Category: Technology

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Random thoughts teaching Technology Work

4/52 Gen Alpha

I was blessed, Monday just gone, to listen to a couple of AMAZING speakers at my new workplace’s staff retreat. Now I’m not one of those people who points her phone at, and takes photos of, a speaker’s screen… but this week, I did.

This one because it’s kinda funny (and true of not just Gen Alpha!):

But this one because it’s really indicative of how society is changing, and the trajectory of this change. It’s not difficult to predict what will be next, yes?

Anyway, these are some thoughts I’ve been pondering over the past week. How my generation influences others… and how they will influence others on turn. No wonder God says to “teach your children” (intentionally!) – Deuteronomy 11:19 and Proverbs 22:6 spring to mind – because it’s so important!

Without intentional teaching, things change unintentionally. And that may not necessarily be a good thing for society at large. Humankind is far more well known for its greed and selfishness than its compassion and altruism.

So: I wonder what this coming week will bring? And how I can go about being more intentional in it?

Have an intentional week yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
teaching Technology

34/52 Snowed under

This post (or lack thereof, to tell the truth) is being brought to you by my marking load, which is currently threatening to overwhelm me 🙁

Reporting is due tomorrow.

Sigh. Who’d be an English teacher, huh? Lol

See you next week, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
family anecdotes Technology Writing

32/52 wait, what?

A conversation with my Miss19 the other day, about ‘why is the word “gnome” spelled with a silent “g” instead of a silent “k”?’ led to a quick Google search on ‘words that start with gn’.

I’d never have guessed these would be the search results!

Have an amusing week yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

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#blogjune family anecdotes Technology

#BlogJune Day 26

“Second star to the right then straight on til morning”

These instructions, given by Peter Pan to Wendy Darling, are the directions to Neverland. And my Miss16 was given the challenge of animating them. “What would be seen by the children (Peter, Wendy and her younger brothers, Michael and John) as – with the help of Tinkerbell the fairy, of course – they fly there from London?”

And this was what she created. By herself, by hand. No AI here, folks!

Enjoy 🙂

914137D1-A036-42C0-9738-63D80E03C60A

– KRidwyn

Categories
Life Random thoughts teaching Technology

20/52 On accordions

I think I was about 10 when I decided I wanted to play the Piano Accordion. I did for a while, too! It was pretty cool 🙂

The other day, I was completing some online planning for work when I unintentionally hovered over a heading, prompting a notification. “Click to expand or collapse the accordion” it read.

Blink.

Accordion? What?

Since when is a menu, or downward facing arrow, or three dots (usually vertical, but not always) called ‘an accordion’?

But how apt! I love it.

I’m going to be using this phrase a lot more from now on. ‘Click to expand / collapse the accordion.’

Have an expansive week yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn

 

 

Categories
momentous events More about me Technology

Dash cam

I love my privacy. I’m not the biggest fam of security cameras and Big Brother watching everything we do, so when Hubby organised a dash cam for my car I sighed, but agreed.

I was gym-bound one morning when I was surprised by a car, parked, right in the middle of the road. It was 4am, dark, and this section of road was remote – not even street lighting. And the single-lane-each-way with a large ute stradling the centre line, meant I couldn’t have passed even if I’d wanted to! So I slowed, stopped my car a few metres away, wound down my window and called out an offer of help.

A man emerged, explaining his engine wouldn’t start. (How did it stop while he was driving? I wondered. And why keep your headlights on? Wouldn’t that drain the battery further?)

He started walking toward me, while I suggested I call RACQ… but then he stopped, turned around and got back into his ute. “I’ll just check it again,” he said – then started his vehicle and drove off, passing me quite quickly.

Uneasy, I continued on my way. At home later that morning, Hubby was quick to check the dash cam footage. “He’d been stalking you,” he suspected. “He’d figured out your routine and was planning (something I don’t even want to type right now) but he saw the light on the dash cam and knew he was being recorded.”

And the policemen who he gave the footage to, agreed completely.

I’m quite fond of my dash cam now, I must admit.

Have a safe day yourself now, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
family anecdotes Life Technology

Constructing

I’ve been amazed by my son’s mind ever since he could communicate. He’d show me things and I’d marvel at how he viewed the world; so differently from me. And then once he could talk – which was later than most children due to his autism – I could admire his creativity still more.

He’s always had an affinity for technology. I remember him setting up the playstation, every plug into its correct place, without any hesitation. He was two years old. Which shouldn’t have surprised me, seeing as his seventh word (after ‘Daddy’, ‘Mummy’, ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘please’ and ‘thank you’) was ‘iPad’.

But I’m still surprised by the creations he makes. Like on Minecraft: check this out.

I took the photo for this blogpost, then he asked, “Would you like to see it in the daylight? It looks different there.”

Oh! Love him!

Anyway, I just thought I’d share this with you. Have a creative day yourself, dear Reader!

-KRidwyn

Categories
#blogjune places to visit Reading teaching Technology Work Writing

#blogJune day11

One thing I’ve noticed about me recently- my eyesight is SHOCKING! I think I’ve just been doing so much staring at computer screens, I’ve done irreversible damage. Which is sad.

On the up-side, these glasses I bought at Rainbow Beach a few years ago might look a little strange (I think the orange-and-blue colour scheme screams ‘$15 chemist-bought reading glasses) but they’re SO easy to read with and they don’t cause headaches 🙂

Plus, I really rather like the colour orange!

Have a blessed day yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

Categories
family anecdotes Random thoughts Technology

32/52

I’ve blogged already this year about Ark. I haven’t played it since that post, but Miss14 has – and is ecstatic that she’s now tamed a griffin (several hours worth of work) and it’s in her own game, not one on a multi-player server.

Because the first one she’d tamed (note: seven HOURS of not-completing-homework and not-helping-around-the-house) had been on a multi-player server – and it had been stolen while she slept. The thief flew him around, and killed him. Big drama. Sigh.

But she’s happy now. And she’s started making videos, and that makes her happy too.

And this makes me happy.

[Lucky she’s up-to-date with her homework and the housework isn’t too onerous, is all I can say!]

Have a ‘happy’ week yourself, dear Reader!

– KRidwyn

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my novel-in-progress random scribblings Random thoughts Scribblings teaching Technology Work Writing

Moving right along…

So now the musical’s over, I’ve been head down and getting stuck into the work I’d been (of necessity, mind you!) neglecting. Housework, gardening – oh, and my students’ assignment drafts too, don’t forget! I’ve also had enough head-space to actually ponder the commencement of writing again, would you believe? And I also found 15 minutes in there somewhere, last week, to FlowState… although what came out was embarrassingly pitiful and barely worth keeping, but writing is writing and a skill practiced is a skill improving, I always say. (Well, okay. I made that saying up just now. But it sounds significantly better with the word ‘always’ in it, don’t you think?)

What’s FlowState? You ask. Well, it’s a horrific tool which forces you to write by threatening to remove all your words.

Originally, you could set the timer for 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 30 minutes. I preferred that. But with an update a year or so ago, they removed that functionality, leaving users with only a 15 minute option.

And the idea behind it is that you WRITE for 15 minutes. No hesitating, just writing. Adding word after word to the screen. Or else!

If you hesitate for longer than 5 seconds (from memory; I *think* it’s five but I’m too scared to check it and see) the words fade on the screen and when they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

You’re forced, you see; to write, and write non-stop, until the timer finishes, and the work is saved.

And believe me, you do NOT want to stop at 14 minutes and 55 seconds! I did that before, and lost literally hundreds of words. Yes, I cried. And yes, I also stopped using the app, my own solitary protest, for several months. But returned though, because it’s perfect to get the writing mojo happening (rather than the thinking mojo!) and the threat of losing work is enough to keep the fingers tapping keys 🙂

Anyway, so that’s what I’ve been doing.

That, and dreaming about publishing. If only Book 7 of my Justine Browning series would write itself!

 

Have a great week, dear Reader 🙂

– KRidwyn