I watched the BSG finale last night. At first I was just mildly disappointed even though it felt like a good, sincere effort. The more I thought about it, the more questions I had and the less willing I was to forgive some of the plot points or decisions.

( spoilers ahead )

Ok, so I have a little website - http://www.gestalt-media.com/
Nothing special - just a little online home for stuff I'm working on - most of which isn't public and for friends or family. No big deal.

Today my brother forgot the exact address and did a search on Google (he searched on "Dan LaValley gestalt") and it came right up as the first hit. In fact, here are the results:
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=dan+lavalley+gestalt&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f

He clicks on the link, but instead of going to my website, it takes him to a malware website - http://onlinemalwarescanner.com/ . The same thing happens in Yahoo. If you go to it directly by typing http://www.gestalt-media.com/ into your browser it works just fine. The link from my LJ profile works just fine. All other similar links provided by Google also go to the malware site.

This isn't a huge deal because I have maybe 2 people who go to the site.. but it's still perplexing and irritating. Anyone have any idea as to what it going on here?

Hi everyone - It might be better for me to post this in the madisonwi community, but someone already asked about this back in April'ish (and didn't have a ton of responses) so I thought I'd start on my journal first.

Do any of you have experiences with Madison kennels? Nikki and I have used Roughin' It Resort when we needed to kennel Tucker once in the past and thought they did a great job. The only problem is they are booked up during the time we need a kennel! Do any of you have suggestions on kennels that you've had good experiences with? Thanks!

I put some work videos up on YouTube which I thought some of you might find interesting. This was for an event called Play@Pyle which was a showcase of some of the work DoIT-Academic Technology and Engage are doing to help faculty develop and integrate simulations and games into college classrooms. The two keynotes are by two faculty members of UW-Madison's Games, Learning, and Society (GLS) group - Richard Halverson and Kurt Squire. If you're interested in reading more, I can send you some links to papers they've written on games, learning, and the future of education:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AF1CD92871407F7E

Ok, so this is an odd question to be posting to LJ, but I figure it's worth a shot. Long story short, I totally love the MATC program so far. I need to find more drawing references. Lately I've been drawing insect creatures. I tried checking out some books from the library but they didn't have the quality or detail of photos I was looking for.

So on an off chance that some of my science friends out there know more about this than I thought I would ask:

1.) What are some good books with high detail insect photos? I need to see things like mandibles!
2.) Do you know of any good web sites or archives with good high magnification of insects? Electron microscopsy (sp!) is interesting of things like fleas is ok too.
3.) From what I'm finding on the internet, it looks like a low power stereo microscope is best for an amateur like me who wants to examine insects. Where is a good place to buy either a new or used microscope ... online or in meatspace?

From The Interaction of Color by Albers - a book I was not that thrilled with (probably due to it being the 1972 condensed edition which has few color plates to refer to), but in which I did enjoy this quote:

"In the end, teaching is a matter not of method but of heart. Therefore, the most decisive factor is the teacher's personality. His enthusiastic concern with the student's growth counts more than how much he knows. It is well known that "the teacher is always right," but rarely does this fact elicit respect or sympathy; even less often does it prove competence and authority.

But the teacher actually is right and always will gain confidence when he admits that he does not know, that he cannot decide, and as is often is with color, that he is unable to make a choice or to give advice.

Besides, good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers."

A quote I enjoyed from a recent conference session:

"Civil societies become democratic when there are opportunities for people to learn the importance of listening to all views, even those they dislike, of 'working through' conflicting approaches to solving a problem, and of building common ground for action" (Matthews, 1998)

On another note (since I still can't sleep... I suppose sitting around on the computer is not generally sleep-inducing is it?) - lately I started playing pen-and-paper role-playing-games again. I'm running a science fiction space opera based on a modified old TSR setting from the 80s - Star Frontiers. I'm looking for additional players. If you're interested in playing, leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

For those playing GTA IV, I thought you would find this interesting!

Yesterday I had an interesting meeting with a nurse from UW Hospital who works in pain management. She saw an article on my department's sims/games program and contacted the writer who pointed her to me. I normally work with instructional or research application of simulations and games in higher education, but as you'll read below, I thought this was a worthwhile cause to provide some help to.
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