Blog Evaluation Survival and Why Laptop Computers are Like Cowboy's Horses

Oh man that was a rough weekend. I read every single posting on my students' blog, and evaluated them. Many were behind in the postings, but overall I was impressed with what my students came up with. Again, they picked a problem in the world and this semester they are trying to fix it. Some are addressing AIDS, some abuse, some illiteracy, some the high cost of pharmaceuticals, some environment, some political and news ignorance. One student is even trying to increase critical thinking here on campus. I wanted desperately, while my mind was still focused on these postings, to put together a summary web page and load it on the server. BUT, I have this temporary loan computer with only a few of my files. My REAL computer has been missing for the past week, as the disk player is broken. Anyway, so I have all these lists about what to do when my real computer is back. Almost all of my files are backed up on an external hard drive, so I'm not freaking out about that. But, the files are all over the place and I know from personal experience life is simpler with files on one computer, not two. Over time computers become so personalized. My calendar, years of email, all sorts of stuff about my life are on that beloved 15" Powerbook G4 of mine. I spend more time with it than I do with my kids probably. I know that's sad. Anyway, that G4 of mine, I call it Thoth (after the Egyptian deity of scribes/learning), and Thoth has been very loyal to me over the past year and a half. I liken my relationship to Thoth to a cowboy's relationship to his horse. Not that I'm saying if I jumped out my window while bad guys were shooting at me that Thoth would be below to catch me and we would ride off together guns a blazing. But, I know that with Thoth I could give the bad guys' email addresses to all those friends in Africa who have all this money and just want a place to get it out of the country. But now, darn it, Thoth is sick, and I wish my buddy all the best. Godspead little Thoth!