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Monday January 23, 2006 6:00 am Ballina NSW

A. Morning Musings

6:00 am The coffee is on and the sky is just becoming light. I am looking forward to today. I have four websites (Home, Journals, Technology and Literature) ready to upload to the web server this morning. We will be in Lismore just as the shops open at 9:30 am and I hope to have an ethernet connection at the university by 10 and to be finished by noon. In addition to the working on the four web sites (a number of links will have to be created between the four sites) this will be an opportunity to handle some of the items on my Ideas/ToDos list that require web access.

  • Post a message to my blog on "Self-directed Learning and the Web". I will do this as soon as I have my URL working.
  • View Castello cheese site: www.tholstrup.com and look for information on importing their product into Lethbridge.
  • Revise Technology web site & upload to web server.
  • Google the Web for a site that describes the "bicycle" abdominal routine and place this on my Journal page.
  • Look for information on a 3-CD package of Woodie Guthrie music. (called The Machine?). Check with store next week.
  • Revise Literature web site & upload to web server.
  • Review digital cameras and camcorders.
  • Add links on each Journal page to the appropriate Notebook pages for that day.
  • Add links on each Notebook page to the appropriate Journal pages for that day.
  • Locate Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" on the Web & read it.
  • Locate Lord Byron's "Don Juan" on the Web & read it.

I presently have 27 items on my list of tasks to engage in this month. If I can complete the 11 targetted items today, that will only leave 16. Of these 16, 9 will definitely be ongoing for some time. But that leaves the following 7 as being legitimate targets for this week:

  • Update Birds website for this visit to Australia.
  • Read & make notes for "The Story of the Stone" vol. 1.
  • Begin specific bird watching trips.
  • Follow "Chapter 1 Getting Started with Stylus Studio" online documentation.
  • Go bird watching on lighthouse trail at Byron Bay.
  • Redo scanned History mind maps using Mind Genius.
  • Read "Dumbo feather, pass it on." Issue 7.

I am intrigued at how hitting the quota for Internet access last week has affected my style. Previously I would have checked my email and handled a couple of web-related activities. This morning I am leaving everything until I arrive at the university. I am very fortunate to have the account, and a room in the School of Education, that gives me this access.

I am also intrigued how deciding to put these web sites on a server has motivated me to "clean-up" the sites that I have on my hard drive. Many of these Notebook sites, as well as the Journals, go back 2 -4 years in some form. Setting up a set of clean sites specifically for 2006 is an idea that (a) modularizes my web sites into bite-size chunks, (b) makes it accessible to others (at least the friends that I have emailed), (c) provides an ongoing example of how one might use the Web to monitor and engage in Learning activities, (d) provides a pilot project for retirement. The major foreseeable change is to repackage the approach for all of this into an XML-based system. I hope to have this completed before we leave Australia in May. Another foreseeable change is to move more extensively into multimedia and video.

However I must also strive for balance. That means having many non-technology activities and goals as well. Bird-watching, trying new recipes, exercise and walking, reading fiction, visiting new places, working on my model-train layout with DCC and camping with the 5th wheel all come to mind. 6:50 am

B. Plan

6:20 am Chores: None come to mind.

Exercise: Tummy exercises & beach walk.

Technology: Upload 4 web sites to web server; handle above list of web-dependent tasks

Literature: Read & make notes for chapters 20 & 21.

History: Read chapter 2 of Ideas.

Food, Mathematics, Art and Drawing will not be active. 6:30 am

C. Actual

9:30 am I am at the university and connected to the Web with an ethernet cable.

9:45 am All four web sites have been loaded onto the web server at the University of Lethbridge. Superb! A high speed connection is wonderful. Now to update all of the links among the pages. This may take awhile. Done. 11:15 am

11:15 am Begin list of web-dependent task identified earlier this morning. Here is a URL for the abdominal exercises:

Coleridge's "Khubla Khan"

Byron's "Don Juan"

3:30 PM Back in Ballina. We stopped off and picked up an order of fish & chips for lunch. We phoned Gayle and had a good catch-up on her trip.

I continue to tinker with the layout for these pages. One concern that I have is with navigation. Sometimes one may be viewing a Journal page and at other moments a Notebook page. I have embedded all the Notebook pages with a bright green background and have put a heading of "Journal Pages" at the top of each page. 4:20 PM

4:30 PM I have successfully uploaded the revised "green" Journals web site. Time for a beach walk. 5:00 PM

7:50 PM I am just reviewing some of the web pages to see if I notice any problems. Right off the bat I looked at the image of the map on the Home page and felt that it was blurry. I tried a few different formats and finally realized that if I saved it as a png file it would remain as clear as the original Inspiration file. 8:20 PM

D. Reflection

9:40 PM Not a bad day. I continue to make progress getting my web sites in order. I am still playing with a few formatting options in an attempt to easily distinquish between the Journal and Notebook pages. I will have another look at this tomorrow.

Exercise: Tummy stuff and a beach walk. Done.

Technology: I have posted four web sites: Technology, Mathematics, Literature, History. However I need to review these pages looking for errors and problems.

Literature: Read chapter 21 of "The Story of the Stone". 9:55 PM