Ok, so it's been almost two years since I last posted. I shall ignore my inner voice asking me to catch up and be orderly and rather just let myself be inspired by my soul sistah Gypsy Mama to see what I can write in five minutes.

Today, waiting in the warming CO winter sun, a group of teenagers, three or four boys and one girl talk loudly near me. They arrived to my spot in mid-conversation, one especially loud boy talking in great detail about performing very violent acts on an unspecified girl, specifically by luring her with the promise of sex.

I felt so disturbed by this because in this loud and public conversation, there was no sense of this being a bad or wrong thing to even contemplate.

This is less than five minutes, but more than I've written in two years, so I'll be happy with that today. Now.

What a difference a month makes! i stopped studying/writing when a common cold made our lives uncommonly tiring. Then on Groundhog Day, my husband's job went away. If it came back, we wouldn't want it, but it still was a shock. We decided to use that as the opportunity to return to CO, which we have longed to do for some time.

In between packing, packing and trying to keep two deserving children cared for, we managed to visit Great Aunt Eva, my hero and daughter's namesake.

We also got to see my Mom and Phil. It was a really lovely and short visit. i know that one never knows when the last time doing something will be except in retrospect, but now that Aunt Eva's almost 93, i left wondering if it would be the last trip to the twilight town of Great Falls. That said, i will count myself fortunate to be as spry as Aunt Eva. She still insists on doing things like carrying in her own firewood and cooking feasts when we visit.

i love lists, so here is one in no particular order of things i'm really, really excited about returning to in CO:

• FOOD! Good markets, good restaurants, good Mexican food!
  
• Mountains, mountains, mountains
  
• Showing Scout and Eva said mountains
  
• Trying out living in a small mountain town
  
• Snow
  
• Finding people i resonate with
  
• hiking, snowshoeing, falling on my arse again snowboarding
  
• that feeling i have when looking at mountains
  
• the sound of snow falling
  
• cool summer nights
  
• the light and sky
  

Ok, enough indulgence. Back to packing plates. Sometimes i wish i could throw away things like a normal person, instead of trying to keep as much as possible out of the landfill. That said, FreeCycle is a super cool invention and we've given a bunch of stuff there.

Today, as i happily watch Scout walk around as normal (phew), i'm exploring LibraryThing. This application catalogs one's books and being hosted online, is accessible available anywhere there is internet access and a computer. See the sidebar for a partial listing of what i've been reading to Scout and Eva.

i took a break the past couple of days from my learning exercises because one year and one day after Scout broke his femur, he fell again and spent the subsequent day very much out of sorts and refusing to walk. Man, i've said it a million times, but i'll repeat: Parenting is not for the faint of heart.

Thankfully, a Monday a.m. visit to the doc confirmed my intuition that he wasn't seriously hurt but did have a knee boo-boo from the fall. He's scooting around more each hour and in good spirits, but the experience reminds me so of the six weeks he spent in a cast that had both of his legs splayed out and immobilized.

Christopher and i were talking last night about how we got through that time partly by the patient and inspiring Scout, who remained chipper and happy while unable to move his legs. We also realized we tried hard not to dwell on the horror that it is when your child is injured. This may sound self-centered, but Scout's broken leg was the worst thing that's ever happened to me.

In any case, just like with the broken leg, we are beyond blessed to have two healthy,beautiful, smart kids and Scout is again just fine.

Back to techno-learning. Today, i explored wiki's, which i learned means "fast" in Hawaiian. While i knew about wiki's prior to this lesson, i learned more about their uses, like creating real-world community sites online.

My current favorite wiki is Dikipedia.org, which is NOT adult content, but rather about people who are, well, dicks. It's surprisingly well-written and somewhat Onion-esque. (credit to Christopher for turning me on to it.)

Part of my study practice is to read a bit of the three or four blogs that i've ID'd as worthwhile for "social media studies." They include:

www.jobsinsocialmedia.com
www.chrisbrogan.com
www.socialmediarockstar.com

i'm trying to stay in the present, resisting an urge to jump ahead of the learning and figure out how i could translate this edumacation into cold, hard cash. Ha, i mean of course, how i might find paying work with this knowledge.

Ok, now i'm being Bad Mommy by finishing this, talking to dear husband on the phone and telling Scout, "I'll be right there." Enough multi-tasking, to the children.

Going through the exercises on my Mom's blog has turned into going through the Learning 2.0 23 Things exercises.

As i turn my attention to re-entering the paid work force after 2.5 yrs. caring for Scout and the recently added Eva, i realized how much i needed to update my skill set. i also began to notice a lot of jobs under "Social Marketing," i.e. ones that combine public relations/communications with using the so-called Web 2.0 tools.

i love the irony that my Mom had led me to this! She also introduced me to blogs in 2002, when i started my first one to chronicle Peace Corps service in Ukraine.

So far, i've learned about RSS feeds, updated my understanding of Flickr and played with online image generators and Flickr tools.

The only thing i'll add to the list of 23 things to learn is Twitter.com, which i haven't checked out yet.

i'm really enjoying taking 30-60 min. each day to devote to this, and am surprised how scheduling this somehow helps me feel more focused and productive. sometimes i sort of feel lost in the days spent at home with the wee ones.

Part of the recommendation for this learning is to write it, so i'll follow that exercise.

As i'm going thru some of the Web 2.0 applications/tools from my Mom's blog, 23 Things, i found the following. My poor children are being neglected!

Wendylu's Travels thus Far

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

i just discovered the most amazing list of free online courses from several prestigious universities. i am amazed and have a new nap time hobby.

i also want to post a brief ad for my Mom's blog, 23 Things, while it still lives online. it's a great intro to some of the premier fun and amazing Web 2.0 applications. to be honest, i didn't know what "Web 2.0" even meant before reading her posts!

Finally, on the last technology comment, i am still amazed by the detailed photos on Google Maps, like this one of our address, though it actually shows a house down the hill from ours. One mystery of Southern Living is why people park on their lawn when they have perfectly usable driveways. Classy.

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