Welcome to 2009!

The first few days of January is often a time of resolutions and at times impulsive and unrealistic expectations. But I feel pretty good about the ones we made in 2008.  Trip down memory lane…

Getting rid of debt was a major theme for the year while still having fun! So on that note, by December 31, 2008.

• Paid off the car loan!
• All wedding debt – gone
• All credit card debt – gone

I am on the fence about online classes.

I fully support continuing education and of course mostly everything online. Haven’t walked into a bank in years, love that Safeway delivers and me and the iphone have an almost unhealthy relationship … almost.

I took my very first online class this semester. I usually take classes at least once a year, anything from fused glass fun, Indesign, Linux and of course Thai cooking. (yum!). This time I took a javascript class.

For the most part it was a disappointment. And it has nothing to do with the online aspects. The interface is clean: the enrollment, grades, tests, options to talk to fellow students all very easy and  good usability.

The problem I had was with the instructor.   I got the impression he wrote up this class several years ago and it just goings through the motions. His lessons plans were covered with typos.  Assigments and examples that were appropriate for Netscape 4 just wont work on modern browsers. And really why do I want to edit the status bar?  Hello 1995!  

As I wrote to him, I think he just needs to fresh up his online course.  He is very attentive and responds quickly to questions. But he needs to gauge how his students are doing, often his possible solutions were far more advanced than the class.

So even though the class helped, the idea of online classes was a bit discouraging.  I asked a few coworkers who were taking other online classes and they were having a blast and they learned a lot.  This was encouraging, so I signed up for another online class Spring semester.

Posting from the iPhone after installing a cool app!

Love the iPhone!

 So I am driving home the other day, the car in front of me goes into the lane on the left and stops at the light.  So that when the light turns green he can turn left.  One small problem,  that lane is for the opposite side.  I guess he didn’t really see or feel the double yellow bump lines.  Although I was behind him, I slowed down and stayed several car lengths behind him.  I honked the horn a few times, but he didn’t seem to notice.   It was really lucky that as the cars from the other two lanes turned left  they were able to slow down and not hit him.  What is it about the start of the rain season makes people even  more unaware of their surroundings?

Just got this email:

Dear {me}
I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has
been short-listed for inclusion in the fifth edition of our
Schmap New Orleans Guide, to be published at the end of
October 2008.

Sweet!  Here is the pic they are referrring to:

The Beauregard-Keyes House in New Orleans is a Greek Revival home that was built in 1826. Confederate General Pierre G Beauregard and novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes both resided here.