Month: May 2020

My Week Ending 2020-05-31

by dougpete, posted in Just Rambling

Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

  • I found this interesting as many professional organizations will be looking to move their conferences online. Can you do it for free?
  • I got them all! This is a little quiz to see if you can name the country by identifying a landmark.
  • I always felt that my greatest inspiration for learning a new programming language was having to teach it. It can be a struggle; can students learn it quicker than me?
  • There are indeed students who are thriving learning online. What about them? Can we make assumptions from the past couple of months as we move forward?
  • Great news for Android and Chrome OS users. You can now use Krita on your device.
  • Here’s a walk along memory lane to look at Windows 1. Were you a learner? I know that I was.
  • I really don’t understand why resuming parliament is such a big deal. Schools have continued using technology. You don’t have to physically be there. If our politicians are concerned about access, privacy, tools, ability to connect, they’d sink in a classroom with young children. Maybe they’ll realize that we have a problem throughout the country.
  • You know that your processor is moving into the big time when Linus Torvalds embraces it. Success for AMD.
  • Personally, I find dark mode so easy on my eyes and increases the amount of time that I’m comfortable working on a computer. So, the darker the better for me.
  • Canadian manufacturers are stepping up with their own hand sanitizers. Here are nine of them.
  • Darwin had a theory. He’d have a whale of a time commenting on how these people are wearing facemasks.
  • Are you old enough to remember Wile E. Coyote? Why did he have a name but the Roadrunner didn’t? Want to see a coyote and roadrunner in real life?
  • Stories like this appease long time keyboard users like me who are really comfortable without having to move my hands to use a mouse just to do something simple like opening a new tab.
  • It’s interesting to read how 5G will make things so much better. If there’s one thing that should be taken away from COVID times is that we need universal access. We’re nowhere near that for everyone yet.
  • Virtual field trips should be using this opportunity to step up. The value of these can only accelerate as a way to bring all students on a trip not that renting that big yellow bus isn’t an option.
  • They never mention issues like this on the Heavy Rescue 401 show. Whoever gets there first, gets the job, I guess.
  • As things start to open up, people will need to evaluate what destination will be safe and which are riskier. There’s a nice range here.
  • So, we’re going to have a virtual Canada Day around here. What’s happening in your world?
  • There are lessons for the world to be had here. South Korea started up their schools and then had to shut them down.

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – May 29, 2020

https://wke.lt/w/s/b1jpwO

voicEd Radio

This week on voicEd Radio, guest host Aviva Dunsiger, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about mindfulness, return to math, fathers, poetry, and self-regulation lessons.

This week’s show – https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/from-mindfulness-to-mathematics-fathers-to-fidgets-and-more/

Intro Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here.

Blog posts this week came from:

  • Safina Hirji – @SafinaHirji
  • Mark Chubb – @MarkChubb3
  • Amanda Potts – @Ahpotts
  • Will Gourley – @WillGourley
  • Aviva Dunsiger – @avivaloca

Technology Troubleshooting

I had a frustrating time with my ear buds this week. Only the one on the left was working well. I went through a long process of trouble shooting and was going to cover it here.

It turned out that it was pretty long so I turned it into a full blown blog post.

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/2020/05/27/sounds-better/

It was the first time I’d used the expression “wax sucker” in a post.

Video of the Week

Maybe a project for our own bird feeder for next winter?

Photo of the Week

A reminder to stop and smell the irises. Or iris. Conflicting data on what the plural of iris is.

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.

Advertisement

Whatever happened to …

by dougpete, posted in Just Rambling

… speed limits?

Thanks to Sheila Stewart for her inspiration for this post. It was just a query that she had thrown out on Facebook – asking if speed limits were still relevant these days.

Have 40 km safety zones become irrelevant in the pandemic and with schools closed? Silly me for observing them still? Got cut off by impatient drivers in two zones today

Sheila Stewart

Perhaps a little tongue in cheek but it got me thinking.

In the news around here, there have been reports of some people being stopped and charged with stunt driving. As we talked about it, we figured that it might be as a result of fewer cars on the road. Particularly on the 401 in Kent County, it’s flat, flat and almost an invitation to try your vehicle out at top speeds when you have the road all to yourself.

Five years ago now (gasp!) I had written this post “Observations of a Dog Walker“. The observations from the past are still true today.

I live on a Class B country road so we don’t have a whole lot of options for dog walks. From the driveway, it’s just North or South. Typically, we head North carefully because the speed limit is 80 km/h. At the crossroads, we can head East because it takes us by an elementary school and a park. Consequently, the speed limit drops to 60 km/h. In normal times, most drivers observe the speeds but it seems like more and more of them are taking their lead from those in Sheila’s world!

Also in normal times, in the morning, there appears periodically an unmarked police cruiser (you can tell by the hubcaps) and that serves to moderate the speeds. But, it’s literally been months since I’ve seen one there. Speeds do indeed seem to have increased.

For a Sunday morning, your thoughts please …

  • have speed limits indeed been suspended at this time and Sheila and I missed the memo?
  • do you slow down for schools and community safety zones?
  • I’ve always suspected that there’s a +/- with the posted limit. Is there?
  • on the 401, Ontario is experimenting with 110 km/h zones. Is this a good idea? Are our 400 series of highways ready for higher speeds?
  • are you observing people being a little less observant of speed limits these days, particularly in community safety zones?
  • do you get road rage when someone is right on your rear bumper or swerves in front of you?

As always, please share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks.

Around here, we dig into memories on Sunday mornings. You can view all the past posts here.

This post appears on:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com

If you read it anywhere else, it’s not the original.

OTR Links 05/31/2020

by dougpete, posted in Links

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Vacation – lost?

by dougpete, posted in Just Rambling

This summer, we were planning on a vacation that would have taken us to Eastern Canada. Just where, we hadn’t decided. One of our favourite television shows is Hudson and Rex and the shots of the background supposedly in and around St. John’s is spectacular.

On the other hand, at the Bring IT, Together Conference in Niagara Falls, I had a conversation with my friend Alana who gave me a virtual tour of Prince Edward Island and had me convinced that that would be an awesome destination instead.

Of course, we could do both.

But the reality is that we won’t be able to do either. And, we get that and have come to grips with it. I don’t think that I would welcome visitors during this time either.

So, what’s the alternative?

We’ve always had one kind of major trip for vacation but spend the rest of the summer enjoying a Staycation. Within minutes, there are fabulous things to do right here in Essex and Kent Counties.

The list, and it’s not inclusive, of things that we might normally enjoy:

  • Explore the Shore
  • Art in the Park
  • Art by the River
  • Art at the Marina
  • Amherstburg’s Gone Car Crazy
  • Harrow Fair
  • Comber Fair
  • Essex Fun Fest
  • Lasalle Strawberry Festival
  • Tecumseh Corn Festival
  • Ribfest
  • Ruthven Apple Festival
  • Point Pelee National Park
  • Fort Malden National Historic Site
  • Amherstburg Freedom Museum
  • Carousel of Nations
  • Anything that involves fireworks!
  • Canada Day Festival
  • Shows a Casino Windsor
  • Walks at the King’s Navy Yard, Cypher Systems Group Greenway, Colchester and Belle River Marinas, Sadler’s Pond, Erieau
  • Dresden Raceway
  • Leamington Raceway
  • Buxton Raceway
  • and probably much more…

We follow the Tourism Windsor-Essex website and when there’s something that looks interesting, we’ll see if we can swing it.

It’s so sad to take a look around and see the events that are either cancelled or postponed. It’s also inspirational that some of the events are still “on” and some like “Explore the Shore” you could make a modified version on your own.

The bottom line to all these things that might normally be an easy day/afternoon outing is the elephant in the room – will there be crowds and would you better off staying away? In a typical summer, it would be a matter of accommodating the dog and then heading out. I suspect a lot of Staycation will be chez Peterson.

What are your thoughts about the summer ahead? Do you have vacations that have been highjacked, cancelled, modified? What does a Staycation look like in your world?

OTR Links 05/30/2020

by dougpete, posted in Links

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.