Monday:

Today I got a bit accomplished on my color changer. Iím finally figuring out how to use Squeak and the Squeak programming environment. I actually added a "morph" to the screen and it doesnít do anything yet, but itís there and I can move it to different positions of the screen.

I also got to go to a presentation put on by an undergraduate HCI (Human Computer Interface) class. They were "postering" their ideas for new systems to help make our world an easier, more intuitive place to live. That was a lot of fun, plus there was free pizza so who could say no.

I went for my first run today. It was a bit scary because Atlanta for some reason decided not to put sidewalks on their streets.I guess they assume everyone drives cars, oh yeah, they donít have a good recycle program either.But the run was good, hot and exciting since I spent most of the time dodging cars. Perhaps I can find a park near my apartment that I can run around, I hope.

Tuesday:

Today has not been entirely productive. My computer continues to freeze if I try to do anything fancy in the Squeak environment."Fancy" includes: trying to run my program, attempting to open two browser windows for the programming part or trying to minimize the Squeak window. In all, my computer is not cooperating and the systems folk are going to give me a new operating system.Hopefully by tomorrow my day will be freeze and crash free!

I was, however able to change the change color interface to allow the learner to select two equal shapes of different color and swap all the instances of one to look like the other.The swapping of colors is still underdevelopment, but at least is looks like it could do something.

I also have my first rugby practice today; weíll see how it goes.

Wednesday:

This morning at the weekly project group meeting we watched a video-documentary that discussed through observation, the Learning By Design process. I really like the LBD ideas that Iím learning about and getting the chance to observe in person. The process reminds me a lot of my elementary school Talented And Gifted program. I think this particular learning process is so helpful of kids of all ages and learning level, hopefully this LBD project can soon be distributed at a nation-wide level.

I didnít get much accomplished today because my computer was being reinstalled, and once I had my new OS, nothing worked correctly, so weíll see what fun Friday brings.

Rugby practice was fun and the group of women Iíll be playing with seem really nice. We have our first game (for me) on the 13th of July.

Thursday:

4th of July.I took the day off from work today, as did everyone else in my group.I didnít end up seeing any fireworks. I went to the house of one of the women on the rugby team, she wouldíve had a perfect view for the fireworks, but the trees behind her complex were too big. Thatís okay, Iím not a big fan of the fourth anyway; too many scared dogs and cats for me to enjoy it.

Friday:

So, on Wednesday (and I failed to mention this) I somehow lost all of my work from the past week. After saving my files to my Unix account, I let the systems guy reinstall my local operating system. While the hard drive was in the process of re-formatting, I opened my account, only to find that somehow my 16 Mb file was now only 1K large! After attempting to retrieve backed up files from systems (and failing) I gave up and decided to go home. Jump to today, I got old files (minus all my work) from Kristin and started over. Itís good for me anyway to have to redo my code; it gives me a chance to practice this environment.

I am currently caught up to where I was before I lost the files. I now have to figure out how to change the color of my quilt patches. This has really been frustrating me as there is absolutely no documentation or similar examples as to how to do this. My goal for the day is to be able to switch the colors of two (and only two) patches sitting on the same morph. (A morph is like an object).

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