Starting all over...

I started this blog in 2004 while serving as Academy Coordinator at Highland School of Technology at the time I was working with students on senior projects. Starting in 2002 we had the students use Live Journal to record experiences and reflections during the time they were working on their senior projects. Here is the journal of one the students, Jeff Horn's Internship, that was written in the Spring of 2004. This allowed the teacher to stay current on the progress of the student as the student completed their work and me to check in as needed. The Live Journal blog entries and digital portfolio items saved from each of the classes students took at Highland were organized into each students' digital portfolio that was recorded on a CD for them to take when they graduated from high school. How things have changed in the last few years!

I want to keep this blog address that has my name so I am starting over fresh with this blog and renamed the title to One Man and a Laptop. A focus of this blog will be looking at tools that are available on the Internet.

I am adding a ClustrMaps to this blog to keep up with where folks are located that are viewing my blog. All visitors will be able to see at a glance where the site's visitors are located. This information is recorded when a visitor comes to the blog. This website creates a code that can be added to web pages so information will be collected and submitted to ClustrMaps and a graphic and link is added to the web page.

I became a grandfather on November 21, 2007 when my grandson Isaac Ryan Mauney was born. This picture was taken right before he turned four months old and I turned it into a cartoon drawing. I am finding that it is true when folks say there is nothing better than having grand kids. I already have a tent and some camping trips planned for our backyard!

Blog, blogs, and more blogs! My daughter Betsy started a blog so she could share with her family and friends about Isaac. See the Mauney Family Blog. After visiting their blog, my eighty year old father decided to create an online journal of his life which is updated every Sunday with more his story. Visit my Dad/Paw Paw's, blog to read about his interesting life and to listen as he tells some of the stories. Dad and I work on this journal together, he writes and e-mails me the stories, he gathers pictures that are included each week, and I serve as his editor. We discuss things using Gmail Chat and he records his audio using my iRiver MP3 player/recorder. This has been an excellent father and son project! There is a multitude of stories and pictures that family and friends would have never heard or seen if it were not for this blog. My daughter Betsy is taking this information and editing it for a book that we will have published for the family.

Kati, my daughter that is beginning her senior year as a student at UNCC, started her blog moving from away from Facebook. Visit her blog, A Little Thing Called Life... She is engaged to Ray Leach who is a senior at UNCC and has just posted their engagement pictures. Visit Ray's Blog - Looking Forward. He is really looking forward to finishing college and moving on with his life!