Ode to the (Sonoran) Hotdog!

Hello World!

Delaina's family came to Tucson for lunch and we went out to a favorite place- BK's. and I wanted to tell you about the restaurant. On top of selling fabulous hamburgers and fish tacos, they also sell hot dogs. Now you might ask what is so special about at hot dog?? Well, this is not your ordinary hot dog, this one has style: in fact they are called "Sonoran Style" hotdogs and they go like this: First they wrap a hot dog in bacon, and then set the dog in a steamed bun, and cover up (if you are getting "the works") with pinto beans, mayo, mustard, tomatoes and if you want, a grilled jalapeno pepper on the side. They are very unusual and really taste great-despite their long list of unusual ingredients.

BK's also has a "vegie bar" where you can add salsa or chopped cucumbers or grated cheese to any menu item. A fun place to visit and one of our favorites restaurants in Tucson.

We hope you enjoyed this visit to Tucson ! ~Kristin and Delaina

Delaina's Birthday 2008

Hello Everyone!

These are some of the pictures from Delaina's Birthday Weekend that we spent in Mesa, Arizona. We had a fun time and helped out with a family project (see photo of the new stove!)



Out with the old..... (what is THAT behind the stove??......)



And in with the new!!

One of the first items that the new stove baked for us, was Delaina's birthday cake--
Thanks Stove!


Here it is... Delaina's Birthday cake complements of the new stove!



Delaina's Party



One of Delaina's gifts, a "Hoops & YoYo" T-shirt! We love those guys!

Thank you to everyone who made Delaina's birthday special, and a great big thanks to the new stove as we could NOT have celebrated with out you! (And thanks to Golda who gave me the idea to honor the stove on the blog)

The End of the Semester-Spring 2008

Another semester has come to a close. Delaina is officially a senior at the University of Arizona majoring in Women's Studies and minoring in Art History. --Congratulations Delaina!!

Here are the pictures of the finished quilt that she made for a creative project for her art history class. Also for fun check out Delaina's website: Delaina's Web Site She had a lot of fun designing and creating this site, and had a few late nights in the computer lab at the school completing it (Mucho thanks for all the help from the OSCR computer lab staff).

IRLS 571 Assignment --

Hello World!

In this last of the 4 installments of my homework for IRLS 571 I will talk about what changes that I would suggest for this class next time.

There are not many changes that I would make to the course. I will admit I had some trouble finding all the reading assignments for some classes as the readings were in different places. I might suggest that you go by class date, and then put all the stuff for each date in the one spot, and then upload the power point slides when they are ready.

Along those same lines maybe have all the PDF's under a heading called assignments at the bottom of the class either ahead of time or add them as you give them out in class.

Otherwise I don't have much more to say. I liked how you mixed up the history and the computer assignments and also that you made videos for us to watch at home. That was very helpful for me, as I could re-watch the videos as much as I needed to.

WHY I AM NOT DOING A YOU-TUBE VIDEO --

So I really had my heart set on uploading a You Tube Video to the internet for this assignment. let me tell you about my issues.

Size really does matter!

I thought that creating a video and uploading it to You tube would actually be quite simple. I asked around a bit at OSCR and they assured me that yes, it would be simple. My laptop comes with a built-camera, so I thought (mistakenly) that I was set.

I will admit that I was just playing around with the camera and it is strange to watch yourself and try not to look at your goofy-self, but into the camera. I did a few "test" runs and then went for it. My first video was not too bad only 5 minutes and 1.3 gb. (my flash drive is only 1G)Then I went and set up my You Tube account and it found out that the site would only let you upload a video less than 100 mb! WOW.( and I also did not realize that it could take between 1-5 minutes to upload EACH mb! (and that was with high-speed!) It was here that I was beginning to realize that It might not be so easy to make this thing.

OK Rounds 2-4 were trying to get all the information that you wanted us to include in the assignment down into the smallest amount time. I worked it to just over 3 minutes, and also cut down on the pixels on the camera. Still my best was 250 Mb with my laptop.

Then I tried to call OSCR and the person said that I should come into the lab or the Zone at the library and they had a camera that I could use etc... because it was really simple to make a vblog in the OSCR multimedia areas. So now off to the library...

The Zone is now packed with people completing their last of the semester stuff, but so am I, right! So I tuck in to a computer (Mac) that the OSCR person recommends and give it a go. I tried not to talk too loud, but there was so much noise that the speaker was going in and out. I gave it 3 tries and some test spots of 1 minute, and I did manage to make an OK 3.5 minute video (and finally small enough at only 29.4 mb!!!) but each time I watched it, the speakers would give out during some part of the presentation, and the whole thing would go silent.

I have one more option up my sleeve for a You Tube video and I am planning to try it tomorrow, but I wanted to have this Blog done just in case!

Yikes a picture, I almost forgot! As you can see, Delaina and I have just started this blog over the winter holidays and are using it to communicate with our friends around the country. In the beginning we were going to update it once a week (yeah so optimistic!), and now it is more like once a month, but I still like having it and the best part is adding the pictures to the posts. So here is my inspirational You Tube vloger in the hopes that I join the ranks soon!

IRLS 571 Assignment --Pivotal events....

Hello world!

This part of the assignment will answer the following question, What was the best stuff?

The parts of this class that I thought were the best include using Putty and working on the Command Line of the server. I had a lot of trouble with that assignment and really felt a sense of accomplishment when it was over, that I had triumphed over the system! I was amazed that the computer would not give any feedback if everything was OK. I guess that is still the same, but when you cannot "see" what you are working on, I guess I thought there would be more feedback then there was.

The web page critique was also a lot of fun. First to use the Krug book "Don't Make Me Think", and apply it to websites that we use was great. I however liked the second part of the assignment when we had to use a screen shots, mark them up, and add to a web page. That was the best. I have even shown other people how to use a screen shot for other assignments.

The second part of the Krug book that I enjoyed was all the web conventions that Krug urges web designers to use. This really make me think that websites really do want you to use them, and they have made it relatively simple to understand what is going on, when you visit a brand new site.

The Ping that you sent out in class, and we waited to return after all the "hops" was great as well. I did not fully understand the packets, trace routs etc.. before this class. Moreover, I thought the WWII influence that is still a part of the internet was fascinating.

Furthermore, the variety of readings was great. I thought that the V. Bush reading "As we may think" was great. I cannot believe all the ideas that Bush came up with in the 1940's as well as the "Hacker" readings and the open source software that allowed so much computer code to be written, developed, and then amended all by a bunch of people who just loved to work on the new computer. And I only thought hackers were after my bank account number...

This photo is of an early video game (tennis) . Notice how it compares to video games today......

IRLS 571 Assignment - Where I am now...

Hello World and Prof. Smith

Question 2 of this assignment is Where am I now?

Well, I feel that I am much more confidant with the computer in general than I ever have been before. I have a great deal of knowledge and historical references that make the computer much more friendly then ever before. I a familiar with terms and the internal workings of the hardware and how everything works together.

I have much more confidence building and publishing web content then ever before. I really understand what they are saying to me when I have to ask the OSCR folks (as I had to do many times during the group project) but I was also the one who went out and made our group the Wiki, knowing that the website would not be too far over my head. I even downloaded winSCP and Nvu on m home computer so that I can easily add to my web page whenever I would like to.

So I am much more confident and have much more general understanding of how the computer works, in fact I feel so much better when library patrons ask me computer questions and I no longer "always" have to get some one to help me out.

I am more willing to try new stuff as well. Hey I figure if all the kids are doing it why not??

Also this is a picture of another Mac out of my past, just for old times.... When I was at school in the dark ages, the yearbook staff all got to use these Macs and I thought they were the coolest!

IRLS 571 Assignment- Where I started in the class

Hello world and Prof. Smith

These next four entries to our Blog will be focused on a school assignment. I am taking a class called Introduction to Technology IRLS 571 (Prof. Smith) and this assignment was to describe where I was in the class before I started this one.

My technological skills before starting this class were low to OK. I was able to use a word document, search the web and even create a simple web page. However I always felt that I was missing something and felt that this information would really help my computer experience. I had few problems using D2L but did carefully read the course syllabuses before school started this semester just in case a class required some technology that I was unfamiliar with (and I avoided those classes).

I had created a web page in 504 and also in 551 but they were both with a lot of help from the GA's or OSCR people. I did the creating with dream weaver, but they really had to be there to watch me and help me many times along the way.

I also did not understand the relationships between the GUI, the Motherboard and the many other parts of the computer, and how they all worked together. Also I did not have any sort of idea what to do to troubleshoot when something happened.

The bottom line is that I found the computer interesting but frustrating at times, and always felt as if I was missing some vital piece of information.

Here are two old Apple Computers from history. The scary thing is that I actually used the AppleIIC for college when I was working on my BA in History in 1985 YIKES!! That was high tech back then. I can't believe how small the screen was on that computer. WOW.

Delaina's Quilt

Hello World! Over our spring break this year, Delaina began to work on an assignment for her Art History class. The assignment was to make a creative project, so Delaina made a quilt. This was a quilt that she has had in her thoughts all semester and we were able to start it during the spring break to get a jump on the project that is due the end of the semester.

Here is the "work in progress" of the quilt. We will post more when it is finished.
Delaina and Kris

Gem Show!

Hello World!
This year for the first time, we actually attended some of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show! We always wanted to go, but never made the time. Not this year! One of Delaina's classes (African Art History) had a field trip to the African Art area.

We started our adventure at the Waffle House, meeting a classmate of Delain's and enjoying toasted pecan waffles! (I don't think I have been to a Waffle house in YEARS) The Waffle house was an ideal meeting place, as after we ate, we could walk to the show tents. It was a beautiful sunny and cool morning for walking around the tents.

The tents were full of beautiful works of art from all over Africa. Delaina was able to see some pieces that she has studied in class (how cool) as well as lots of beads. Most of the beads I learned are sold on a large string, intended for the purchaser to take home and make into many other necklaces. We also saw many beautiful hand made baskets and beaded wall hangings.

It all it was a great experience and I am looking forward to next year, and checking out a new area.




These are beautiful glass beads from Africa!


Beaded wall hangings

Baskets



The sign that was on top of the tent entrance

Cheers! Kristin & Delaina

Kristin's Birthday

Hello World:

This has been a very eventfully week. The University has started up again and Kristin celebrated another birthday. We celebrated twice, once the weekend before with Delaina's family the second at home. The night of the Big Day We celebrated her birthday with a nice dinner shared with our neighbor and of course a round of homework.

Cheers D and K

Our Neighborhood Trolley

Hello World!

Today is the first Saturday of the new year, and it is 60 degrees here and we have the window open in the kitchen and can hear the trolley going by. Yes we have a trolley in Tucson and it travels down University Ave. and then turns and continues down 4th Ave. In all it travels about 10 blocks. It only runs on Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays. We rode the trolley when Nancy (Kris's Mom) came for a visit during December. It was great. The conductor rings the bell at every intersection and

Other cool places we live near are the Epic Cafe (great coffee) and the Time Market. The Time Market is more of a temptation as they have a brick oven and will make you a yummy pizza or a calzone and also sell sandwiches, drinks and also have a little market area to purchase wine and cheese and bread etc..

The University-4th Avenue area has a lot of cute shopping and dining choices as well as being with in walking distance to the University. We love our new location and all the restaurants and shopping and museums that are all within walking distance from our apartment.

Hope you are having a fun day!
Cheers! Kristin & Delaina

Happy New Year!!

Hello World!

Happy New Year! We had a nice evening of staying in and watching the ball drop in New York(at 10 pm local time) and toasting in the new year with our neighbor. (a nice guy coincidentally from our first semester of Spanish class-more on that and a video as soon as we can figure out how to add one!)

Have a wonderful first day of the new year. We are working on homework, laundry and are planning to watch the Rose Bowl Parade.

Cheers! Delaina & Kristin