Getting ready for puppy

So, yesterday afternoon, Jackson and I started working on the fence in the back yard. It needed some screws to tighten it up a bit. It is a really old fence ( 20 plus years I think). Then Jackson went to a birthday party. When William came home from his sleepover, he and I started working on putting up the chicken wire. I purchased a 100 ft roll of 2 foot tall chicken wire to put up along the fence. The fence has bigger slats in it and I am pretty sure that the puppy would be able to get through them. So we are putting the wire up to keep her in.
I ran out.
Today, the neighbour was doing some work on his fence and he had some extra wiring… Bingo! Another half hour and I was done. Yeeha!

Mom, Aunt Nan and I went to Costco this afternoon. We also went to Dollarama. I was able to get 2 bags of doggy doo dog bags, a doggy blanket for the kennel, a brush, and two stainless steel bowls for food and water all for the low low price of $6.84 including taxes! Bonus!

So, I think we are almost ready. Gotta get some puppy grub though.

Visit with the pup

This morning we got up and took off for Blythe to visit Jackson’s puppy Taffy.
We had a great time.
Nan, Jackson, Gramma, Aunt Nan and myself went. William was at Justin’s for a birthday sleepover.

While we were there today, Jeff the kennel owner let me know that Taffy has had her 2nd shot and will be going for her final shots on Tuesday.
That also means that Taffy will likely be coming home a week this Tuesday!

Jacks was over the moon when I told him. I have to admit that I am really excited too.
Taffy is really beginning to turn into a pup. Every time we have visited up until now, Taffy has been somewhat quiet. She was really young. Now she is starting to interact with people and whimper a bit, and wag her tail. It was such fun sitting in the car with her for an hour.

Here are the pics













She sure is a cutie.

Back from Gospelcom.

We arrived home safe and sound last night at 11:15 pm. The trip was rather uneventful and dull really. Other than the fact that I got to talk to my best friend all the way to the border. After that, Nan conked out in the seat beside me and crashed for the trip from Sarnia home.

It was a great trip. We hooked up with a couple of friends from a while back and Nan was able to spend some time with Cate and Teresa. She had a really good time. So did I.

We woke Jacksy up and gave him a kiss and let him know that we were home.
Nan did it first and then I did it not knowing that Nan had….

“Jacks” I said… “Mommy and Daddy are home pal”

He rolls over and says “Yeah Dad I know.” and rolls back over and promptly goes back to sleep.

Thanks for missing me kid.

The long ride home.

I am in my last session at Gospelcom.
I am undecided about whether I would come back or not.
I think I would to network and reconnect. I would not come for training in any technology unless I came to the bootcamp. In talking to Topher, he let me know that the group that did the training were incredible!

We are going to have dinner here in half an hour or so and then we will be making our way home to London.
I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.
Off to Blythe with Gramma, Aunt Nan, mommy and the boy to visit Taffy the pup tomorrow.
Should be fun.

Drupal

Sitting in session with Rod Martin about Drupal….
Well, it is similar to Joomla! but the power behind it is much bigger and stronger.
This would be a fantastic candidate if you really want to hack into your cms.

I think that I better learn Joomla! first.

Joomla!

Sat in on Rod’s session on Joomla! this morning..
It was interesting. I really really really wish that I had a month to dedicate to learning a CMS front to back!!
I think that this is where most web design is going to go. I really do. The proliferation of websites is simply astounding.
It is getting quite tiring really to come up with the code for each site. You know, the code will sometimes be changed just a bit, but it takes time to do that. Joomla may allow me to start creating some great sites, add in some fantastic content and components that would take me days to integrate and they are all there.

I am going to put a site up in Joomla! and see what I can do with it…

Thoughts after a long night.

Nan needs her sleep. Being in a hotel room I did not feel that I could keep her up until the wee hours of the morning while I watched TV. So, I went to bed fairly early in my terms. I think I was asleep by 11 or something. So by 5:30 this morning I was wide awake and ready to go.
I did not get up then, I waited until 6. heh

I did some more thinking about the sessions I went to yesterday at the Internet Ministry Conference. I came to the realization that the vast majority of the people at this conference are trying to be on the cusp of what is happening digitally. Case in point? I would hazard a guess to say that the percentage of mac to pc to linux users here is approximately 40% / 50% / 5%. Man, everywhere I turn there is that darned cute little apple logo!
Macs are notoriously known for their creative users and this conference is no exception. Here is the second example. This is NOT a business conference. The people who are presenting might be dressed in jeans, t-shirts, shorts. Whatever struck their fancy after shaving this morning before having their half-whip, non-fat, extra-hot, one pump vanilla latte from Fourbucks…… These guys are VERY eccentric.

I like it. They are cutting edge. Sometimes a few of them come off as very cocky and arrogant. I am coming to the realization that they might have to seem that way because of the media that they are dealing with. There is so much competition out there for “digital time” that in order to be seen, read, heard, or interacted with they need to have a digital presence that is, well bold to say the very least.

Wow, so where does one go from here? I think I have decided that some of the ministry that I am involved in could use some of the technologies that I have seen this week. Wordpress for example. You can do so much more with it than I knew. Is that not always the way????

At Forest City Bible Church, we are involved with the youth work there. In discussion with the group, we have decided to set up a Facebook group for them specifically. One of the questions I have about facebook revolves around whether it is the best vehicle for doing the ministry that we are? I am not so sure. It is a great interface for social networking, but I am looking to push these teens a little bit and not just have flimsy discussions with them. I have no issue with flimsy discussions, I just want to use my time wisely with them.

I was thinking that I need to get to know Facebook a little better before I make that judgement I suppose. I know little about it. Christine, you are going to have to help me on this one!

The other one that I have been thinking about is CMSs. Content Management Systems. Our church could use something like that where updates can be made quickly and we can have a few collaborators that would be able to contribute.

So, as I sit here in the armchair in my hotel room, I am doing a lot more thinking. How does this technology or how could this technology affect my little corner of London Ontario? How can that affect then be pushed further outward to affect others? Do I have something that would affect others?
I am not sure.

Second day continued…

Today was our first full day of seminars.
We started out with James Watkins on how to write for Goldfish. His point is that society in general read and interact with websites at the level of a Goldfish…. heh, that’s kinda funny. true but funny. I know, not all people are that sad, but I am!

Snack break. Yummy cookies, muffins, coffee, and juice. Very good.

Secondly, I went to a session on javascript. I did not learn anything new in that session but did hook up with the session speaker afterward and walked through a couple of issues I had and was happy happy joy joy…

Lunch. you should see the meals they are serving us here. mucho bueno…

Then I was going to go to a session on email deliverability. Nope, it did not happen. I went over my notes from the last two sessions and researched a bit more of the deeper links they gave us.

Snack break (yes again…) soft pretzels, pop, water and cookies!

Next onto Rod Martin’s session on Wordpress. What is it? Wordpress is the blogging software that I use for this blog. The new version came out just 3 days ago and it looks pretty sweet from an administrative point of view. I think I will have to upgrade.

Dinner. Did I mention the meals they are serving us here?

Lastly, the evening speaker for the day. Brian Atkinson. He said some interesting things. Some I agree with, some I don’t. Well, not everyone should have to agree with me.

Then we went out to the lobby and chilled with Theresa, Topher and Cate. Rod was in his room getting ready for tomorrow by then.

Good day. busy but good.

Second day of Gospelcom

Phew! It is busy. I might blog a bit more tonight when we are back at the hotel, but I wanted to post these two pictures.

Me and my baby. and me and my homey.
That’s Topher1Kenobe boys.

First session at Gospelcom

So, we arrived safe and sound today in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

First session tonight was M. Rex Miller, author of the book Millenium Matrix.
OK, my thoughts.

This man is a self proclaimed futurist. All of the comments need to be taken into this consideration.
What he spoke on briefly tonight was about how we need to engage the I-Generation (who he considers to be Digital Natives as opposed to the rest of the society that has grown into technology as Digital Immigrants….).

Very interesting. He is a huge proponent of using every possible means in technology to connect with people. Some of the things he suggested we use, I use allready. Some I don’t. Interesting perspective anyways.

Another point he made is that we have moved over the ages from an Oral communication, to a typed communication, to a broadcast (tv, radio) communication and now onto an interactive communication. He believes (I think, if I heard him correctly…) that the new interactive medium is heading back to the communal orientation of the Oral timeframe. I agree that they both are communal in a way, but one of the biggest issues there is that the communal approach today is somewhat anonymous at times and leads to disinformation by individuals. In times gone by when the medium of communication was oral, people talked face to face. In our now Interactive age, we do not communicate face to face. We communicate keyboard to keyboard. I think that there is a very large difference here. The transparency on the part of the participants is an unknown.

Just my thoughts. I will try to post more as the sessions continue.
Sidenote: I did get a good listing of a few books to consider reading….
Bruce, did you not tell me to read the Fifth Discipline already?