masker.net blog

Hello everyone. I had email updates shut down while the blog was undergoing some changes so that you wouldn’t be bothered by experiments. Here is a quick run down of how the new site works:

I have both a public and a private section on the web site now, similar to the way it was set up before. The private area is to protect information on the kids and the public area is mostly babble you may or (more likely) may not be interested in. I’ve eliminated the group password that used to grant access to the private areas in favor of letting you create your own accounts. I was getting asked frequently to clarify the password. This way you’ll be able to reset your own password if need be.

In the sidebar on the right and also at the top of this page you will see a link to subscribe. You have the option to subscribe either with a feed reader (don’t worry about it if you don’t know what that is) or by email. You can also choose to get all updates or just family related updates. As there are now several different ways you can receive updates, this update will be the last one sent out to the old email list. If you just want a quick way to resubscribe by email to the family updates, you can do that by clicking here.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or just want to yell at me for making it ridiculously impossible to access pictures of the kids and obsessively changing things all the time please email me. Linked below are a few family updates you may have missed during the sabbatical.

Tags: masker.net
Categories: Family, Public
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Pics of the Kiddos in the Snow

jason| February 11, 2008 6:11 pm

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Tags: Bethany,Chip,Daniel,Jade,Liberty,photos
Categories: Family
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Jade’s Haiku

jason| February 9, 2008 8:10 am

Autumn discovered one of those crumpled up pieces of paper on the table yesterday that are all-too-common in a house with four children. Usually these are glanced at to ensure they aren’t some misplaced homework assignment and tossed, but this one was different. On it were written a series of haiku in the mode of the eight-year-old mind:

Make a flower bloom;
The sun does it tomorrow,
Rain does it today.
Is it a springer?
For I have a singu[l]ar,
And I have a light.
Never be meanest;
For the people important
Are to be kindest.
Oh, God alas,
Who made the brontosaurus;
And in fact is Lord.
See a flower bloom;
In the streaming sunshine,
Where the rainbow ends.
Oh, brontosaurus;
With the big feetosaurus,
And ancient broad past.

These are rendered as written. I’ve only corrected the spelling of ’singular’ in the second haiku after asking him what he was talking about. Even so, the second still seems the weakest in the series. When I asked him about them this morning he said he was listening to the fourth grade lecture instead of doing his work. Jade is in third grade and shares his classroom with the second and fourth grades. Homework has been a problem. What do you do?

In this case I made a mental note of the intangible benefit of multi-grade classrooms implicated, congratulated him on his poetic debut, and reminded him that it is important finish what his teacher has assigned him before delving into extracurricular adventures.

Tags: Jade,St. Luke's LES
Categories: Family, Public
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Buried

jason| February 7, 2008 6:11 pm

I made it home today. We got some snow all right. Thought I’d share some pics of the damage. In Detroit there was barely any snow. By the time I reached Fenton, US-23 was down to one lane and moving around 40 mph. We had at least a good foot of snow at home, maybe 14 - 15 inches in some spots. The big rumor today is that Birch Run got 22 inches, but I don’t know if I believe that.

We haven’t had this much snow in quite a while.

Tags: Michigan
Categories: Family, Public
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School Update

jason| February 6, 2008 11:54 pm

My first thought was to post “Live from Logan” tonight, but I’m actually writing from the Science Center as I have left my MacBook in the capable hands of the Apple geniuses–more on that later.

I escaped the snow back north for a rainy day down in Cambridge. The word is it will turn to snow overnight and produce an inch tomorrow. Hopefully that doesn’t delay my getting off the ground as I’m told I’ll already be late to work for the road conditions in Michigan.

The new semester is off to a fast start. I’m taking Internet Architectures and Protocols, a course on British Hellenism of the 18th and 19th centuries, and Strategy, Conflict, and Cooperation, a course on economic game theory. I’m excited about most of them so far.

I would write more, but it’s already time for me to run and catch the T before I miss my ride to the airport. I’m up for another night in luxury on the bench in front of the security gate. Good-bye for now.

Tags: education,HES experience,MacBook Pro
Categories: Family, Public
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More site progress

jason| February 5, 2008 6:04 pm

I finished integrating Gallery, so now once you create an account you’ll be able to view the photos by clicking the link at the top of this page.

I also tagged all the historic posts so that you can find posts by clicking tags on the right. Once you log in the randomish photos on the right will start to show something other than my mug and landscapes.

It’s coming along. . .

Tags: masker.net
Categories: Family, Public
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