Thursday, February 7, 2013

Wandering Heart

The other day my wife confronted me –

            “Who is it?”

            “What are you talking about? Who’s who?”

            “I've seen the texts and the conversations on the computer. What’s her name?”

“Her name's Diigo…”

Yeah, I’m digging Diigo. It’s not only helping me organize my Master’s and School worlds but also the rest of my life. My wife and I finally bought a house (we had been living with her parents since we sold our condo last July) and you can see that reflected in my Diigo library. You can also get a glimpse into my semi-neurotic obsession with trying to reduce the environmental toxins in our lives and especially things that off-gas (other than myself).

One thing that I finally figured out that was making me crazy was how to get the little blue "d" button to appear in the upper right hand corner of the browser:




I must have done it accidentally the first time, and it looks like it may only be available for Chrome but it turns out that it's called the Web Highlighter on Chrome and I like it much better than the Diigolet. For one thing I can close the browser bar and free up some additional space on the screen. It’s also more compact and once selected gives me access to all the Diigo functionality I need. But my favorite thing is that it tells me if I have already bookmarked something by adding a small red bookmark at the top of the button. The Diigolet gives you no indication that you have saved the page so I end up wasting a lot of time re-saving or going back and forth to see if I have saved an item.

In the shameless self promotion department – Before I had kids I used to be the kind of person that groaned internally, and sometimes externally, when people would start talking about their kids or take pictures out. Now if they wanted to talk pets count me in. Vets, wet vs. dry food, idiosyncrasies, poo poo, funny stories, you name it I was game. Of course that all changed when I had kids. Like a reformed smoker speaking out against smoking, I have become the most annoying person in the room.

I've shared a little bit with my cohort-mates throughout the program that when my oldest was born he had some very serious medical issues to deal with. At first we didn't know if he was going to make it as he had a very hard time breathing due to a congenital airway obstruction. He ended up needing a tracheostomy and the doctors weren't sure if he would someday have a diminished voice or even be able to talk at all. Long story short, we were exceedingly fortunate and he had reconstructive surgery a couple of summers ago and is doing great (and very loud!). Today was a big day for him and an exciting yet bittersweet one for us.


7 comments:

  1. Eric - Yeah! So happy for you and your family. Your son is adorable. Being a new mom, kids really change your perspective. Bring on the pictures!!
    PS - digging diigo too!

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  2. Yes, love the Chrome extension for using Diigo. Didn't realize with the Diigolet that I might end up bookmarking a site more than once. I used the Diigolet up until last fall when I learned about the Chrome extension option. I also added the Awesome Screen Capture: Capture and Annotate. It is part of the Diigo suite of Chrome tools. Not sure if I remember how I first learned about Awesome Screen Capture, but find myself using it often. Did not know the background about your son, as others in the class did, but thanks for the update. Wonder if you're using photo sharing sites like Flickr. DropBox is another way to share lots of photos with someone if you want to get a bunch out to just one individual. Just pop the photos in one folder in DropBox and share that folder with the other person, assuming the person uses Dropbox. I really like Flickr, though, for photo sharing and finding photos through the Creative Commons options of "free to use."

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    1. Thanks for the tip re Awesome Screenshot. That just solved a problem I was having with getting a screenshot from a 3D modeling program we use (http://www.sketchup.com/) into Google Presentation. I could easily get the shot into PowerPoint and now with this tool I can have students save directly to their Google Drive and import it right in.

      Google Presentation seems picky about what you can import and it's got me thinking for all the criticism of Apple's closed/proprietary nature, Google seems to be sliding towards the same kind of ecosystem ultimatum.

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  3. Dear Mr. Lord,

    When you have kids, it changes everything. I too have made the transition from dog pictures to baby pictures. However, the food and poop stories are still pretty similar. What else are we to do, we are proud parents. I too had complications with my son Wyatt at birth and I share in your celebration. I am so happy for you and your family.

    Oh and on a side note, I am finding Diigo pretty cool. I like the Chrome extension for using Diigo, but one thing at a time, one thing at a time....

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  4. Diigo is a fantastic digital resource. Thanks for sharing about your son's first day at Pre-school. Who cried?

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    1. I think everyone cried with joy now that the house would be quiet for a couple of hours a day, twice a week!

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  5. Ok first of love the picture!!! That must have been a very exciting and yet emotional day!!! I must admit I am loving diigo as well!! Keep it up!!!

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