Walking around New York City last week, I was surprised to find a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Union Square Park. After living here for 20 years, I am still surprised by what I notice when I really start looking.

That seemed to be Lincoln's way as well. I uploaded a few other pictures I took in Union Square, as well. See my other Union Square pictures on Flickr.

Thank you, Robin, for pointing out that Google indexes Twitter posts, or at least will lead to our Twitter posts. Very intersting implications, especially given the recent explosive surge in all things Twitter! I suppose we constantly need to remember that everything that happens electronically can eventually be connected.

 I tried my hand at this just now, and here are the results. Click to see it full-size.

I am amazed with Google's speed. Just tonight, I posted what was expected to be my final post of the day, after which I decided to look at the remainder of my newsfeeds that I follow with FeedDemon (though not by using Lee Lefever's method tonight), and what did I find in my Google keyword search that FeedDemon tracks for me?

Yes, my own post. I posted about my changing interest in what I post, and made reference to a qualitative methodology of which I am particularly interested, autoethnography.

Movable Type, which I use, pings Google with my new post when it is published. Google then indexed it and my own Google keyword search with my newsreader found it. All within 2 minutes. Yes, 2 minutes. Do the calulations since the time is captured in both places. I am wondering if we have our own keyword searches, perhaps with our own names or our organization's names or anything else we want to track, then within a very short time of posting, Google can tell us what has happened. Google keyword searches that can be followed with FeedDemon makes a powerful eyes and ears on the processing and indexing of information. Hmmm, so who is watching the watcher?

I am not sure if this is always so fast, but it certainly was on a snowy March night here in NYC.

I just read Philip's 101 Great Posting Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Sizzle and got some good ieas about creating blog posts. I know that my intentions about why I blog have changed since I started to blog more seriously back in December, so this list and some of the other great idea-farms out there (such as Chris Garrett, who showed me this link in the first place).

I started to blog because I am interested in power issues and how they are manifest within organizations. As an:

• instructional designer
• educator, and
• student

I am also interested in those issues. I also like:

• social media
• online community development
• communications
• qualitative research (especially autoethnography)
• philosophical and theoretical foundations of
• adult education
• social and political philosophy
• aesthetics
• edublogging
• reflective practice
• coaching

to name just a few. While my interests are slowly moving their way into my blog writing, perhaps I may want to review my writing to see what themes are developing. Perhaps I may also want to reframe the categories I use here, as well as the tags I use. This is certainly an interesting endeavor! 

Kathy Sierra really captured and expressed a nagging feeling I have been having about why my experience at Northern Voice was so important for me. While online tools and a Very Real Virtual Community (VRVC) are important for me, I feel completely energized when I meet live those who I read and correspond with online. I really like meeting people whose work I have read for years, as then it gives a new dimension to the community and sense of relationship. Rather than my just repeating what she said, take a look at her post. Thank you, Beth, for pointing it out!

Perhaps this explains why many online degree programs require some F2F time and why blended learning is considered a better learning solution than simple e-learning alone?

Today is March 15, the Ides of March. On this day in 44 BCE Julius Caesar was killed by his friends and colleagues.

I think about this day every year as filled with good lessons to remember. No, I do not have a near-endless amount of hubris (I hope), nor did I begin a war that resulted in my gaining absolute power as a dictator, but it is a time to remember that we aren't always aware of forces and factors outside ourselves, especially when preoccupied on our work at hand or on our goals. Caesar was indeed fondly remembered, since two years after his death, far from again having restored democracy in Rome, he was proclaimed as one of the gods.

Not bad for being remembered after death. I think I prefer to be remembered more in life, however. So, perhaps in our times, it is better to think of today as the Ideas of March.

I have been using MyBlogLog since before I attended Northern Voice, and it always worked fine until last week. Suddenly, the pictures of my site's visitors stopped appearing in the little box on the left of my homepage. I have tried to contact their support numerous times with emails, but no response. I am not sure if perhaps they do not have the staff to reply to their increasing customer base, and I am disappointed by this since I think their product is a great community-builder. I am considering canceling my account with them since I do not like having something that is broken on my blog, especially when its fixing it beyond what I can do.

Did anybody see the new Red Bull commercial of the superhero who, after hearing a woman screaming for help outside his window, goes to his refrigerator and finds he has no more Red Bull? He then shrugs his shoulders: "No Red Bull. No wiiings."

And he does nothing.

This commercial made me shudder. I remember the story of the brutal killing of Kitty Genovese in Kew Gardens in Queens who was brutally stabbed outside and apartment building and then in the vestibule while neighbors did nothing. 38 people heard her scream for help as she was attacked 3 times by her murderer, and nobody did anything. Nobody helped her. Nobody called the police. Nothing.

Does Red Bull know they are repeating this horrible story of people turning a blind eye to those around them? In the commercial, the superhero even closes his window at the end, closing out the woman's screams just as those people did years ago. Truly distasteful. 

So, it appears the pope is ordering Catholic politicians how to vote.

Reuters recounts how the pope spoke about the moral duty of these people (yes, he speaks of politicians as moral), to support the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage as "non-negotiable."

Hmm, the pope ordering politicians how to vote? This recalls the American fears that John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic U.S. President, would take his marching and voting orders from Rome. President Kennedy clearly stated he would not do this. It seems that the current pope wants to return to an earlier time when the church dictated global political policy. How else can the statement "non-negotiable" be understood? Wow, what a way to try to maintain the last grip of power over people–by refusing to even discuss an issue. It may be easy for an older man of 79 to demand something and expect others to follow, especially coming from a traditional culture of obeying the orders of your elders. I can only imagine him jumping up and down yelling about it, too!