• where the rez meets the virtual world …

    I’m just your average Native American, half Plains Cree, half Mohawk, rez-livin’, single motherin’, IT instructin’, sci-fi lovin’ woman who just so happens to love knittin’, hockey and baseball.

    Oh yeah, and I'm totally made of awesome.

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Category: work

This one’s for Betsy …

You know who you are.  ;)

I can’t believe it’s been … wow.  Something like 7 weeks straight of just Twitter spew entries.  Ugh.  Sorry about that.  It’s been a busy summer.  We went to 3 powwows, ziplining, my sister and her boyfriend moved from California to Portland to Saskatoon, my other sister moved from Calgary to Saskatoon, my other sister hurt her ankle and is now on medical, my cousin had her baby, my niece had HER baby, and my kids are back in school as of today.

Oh yes, and I’m back teaching again this week.  *sigh*

Oh AND my computer’s HDD up and died on me, so I’m without a computer at home.  WOE!  As soon as I get some downtime, I’ll see if I can reformat and salvage it.  Bleh.

Hopefully, I’ll have time later for a proper update.  In the meantime, if you haven’t already, you can catch up via the Twitter feeds.  :P

No Comments by sharon on August 26, 2010
filed in life, technology, work
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Semi-Update

I know I promised an update, but it’s been a very busy week for me.  Busy month, really.  And here it is, July already.  Crazy!

Proper update tomorrow.  I SWEAR!  I have a whole whack of interesting things coming up this week month.  I have an entire backlog of cool posts planned, and I cannot wait to get them out!  Just see what I have planned:

  • Conference in Calgary with Cisco
  • PC v. Mac debate: Yes, I’m a PC
  • My boy’s birthday! He turned 6 on Canada Day!
  • My novel(s), and what I have planned for them
  • A webseries I want to write/film some day
  • Creative Commons Licensing

I have a whole lot to say on each of these, and I can’t wait to get these posts out.  I’ll probably start with the birthday one tomorrow.  :)  My little man.  *sigh*  When did he get so big?!

Until then …

No Comments by sharon on July 3, 2010
filed in life, technology, website, work
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sharonangus.com is back! Woo!

Well, I didn’t win the lottery.  Boo-urns.  The jackpot for the LottoMax was $50+ million, but I kept forgetting to buy a ticket as I’m not a big lottery player.  My sister did buy a ticket, but only bought ONE!  *SIGH*  Then when I checked Twitter this morning, the CBC headlines said the jackpot would be split between a ticket here in Saskatchewan and one in Labrador.  I got excited for a second.  :P

But it looks like I’m going back to work on Monday.  *woe*

Anyhoot …

So, the site was down for a week and it looks like I lost a post or two.  Nothing groundbreaking or super awesome, so that’s cool.  I was mostly concerned about my Steampunk post, but that made it out alive, so I’m happy.  :)  I did lose my last Twitter backup, but I’m pretty sure I can do that one manually later today, so you may see two “Weekly Twitter spews” in a row for this week.  Just ignore them.  ;)

What happened was, I moved servers as my totally awesome host (and I’m dead serious about that, he’s totally AWESOMESAUCE) decided to close down his seller account, and move onto his friend’s hosting account.  And his new host agreed to take me on as well.  So now I have a new TOTALLY AWESOMESAUCE HOST.  <3  I am surrounded by AWESOMESAUCE and I can’t believe how fortunate I am in this regard.

So a huge thank you goes out to both Mark and Brian!  <3

Oh, but anyways, what happened with the site going down … that was TOTALLY MY FAULT!  lol  When they moved the servers, I ended up having to go to Calgary for a conference and wasn’t around to switch the DNS to the new servers.  And when I got back, I then had to head up north to Meadow Lake to teach a class for a day.  When I got back from there, I was totally brain dead and kept trying to log into the wrong place to do that.  DUR.  I felt really stupid.  When I finally did realize my mistake (after being corrected so sweetly by Mark lol), I forgot my password to my GoDaddy account.  Good times.

But obviously I have finally figured everything out, and things are now a-okay.  WHEW!  *kermit flail*  Yaaaaaaaay!

And hopefully, once I have recovered my last Twitter spew, and I’ve cleaned up my living room (it’s chaos up there!), I’ll do a proper post about my trip to Calgary because it was totally interesting in all sorts of ways as it was a conference about Cisco Telepresence and its role in modern education.  Oooooooh.  ;)

No Comments by sharon on June 26, 2010
filed in life, technology, twitter, website, work
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Sometimes I love my job …

Today it felt like I made a lot of progress with one of my interns.  I just wish more than one had shown up for lecture.  *sigh*

All the same, I love that feeling when going over concepts with them and they go “Ohhhhhhhhh!” and something finally clicks.  It’s great!  Especially when I know it was something I had such a difficult time with learning in Toronto when I first learned it.  So it wasn’t exactly something easy for me to learn, nor was it easy for me to come up with some way to teach it, but going back over the materials and finding new ways to present it for them to get the concepts … well, there’s something really satisfying about that.

Classful and classless routing aren’t easy concepts.  Neither is binary, or routing protocols, all of which we covered in today’s tutorial.  It was good times.  :)

Sort of makes me think I’m in the right job.  Yay!

No Comments by sharon on February 26, 2010
filed in life, work
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“Math class is tough!”

Well, according to Barbie, it is.  But not according to recent findings.  Apparently, recent research has debunked the myth that boys are better at math than girls.  Although boys have traditionally performed better in the “hard” sciences and maths than girls, and men still make up a far greater percentage of the workforce in science-related jobs, as it turns out, girls, when given the same opportunities as boys perform just as well as boys.

So what’s the problem?  Well, that little bit in the middle there:  ”when given the same opportunities as boys”.  Yes, it appears that girls under-performing in math has more to do with cultural differences than any genetic deficiencies.  Where boys are favoured, girls tend not to enroll in maths or sciences.  But when girls are seen as equals, they not only enroll, but excel in advanced maths and sciences.

Another problem is a decided lack of female role models employed in the jobs where these talents would be put to use.  If these young women are being taught by men, then the girls are left feeling anxious about their talents.  At least that’s the theory put forth by this article.  It’s a theory that makes a lot of sense to me.

I often wonder what I’m doing in my job, that I’m sort of a fraud, or something.  That I don’t belong.  But then I think … hey!  I do belong!  And I work hard and love my job and technology!  And the best part?  Half my students are women.  That makes me feel even better and keeps me going.

I hope that my daughter (who, at the moments is aiming for a career in the sciences some day) appreciates the opportunities that I’m giving her.  Because I was deeply encouraged to go into the Arts as a child, and the sciences were never even offered to me.  I think this is an issue for a lot of First Nations people.  The arts tend to be offered more freely to us rather than sciences for some reason, as though we’re all meant to be great artists or lawyers or politicians representing our people, or teachers educating our youth.  I feel as though so much of my life was wasted chasing someone else’s dream.  While I loved my Native Studies and English courses, I sometimes wonder how far I would have been if I’d been able to explore the computer sciences at an earlier age.  *sigh*

Oh those “What Ifs”  …

But … I have traveled this road and I am so lucky!  Yay!  I swear, I have the biggest grin on my face right now!  Ooh!  Off to pick up the kids and take them to see the Olympic Torch as it goes through Lloydminster!  Later, taters!

1 Comment by sharon on January 12, 2010
filed in life, linkedin, pop culture, technology, work
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World Teachers Day

Today is World Teachers Day! As an educator, and as someone who highly values education, I think it is important that we all take a moment to recognise the teachers in our lives.

Where would we be without the women and men who dedicate their lives to educating our children, and ourselves as adults?

I firmly believe education is an ongoing process, something that continues from the day we’re born when we first discover how to take that first breath to our adult lives when we learn a new skill if we change careers. And we learn these things from teachers, instructors, professors and educators.

So let’s all take a moment and hug a teacher! Yay!

No Comments by sharon on October 5, 2009
filed in linkedin, work
tagged , ,

To new beginnings …


Kimmeh

Kimmeh

In a week, Kim will be moving on to bigger and brighter things.  *sigh*

That’s right, Kimmeh got a new job at another organization and she’ll be leaving us at KCDC.  :(  I’m pretty torn.  I mean first she tells us she’s engaged, and then less than a week later, she tells us she’s got a new job elsewhere.  I’m very happy for her, but I feel so lost.  She was my instructor when I took classes here at KCDC, and then she was my mentor and my friend.  And now … oh woe.

I’m going to be so lonely without her.  *sniffles*

I mean, we had a great time working together!  We chatted, we ranted, we talked about our kids.  It was so much fun.  We even went to Toronto for training together!

Working with Kim was both a privilege and an honour.  While I’m so happy for her, I’m so sad for me.  At least I still have Nick.  lol

*raises a glass*  TO KIMMEH!  My fellow Oilers fan, and my friend!  May you have a great time at your new job and make tons of money and meet tons of awesome co-workers like me and Nick!  Or better yet, ones who are way better than us.  :P

1 Comment by sharon on October 2, 2009
filed in life, work
tagged ,

Public Service Announcement

xkcd: tech support cheat sheet

xkcd: tech support cheat sheet

So, not too long ago, one of my favourite webcomics, xkcd,  posted one of the funniest and probably most painfully truthful strips I’ve run across in a while.

Now, honestly?  This is how I learned about computers.  Seriously.  No.  SERIOUSLY.  This is how I continue to learn about computers.  This is what I tell my interns to do when they come across a software problem they haven’t encountered before.  Computers aren’t evil, magical machines out to get you people.

Just thought I’d get that out there, y’know?  Computers are our friends.  :)

You’re welcome.  :D

Also?  Check out the rest of the xkcd comics.  They’re funny and smart.

And while you’re in the webcomic neighbourhood, I’d also recommend Weregeek (Mags loves this one), Moosehead Stew (life of a comic artist), Questionable Content (mature hipster content at times), Sin Titulo (mystery), and Abominable Charles Christopher (omg so amazing).

1 Comment by sharon on August 28, 2009
filed in life, work
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Back to School

For 3/4 of our little family, it was back to school week.  Sort of …

It was orientation week for my class here at KAIT.  We had a small influx of interns, enrolling seven in the IT Essentials course, and six returning interns; four enrolling in the CCNA Discovery 1 course, and two continuing into the CCNA Discovery 2 course.  Kim and I are looking forward to this year, as it will be a busy one.  We will be teaching 3 courses this semester, but one is self-study (the CCNA D2 course).  It should be interesting.  I hope everyone does well!

We’re still recruiting, so if you know of anyone who is First Nations and interested in taking some ICT training, drop me a line …

I’m sort of nervous about next week when we’re starting lectures.  New interns always make me a bit nervous.  Never quite sure how they’re going to handle the material, nor am I sure how we’ll get along.  I always feel like the uncool kid.  lol

My daughter and nephew are starting at their new school this week as well.

Mags is really enjoying her class, saying she’s never felt safer going to school.  She wakes up happy and excited to go to school, which is a new attitude for her.  As much as we wanted to support our community school, it wasn’t working out for us there.  I’m really excited for her.  Even though she had a bit of a rough day yesterday (they had gym class, and she didn’t get the rules of soccer which caused some conflict with another student), she was still happy to head off to school today.  Mostly because I think she was interested in going to the library.  Apparently the books are still in decent condition at that school.  :P

My nephew, on the other hand, hasn’t technically started school.  He just had his Kindergarten interview this week with his teacher.  She seemed quite excited about him and said he was VERY ready to start Kindergarten.  With the exception of not knowing how to tie his own shoes, he appeared to be well-prepared.  :)  He knew his alphabet, could count past 20 and knew many of his shapes and colours.  He did us proud.  His first official day will be on Tuesday and he’s extremely excited for it.  We can’t wait either.

My sister’s first day back at her classes (she’s taking Home Care courses Tues and Thurs evenings in St. Walburg) is the second week of September.  I think she’s excited to since she scored herself a Zwipe binder.  lol  She also got a new backpack for this year as well, so she’s really looking forward to classes.  Nothing like new school supplies to add to the excitement of a new school year.  :D

So that’s our first week at school.  Hopefully things will continue to go smoothly.  Aside from getting used to driving the kids back and forth to town, things have been going smoothly.  Soon, we’ll have to include Sara’s classes in that as well.  :S  Oh this is the life in home where education is highly valued.  *sigh*  Wish us luck!

1 Comment by sharon on August 28, 2009
filed in life, work
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Another year, another dollar …

Well, another year of teaching interns is upon me.  Kim and I are busy updating the resources on our academy’s website, fine tuning our lecture schedules, making presentations to our funding sponsors, making sure all our equipment is working properly (we are, after all, distance educators), making sure our new interns are getting their resumes in and, in essence, getting all our ducks in a row.  I am, to say the least, a little stressed at the moment.  Not to mention exhausted.

My pretty new work toy!

My pretty new work toy!

I am also re-arranging my work area to make room for some new equipment I’ll be utilizing for my IT Essentials class this year.  I’m so excited!  It’s a document camera that attaches to my computer via USB cable.  It works just like a document projector only it’s digital!  Instead of a mirror and lamp, it has a 5MP digital camera with 8X optical zoom.  I just place whatever document, or in my case, computer component I want the students to see up close onto the platform and zoom in.  The students will see it on my shared computer screen!  It’s brilliant!  Totally can’t wait to unleash it’s awesomeness on my students!

So yeah.  That’s my day.  Covered in dust and completely stressed out.  Actually, I’ve been covered in dust for the past few days.  My daughter has finally had enough.  She has declared that she is too old to share a room with my nephew.  lol  My sister and I finally gave in and agreed.  She’s 10 and he’s 5, so there is a bit of an age gap between them.  So we’ve moved my daughter into a room of her own.  Of course, this has given me the opportunity to some massive cleaning (OH HAI THERE DUST BUNNIES WAI UNDER THE BEDS!), and of course, now my daughter’s allergies are acting up.

And tonight, I’m going home to pick berries.

Oh, and did I mention, Melissa got me a gig as co-wedding photographer at one of her friend’s wedding this weekend?  It’s been an interesting week.

No Comments by sharon on August 20, 2009
filed in life, linkedin, work
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