 |
| Caribou Coffee, on Franklin Street, Chapel Hill. The employees are talking about having lived in Canada, politics (Chapel Hill Style), New York Accents, and what makes people laugh. |
I love coffee shops. To be sure, I love coffee shops more than I love coffee. The only reason that I spend so much time at the local Starbucks is that their WiFi is to expensive. It provides a fitting buffer from e-mail and net surfing, so that I can get more serious writing done. ..And I like coffee shops, especially independent ones — the way that this one acts.
I’ve just found parking, arriving on the campus of UNC an hour early in order to have an easier time finding parking than I otherwise would. With an hour to spend, I’ve located a coffee shop on Franklin street with free WiFi.
I’m here to attend the NC Science Blogging Conference. It’s a bit of a mystery as to why I’m here, not being a scientist, science teacher, or science student. I am an old-time science nerd. But I’m here to look at things through another window. My interest in blogging and other new web applications in schools is much broader than science. But sometimes when you have an opportunity to look at a think through the eyes of somebody else, you’ll see things that do not normally show up through your own glasses.
I’ve been to a number of other blogger type events here: the Chapel Hill BloggerCon a few years ago, and the PodcastCon only one year ago, about this time. Those who have seen me speak probably heard me talk about the PodcasterCon, a story that still amazes me in the levels through which information travels today, and the opportunities to latch those levels together for teaching and learning.
One other interesting thing, here, before I walk over to Murphey Hall. I’m typing on a new computer. Well, not new/new. Its actually a rather old iBook, for whom AppleCare is a distant and veiled memory. We bought my daughter a new MacBook before Christmas, handing here iBook G4 down to Brenda. So the old, old iBook that Brenda has been using passed on into my hands, and I love it. It’s rather slow, doesn’t have a DVD drive, and a tiny screen. But it’s small and really light, and I think I’ll use it for my own personal on-the-road use. When it’s time to start looking for a new computer for myself, I’ll have to as them to explain why I need a MacBook Pro, why not the lighter and far longer battery life of a MacBook.
What do you think?
To on to the NC Science Blogging Conference