what might you be doing?

[Connie Weber]

This is a "checking in" forum, one that can let the community know something about yourself. If you were not online, what might you be doing? What books are you reading, what hobbies are you into, what projects do you have going? If we caught a glimpse of you in "regular life," would you be running with the dog, drawing, making music, attending a performance, studying, playing with the kids? Give us a glimpse, if you're willing or inclined, into what you might be up to "inlife" (to coin a phrase I heard Kelly use)! (Ok, we should allow online as well--what have you got going there?)

[Laura Gibbs]

My life offline/inlife: I've got two hobbies that are hold-overs from childhood and one that is just for grown-ups!

1) playing pingpong (waiting for spring when we can wheel the pingpong table out of the garage into the yard!)
2) coloring books (oh there are so many gorgeous coloring books now - mandalas! stained glass windows!)
3) sampling every possible beer brewed on this planet

:-)

[Ed Hitchcock]

Another beerophile, hooray!

[Angeles Berman]

My life offline is about working with teenagers . I'm an EFL teacher in secondary school and there are no computers in the classroom. (sooner avalaible)

When I leave the school I have three children: 19, 18, and 14 who are digital natives, in the computer most of the time, so my life is full of energy and young people :-)

My hobbies are:

a) Blogging ( I love to do it) and reading, most of the time about educational topics, even though my last reading was "The kite runner" and I confess I cried when reading his novel.

b) scrapbooking: I love pictures, images, colors and want to have much time to spend doing this activity. I have a special time and day in the week for it :-)

c) Taking photos

d)I'm a Rotarian so I work in projects for the club

e) cooking (I want to be the "not-so-new" Rachel Ray)

f) kites :-) I live in an island so this is traditional activity here :-)

[Ed Hitchcock]

1. Astronomy, if it is clear and dark
2. playing with my refurbished vintage 1952 metal working lathe
3. reading - most recently Al Franken's books "Lies" and "The Truth", also Scientific American, Seed, Sky & Telescope
4. working - the soul crushing duties of a school administrator interspersed with joyous moments in my classroom.
5. loafing around online, and fiddling with my website.

[Ed Hitchcock]

With #2 (playing with the lathe) I just made 2 pens.

[Connie Weber]

What does that mean, just made two pens? It'd be great to hear what "playing with my refurbished vintage 1952 metal working lathe" entails. I don't even know what you do on a lathe, and am "all ears" to hear about it.

[Penelope Millar]

IRL ("in real life" as I term it) I could be found knitting (my newest craft hobby), sewing, dancing, participating in medieval reenactment with the Society for Creative Anachronism, playing with my cats, reading (currently in the middle of The Garrett Files, a set of noir detective stories set in a fantasy world), or walking in the park and taking photos. (That is, when I'm not planning lessons/grading.)

Online, besides educational blogs, I read a variety of blogs, webcomics and interesting fiction sites. I used to tinker with my website but it and I are currently having a fight about CSS, so I haven't touched it in about 6 months.

[Connie Weber]

Wow! Such interesting people. I would like to learn about stars and also to knit. I would love to be all playfully engaged with making scrapbooks and flying kites!

Ok, a bit about me. What I'd be doing two of the five weekday nights is playing soccer, indoors, in the 30+ women's soccer division, Wideworld, Ann Arbor. It's 5 on a team plus a goalie. We play on those textured floors that have a bit of padding and a lot of little teeny black balls on/in the surface. Subbing for the front line goes fast since you get on the field and run as hard and fast as you can, then get off for some water and to catch your breath. People in defense sometimes get longer rotations, maybe 8 minutes on 3, off, etc. Games are one hour.

My favorite position is sweeper, farthest back defense. I like to be the one that's there for receiving the passes "back" from a teammate. What I do then is try to send it to a new strategic location, often in one the forward corners, or up center. I also like the play that's involved in stopping a breakaway forward from the other team who's coming straight on. Timing is everything. So is never giving up.

I forgot to say the best thing about soccer: you leave you worries and cares at the door. Once into the arena, the only thoughts are about teamwork and exercise. Play!

I know, too much focus on one thing. Other than soccer, I'd be into cooking, reading (right now Fritjof Capra, Margaret Wheatley), working on my class network. I think I've moved into 24/7 teaching accessibility; my inlife school time blends into my online school life (right even during the day I mean) and that runs right into my online distance ed , corresponding with students from home. But I also feel I can leave it behind when I want to or need to.

[Nathan Lowell]

Off line or off the machine ...

Off the machine, I cook. I'm a foodie. I love to play with my food. From soup to nuts, coffee and tea, breads, cookies, roasts and chops, barbeque and braised. Asian, Latin, French, Italian, Indian ... You name it. I love to play with it -- cook it, and eat it. Usually in that order.

I use the computer to write and edit - text and audio - altho I use a separate audio hardware set up for actual recording. Technically, that's not "on line" since that's inherently a solitary activity.

I take photographs. Not as many as I'd like and I'm still adjusting to the digital appliances. I may have to break out my "old" Olympus and go back to film just because I can't get the results I like using the digital camera I got for my birthday.

[Wade Welch]

I'm coaching basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring and summer. A big reason why I haven't been able to participate in the discussions around here. If I'm not coaching, it's usually watching whatever is in season. Mix in some turkey hunting in the spring and it's about got me covered.

[Connie Weber]

60 wild turkeys flew over the road by the school yesterday... Do you get flocks like that? They've really made a comeback around here. I meet up with a couple of turkey hunters on some of my runs. I know where the turkeys hang out since I'm always tracking. There's only one hunter I'll reveal my "secret information" to.

Please, please discuss coaching on Fireside. I'm a coach too, and am very passionate about this work (and very opinionated, so watch out ; )

My son is a big baseball player in HS. I coach soccer and have for 18 or so years.

My endless mission as a coach is to teach parents how to behave!

Anyhow, Wade, please get back here whenever you can; tell us coaching stories and perspectives.

[Ginger Lewman]

I work with a state-wide gifted advocacy group as the Legislative Liaison--well actually now I'm morphing my own position to go away from Legislative and more into the State Department arena. Those collaborative efforts SHOULDN'T be "offline," but because of tech-reluctance in my colleagues (most are +50, but that's no excuse) it seems to be! I'm spending a lot of time teaching them and getting them to try...

Otherwise, I have a wonderful husband who is very self-reliant (unlike me) and a little terrier mutt who knows all sorts of tricks and english words. I'm also trying to get back into exercising, if by "trying" we actually mean "feeling guilty." Do I have hobbies? nah. I spend all my time doing school/education stuff. I make connections; I learn new tools, I solidify my learning of other languages w/o studying them (which means that I try to remember what I can when talking with or reading someone who speaks another language). I've learned LOTS of Spanish that way! (and am picking up French too -- thanks Vincent!)