My Video For Class

the awesome visulation came from http://www.flight404.com/blog/. This guys is using a programing kit called proccessing. its based on java and it looks like it lets non techie people produce some really kickass graphics. The music is by a guy named trentemoeller. Check out his myspace for his infulences videos alone. He has introduced me too so many new band just from his page. And He has re introduced me to Joy Division. I love the raw expression in the video.

Collabrative Class Making

I am posting this before editing because i just want to get it out into the world I will cross out this part once I feel that I have tried thouroly to edit my remarks. Also this is just rambling I just let my self work through this , I haven't really check for logical incosistancies or even wheter or not I have thought through all the ramifacations yet.

collabrative class making

in response to question about current status of writign track and in particular what to do with beca 670

I think in any give class its presumptive to assume anything about students before they show up. I think that it is exactly these assumptions that get us all into trouble. For example students will be held to lower and lower standards because teachers continue to assume the worse(Mayby?). To fight that I would like suggest that we do something like collabrative slyabys making.
If a slybus is a contract between the tecaher and the student then I do belive that the student should have some ability to negotiate the contract. I know that this is way against the rules, that students aren't suppose to question the actually enviroment they are taught in. I am not the only one to think this way, see Jerry Farber article.
If then we all agree that students are to be included in this process we should build the sylybus together. How could this work. I will use beca 670 as an example. We first start out by talking about goals. The teacher has goals for the students and the students clearyly had goals for themselves, as the classroom showed us. I think that if on the first day we talk about the goals and then how the class was devised we can cleary develop and agenda or a simple list of topics.
After we have developed this quick list we can then go through the list and find out if any of the students know about these things already. In the cast of making links. I think there were at least 2 - 3 students, mayby more, that kenw how to make a link. As we all saw one teacher was wildly spread thin and it took the better part of the class too teach links. I think links shouldn't take more then a half hour , but I am just a student and a techie. I understand that it is completley possible that I underestimated the time it would take. In the end though I think there is a solution. Instead of having one teacher teach everybody place the people who know how to link into the teacher position for that topics. In the case of links we could have broken the class apart after one group demonstraiton and then had 3 groups. And then the teacher could roam between the leaders after there has already been a filter of the day teacher(or student teacher).
We could then apply this type modle to every topic that came up. This would allow us to rapidly cover the technical aspests of the class. Leaving more time for the class wide discussions and working on the main projects.

My Mashup

Cooking w/Alex s01e02 - Pasta

Click to Play

Ben Gibbard on Tour Cooking

This was just too perfect
a musician that I love
talking about road cooking.

I'm a big fan of Death Cab for Cutie,
but I am an even bigger fan of
The Postal Service.



Extra Credit,

This is Ira Glass Introducing
Ben Gibbard,
But some guy comes up instead
and make fun of Ben Gibbard,
And Then ...

Ira Glass on Story Telling

This is a series
of youtube videos.
In which
Ira Glass explains
how to tell a story.




The way he he explains it
you feel like you can
make radio like he does.




Ira Glass is a hero of mine ,
I don't think we use that word enough.
A hero usually does something stronger than
just a person you admire. I think Mr. Glass has.
He is trumpeting a new form of public radio.
A public radio that doesn't have to be boring.
A public radio that can entertain and teach at the same time.




Sometimes on public radio
it seems like that
is something
that you have to fight for.



found on Your Daily Awesome

Cooking w/Alex s01e01 - My Coffee

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Show Notes

Chemex
I love my chemex. I have experimented with everything. I started with a machine. Then I moved on to a french press. The problems I had with the french press stem from the exact nature in which you have to use a french press. Because the water and the ground steep together you have to time them to get the best coffee. Timing for a roast is one thing, but for coffee I need it to be simple. That is where the chemex, or any method that uses gravity, shines. Everything is set up so the coffee spends a set time with the ground. Then its just a function of the volume of water you pour over said grounds that is the biggest determinate in the flavor. I suppose you could get the same affect with a funnel and filter over a cup. That is where my penchant for modern design comes into play. The chemex just looks great.

The Story of the Chemex
I was wrong about being invented in the 50s it was made in the 30s and it was invented by a guy named Peter Schlumbohm

Coffee Selection
I didn't cover this in the video its self. I think that most coffees will work. I would suggest buying from small batch roasters. If you don't want to go out of your way trader joes house brand coffee is perfectly fine. In the end what matters most is that you get through your coffee roughly once a week I think is a good time, like a thing every two weeks on the far side. If you don't want to buy coffee that often I think a good idea would be to freeze some of it when you first by it then pull it out as you need. You don't want to use straight from freezer coffee though.

The best coffee in the city of San Francisco is definitely Blue Bottle Coffee Company they are at near hayes valley or at the ferry building farmers market.