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Page 1
This page last updated on: Thursday, March 31, 2011 4:28 PM
This web site is not really a personal blog. It is a personal way of trying to bring a little structure to what could be a structureless life-style (i.e. retirement). The focus is on keeping track of my interests and activities and how well the two are coordinated. As such it is more like a form of time management.
The above was written as I struggle with the idea of moving to a much simpler approach. My worry is that if I stop the present form of record keeping then I will lose some of the feedback information that I have been accumulating over the last few years. Then again, so what? Is that information really useful? Short answer: no.
Yet I think I need to have some approach that leaves a few bread crumbs of where I have been as well as a rough map of where I would like to go.
Let's think about the bread crumbs. I like keeping a list of the books I read.
At the moment I have 2 additional web sites: one for geocaching and one for model trains.
The original idea behind the model train site was to provide a realistic record of what is really involved in creating a model train layout. There are 2 wildly different approaches that one might take to doing this. One is the approach I have taken where I identify the various components of the hobby (building the layout, running the trains, electrical wiring, track design, trouble-shooting, historical reading, ...). The other approach is a simple narrative where I describe what I am doing at the moment.
In the case of geocaching, the intent was to provide some additional information on the challenge of particular searches as well as some photographs of the activity. The geocaching.com web site provides an excellent record of what caches have been found. The other approach is a simple narrative where I describe what I am doing at the moment.
The narrative approach has much to commend it. Simple, clean, and less time-consuming. The latter is an important consideration. Better to spend time doing than to spend time talking about doing.
Suppose I begin each day with a "blank screen" and simply jot down whatever I feel like whenever I want (much like I am doing at the moment). That takes care of the narrative. Another advantage is that I no longer need to think about web authoring. A simple word processor with a capability of inserting images (primarily photos) should be adequate. And a method for uploading to the Web. I do not want to get into blogging or social networking. The pages would only be seen by family and a few close friends.
I have just created a new document with Word: just a blank page with a few words on it. It is a trivial matter to save it as a web page. Then I could use a little program like Fetch to upload this to a web server. Done.
But it looks so bare!
As a minimum I want some form of personalized stationery: perhaps a border, maybe a few headings like the formatting for time that I used to start this section. I like the small photo of me (the modern equivalent of a hand print on a cave wall) to remind me of me. Narcissism? Maybe. But it is nice to see who is creating the page. The medium is also part of the message. I like to see a photo of the author of a book I am reading. I also like to see page numbers (or something like that) that helps me have a sense of context.
Having had a quick look at my three web sites (daily journals, geocaching, model trains) I see that I want of quick index that allows me to jump from one entry to another. The calendar does this quite well, although it does not allow one to follow a particular thread.
Now the water is getting murky. Do I want to keep track of threads such as model trains, or birding, or mathematics? Suppose I say yes. This is a classic database situation. I want to select all records that have a particular word or phrase in them.
I have had a long look at my Filemaker Pro database software. There is provision for placing a database on the web with full functionality but the overall formatting is pretty well limited to the placement of information within cells.
Now to have another look at web searching. A quick search using google identifies a number of approaches but most of these involve additional costs. Not an option.
Another approach, which is relatively straight-forward in to create index pages for each thread. The new website would then contain a master index with links to each thread index. The thread index would contain links to each section of a page that is relevant to the thread.
Main items for today:
| Time | Category |
Regular Activities |
| Technology | Consider creating a new web site | |
| Literature | Continue reading Ian McEwan's "Solar". |
Date Identified |
Category | Future To Dos |
2010.07.21 |
Science | Science: review books on Leonardo da Vinci |
2010.07.21 |
Science | Science: prepare mind map for geology |
2010.07.22 |
Science | Science: Memorise dates for geology timeline |
2010.07.23 |
Science | Science: Read "Geology Road Tours" p. 50 - 99 |
2010.07.23 |
Science | ScienceRead "Canada Rocks", ch. 3 p. 60 - 77 |
2010.07.24 |
Science | Continue reading "Extinction" by Douglas H. Erwin |
2010.07.24 |
Science | Continue reading "Ecology & Wonder" by Robert William Sandford |
2010.08.01 |
History | Begin reading "The Writings of David Thompson" by William Moreau (Ed.) |
2010.08.09 |
Technology | Edit 2010 iPhoto files and burn a backup DVD |
2010.10.01 |
Technology | Begin using STELLA to create models of learning |
2010.10.01 |
Geocaching | Reach the 1000 "Finds" target |
2010.10.01 |
Psychology | Handwriting journal |
2010.10.02 |
Technology | Play with My Memories electronic scrapbooking software |
2010.10.06 |
Science |
Continue reading "The Earth Machine" by Edmond A. Mathez & James D. Webster |
2010.11.20 |
Puzzles | Go |
Link to report on actual Learning activities for March 31.