East of Bakersfield

Camera phone post: Union Pacific
Jeff took this today. To me, this looks like heaven. I wish I were there. Jeff is on a trip to pick up a trailer.

Journalism 163 Syllabus Is Here

Journalism 163 - New Media in Journalism
Fall 2006, Section 1, Tues. 6:00 - 8:45 p.m., DBH 226

Thanks principally to the work of Cynthia McCune, the course syllabus is here:

• HTML "Web" Format with links
• PDF Format

Help Desk Construction Woes

Construction Woes at Clark
Complaints about the ongoing construction have been so bad I had to call CalOSHA and the University Health and Safety Office to get the work stopped while we are open.

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Camera Phone Post: Sign of the times
Faculty often complain about students who lack basic skills. Sadly, it is not just students who are spelling challenged at our university. This sign is on the entry way of the new facility at Clark Hall at SJSU. Hopefully they count better than they spell.

New help desk opens on first day of school

The Help Desk Is Open
The first clients came in this morning as we opened in Clark Hall. We have been slammed today as the helpd desk opened on the first day of school.

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Camera Phone Post: Taking it down to the wire
The help desk this time yesterday.

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Camera Phone Post: Funny Sign
Your new world order is ready to install.

Podcast: Introduction to Journalism 163

Edupodder Podcast 27, 07:11 duration, 6.6 MB MP3 - Posted Aug. 21, 2006
Cynthia McCune and Steve Sloan discuss "JMC163".
To listen to high quality audio, click here --> MP3 File Here
An introduction to Journalism 163. A multi-media course in The School of Journalism and Mass Communications at SJSU focusing on Web 2.0 technologies including blogging and podcasting. Recorded on Aug 21, 2006, at San Jose State.

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Camera Phone Post: Work is ongoing in Clark Hall
They are still working in Clark Hall. Will the help desk open tomorrow? The clock is ticking!

JMC 163 Blog is here

Journalism 163 Blog Is Here
This fall professor Cynthia McCune and I are planning on teaching Journalism 163, New Media in Journalism, in The School of Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC) at SJSU. This is a new course focusing on the Internet and Mass Media. We plan on covering Web 2.0 technologies like rss, blogging and podcasting in the course. This blog will be the hub of the course.

SJSU Help Desk Party

It's the End of the Help Desk As We Know It Party
Help Desk staffers and former staffers gathered on Friday to recognize the closing of the University Help Desk in WSQ117B. This help desk has been like a second home for many of the staff. While it is new and nice the new help desk will not be as homey for the staff.

Big Surprise, Clark Help Desk Fails to Open Monday
It was planned that yesterday construction would finish in Clark Hall Friday and the University Help Desk would open there at 8am Monday. That will not be happening and we will spend at least one more day in WSQ.

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Camera Phone Post: New Help Desk down to the wire
They're rushing to finish the new help desk by today. Will it be ready? What do you think?

Susie and I enjoy our bike club

Susie and I having fun at bike club event
We have built up a great group of friends around the activities we have in our bike club, the Almaden Cycle Touring Club. It is like so much more than just a bike club. It is a huge social group and we have so many friends there. Sometimes it seems like high school for us older folks, with all it's social intricacies. We all literally go through peaks and valleys together and depend on each other to get through many dangerous events. A strong team spirit is built as we face hostile conditions and drivers together. The club has built up many traditions, and traditional events, over the years. Together we celebrate victorious rides and also mourn the losses when we lose one of our own. For Sue and I it has been great to be able to get involved in the club. We have a lot of fun and enjoy the club events together, even though Sue is not currently riding.

Technorati Tags: ACTC, Bicycling, ssloansjca

Whine and Dine birthday bash

Camera Phone Post: Jolyce and Candy's birthday celebrated on bike ride
The whine and dine ride of August 16 was likely the last big evening whine and dine ride of the 2006 season and may be my last of the season as school is starting next week. We had a great ride up Hicks road and stayed out partying until after 10pm. It was Jolyce's birthday and next Sunday is Candy's. So we had a cake and both women blew out the candles. We also had fine wine as Pam brought a bottle of Silver Oak. We had so much fun!

Technorati Tags: ACTC, Whine and Dine Rides, Bicycling, ssloansjca

It's Dad's birthday

My dad, Lloyd D. Sloan, would be 89 today
I still dream about him regularly. He died in 1977 before Jeff or Kenneth was born, he was 58. Steve Jr. was the only one of my sons he saw. He was quite a guy, a real good story teller, and he loved to laugh. He was one of those guys everybody liked. He was a railroad man and he and I shared a passion for trains. As a boy we would go on train chasing trips together to many places in California and Oregon. He had a keen interest in history and would devour books on the civil war. He was a real man of his time, of an America that seems to have faded now. He worked in a shoe repair shop and did other jobs in Kansas before he came to California to take work in the Shipyards in Richmond during World War Two. Toward the end of the war he hired out with the Southern Pacific as a fireman and then an engineer. So many memories of so long ago. Sometimes it seems like yesterday.

Technorati Tags: Lloyd Sloan, Sloan Family, ssloansjca

Madison has a new bed

Madison is proud of her new bed
Madison is slowly being migrated from her crib to a new bed. So far she has not slept in her bed. That has not stopped her from proudly showing it off.

Technorati Tags: Madison Sloan, Sloan Family, ssloansjca

My son Jeff's birthday

Today is Jeff's birthday
Twenty-eight years ago today Jeff was born in a Catholic hospital near Sacramento. He was a fine healthy boy from the very beginning. He has turned into a fine healthy man.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Sloan, Madison Sloan, Sloan Family, ssloansjca

Grete Johnson issue bike club newsletter

A salute to Grete
The final PDF version of September 2006 Almaden Cycle Touring Club newsletter is posted here. This is the entire issue. This is how it has gone to the printer. I appreciate very much all the help I have had with this issue. From beginning to end this has been a group effort. I think it is a fitting tribute to a very dear friend.
~Steve

Grete Johnson bike club newsletter issue

A PDF of the September 2006 ACTC newsletter is posted here. This is the entire issue. This is posted here for editing and final review. This is for correction of any errors before it goes to the printer. Please let me know if you see errors in these pages so that I can correct them before it goes to the printer.

Special Thanks
I wish to give special thanks to all who contributed to this issue, especially to Paul Greene for the wonderful story about our dear friend. I have special thanks to Bob Thompson and Paul Greene, for all the help with the gathering the photos for me, Naomi Bloom for the wonderful editing and consultation and Jerry  Schonewille for going over the early versions of the newsletter when they were on the blog. Many more people have contributed to this issue and you help is really appreciated. If folks would take one look at this and let me know if you find any errors, that would be great!
~Steve

Feeling like a mushroom

Inside working on a sunny Saturday
This is a newsletter production weekend. The ACTC newsletter is in production. So, I am spending the day inside with the blinds down so I can concentrate on the screen. Meanwhile, in the next room Susie is typing away on a pile of work she brought home. Once I get done with the newsletter, I have much work work to do as well. If you wish to follow along, help and/or see pre-release versions of the newsletter I will be posting information as production progresses to the BBBlog, which is here:

Link to bike club blog

Also on that blog is the sad story of a cyclist from Santa Cruz who died yesterday after colliding with a vehicle.

A new union blog

I am closing down my old union Blog, and starting a new one
I am closing down this Blog and moving any new union related content over to a new union blog. For a continuation of this type of content please check out my new union blog here:

http://myunion.wordpress.com/

I just had too many problems with the tool I used for the old one and I like how the tool for this one works so much better!

Ride ride party party

Great day for a ride and evening for a party
On Wednesday August 09 we had a great evening ride. The weather was warm but not too hot. Thirty riders came on the evening ride and the party after went until after ten. It was a fun evening.

Cat days of summer

A purrfect nap
The cats fell asleep on Sue and her book after she fell asleep reading. It was too cute and I had to take a picture of the event.

Technorati Tags: Sue Graziano Sloan, cats, ssloansjca

A new blog

About my new cycling blog

About a year and a half ago, when I became the publisher of the Almaden Cycle Touring Club (ACTC) newsletter The Black and Blue Bottom, I started a cycling blog. I named the blog The Black and Blue Blog. My idea at the time was that the blog would become a place that folks in the club could get timely cycling news and information about the club and the newsletter. This blog was very closely associated with club and was branded similarly to the club newsletter even though it was my own personal blog. Over time I started using this blog to do other things, like list information about the series of Wednesday whine and dine bicycle rides.

Now I am planning to retire from my role as newsletter publisher and still want to have a place to list such ride information. I decided to start a new blog, not branded with the club, called Sloan's Cycling Blog. I will retire The Black and Blue Blog when my last issue comes out as publisher. Meanwhile, I will just double post for awhile. I am using Wordpress for this new blog so I can learn that tool. I really like it a lot!

Why I love Silicon Valley

Pure Geek Heaven
The Silicon Valley Podcasting August Meetup is Thursday. This is a great group and you never know whom you are going to meet.

What: The Silicon Valley Podcasting August Meetup

If you are the slightest bit interested in Podcasting you should be on this like a fly on s**t!

When: Thursday, August 10 at 7:00PM
Where: Yahoo! @ Mission College
2821 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara CA 95054

Edupodder Podcast: BlogHer 2006

Edublogging from BlogHer 2006
Edupodder Podcast 26, 37:19 duration, 34 MB MP3 - Posted Aug. 6, 2006
Educators from all levels discus edublogging and Web 2.0 at Blogher 2006:
To listen to high quality audio, click here --> MP3 File Here
Recorded on July 29, 2006, day two of Blogher, educators from all levels discus edublogging and Web 2.0 technologies. This podcast includes a break out session that occured that day during a room of your own session entitled EduBlogging. Barbara Ganley from Middlebury College, Laura Blankenship from Bryn Mawr and Barbara Sawhill from Oberlin led this session.

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Camera Phone Post: Rattlesnake on trail.
One of the many chores I had to do this weekend was to fix my mountain bike. It needed two new tires and a new chain. I've had the parts for about two years. I have not been able to ride it for about six months. After I was finished I took it for a ride. On the way up Almaden Quicksilver I saw a flock of wild turkeys. After that I heard a pack of coyotes. Then, I came around a bend and saw this three foot long rattlesnake.

Scoble Family at BlogHer

Scobles at BlogHer
Last week I was at BlogHer. I really enjoyed the conference, meeting all the wonderful women bloggers there and seeing the Scobles again. It is so very exciting to see how Robert's life has evolved in all the years since he was an SJSU student. Maryam was one of the presenters and the session she on the panel of was one of my favorites. They are really nice people and deserve all the great things that have happened in their lives.

Everybody had a great time and I am looking forward to BlogHer 2007. I recorded a podcast on Edublogging and Web 2.0 which I plan to release very soon.

A lot of little stuff

A lot of little things can be a big thing
A lot of little things becomes a big thing when you let them pile up. Today we took some time to catch up on some of these things. I also took some time to engage in one of my other (non-cycling) passions. I ran trains at the train club and saw this train go past the model railroad club.

Technorati Tags: ssloansjca

World class cycling here

Many great cycling destinations around here
There are many great places around our area to ride a bicycle. This is Sanborn Youth Hostle where we rode our bikes on last Wednesday's Whine and Dine ride.

Technorati Tags: actc, ssloansjca

New Sloan Blog Makes its Mark!

Steve and Luci have a new blog
It is here, check it out!

They just had their one year anniversary! More info on how they marked the occasion is here.

Friend's suicide drives priorities home

Recent suicide reminder of top priorities
At the recent Blogger conference I met a lot of great people and heard a lot of great conversations about blogging, global audiences and the importance of engaging in "the global conversation." This is all great and compelling stuff. This is well worth the time of folks to get involved in. I know: it is fun, seductive and important.

Like many of my geek friends I spend a lot of time doing this stuff. I blog, I podcast and I read blogs and listen to podcasts. But we have to be our own controls, we have to monitor our own time, because while we have all this exciting, important and fun new stuff in our lives we still have the same number of hours in a day. Time spent doing this means we are spending less time on something else. In my opinion it is vital that we not get so seduced by all this that we do not start to neglect giving enough attention to our family and friends. They have to be our first time priority! This message has to get to new bloggers. Keep your priorities straight!

Sometimes little danger signs can be missed when we are distracted by something exciting. Then, if something happens, sometimes it is too late to go back and make amends later. I lost a friend (and a fellow bicyclist) to suicide. I wish now I had been paying more attention to her state of mind, spent more time talking with her when I knew she was hurting and maybe spent less time on my interests. But now, it is just too late.

Daddy's Girl

Daddy's Little Girl
Madison loves her daddy. She gets so excited when he comes home. They share a very special bond. You can see it in her daddy's eyes.

July ended with a ball game

Monday night at the ballpark
Monday evening I finished out the month by joining Jeff, Nicole, Madison, Kenneth and some of Nicole's family and their neighbors at a baseball game. We watched the San Jose Giants play the Visalia Oaks in a minor league game.

The Giants lost but we had a great time.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Sloan, Madison Sloan, Kenneth Sloan, Nicole Sloan, Sloan Family, ssloansjca

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Camera Phone Post: Wine tasting cyclists
At last month's Russian River Rally bike ride we did a special "whine and dine" option where we rode our bikes to a winery, got a tour and enjoyed a great wine tasting. Despite triple digit heat, it was great fun.