I’m Troy Patterson and this is my blog. I’m an educator, podcaster, writer, photographer, and life long learner.
Latest writing:
The printing woes have hit me. I recently printed a couple of photos for my wonderful wife and they printed out “yuck”. The prints are dark and have a reddish tint. *Sigh.
Now, I have a new computer (a Mac Studio, my retirement gift to myself) that is running a new operating system, (welcome Gold Gate), and hadn’t printed anything yet. I bought the computer in large part as part of my process in pursuing my photography hobby. I bought a couple of 5K monitors that are color calibrated. The idea is that the setup allows me to be color accurate in posting and printing. The posting part is cool. The printing part? Not so much.
I checked the printer in Mac System Settings. Everything seemed correct, but, well, the end result tells me something isn’t good. I deleted the printer and reinstalled it. Prints still look muddy, dark and reddish.
Hm. Check again. Reinstall the printer paying attention. The driver seems to be the correct one.
However, double checking the installed printer shows that it is an “AirPrint” driver, not a native print driver.
So, I try the “Use: | Select Software” button.
I have a Canon Pixma TR7020a for my printer. So, I checked the Canon Website to see if there are any updates. I downloaded the latest driver, well, actually, I had to download a couple of files. There is the Canon Print file, new as of October 1, 2026, but that isn’t really the driver. There is also a “Setup package”, February 18, 2025.
I posted a discussion topic: PIXMA TR7020a prints come out dark and red since upgrading to macOS Golden Gate over on the Canon Community, but no responses so far.
It seems that Apple has removed lots of the printers and/or made substantial changes to the print infrastructure. I really don’t like that it looks like I’m adding a specific print driver but Apple is changing it to the an AirPrint version. Canon is no longer publishing a CUPS version of the printer. The print menu does not provide a color calibration option.
So, I’m now is a position where I can get my photographs to look good on my screen, and on my photography journey site, but I can’t print them.
Decision Desk
I saw a post on Indeed for an “election reporter” through Decision Desk. I applied as I’m interested in politics and the process. I was able to take the job. Essentially, my job was to go to a polling station and wait for the results to be published. Then, as soon as the results were published, I was to relay those results directly to Decision Desk HQ. All of the communication was done through Discord or their website. The process was easy and interesting (plus, I should be getting a little scratch as well). When I arrived at the polling station, there was one other person there to watch the results. After I arrived, one more person arrived. That person was similarly reporting only for USA Today. Instead of sharing electronically, their job was to drive somewhere with the results.
Wedding Season
I got to go to the wedding of a wonderful couple. They were married with a beautiful sunset in the background.
Locus Grove
While awaiting the wedding, I got the chance to take a quick hike through Locus Grove Trails and took some pictures. I haven’t processed them yet, so nothing posted. However, there will be some posted over on my photography journey site at some point.
AMLE Discussion
I got the opportunity to chat with Shawn about the AMLE Conference. Shawn had a terrific time at AMLE. At a session with Rick Wormeli, Shawn was referred to as a “friend”. Rick is also aware of the great work that Shawn is doing in developing AI guidelines for teachers. Who knows, there may even by a ‘thing’ that gets developed.
Shawn also suggested that we reach out to the AMLE state affiliates. Don’t know why I haven’t done that before, but now I have something on my “To Do” list (OKAY, there are already lots of things on the “To Do” list, but now there is one more).
Shawn’s students were wonderful in collecting their award as the AMLE Sound Off winners.
FDR Presidential Library
I also took the opportunity to explore the FDR Presidential Library. Interestingly, the library was actually started during FDR’s second term as the assumption was that the second term would be the last. FDR was Present during a range of interesting times.
I also captured the quote at the entrance of the library, very different than our current administration.
FDR was able to be committed to basic rights and human respect even with a focus on economic needs. Treatment of Eleanor Roosevelt was interesting as well.
Nature Landscape Summit
I registered fort he Nature Landscape Summit. I knew that I would be at a wedding for most of the days (or in the car driving), but I figured that I could catch a couple of the presentations. I did. The ones that I caught were well done and interesting.
Hazel
Hazel, our Lab/Shepard mix, lost a toe nail. Not sure exactly when/where/how, but it was a pretty good bleeder. This led to a trip to the emergency vet.
Retirement View
So far, retirement is going well. I’m enjoying sleeping in a bit.
I’m practicing photography much more than I was. (I spent a bit of time watching Marien Photography videos today as well. These were quite useful.) I’d still like to get out and shoot more frequently. Plus, my 52Frames submissions are improving.
One of my friends who retired before me, went back to work part time. I remember that he stated “there are only so many books you can read”. I have an extensive and ever growing list of books to read. I don’t spend all day reading. I’m currently reading “The Power Broker – Robert Moses and the Fall of New York“. This is what one would call a “tome”. I’ve renewed my library check out twice so far.
I’m staying connected to education by subbing. So far, I’ve subbed a day or two per week. It has been interesting. I’m used to be in charge and knowing what is going on. Subbing is very much different.
I’ve worked on getting the house ready for winter. I’ve got the small pedal boat that we have put away. The trailer has been folded up and put in the garage. The Mustang is still out, but we are getting close to putting that away as well. The outside table and chairs have been put away as well.
Ari Hest
We got tickets and went to see Ari Hest. He did a great show as always. I was a bit surprised (and disappointed) that the show didn’t sell out. He has a bunch of really awesome songs. We also learned that one of them (I’ve Got You) was written to be a duet with Nora Jones. Apparently, Nora doesn’t know this. (He wrote it while still in the “tour in the van” days and Nora Jones had a big hit). Anyway, please listen, really listen to his music. He’s got a bunch of really great songs. If you get the chance to go see him live, please do so.
A Talent for Murder
We went out to see A Talent for Murder. Good movie, well worth the time.
Euchre
We also got the chance to play some Euchre. In fact, we got to teach someone how to play. I grew up playing euchre, but it’s not really a thing in Maine.
TV
I had my office TV bite the dust. I was able to recycle it for an extremely reasonable fee.
SPAM Opportunities
- I’m offered a “French Protein” that will remove plague from my veins
- I’m told that “socks and shoes” cause toe fungus
- There is a “Korean natural wrinkle eraser”
Educational Technology
I’m seeing lots of pushback on Educational Technology. There is the “Screen Time” concern, the RAMageddon issue, AI concerns and more.
Screen Time
This one has been growing for a while. I partially get it. The thought of a kid starting vacantly into a screen all day is concerning. However, the movement misses two important points: screen time outside of school, and screen use versus screen time.
I can’t tell you the number of conversations that I’ve had with parents who were “going to limit” screen time at home, but…. Lots of different reasons came up, the kids have to have a phone due to sports, the kids need a phone so that I can check on them, the kids have to have a phone for safety reasons. And once those kids have a phone, limiting their access is hard. And it is. Parenting is hard. I say this not sarcastically, but realistically. Parenting was hard as my kids were growing up.
So, one of the easier places to point to limiting screens is school. Schools are frequently seen as letting the kids use screens too much. There is some validity to this. There are teachers and schools who do use screens for “rewards”, as an entertainment device, and in questionable pedagogy ways. We’ve never actually provided Professional Development on a scale necessary for teachers to utilize technology well. Thus, one of the issues isn’t time, but the why the screen is being used.
Additionally, there has been a real push from many technology providers to move kids into using devices in ways that are questionable (or should at least be questioned) as well. There are many platform providers who have way oversold their results. Some of this was even endorsed by the federal government. (I need to find the link, but basically, researchers get to define “success” on their own.)
RAMadeddon
With the prices of devices skyrocketing due to RAM and other components, the removal of federal dollars to purchase devices, and the general constraints on budgets, many schools are in a tough spot in terms of affording to replace devices.
A device for every student became pretty much the standard when remote learning was put into place. Lots of curriculum resources are only available online. However, with diminishing budgets, those resources may go away.
Many schools were hit with a big increase in expenditures last summer. School budgets don’t have lots of “wiggle room”. Whatever gets budgeted, usually around November to January, is what is available in June/July to purchase materials. The way a school budget works is that many resources can’t be ordered until July so that those expenditures go on the correct year.
Thoughts
I’ve never been one to say that everything should be done online or through technology. However, I also believe that we may be missing out on many opportunities for kids by not training teachers on options that they have with students. Providing students opportunities to create, to customize an experience from them, can be truly powerful.
SPAM
According to the SPAM that I’ve received this week:
- There is n 8 second warm water trick that will fix any bowel issues
- There is a biblical mixture that will lower my A1C and reverse diabetes
- There is one food that I need to avoid because it causes 10 TIMES the memory loss
- The “elite” are following one simple protocol to reverse dementia. This was discovered by Elon Musk using AI.
- A small breakfast change can reverse 90% of diabetes type 2, the catch is that it also lowers your A1C levels very quickly….
Photography
FLCC Field Trip to Vaughan Woods
I wrote this up on my Photography Journey Site. It was a nice experience and I learned a few things.
52Frames
This week the subject was “door”. I found a neatly stripped door to photograph and submit.
Subbing
I finally have everything set to sub. In fact, I accepted my first subbing position this week. I took a Kindergarten class. I really need to “up my game” on subbing. I learned a few things that I should’ve known already. We’ll see how things go from here.
Week Note 20261012
Subbing
I’m still waiting on being able to sub. I submitted my application in early August, figuring school was starting at the end of the month and they’d like to get subs in order. However, after not hearing anything for a couple of weeks, I contacted the school district. I was informed that they would be looking at the substitute applications “the middle of September”. Toward the end of September, I was called for an interview. The interview was fine. My recommendations were apparently fine. I was sent a Frontline link to complete the various paperwork. I filled all of the out and submitted it. I checked every couple of days. About a week later, it seemed as though all the forms had been approved. However, I still don’t have the “Jobs” button in Frontline. I reached out at the end of last week to see if there was something else I needed to do. The district person is going “look into it and set things up”. Sigh. Still waiting.
Website work
I have been working on websites. I had to fix a bunch of minor links that got redirected when I switched hosting providers. This is kind of monotonous work of checking links.
I’ve also been working on my new photography site: Troy R Patterson, Photography Journey. This has taken some time to truly refine the vision of the site. I’m still working on images and getting those chosen and uploaded. Since I decided to make this more of a journal of a journey, I also want to “catch up” parts of the journey that I’ve taken so far while documenting the journey as I’m going.
Mac Studio
I did purchase a new Mac Studio (my retirement gift to myself). I chose to set it up from scratch rather than use Migration Assistant. Now, Migration Assistant is pure magic. Having been using computers for a long time, I know the pure magic of plugging in a computer and saying “match that computer” and having it work. However, I wanted the opportunity to be very intentional about what I was transferring. I wanted to do some cleaning since it had been awhile since I had started “fresh”. I really do like the computer so far. Photo editing is much smoother and enjoyable.
Mount Pisgah
We took a walk up Mount Pisgah. Our walk included climbing to the top of the Fire Tower, no longer used. The scenery was wonderful. I got a few pictures of some Turkey Vultures as well. The colors haven’t fully changed yet, but it was still nice. It was great to go on a woody hike.
Those Leaving MAGA
It’s kind of scary to think that it’s gas prices which are causing people to leave MAGA. Not the abusive treatment of women. Not raping women. Not raping underage girls. Not attacking our very own capitol. Not blatant racism. Not mocking people with disabilities. Not sending people to countries that they had never been to. Not inhumane treatment of people picked up by ICE. Not the constant grift. Not attacking foreign countries. Not kidnapping a foreign leader. Not bombing another country. Not starting a war with no purpose. Not causing the death and injuries to American soldiers. Not destroying the advancement of alternative, resilient power sources, Not cutting scientific research. Not lies about vaccines. Not giving the superwealthy tax cuts. Not cutting off basic benefits to those who need food. Not killing Americans who dare to protest (peacefully). Not pardoning those who attacked our Capitol. Not deporting people to random countries. Not separating children from their parents. Not hiring a Fox News Host to lead the Department of Defense. Not turning the DOJ into a political attack department. But gas prices.
The Power Broker
I’m still reading the lengthy tome, “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro.
Week Note 20260929
Retirement
I’m still adjusting to retirement. I haven’t hit the part where I miss going to work yet. I was told, repeatedly, that once school started back up, I would miss going to work. I don’t yet. I like living the life of “luxury” by sleeping in and doing what I want. I do recognize that I’ll need to start adding a bit more structure into my days. But generally, I’m enjoying doing things at quite the leisurely pace.
Speaking of adding more structure, I’m starting to prioritize my To-Do list. I’ll be adding actually target dates and working through the items.
Random Stuff
A while back, some wacko’s showed up at the Dearborn City Council meeting (no link, cause, wacko’s). I lived and worked in Dearborn, Michigan, USA for many years. I knew and became friends with many great people. Some were Muslim, some Christians, and some Jewish. My kids likewise made many good friends with other kids who happened to practice a religion different than theirs. Like so many other things that the MAGA crowd likes to shout about, the lies are incredible.
I’m still watching the debate about Screen Time. I have a thoughts about this, I’ve started a post about it, but it’s not done yet. I can really boil this down to a couple of things:
- It’s not about the time, it’s about the use.
- Parenting is hard. (I mean this respectfully and honestly, parenting is incredibly difficult.)
The world is constantly changing. Keeping up with those changes can be a challenge for all of us.
AI isn’t going away. I also don’t think that it is as powerful as some are claiming. It is a better search engine though.
NetNewsWire is one of my all time favorite programs. Much love to Brent Simmons for his work and support on this program. (NetNewsWire is an RSS reader for Mac and iOS.) I had an issue with NetNewsWire and syncing. Brent answered my forum post with a fix. If you are interested in using an RSS feed reader (and you should be), check out NetNewsWire.
My retirement gift to myself was a Mac Studio. So far, I’m very happy with my gift. (I also picked up two ASUS ProArt 27 inch, 5K displays. I ordered “open box” monitors, unfortunately, one came broken and has been returned and refunded.) I haven’t edited lots of photos yet, but the process has been so much better so far. I’ve also taken this opportunity to avoid using Migration Assistant, which I really do like, to force myself into some culling. So far, so good.
Another program that I really like is Joplin. Since this syncs across devices, it was really easy to add a note on what I’d done, what needed to be done, and what other considerations I needed to, well, consider, on one or the other computers. Pure magic. Plus, there is a plug-in architecture that allows for things like a Journaling Plug in. Since it is fully Markdown compliant, I can just write away and then put the text where I want. (This post is originally written in Joplin and then pasted into WordPress.)
Part of retirement is realizing that I can do things like, oh, cut the grass on a weekday. We had a nor’easter coming on the weekend, so I just willy-nilly cut the grass on Friday. Yes, it’s a little thing, but….
I did a presentation for the First Light Camera Club on putting photographs into a slideshow.
I’ve started reading “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro. Weighing in at 1,336 pages, it is definitely filled with detail. The librarian who checked it out for me, stated that she had the book beside her bed and that maybe she’d pick it back up. I’m not very far into the book, but, yea, Robert Caro does love detail. If there is something to be named, everything is named. It is interesting to read about how poorly government worked and how corrupted it was. It’s also interesting to get the deep references of a variety of characters.
Just a quick reminder that today is “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” Day.
While the Temptations version is the classic, I also really like the Was (Not Was) version. (Quick note, the Temptations was not the original. The Undisputed Truth put out the first version.)
It was the third of September
That day I’ll always remember, yes I will
‘Cause that was the day that my daddy died
Original Version:
Temptations Version:
Was (Not Was) version:
Officially Retired
Well, I guess that I’m officially retired now. School has started and I’m still sleeping in. No alarm clock. No worries about security. No concerns about “did I tell so and so to do such and such”.
However, I still feel more like I’m on vacation rather than retirement. I’m still working through exactly what the days should look like.
I did apply for a couple of jobs. I applied to be a substitute at the beginning of August. I followed up a couple of weeks later. I was informed that “they’ll be looking at substitute applications in the middle of September”. I then looked at a different school district to sub. That district had a job for a “Technology Analyst”. Seemed vague in the job description. I followed up. I ended up going for an interview. The job is a basic computer tech. I would’ve loved helping teachers and students, but decided not to return to full time work.
So, I’m getting stuff done around the house. I’m learning more about photography. I’m taking more pictures.
I’m still looking for a part time gig. Or, some volunteer opportunities.
Columbia House to cease operations after 71 years
Columbia House to cease operations after 71 years.
Another “rite of passage” from my teenage years is hitting the dustbin. Columbia House’s Subscription Program is ending. (To be fair, I would’ve thought that this service died long, long ago.)
Columbia House regularly sent out free opportunities to join (actually, I think that joining cost a penny). Essentially, you would purchase a membership and receive some albums (in my case on cassette). For some reason, it seems that I got 3 or 5 albums free. The membership included the agreement to purchase a number of albums in the future. Every month, one received Columbia’s offers to purchase albums. This was the precursor to the AOL CD’s that would be arriving later on.
As a side note, I’m fascinated by the URL on this article (which has now been fixed. Originally it was this: (https://www.pastemagazine.com/article/cameron-winter-to-release-his-first-live-album)
Digital Card
Troy Patterson
Middle School Matters; Troy Patterson Consulting
troy@troypatterson.me
+1832-378-7697
Moodle, Education, Open-Source
This hCard created with the hCard creator.
Middle School Matters Content
- MSM 716: Getting Feted Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr
- MSM 715: Encrustation Station Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr
- MSM 714: Just Being Seventh Graders Troy Patterson, Shawn McGirr