I really enjoy the move Stranger than Fiction.  I can’t explain why, but I’ve watched it three times, so there is something that draws me back.  I like the humor and I like movies in which people reflect on their lives and affect change – in a good way. 

I also love the idea of someone narrating your life?  I need this.  The best illustration is in the scene where Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is on the bus and meets Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), he is successfully engaging Ms. Pascal when he hears the narrator remind him that the longer he stays, the greater chance he will make a fool of himself.  We all need that voice to remind us when to keep quiet and/or leave (although I’m sure I would have plenty of volunteers – might be a fun exercise).

My favorite line is when Harold is trying to describe what is happening and he states “it’s like I’m a character in my own life”. 

Please note that not everyone enjoys the movie… I live with a very beautiful woman who doesn’t share my appreciation for it, but she let me buy it just the same.  Must be love.

Last week I attended Ignite IT, a networking opportunity for the information technology community around Ames IA.  I didn’t spend too long at the event, but I enjoyed the event and I like the approach for the event.

I have a new appreciation for OpenID which worked just great for registering for the event and updating my profile.

The format was for a series of 5 minute presentations – 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide – and yes they kept to the format.  Your slides would change every 15 seconds whether you were ready or not.  This was a great way to generate a lot of quick learning opportunities… and it worked.

And the community voted on the presentations.  I think it would be an interesting format to try during a lunch session or another type of short session at a conference – like say the next National Extension Technology Conference (NETC)? 

Last week I attended Ignite IT, a networking opportunity for the information technology community around Ames IA.  I didn’t spend too long at the event, but I walked away with two

I have a new appreciation for OpenID which worked just great for registering for the event and updating my profile.

The format was for a series of 5 minute presentations – 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide – and yes they kept to the format.  Your slides would change every 15 seconds whether you were ready or not.  This was a great way to generate a lot of quick learning opportunities… and it worked.

And the community voted on the presentations.  I think it would be an interesting format to try during a lunch session or another type of short session at a conference – like say the next National Extension Technology Conference (NETC)? 

I ran across a post on The NOSE regarding an article which attempts to answer the question “Does Technology Make a Difference in Learning?”.

It is brief and a good read.  I also liked the attempt to define learning.

While I enjoyed the examples of how technology can have a positive impact on the different components of learning (motivation, opportunity…); I more appreciated the structured approach to responding the question. 

I certainly don’t want to imply that you can put a box around learning, but it is comfortable for me to identify a set of specific goals which facilitate the evaluation of technology – in this case, for learning.

A fun mashup at Music Artist Cloud.  A fun distraction… if you like music vidoes.

An interesting post on Pronet Advertising regarding the average stay at the top of Digg.

I found it interesting from the perspective of the fleeting, fickle attention of web culture.  Next…

So I’m reviewing a presentation I saw by Beth Kanter who gave a presentation to eXtension on “10 Steps to Extension 2.0” (basically Web 2.0) when I came across a comment about Brian Lamb where I found a post on his blog about a video by Lee Lefever on the basics of using an RSS reader. 

Very well done – check it out.

I like the old school (cut outs) meets new school (streaming) Lee employed to create the video.

Also a good example of how much time you can spend strolling around the blogosphere (via RSS) and learning eabout new people, new technologies and creative ways to promote them.

Hey, I posted on my blog. Yeah me!