CD Cover Meme

Here is my contribution to the CD Cover Meme:



(I swear, this is what came out of the process - article, quote, photo.

Instructions (from David Davies):

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Now combine these elements in your favourite image editing package and you have your CD cover. There’s even a Flickr group for other people’s CD covers. Some are very good indeed.

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Top Five Albums of the 70s

Rob Wall gives me special dispensation to forgo the 80s and to insert a more appropriate decade.

In no particular order..


London Calling - The Clash (1979)

The Wall - Pink Floyd (1979)

After the Goldrush - Neil Young (1970)

Boston - Boston (1976)

Let It Be - The Beatles (1970)



I could easily have picked another 5.


Rumours - Fleetwood Mac (1977)

Quadrophenia - The Who (1973)

Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen (1975)

Bat Out Of Hell - Meat Loaf (1977)

At Budokan - Cheap Trick (1978)


What, 5 more?


2112 - Rush (1976)

Never Mind the Bollocks - Sex Pistols (1977)

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd (1973)

IV - Led Zepplin (1971)

Parallel Lines - Blondie (1978)



Kinda puts those 80s lists to shame, mhm?

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Command History

Following this...

In the unlikely event that anyone wants to know:

...# history|awk '{print $2}'|sort|uniq -c|sort -rn|head
205 cd
194 ls
138 tail
57 vi
26 chown
24 locate
20 up2date
18 exit
15 perl
14 service

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What would you like to do better as a Learning Professional?

From The Big Question on Learning Circuits: "What would you like to do better as a Learning Professional?"

1. I would like to be a better cyclist. Last year my record was 113 kilometers in a single day, which is pretty good, but I would like to extend my range, and especially my hill-climbing ability.


2. I would like to learn how to use the router. It would add a whole new dimension - literally - to my woodwork and allow me to do things like mortises and tenons (also add to that work on the table saw).


3. I would like to learn to speak Spanish, at least at a basic level. I actually diod sign up for SpanishPod, but after a week it said my free trial expired and then it disappeared. I have some Spanish verb and grammar books, which I review regularly. But I need to do more.


4. I would like to be able to do video editing more quickly. I can do a lot of what I need to do now, but it takes me forever. I'd like to be able to edit video in a reasonable amount of time.


5. I would like to understand the mathematics of graph theory. Not only would this enable me to use the terminology - 'nodes' and 'edges' - correctly, it would probably give me some insight into network designs and properties.

That's about it for my learning agenda right now (if I think of more I'll add to the list above). There is a list of things that I want to do, or to have done, but that's a separate list.

If you're wondering about my list - I don't believe in segmenting a part of my life as a learning professional. Cycling, routing - these are as important to my professional development as some sort of workplace course or training.

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Inward Facing

inward Looking
Originally uploaded by Stephen Downes

A technology like Twitter is, in my mind, 'inwards-facing', because it reinforces communication with the group - 'running with the herd,' as I commented on Noon's post, while I tend to favour 'outwards-facing' communications, those that look outside the group.

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