Job Posting - Deputy Communications Director

Job Opening

Deputy Communications Director

The Texas Freedom Network, a statewide, nonprofit organization located in Austin, seeks a full-time deputy communications director. The Texas Freedom Network promotes religious freedom, civil liberties and strong public schools and serves as a watchdog on the religious right in Texas. The deputy communications director helps develop and manage the organization’s messaging and communications strategies in the mainstream media, member communications and online.

 RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work collaboratively with the communications director and other staff to develop, write and edit membership and public communications across various media, including the TFN Insider blog, TFN News Clips, member newsletter (three a year), research and fact sheets, public policy reports, brochures, and other materials.
• Work with the communications director to direct TFN’s media relations, including advancing press events, writing press materials, developing relationships with reporters and occasionally serving as a public spokesperson.
• Expand and maintain TFN’s electronic and printed research files on issues related to TFN’s mission.
• Edit and on occasion help write development materials, including fund-raising letters and e-mail communications with donors.
• Edit and on occasion help write periodic communications with TFN members, including action alerts.
• Respond to requests for information and assistance from the public, the media, elected officials, government agencies, and activists.
• Assist staff in overall office responsibilities including correspondence, answering phones and working with volunteers. Travel and working long and/or irregular hours is required on occasion.

 QUALIFICATIONS:

• Outstanding written and verbal communications skills, including writing to deadline and for a variety of audiences. A demonstrated competence in writing and editing, including a writing-related degree (preferably in journalism/communications), is a top priority.
• At least one year of communications experience (news reporting, political campaign press work or public relations).
• An articulated belief in TFN’s mission.
• Demonstrated interest in politics.
• Applicants must be personable, well-organized, resourceful and persistent and possess a sense of humor.
• Note: The interview process will include an in-house writing test.

SALARY: Salary will be commensurate with experience. Benefits include employer-paid health and dental insurance, a 401k program and generous paid vacation and personal time off.

TO APPLY: Send resume, three writing samples and at least three references to PO Box 1624, Austin, 78767, e-mail to Dan Quinn or fax to 512-322-0550, no later than December 17, 2010.

TFN is an equal opportunity employer. Minority candidates are encouraged to apply.

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@TCEA Announces New Job Board - Find Jobs!

The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) finally adds a "Job Board," a long-desired feature by Texas educators! Although you can now locate available Texas-wide positions at TASAnet's Career Center, here at Around the Corner, or Linked In (if you're connected that way), you can now find them at...

http://www.tcea.org/explore/Pages/jobs.aspx

Let's hope someone will be updating this information regularly! You can send job announcements in for posting by emailing "jobs@tcea.org" without quotes!

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Moodle's ACID Trip - Converting #Moodle Databases from MyISAM to INNODB

Note: This started out as an email to Moodle Mayhem asking for help, but then turned into an exploratory journey. Since the process doesn't seem to be articulated anywhere in detail, such as a Moodle wiki page, I thought it might be fun to go through it and see what happens. This is the result.

Image Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GQ8xBTDqzkc/SS4fQhtoHkI/
AAAAAAAAAPo/VQskgfRbwbI/s400/AcidTrip.jpg

Anyone seen this message after upgrading a Moodle 1.9 instance to Moodle 2.0 in their admin panel? This is what I saw after upgrading to Moodle 2.0 from Moodle 1.9:

"Database tables are using MyISAM database engine, it is recommended to use ACID compliant engine with full transaction support such as InnoDB."

If you're like me, the question must have come up...This has a fascinating overview of what all that means:

http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/46370

And, here's a quick explanation as to why you would want to convert from MyISAM to InnoDB:

Why would you want to convert an existing MySQL database from MyISAM to InnoDB? While the MyISAM format has low overhead and generally the fastest performance among MySQL storage engines, it does not have advanced features like transactions, rollbacks, and row-level locking. InnoDB has these features and is also fully ACID-compliant (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability). ACID compliance is one of the touchstones of high-end database systems. I needed these features to solve my problem.

And why you wouldn't want to:

Using the InnoDB storage engine in MySQL is relatively easy, but it does come with a price. The extra features in InnoDB require more resources in terms of CPU, memory, and disk space. After conversion to InnoDB, the database in my application used triple the disk space it did as MyISAM. In addition, because multiple databases are stored in the same data file, backups and restores may be more complicated.

Also reading these Moodle points:

Moodle Tracker - http://bit.ly/fjQcBH

Move to InnoDB will be mandatory (InnoDB storage engine highly recommended) in future versions of Moodle 2.x:

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=154351

So the question going around in my head is, "how do i migrate 1.9 dbases to InnoDB easily?"

Unless someone has an easier answer, I'm back to the first link mentioned in this email:

http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/46370

Not much information on Moodle's wiki stub page (would this step by step be worth adding?) 

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Migration_from_MyISAM_to_InnoDB

TRYING IT OUT - SWITCHING FROM MyISAM to INNODB

As I was exploring what to do, I decided to take my Moodle 1.9 database and upgrade it to Moodle 2.0.For fun, I did a quick reading of the information here for relevant information then plunged in with these steps:

1. Did a SQLdump using PHPMyAdmin of the database (View Picture)
2. Did a find and replace of "myISAM" with "INNODB" (without quotes, of course) (View Picture)
3. To improve speed (as recommended in the notes, I did the following:
• Added "SET AUTOCOMMIT = 0;" without quotes to the start of the SQL dump file
• Added "COMMIT;" without quotes to the end of the SQL dump file
4. Imported the SQL dump file that I'd made changes to into the MySQL server. (View Picture)
5. Success, it all worked fine. I verified it by looking 
1. Looking at the TYPE of table, as it appears in PHPMyAdmin. (View Picture)
2. Running SHOW ENGINES as a SQL command (View Picture)

Since it all seems to be working fine, what did I do wrong? 

;->

The only question going around in my head now is, "How do I set the INNODB type as the default when creating a database in MySQL?"


One approach might be that it's done when Moodle 2.0 installation script runs and creates the tables with INNODB. So, to adjust my question, Will Moodle 2.0 on a fresh install create tables with INNODB as the database type?

Ok, the answer to that question is, "Yes" as shown in a new Moodle 2.0 installation (View Picture). So it appears the conversion from MyISAM to INNODB need only be done for Moodle 1.9 upgrade to Moodle 2.0 databases.

Thanks for coming along on this "acid trip" with me! I'm definitely open to feedback since I don't pretend to be an expert at this process.

Dirpy is GONE

Another Web 2.0 service bites the dust....

You could use Dirpy to convert your favorite YouTube videos to mp3s. You can find some alternatives here.

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Dealing with Yahoo Email

Get spammed lately? I was. Here's the email apology from the person whose Yahoo email account was "possessed":

I guess I am getting spamed - I contacted Yahoo! and have run scans on my computer and can find nothing - so please just delete anything from me with a crazy subject. Sorry again. What you gotta love is when I try to send this message to everyone in my address book, it is stopped by the Yahoo! spam filter :0(

My response:

A colleague's Yahoo account was hacked by a spammer two months ago. We went through the process of shutting down his email account and switching him over to Gmail. May I encourage you to do the same?

Step 1 - Export your Yahoo Mail contacts to a text file and save that on your computer.

Step 2 - Get Free Gmail Account and import contacts from your Yahoo account

Step 3 - Set up the vacation message on your account announcing your new Gmail account address and the account will be terminated at a particular date.

Step 4 - Cancel Yahoo Account on announced date.

https://edit.yahoo.com/config/delete_user

Final step? Don't look back. 

What would your's have been?

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MyNotes - School Policy Allows kids have cell phones

Image Source: http://www.deakin.edu.au/its/exchange/images/mobile-devices.jpg

This policy isn't very effective...it allows student use of mobile devices between classes, but how is it capitalizing on them to facilitate learning IN the classroom? The article's title is misleading since students are not allowed to have cell phone IN class, but rather, between classes. If this school is like many others, school officials couldn't stop mobile device usage and simply capitulated on its use to reduce (by 80%) the violations they were having to track.
Quotes:

School changes policy, lets kids have cell phones in class - KLTV 7 News Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville |

• School changes policy, lets kids have cell phones in class
• Posted: Nov 16, 2010 11:18 AM
• By Brandi Hodges
• Most schools have banned students from using their cell phones during the day.  This fall one school changed its policy.  Kids at Walnut Ridge Middle and High School can carry their phones into class, the hallway and to the cafeteria.  The only restriction is when they can use their phones!  "We just had kids constantly in school suspension because they had in their possession a cell phone," said High School Vice Principal Derek Bramlett.
• The old policy didn't allow kids to have their cell phones during school hours.
• Kids can use their phones in between classes and during lunch.
• they've seen an 80% drop in the number of violations.
• "When they said they could have them out in between classes I really thought there would be a problem with tardies because they would be on their phones texting or talking," said Biggers.
• "We understand that all kids have phones and we talked to some parents.  Parents want their kids to have their phones here at school for lots of reasons," said Bramlett. If a student is caught abusing the policy they will have their phone taken away and a parent will have to come up to the school to retrieve it.   

MyNotes - Student Devices Save Districts Money

Quotes:

Student Devices Save Districts Money

• Student Devices Save Districts Money By Tanya Roscorla on November 15, 2010
• As more school districts try to individualize instruction, they're looking for ways to give every child a mobile device. But most of them can't afford to buy a laptop or tablet for every child.
• By allowing students to bring their mobile devices to class, school districts provide the benefits of personalized instruction — without blowing their budgets.
• pass on their purchasing power to families, who can buy devices from vendors at the district's discounted rate.
• if we let kids and teachers bring in the device they already have, it rechanges the whole economics of what's possible," said Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking.
• Osseo Area Schools in Hennepin County, Minn., doesn't have the budget to support a huge mobile device initiative, said Tim Wilson, the district's chief technology officer. And neither does fellow Minnesota district Edina Public Schools, said Steve Buettner, director of district media and technology. "It would have been fiscally impossible to provide that to everyone," Buettner said.
• districts have to figure out how to provide devices for students who can't afford them. "You don't want to put a family in a situation where they feel that they need to buy a $300 netbook for their student to perform in high school," Kiker said.
• In the past, districts provided every piece of technology and supported them with existing infrastructure. But with disruptive technologies like the iPad and mobile phones, it's impossible for IT staff members to keep their hands around everything, said Adam Seldow, director of technology at Framingham Public Schools in Massachusetts.
• If the staff members only want the public to use a small portion of the bandwidth and reserve the rest for internal use, they can do that.
• IT staff can allocate bandwidth on the different networks
• In the middle school, students bring their devices in, and for those who don't have any, the district allows them to check out netbook computers through the media centers. Teachers can also access laptop carts to supplement the technology students bring in.
• In Edina Public Schools, the district shares minimum specifications that new mobile devices should have and leverages its purchasing power so families can buy equipment from CDW-G or Apple at a discount, Buettner said. Because the district buys the same equipment, the IT staff knows they're getting good equipment that they can support.
• the district has pushed teachers to move more of their instructional resources to the cloud using open-source and "free" tools. That way, students can access their instructional material, collaborate and work on educational content anytime, anywhere.
• "It's their own device, and it's more personalized for them," Walker said. "And being able to personalize their instruction is something that's one of the main goals of not only the district from a strategic direction standpoint, but also, in alignment with that, is one of the goals of the program."
• "It certainly requires teachers to be flexible," Wilson said, "and some teachers are very nervous about it."
• When districts plan bring-your-own-technology programs, they need to be willing not to give up when they face challenges such as finances and equity, Kiker said.
• by combining student technology with community purchasing plans, schools can make mobile devices in every student's hands a reality. "With a little bit of creativity and some elbow grease, anybody can do this."

MyNotes - 3,500 students navigate Tx virtual classrooms

Take-Aways....

3,500 students navigate virtual classrooms at 3 Texas public online schools | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Grand Prairie News

• 3,500 students navigate virtual classrooms at 3 Texas public online schools
• By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News jweiss@dallasnews.com
• Riley is one of about 3,500 Texas kids taking advantage of online public schools, a free alternative to brick-and-mortar education. These schools must meet the same state-mandated curriculum requirements and TAKS testing of students at any other public school in Texas.
• students enrolled in the state's three virtual public schools do much of their work – including readings, exams and live class participation – using the laptop computers supplied by the schools.
• And virtual education in Texas is not an unqualified success, based on the most recent TAKS scores. On several tests, all of the online schools lag behind state averages for passing rates. For instance, 77 percent of Texas fourth-graders passed their reading, math and writing tests last school year on their first try. The percentage of passing scores for the three virtual schools for all three tests ranged from 40 percent to 65 percent.
• In Texas, the online schools must affiliate with a standard school district or charter school. IQ Academy Texas and Texas Virtual Academy at Southwest are each linked to brick-and-mortar Texas charter schools. Texas Connections Academy is part of the Houston ISD.
• School funding from the state is linked to class completion and TAKS scores.
• Space permitting, the schools are open to any Texas student. And like all public schools, enrollment is free. Laptops and other educational material are distributed to each student. Parents generally need to supply a printer, a scanner and broadband Internet access. But formal and informal financial aid is often available for families who can't afford those virtual classroom necessities.
• Parents have quick online access to a comprehensive assessment of their child's progress, with test grades and copies of assignments, completed lessons and upcoming lesson plans.
• For the state-required benchmark and TAKS tests, each school holds regional, proctored exams that the students are required to attend in person. And several times a year, the schools host fun events where the kids get to meet the faces behind the online identities.

MyNotes - Status of PD and Unique Needs of K-12 Online Teachers

Check out this new report....

http://edtech.boisestate.edu/goingvirtual/goingvirtual.htm

• 2010: The Status of Professional Development and Unique Needs of K-12 Online Teachers
  

Some main points that jumped out at me from the Report:

1. 25% of brand new online teachers reported receiving no training
2. The most highly preferred form of professional development is fully online facilitated (53%), and in a workshop format (49%).
3. Social networking is the least desired skill (26%) where respondents want or need training
4. Respondents indicate design tools (40%) as the area in which they are most interested in receiving training.
5. According to a 2008 Sloan Consortium report, more than 75% of schools and districts say they need online learning to offer courses not otherwise available. Systemic challenges in K-12 education support the need for online teaching and learning as a central strategy for reform to address teaching shortages and to increase access to college-prep curriculum. Only 40% of high schools offer Advanced Placement courses.
6. Online learning has grown 30% in the past decade. K-12 online learning has grown from 50,000 enrollments in 2000 to more than 2,000,000 enrollments in 2009. 
7. According to the Sloan Consortium, 70% of school districts offer students at least one online course.
8. Online learning is an innovation with an evidence-base of effectiveness in improving student achievement and educational outcomes for K-12 students.
9. In June 2008, the U.S. Department of Education released a meta-analysis of over 1,000 controlled studies comparing online and face-to-face instruction. The conclusion was clear. “...on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face classes.” These findings also held true for blended learning conditions compared to face-to-face. The reasons for the increased performance included increased learning time, innovative curriculum and pedagogy, opportunities for collaboration and reflection, and learner control over interactions with the media.
10. Singapore trains every preservice teacher to teach online, including blended learning models in the classroom, and 100% of secondary schools use online learning. Since SARS in 2005, Singapore has used e learning for continuity of learning—and has during the recent H1N1 flu pandemic—ensuring that teaching and learning continues for healthy students and faculty during physical school shutdowns.
11. The online teaching quality standards from iNACOL, SREB, and NEA are guiding teacher education programs to develop curriculum for online teaching. Yet only 50% of virtual school administrators at this time report using PD guidelines developed outside their own organization.
12. Many larger schools or systems have their own closed social networks or professional learning communities (PLCs), often accessed through a learning management system. Others utilize professional educational communities such as iNACOL, ACTE, ISTE, and ASCD. This highest mentioned social network for personal learning was Facebook (n=29). Other networks mentioned included LinkedIn, Second Life, Twitter, Skype, Diigo, Ning, and PB Wiki.
13. Desired workshops:
• Higher order thinking and abilities to teach with that type of method online.
• How to increase active participation and truly know what students are learning/not learning.
• Working with at-risk students from distance learning.
• Ways to motivate students to learn.
• Using PBL virtually, best practice teaching strategies.
• hardware - mics, cameras, scanners, backup drives.
• Use of the tools needed for instructional

 

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Texas Texting Turmoil

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/23/25680317_01c55a76d6.jpg?v=0

In a response to my blog entry sharing the announcement about Texas Texting Ethics Code modifications suggested for teachers, Adrianne Stone writes the following:

I do worry that it will be interpreted that way. My district recently instituted a "do not respond to students after 9pm" rule - twitter, facebook, text, or email. Honestly I have kids who don't get to their hw until 9pm so what are they supposed to do if they have questions? I'm not having conversations with them for the love of pete I'm responding to questions about their homework. But in favor of preserving my job I have communicated to my students that I am unable to respond after 9pm due to district policy. 

Even with these new ethics rules and district guidelines I think I'm lucky to be in a district that recognizes the value of online/social media communication between teachers and students and don't feel that in my district I have been lumped in with the child molesters who happen to be teachers, however I do feel that the legislators are doing this. 

As far as I am concerned I feel like the actual wording of the rules are fairly common sense and it's almost like... does that really need to be codified? But apparently some individuals are necessitating it by inappropriate behavior (kind of like how McD's has "Contents of this cup may be extremely HOT" on coffee cups lol) 

How do you feel about it Miguel? 

When I consider how to respond to Adrianne's question, I have to break it up into parts:

1. Should teachers be in contact with their students after 9:00 PM?
2. Are new restrictions put in place to protect children from molesters failing those children by silencing their teachers?
3. Who decides what is socially acceptable in the use of social networking in schools? Students? Community? Teachers? School Districts?
4. Should we codify common sense or cultural norms?

In response to the first question about being in contact with students after 9:00 PM, the power of the Read/Write Web--including blogs, podcasts, social media tools like Twitter, Plurk, and Facebook--is that they allow us to time and place shift. Reading a blog entry, listening to a podcast can transport us backward in time to when it was written. Social media allow us to dwell in real time, to connect with others. As educators, should we be modeling 24 hours a day, 7 days a week kind of availability to our students? Is learning at 24/7 kind of venture to be limited, or is teaching more limited?

Learning is unbounded, while teaching is bounded. This is an opportunity to better understand and develop boundaries.

Sometimes I wonder if we're conflating learning and teaching. Learning, after all, happens 24/7. Teaching has happened during 8:00 AM and 3:30 PM, traditionally. Think of it like Twittering...that happens 24/7 from anywhere with a mobile device, but blogging only happens when you're sitting down in front of something with a keyboard, engaging in reflection on what you are learning or have learned. Social media/networking is often real time, but blogging/podcasting isn't--usually.

And, back to Adrianne's question, who decided that the cultural norm was 9:00PM? This is like the "Don't call anyone before 9:00 AM" rule. But who made those rules and when were they made? What if students are working on a Forum (late at night), and their teacher happens to be online grading work. Will an arbitrary time frame determine that the teacher can't answer a chat request?

When Office Hours are possible at anytime, anywhere, are we sure we want to limit teachers' facilitation of the learning that can happen? If deeper learning can be achieved through a heightened relationship, are we hurting our students by not allowing that just in time relationship to be developed?

Well, enough questions on that first question. The school board and community set the standards for teachers, who are selected to represent them. Let's acknowledge that teachers, for all the respect they are paid face to face, are NOT trusted in schools today. They are NOT trusted with unguarded, unlocked learning devices known as computers. They are not trusted with telephones in their classrooms, their autonomy is hamstrung at every turn by legislators, by anyone with an axe to grind, who takes one look at deviant acts by child molesters and says, "You know, let's legislate what we've agreed upon as a community (no contact after 9:00 PM because we need to maintain a professional distance between master and apprentice).

My answer to question #1 is that teachers should respect the guidelines set by the District for contact with students. While children may be texting their friends, family at all hours of the night, there are boundaries that must be set with strangers. And, in the final analysis, teachers ARE strangers when not within the confines of a "professional" school setting.

In response to the second question, Are new restrictions put in place to protect children from molesters failing those children by silencing their teachers?, I have to say that the answer is "It depends." While it would be nice to have a hard and fast rule to refer to, the truth is that there are bad people who have fooled everyone and work in education. We must agree to set aside some liberties for the good of all.

My response to the last two questions (because this blog entry is getting long) is a simple YES. Smaller communities can be nimbler and craft rules that better represent the stakeholders (Students? Community? Teachers? School Districts?). These rules have to be discussed time and again so that everyone is clear on what is happening, and why.

In larger communities, these conversations are more difficult to have...there are just too many people to hope for consensus. Someone has to set the rules, and those who disobey them do so at their own risk...not unlike going swimming without a lifeguard. These are the rules...disobey them and you may end up suspended, expelled or fired. However, by codifying the rules we agree with, making sure that everyone knows exactly what those rules are, we can minimize misunderstandings.

If a school district administrator chooses to ban all social media use, then there are ways to change the policies and procedures. Teachers just don't have a lot of power to accomplish this...the real power is in the school board, the community that elects them. If I were a non-traditional educator, I would want to think twice about going to a district that is ultra-traditional and intolerant. As an employee, I have a choice of where I go and who I serve.

Maybe everything I've said in this blog entry is wrong. I don't know for sure because I'm only one voice. To get at the heart of this, it is a conversation that MUST happen in the midst of the stakeholders.

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Moodle2 - Garbage Collection Process

Earlier today, I ran across the following response to the Moodle 2.0 related question (Reuben Rowntree) of  how do you delete a file you have uploaded as part of an HTML description or on a page?

Here's the response from David Mudrak:

This is the key point of the new File API. To remove the embedded file from the page, just remove the image from the HTML editor. After re-save, it will be unlinked from the page. After some time, the garbage collector process shall find all stored files that are not referenced from any place for a long time and will trash them physically. But you can be never sure that the file is not referenced from an other place so you do not have the option to remove it on your own. Consider this mechanism as so called hard links known in common file systems.

The way I understand this is that there is a process--"garbage collector process"--that filters through and removes orphan files not linked anywhere. I'm not sure I like this kind of process...it seems like the process you have when you trash your web-based email and then after 30 days, the email is discarded (although it really isn't, right?). Here's a bit of description:

The image save operation is implemented using the new File API. The idea is that textareas have draft file areas which holds files attached to them. Thelib/paintweb/ext/moodle/imagesave20.php script saves the image in the draft file area of the textarea where the user edits the article. The client-side PaintWeb scripts determine the context ID and the draft item ID associated to the textarea. When the image save action is invoked, the script receives them, and uses them to save the image. The URL of the draft file is generated by the Moodle File API, and returned to the client-side code, which updates the image URL.

Moodle should handle the garbage collection (automatic deletion of obsolete files). Once the user submits the form containing the textarea, all the image URLs are updated to point to a permanent file area - they are moved out of the temporary/draft file area.

What happens if you want to delete stuff manually?

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Thanksgiving Bowl

Source: Humorous Toilet Tattoos

Thanksgiving is often a time for giving thanks. So, let's take care of that. Thank you for reading, whether you make it through to the end or not. Thank you for being here, a day or for years. What am I thankful for? Well, it's a little more complicated...and I'm going to have to play around with the ideas, which is what this blog is about...playing with ideas and stuff.

It's amazing to consider I've been blogging for almost 9 years, and what a thrill ride it's been. You might ask, "Thrill ride? Blogging?" The answer is YES. When you're writing about what you're learning, you realize that you have to keep learning to have something to share. I'm grateful that so many of you have made those learning expeditions exciting and worthwhile, imparting your wisdom through your own blog entries. Now, I find myself learning and tinkering with ideas, tools every time I turn on my computer or mobile device.

For me, learning that way can be hard. If you take a moment to look at your motivations for learning, you learn things about yourself and what makes you tick. Of course, there are other times when you don't want to learn something because it might shatter an illusion...like taking the time to write science fiction/fantasy. I don't want to write that because I'm afraid I'll ruin the pleasure I get from reading it. It's a silly fear to have but I have it. I don't want to deconstruct what I enjoy reading...I simply want to enjoy it for what it is, an experience not to be catalogued, archived, simply experienced like feeling the sand between your toes on a moonlit walk along the beach. Learning can be hard because I sometimes don't want to embark on learning journey that I know someone else has completed successfully. That is, the IDEA of learning something new is a problem when I know someone else has done it...why bother? Fortunately, I've pushed through anyways enough times to have learned something else.

That something else is that once you discard the IDEA of the problem, the doing gets easier. When you think about mucking around in a toilet to uncork it, it's the idea of the poop that gets you (and the smell). When you accept those and focus on doing the job, then you get caught up in it...the excitement of learning grabs you and engages you. I've learned that the experience becomes more powerful than the idea that tries to stop you.

I'm profoundly grateful for that insight into getting things done.

More now, though, I find myself writing less about what I'm learning, simply content to keep it to myself. I'm not sure why the change, only that it may be there are too many people sharing online. And, therein lies the motivation to blog...to learn AND share what others are not. It's terribly funny to me, as I stare back into "the camera," that part of my motivation comes from that need to share a perspective that is unique because I share it, not because others have already done so. Does that happen when we focus on blogging about tools, but maybe not when we engage in introspection?

Some days, I point out--as in self-dialogue--that I should probably just shut up and let the many other brilliant people expound on their ideas. But then, I remember that my sharing of my perspective may be helpful to others who are trying to find some way "into an experience." When I write memos, I try to craft prose that is unassailable, like a smooth rock cliff rising like a monolith into the sky. Craggy monoliths are too easy to climb, and too many arguments can find purchase in their surface. That's not a desirable description when writing an official memo.

However, blog entries are different. They are rugged, character-flawed creatures who stumble about, easily engaging and mating with other ideas. Their very fecundity makes them desirable. They need not be brilliantly incisive, wonderfully crafted, only nourished with the blogger's sweaty effort. In 2008, I shared this true story of a chat with a janitor in our building....

One gentleman, about to retire from being a custodian for however many years, proudly displayed his toilet bowl scraper. Honestly, I was inquiring about his technique..."How do you get the bowls so darn white?" He took some time out of his busy schedule to show me.

That day, for about 10 minutes or so, garbed in a tie and long-sleeve shirt and dress pants, I learned a lot about scraping toilet bowls. I'm not sure if he redefined his reality to see an opportunity to get ahead. Instead, he saw it as an opportunity to learn....

You see? Maybe blogging is like cleaning the toilet, figuring out why things drain out or they don't, how to make the toilet bowl sparkle in the midst of the daily crap we have to overcome. You are what you process, right? 

With Thanksgiving, we all take a moment to reflect on what we're thankful for. For me, I am profoundly thankful for those of you who model how you process the stuff that comes flowing into our worlds, not just the good stuff.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure