The recent holiday weekend could have given me a chance to catch up on everyone’s first “Weekly Blog Posts.” Unfortunately there were a couple of complicating matters.

First, as usual were the typical family demands that always seem to make time evaporate. For example, I had to drop off and pick up my eldest daughter at a high school near Ikebukuro so that she could take a practice middle-school entrance examination – along with 700 or so other girls. The fact that we were running late when I got lost in Ikebukuro station meant that we arrived with only three minutes to spare which in turn resulted in her telling me not to talk to her when I wished her good luck at the door of the school.

After dropping her I off, I was able to enjoy some recent stuff from  Pachinko Overdrive on my iPod in a coffee shop for a few hours.

I arrived early to pick her up and wound up standing among a mob of several other parents on a hot and humid Sunday afternoon. When my daughter finally emerged from the school building she gave me a thumbs up in answer to how the test went. She then said she was hungry. So off we went to Shakey’s to enjoy buffet style pizza. The pizza was very average. Unfortunately after 18 slices, I found myself unable to concentrate or focus on anything for the next 14 hours. I don’t even remember getting home from Ikebukuro.

The other big complicating factor in getting through everyone’s blog was the overwhelming level of awesomeness. I’ve had a good time reading the entries and tracking down the various links. In fact, I’ve set up a Diigo Group to keep track of some of the links I’ve been introduced to (the most recent such links should appear in the sidebar of this blog). This list will be very useful to future students in this course. It’s been a blast to discover so many cool things, but it does take time to work through it all. This offering from Current TV’s Super News cartoon is a case in point.

I hope to have read and written feedback for all of the blogs before tonight’s class. I’m working my way through in alphabetical order by last names and am up to the “T” students. Please check the individual shared feedback document you shared with me last week when you have a chance.