Looks like it's one space! Got that?

Okay. Let's get this out in the open. I'm not old, just getting to middle aged, no damn baby boomer or anything, but I have to admit: I took typing class in High School. I was a Senior. I had all the requirements done and a school too lame to actually recommend I go take a class at the community college. So here I was with time on my hands and an empty schedule. So the guidance counselor helped fill it with, well...filler! So, in 1988, I took typing, on a TYPEWRITER! This was just about the end of that era. In that same marking period I was also filling my schedule with a rather outdated computer course (you know the one, learn to program in Basic). So old was meeting new.



I will happily tell you how I cheated my way through typing. Why not? Who the heck cared if I looked at the keys or not given that I could make corrections on the screen and computer later. (I just touch typed that last line, b/c after 25 years of typing, experience is the best teacher).

Here's the problem. In typing class we learned to put a double space after the end punctuation.

In the computer era this is no longer correct.

However, countless teachers are still drilling into the minds of young folks that they need the two spaces. Heck, I was, until about one month ago. That's when I came across a Slate article that ranted against the two space practice. And that got me thinking, and talking, and researching. I went back to my blog posts to see exactly how they formatted out. Yes, there was only one space, even though I hit the space bar twice. Yes, computers want one space when they format in html.

Still, if you like two spaces, you can do this on Microsoft Word. It will still have two spaces when you print it out. Some sources allow for this choice. Others, like the Chicago Manual of Style (the Geneseo History department's BIBLE on style) say one space, no options.

So, as a teacher, I know I will never again teach my students to use two spaces. It's outdated, and unnecessary. Unfortunately for me, I will still give the old double space. It is so ingrained in my muscle memory I will never be able to let it go. It matters little since the computer reformats the work regardless.

What saddens me is that my colleagues will perpetuate the misinformation that is the double space. I hope to share some intelligent discussion regarding this practice since our students are of a younger generation that will never even touch a typewriter.

We owe it to them to teach them correctly.

Some More Thoughts

Winter Update

Looks like this is one of those winters. You know, the kind that you remember when you're old, the kind that makes you say things like: "when I was a kid winters were so much worse". Well, actually they weren't. It's just that we tend to remember the extremes more than the averages. However, this one is trying hard to set records, and it just stinks!

We are up to 44.8 inches of snow fall so far. Albany averages about 64 inches a year in snowfall, and much of that comes and goes during winter, never leaving us with more than one foot at a time. Not this month! We've only had about 5 days above freezing, and those days were just above the line by a degree or two. On one occasion last week, the heightened temperature made for sleet rather than snow before switching to heavy wet snow. So in addition to being a snowier winter, it's also a colder one!

Because I am a geek, winter snowfall data interests me greatly. I think it's mostly because I crave accurate info and not the whole: "sky is falling mentality". There are several sites with climate data. The most reliable being the National Weather Service, but their historical data is sometimes hard to find and follow. Five of the highest snowfall years have happened in my lifetime! Notice on the chart that one of the snowiest winters: 1915 was preceded in three years by one of the least snowiest winters! So that kinda tosses the theory of : "Back in my day..." right out the window!

No good post should ever be without visual documentation! So the following photos attempt to show you my little marshmallow world!

Ever Lasting Bread

I made this video clip because it amazes me what must be going into our foods. The chemicals used to preserve food can't be a good thing if a piece of bread left to rot does not spoil even after two months. The visual evidence is in the video:




So what do you do? I've always heard and tried to heed the advice to shop the outside aisles of the grocery store. That's where the foods are at their most basic. Still, I can't help but wonder what hormones are in meat, what chemicals are used to make veggies pretty and have longer shelf lives, etc.... It's difficult to eat all organic and way too expensive. I'm thinking having a varied diet might help, and in the summer gardening and going to farmer's markets for fresh produce. Also, with a bread machine you can control what goes into your bread.





Scary stuff!

Random Prompt Generator

What did you do before we had the Internet?

Should I make a list?
• Called people and talked for really long amounts of time
• Listened to lots of music (some from cassette tapes)
• Watched more TV
• Wrote letters on actual paper
• Had weird fandom based pen pal clubs where you sent chain letters to each other
• Looked things up in encyclopedias and even the Yellow Pages
• Called 1-800 for more information
• Wrote in paper journals
• Sent away for catalogs, brochures, and booklets about things we wanted more info on
• Looked up random info at the library, thought I was the only one
• Went to stores
• Played video games on our TV’s
• But mostly I waited, and was patient

Yesterday, while working out I happened to be in front of the TV where the old show “Friends” was playing. This episode was from the third season in 1997. Phoebe meets a foreign man and tries to describe where he is from to Monica, but of course, being Phoebe, she is all confused. She asks Monica if they have an atlas, but they don’t, nor do they have the internet obviously or they could have looked it up. Think back to the set décor on Friends, I don’t remember there being a computer! Later in the episode, Rachel and Ross fight. Ross goes out with the boys and Rachel is pining at home. She picks up this enormous cordless phone and calls him. All the while Rachel is saying: “Please be home, please be home”, because clearly, she isn’t calling his cell phone because he doesn’t have one!!!!

Remember those days where you thought, let them be home to pick up! Wow, that seems like ancient history, not a decade ago. Now, when you call someone, you expect to reach them.

In retrospect, it is somewhat odd that none of the characters on Friends had the trappings of today’s technology. By 2000 more and more people were getting cell phones and those cell phones may not have been fancy, but they also were smaller and no longer sporting antennas. People also had the internet. It was younger and less “webbed”, but it existed. I bought my first cell phone in 2002 and went online in 1999 with WebTV. In 2000 I bought my first computer, an HP. I’m only on my second HP now, though I am on my third cell phone. Now that we have these devices, what will change in the next decade is the way we use them.

Today I read a somewhat interesting article about "unplaugging" for 6 months! The thought of it makes me cringe! Here it is: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_fea_parenting_teens_unplugged

Blog Prompting in 2011

I thought I’d try an experiment in which I hit shuffle on my iPod and got a song title and then used the title as my blog prompt. So here’s what I got:

Stayin’ Alive by the BeeGees

Okay, I think it’s safe to say we all can appreciate this line:

“Live to see another day…” However, sadly the next few titles were useless and I realized the futility in attempting to make blogs from song titles. So hmmm, on to plan B. I found a website that helps to give you prompts. I like the idea of using this with reluctant young writers too.

http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/writing/writing.prompts.html


Here was my first prompt:

Are there any family heirlooms in your possession? Tell about them and how you came to acquire them.


Giving too much meaning to objects is a sign of attachment, and attachment can lead to suffering, so it’s important to keep a balance of objects that remind you of people who have passed and the idea that nothing lasts forever, and all is impermanent.

That said, my heirloom possessions consist of a rocking chair, a book rack ( which had its own mention a few posts ago), tea cups, and my father’s genealogy books. The rocking chair was Grandma Pearl’s. I don’t know where it came from, but my father remembered being rocked in it by his great-grandmother in the 1940’s. Originally It had a velvet cushion, but when my grandmother passed the chair to me, my uncle claimed the cushion as some sort of consolation prize since he also remembered being rocked in the chair. The chair came into my possession fully in the 1990’s, and moved to my apartment in 2002. I bought some velvet material to make a cushion, but I never have. It wears a boring cushion from Pier One for the moment, until I finally sew the right one.

The tea cups hang on a rack that was also Grandma Pearl’s. They were something I enjoyed looking at as a child because they were colorful. I received the cups before I got the rack, so I never had anywhere to display them. Then a couple of years ago, we were at my grandmother’s house (after she died) and I saw that the rack was still there. So cups and racks are united again in my dining room.




Finally, I have my father’s generolgy books. He used to pour over them with such attention. He could tell you hevery possible connection to anyone with our last name. The books were written by a distant cousin who lived in California. This man had contect with my father and my dad gave him info that he used in his books. It reminds me of how much my father loved family history and I like having that legacy with me. I try to remember what he taught me about the connections, but I usually resort to saying. Oh yes he is related, our families probably cross in the 1700’s. And this is the truth. Having records that date back to 1066 is helpful in knowing that you are distantly related to someone like George Bush! LOL! But really it does help remind you that we are all connected.

For me, family heirlooms are just simple treasures that connect past to present.