You got friend in me

This is NOT becoming a blog about cats, but someone asked so:
Here's Maggie.
I did this in Blabberize, a fun app, and it's FREE!
Hooray!
To see (and hear) Click here! Maggie and Friend
(Hit the play button once you're there!)

Maggie

This is Maggie: she has a mind of her own.

adding links

A really great web site for all of you to go to and use as a reference is PBS.

links links and more links

I probably should title this: Easier said than done!
So here's my link to all my faves!
ALLMYFAVES


and what about a fun image?

Lead by Example

I'm guilty!
I haven't added to my blog in months yet I am requiring my students to write one about every week.
Lead by example.
And so the school year starts!
Next up: the partial text of the results of my "virtual search for God."
I was delighted to see the NYTimes weekend section (Septmeber 5) lead off with "Playing God" and the discussion that followed on SPORE. That's what really began all this: Video Games.
To be Continued....

Seond Life: In Search of God

I have always been a "techie." I enjoyed gadgets and robots and machines even as a child. When Pong came put I was spending the few quarters I had every chance I got; when my nephew (now almost 42) got this first Atari, I fought him for the controller! Truly, I was a master of Pong. Then along came Asteroids, and Missile Command and the response reaction times grew slower and my nephew was quickly beating me at every game we played. Forget Pac Man or Donkey Kong or Mario, I was just not good at these games.

But last summer a good friend had me over for dinner, and her husband challenged us to bowl on the Wii. My life has been forever changed! We fish, box, bowl and swim with the Wii, and later this summer, I will re-live my childhood and exercise with a hula hoop via the Wii-Fit!

Yes, I am back. But for the purposes of a paper I have to write/deliver, I'm not exploring the Wii but instead will be taking a different route: I'm entering Second Life in Search of God.
Stay Tuned

Privacy Rules!

I recently spent a good amount of time in a hospital (visiting!).

I was amazed at the rules and regulations they have now concerning privacy.
Patient Charts are no longer at the foot of the bed; computer screens are covered or the monitors go almost immediately into a screen-saver mode; the elevators caution care providers NOT to discuss patients while in the elevators:
CAUTION:
DO NOT DISCUSS PAITIENTS WHILE IN THE ELEVATOR!
It gave me confidence that a patient’s right to privacy was being respected.

At one point, my cousin (who I was visiting) had to have a surgical procedure.
When we went in to the waitng room, a woman asked us the patient’s name and then assigned us a number. She told us that to respect the patient’s right to privacy, we would now be referred to as #1; no names, Please! When the procedure was over, a doctor would “summon” us, and we would be referred to simply as #1. Families of other patients soon joined us (numbers 2-7, respectively).
And we all waited.

The phone rang: “OK, Thank you” I heard the receptionist say.
Then she called out:
“Number 3, Number 3 please!”
pause
“Reynolds family! Family of John Reynolds!”
So much for privacy… but wait, it gets better.

A few minutes latter, a doctor came out and called “Mrs. Reynolds…?”
Mrs Reynolds stood up and I could clearly hear WAY more information than I ever wanted to hear about Mr Reynolds stomach operation…
Ouch!

So: the not so private privacy rules go out the window for expediency.
I can’t imagine the number of embarrassing situations that arise from this!

Anyway: Privacy Rules are clearly not important in some areas of the hospital.

Whatever…