I spend last week in Atlanta for a conference on Sakai, the open-source Learning Management System we’re implementing here at Texas State. It was generally a good conference. Highlights included: getting to visit with old friends William, Bobbie Jo, and Rich, Eben Moglen’s keynote, getting to hang out with some great people from work, and A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant.

While I was there and missing my family one night, I pressed the MacBook and the greatest software ever into service to send this back home:

While the trip was a good one, it’s good to be back home.

Tonight’s video experiment requires QuickTime, and is right over here. Enjoy!

Bill, the host for the previously mentioned Straw Bale Workshop, has posted his page on the project. Be sure to catch the Bale Raising Movie — a 120x time-lapse of the day (at which speed even I look terrifically industrious)!

Our friend Kierstin lit off for The Big Apple a couple of years back now with dreams of acting and stars in her eyes. She’s been attending an actor’s conservatory for a while now, and has been working really hard at honing her skills. Finally all of that has paid off, as she has reached the pinnacle of the thespian’s craft: a role in a Wierd Al Video!

Congratulations, Kierstin! (And great job!)

I don’t think I ever got around to posting this when it happened (and I’m sure Daniel will be just thrilled to see that I am now), but here’s the documentation of our abortive attempt to consume an entire tin of Altoids all at once. Enjoy!

On Saturday, Abigail, Liam and I all headed up to South Austin for a Straw Bale Construction workshop, organized by Ben Obregon, an architect-builder who specializes in sustainable building, and hosted by Bill & Jill, in whose backyard the structure was being built (and who are some mighty fine cooks).

I’d done a moderate amount of reading on this building technique, but when Daniel tipped me off to the workshop, I figured that there’s nothing like acutally doing it to help one get a grip on a process and signed up. We arrived at about 8:00 to find a giant pile of straw bales looming next to the post-and-beam structure. While you can actually use the bales to bear the load of the roof, this particular project used some beautiful stripped logs to hold up the roof and loft assembly, leaving the bales to only provide the wall structure and insulation.

For the first course, we laid down a couple of 2x4s parallel and 18″ apart on their outside edges to hold the bales off of the ground just a bit. We spread boric acid In the gap between them to keep insects at bay, and then impaled the bales on the pieces of rebar that had been embedded in the foundation to help lock the bales into place.

As the walls rose higher, each course of bales was secured to the one below it by driving wooden stakes through and into the course below. (“It also takes care of any vampires you have nesting in your straw,” I helpfully informed some of the other workers.) Door and window frames are pinned into the adjacent bales as the walls go up. The most labor-intensive part of this process is creating all the custom-sized bales that are needed to fit the various gaps and corners.

There were a lot of neat, interesting people who had turned up to help out, as well as curious neighbors who wandered by over the course of the day. As the hours wore on, however, I made the unfortunate discovery that I am indeed fairly allergic to hay; I kept sneezing, and my arms were a mass of rashes from my wrists up past my elbows. Next time I definitely need to wear long sleeves and wear a respirator mask!

By day’s end, the bales for the first floor were pretty well in place, and a fair bit of the second story had been done as well. The kids even made themselves useful, toting bales around between rounds of making adobe balls in the dirt pile behind the building site and flinging them at each other.

The night before the event, I had thought to myself “I should bring out a laptop and set it up to do a time-lapse recording of the building site over the course of the day.” Unfortunately, I didn’t get my act together to do so. Fortunately, Bill and I have similar geek tendencies, and I found him doing exactly this thing about 30 minutes after we arrived! (I don’t have a link to the video yet, but Bill assures me that it came out great. I’ll post it as soon as I get my hands on it!)

We had a great time being a part of the goings-on, and were grateful to Ben, Bill and Jill for the opportunity. Thanks, guys!

I turned up at Target this morning about 6:15 to see if I could get my hands on a Wii. Results: I was 27th in line, there were 24 available. The two guys in front of me who didn’t get one had arrived about 30 minutes earlier. The girl in front of them, who was #24, was wrapped somnolent in a sleeping bag when I arrived.

While I didn’t get one, it at least made me feel better to know that I missed the 8 hours camping in the cold I would have had to spend to have been successful.

Kathy’s application to Texas State University was officially accepted yesterday! Better yet, they’re taking all 55 hours of courses that she had previously done as transfer credits, so she’s lost no ground, in spite of her 11 year hiatus. If all goes according to plan, she’ll be starting her first classes in the spring.

Congratulations, Smoochy. (I know you love it when I call you that in public.)

Today I found myself sitting at my desk, thinking thusly to myself: “Self,” I thought, (remember kids, it’s environmentally conscious to reduce, reuse, and recycle old jokes), “Why is it that we have Lime Coke, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, Raspberry Coke, Snozberry Coke (it tastes like Snozberries!), but no Peppermint Coke?”

One serving of diet coke and a liberal helping of peppermint extract later, I have the answer. Oh, my pink hearts, yellow moons, and orange stars, that’s bad. I think I’m going blind. Not my beautiful eyes! Take my taste buds, please! I’m coming to join you, Elizabeth, I’m coming!

This one’s just for my San Marcos friends:

Been keen to try Sean Patrick’s Irish Pub, the new place that just opened off of the square? Don’t bother. Other people have had lousy experiences, and mine matched.

Since I play Irish Music, and was really excited when the place opened, thinking there’d finally be a good place to indulge that interest a bit. I went by tonight with my pennywhistles in hand.

• First bad sign: football on most of the televisions, and not the Irish kind.
• Second bad sign: no apparent place for live music.
• Third bad sign: I waited 15 minutes on the porch for service, after the hostess behind the “Please Wait to be Seated” sign told me to choose whatever place I liked. The waitress wandered by and helped people at other tables four times while I sat there, but never bothered to get me a menu, take my order, or otherwise acknowledge my existence.

I didn’t wait for the fourth bad sign; I took my business elsewhere. Nobody said a word as I left. It looks like Tantra gets my Monday night business from now on.