Looking for a new family pet

It has been a little over a year since our cat passed away from old age, and as I mentioned in a previous post, the family is lobbying hard for a new family pet. The wife and kids want a dog but I am very hesitant. Of course this means that they are trying to make me out to be the bad guy because I refuse to budge on this issue. I love dogs and have wanted one since I was a little boy, but I am also well aware that canines are far more “high maintenance” than cats. No matter how much they tell me that they will take care of the dog, I know that I will be the one picking up poop with one of those little plastic bags at 6am in the morning. Not gonna happen. To quote the infamous Tony Montana, “say hello to ‘da bad guy”.

Royal Wedding Blues…..call the Doctor.

While most of the world is talking about the British Royal wedding, I decided to spend my day unwrapping my new UK inspired purchase, the first four seasons of the new Doctor Who series. I can always tell when I am getting bored or depressed because I start looking for stuff to buy. I caught the DVD box sets on sale from Amazon for 100 bucks. I had been looking for these to come down in price for a while. I love the new series, but at the standard 70 bucks per season I wasn’t going to pull the trigger on them. The sale was offered to celebrate the royal wedding believe or not. So, all in all, I guess something positive for me came about as a result of the royal nuptials.

Affordable Mini HD Camera setup

Kodak Zi8 mini hd rig

I frequently get a good deal of questions from students and educators on what type of video camera should they buy if they have limited money and they still want great quality. In order to answer these questions I have been looking around for the cheapest rig possible that can still offer decent image and sound quality to recommend to these budget conscious videographers. I did a little research and set aside a maximum budget of 400 bucks for the entire project. The basic criteria for the video Continue reading “Affordable Mini HD Camera setup”

My new article on student motivation – HETS Online Journal

HETS Online JournalI wanted to share with you a recently published article on the topic of the student motivation that I authored. The title of the piece is “Motivating at Risk African Americans and Hispanics Through the Study of New Media Technology“. The peer-reviewed article was based on many of the interactions that I have had over the years with my amazing students. The primary focus of the research was on how to inspire African American and Hispanic students by using digital media. However, the principles and techniques described can be applied to students of all races and cultures. The article was published in the second edition of the Hispanic Educational Technology Services (HETS) Online Journal. The digital copy of the journal can be found here in pdf format.

LaGuardia New Student Orientation

New Students

This week I had the opportunity to be a Faculty Leader during LaGuardia’s Spring 2011 New Student Orientation seminar. The purpose of the seminar is to introduce incoming Freshmen to all of the programs, services and activities available at LaGuardia. The hope is that by giving students a comprehensive introduction to student life at LaGuardia, their transition to college will be a satisfying experience. It is also a great way for faculty and students to interact outside of the traditional classroom setting.

iPad 2…..ehh!


Overall, I was very disappointed at what Apple announced today concerning their much anticipated update to the iPad. Let me state for the record that I absolutely love my 1st generation iPad. I love it so much that I touched my Kindle and netbook for the first time in months the other day only to brush the dust off of them as I was cleaning up my bedroom. And I loved both of those devises when they Continue reading “iPad 2…..ehh!”