Learning Stuff About Stuff

I've been working this afternoon on the code behind the ScotEduBlogs site, to speed up performance. Hopefully the blogs page should come up much more quickly now. I also reinstated the sponsors' logos that I accidentally wiped a week or so ago! To be honest, I am partly writing this post to check that the feed updating daemon is still working properly :-)

Since moving ScotEduBlogs to its new server, I've changed how the graphs are generated on the statistics page .  I'm now using Open Flash Chart , and have taken the opportunity to add a few more graphs - posts per month, posts by day-of-the-week and total posts for each authority.  East Lothian seems to be the most prolific by far.

Two things brought this post into being - a conversation with my son, and a mandolin lesson. The conversation with my son began with his declaration that he really likes art. I expressed my delight, especially since he had been much less enthusiastic at the start of the year. Through talking to him it became apparent to me that the change of heart is largely attributable to his teacher, Sheila Calder. My son used to be very anxious about getting art work "right", but she has really helped him to relax and enjoy the process. My son said "You know how some teachers say 'this is the way you have to do it'? Mrs Calder says that one of the things she likes about art is that it can be any way you want it to be." Thank you Sheila :-) My mandolin teacher is Andrew Brown. Tonight's lesson was the first for over a month, as we have been away and prior to that my son had been pinching my lessons to do guitar with Andrew. Andrew is hugely enthusiastic about mu

I was out this afternoon with the rest of the team that are going to be running the school sailing club this year.  It was great to be back in a boat, and to discover that I do remember how to tack and jibe.  It was apparent, however,  that I had been away from the sport for a few months - I forgot to take a hat, forgot my gloves and worst of all forgot to go for a pee before putting my wetsuit on!

I've just survived my first day back at school after returning from Canada at the weekend - no mean feat given the mess that my body-clock is in. Whistler and Blackcomb are awesome - masses of fresh snow, and every kind of terrain, from wide open pisted cruisers to bowls full of untracked powder to groovy gladed runs though the trees that held onto their fresh snow for the whole fortnight. The resort village was great too - loads of shopping, drinking and eating opportunities, all offered up by genuinely friendly staff (many of them aussies!). Here are a few photos, which of course fail to capture the experience! [gallery]