| Latest 7 Posts |
BP206: Health Check
Mon, Dec 1st 2008  50
|
Tab closing 11/21
Fri, Nov 21st 2008 37
|
One of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself...
Thu, Nov 20th 2008 112
|
Lotus Collaboration Summit in SA/DFW Next Week
Fri, Oct 31st 2008 15
|
Eunoia and Elections
Thu, Oct 30th 2008 30
|
SF, Half Marathon, and more
Fri, Oct 17th 2008 38
|
Teaching End User Notes Class: Lessons Learned
Thu, Oct 2nd 2008 140
|
| Top
10 |
Notesgirl mail and Lotusphere 08
Thu, Jan 24th 2008 172
|
Teaching End User Notes Class: Lessons Learned
Thu, Oct 2nd 2008 140
|
One of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself...
Thu, Nov 20th 2008 112
|
Have you heard...
Wed, Feb 13th 2008 98
|
You can’t go home again...
Sat, Jan 26th 2008 81
|
I believe the term is "sqeeeee"!
Wed, Jan 16th 2008 77
|
Did You Know...
Wed, Jul 16th 2008 65
|
Airplane Peeves, and more...
Thu, Mar 6th 2008 62
|
Is this spring?
Sat, Mar 1st 2008 54
|
Speaking of Writing... Web of Deception
Tue, Mar 18th 2008 52
|
|
|
Web of Deception, Chapter 5: Grimalkin
Mar 23, 2008 5:50p |
| Hits |
32 |
| Link Love |
http://planetlotus.org/1a858b |
| Category |
Writing or blogging |
| Keywords |
notes
, blogging
|
| Author |
Libby Ingrassia |
NOTE: This is a continuation of the "Web Of Deception" round-robin story. If you're late to the party, please start with Chapter 1 on Ben's site and go from there. You can also follow the RSS feed hosted at http://www.andthentheboilerburst.com/WebOfDeception.rss.
After dinner that night, Callie examined Mike’s leg again. He had calmed down from the afternoon's excitement, and didn't seem to think much of Callie's story about the strange little man in the garden. She wasn't sure whether to be pleased or upset that he dismissed even Dufay's sneaking down the driveway. On the one hand, it meant Mike wouldn't get in her way – he was just as enamored and blind as he'd been from the start. On the other hand, it might've been nice to have some help for a change.
Still, he'd been getting progressively cranky all afternoon and when she put her hand on his leg she understood why – his leg was burning with fever. What had seemed like mere scratches that afternoon were deeper than they had looked at first and the wounds had not closed at all, but were still oozing slightly. She shook her head, worried and wondering, fingering the piece of black wool that she still had in her pocket.
"Callie, it really hurts," Mike muttered. "Do you think we should go to a doctor after all?"
"Well, if we can find one who can help, maybe we should," Callie replied, washing his leg with witch hazel. She was thinking quickly now and wondering how to try something without completely freaking Mike out. "Why don't you let me finish bandaging this and I'll go to the pharmacy to see if that strange Mr. Dufay can recommend a clinic nearby. You just rest here, drink your beer, and read your book, er, Schmoops." As she spoke, she turned slightly away from Mike's gaze and pulled the wool scrap from her pocket. Reaching down to pat him reassuringly on the leg with one hand, she let the wool fall onto his leg with the other, leaning forward to kiss him and block it from his view.
"Well, that sounds ok – although maybe you should ask him what he was doing in the yard and running off like that. You're no just trying to get me drunk to take advantage of me, are you?" he teased in reply, pulling her down to deepen the kiss. "You're sure you can find the way on your own?"
"There's not enough beer in the house get you inebriated, my wee laddie," Callie laughed back at him, lapsing in the soft burr she spoke with when she wasn't paying attention. She frowned at the piece of wool, which had looked fragile and had now shriveled even smaller, and lightened in color, turning grey while she watched. Smiling grimly at the one, tiny healed spot on his leg, she nonchalantly scooped the wool up with one hand, kissed Mike again, and promised to bring him another pint before she left. "I just have to find a few things from one of my boxes, first, and I'll make sure you're doing alright before I go."
She pulled her black sweater out of a box in the back bedroom, and, looking furtively around, although she knew Mike was still on the sofa, she also pulled out a blue velvet pouch, and sniffed to make sure its contents were still fresh enough. "They'll do, if they must," she grumbled to herself, "but I really have to get a garden started here soon. I got out of that city just in time."
Pocketing the pouch and slipping the sweater into her knitted bag, she picked up her keys and dropped a fresh pint off next to her sleeping husband. "Oh, aye, you'll sleep for a wee while, then, won't you? The healing will do that, and just as well; you won't worry if I'm gone for a while."
Quietly, Callie slipped out of the house and, grateful that the recent equinox meant that the days were long enough that it was still light out, walked down the path toward town. Slipping her sweater on and keeping one hand in her pocket, she whistled a peculiar tune and, although she appeared to be paying no attention to her surroundings, listened intently for noise in the brush. "I know you're out there, grimalkin," Callie whispered to herself.
"Of course I'm out here." The cat was riding the woman's shoulders, looking for all the world like a very old, very filthy, witches' familiar. "But knowing how to call me doesn't change anything. For you or that bloody fool fence post you live with."
"Are you sure of that, then?"
Startled, JC thought fiercely to himself, "Damn certain I'm sure. You smell like them, you sound like them, you look like them. I don't trust you. You can't be her and you can't help. You'll only be in the way." What he said was: "He won't heal." Then he started to jump off her shoulder. He found his claws stuck in the webbing of the coarse black sweater she wore and started hissing and cursing. "Damn you, you...fae, witch, whatever the hell you are... I..."
"Not so fast, grimalkin." Callie almost purred at the snarling cat who was hissing and spitting, back raised with the instinctive anger of a cat, although she guessed he'd prefer to be yelling at her in his own form. "I won't hurt you now, grimalkin, unless you make me."
"What do you mean 'now'? And stop calling me grimalkin. You called me, I'm here. My name's JC; not grimalkin. I'm warning you, stop arseing around with me before I get really mad."
"Well, now that you've told me your name, why don't you tell me why you attacked Mike, and why you're here – with all those others." Silence, and then more hissing came from her shoulder. She fingered the now fragile piece of wool. "Perhaps you'll also tell me why that fool Dufay is providing Web to that little... what is he anyway? And why in Mab's name are you going around as a cat?"
"Hrmph. Say 'in Loki's name' instead and you'll be closer to the mark. Bastard was trying to help Freya – she needed a new cat to pull her coach after one had an accident. I suspect Loki caused the accident and was trying to cover it up, but either way, I'd been a bleeding idiot and trusted him after...well, never mind. So, here I am. Stuck working for them. Of course, you could tell me how you managed to even smell different." The cat grumped a bit, hissed, and tried again to either claw her or retract his claws. Sniffing, JC said, "I know you've got some."
"I do. Can you handle it?" Suddenly standing straighter, she said quietly, "Someone else is out there, but I can't tell who. Can you?" There was no noise from woods – not even birdsong or the sound of the brook – as she sniffed the air, continuing to walk toward town.
"Hm. If you'd let me free I could go check, you know. I guess it is a bit too silent, but it's not Dufay; he said he was going to –." The cat broke off, moaning and growling low in its throat. "It's her..."
A few notes: A grimalkin is a cat - but not a completely normal feline: it's usually old and evil-looking, grey, and associated with demons, witches, or fae. Freya is a Norse goddess, associated with fertility, sensuality, and love, who is often also connected with elves and faeries. She is reputed to drive a carriage that is pulled by two large cats. Loki is a Norse god - most often a shape-shifter who likes to play pranks of varying degrees of cruelty.
I now pass the torch or baton or whatever it is, somewhat the worse for use, to the extremely talentedJohn Vaughn, aka Jonvon, with the somewhat evil request that he include the word epigamic in his installment, despite the fact that the Notes dictionary doesn't recognize it as a word. |
| Libby Ingrassia |
  |
| Blog Title |
Notesgirl |
| Blog Description |
Libby (aka Notesgirl) gives her thoughts on life, from her new job as a high school English teacher, to her old industry in Lotus Notes and other technologies, to grad school, literature, running, cooking, yoga, and other varied interests. Tune in and take note. |
| Blog URL |
http://www.notesgirl.com/NotesGirl/NotesGirl.nsf |
| RSS Feed |
http://www.notesgirl.com/NotesGirl/NotesGirl.nsf/blog.rss |
| Validate Feed |
feedvalidator.org or validator.w3.org |
| Feed Last Checked |
Dec 04, 2008 10:29:30 PM EST. Realtime Update:
|
| Language | en-us |
| Twitter URL | http://www.twitter.com/notesgirl |
| Landed Here |
Dec 16, 2007 |
| Location |
Texas |
| Posts: # / 1st / Latest |
43 - Jan 13, 2007 - Dec 01, 2008 |
| Total Hits |
1,414. myPL RSS Selections: 39 |
| Blog Posts |
50
|
BP206: Health Check 
Mon, Dec 1st 2008 10:08p Libby Ingrassia
I haven't done this in a while... I'm in the process of writing a Lotusphere session! My colleague Tom and I were accepted to speak in the best practices track at Lotusphere 2009. We're working quite madly on our slides for this week's deadline on the following session: Health Check: How's Your IBM Lotus Domino Environment? Whether there's concern about poor Lotus Notes performance, you inherit an environment, or you're a new administrator wanting confidence in your choices, this session is [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
best practice
security
server
|
37
|
Tab closing 11/21
Fri, Nov 21st 2008 4:33p Libby Ingrassia
Closing some tabs to start the weekend out with a fresh Firefox: IdoNotes reminds us that we can get a discount on "gap" sales of Lotus software -- get Sametime or Quickr licenses for customers with Notes, for example. See Chris' post, but looks like you need to engage your IBM team to get this pricing for customers. If you know anyone with dyslexia or other reading disabilities and you're struggling through the process of trying to understand it, I Speak of Dreams regularly has posts that expl [read] Keywords: collaboration
document
ibm
lotus
notes
quickr
sametime
apple
enterprise
firefox
mac
office
|
112
|
One of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself...
Thu, Nov 20th 2008 1:28p Libby Ingrassia
Well, since the gift-giving season is almost upon us (and because my good friend Jonvon asked so nicely), I thought I'd blog about my Kindle. Right before ILUG this year, I thought I might be doing more travel in 2008 and beyond than I'd been doing for a few years, and I decided to give myself a lovely graduation gift, so I started looking at electronic books. Warren has a Sony e-Reader that he'd let me paw at Lotusphere, and I liked it, but he was already having to jump through some hoops to ge [read] Keywords: ilug
lotusphere
bug
laptop
wireless
|
15
|
Lotus Collaboration Summit in SA/DFW Next Week
Fri, Oct 31st 2008 12:29p Libby Ingrassia
My company, WorkFlow Studios, is hosting two Lotus Collaboration Summit events in San Antonio and Dallas next week. The event offers an opportunity to learn about the Lotus collaboration strategy and technology, network with customers, partners, and IBMers, and have a lovely catered meal. Please join us if you're in San Antonio (November 4) or the Dallas-Fort Worth area (November 6). Full event details, including session abstracts are available at the WorkFlow Studios' Lotus Collaboration Summi [read] Keywords: collaboration
lotus
workflow
network
|
30
|
Eunoia and Elections 
Thu, Oct 30th 2008 2:28p Libby Ingrassia
This is mostly a closing links kind of post - been sent a few good ones the past day or two... Eunoia is apparently the shortest word in English that uses all 5 vowels; it is also the title of a book that the BBC mentioned today (thanks for the link, Richard). In the book, the author writes fiction wherein he uses only one vowel per chapter. Funky, crazy... but also kind of interesting for those language or poetry geeks among us. While the writing is fiction, because of the only one vowel at [read] Keywords: community
|
38
|
SF, Half Marathon, and more
Fri, Oct 17th 2008 1:48p Libby Ingrassia
Well, I've been busy traveling for the past little while, with short trips to Dallas and Nashville over the past two weeks. Nashville was great - I enjoyed making some new friends and connections, catching up with some from the "old days," and getting the skinny on WebSphere Portal and the accelerators. While I didn't stay for the entire week, I did learn some things that we'll be putting into play soon. I'm looking forward to adding some additional portal work to what we do at WFS. Now I'm g [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
lotus
lotusphere
websphere
websphere portal
|
140
|
Teaching End User Notes Class: Lessons Learned
Thu, Oct 2nd 2008 12:48p Libby Ingrassia
I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week teaching a class in Dallas. It was an end user Notes class. To be honest, it's been probably 10 years since I've last taught an end user Notes class (or maybe more). It was a great experience, although more tiring than I remembered. Here are a few things I learned or discovered while teaching this class... My students were, for the most part, existing Notes users who were preparing for a move to 8. There were so many things that I taught in this class t [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
notes
notes client
server
|
30
|
Word of the Day
Thu, Sep 25th 2008 3:29p Libby Ingrassia
Today's Word of the Day from Dictionary.com is edify: Dictionary.com Word of the Day edify: to instruct and improve. Seems particularly appropriate as so many folks (including me and mine) are rushing to get Lotusphere abstracts submitted before tomorrow's deadline. It's also one of those words I use in my personal story: it's what I (flatter myself that I) do. Whether I'm writing, speaking, or leading an actual class, I want to edify. Do you have a word that you use in your personal s [read] Keywords: lotusphere
|
42
|
Hurricanes, Writing LS Abstracts, and Closing Tabs
Tue, Sep 23rd 2008 2:27p Libby Ingrassia
I know, I know, you're never supposed to apologize for a blog absence. I won't. I'll just say that I've missed writing here, and hearing from you, although Twitter has helped me through. i've got a lot of making up to do - cleaning up the site, updating it a bit, and being more regular about my content production again. Thanks to many of you who checked in on me during Hurricane Ike. (And to Rocky, who also posted to let you know I was ok...) The hurricane itself didn't damage my house or hu [read] Keywords: ibm
ilug
lotus
lotusphere
workflow
consulting
firefox
mac
office
twitter
|
40
|
Some Giggly Media Bits
Fri, Jul 18th 2008 3:45p Libby Ingrassia
So, I linked to a few of these in Twitter over the last week or so, but I thought I'd put some of my recent media giggles here for your viewing pleasure. Please enjoy. First up, via the LJ of a friend, we have a Fred Rogers-inspired ad for the Sci-Fi Channel's Eureka. If you like science fiction and you aren't watching Eureka, well, I don't get it. It's cute and funny and witty. Eureka is returning to Sci-Fi for its third season on July 29. [I'm trying to embed the link but if doesn't wo [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
symphony
twitter
|
65
|
Did You Know...
Wed, Jul 16th 2008 2:41p Libby Ingrassia
That your friendly neighborhood Notesgirl is back in the biz? The Lotus biz, that is. Some of you I saw at ILUG or you've seen me on Twitter or LinkedIn or elsewhere and you probably heard the news there, but for those of you who hadn't yet heard.... When I finished my master's at Rice, I decided it was time to come back to the fold. So, I've left high school teaching and I'm working for WorkFlow Studios as their VP of Marketing and Communications -- doing marketing, PR, probably some training a [read] Keywords: ibm
ilug
lotus
workflow
blogging
consulting
gadget
linkedin
profile
twitter
|
28
|
Web of Deception, Chapter 5: Grimalkin
Sun, Mar 23rd 2008 7:50p Libby Ingrassia
NOTE: This is a continuation of the "Web Of Deception" round-robin story. If you're late to the party, please start with Chapter 1 on Ben's site and go from there. You can also follow the RSS feed hosted at http://www.andthentheboilerburst.com/WebOfDeception.rss. After dinner that night, Callie examined Mike’s leg again. He had calmed down from the afternoon's excitement, and didn't seem to think much of Callie's story about the strange little man in the garden. She wasn't sure whether [read] Keywords: notes
, blogging
|
52
|
Speaking of Writing... Web of Deception
Tue, Mar 18th 2008 1:15p Libby Ingrassia
After finishing the presentation over the weekend, I decided to do some catch-up reading of blogs and twitters and etc. When I happened upon Ben L.'s awesome idea for writing a shared story - round-robin style - with a bunch of friends, well, it sounded like just what I needed to fill all that copious spare time I was going to have after I finish the thesis-y writing. Actually, it's more something to clean my writing palate, if you will -- too much thesis, not enough fun. So, I'm on board wi [read] Keywords: blogging
|
You can rent this space for 30 days. Interested?
|
6
|
Capstone Presentation 
Mon, Mar 17th 2008 8:34a Libby Ingrassia
Well, I'm more than halfway there now. I gave my capstone - a capstone is our program's version of a thesis - presentation on Saturday. I spoke about my project, my conclusions, and my primary sources for an hour, with fifteen minutes or so of questions. In some ways, it was easy - after all, I'm used to public speaking, right? On the other hand, it was higher stakes than much of my speaking. Still, everyone told me I knocked it out of the park, including my adviser. Now all that's left is to do [read] Keywords: |
47
|
Re. Rob’s Perfect Employer Post: My take
Fri, Mar 7th 2008 12:43p Libby Ingrassia
Rob had a great post the other day about his perfect employer and job. It's been on my mind a lot of late, as I try to decide what's next for me. I remember one time, oh about 12 years ago, I had a long talk with my then-roommate Julie about perfect job, working conditions, etc. It's amazing how different my thoughts are now. I suspect this is a work in progress. I know enough to know that I don't have a perfect job. There are many jobs and career paths that could work for me and at which I thin [read] Keywords: collaboration
, connect
, blogging
|
62
|
Airplane Peeves, and more...
Thu, Mar 6th 2008 7:32p Libby Ingrassia
I'm so not supposed to be doing this. Blogging that is. At least not right now. All my focus is supposed to be going to writing the thesis. Ah well. I'm sitting in the kitchen, with the window barely cracked open behind me, but I can feel the temperature dropping as it's been doing since mid-afternoon. It's probably 45 degrees at most now, and it was probably 70 this afternoon. In a bit, I'll likely move into the living room to curl up by the fire to keep writing. There's a lot going on ri [read] Keywords: blogging
, email
, laptop
, security
|
54
|
Is this spring?
Sat, Mar 1st 2008 11:49a Libby Ingrassia
In an effort to be less exhausted all the time, I went out for a run this morning. It was very short, and at least half walk, as I continue to recover from the evil flu, but it did give me some energy (which I am now about to put wholeheartedly into the thesis that has to be done in 2 weeks). It also gave me the opportunity to do a little thinking and a little observing - and appreciating. We'll start with the observing. I know that in the past I've bad-mouthed and complained about Texas on more [read] Keywords: |
98
|
Have you heard...
Wed, Feb 13th 2008 2:41p Libby Ingrassia
As my friend Cindy will tell you, I'm not a particularly sophisticated music listener. I like what I like... 80s music, top 40 (sometimes), and CW that I can dance to. I also like "old" favorites like Billy Joel, Elton John, Johnny Mathis, the BeeGees, and Barbara Streisand. And then I like even older favorites like Bobby Darrin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra, courtesy of my grandfather. I guess my tastes are somewhere between opportunistic (if I happen to hear it, I'll probably like it if [read] Keywords: google
, ipod
, networking
, tag cloud
|
7
|
Home sick today...
Fri, Feb 8th 2008 10:06a Libby Ingrassia
Curled up on the sofa babying myself. So I thought I'd close some tabs and post a few links. While curled up on the couch watching trashy TiVo'd shows, I noticed a familiar song -- from R5 Launch to Toyota Sequoia ad. My friend Cindy was in NJ recently and brought back some Tastykakes in honor of Stephanie Plum. Janet Evanovich's Plum books are one of my guilty pleasures. I giggle constantly reading her, have a tiny hankering to be a wimpy, lucky bounty hunter, and after all, recognize the [read] Keywords: lotusphere
, R5
|
81
|
You can’t go home again...
Sat, Jan 26th 2008 2:21p Libby Ingrassia
While I had a lovely time at my Lotusphere weekend, I left with one indelible thought in my mind: you can't go home again. It's not to say that I can't find a way to get a job in the Lotus technology universe, and can't once again spend my Januarys in Orlando with all the lovely Loti and friends. But what I forget occasionally, although I've learned the lesson more than once, is that when you go back to something after leaving it for a while, both you and it have changed. You can go to it - move [read] Keywords: lotus
, lotusphere
|
172
|
Notesgirl mail and Lotusphere 08
Thu, Jan 24th 2008 10:51p Libby Ingrassia
I'm about to go head's-down on the thesis work again, but I just wanted to make a few comments first. Number one: Notesgirl mail was down for a day or so, so if you've sent me mail in the last 24-48 hours and not received a response, please drop me another note. Sorry! Lotusphere was so fun, even though I was only there for the long weekend. Lots of great visiting time with Kitty and Warren and Liz and Rob and Bill and Richard and Michael and Terri and Dec and Susan and Duff and brief fly- [read] Keywords: lotus
, lotusphere
|
77
|
I believe the term is "sqeeeee"!
Wed, Jan 16th 2008 9:20p Libby Ingrassia
This just in... Libby will be at Lotusphere. At least, I will be for the weekend. I hope to get to see as many of you as possible. Same old Notesgirl.com email address if you want to get in touch. I'm in from around 10:30 Friday night (landing at the airport) to Monday morning. [read] Keywords: lotusphere
, email
|
6
|
Happy New Year
Mon, Dec 31st 2007 11:30a Libby Ingrassia
Well my dear friends and family, I'm wishing you the best and brightest in 2008. I've spent most of the first week of my holiday vacation regrouping and recuperating, not from being sick exactly, but from being worn out and a bit blue. This week, though, is all about working on my master's thesis, planning the year to come, and visiting with friends. There's a small possibility that I may come to the first weekend of Lotusphere this year. I can't take any days off, so I wouldn't be there f [read] Keywords: lotusphere
|
6
|
Putting things in Perspective
Sun, Nov 18th 2007 9:07a Libby Ingrassia
As often happens, the moment I give in to sadness or self-pity, I'm almost immediately reminded that the world is much worse and that my problems, while they may seem important to me, are small beans in the larger world. One friend is still grieving through a hugely painful loss she suffered this summer - and despite losing my dad and all the other challenges I've faced, I can't even begin to imagine her pain. Of course, while I want to help and be supportive, the real truth is that there's noth [read] Keywords: networking
|
10
|
Remember Me?
Sat, Nov 17th 2007 12:13p Libby Ingrassia
It's been quiet here since June. Guess I've been busy and a little blue (which I probably haven't wanted to admit). Let's see... I got a yoga teacher certification, trained for and competed in my first triathlon, trained for and ran my third half marathon, helped a friend through a crisis (I hope), am almost done with my final semester in graduate school after taking two classes this semester, taught three preps at school, and tried like hell to figure out what I'm doing right and wrong with [read] Keywords: lotus
, email
, facebook
|
5
|
Monday, Monday
Mon, Jun 18th 2007 9:16a Libby Ingrassia
So, it's been way too long since my last post, but I've just been barely keeping my head above water for the last month to six weeks. The last month of school was filled with extremely late nights of grading and planning, plus homework for my grad school. I don't think any of my friends has really seen or heard from me much. Then of course was the trip. Freshmen at our school take a week-long colleges and southern civil rights tour the week after school ends. So, I was gone from Sunday evenin [read] Keywords: |
5
|
National Honor Society
Thu, May 3rd 2007 3:35p Libby Ingrassia
Our school is starting a new chapter of the National Honor Society. Yesterday our faculty council met to determine selection criteria and bylaws. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that an honor society would have a stringent petition process (you're not allowed to call it an application). Our kids will have to be selected first based on their grades - probably a 3.35 cumulative GPA or higher. After they go through the grade screening to determine who's eligible, they'll also have to complete [read] Keywords: application
, community
|
6
|
This Captures Me to a T
Sun, Apr 29th 2007 10:55a Libby Ingrassia
I subscribed to the Unshelved strip after my friend Shelly sent me a strip one time. (At least, I think it was Shelly - she's my librarian (archivist) friend, so it would make sense.) The comic often resonates with me as a reader... and as someone who's thought about a career in a library - after all, what do I like better than books?! Every Sunday, they have a "book club" issue that has their characters give the high points of a book they've recently read. They've covered some great books, from [read] Keywords: |
6
|
Page Numbering Tip in MS Word
Sat, Apr 28th 2007 4:57p Libby Ingrassia
Just a tiny page numbering tip for MS Word. When I wrote my last paper, I created a title page using sections (because I like the title information centered in the page), did a different header and footer for the next section, where the paper started, and inserted an automatic page number. Of course, the page number was "2," because that's the default - number all the pages. My professor called me on it, because of course, the title page doesn't count as a page, so jumped to the conclusion tha [read] Keywords: applications
, interface
|
5
|
A YouTube Find for English Teachers (and more sci-fi annotated links)
Sat, Apr 21st 2007 7:37a Libby Ingrassia
I was doing some blog reading this morning, allowing myself the luxury of reading more than just a quick browse through the blogs on my daily read list in Bloglines. As I do sometimes, I had my attention caught by an entry on a blog I don't read all that often, and followed links from there. It makes for a topically related walk through other people's brains. Today's voyage was primarily about science-fiction and fantasy. I've loved sci-fi/fantasy since I was first a reader - I remember reading [read] Keywords: blogSphere
|
6
|
A Good Media Day for English Teachers
Fri, Apr 20th 2007 9:08p Libby Ingrassia
Thursday was a good media day for English teachers and other language geeks. I know you're always looking for clips to play in class to enhance the multimedia experience for your students. This morning on they way to work, I was lucky enough to be running a few minutes late. When I run late, I sometimes get to hear my favorite NPR show - Engines of our Ingenuity. Today's Engine's episode (transcript or audio of episode 1926) was a discussion by guest Andrew Boyd on the topic of rhetoric. Rhet [read] Keywords: archive
|
7
|
Sheepishly Peeking In
Thu, Apr 19th 2007 6:24p Libby Ingrassia
I know you've noticed yet another long silence. So that those of you in the Notes world have an opportunity to giggle... well, I let the user.ID I'd been using to access my hosting provider expire. And it wasn't an ID for which I still had a certifier. So I had to start over. Sigh. Sheesh - you leave the Notes world for one lousy year and you go right back to making rookie mistakes. Ah well. Life goes on. All is well now, thanks to an new install and some cross-certifying from my friendly neighb [read] Keywords: agent
, notes
, blogging
, development
, network
, office
|
6
|
Yay for Me!
Thu, Feb 22nd 2007 8:52p Libby Ingrassia
Okay, so there's been quite a bit of silence around here of late - I'm normally pretty busy but as of about 3 p.m. today, I'm also.... (drum roll please)... a homeowner! The new place is a cute townhome with two bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a two-car garage, cute kitchen with breakfast nook, fireplace, and two decks/patios. I'm not moving far from where I live now - close to the center of town with easy access to almost everything. Now this isn't my first home ownership experience - [read] Keywords: |
6
|
NPR & PBS
Thu, Feb 8th 2007 11:05a Libby Ingrassia
I admit to watching and listening to my fair share of commercial television and radio. However, I have also become reliant on NPR and PBS for news, education, insight, and wonder. I hate that I arrive at school before (and leave after) Engines of Our Ingenuity, so I listen to that online. I also listen to A Way with Words online since moving away from San Diego. Watching Nova with Philip is one of my most enjoyable weekly habits (even when I'm also grading or reading or planning or writing)! Of [read] Keywords: |
8
|
KIPP on NPR
Wed, Feb 7th 2007 4:45p Libby Ingrassia
Heard a story on NPR while getting ready this morning about the discussions of longer school days for kids. KIPP was mentioned prominently. KIPP schools have longer school days and longer school years, both in the middle schools and high schools. I'm not sure whether a longer school day by itself is the only answer, but more time for tutorials and less time unsupervised are definite plusses for our kids. [read] Keywords: |
6
|
One of the comments...
Sun, Feb 4th 2007 7:03a Libby Ingrassia
That was made at the Chronicle's site after the recent blogging story was about the idea that teachers may have the right to blog but not from school computers, on school networks, or on school time. I only wish that meant that teachers were not allowed to grade papers, write lesson plans, write recommendation letters, research projects, answer questions, etc. from home computers, on home networks, or on personal time. Of course, it doesn't really work that way. But it does bring up a few intere [read] Keywords: blogging
, email
, network
|
6
|
Hello Chronicle Readers...
Mon, Jan 29th 2007 8:36a Libby Ingrassia
If you've just read today's Houston Chronicle article about eductors who blog, and found your way here, welcome! (Well, actually, welcome to you no matter how you found your way!) I am, in fact, a teacher who blogs. Of course, as the article mentions, I'm also a recent career-changer, so I don't always blog about education. I do sometimes write about lessons that I've planned (ones that have gone spectacularly well or poorly are most likely to appear), but if you nose around a bit you'll also f [read] Keywords: |
6
|
Another good customer service moment
Sun, Jan 21st 2007 1:34p Libby Ingrassia
You'll remember I mentioned some great customer service resulting from the Amazon.com issue I mentioned a few posts ago... Well, I'm happy to report a similar experience with drugstore.com. I think what must have happened is that all of my shipments for a particular day got lost, stolen, or delievered to another house on my block (maybe 1616 instead of 1661?), but I had another online order that didn't arrive, even though the vendor website showed that my order was completed and the tracking web [read] Keywords: |
6
|
Telecommuting - Career Killer?
Sat, Jan 20th 2007 7:08a Libby Ingrassia
I worked at home for almost a decade. For some of that I was completely self-employed, working contract training and consulting jobs, doing freelance writing and editing, and making training videos. During other times, I was either completely or partially employed by a single company or client. I had very mixed feelings about working from home. On the one hand, it did give me the potential flexibility in my schedule that could be very useful for going for a lunch-time run or a morning yoga cl [read] Keywords: ibm
, consulting
, email
, office
|
5
|
Amazon.com - Some Great Customer Service
Fri, Jan 19th 2007 4:00p Libby Ingrassia
As anyone who knows me well might imagine, I order from Amazon.com all the time. When you're addicted to books, that's what happens. In any case, I realized a few days ago that I'd been waiting a really long time for Philip's birthday present and some other items I'd ordered for school, so I checked the "Where's My Stuff" link on Amazon.com... That link said the packages had been delivered, although I knew that I hadn't gotten them. So, I wrote an email to customer service and less than 24 hours [read] Keywords: email
|
7
|
The Libby: Lotusphere, Rocky, and Haiku
Thu, Jan 18th 2007 8:18p Libby Ingrassia
One of the many ways I merged my two career callings was to write technology-related haiku in all my copious free time way back when. My good friend Rocky Oliver has, a few times, started haiku threads on his blog - sometimes just for kicks and sometimes in an effort to cheer me up as he long ago asked me to cheer him by sending some haiku (long before we had blogs...). In the last few days before Lotusphere, Rocky's at it again with a Lotusphere-related haiku contest... and he's calling the awa [read] Keywords: lotusphere
, application
|
7
|
Interview with the Chronicle
Wed, Jan 17th 2007 7:54p Libby Ingrassia
I'll post more about this when I know when the story will run, but I'm being interviewed Friday by a Houston Chronicle reporter for a story on teachers who blog. I find the idea interesting - apparently I'm one of the few to do so who blogs under my own name. I'm fortunate to have a principal who was willing to be open-minded about my pre-existing blog. It's become a part of who I am and I didn't want to give it up. On the other hand, I've definitely caught myself editing some of the things I've [read] Keywords: |
6
|
Strange January
Sat, Jan 13th 2007 7:56a Libby Ingrassia
As I dash off to school to continue working on lesson plans, grading, and a few bits for the house I'm trying to purchase, I stopped for a minute to review the blogs in my RSS feed reader. And I have to admit to getting more than a little bit misty and sad. It's Lotusphere time, of course, and for the first time since... well, 95 or 96, I won't be there. I'll be here. Working in a different industry. Missing the action, the people, the knowledge, the atmosphere. Missing hosting parties, writing [read] Keywords: lotusphere
, community
|
|
