KerryJ’s Neotenous Tech

A tip of the hat to Tim Ferris for unearthing and refining this challenge.

Could I go 21 days without complaining?

I’m not talking about blithely skipping through life with attendant bluebirds twittering near my ears, this is about training one’s brain to solve problems that can be solved and cope with the rest.

The challenge goes like this:

On the first day, wear a bracelet - a rubber band will do as the official ones from http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/ are shipped Ground Post from the US - on your right wrist.  If you get through the day without complaining, swap it to your left wrist the next morning.  Wear it there every day you don’t complain - up to and including Day 21.  If you slip up, move the bracelet back to your right wrist and start again.

What defines a complaint?  I loved Tim’s description:

“Describing an event or person negatively without indicating the next steps to fix the problem.” He also adds using “the usual 4-letter words and other common profanity as complaint qualifiers.” By adding these in, it forces you to re-word, thus forcing awareness and more precise thinking.

So — if you’re in rush hour traffic and you say “God, this is taking forever! I’m never going to get to work, let alone get a parking spot!” — you lose.

If you’re in rush hour traffic and you say “Wow getting to this intersection at 8:20 has taken 20 minutes longer so far than it would normally.  Tomorrow we’re going to get up earlier, beat the traffic in and have time for a quiet cuppa or maybe a quick walk before work.” — you win.

I’m going to give it a go.  Why? Because I can see how complaining, like the phrase “I don’t know”, makes my brain lazy and inefficient.  Plus, I’m always left with a niggling feeling of guilt after I complain.  Especially about a person. And my ranty blog posts are pointless unless I unearth cogent arguments and workable solutions.

So I’ll start right now with one of my chicken pox headbands, and move on to something a bit more fashionable when I’m out of quarantine and back to work. And because I dislike wearing bracelets on my right (mouse) wrist, I’m hoping that will be an incentive to get my brain trained that much more quickly.

Want to play with aspects of Moodle and new plug-ins that you’re not able to at work or on other sites? Come muck around with me!

I’m test driving Dimdim and SLoodle and am looking for Moodle fans to join me in kicking the tyres. If you have plug-ins you want to explore, join the community and let us know.

The site is located at http://thecordlessconnection.com

Cheers!

KerryJ

Despite opposition from numerous quarters, despite facts presented, the Rudd government is going ahead with tests of an ISP-level filter.

With an attitude of utter contempt for the Australian people, the government is not revealing any details that would aid the public in understanding why they feel it is necessary.  In fact, they are making a point of withholding information from the Australian public, point-blank refusing to answer questions and doing a 180 degree turn on the promise that any filter would be opt-out.

In the face of findings that reportedly show the filter system would only slow down the ‘net but not do much good (but how the hell would we know for sure — our tax dollars only PAID FOR THE REPORT, BUT WE’RE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE IT) — the formerly self-styled “fiscal conservatives” running the country are going to blow millions on testing a broken system that will only ensure we remain at the back of the pack.  And with the “global economic downturn” (or GED as they style it) — it doesn’t see to be a good time to be gambling — with either our money or our future.

The internet is, after all, our pipeline in and out for education, commerce, research, entertainment and communication — so why the secrecy? And why the apathy from most of the other parties?

Here’s the Australian article to get you started on your own research into this issue: http://www.theage.com.au/national/internet-censor-scheme-flawed-20081222-73ne.html

It’s so frustrating that the government refuses to treat us with respect on this issue by opening a dialogue. Saying sorry after they’ve wasted money and sent us backwards won’t be good enough.  Though that might be just how the people who voted this government in are starting to feel.

Back in August, Rudd confessed that he believes intelligent design is responsible for the universe.  Pity he doesn’t feel the same way about ISP-level filtering.

Thanks to my colleague Rachel Teasdale-Smith for pointing this faboo little app out to me this morning!

Click on this link to see it in action: http://www.bubblecomment.com/comment.php?id=IbQyv4M0Py

I’ll wait here……

Back?

This is a groovy little app that allows you to enter a URL, record a 30-second video and the application will then overlay the video window on top of the URL when users click on the link.

It was everything you’d want this sort of web app to be — no software to install, easy to use and it worked the first time out.

I can see several ways to use this from both an educators and learner’s perspective!

What a fun way this could be to create web tutorials or tours!  What a great way to get students to record video comments, presentations or for language lessons! There is also a greeting card site that you could lose a few hours in.

Bubblecomment in action

Bubble Comment is located at http://www.bubblecomment.com/

The greeting card site is located at http://www.bubblejoy.com/intro.php

It’s after Thanksgiving and time for all of us of American distraction to write our annual Christmas letters.  The art of balancing between bragging and whining and pitching a missive at people you a)only talk to once per year AND b) those you keep up with regularly is a dying art.

After deciding that this Christmas we were going to limit our spending and try to reduce our impact on the planet, I thought of the $100 plus I spent last year on cards, ink and postage alone.  And all I could really do is fill an A4 sheet with some 11-point font and a few photos.

So this year, I spent a few dollars on a domain name and have set up a password-protected WordPress site for friends and family.

Our Christmas blog

In that site, I’m going to be able to post video, embed Google maps, create galleries of Flickr photos with a click and allow my family and friends to contribute via text or video comments.  If they’re keen enough, I can even make them contributors and give ‘em their own section of the site.

To my mind, this beats the hell out of a double sided A4 sheet shoved in a card.  Plus, next year I can write as things happen — so I don’t have to rack my brain over what we were up to.

All of them are relatively light internet users, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to seduce a few over to the dark side with this.

Your suggestions on plug-ins and/or fun content much appreciated.