ANDRA IS A BLACK BELT

and at this rate the rest of the family is not far behind... those that aren't already ahead of me!

2 1/2 years of accelerated gradings whenever possible and a torn hamstring limiting my training these last few months. I certainly could have done better but i did pretty good.. especially the sparring!

Yes, I do feel proud of myself.

OK! I now give myself 2 SWORDS for sheer perseverance!

Black Belt approaches

One week and one day till black belt grading. Unfortunately I'm not looking as fierce as I'd hoped!

My hamstring tear took a good 3 months off my prep and I'm still sore. Long recovery! It appears that I am getting older. That is life.

Which is all the more reason to do this NOW! Fortunately all the grandmasters are at important meeting in Melb re future of TK in Aust... perhaps fall out of TK Aust sacking from AOC?

Anyway. One way that being a couch potato has helped me with black belt is finding some good patterns on You Tube to help me practise.

I kick arse with patterns!

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

science club is going to have to get down with this!

Social Networking Panel Discussion at Zeitgeist '07

This is cool, but I can't help but be struck by how google has pwned zeitgeist but noobs can only get the lame instructions for the zeitgeist game using google zeitgeist of course.

Meanwhile (conspiracy theory!) Zeitgeist is the name for the google partner forums and talkfests for which you can search in vain as you need (used to need) an invitation to view.

Information R/evolution

Deus ex machina.

I bought my eldest a toy typewriter when she was little, partly out of sheer nostalgia.I was using a computer for my scripts and assignments. Her siblings could only have toy computers.

A Vision of Students Today

questions we should all be asking. changes we should all be making. learning is the hallmark of humanity therefore if students can't learn in school, then school is wrong.

Mike Wesch is amazing! See his stuff on youtube and at mediated cultures and savageminds.org

couture Guerrilla / hastac / digital media and learning

for more hastac go there
for more digital media and learning go her
Maxicat Rhododendron (rodeodendron sic) that is

Eric Schmidt, Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0

Interesting.

Social Networking in Plain English

although it's more of the plain english that is used to sell you not one, but two sets of steak knives and is a teensy bit patronising, I like seeing how seemingly simple it is to put a youtube presentation together.

so props to Lee and Sachi LeFever who run the commoncraft show, and i'm sorry mum and dad but I'm definitely going to hook you up with this site.

I Want a Black Belt in Web 2.0

I'm a whiny baby! Surfing the web 2.0 is a lot like my real surfing experience. Getting dumped, board rash and sunburn. High expectations and very little actual forward movement in graceful fashion.

Suddenly, I need to coordinate (and have accounts in) Facebook, Google, Technorati, Flickr, WordPress, Linkedin, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Digg, Del.icio.us, Picasa, Shelfari, ClipMarks, NING, Meetup, Vimeo, DailyMotion, You Tube, My Space and whatever happened to Wayne's Whatever?

There are more! I keep signing up for things and losing the details. Although, i'm looking forward to tracking down and burying all my old websites!

But for now, I'm still getting very confused and I'm annoying all my friends with redundant multiplicities. Except that most of my REAL FRIENDS are luddites with personal policies against wasting time in virtual realities who will never ever read anything i say! or even look at the pictures :(

Tim Berners Lee on the Semantic Web

This is the real deal!

Go check out Tim Berners Lee on the future of the internet, or anything else, excepting net neutrality, on which he is rather confusing. It's a mixed up kind of world after all and we haven't even added feminism and patriarchy to the geek mix.

Facebook Cubed - fb3

Second life was a waste of space. Facebook is the real virtual reality. People are complicated, yet life is trivial. Linearity is overated.

Think of a 3 dimensional swirl of icons. Avatars should be collections of icons or command objects or "apicons".

Body Dysmorphia and Web 2.0

i hope there's time to 'flesh this idea out' before it evaporates!

i think that there is a massive increase in body image and eating disorder issues world wide and this connects to the globalisation of mass media PLUS the increase in wealth (side issue - more of the world's poor are fat than skinny these days... although skinny is still starving to death) .

having just explored facebook i am feeling more optimistic about our ability as a society to restore the body image balance. the surge in facebook and web 2.0 social networking allows us the freedom to create connections unrestricted by our physical presence and whatever body image issues (dysmorphia) we have can become secondary... or can be explored.

perhaps this is the real avatar assault!

Caroline Coppola : 2007 French jnr vicechamp

So good, so young! Just like me.

The Web: Looking Back, Looking Forward' Tim Berners-Lee

This is cool. Lousy quality presentation but amazing substance. What a change! (not amazing presentation but lousy substance. Check out Tim O'Reilly.

Semantic Web 3.0

How crazy is it that a philosophy graduate who is making money from being an internet entrepreneur is so completely unable to convey what is meant by the semantic web.. or Web 3.0.

2006 World Championships : Women 51+

especially watch Australia's Bronwyn Butterworth take Silver Medal!

2006 World Poomsae Championship: Female (14-18)

2006 World Poomsae Championship: Female (19-30)

2006 World Poomsae Championship: Female (31-40)

2006 World Poomsae Championship: Female (41-50)

Carmela Hartnett - Australia - gets bronze

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

What can I say. Awesome use of the medium as message (Marshall McLuhan). I agree with Ella (Tech and the City) on this one.

WorldSim Preview for Spring 2007

i love the posts by mwesch (Mike Wesch, Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University). the world simulation is at his blog mediated cultures. next stop Savage Minds and his brief theory of anti-teaching.

The Society for Creative Anachronism meets here

If you've read this, then you know the secret. The answer is not the date at the bottom of the post. This blog is a compilation of bits of earlier blogs relaunched on blogger later this year. Or earlier last year. Depending on how or who you look at it.

For years I've been on the almost bleeding edge. I've watched. I've dabbled. I've dillied, I've dallied, procrastinated, carped and moaned. I've been allowed myself to be put off by a few early adopters who have not gone in directions or with flavours that I like.

Like missing out on my domain name because we didn't want to spend $25. Like not starting the first Aust freecycle cause I didn't have time. Like not...

Regrets. I've had a few. The blogs that I've started and not followed through with. The stilted selfconscious prose. Stuff it.

I'm blogging like there's no tomorrow and I've discovered how to back date my posts. Now I will look.. like a not so late adopter.

And if I've only just figured it out... how long has this been going on! Check out the Wayback Machine, which highlights the swings and roundabouts nature of all. Although I am largely invisible and had a tedious time piecing together my various free blogs and sites!

We also apparently gazumped someone from their domain but I'm still bummed about being gazumped or cheated out of several others.