Something Different

changeisgood

It’s been a while, again. Like the proverbial shoemaker’s child, this site gets little time or energy from me these days. Which is too bad because I’m doing some fun and interesting things I really should share. I’m going to try harder, honest.

I’ve been hard at work in other places and spaces. This year I’m teaching computer science again for grades k-8. The program has doubled from last year, and the kids really keep me on my toes. In the picture accompanying this post I’m teaching color block programming with my second graders, who really enjoyed hopping versus typing!

If you’re interested in teaching computer science concepts to children ages 5-9 and would like the lesson plan for this class leave a comment for me!

Fall Garden

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A quick peek at the fall garden – lots of romaine lettuce, spinach and more broccoli in this bed. I also did another bed of leeks and onions but didn’t photograph them.

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The peppers are holding out nicely still dropping new fruit. The Brussels sprouts are going gangbusters and I can’t wait to cook them up for the kids! I still have to figure out how to harvest them…

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Not some bizarre Seuss thing, the kale has held out nicely and helped me add some zesty crunch to the salads at school!

Benny Drops

Just a heads up that we’ve begun updating client sites to WordPress 4.0 or the “Benny” release.

As usual I’m all late and wrong about updating the site itself here, but I can confirm 4.0 is nifty and squashes some nasty bugs so it was worth the time to load it all up.

Something fun for my print buddies –

New work:

Fresh face for Kim at KimOvitt.com.

Fresh face for Good Shepherd Episcopal. Still in progress but all up in production. One of these days I’ll update my sidebars šŸ˜‰

In progress:

Learning management module for online courses (still need a beta tester, email me if you’re interested) and Event Scheduling tools.

TTFN!

Programming Note

As a self taught coder I’m always looking to polish up my skills, so I’ve signed up for Code Year, a service supported by Y Combinator, TechStars, Girl Develop It and Hack NY. They send a free weekly interactive lesson in coding via email which promises to have you up and coding quickly.

I may or may not chronicle it here, as I obviously already use this site for coding goodness (ok, mostly testing WordPress hacks and new plugins) but I want to spread the word about this project. Increasingly I re-quote Douglas Rushkoff to prospective clients and friends – learn to program or be programmed. As with making things that matter, I believe the more you know the more employable and happy you are.

If you sign up, let me know!

Dimensional Printing

I haven’t been able to stop talking about this offline and want a marker to point people towards. Listen as surgeon Anthony Atala demonstrates an early-stage experiment that could completely disrupt the medical industry – using a 3D printer with living cells to create a kidney that could replace a damaged or diseased one.

It’s true, we don’t yet have jet-packs or flying cars but as someone who grew up during the rise of cheap, affordable duplication this sure looks like disruption to me.

screenshot of Steven Glass Ceramics .com featuring a series of his sanctuary jars.

Maker’s Work

screenshot of Steven Glass Ceramics .com featuring a series of his sanctuary jars.

StevenGlassCeramics.com

I’m delighted to introduce you to the works of Steven Glass.

Steven is the Resident Potter at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and one of the founding members of the Cub Creek Foundation. He makes exquisite, playful ceramics that embrace functional use.

The site is built over WordPress using the Traject theme with extensive customization, which allowed us to deliver a great looking site on time and within a craftsman’s budget.