Thinking Skills

In our youth most of us have biological thinking skills - our thoughts go where our hormones lead us. Obviously our genes' highest priority is to not die out so convincing us to reproduce and devote the next 20 years to childrearing dominates. So what happens when all those hormones wane. The older brain want to be the wise brain and therefore needs to figure out how to think clearly. That seems fairly straight forward but I'm collecting a set of links to show just how complex a goal that is.

The Critical Thinking Community
http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/index.cfm

Stephen Downes Guide to Logical Fallacies
http://web.uvic.ca/psyc/skelton/Teaching/General%20Readings/Logical%20Falllacies.htm

Wikipedia List of Cognitive Biases
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

Wikipedia List of Fallacies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Cognitive Bias: A Visual Study Guide
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30548590/Cognitive-Biases-A-Visual-Study-Guide

Facebook

For awhile, facebook became my obsession. Twittering was too short for me and blogging didn't form relationships. Was anyone reading anything I wrote? Did it matter one way or the other? Well it does matter - not to the reader but rather to me. I can post interesting links to facebook and never really think much about them. Only on the blogs do I have to analyze what I'm reading and put it into words. Between my real world friends and my 389 facebook friends, I don't need the blog to be interactive - I need it to be Hansel and Gretel's bread crumbs - a way to mark the path of my life which may take me somewhere amazing or may lead me to a place I'd rather not go. Actually I have multiple blogs - one for my real world friends and family, this one for my connectivism friends, one for trying to create a healthier lifestyle and finally one devoted to neurodevelopment/neurodegeneration - the field my high school yearbook says I wanted to pursue but in the end wasn't brave or confident enough to go after. I wasn't one of those high energy people who can have it all and if I couldn't have it all - I wanted the guy I fell in love with and the children we dreamed into existence.

Storing Web links

Looking for recommendations on how to keep track of web links beyond using my favorites. Not very efficient so far at assigning labels to group web links, blogs, etc under. I seem to assign a label before I've downloaded enough links to know the major themes to my reading.

Igoogle

As you can see, my postings have become infrequent. It's been too easy to just dip into the river of information flowing through cyberspace rather than being proactive and creating blog posts. I read this blog post yesterday about changing the igoogle home page to keep one more focused on tasks and goals. http://andremalan.net/2009/11/dropping-out-is-sometimes-the-right-thing-to-do/ and I'm rethinking how I use igoogle. I've uninstalled a lot of stuff and am now trying to decide how I want to set up my igoogle page. For sure I'm going to add a timer/stopwatch to the page. Is there anything you've done with igoogle that has helped you achieve your priorities?

Jane Howard quote on network

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
Jane Howard
(1935-1996)

100 Free Ivy League Literature Courses

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-ivy-league-literature-courses-you-can-take-for-free-at-home/
Once an English major, always an English major. The great thing about studying English is that perfection doesn't make a good story. Heroes have flaws - sometimes fatal flaws. All good stories contain conflict and crisis and never knowing exactly where the story is heading and the expectation that the ending will most likely be a bit of a surprise.
I laugh when I hear young guys talking. They'll say, "She's caught my eye but I don't need any more drama in my life. So how crazy do you think she is?" They never ask "How crazy do you think I am. Do you think she's up to the drama I'm going to bring to her life?" And the real interest is what's the chemistry going to be when these two crazy, flawed people get together. Let's face it - if there's no chemistry, no craziness, no drama - well it sounds pretty boring to me.

My Biggest Obstacle

CCK09 challenges its participants to find out what web tools are available and to plunge in and start using them. I'm more of a reader, an observer, an introvert. So that's the goal - to experiment, to produce, to move beyond my comfort zone.