Monthly Archives: October 2011

Reflection 10/24/11-10/28/11

Accomplishments:

         Continued with IST 111S revision

o   Checked in with Emilee about the progress of the videos that we shot. She’s working on them and will post to youtube when they are completed

o   Sent an email to Deirdre to check on progress

         Checked in with Lisa B about 220 revision. Meeting planned for Monday 10/31/11 with John Fulmer via Elluminate Live from 11-?

         Added videos for solutions to Problems of the Week to IST 230

         Continued IST 331 revision

o   Reexamined the revision plan and dropped over to talk to Martin about progress and future direction

         Continued with IST 402 revision

o   Rosalie is done with the newest edition to the course (new course project). She is now working on updating the previous content, updating the assessments, and other items

o   Updated David Saab on course progress via email since he will be the one teaching the course

o   Plan to meet with David when the course is completed (around Thanksgiving) to discuss the course and how the development process works

         Attended the Educational Gaming Brownbag: Using Game-Like Elements to Increase Motivation and Participation in Business Courses on Wednesday Oct 19. Here is a blog post about the experience: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2011/10/19/gaming-brown-bag-gamification/

         Attended the meeting to discuss benefit changes for 2012. Summarized in the following link: http://ohr.psu.edu/benefits/benefits-enrollment

Ongoing Projects:

         Working on Spring 2012 courses: IST 111S, IST 230, IST 295A, IST 331, IST 402, IST 495

         Working on Summer 2012 courses: IST 210, IST 220, IST 240, IST 250, IST 260W, IST 295B, IST 301, IST 302, IST 420, IST 421, IST 440W

         Check for flash and video that doesn’t show up from the WC version.

         Adding peer evals in drupal to courses.

         Working on checking courses (content isn’t always there) from WCLD to be placed in Drupal through OIDI task list

         Updating syllabi & content in drupal

         Worked on preparations for SLOAN-C conference presentation, especially elements for the presentation

         Reading the book Understanding by Design: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Expanded-Grant-Wiggins/dp/0131950843/ref=dp_ob_image_bk 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

         Would like to have a better working knowledge of…

o   Kaltura

o   Jaycut

Some things that I learn this week:

         When trying to save an mp4, I had to use Chrome to save them to my computer. In firefox, I was prompted to buy quicktime pro.

         When using Penn State wikis, to make the wiki viewable to anyone, go to Browse->Space Admin->Permissions. At the bottom where it says Anonymous Access, select Edit Permissions and Select All.

Back Burner:

         Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

Days off / Conferences:     

         Conference Nov. 8-11 – SLOAN-C Conference: http://sloanconsortium.org/aln

         March 24 TLT Symposium – thinking of using this opportunity to practice session for Madison Conference

         Dental Appt scheduled for 2/24/12 (Plan to take half day in the am)

There was talk on Yammer about flipping the classroom. Here is a video that was shared about using VoiceThread: http://vimeopro.com/voicethread/webinars/video/30876127. Based upon my experience as a teacher and some of the reading and reflection that I’ve been doing concerning Understanding by Design. I’m apprehensive to go with anything that is coming from the perspective of more activity means better teaching. It is important to be thoughtful in our process of creating educational experiences before just implementing anything that we think of. I thought the following quote from Chris Millet resonates with me:

“I do think that we need to think about what happens in the classroom as well as how the outside-the-classroom materials are designed and delivered. For instance, we shouldn’t be putting full lectures online for students to watch before class, but rather concise, well-chunked material that encourages students to formulate questions, which are elaborated on in class. I don’t think the idea can work without both sides of the flip being well-designed and integrated.”

Had 2 fast runs in a row Thursday and Friday. Both runs were better than I anticipated they’d be (8:45 min/mile and 9:18 min/mile) for the 2 mile and 4 mile, respectively. I need to remember to stretch more.

The kids are growing everyday. I can see that Simeon is learning more about writing in school. He’s also becoming much more physically aggressive when he plays sports based upon interaction with his classmates at school on the playground.

Noah is still struggling with potty training at night. We’re guessing that he needs to develop more. Noah really like interaction and play, like any kid. He’s very social and is learning to use these skills in interacting with his friends at pre-school.

Micah is growing in stature and his actions everyday. Yesterday, when I picked him up, he kissed me about 4 times. He’s also using his sign language skills to say more, ball, and all done. He’s eating more and enjoying life in general, smiling and content most of the time.

Reflection 10/17/11-10/21/11

Accomplishments:

         Continued with IST 111S revision

o   Spent Thursday Oct 13 in am and pm on videos for the revision

  Emily Spokus helped with video capture and will do video editing

  Ryan Wetzel more consulting help with faculty

         Came up with other ideas of how to incorporate media to enhance the course for the future

         Completed cleaning up content for IST 220 and updated to subversion

         Continued IST 331 revision

         Continued with IST 402 revision

o   Mostly completed on the back end

o   Need to take a look at the front end to make sure that everything’s in order

o   Planning to meet with David Saab on Tues Oct 25 to discuss the Spring ’12 running of this course and possible development of his own 402

         Updated chart on my whiteboard

o   Only a few items that are unresolved J

         Attended IST Statewide Faculty Meeting

o   Good to meet with faculty that I don’t get to meet f2f

         Attended Drupal User’s Group Meeting. Here are a few observations from the meeting which morphed into a University-Wide Web Developer’s Meeting: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2011/10/19/drupal-users-monthly-meeting-101811/

         Attended Understanding and Valuing Diversity on Oct 18: Understanding and Valuing Diversity  DIV 008. Here is my blog entry on the experience: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2011/10/19/understanding-and-valuing-diversity-101811/

         Planning to attend the Educational Gaming Brownbag: Using Game-Like Elements to Increase Motivation and Participation in Business Courses on Wednesday Oct 19

Ongoing Projects:

         Working on Spring 2012 courses: IST 111S, IST 230, IST 295A, IST 331, IST 402, IST 495

         Working on Summer 2012 courses: IST 210, IST 220, IST 240, IST 250, IST 260W, IST 295B, IST 301, IST 302, IST 420, IST 421, IST 440W

         Check for flash and video that doesn’t show up from the WC version.

         Adding peer evals in drupal to courses.

         Working on checking courses (content isn’t always there) from WCLD to be placed in Drupal through OIDI task list

         Updating syllabi & content in drupal

         Worked on preparations for SLOAN-C conference presentation, especially elements for the presentation 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

         Would like to have a better working knowledge of…

o   Kaltura

o   Jaycut

Some things that I learn this week:

         When at the Nittany Lion Inn, join the wireless called ‘attwifi’ and open Internet Explorer to accept the agreement to access things online.

         For the courses, if I want the font to be white on a dark background, insert the following code at the beginning of the html:

<p><style type=”text/css”>

#content table tbody .tableheader th {

                color: #FFF;

}

#content table tbody tr th {

                color: #FFF;

}

</style></p>

         When working with web content that would like to link to the web, usually best to take screen shot and link from the screen shot.

         Lyme’s disease can lead to arthritis: http://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/arthritis-lyme-disease

Back Burner:

         Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

         Need to read the book Understanding by Design: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Expanded-Grant-Wiggins/dp/0131950843/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

Days off / Conferences:     

         Oct 21 half day vaca in am

         Oct 24 dental apt in the am

         Conference Nov. 8-11 – SLOAN-C Conference: http://sloanconsortium.org/aln

         March 24 TLT Symposium – thinking of using this opportunity to practice session for Madison Conference

Many of the members of the team were off to Educause which made for a quiet week in the office.

Went to a high school and college football game on Friday and Saturday of last week. The high school game was where I used to teach, Lower Dauphin, against State College. Great game that ended in OT 41-38 SC. Both teams played great and fought up to the end. LD’s sophomore kicker hit his 3rd FG of the year of over 50 yards, very impressive. It was the first SC High School game that both Simeon and Noah had been to. They enjoyed the experience. I was glad to talk to several of my former colleagues after the game who coach LD. LD’s team headed up by Coach Rob Klock is class all the way.

Went to the Penn State-Purdue game on Saturday. It was won by PSU thanks to their kicking game. They made all of their FG, XP. Also the kicker/punter hit a clutch punt inside the 5 at the end of the game.

My running went well. I felt really tired at the beginning of the week and have a chest cold which makes me cough quite a bit. I’m feeling stronger as the week goes on and hope to regain some of my usual energy.

Simeon participated in a cougar run. Here some info: http://tinyurl.com/6kjxkrj and a photo from the day:

Cougar_Run_2011(1).JPG

Got to talk to a long-time friend who is going through a possible divorce. I feel inadequate to help him, but I hope our talks help.

Inspired by something shared on fb this week:
Don_Miguel_Ruiz.jpg

Had a weird dream this week that the Phillies were in the NLCS against the Cardinals and I pitched 9 innings of shut out ball. Given that I never pitched 9 innings of shutout ball in Little League, I felt empowered when I woke up 🙂

Gaming Brown Bag: Gamification

While running this morning, I started thinking about how gamification has impacted me. I’ve been playing some form of fantasy football for about 15 years. Definitely helps me to enjoy the game by allowing me to play gm. But I was specifically recalling when I was in college trying to provide increased incentive to my brother in basketball by offering to pay him for points. I remember specifically a conversation with his coach where he pretty much told me that I would not do this. At this point in my life, I can see why he would have reacted this way. I was a 20 year old kid who was questioning a coach’s old-school methods of slowing down the game, and he didn’t like it. Trying to gamify the process was only another reason to squash me. But do I still think that gamifying the experience of playing a sport is necessary now? The answer is no. There are tons of examples of why this doesn’t work. To me at the core of what makes anyone successful is intrinsic motives. Just a few thoughts before the brown bag.

Back from the brown bag which was less about gamification and more about implementing games in a face-to-face environment. Sherry Robinson, a business instructor at Penn State-Hazleton, shared her journey from “Old School” Jeopardy to newer games like Duty Free and I Like It. I really enjoyed the atmosphere that Sherry created by making her research findings a game. For those of us in the session, we had the opportunity to make a guess about what her research findings were. Not only did we guess, but we also thought out loud about why the results would be the way we thought. Definitely engaging and helped us to think more deeply.

As a former classroom teacher, I could identify with some of the items that Sherry brought up. She spent time discussing team size and number of teams per game. It was interesting to note that students like to be able to choose their teams with some restrictions. Also, they liked to have about 5 teams per game. These numbers can be problematic with larger classes. There is also noise level to think about. I remember trying to run games as a teacher. Those were some of the most difficult days. Although they were enjoyable, I often found myself disciplining students and reminding them of the rules. It makes me tired just thinking about that now. At the time, I didn’t consider engagement by all students. There were times when students were disengaged and that added to the chaos. Definitely appreciate Sherry’s attempts to learn more about how to make her teaching/learning experience the best it can be.

I was reminded that gaming is only one way to handle a course when Kent Matsueda asked a question about traits of students who were more engaged in a gaming activity. Sherry mentioned that she’s had courses where students were not willing to interact with others in the class. In that case, it would be good to try other approaches.

I’m interested in I Like It and how it evolves. I Like It is about gamifying the process of education by rewarding students for having other students like their posts. There are elements to the course which is on a blogging platform.

Here are a few other resources that I found on a google search on gamification:

Understanding and Valuing Diversity 10/18/11

I received an invitation to this session via email. Since diversity is a topic that interests me, I decided to sign up. This had been scheduled for earlier in October, but it had been rescheduled. I had to leave a meeting early to get to this one. I was able to walk from the Wagner Building to the James M. Elliott Building. The weather was spectacular, so the 30-minute walk was welcome.

The presenter for the session was Annie Holmes.

At the beginning of the session, we were asked to say our names, where we worked, and why we had attended. According to what I’ve read on the srdp forms, it is required that employees take diversity training. I’m not sure if this is enforced. I’m guessing that there are some units who do enforce the idea of diversity training. Personally, having gone through discrimation as a kid, makes me super sensitive to being accepting of diversity. To me, I find it important to learn from those around me in the hopes that I can grow and learn. Along with the idea of accepting diversity, I think that it’s important to clarify the idea of acceptance versus promotion. We all have rights to believe as we choose in this society. Although I don’t always agree with the choices of those around me, I need to accept and appreciate alternative perspectives.

One of the concepts that we learned was the idea of The Four Layers of Diversity. Here is an image of layers that I found online:
Diversity Dimensions.jpg

It was interesting to reflect on how all of these factors influence individuals. I used this exercise to reflect on what makes me who I am. The three factors that I chose were Gender, Religion, and Work Content/ Field. I think that religion will always define me because of my parent’s marriage being a result of the missionary work that my Mom did that led here to meeting and marrying my Dad. From there, I think that my faith led me to want to help others and move toward education over business or other money-centric endeavors. Being in education, I have found that I’ve had to work in groups that included both men and women. These experiences have been invaluable. In my younger years, I mostly did and operated in male-dominated organizations (sports). I have found over time that having a balanced group in terms of perspectives is always the best way.

Personal Observation: I found myself operating with a chip on my shoulder. I’m still having a hard time getting past the environment in which I grew up. In my group, I heard people who have been able to get past their own experiences to focus on the next generation. I spend a lot of time playing with my kids when I’m at home. I feel like they are very well adjusted and hope that I can shake all of angst that I have to help them to deal well with life.

Great session! I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to attend this session to do so.

Drupal User’s Monthly Meeting 10/18/11

Yesterday, I attempted to attend the Drupal User’s Meeting, but there was a Penn State Web Developer’s meeting intermingled with it. Definitely an interesting discussion that focused on trying to work across platforms. I have a couple of observations from both sessions:

Observation: There was a lot of talk about trying to share resources across the university, but then there is the issue of different units using different tools. I’m not sure where I stand on all of this. I’ve worked in ANGEL, Moodle, Desire2Learn, Blackboard, Evolution (World Campus Learning Design Course Management System), Drupal,… Although these are all tools for learning, they often become the focus of our efforts since their functionality often influences our ability to accomplish learning goals. There is a part of me that just wants someone to make a decision about which tool we should be using so we could standardize and have more in common. On the other hand, diversity is also important. What happens if one of these tools goes away? Aren’t there common points of intersection, like accessibility, there are shared across platforms? If we all used the same tool, we may be missing out on important perspectives.

Observation: There was talk about how we could make sure that information got out to everyone in the penn state web development community. Right now there are so many forms including a list server, different websites, yammer, … In fact, the only way that I got to these meetings was from info from Melissa, including a change in venue. Even then, I didn’t realize that the Drupal meeting was going to start at 1:15. Since I had another commitment, I had to leave the Drupal meeting early. There are way too many ways to communicate. In fact, I stopped using twitter and yammer because it was a full-time job just to stay up-to-date. I thought that the suggestion to have an rss feed for all of the different places would be the best solution to the dilemma.

Extra Reflection: I’ve been thinking a lot about the back channel. Although I can see it’s importance and relevance, I just wonder if anyone listens any more. There are so many messages being bounced around. I feel like everyone’s always trying to pitch their ideas. The ideas go into the crucible and come out the other end, usually as consensus. Where is there room for divergent thinking? I know that I’m often quiet in these social arenas, not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I don’t want to get caught up in discussion that isn’t going anywhere.

Observation: There was a short discussion about the inclusion of content providers being included in the Web Developer’s meetings. I think that teams are what makes a product it’s best. In fact, my belief is that teams should be the creator’s of the systems. I would extend the team composition to include the end users. It’s not that this would be easy, but inclusiveness creates a real product with powerful advantages and functionality. I think that the current discussion of accessibility would be a non discussion if we used universal (inclusive) design from the beginning. Of course, this is more expensive and time consuming… 

Observation: For the 15 minutes that I attended the Drupal User’s Group meeting, I saw presentations that were way over my head. Not being a programmer is a little uncomfortable for me, but I’m trying to learn as much as I can. It’s not like my perspective isn’t important in this setting; it’s just that the current system doesn’t take into account those who are new and have a bunch to learn.

Observation: It was definitely interesting to attend both of these meetings. We’ll see if this is something that I continue to attend in the future. I think that I may have more work to do before I’m prepared to gain as much as I can at these meetings.

Reflection 10/10/11-10/14/11

Accomplishments:

         Completed cleaning up content for IST 220 up to Lesson 10 and updated to subversion

         Continued with IST 111S revision

o   Planning to spend Thursday Oct 13 in am and pm on videos for the revision

  Emily Spokus helping with video capture

  Ryan Wetzel more consulting help with faculty

  Planning to have students do some work on the final product

         Continued IST 331 revision

         Continued with IST 402 revision

         Updated chart on my whiteboard

         Contacted by faculty about a new 402. Meeting at the end of the month to discuss

         Meeting with faculty about SRA 111 to discuss development

 

Ongoing Projects:

         Working on Spring 2012 courses: IST 111S, IST 230, IST 295A, IST 331, IST 402, IST 495

         Working on Summer 2012 courses: IST 210, IST 220, IST 240, IST 250, IST 260W, IST 295B, IST 301, IST 302, IST 420, IST 421, IST 440W

         Check for flash and video that doesn’t show up from the WC version.

         Adding peer evals in drupal to courses.

         Working on checking courses (content isn’t always there) from WCLD to be placed in Drupal through OIDI task list

         Updating syllabi & content in drupal

         Received http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Expanded-Grant-Wiggins/dp/0131950843/ref=dp_ob_image_bk to start preparations for SLOAN-C conference presentation

 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

         Would like to have a better working knowledge of…

o   Kaltura

o   Jaycut

 

Some things that I learn this week:

         I have access to sign out certain rooms on the Outlook Calendar. For example, I needed to reserve a room for meetings. I decided that I only need a smaller room (105-108). I went to the Calendar section of Outlook. Under the Home tab, I selected Open Calendar and chose Open a Shared Calendar. From there I typed in the number of the room in the Name field. It is also possible to select Name and get a listing of all possible room choices.

         When working with ppt and wanting to get rid of extra movement, look to clear transitions and animations.

 

Back Burner:

         Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

         Need to read the book Understanding by Design: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Expanded-Grant-Wiggins/dp/0131950843/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

Days off / Conferences:     

         Understanding and Valuing Diversity on Oct 18: Understanding and Valuing Diversity  DIV 008

         Oct 21 half day vaca in am

         Oct 24 dental apt in the am

         March 24 TLT Symposium – thinking of using this opportunity to practice session for Madison Conference

         Conference Nov. 8-11 – SLOAN-C Conference: http://sloanconsortium.org/aln

Couple of things that are worth remembering. I worked with my son on http://www.ixl.com. My first thoughts about the program that is was not that great. Simeon was working through the kindergarten exercises, and they were very tedious and boring. Basically, he was recognizing and counting up to 3. The first several problems were worth extra point. Once he answered questions, the point values decreased even though the questions were the same in difficulty. Once he mastered the skill, he was given a reward. He liked those, and that may have been the only motivation to do the exercises. The next time we did the site, he moved to 1st grade material and counting up to 30. In that section, he began by counting individual items. He was excited to see that he was able to accomplish this and proclaimed himself as smart enough for 1st grade. I let him know that he should try to count in groups since I observed that he was counting smaller numbers in groups like 3 and 4 is seven. Once he did this, he not only did better but started counting by 5’s and 10’s to complete the exercises. At the end of working on this section, he was much more positive and engaged. While I’m still not convinced that the software will help Simeon to progress, I am relatively sure that when guided, he can grow in his performance and understanding more than just being left to himself.

Went through a series of interviews to hire a new ID. I should have an update next week.

Felt more tired this week with my running. Definitely improving and looking forward to the race. But it’s not easy to get up at 6 after going to bed at midnight and accomplishing all of the other responsibilities without being exhausted by Friday.

 

Reflection 10/3/11-10/7/11

Accomplishments:

         Updated syllabi for all course in Associates & Bachelors (& in subversion) based on discussion on Thursday about IST 210 and 220. Here is the wording that I placed on the syllabus: To learn more about the free software made available through the Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance (MSDNAA) to students enrolled in IST courses, please visit the following website: http://up.ist.psu.edu/up/up_msdnaa.

         Continued with IST 111S revision

         Attended a meeting about IST 210 and 220 referenced above. During the meeting, I came to the realization that we need to start with the labs and work backwards to develop the course, especially 220.

         Spoke with faculty about IST 210 revision. Next steps, surveying faculty around the commonwealth about their ideas and interfacing with the course committee

         Found some legacy items from 210 that needed to be deleted to avoid future confusion

         Received a note from faculty for revision of 220. Looks like she’s extremely busy now and wants to do the majority of work starting after Oct 16. I sent a reply to the email laying out my thoughts on the need to backwards design the course based on 5 labs.

         Completed IST 230 revision

         Continued IST 331 revision

o   Got the okay to move forward with development on the course from committee chair

         Continued with IST 402 revision

         Updated chart on my whiteboard

 

Ongoing Projects:

         Working on Spring 2012 courses: IST 111S, IST 230, IST 295A, IST 331, IST 402, IST 495

         Working on Summer 2012 courses: IST 210, IST 220, IST 240, IST 250, IST 260W, IST 295B, IST 301, IST 302, IST 420, IST 421, IST 440W

         Check for flash and video that doesn’t show up from the WC version.

         Adding peer evals in drupal to courses.

         Working on checking courses (content isn’t always there) from WCLD to be placed in Drupal through OIDI task list

         Updating syllabi & content in drupal

         Continued working on Captivate training

         Signed out http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Expanded-Grant-Wiggins/dp/0131950843/ref=dp_ob_image_bk to start preparations for SLOAN-C conference presentation

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

         Would like to have a better working knowledge of…

o   Kaltura

o   Jaycut

Some things that I learn this week:

         Something that I knew before but when showing a faculty forgot a small item. It is possible to select a random subset of questions from a bank of questions in an ANGEL assessment, but you have to unselect the “use assessment settings” first: http://screenr.com/ykRs

         Got a request from faculty who wanted to make sure that students completed multiple choice questions in an assessment before answer essays. The way that we solved this was to have 2 question sets. In the first set we had multiple choice questions. In the second set, we had essay questions. In the settings of the assessment, we selected the Interaction tab and chose Question set at a time within the Display Settings. In the Question Set Defaults, we selected ‘Don’t allow backtrack.’ This did the trick: http://screenr.com/8cRs

         Captivate is a lot like PowerPoint. I’m not as interested in many of the bells and whistles that are available. I would use this more for appropriate animations and checking for understanding.

         To get the IST Standard Course module, hover over the site building drop down and select list. Then enable the IST Standard Course 2.0.

         To make sure the IST Standard Course module works, hover over Site Building ->Blocks->List->Picture Reloaded. Make sure that the IST Standard CSS drop down Region is in the Content.

         When having problems updating to subversion, try to enter files at different levels.

         Reminder that when hiding and unhiding items in ANGEL, if there are hidden items to begin that when opening up the whole folder, the once hidden items will become unhidden

 

Back Burner:

         Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

         Need to read the book Understanding by Design: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Expanded-Grant-Wiggins/dp/0131950843/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

   

Days off / Conferences:     

         Oct 10 Simeon Parent-Teacher Conf (PM)

         Understanding and Valuing Diversity on Oct 18: Understanding and Valuing Diversity  DIV 008

         March 24 TLT Symposium – thinking of using this opportunity to practice session for Madison Conference

         Conference Nov. 8-11 – SLOAN-C Conference: http://sloanconsortium.org/aln

 

Had a couple of things happen this week that made me a bit upset. Mostly, what is crazy to me is how people are willing to sell out others so freely on emails. I happened to have an email shared with me that caused me to get pretty upset. Instead of sitting on the info a bit, I immediately tried to get some closure. I wish that I would have taken the time to wait, reflect, or just think before reacting. Now that I’m on the other side of those feelings of anger and hurt, I’m trying to find something constructive to come out of it. I guess the first thing is that there are times when I will come under scrutiny. How I respond to this is what counts. That’s why I need to step back for a moment and discern whether the comments being made are valid or not. In this case, I can see that the comments are the result of a very good worker and person that I have respect for who has strong opinions. I think that sometimes I want to right so bad that I take these types of affronts personally.

I had another discussion early in the week with a strongly opinionated person who enjoys debates. I was just trying to have a good natured conversation. He took it to a point of contention. This isn’t the first time that this has happened with this person. He just can’t let go or help himself. I decided to treat this person with kindness. I’m hoping that this will help me to start a friendship that may lead to harmony and contentment.

Running has been going well. I decided based on the program that I’m doing to take things easy until I have to do a pace or timed run. Definitely making a difference.