Blog From Inside of Second Life

For a while now, I have wanted to blog about Sloodle, but I haven't had the foggiest idea where to start. It's a great tool for use in the educational world. But I think I have been waiting until the launch of my EdTech blog before I post too much on it.

But this one thing I found was pretty cool. You can blog to a Moodle account from inside of the Second Life virtual world. Just sounds cool. Here is a video that shows how to do it:

Ninja Wizards Would Be Cool

This has been around a while, but seems to fit in great with this blog (you have to click on the image to see the animation):



Technically, that would be awesome....

You might be noticing some changes to this blog. I'm never one to be satisfied with generic templates, for one. Unless they are really cool. Also, I'm transitioning this blog into more of Sci-fi, music, geek blog - in anticipation of a separate Ed Tech blog beginning soon. Or at least, I hope soon.

Amazing Race All Stars

The Amazing Race seems to have just appeared on CBS, with little or no advertising. Well, I guess there could have been some advertising, as the shows that I watch aren't on CBS (Heroes, Lost, and Stargate). Yes, Stargate. SG-1 and Atlantis. Stop making fun of me. What is the name of this blog again? I make no apologies for being a geek...

This is really only an "All-Stars" edition for those that watched every season (except for season 4). So, some of the teams I have no idea who they are. And some (Romber) I wish were not there. No Chip and Kim? No Hippies? Come on....

Anyway, I found out that the racers are filmed after they are eliminated. Apparently, they are sent off to some tropical location to be sequestered from the world until the end of the race. And then complain about how they wish they were back on the race - cold, sweaty, dirty, and smelly. You can watch the videos here, as they are posted:

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race11/elimination.php

My early predications: Rob and Amber will stick around for a while, but then finally get pushed off when the other teams get sick of their tired, old tricks and gang up against them. Yes, I know they claimed they had all new tricks. But then they proceeded to pull out the same old ones. "Mark my words...."

I think Uchenna and Joyce will also suffer the same fate, even though I like them. People will see them as a threat due to the fact that they already won. I'm also pulling for the two all-women teams, because I think they are not as "bad" as some people claim they are. They are just competitive, and the world we live in today treats competitive women differently than they do competitive men. If they were all male teams, they would be seen as "shrewd."

Video Blogs Are Just Around the Corner

Video Blogs Are Just Around the Corner. Are you ready? I was searching and searching for a video version of Odeo the other week, and I just couldn't find anything. With Odeo, you just hook up a microphone, and record audio straight into the website. Then you can embed the audio in any website. But it's only audio, and the world seems to be moving to video pretty rapidly. Then, the other day, I just happened to stumble across what I was looking for: Flixn.

Flixn works a lot like Odeo. You hook up a web cam, press record, and then hit stop when you are done. Then you can get code to embed the video anywhere you want. Pretty neat. Or at least I think - I don't have a webcam to test it out.

But Flixn seems to go one step farther - you can actually embed the recorder into your site. So, if you have an online class that you want to record video for, you can keep the entire recording process in your site. Hopefully, more Web2.0 sites will move to this thinking - allowing end users to embed their functionality into a site. Then you don't have to constantly being switching back and forth between applications to get stuff done. Of course, Firefox's tabbed browsing makes that easy - but it's still nice to have it all in one place.

Screwtape Letters: The Movie?

For those that know me, you know I am a big C.S. Lewis fan. In fact, I am re-reading The Space Trilogy now. Well, not now as I type this, but as in the general now. I can only hope and dream that someone wises up and turns these books into movies. But it seems that there are definite plans to make a movie based on The Screwtape Letters.

This could be good or bad. Film versions of Screwtape and The Great Divorce could benefit from the right director and special effects crew. But they are both stories that could be ruined if the spiritual message is forced too far up front, or scaled back too far. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie did a decent job with this, although leaning a little too much towards the "scaled back" side. And the fact that they needed James Earl Jones to do Aslan's voice. I like Liam Neeson, but after Lion King....

Anyway, if you don't know much about Screwtape, SciFi.com had a good summary:

"First published in 1942, The Screwtape Letters takes the form of a series of missives from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his wannabe diabolical nephew, Wormwood. As a mentor, Screwtape advises his protege on the finer points of undermining faith and promoting sin. His instructions are interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine."