CogBlogged Tagged ‘blogging’

A japanese houseplant has its own blog, and updates it on a regular basis: If houseplants could blog, what would they say? To find out, Kamakura-based IT company KAYAC Co., Ltd. has developed a sophisticated botanical interface system that lets plants post their thoughts online. A succulent Sweetheart Hoya (Hoya kerii) named “Midori-san” is now using the system to blog daily from its home at bowls Donburi Cafe in Kamakura. Read about it on the Pink Tentacle blog or go directly to the source (the plant blogs in Japanese). So what does a plant blog about? Usual stuff– politics, silly Youtube videos, punk music, drinking binges, soil pH levels, phosphates…. So if a houseplant can blog, why can’t ____________________ ? (fill in the blank)

In person, in reading, I’ve long been enamored ofBarbara Ganley‘s concept of “slow blogging” — rather than dashing off quarter-baked, unstructured stream of consciousness blogging, she suggests taking time to reflect, to actually re-read and revise in the blogging process. Barbara’s own lyrical writings, flowing like one of her tranquil Vermont creeks through red maple trees, thoughtfully illustrated with her own metaphorically rich photos, have long been inspirational to me and was capped even more by the chance to meet her in person at the May 2007 UMW Faculty Academy. I love the concept. I have never done such a crazy thing. My method might be termed “fast sloppy” blogging, writing at one end and not sure always where the end goes. I blog often directly from flickr based on a relevant (or not) photo. I do not spell well nor use words like “epistemology” without snickering at myself. No, [...]

No Excuse Not To Blog by cogdogblog posted 6 Sep ’08, 9.49am MDT PST on flickr Holy Snapping Duck Do! I just noticed I have not updated this since the long board was invented… You would not believe how terribly tardy the Victorian internet can be. Apologies to my regular readers! Even the little blue ones!. I am lost in a sea of pseudo-olde-english with responding to fanmail, hoping you haven’t found other blogs, just generally being asleep, dreaming and chancing to various lawyers I met recently, and my day is passing in a blur from the first cockadoodledoo from the rooster to I run out of alcohol. I am not being a whinging Pom or anything. but who cares. I declare solemnly I will make more of an effort to blog more often until the nice men in the white coats come back. You wanna test me? Cats if [...]

I’m loading up my duffle bag with mosquito repellent, mess kit, multi-tool, flashlight, sleeping bag, laptop, blog…. woah woah… well I am not taking all that stuff but I am going to camp… WordCamp! WordPressCamp! Thanks to a direct message nudge from @lloydbudd as a reminder, I hemmed and hawed and then just spelled out WTF. I’ve got a bunch of miles on United to get there … ouch… speaking of WTF… WTF is a “close-in processing fee”? United charged me, a sort of frequent flier, $75 because I just used my miles for a trip less than 21 days out. How is that costing them money? Next thing it will be the seat-belt usage fee and the ramp extension charge. Oh and the landing gear deployment fee. Geez. Oh well, its still an inexpensive trip, and a chance to spend a day in total geek out WordPress mode. I’m [...]

Awesome is the new WordPress app for blogging from an iDevice. Writing from iPod Touch on my home wireless. “If I only had a phone…” Note: Republishing in web as TwitterTools did not relay this post sent from iPod

In the vein of last February’s WordPress Dissection where I detailed the ripping apart and patching together of a WP template, here’s another bit if funny business I recently did in my favorite technology tool. More or less, I have a main WP site, with a nested second complete WP site sitting inside of it, yet they are themed and connected to each other in away to make them work as one. For the last two years, I have been running the NMC Campus Observer, a site that documents the projects and events of the NMC’s activity in Second Life. The design of this site is a blow apart of one of the more basic templates, Blix, as described back in May 2006 as WordPress Theme Philosophy. In 2006 there was not a great deal of things happening in education, and I spent a lot of time and energy writing, [...]

The comment stream is a raging torrent (121+) to Al Upton’s dire situation of his miniLegend bloggers being squashed by the government– what is telling now are comments from the miniLegends themselves (un-edited):

Sometime last year before my trip to Australia, I discovered the amazing work Al Upton was doing with year 3 students at at Adelaide Australia primary school. The 8 and 9 year old “miniLegends” were blogging, doing creative writing, and getting a fabulous experience in web technology. So it was exciting this year when Al put out a call via twitter for educators around the world to be “coaches” for this year’s miniLegends, asking people to adopt one students and agree to provide regular comments/feedback. Besides signing up myself, I echoed the call and a bunch of folks, particularly my colleagues here in Arizona, stepped right up. Al had written before how he had taught students how to be safe online and how he had gotten written permission from parents of all the kids. Let me repeat this- the parents supported this program. And like many people who had followed [...]

Mmmmm, another mutated strand of 5 things meme got batted my way from Alisa. I’ve got a lukewarm thing about such things. Over the years I have never forwarded those email things which warned an anvil would drop from the sky on this coyote if I failed to forward. Well, maybe it did. But I’ll play only because Alisa is so cool and knows my favorite cocktail ;-) So her rules are: 1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages). 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the next three sentences (sentences 6-9). 5. Tag five people. Okay, so I’ll start by saying that I had to change the rules. I just had to blaze a new path. Do things my way or the highway. (Insert your own Cliché here) I’ll try it your way, @soul4real! though it will reveal [...]

How does one blog a blogging conference? However you feel like doing it! It’s Friday, time for Moose Camp at Northern Voice 2008 and I am convinced every conference should launch with a tiki bar party. So the Waldorf Hotel was packed with bloggers of all varieties. Got to hang out with Jim Groom, Chris Lott (first time meeting) Jennifer Jones (ditto), Brian Lamb, D’Arcy Norman, Scott Leslie, of which I should link to their blogs but am feeling lazy. It was a great time, am a bit too tired to try and recant the evening… so instead I am trying a new approach (as suggested by Nick Noakes) to attempt Voice Thread blogging the conference. We’ll see how that goes, but be sure to liberally comment. A fun highlight was the open mike where bloggers who had signed up on the wiki shared/read a wide range of blog posts, [...]