Found a Studebaker at Morningside Campus

I found this little toy Studebaker at the Morningside campus of Columbia University while leaving work today. The significance is that people who are moving to the renovated Studebaker Building on the new Manhattanville campus in West Harlem are being given the little toy cars so I wonder if it was from one of those folk.

It's cute little car with a hood that opens revealing an engine replica. I think the car modeled is from the 1950's but am not that familiar with the model line. It was an interesting find since I am soon taking an office in the Studebaker Building myself, although I will split time between that and my office in 201 Philosophy. The model that is appropriate for that location is the Thinker as that sculpture sits outside the campus entrance to the building.

I was thinking to myself that I find many things by looking at the ground in front of me, although I also tend to peer into the future.

Tales from the Train - Training to Work on Sunday

It's been a while since I went to work on a weekend. Normally 5 days a week is plenty for my four hour round trip commute. I wanted to take Friday off so as to be at the J-Street home for the long-awaited arrival of the kitchen countertop so I chose to defer coming to work until Sunday morning.

I didn't get up as early as I had hoped and so am taking an 8:40 semi-express to NYC. I should have thought about the day-trippers that would be going to the city at this time. The train is now full but luckily I have avoided the interlocking knee situation.

Today is Sunday, December 30, and I need to get my office organized and cleaned-up for the new year. I am going to work to be more paperless in 2008, planning to get a scanner so as to digitize notes and non-electronic documents. I also need to work out an online file and document storage approach that will work for easy access and good organization of information. I am undecided whether to use a shared drive on the Columbia server, the personal workspace feature on Sakai, or some other online file storage approach.

Well, it looks like with the number of people getting on the train at Metropark I need to close now. More later...

Whew, I dodged the bullet on that one. I think people were trying to get the front of the train as an announcement sent people to the rear of the train where there are rumored to be plenty of seats available. A strange commuting phenomenon is that people will cram themselves together at the front of the train to save walking an extra 100 feet at the station. I guess that is similar to how people cluster in parking lots waiting to get a close in spot even though the walk from farther out would be mere minutes. People...

Well, it is two days until 2008 so I have to figure out how I am going to make this year different (and better) than any other. I suppose a good blog post for tomorrow would be my new year's resolutions so I can state them for the record with hopes of accomplishing them. I will give that thought the remainder of the day and come up with a good but manageble list. I hope others do the same.

Enjoy the final days of 2007 and I wish you a wonderful and special new year. Make it so!

The Desk I Want

This is a photo of the desk I wanted but did not move quickly enough. It was for sale at the Bombay store at Princeton Market Fair but you can see the sales tag at the upper left corner of the desk. I had seen it two days before at 50% off the original price but with holiday shopping I passed it up. The lucky person who bought it paid a little over $400 for this very nice desk.

I like it because it does not have the typical pedestals of drawers on either side. I like the airy look to it. It combines well my desire to be more paperless in the future and my interest in having something like a writer's desk.

If anyone knows of something similar please clue me in. Until then, the lesson of not moving quickly enough when you see the right thing has been well-learned once again.

Tales from the Train - Campus Technology Conference

So I blogged some the important things about my recent trip to San Francisco like the journey to the Golden Gate Bridge, Linda and Vincent on Lombard Street, swans, and biscuits and gravy, but I didn't put anything about the reason I went there in the first place.

I went to attend a winter conference for IT leaders in higher education that was sponsored by Campus Technology magazine. It was advertised as an immersive workshop in various areas important for leaders of IT in the higher education industry.

The immersive part was true in that the participants chose 2 daily tracks (out of 8 possibles) and each of the first two days was spent immersed in that subject.

I chose Social Collaboration in Teaching and Learning and Technology in Successful Learning Spaces. Both offered good exploration of areas that are important within my new job role.

The Social Collaboration session provided a good look at the millennial generation and how they differ in their learning styles and overall expectations. There was a great video provided through YouTube that I must locate and link here. The session explored the various offerings for incorporating social collaboration technologies into several institutions with varying approaches.

Duke highlighted their launch of the I-Pod and what cascaded from that starting point. The University of Santa Clara highlighted their support for the variety of Web 2.0 technologies including blogs, wikis, and even Second Life where they created a virtual version (a virsion?) Of their new Learning Commons library that was under construction.

The second day was another good immersion into how to incorporate technology and planning and aesthetics to make great formal and informal learning spaces.

To be continued...

Quote from The World Is Flat

"The act of participating is like a muscle you have to use, and we are so we are so unused to being active participants in the process that even though the tools are there now many people don't use them..." Micah Sifry.

The context of this quote was about the relative small number of people who upload. "Uploading is defined as the new found power of individuals to send up, out, or around their own products and ideas, often for free rather than passively downloading them..." writes book author Thomas L. Friedman.

Blogging is a form of uploading. Also open source software development. Actually, anything that involves producing content rather than simply consuming it.

It is an interesting book so far.

Westin Market Street, San Francisco

This a the photo of my hotel while staying in San Francisco as seen from Mission Street. My room is located on the 28th floor of 36 and is near the right side which is on the south-to-southeast facing side. The room has a great view of the southern part of San Francisco. I'll add photos from my window later as the sun is shining full on currently.

A very special thing about the hotel is that it is very close to Market Street at 3rd Street and the room has a 36" flat panel TV (woohoo!) Not a bad place to be stuck for an extra day due to the ice/snow storm in the east.

Southern Breakfast (almost) out West

Breakfast at Mel's Drive-In in San Francisco. For those that don't recognize it, it is Southern Biscuits and Gravy. Some southerners would wonder what that green stuff is that is on top. That is parsley for those who can't identify it. No self-respecting southerner would ever put anything green on biscuits and gravy but it brought a nice flavor and eye appeal to the fairly drab colored meal.

The biscuits were tender and flaky and the gravy was of perfect flavor and consistency. My only complaint was with the sausage pieces which were a little uniform and not the rustic style of mine which I tear off the tubed breakfast sausage.

In all the breakfast was great, especially as I added crispy hash browns and good coffee. The price was fine at just over $12 for the entire meal. As an aside, I went back for cherry pie at lunchtime. It was good, too, warmed up and flavorful but not eye-worthy of taking a photo.

A Journey onto the Golden Gate Bridge

This is the mode of transport for the first leg of my day journey to the Golden Gate Bridge. I plan on crossing San Francisco by the Powell and Market cable car heading to Hyde and Beach streets which is the terminus of the cable car route. As I write this, we are preparing to climb the hill to where the very curvy part of Lombard Street begins as it switch-backs down the steep hill. I'll insert a photo taken on Sunday as I don't want to lose my good outboard facing seat.

I'll have to take two bus lines to get close to the bridge but I intend to walk across part of the bridge on today's journey. I'll chronicle the more important parts by photo and words as I go along today.

Weee, down the hill we go! It's a shame I know so much about gravity and brake technology otherwise this would be even more fun.

Off the cable car I jumped on the 30 bus line to Desiderada and then walked onto the grounds of the Presidio to pick up the 29 bus that proceeds in a scenic fashion to a point near the Golden Gate Bridge. Not much to take photos other than an upscale military base and even more upscale homes adjacent. I can see the GGB off through the trees but it is still several miles away. Looks like the 29 doesn't come along all that often as I'm waiting at the bus stop. More to follow.

The 29 bus finally came along and dropped me off right near the south entrance to the bridge. As I was determined to walk out onto the bridge I proceeded up the pedestrian and bike walkway and this was the sign one encounters just before stepping out onto the bridge itself.

It is certainly good to have comfirmation that there is hope, but I wonder if that only applies if you make the call. And yes, after being on the bridge and looking down, I would agree with the stated consequences.

I proceeded out onto the bridge although it was a little more cautious than I want to admit. I hugged the traffic side of the walkway only going near the lefthand railing when absolutely necessary. I am so glad that I did because the view and the experience were amazing.

Too bad I don't have a better camera to take photos to do justice to this view of SF from the south tower of the GGB. I use the camera on my cell phone for most of the images I use in this blog. My goal is to upgrade to a better 3-4 migapixel camera with my next cell phone that I am due to get in spring.

It is an amazing site. One of the best things about going to Sausolito or Oakland or Berkley or the bridge is being able to look at the city of San Francisco from across the water. The weather was a bit overcast for the only day since my arrival and yet when the sun came out, the city lit up with sunshine. This photo does not do justice.

I was determined when I set foot on the bridge to make it at least to the first tower before the span. It would have been great to walk out onto the span itself and maybe make it to the middle of the bridge but that will have to wait for the next time I come. It was an important feat for me to go this far and I was glad to chronicle it with the two photos, one showing the plaque at the bridge roadway level of the tower, and the second looking upward to the top of the massive towers.




I showed enough mettle for one day to walk out this far and with my fear of heights I am heading back. I'm so glad I made this milestone as I'll use this for inspiration to continue climbing and pressing on. I wish you all could see what I see.

This shows an instance where the sunlight came out and lit the island of Alcatraz for a moment. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like when it was a Federal Prison. Being locked up within site of a city as beautiful as San Francisco and not be able to visit indeed sounds like cruel and unusual punishment.

Below is the view back at the Golden Gate Bridge as I walked away from it. Yes, I was there! See that south tower that is closest to us? Even through the south tower was the extent of my journey onto the bridge it was a good step forward in not letting my fear of heights get the best of wanting to experience certain things. I do envy people who can walk or ride across the entire span, not feeling the sense of dread in your gut and the tension that I get in my feet from trying to grip the pavement through my shoes.

The remainder of my journey was fairly eventless though long as I walked most of the way back to the city from the bridge. By the time I got back to the hotel it was 6:00 so I had been gone almost exactly 6 hours. I had travelled by cable car, electric bus, gasoline powered bus, foot, electric bus again, and finally an electric street car that runs down Market Street and the length of the Embarcadero. Not a bad way to experience a vision quest.

Swans at SF

Lombard Street

Fisherman's Wharf