Author: Jackie Koerner

Apple Media Seminar for Education

Currently, I am attending the Apple Media Seminar for Education. The content is good. I’m ready for the budget to be created at my campus to do some cool things – basically, I would like a Macbook, a Snowflake and endless space on the server for some amazing content. It currently isn’t in my job description, but I think I’m ready to make the move back into nerdery. I love financial aid, but I feel I am gravitating toward technology. I left technology when I started school and took a financial aid position in 2004, then just never looked back. I wonder if I am just going through the motions and resisting what I really want to do. Maybe I’m not resisting. Maybe I haven’t found a job description to fit me just yet.

Here Chick, Chick!

Lucy

Due to my apparent need to feed the wildlife last year, and my stray dog, my chicken population went from twenty down to 3 lonely hens. I am now in the long process of raising laying hens again. It is very hard to find healthy hens of laying age that are reasonably priced. Hens begin to lay around 20 weeks of age. They are at their peak laying during their first few years. Hens that are within this range typically cost anywhere from $20 – $50 each plus shipping. Since I am price conscious, and I do not want to bring an ill hen into the flock, I opted for chicks.

I hatched a few last month, but 6 of the 10 are boys, so only 4 hens came out of that hatch. I bought 2 cute chicks from the farm supply in Herculaneum (actually bought 6, but the 4 had an unfortunate circumstance with a huge water jug). I bought 6 from the feed store by me tonight and I have 42 eggs in the incubator. Am I keeping all of these chicks? No. I’m going to sell the hatch that I have coming up – spreading the wealth of chicken keeping! This will leave me with fifteen hens:

3 Rhode Island Reds
2 Australorps
1 White Rock
3 Buff Orpingtons
2 Barred Rocks
1 New Hampshire Red
3 Ameraucanas (which lay blue-green eggs)

I am expecting some Jersey Giant and some Appenzeller Spitzhauben hatching eggs at the beginning of June. I’ll probably keep some of each breed – maybe just a few more, then my max will be twenty. My new theory is that I should have extras, just in case of an occasional dog attack. I am considering building a pen just because of predators, but I think they’re much happier left to roam.

A Little Bit Country

I recently hatched my first brood of chicks – 10 of fifteen hatched. I got an idea. Not only to get more return on the investment in the incubator ($40 with turner and digital hydrometer) , but to also bring chickens to a more urban environment, I have decided to continue to hatch chicks. To piggy-back off of my previous post, I am going to educate as many people as I am able about getting back to the basics. If the listeners would like to go as far as chickens, I have them covered.

In St. Louis City, up to 4 hens are allowed. In most parts of St. Louis County, farm animals are allowed. I am allowed to have chickens, even being in St. Louis County. To accommodate 4 hens, one would only need a 4 square foot coop and a sixteen square foot run. That’s not very large for fresh eggs out the back door! Plus, instead of $5 per dozen of free range eggs, they’ll only cost pennies (including feed and litter cost). And honestly, their care only takes a few minutes every few days. So, to anyone who wants chicks, let me know – I have over forty due to hatch at the end of May. I will even raise them to 8 weeks of age (when they can be without a heat lamp) if desired.

Why Blog?

The reason I have this blog is to speak about the world today. How everything is. How we mass produce. How we inject animals with hormones. How we forget each other. How the further we succeed, the more drastically we fail.

What do I mean by all of this? We need to get back to the basic principles of life. No genetically engineered meat, which not only is tasteless, it is cancer in the making. No hormone injected cows, which not only are afflicted by disease and infections from the rapid milk production, they pass on the hormone remnants to the consumer. Not only is premature puberty an effect of this hormone, breast cancer in young men and women has increased in correlation to the introduction of rbST.

I would love to live in a world where parents didn’t buy bunnies and baby fowl for their children for Easter and dump the poor pets days later. It’s amazing how many three month old bunnies are in the classified ads right now. Dyed chicks are also the rage – my well serviceman mentioned how he ‘received’ 10 chicks from his child’s classmates, who interestingly enough couldn’t keep chickens.

What is this that we’re doing to ourselves? Being mostly of math and physics, I must think that this just cannot come to a good end. The laboratory is filled with hazards and we’re surely to only receive horrible, yet predictable, results.

The Sometimes Overlooked

I recently joined the campus rec center. I go during the lunch hour. This is unusual for me to be out of my office. I only leave my den usually for a meeting or some other mandatory event. My point being is that this lunchtime activity gets me out of the office during the middle of the day and I can walk at a casual pace (I’m always 5 minutes behind, so I typically rush everywhere). During my casual walks, I am able to look around and listen to what is going on around me.

Working on a medium sized university campus with the majority being the traditional 18 – 22 student. But, is even the “traditional student” traditional? No. During my walks over the past week, I have overheard some conversations – the majority being one sided (cell phones). As first, I tried not to listen, but this week, I am beginning to realize that this ‘listening’ could actually help me and my students. I have learned that some students are homesick, others don’t want to leave college – ever. I heard one student talk about not having a job after school. Another with such conviction said that he didn’t want to be a bad father and he was sorry.

They’re not just high school kids. They are individual students with real problems. Regardless of how emo, offbeat, in vogue or straight (aka ‘I’m okay’) they want to be, they are alike, but also very different. As administrators, educators and the general public, we need to embrace this! Millennials, although receiving a bad rap by some, are very diverse, aware and capable. They may actually teach us something.

Education has become, and will remain, a staple. Students also have choices when it comes to universities and colleges. Now that the largest high school class in history is preparing to graduate, what will higher education do for next year’s class? Simple. We need to address the issues, traits, and overall individuality that comes with every student. If our goal is for the student, then admissions and retention will just fall in place.

Google Analytics – My site’s GPS

I’ve been running Google Analytics on my site for about 2 months now. Not sure who considers themselves in my readership, but I’m not doing half bad for not being ‘searchable’. As mentioned before, I have scrapped my blog before, so I want to make sure this one is doing okay for me, and my small group of readers, before I open my blog up completely.

Seeing that most of my readers are unique and I only have about 4 repeat visitors on a regular basis, this isn’t giving me a good feeling. It is cool though that tools, like Google Analytics, exist to help guide site development. So, I’m listening – the reports are the only ones speaking.

All the Cool Chicks are Doing It.

Think Geek Incubator

I’m incubating my first set of chicks in my incubator. This is a pretty cool device as everything is preset. It even came with an automatic egg turner. All I have to do is monitor the humidity, which is very easy with the digital gauge – just add water.

In thinking about incubators, I thought about the incubator I saw on Thinkgeek about a year ago, pictured above. It was pretty awesome – again, just add water. I also found a helmet incubator, which just looked cool, much cooler than my ‘styrofoam box’. What interesting technology – farming may just be crossing into something a little bit geeky.

Walk this Way, Blog this Way!

This is my third blog. I have scrapped and rebuilt out of my own dissatisfaction. What is it to blog? Should one only focus on one facet or glimpse of life? This is my problem. I feel my blog is too broad. I don’t have a focus. I’m into a lot of things (the reason behind my blog’s name). I feel like this is a mistake not focusing on one thing, but I also feel it is a mistake to deny reality. I am a multi-faceted person with many ideas and too much, albeit random, knowledge to share!

An interesting read over at ProBlogger got me thinking: What is a perfect blog? Is there a certain dynamic to blog? Does it have a style similar to APA or MLA? Mistakes are made, but do the readers even notice?

I am going to start blogging and publishing my podcasts soon for my job, where I will be expected to stay on topic. Let’s hope, for the students’ sake, I don’t end up rambling to my own amusement and boring them just enough to block my blog and vocal styling from their fond college memories.

P.S. I’m blogging a ton this weekend because I’m sick and I think a lot when I’m captive on the couch.

Baseball in the Palm of your Hand

Yesterday Chris and I caught a game, which was good. He got to go again today – I’m jealous. Getting beyond jealously, we were talking about how different stadiums are offering different items to enhance the experience. In Seattle, Gameboys access game information from the seats. Others offer handheld computers or info over the web to your phone or other wireless enabled device. So, why not Busch Stadium? It’s a brand new ball park, so one would think they would have tapped into this market.