this in amongst my other work such as course prep and admin stuff. I sometimes only have a few minutes a day to work on these projects and, inevitably, I return to my notes after spending the day doing something else and thinking “what was I going to do here?.” I’ve got scraps of paper in my laptop bag, notebooks full of scribbles in my on-campus office, post-it notes all over my home office and inter-library loan material in the car. It’s a mess! In short, I need to get a system to keep myself on track! It was so much simpler when I was writing my dissertation. I had one project, one work space and one goal. Even if I fell into a few days of procrastination I still knew where all my materials were, where I’d left off and what direction I was going in with the research/writing. I didn’t realize at the time what a luxury that was!
Anyhow, I have been thinking for a while about how I would like a piece of software to manage my random thoughts and jots. I have heard wonderful things about Scrivener, but it is only for Macs. I don’t have a Mac and I don’t want a Mac, but I really, really want Scrivener! If I end up with a Mac sometime in the near future it will be entirely because my desire for Scrivener has taken over. We’re not there yet though, and I’m holding out hope that I can find a comparable PC product. I’ve tried out Writer’s Café which seems like it might do the trick. I’ve also just downloaded Liquid Story Binder which also looks like it would be good. Liquid Story Binder appears to have a few more bells & whistles which may or may not be a good thing depending on the time it takes to learn how to use it.
Anyone have any other suggestions for a PC user who needs to get organized?
We’re back from our little jaunt over to Montreal, Ottawa and Kingston. The main purpose of the trip was to see some of the gardens that I’m writing about while they are in full August bloom. I also got to do two things that I have been wanting to do for a long time: 1)attend International Flora Montréal and 2)see one of Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds exhibitions. We also managed to work in a little kayaking while we were in Kingston. It was quite the week and I’ve got no shortage of things I want to write about, but today is all about getting unpacked and doing laundry.
In the meantime, I wanted to post the link to Digital Arts & Humanities, a very neat resource exploring ideas, issues and applications in the world of Digital Humanities. I’ve spent most of the evening checking it out and following the various links.
Like many people I have become utterly dependant upon my laptop — I use it for work and play. It has my photos, my documents, my music and my games on it. I even use it to talk to people on the phone via Skype (see previous post about the dropped cell phone calls in our new house). My beautiful little HP laptop (who was given the name “Huey” by my dad) is about a year and a half old. Not that old at all, but a little worrying as Huey is no longer on warranty. I’ve had a few friends and colleagues who have spent countless hours trying to restore data after something bad happened to their laptops. I occasionally go on a fit of burning data to CDs after hearing about one of these incidents and then, inevitably, become less vigilant about doing backups until I hear about the next tale of computer meltdown woe.
I mentioned this to a friend the other day, and she told me about Mozy. Mozy is an online backup system that you can configure to automatically back up your files for you. You decide what you want backed up and the frequency of the backups, it does the rest. This is brilliant! Simply brilliant! And the best thing is that Mozy is free. Well, you get 2GB of free storage space and can pay to upgrade if you want more space. This absolutely makes my day and gives me peace of mind in the event something dreadful happens to Huey. I really hope something dreadful doesn’t happen to Huey though as I’ve grown rather fond of him.
