Lions and Podcasts and Robotics. Oh My!

White Lion
Originally uploaded by Cyberslayer

Friday Fragment time. I am finally teaching my blog class at our co-op this semester. For the student's first assignment I had them look at some home schooled students blogs. While doing that Bunny girl came across a post about a white lion. I decided to start today's fragment fest with a pic of White Lion cubs.

***********************************************************************************

The following video is on my desk top. This means my kids like to watch it over and over and over and over and over and over again. (It is short.)

***********************************************************************************
Speaking of videos, the Office starts new episodes tonight. They have also put out a new bunch of webisodes called The Podcast. I thought I would share it here as blogging is a plot point.

The Office - Ep 101: The Podcast: Gabe's Podcast - Video - NBC.com

************************************************************************************

Robotics update: Spider Droid's team did quite well at the State Playoffs this past weekend. His team finished 19th of 63 teams in the performance category. The other 3 categories are scored by judges and the results were not made public. While they did not win any awards they all had a rewarding time. The team will compete in the Spring in a 4H robotics competition.

That is all the fragments I have for today. Head over to half past kissing time for more Friday Fragments.

An Exciting Announcement

Last August I posted about how I was teaching a blogging class in my home school co-op. In preparing the class I decided a good class project would be hosting the Homeschool kids carnival. I contacted the person who runs the carnival and set the whole thing up for the November 30th edition.



It turns out that only my daughter signed up for the blogging class. And I decided to put it off for a semester to see if I could generate more interest. Earlier this month, the host of the host of the homeschool kids carnival contacted me to remind me of the November edition. Since I didn't really have a class I could turn to, I asked Bunny to host it. Asked or commanded, depends on your point of view.



So, come November 30th, Alice's Bunny Blog will be hosting the Homeschool Kids Carnival. If you have any children who would like to submit an entry click here. For more info on the carnival, click here.

Blah Blah Blogging

It's time to review labels again.

Label #16 (3 Way Tie) Blah Blah Blogging.

This blog has not been immune, at times, to instead of blogging about home schooling or crazy family members or first place baseball teams, to occasionally just blog about blogging. This label nostalgia is a pretty good example. Last weekend when I posted that I had not posted for awhile is another.

Over the 20 months Home School Dad has been the blog sensation sweeping the nation I have made a few observations about blogging. I'd like to share a few here.

1) You could always spend more time blogging. Early on I became overwhelmed with how much time I could pour into the blog-o-sphere. But no matter how much you spend, it seems like you could always spend more. Not letting blogging consume me was a hard calf to corral the first 6-8 months. It is now pretty easy to not get swept up out of control. This balance was hard to come by but it is certainly something I will want to pass on to the blogging class I teach this fall.

2) Some ideas just don't work. I sometimes get an awesome idea for a post. Sometimes it's just an excellent title. Often times, these ideas and titles pretty much write themselves into epic blog posts. Other times, no matter how hard I try, I just can't bring the idea home. This is where my wife/editor is so helpful. She'll read it and say "I have no idea where you are going with this." Sometimes I can salvage the idea, but every once in a while that dog will just not hunt. When that is the case, the best strategy is just to let the idea go.


3) Some ideas aren't worth the work. In my first few months of blogging, I used to look back at my previous months worth of posts, choose the 5 I liked best and put them in a box in my blog called Dave's fave five. This became an incredibly arduous process. First of all, it was sometimes hard to choose the 5 best because I thought everything was great. Other months I thought nothing was any good. It usually depended on whether I had a nap or not. Then after I decided on the 5, I had to link them and label them and mark them with D and put them in a blog for David and me. By the time I got it all done it was about time to do the thing over again. Part of running an effective blog is to know when to go the extra mile and when to pull the plug. A number of months ago I scrubbed all references to Dave's fave five and I've never looked back.



So from time to time I am going to still blog about blogging, but like they say at the Porcupine Salesmen Convention: Don't ignore what got you here, porcupines and more porcupines! And my porcupines are definitely home schooling and being crazy. Two porcupines that I know a lot about.



Next Time: In Praise of Allen Levi.

Blog Class

Three Weeks left until school starts!






I am starting to get ready for our home school co-op for this fall. I will be teaching a class on blogging and yes I have been consulting the above referenced book for a few pointers. One thing I will be emphasizing in the class is Internet safety. I will be instructing my students not to use their own names on their blogs. To that end, I will be no longer using the names of my children and replacing them with nicknames. My oldest will be called by the not surprising moniker, bunny girl. My son will be known as Spider Droid to combine his love for Star Wars and his previous passion for Spiderman. My daughter with the penchant for Lucyisms will be referred to as Princess puppy. (Lucyisms will be referred to as puppyisms)



I blog using blogger and will be teaching my students this platform. One of the things I like about blogging is the ease of removing or editing previous posts from blogosphere. In the weeks to come, I will be editing past posts and replacing the kids names with their nicknames.

I am excited about the class. I have created a new blog just for the class, but will still be linking things here as well.



Next Time: Blah Blah Blogging

Six Word Saturday

Six Word Saturday Time:

My 6: I haven't forgot how to blog!

It's not that I've been super busy, I really haven't been. It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, Lucyisms still abound here and there's always plenty of things for me to tell you. It isn't like I said I wouldn't blog while the White Sox were on their current hot streak. If I did, who knows when I'd blog again. The truth is if it wasn't for the kind transmission by my wife on Monday, I would have maintained blog silence for a week.

Blogging just hasn't been my bread and butter this summer. I am gearing up to teach a blogging class this fall at our home school co-op. So, I actually have been working on blogging on the down low. More on that later.
I am also trying to get use to the keyboard on my new laptop and I keep on typing my new words in the middle of my old ones.

I hope all is well for my readers, if I have any left. I will be back to blogging with abandon soon.
Head on over to See my face dot com to check out more six word Saturday.

Next Time: Toy Story to 3-D and beyond!