Apple gets this accessibility thing right

Though I'm disappointed these features aren't backward-compatible for the regular iPhone 3G, I'm very impressed with what the iPhone 3GS can do to help users with disabilities better navigate the features that make the iPhone so fabulous. I would LOVE to have the zoom that they describe, as some apps don't support it on the 3G. Kudos to Apple for the thought put into making the iPhone accessible. I'm looking forward to what will be available in a year when I'm able to upgrade.

Thanks, Ben, for sending me the link!

various and sundry

Here we are on a rainy Monday. It's hard to get too distressed when we're finally getting to experience fall weather. I'm glad I finally got some real shoes, since I think the days of sandals are fading fast. Today, I'm wearing my Earth Shoes (a rec from Roly), and I'm pretty darn pleased with them. Cute and comfortable. What's not to like? (I had to steal socks from Anne. Don't tell.)

Saturday was very eventful. I started off with the normal volunteer gig at Planned Parenthood. I left around 9 to head down to the Hyde Park neighborhood (where Obama lives--there, now I've made it a meaningful reference), where the University of Chicago campus is located, complete with hospitals, including one for kids. As such, there's a Ronald McDonald House right near by. (If you aren't familiar with the work they do, go check them out.) This was to be my service site for the College's Annual Day of Service. The service day events got off to a rocky start for me and my gang of students.

After waiting for awhile for a Red Line train, I finally made it to the Garfield stop, where I didn't have to wait too long for the #55/Garfield bus. We headed through Washington Park, and I exited at Cottage Grove as my directions had indicated. I walked on down to 57th street, obviously in the medical district. I arrived at what should have been the RMH to find a construction site. Luckily, there was a cop nearby, and for the first time ever, I asked a cop for directions. As it turns out the house, which moved a year ago to its new location, was only 1 block from where I exited the bus. By the time I got back up there and figured out where I needed to go to get in the house, I was half an hour late.

My kids turned up a half hour after me--at 11am. We were supposed to be cooking lunch, which was to be served at noon. Yikes, kids, not a lot of time there. We hurriedly got our food supplies unpacked to find the College had provided us with lunchmeat, bags of chips, and cookies. Super lame lunch. And, who only sends one kind of lunchmeat? Hello, people. The families who stay at the RMH come from all over the world, and I would imagine that some of them, for religious or cultural reasons, don't eat ham. Hell, I don't eat ham.

The lunch took virtually no time to prepare, so we ended up doing other odd jobs around the house. Sandy, the weekend house manager, gave us a tour of the place and told us about what they do and how families get connected with them. Pretty cool, kids. And, the house they have now was brand new a year ago--and it's fabulous! I was all-around impressed with the service site. With our service day organizers? Not so much.

So, upon departure, I took myself to the Apple Store and bought an iPhone. And, I love it. LOVE. I need to remember to charge it every night; I'm running low on battery already today. I can't even think of where to start with my gushing because this phone is just made of so much awesome.

Laying in bed last night, I talked myself into getting up at 5 today and catching an earlier train than I normally need to take to go swimming on campus. The campus sports facilities are an untapped resource for me, and I'd heard there was open swim from 7:30 to 8:30 MWF mornings. I was the only one lap swimming, but I didn't care. It felt go to be there doing it. I only did six laps, which is fine. I'm out of shape and didn't have the entire hour to spend there, anyway. I was able to shower and everything and still be in my office by 9, which is what time I normally get in when I take my regular train. Not a bad morning over all, thought I think I may need to bring a hair dryer. Did I mention we can use the sports facilities for FREE? Why should I pay for a gym membership?

So, that's what's been happening around these parts.

PS The Cubs are in the playoffs!

for the record

I hate FTP. HATE. I've tried many times in the past week or so to work with a well-known publisher to access files of a book (for a student with a disability), which they do via FTP. First time, I got on fine, but I sure didn't see any files for download. Now, I can't even log on, and they've given me conflicting information on what the username and password are. Seriously publisher people--FTP?

Mac people, do you use an FTP client that you like? (Not that it seems to make a difference because I can't do it through a browser, either, because the info they sent me is WRONG.)

I may have to break down and call the Unhelpful Desk.

ETA: The publisher set up a completely new login for me, and this time, it worked. Phew. The book is downloading as I write this.

I'm up way too early.

Note to my brain: 5:20 and 7:00 are not the same thing. Since I've been up awhile, thought I'd have time to write a post.

I went to a workshop yesterday on technology and teaching writing. I learned one thing: I'm already hip to different web stuffs I could integrate into my teaching of writing. Wow. The one thing I got out of it was the idea to blog while I design my class and in the process of teaching it. If I teach writing as a process, I like the idea of the transparency of my own process for my students.

Today, Mom, Bro, SIL, and I are going with my grandparents for my grandfather's consultation on his upcoming surgery for his pancreatitis. Mostly, I think we're going to hang out together, but there's something about being there--for me anyway--with this Big Deal Surgery stuff.

It's been a week for good treats so far. We finally got our butts over to Siobhankha and Pjregularjb"'s new pad, which is awesome, and we then headed out for yummy sundaes. Anne and I shared a hot-fudge sundae with raspberries. Tomorrow, I'm meeting ProfH for breakfast at a place she says serves stuff like Key Lime French Toast. Ohhhhh... Tonight, we're meeting up with Jennjer and GourmetGoddess for a concert-on-the-lawn. We're seeing Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, whose Raising Sand album is awesome. I'm sure the food I prep will have nothin' on what those lovely ladies prepare.

Google Street View: The Newest Undercover Cop!

Holy cow! Have you seen this?! Gawker has a post on what appears to be a drug deal caught by the Street View crew taking pictures on Chicago's South Side. You can even see the license plate of the car involved. SERIOUSLY. Go check out the Gawker post for their set of screenshots. Here's a sampling from Google, if you want to take a look for yourself:


View Larger Map

He just doesn't get it.

Wow. I'm absolutely not regretting not attending last week's Thomas Friedman lecture when he was here on campus. He seems pretty out of touch with college kids. Granted, from what I heard from others, he had really good things to say. Those good things did stick with our kids; I know because I talked to them. Too bad he doesn't think they can do anything about it.

Friedman's Op-Ed piece in today's NY Times: Generation Q

inaugural outing

My precious 30GB iPod arrived yesterday, and being the lovely human being she is, Anne drove me to Skokie to pick it up at FedEx. W00t! It's not been without it's complications...

1. Who thought we didn't need a firewire connection anymore? Seriously.
2. And you know why we need firewire? My USB ports are both 1.1! Again, seriously.
3. It wouldn't let me rename it anything, so it's currently [bluepoet]'s iPod. It needs a real name, but I first need to figure out how I'm going to get to rename it. All of my electronics have real names, but all I've come up with so far for the iPod is "Tiny," and you've got to appreciate the irony of the new iPod having both a bigger screen and hard drive than the old one.

I felt kind of sad pulling the old one out of my case and slipping in the new one, like I was tossing aside an old friend. I need to get over my emotional attachment to things. Again, again, seriously.

I broke her/him/it in this morning with Regina Spektor's "Samson." It was lovely.

In other techno news, my new iMac shipped yesterday, and the AirPort Express to extend our wireless shipped this morning. W00t, again! I need to look into transferring my shit from Katherine Grace (iBook) to Zelda (? - new iMac - the iPod could become Zelda instead). I know how to set up the iBook as an external to the iMac and pull stuff off that way--see, yay for firewire--but I want my damn playlists in iTunes.

And finally, I'm really damn old on Wii Sports Fitness. Whoa. Is it because I have an "old soul"? I'm blaming my torn right rotator cuff (I'm right handed). I've got a long way to go, but I'm at least having fun with tennis, golf, and bowling.