abject learning

I had let myself go. To get ready for Northern Voice I needed to clean up, quickly and cheaply, and only a skilled Italian barber could help me.

The classic barbershop shave, in particular the refined Italian variety laden with hot towels, is tragically growing extinct. Young barbers are not even trained with a straight razor anymore. Every chance to get a professional barbershop shave is to savoured.

All my photos tagged shaveandhaircut…

OK, now that I’ve grunted my way through the VPL session, and sank teeth into the fish tacos, and delivered my first podcast workshop (it was fun) the next wall I’m careening towards is Northern Voice. Some of my personal organizational action items still need attention, and I’m hosting amigos for the event on the home front. But the big items for the next few days are:

A) The Social Software Salon – I’ve already blogged about this. It looks like Rob Wall and maybe Gardner will try to join us via Skype. Judging by the people who told me they will be coming tomorrow I think this is a sure-fire winner. In my havoc-state, I had only thought of the Skype dimension as an afterthought, but this could be cool. I hope UBC’s proxies don’t give us a hard time (it’s been hit or miss for me Skype-ing on-campus). If you would like to join us remotely my Skype handle is brlamb. I’ve reposted my weblog post and a bit more info into a wiki (kind of messy right now). Maybe my amigos (and other people in the room) will post their Skype handles as well so we have multiple paths in.

B) The Edublogger Hootenanny at Moose Camp first thing Friday morning – this one remain somewhat undefined. It’s Alan, D’Arcy, Scott and myself, and hopefully Jason providing logistical and tactical support. It will likely be some combination of an open jam, speaker’s corner, Fluxus, the ELI Annual Meeting and American Gladiators. Scott suggested something about getting naked, but I’m not sure the Academy is ready for that. I think it will likely end up being a slightly more structured version of the Social Software Salon. How much more or less structured likely depends on the cocktails we serve to the boyz on Thursday night.

C) Northern Voice itself – If last year is any indication, things should go fine, though I probably won’t stand still for two days nor remember a thing when it’s all over. I’m the venue coordinator, and also trying to organize the volunteers (which I’ve never done before). There will be a bunch of small immediate crises to deal with on-site, I’m sure. I’m also moderating the Education Panel and a panel on legal issues called “They’re Threatening to Sue” (Lauren‘s title). When moderating, I try to keep in mind Spencer Tracy’s dictum “remember your lines and don’t trip over the furniture.” Let the panelists do their thing and get out of the way, watch the clock and let everyone talk. (Damn, I still need to write blurbs for for those panels and get them up on the website.)

D) The meals we will be cooking. The boyz (see items A and B, above) aren’t being paid a thing for their tireless and creative contributions, so I feel honour-bound to at least feed them well. Keira and I did our menu planning last weekend, and to be honest I’m as excited by the meals as I am about the events. Two dinners at our place plus Big Bad Boris’s Friday Night NV BBQ at Stanley Park. Yes, that is correct — we will be eating outdoors, in Canada, in winter, at night. Northern Voice is not for wussies. Watch the Flickr feed for how the culinary adventures turn out. It’s our pleasure to have Alan and D’Arcy crammed into our small home while they’re here, and Scott and Jason over for meals, so watch their blogs for signs of severe mental stress as the three day ed tech pyjama party proceeds as a sideshow to all of the hardcore social software action.

I’ve had this week circled on my mental calendar for months now. I can’t tell you how excited that the boyz are back in town…

Allow me to join the chorus of huzzahs for Will Richardson’s bold life decision.

So what comes May 16th? Not sure, really. More reading, writing, parenting, husbanding time. More and better blogging, and more blogvangelism, I hope. Another book, or two, perhaps. New connections. Another path, one that I hope leads to satisfying, engaging, urgent work. Urgent work. Or something completely unknown.

For some time, I have thought of Will’s blog as the single most indispensable resource on weblogs in education. So at the very least, more blogging from him is going to make our discourse richer.

And while I know how hard it must be to jump off of a pension train just a few stops before the final destination, I suspect in a few years this will look not only like the carpe diem path, but the sensible one as well.