September 29, 2008
Any beds at the County Home?
My co-worker noticed this morning that our retirement account website went offline at 9am and was still offline as of late morning. I looked up the company's stock and found a nice big downward spiral had taken place this morning. Needless to say, I now keep a towel at my desk to keep the sweat wiped from my forehead.
September 21, 2008
Lessons from "One Froggy Evening"
The financial crisis got me thinking about this classic cartoon: "One Froggy Evening". This video should be required viewing for all individuals in the finance industry in the hopes of educating them on the repercussions of greed and the lure of quick and easy money.
September 12, 2008
My First Real Political Post
I'm a dedicated political independent. I abhor the idea of political parties and liken them to joining a sorority or fraternity where a group decides the platform for the individual. I can think of nothing more anti-American. Some issues have me leaning more Left, some more Right and some very much Libertarian.
I usually keep quiet about my vote for President. I made a decision fairly early in this primary race that I would cast my vote for Obama. I held this as a personal decision and didn't necessarily evangelize or campaign or make any kind of public big deal out of it. It was MY preference and MY choice.
Ultimately I have always held the opinion that regardless of who gets into the office, change is on the individual and a president can never truly have any real effect on an individual's quality of life and the life of the community within which that person has direct effect on and so on and so on. It's a ground up approach to change. The effect of a president on an individual's quality of life, from what I generally see in my own conversations, is usually people scapegoating for their own bad decisions.
This all ended last night as I watched excerpts from the Sarah Palin video. I just about had a fit as I witnessed just how adamant Palin and her elk are for Georgia joining NATO and that we, the USA, would subsequently defend any NATO member with force. Are they f***ing nuts? I'm all for picking up arms and fighting when necessary but NOT in defense of Georgia. The only Georgia that I or anyone in my family or community will ever wholeheartedly defend is full of peaches and is in the American south. I bounced this off my neighbors last night to gauge their reaction and theirs was of similar shock and staunch refusal that people would ever voluntarily take on the kind of fight that would be necessary against the likes of Russia just to defend the liberty of Georgia. G_d bless the Georgians and all but they are on their own.
The Republican hollering about Democrats expanding the size of government and my tax burden is a complete smokescreen. Sure, some in tax brackets far above mine will see increased taxes under the Dems but the government size issue comes out a wash. It seems more and more that the government will increase in size and intrusion into the lives of everyday people regardless of the party. It's more about the cosmetics of that intrusion. Would you rather it goes to community programs and entitlements or to the executive branch picking fights that will lead to an endless string of small and/or G_d forbid massive military conflicts.
I can heartily assure our insulated Federal politicians who so comfortably live privileged lives on the East coast that the people of Appalachia and I would presume many other locations throughout "flyover country" don't, and never have seen enough benefit, if any, from our Federal government to send our countrymen out to die for their global experiments in fight picking.
September 04, 2008
Deer in the headlights
If you watched any of the Sarah Palin speech last night, you saw the incredibly uncomfortable footage of Levi Johnston, the steakhead boyfriend of Palin's daughter, who consistently looked like a deer in a leg hold trap caught in headlights. Little did he know when he went poking around that beehive five months ago that his ass would end up sucked into the machine of American Politics. Sucks to be him.
Frankenstein Replica
OK. Too much politics yesterday. Now for something completely different, Eddie Van Halen's guitar...or actually guitar replica. I'm not into the whole artist endorsing instruments crap but this short film on the replica of Eddie's famous Frankenstein guitar is pretty cool just for getting some of the history of the real guitar from the artist himself.
Old Eddie looks and sounds about like a bum who lives under the bridge after years of smoking and alcohol abuse but there is no taking from him the influence he had on rock. In fact, in my opinion Van Halen is one of the last three great game changing American rock bands along with the Ramones and finally Nirvana being the last.
VH had such an influence on my youth that I can actually remember where I was the first time FM 104 in Toledo played the entire Women and Children First Album. I also remember where I was the first time I held the vinyl and saw the WACF album cover. In fact, I was at the house of one of the readers of this blog when I first held that vinyl. (hint hint Matt) I might also mention that the first time I heard Michael Jackson's Thriller album was with that same individual. :-)
Eddie Van Halen Frankenstein Replica Film
September 03, 2008
McCain Voice Mail leak
A flat out hilarious fake:
McCain's Voice Mail to Palin Leaked to Press
Sarah Palin Photo
Regardless of who you support, there has to be a certain level of disappointment that this pic is Photoshopped. For those on the right, this photo represented the hunting buddy they always wished they had. For those on the left, it verified the branding of Sara as a "gun nut." For me it represents a couple minutes of gut-busting laughter in its randomness. Check out the guy in the background drinking Schlitz and smoking a butt.
September 02, 2008
Flush over function
This is a blog post I put on my work blog today. I though it might be appropriate here too:
This kiddy training potty is a shining example of bells and whistles being chosen over effective learning architecture. My wife and I purchased this “nifty “ unit that lights up and talks thinking that it would make potty training more engaging for our two-year-old daughter. I quickly came to find that all the lights and voices were actually working against my daughter learning to successfully use the toilet.
I could go down a list of how the designers of this product got it wrong but ultimately, it comes down to improper formative feedback given out randomly and not supporting and re-directing the actual decisions and/or actions of the learner.
The designers built a triggering system into the seat with a couple of states, on and off. When in the on state, (ie. butt on seat) the device gives messages like “going potty is fun” and other cutesy little things. OK, there’s nothing wrong with that aside from being rather annoying over and over. Here is the real problem: once the child get’s off the seat and triggers the off state, the potty says, “You did it! You went potty!” My reaction the first time was horror!
As every parent knows, this is not the case in the beginning of potty training and as of yet my child has NOT gone potty but has consistently been given feedback stating otherwise every time. So while the little toilet voice is giving its inaccurate feedback, I am trying to revise it and tell my daughter that she made a good try but next time it would be even better if “pee pee” went in the potty. Still the cutesy voice and celebration lights in the potty had me beat. It was cooler and more “engaging” than Dad.
I think you can see where I am going with this. The very same example can be applied to larger learning initiatives for adult learners where we get sucked into technologies that ultimately don’t adhere to sound learning architecture and either provide no feedback or inaccurate feedback due to system, design or content limitations and shortcomings.
Feedback is where it’s at…Get it right!