OK- so another few days go by and I have to catch up a little bit on what happened.
Again – is this OK?  It won’t be about today particularly!
Friday saw me at two schools – one for student observation and the next for the video project.
Showed the children the DVD of their videos at the latter.  Great excitement – even from the group that lost their sound (and I couldn’t find it anywhere).  Their productions are a mixture of news satire and play. Some original music and some clips from favourite CDS.  They made covers in Publisher and I tangled with an unfamiliar computer room.  Windows XP.  Not too bad – found my camera in the system tray and they included pictures in their covers.  Next week – a premiere for their parents.  And some research interviews about their time in the project.
Saturday – football.  Jk in the morning up to the heath. Losing three cup games in a row in steady drizzle. but not unhappy. played well. There’s a good atmosphere in the schools’ league on a Saturday.  The Sunday league can be quite competitive and a bit shouty.
Later, to the Palalce where they beat Liverpool 1 – 0. All of us went and J has become a Palace fan, looked round when AJ scored and she was as pleased as anyone else!  A nervous time in the second half but we held on.  Even if we go down it’s been great – just for days like this.
Sunday – loads of jobs.  The list goes: car, recycling, grass, tidying, cooking, a bit of shopping etc.  A good day though – Jk’s Sunday football was off and so we got a lot done.
J’s brother called in from Melbourne for the first time in ages.  Long chat about music and football and then J filled him in on how (their father) B is at the moment.
A went with a friend to Bromley shopping for jeans etc.
Mental notes – Jk’s birthday fast approaching and we need to sort this out.
Spent a good 40 minutes with Jk at the end of the weekend, kicking a ball backwards and forwards on the Heath.   We went one-on-one at the end and he ended up trying to take my legs away!
B over for dinner.  I dropped him back at his flat and he was quite breathless.  Waited downstairs for a short while with the card players while I went and got his inhaler.  Then he went upstairs. 
I drove home up Point Hill.
I like returning that way.

Still can’t find it in me to post about the upcoming election.  The only way to vote seems to be the lesser of two (or more?) evils.

Other technical things to do soon – upload more pictures.
Find out how to upload from my phone.
And really sort the appearance of the thing.
And a bit more of a focus?
Don’t know yet.

Again the what to write about?
But it’s right here.  Really.  Just spent the end of the working day with my 12 yr old A in a cafe.  She has to get back to school where she is stage crew for a play.  Too late after school at basketball and needed back in the evening too soon to go home.  It’s great because we get to spend a few minutes actually talking to each other.  Tea only slightly marred when she puts sugar on her chips instead of salt.  Cant wait to tell her friends.  But doesn’t enjoy the chips.  Her friend phones her and our time together is up.  I walk her back but leave her at the corner of the road so she doesn’t have to be seen with me (current 12 yr old etiquette and I respect that).

Earlier……meeting dominated by OFSTED or OFTSED as I often type it.  Nothing to say here that will make it go away or be anything more than what it is.  A fact of life in my job.  Also discussed courses next year and our understaffing but also how good we feel about our new degree etc etc

And before that met a colleague from Denmark who is also researching media production by young people.  She is looking at animation in particular.  She had seen me  present over Easter at a conference and was following up.  Good links to other people and ideas.  This snatched lunch hour with a colleague is a high point.

1st session before that teaching and wading through emails.  Things not working.

Kids on the train standing nearby – older brother chiding girl supportively (sister?) – "Come on you’re just not motivated…bit more motivation you need."  That’s me too as I walk in the pale sun up to college.

Now, off to that play and A shifting scenery etc.  Due to meet J and Jk there in a little while.

So…I haven’t had time to post since the last time.  This gives me cause for concern.
But why?  Do the rules state that I have to write only about today today?  What rules anyway?
So let’s go back a bit…
Saturday saw the usual rush – children to music, football and then Jk (my 9 yr old son) and I to foootball match.  Palace against Norwich.  Relegation battle.   Swings of emotion that are hard to secribe to the people out there who don’t care for this sort of thing.  First we’re winning, then we’re down and out and then we come back.  And the only predictable thing about it is that this is what it’s like to be a Palace fan.  Happens all the time.  J is new to this and I can see that it will take a while for him to know what it’s like to be a fan of this team. Think of happiest day of last year and it was probably all of us together at the Millennium Stadium watchin gus go into the Premiership!  As I say, this is hard to understand if you don’t care (my sister, F, doesn’t get it).

Sunday?  Well, Sunday was taking A (my 12 yr old daughter) to play in a band for the runners in the London Marathon.  See Marathon pictures (I will post an album).  First take her up to be in the coach with the other performers.  Then home and collect partner (J) and Jk and all of us out to hear the music and watch the runners.  It’s a fantastic morning, sun shining.  Look back along Evelyn Street, listen to the samba, watch the runners take the bend around the top end of Deptford High Street.  Curiously moving.  Runners stretching out a hand to touch the childen’s hands outstretched from the side.  Wave after wave of them, all races and sizes and costumes and ages and causes.  And the same from the crowd watching them.  Reflected back – what it means to be a Londoner I guess.  Strange and unfamiliar feeling of pride – because you get used to thinking about the bad things about being here and then something like the London Marathon happens.

From there out to Kent with J for his team’s game in Dartford.  Heat, A2, frantic drive, J with A to Z navigating very well (see signs of early map obsession so all is well).  Good games.  Win both.  Friendlies.  See the parents and friends and hang out in the sunshine.

Realise I haven’t eaten enough or drank anything.  Jk OK but I’m definitely feeling the heat.  Sit by Blackheath Station eating chips.  Not sure if this helps!  Too much rushing around!

A painting scenery at school, J working on school plans, Jk doing homework and me feeling odd and sunburnt!  The rest is the usual – getting ready for what follows – the working week and its attendant stresses and strains.

What is the blog about?  To tell the truth, I don’t really know yet.  It’s probably something to do with writing, remembering and recording.  This is not very original but then what is?  I have the feeling of life passing by, of being busy and wanting to stop and record something of it.  Diaries are no use to me.  But maybe an online journal will be.  Hence the trial period and hence the time to decide whether or not it’s for me or not.

How much to give away?  A little but about work even though this doesn’t actually define me (not totally anyway).  Well, I’m a teacher educator and I have the misfortune to work with computers (but not in any money-making capacity).  Instead of making the sort of sums that most computer types make, I just write and talk about their use in education. I work in the HE sector in a UK university.  I also work in schools sometimes.  Why is this a misfortune? Because people will stereotype you as being interested in bandwidth, RAM, cables, screens, PC v Apple (I use both – so erm?), etc. etc. And I am up to a point but not to go on about it (although I am in fact now going on about it). I’m interested in what they make happen, how this happens and why it seems to be changing so much about what we think of as literacy and learning.

So I don’t think this is going to be about work except in the sense that I will learn more about what it feels like to blog than to just read a blog or talk about it.

I’m in awe of some of the blogging community. That ability to turn experience into prose so quickly!  I do it sometimes in an email.  But in that case I know where it’s going.  I don’t know who this goes to (if anyone).  So in some senses it’s an experiment.  Blogging to no-one in particular.

Why boxofstars?  Perhaps I’d better save it for another time.

Why now?  Because I feel the pressure of time marching on and on and I’m not saying or thinking about what is going on around me. 

What kinds of things might I write about then?  Some work, some home, the local supermarket, music that I make and that other people make, family (maybe – don’tknow what they will make of it).  I think this is just taking experience outside and wandering around with it and seeing what happens.  Oh yes, and the photos too – there are thousands of these all over the various computers I use so these might feature and actually get seen and sprak some writing.  And some will be over at flickr too.

Perthaps it’s a kind of mind gym.  Focus on something for a short while and write about it. Do something instead of endlessly consuming media.  Make something.  So here it is.