See you in 2010!
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.
We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you for being so patient.
I have been somewhat thrown off kilter by some recent, and some not-so-recent, but lingering situations that have significantly degraded my ability to be trusting of people. I have always had the philosophy that it's best to stay open to people and let them deal with the consequences of whatever they might do to betray that openness. However, whether it's through random dumb luck, or something I'm unconsciously doing when I make choices about who to be open with and who to let into my life, I seem to have encountered an unusual amount of unreliable people over the past few years. This is not some woe is me post, although I have had moments, days, weeks of "woe-is-me-ness" about this whole thing. I'm well aware that even under the worst of betrayals, the amount of fortune and goodness and goodwill in my life vastly outweighs the bad. But it's just inconvenient. Annoyingly so. It's inconvenient that the sketchy housemate who I took in and was lenient with took off one day owing me a decent chunk of money. It's inconvenient that my current housemate, though he is a good-hearted, good-natured sort, does not seem to understand that I asked him to fix the gate because I cannot, and because the gate is necessary for the well-being of the dog, and that taking the gate off of its hinges and NOT repairing it for over 2 months, forcing us to walk the dog in the backyard 3-4 times a day makes my life inordinately more stressful than it ought to be. And it's especially inconvenient that a person I trusted probably more than I've trusted most other people in my life decided to majorly flake on me in a financial way that is causing me to have to be extra super guarded about my finances, which makes me unable, at this time, to pay for someone ELSE to fix the gate. You see what I mean. Things add up, and snowball, and I feel buried. And irritated. All of these are small things, none of them are catastrophic. And even all together, they are not really any big deal. However, when added to my long-term trust issues...and coupled with a busy schedule, a new(ish) job, and other ongoing challenges with various challenging people in my life...sometimes it's difficult not to get buried in negativity and cynicism. That's all I'm saying really. I'm desperately trying to avoid being buried in negativity and cynicism. So I needed a day like Friday. I needed a day in which I was not responsible for any other children except my own (which is a phenomenon that I had to guiltily request from the person whose child I have watched every Friday for about the past 3 years or so, and who has been extremely helpful in watching my children during that time.) So, CHECK. I needed a day with perfect weather in which I wasn't debilitated by allergies. CHECK. I needed to get out of the house and out from under my little black cloud and into the sunshine. CHECK. And all of those ingredients added up to make a perfect day. Sure, Monk complained bitterly about having to be outside and playing and *gasp* maybe even EXERCISING. Yes, he actually FAKED AN INJURY and then TRIED TO GUILT TRIP ME when I didn't believe that he was injured (I finally gave in and said "fine...I'm sorry I didn't believe you...if you are really so injured that you can't even walk, let's go to the emergency room." Which caused him to instantly cop to his fake. sigh.) But when all was said and done, and we finally all settled into being out on the creek front, the boys took to creating an elaborate system of complex societies, and I set about meditating on the issues at hand, attempting to dissuade myself from misery. The most important factor of the day, I think, was the prework. The night before, I had been able to process the events with someone who was not judgmental or overly-needing-to-fix-things (a quality that is way underrated, as far as I'm concerned) and I came to the conclusion that all of these disconnected events were, in fact, not specific to me, but rather random things that all converged, unfortunately, within the same timespan. Given that, it was easier for me to face that, yes, I did have a reason to feel somewhat cynical. And perhaps that cynicism could be instructive and constructive rather than destructive. It's funny how so much of life is about breathing in and breathing out. Taking in, and putting out. Experiencing, and processing. The problem with getting older is that you not only end up experiencing more beauty and pleasure, just by virtue of being alive, but you also experience more ugliness and grief...all the more because the older you get, the less mobility you have to avoid such things. And it's funny, because today I am reading _How We Decide_ by Jonah Lehrer...and there's a lot in that book about how the human brain works when it comes to making decisions. There's a quote about loss aversion, and how most people need to hear 5 positive comments to outweight 1 criticism. And I'm thinking perhaps this is why I am drawn to counting blessings in fives. For me, though, it was enough to have one day of bliss. One day of perfect sunshine that wasn't too hot, and a sky the exact right shade of blue against the outline of richly green trees. One day of boys being boys without being obnoxious. When it was almost time for us to leave the park, I noticed there was an older man sitting on the creek bed near where my children were playing. Immediately my creep-meter went off...but upon looking closer at this man, I realized he was familiar to me, and in fact he was. He was an old client of mine, one of my favorites. He had come to us as a retiree who needed to return to the workforce, and he needed computer skills in order to do so, and he stuck with us through most, if not all, of our 8 weeks of basic and fundamental classes. Then he disappeared, as all of our clients do, and I hadn't seen or heard from him in a couple of years. So, we talked while the children explained their worlds to us, he told me what had happened in his world since I had last seen him. He told me I had changed his life. That he used the skills we had taught him, went to school, found a job...but then lost it when the economy crashed. Still, through it all he maintained that he would be a completely different person had he not taken our computer classes. And he meant that in a good way. I'm sure he had no idea how much I needed to hear that just that day. It was my fifth positive thing that tipped the scales on one negative. How wonderful it is that all of these tiny deposits I put into the people that I serve during my work day come back to me when I least expect them, like giant human windfalls of hope, just when I feel like I've gone broke...
Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.
This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!
Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.
Can't wait to read your posts!
~ daisy
We have recently started our autumn quarter around here, and I thought it would be an interesting little historical tidbit for me to list the resources we are using for school this quarter. Monk, if he was in public school, would be in 6th or 7th grade, and cole would be in 2nd or 3rd grade. On a typical day, we read together as a family for about an hour or two. Cole has gymnastics once a week, and goes to an after school arts program on some days of the week. Monk, for now, does not have any outside activities, except for the mother's helper work he does for a couple of people. I'm hoping to get him back into fencing in the near future, and he's going to be participating in a multimedia class in about a month or so. The rest of their time is spent playing (mostly video games, although they have wild bursts of playing with legos or blocks, and sometimes coley invents elaborate games using yu-gi-oh and pokemon cards), reading, and doing chores and "homework" assignments that I plan on a quarterly, monthly, and weekly basis. Most of our morning reading sessions include a non-fiction book, usually from our history focus, and a fiction book that we alternate choosing. Right now, we're reading Monk's choice, which is the last book in the Pendragon series (which I HATE! But I have dutifully read them all!) I get to choose the next book, and I'm thinking it might be Watership Down, but it might be fun to read the Odyssey or the Iliad, since we are reading about Ancient Greece for social studies. I don't think those will be as fun for me to read, though...unless I REALLY get into it and research pronunciation and whatnot in advance, but wth? It's not like I get paid for this crap! hahaha. I don't think the appreciation they would have would be a good return on investment for the time I would spend preparing, is all I'm saying. At any rate, both boys do math exercises every day. Monk is studying some algebraic concepts and cole is working on multiplication, division, and just general 3rd grade type math. Both of them use Singapore Math curriculum, and I just let them do exercises and figure things out on their own until they get stuck and need my help. At which point, Monk usually throws his arms up every five seconds and tells me I'm EXPLAINING IT ALL WRONG. And that he DOESN'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING I AM SAYING AT ALL! Which is pretty much what *I* always wished I could say out loud to my math teachers, but instead I just internalized it and struggled for hours with it by myself, occasionally resorting to book throwingness, but never getting any grades lower than A's or B's, because I was a perfectionist, just like Monk. Cole's a little easier to coach, but it's tougher to get him to do the work. And, while I do embrace the concepts of unschooling, in practice it's just not feasible for me. I have an elder son who insists upon rules and structure, and a younger son who is too erratic to make these kinds of decisions for the entire household... ...on a side note, I often think about a lot of child-led families I know...and my aspirations to be fully child-led in my household. I, for myself, found that it didn't work. First of all, when I got divorced, it cut way down on the leisure of choice and the choice of leisure, you know? I'm a busy person working a full-time job and trying to maintain and juggle the schedule and needs of 3 people and a dog while maintaining a modicum of sanity. It became apparent to me very early on in this phase of my life that I just don't have the time and constitution to acquiesce to the demanded desires of both of my children any time they are delivered to me, in addition to the more subtle but still equally demanding demands of the various other people who have or think they have or in any way exert or attempt to exert control over my life. So, no. This is a socialist household, to some extent, in that we each are required to give to the level of our ability, and we each are in return given to the level of our need, but it is also a dictatorship because, hey, you know what I've figured out? Being the oldest person living here means I have the most experience, and GENERALLY SPEAKING (although not always) I am better equipped to make decisions that will lend to the general well-being to all of us in a fairly predictable manner. End of sidenote. Both boys also do grammar and vocabulary every day...on alternating days, generally. With Cole, I am much more explicit with what he's expected to do on any given day, so I assign lessons from each book on alternating days. With Monk, I am trying to get him to do his own planning, so I give him the lump sum of what he needs to get done throughout the week, and I kind of let him plan when/how he's going to do it. At this point, I still need to stay on him and make him verbalize his plan throughout the week, which I HATE doing. I hate riding peoples' asses. It's my least favorite part of parenting or job-having...but Monk, especially, seems to really DEMAND that almost. He tests me a lot to make sure I am paying attention to what he thinks he is getting away with. Hahaha. Cole's Vocab and Grammar books are kind of just generic workbooks for his level I bought on Amazon.com. They aren't anything special. Monk's doing SAT vocabulary, and I'm having him read and work on the activities from Painless Grammar . It seems like it's not only a great grammar resource, but also a great book about writing and communicating clearly and concisely. About once a month or so, I have each of them read a "book report book," and do some sort of report on it. This is always hit or miss with them, and to be honest, at least with Coley, he usually tells me all about the books he is reading. So if the learning objective of a book report is for the teacher to know that a kid is comprehending what he's reading...I already feel very confident of that with Cole. And pretty much anyone who knows Monk knows he comprehends things VERY well, so I'm not terribly worried about him (but don't tell him I said that, because I still think it's important for him to work and stretch on occasion to communicate his understanding in written words. I'm sure the same will be true of Cole as he gets older and more able to understand beyond the story itself. Speaking of which, I did try something with Monk this quarter that failed. I have this really great resource called Rethinking Mathematics. There's this great organization called Rethinking Schools that puts out all sorts of books and curriculum to help teachers bring issues of social justice into the classroom. I think Monk likes to think he's very well-evolved, but he has a ways to go, you know? So there are activities like teaching the concept of percentages and rations by doing an analysis of "driving while brown" and researching the percentage of black and brown people who are pulled over vs. the percentage of whites. I tried to assign this to Monk and he just got pissed off at me...and that was the second activity from that book that I tried to assign to him with similar results, so I'm thinking it's either he's not ready for that kind of analytical learning, or it's just not interesting for him to learn that way. He's never really been fond of roundabout methods of instruction. He's not an "activity" or "crafty" kid, and he never was one. I remember I had to quit trying to use Waldorf methods on him because he was unable to disconnect his brain, and he HATED modeling wax, crayons, and pretty much all of the crafts I tried to do. So, it's at least consistent, if disheartening that I can't forward my liberal agenda by forcing him to use my hippie curriculum. Don't judge! I'm just trying to counterbalance the pervasive right wing religious homeschoolers that are so prevalent! I'll probably try an activity from that curriculum again every quarter until we find something that speaks to him. We *were* doing Living Math for awhile, but I found it a bit disjointed for me. I'd love to just get a compiled book list from that curriculum and work it into our daily reading. I started to do that awhile ago, but never followed through. Living Math is basically a curriculum (I think it was even designed by a homeschooler) that emphasizes the history and philosophy of mathematics. It's a pretty neat curriculum, and I think I might have to go back and get resources from it to incorporate into our reading. For Science, Cole has started the "Diversity" unit of a Singapore Science curriculum called My Pals Are Here. Monk is reading the first book in the Story of Science series by Joy Hakim, and we're using a workbook developed by Johns Hopkins University. I love this science series, especially since we live in Texas, where they are still freaking arguing whether evolution belongs in the public school curriculum. At the beginning of the second lesson "Birthing a Universe" and "telling it like they though it was: Myths of creation" the author has chosen to juxtapose two quotes: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." -Genesis, and "Some foolish men declare that a Creator made the world...Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning and end." - The Mahabharata. So, yeah...it's a cool series. We're on the first book, now. I'm actually also looking forward to reading her A History of US books, which are sort of like kid's versions of A People's History from what I gather. Although I think Zinn has also released a version of A People's History geared towards younger folks. I think Monk might be ready to read the regular version himself, but I don't want to foist it on him and make him hate it. Hmmmm...what else what else? Oh! I keep trying to get us started on the Monart method of teaching art, as I'm reading Drawing With Children...but it's difficult for me to plan for an hour of absolutely peaceful time like the method demands. I think it is something I am just going to have to work towards. I'm also wanting the three of us to learn Spanish together, probably using a combination of Rosetta Stone and some conversational Spanish classes with a co-worker of mine. I also have Monk making menu plans and grocery lists, and am intending to make him create a food cost spreadsheet so he can budget for our meals. This is slow going, because I don't have the patience to wait for him to find the meals, and he's uninspired to do this...AND it's one of my favorite chores, so I'm all too happy to take the menu planning off of his hands. :) I want to put up a badminton net in the backyard so we can all play badminton together as a PE unit. Other than that, we go on walks together. Cole and I, particularly, enjoy going on long walks while Monk is babysitting. Cole likes sketching and taking photos of things. I like hearing him babble on and on. Both boys are learning how to use technology tools. They both have email accounts, and Cole is just now learning how to chat. He exercised his new knowledge by hitting me up on gtalk the other day while I was working. This was our conversation:
The Amazon Conduit will be working again on October 15, 2009. Thank you to everyone for your patience.
Have a great weekend,
daisy, Team Vox
