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Presentation: The 4th Annual CUNY Gen-Ed Conference

Yesterday I presented at the 4th Annual CUNY Gen-Ed Conference as part of a group of faculty focusing on ways in which cross campus communication can be improved between community colleges and senior institutions. As part of the year long seminar with colleagues from LaGuardia and Baruch, we decided to share our research and discussions by presenting at the Gen-Ed Conference. I have previous discussed this faculty seminar in one of my earlier posts. The conference presentation was memorable for me in that it was the first time in which my wife and I were able to present together.

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The Grand Theft Auto IV Launch party

GTA IV LogoI guess I am gonna have to finally breakdown and finally get a Playstation 3 (PS3) because Grand Theft Auto IV has just been released. I have put it off buying a next gen system because I really wanted a PS3. Plus when the system came out last year the games pretty much sucked and the console was 700 bucks. Since then there have been a number of solid games released for the PS3 and Sony dropped the price of the console down to 400 bucks. With the release of GTA IV, my bank account may have to take another hit. Continue reading “The Grand Theft Auto IV Launch party”

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There is a food shortage??

Going shopping

Today was a fairly typical Saturday for us. Ski and Tita had to go to a birthday party for one of Tita’s school friends, so Jonas and I went to Costco to stock up. If you listen to the news reports lately you constantly hear about how the rising gas prices have driven up food prices and caused a food shortage. Well let me just say that we have got nothing to worry about here in the US if Costco is any indication. We Americans can remain secure in the fact that we can still gorge ourselves to the point of exhaustion.

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I’m going clubbin’…..

Clubbin’Since the weather got cold I have been slacking with the exercise regimen. It is hard to bike around when you can’t feel the blood in your body. But with my 20th college reunion right around the corner I knew that I was gonna have to take some aggressive measures if I was gonna hit my old college weight before the event. Now I am not usually big on the whole health club scene. It seems like most people that join those clubs are more interested in looking like they workout as opposed to actually working out. But I like having a decent place to lift weights and sweat. Plus since I don’t want to ruin my knees running, and my wife won’t let me get one of those elliptical machines at home, a health club was a good compromise.

Continue reading “I’m going clubbin’…..”

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Runnin’ for Chowda!!

Half marathon

My wife continues to amaze me. Ski called a hour ago to tell me that she had survived and finished the Boston Marathon. This was only the third marathon she had ever run and yet as we spoke on the phone I noticed that she sounded exhausted, but still very hyper.

The kids were out of the house when she called. My cousin Miko had come down earlier in the day to take them for some ice cream and spend time with the kids. I told Ski that I would have them call and congratulate her as soon as they got home.

Ski didn’t have access to a computer so her “official” time was for the event was still up in the air. I immediately logged on to the Boston Marathon web site and took a look. Now I know that I am biased about her. I mean being my wife and the the mother of my children pretty much nullifies my objectivity. However it would be hard for anyone not to be impressed by the fact that her time for Boston was even better than her time for the NYC marathon.

Ski’s official time was 3:27:49. Man, I love my wife.
Continue reading “Runnin’ for Chowda!!”

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My 25th High School Reunion

The class of 1983

I waited a while to write this post because I wanted to let the events of the last few days sink in fully. You you see last Saturday I attended my 25th high school reunion. Now I am not a fearful or anxious person by nature, but I have to admit that the thought of returning to my old high school unnerved me. High school for me was like it was for most people, difficult. Typically it is a time in a young person’s life when they are struggling to determine the type of man or woman that they want to ultimately become. And yes in typical fashion, it wasn’t a fun time for me. As a result I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go back and revisit those days. But since I am a firm believer in facing your inner fears and demons, and Des called me a wuss if I didn’t go, I went and hoped for the best. Continue reading “My 25th High School Reunion”

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3rd Annual New Media Conference: Blender Guru confirmed

Nick PorcaroFinally some more good news after a week of anxiety. It is official, Nick Porcaro, one of the founders of the NYC Blender User Group, is confirmed to present at our 3rd Annual New Media conference. I had been working on getting Nick to present for awhile. This week he emailed me and graciously agreed to give an overview of the Blender application at our conference. Nick’s talk will be an introduction to computer graphics using Blender. He will address topics such as, mesh modeling, texturing, rendering, animation, and real time interaction.

Continue reading “3rd Annual New Media Conference: Blender Guru confirmed”

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Times are a’ changing!

 

change-roadsign

I just found out that LaGuardia is going to be reorganizing the Computer Information Systems (CIS) department by merging the existing CIS programs with other departments throughout the college. The purpose of the reorganization is to improve overall departmental efficiency. The plan hasn’t been fully explained yet, but it was made clear that the students should not be impacted by shift since the majors will not be phased out, merely repositioned to other departments. We were also notified that the existing faculty will continue working for the college, we will just be teaching our courses in different departments.

All I can do for now is to keep teaching and keep a positive attitude. Change is always difficult. I know that better than some. But just like I tell my students, as long as you keep your skills up and work hard, you should never have to worry.

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Demonoid is back….. but hold up!!

DemonoidAfter nearly six month offline, Demonoid is back. The best of the bit torrent sites has finally returned. Many people have been praying for this to happen since none of the other torrent sites are as user friendly, or contain as extensive a library of items as Demonoid. I know many people will want to run out and buy one of those new Mybook 1 TB hard drives from Amazon just so they can load up on pirated software. To those people I would say, slow down.

I reported on the initial demise of Demonoid in one of my earlier posts. But the six month hiatus of Demonoid leaves me a bit suspicious about the return of the site. Why has the site returned and why now? Information on the site states that Demonoid is under “new” administration and that the former admin, Diemos, won’t be back and has left to attend to personal issues. Diemos has turned over all control to the new administrators. To that I say, be careful. We all know that the RIAA and MPAA have been pressing a full out attack on any and all sites that are supportive of P2P file sharing. So the sudden return of Demonoid leaves me with the same feeling that one might get hanging around a mobster who just got pinched by the feds and comes back acting like nothing happened. It could really just be business as usual, but how do you really know for sure. Who is to say what the mobster might of talked about, or more importantly, who might be watching him now. I don’t know about you, but I would advise waiting for a few months before logging on to Demonoid again.

But then again I have been known to be overly suspicious. I guess you can just chalk it up to that New York upbringing.