Alex Reid

Seriously, I think more English teachers could engage students by acknowledging that (most) rap is often a poetry challenge.

Check out this rap battle between a kid and an English teacher (NSFW). Also check out Mr. Mark Grist’s web site.

As I get older, looking after myself has become more of priority; especially watching my weight. I began putting on weight after I took on a stressful job ten years ago and my weight has slowly gotten out of hand.

I’m not fat obese, but I’m certainly not as trim as I’d like to be.

An application that has proved very useful to me is Lose It! which is available both as a web site application and an iPhone application. It’s probably my most used iPhone app, after my communication tools.

You enter in everything you eat and it calculates your fat, carbs, protein and more (if you want) daily and weekly, sending you email reports every weekend. It also displays a variety of reports on the macronutrients you consume and the exercise done to burn off excess calories.

In the last few months, I’ve learned what I consume too much of and what I consume not enough of. As well, it puts emphasis on exercise. In short, it’s made me more aware of what goes in and what I burn off.

You can set goals for yourself, much like Wii Fit, and you can add your friends ala social networking, so that you and your friends can encourage each other.

At the time that I write this post, Lose It! now has 1 million users and handles thousands of users at any given time. Lose It! was the top free iPhone Health and Fitness application in both 2009 and 2010.

Whether you have an iPhone or an iPad or not, I highly suggest using their web site.

HBO’s The Wire, is now part of the curriculum at the Johns Hopkins University.

As reported by the Baltimore Sun, Professor Peter Beilenson believed that talking about the show would be an entertaining way to get students to discuss the “complex web of problems faced by American cities.”

Apparently this isn’t a new idea, as Harvard, Duke and Berkeley, also have built courses around the widely-acclaimed television show. However, Hopkins has the advantage of being in Baltimore and included some of the people that the characters were based on, such as State Attorney Patricia Jessamy and the former Baltimore commissioner Ed Norris (who ironically plays a cop who bemoans the poor state of the Baltimore police department on the show itself). And of course, for the slam dunk, the show creator and producer David Simon was brought in.

The show’s 60 episodes would be the textbook and the class sessions would feature experts explaining how they wrestle with the same issues in reality.

While Simon had always said he wanted the show to serve as a pretext to the larger discussion around the social constructs of society, students are loving the class because they “get to watch TV for homework.”

Tell – Tales from the 204 is a new story telling show that will happen on Thursday, November 4th. People will be given 7 to 10 minutes to tell a personal story live on stage and without notes, told on a theme that story tellers can interpret how ever they wish. The mission, says organizer Amanda Yusishen, is to expose Winnipeg for what it really is, a city full of fantastic tales.

“Story telling events are becoming more and more popular in recent years and I decided to start TELL – Tales from the 204 after I had trouble finding the type of story telling event I wanted to attend and possibly, be a part of,” says Yusishen.

“These types of events have been going on for years in the states, mostly New York, Chicago and LA. If people want to get an idea of what the TELL- Tales from the 204 event may be like, they can check out such famous Story Telling events as The Moth or RISK, two of my personal favorites out there right now.”

If you’re interested in telling your story, contact Amanda at TELL204@gmail.com. The event will take place at Aqua Books on Thursday, November 4th starting at 7:30pm.

Edmonton is getting their own Hackathon, a codefest where developers, programmers, engineers, designers and even marketers get together for a collaborative technical project.

This isn’t the first for Edmonton or Alberta, as the first hackathon happened in Calgary in 1999, focusing on cryptographic development (according to wikipedia, “part of the reason for holding it in Canada was to avoid legal problems caused by United States regulations on the export of cryptographic software”).

This hackathon – sponsored by Microsoft – will focus on creating an emergency information application that can be used “in cities all over the world. An application that will help families prepare during a disaster. An app that will list emergency muster points, emergency info, alerts during disasters, and what you can do.”

This is Edmonton’s third official hackathon to take place at 9:15am Wednesday, October 20th, and continue until 9:15am Thursday, October 21st. To join this hackathon, click here.