Day: July 18, 2021

My Week Ending 2021-07-18

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.

Sunday

  • This is an interesting addition to the Opera browser for Android. It not works like a full desktop browser on Chromebooks so you do have a legitimate replacement for the Chrome browser if you wish
  • If you’re a fan of Mind Maps or know that you can use them in your class, here is a collection of templates

Monday

  • Youtube takes down a Donald Trump video – where were they when he was president?
  • A sad commentary on the role of student trustees who are basically there as eye candy

Tuesday

  • Personally, I think this is the best thing that schools and universities/colleges can do – require everyone who is onsite to be vaccinated
  • To defeat hackers, you need to think like a hacker – here’s a course designed to help you

Wednesday

  • After hitting the homerun that he did, it was a no-brainer for Vladimir Guerrero Jr to be declared the MVP
  • Places in Ontario that you might want to visit how that things are starting to open up

Thursday

  • Cloud PCs from Microsoft? Will they compete with Chromebooks? When you do a CTRL-ALT-DEL, does everyone reboot?
  • For many of us, we have one history of the Alamo and it turns out that there are more sides to that story

Friday

  • Yeah, whatever did happen to IBM’s Watson?
  • This is a lead for all schools for September; get rid of those window fans and do ventilation properly

Saturday

  • If you missed Clippy, don’t worry – it/she/he is coming back
  • Both Windsor Hospitals recently got flooded out and yet there is still a group that fighting to not build a new one

Blog Posts on
doug — off the record

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

#FollowFriday – July 16, 2021

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

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about esports, 215, jobs in education, inspiration in writing, and Z.

Featured bloggers:

  • @marthajez
  • @FCLedu
  • @sbruyns
  • @TerryWhitmell
  • @TESLOntario
  • @THOMLYNN101
  • @7GenerationsEd
https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/e-sports-epic-battles-the-letter-z-and-more/

Opening Song:

Closing Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

This is something that I keep thinking that an internet search would find an answer to easily.

It’s been three or four oil changes in my wife’s Jeep that this has happened. There’s a reset to tell the computer that the oil has been complete and the technician didn’t reset it. As a result, she gets a warning every time she starts the jeep.

So, she takes it back to the dealership and the receptionist sits in the driver’s seat and does some combination of things to do the rest. Sort of like working on a computer.

I should learn what needs to be done but the urge goes away once the receptionist works her magic. Maybe now that I’ve written in down?

Video of the Week

Actually, it’s pretty easy …

Photo of the Week

With all the rain, my pump has a pool of its own.

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. 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.

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Whatever happened to …

by dougpete, posted in OTR

… Crimpline!

My shirt today may actually be made of crimplene, a miracle fabric from the 70s. Easy to cut, sew, wash, no wrinkles – but unbelievably ugly:) This made me think of – whatever happened to sewing your own clothes? At Walkerville one year for our musical My Fair Lady we even had to all sew our own costume for Ascot Gavotte. Same pattern, different sizes, all black or white. Very swish:)

This appeared in the “Whatever happened to …” Padlet as a suggestion for a post. It’s listed as anonymous but the reference to Walkerville gives me a hint as to who the author was.

It’s actually got two great suggestions so I’ll cover them both.

Crimpline and later in the suggestion Crimplene and a DuckDuckGo search reveals results with both spellings. If you want a picture and a commentary, check out this blog post. That will take you back.

I’d like to say that I took a pass on this but I seem to remember a purple shirt that my girlfriend at the time gave me for a birthday present. Of course, I had to wear it all the time. The positive was that it didn’t need ironing. Just wash and hang and it was ready to go. It didn’t shrink which was great but it also didn’t breathe and I remember some very uncomfortable summer days wearing it. Synthetic materials were all the rage for the positive reasons and for bright colours too.

Trying my best to be an accurate blogger, I took a tour through the clothing section at Walmart to see if I could see something created with this wonder material. I was unsuccessful; I wonder if I had gone to a second hand store if I’d be successful. After all, it never shrunk or lost its colouring …

Patterns

This one actually hit home with me. My mother was an excellent seamstress and could create remarkable things with her sewing machine. I remember that when we added the upper bedrooms, the old bedroom my brother and I shared became the sewing room. She had this entire chest full of patterns. They were from different manufacturers but I do seem to recollect one brand name – Simplicity. It was a nice home job for her but I do recall that almost all of the sewing was done for women. And, before iron on patches, my brother and I often had patches sewn onto the knees of our pants. In order for all this to work, you have to have access to a store that sold material by the yard/metre and there was one in Goderich that fit the bill.

So, for me these days … I tend to say a hard no to synthetic materials for clothes and will opt for 100% cotton. I will say that’s becoming more and more difficult; I suspect that it really cuts the costs to throw in synthetic materials. I do find keeping an eye on the specials at Marks keeps me in style. Or at least covered. Over the years, I’ve attended many conferences and have a huge collection of branded conference t-shirts and golf shirts that are my fashion statement, for the most part.

And, as for patterns, we do have a sewing machine in the house but it’s used for repairs. Clothing has become so inexpensive that it just doesn’t make sense to make it from scratch – although I will tell you that in East Windsor there is a huge Fabricland store with a nice big parking lot you can walk around if you’re not the fabric shopping type and your wife is. There’s also a Walmart and a Winners store there so you do have options.

For a Sunday, you have a choice of topics to reminisce about. Or, maybe both!

  • have you ever worn crimplene? Don’t forget your disco days
  • do you still own anything made from crimplene? Is it available for purchase anywhere?
  • does your school offer plays with costumes? Where do you get them?
  • for the home sewers (first of all, stop laughing – there are multiple meanings for that word), do you create from scratch?
  • what other pattern makers can you remember?
  • I’m guessing that any home creators are more likely to knit. I worked with a talented person who has her own website. I notice the term acrylic used there to describe her yarn
  • do you have a sewing machine in your house?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

And, if you have an idea for a future post, please reach out to me or leave in on the Padlet like Anonymous did.

OTR Links 07/18/2021

by dougpete, posted in Links

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