I did not have a typical upbringing when it came to “traditional” gender roles. My father was a rocket scientist (he worked on the Apollo Program and helped design the F-14 Tomcat) and my mother was an artist (she majored in sculpture, but her drawings and paintings are also amazing). My father from New York (Born in Peekskill, raised in Garden City). My Mother from California (born and raised in San Mateo). Dad a staunch conservative. Mom a staunch liberal. So, I spent as much time in the kitchen learning to cook with mom, as dad and I spent tossing the baseball or football around.

My mother was very sick, but the restaurant needed their cheesecakes for dessert. Having already been able to prepare hot meals, mom gave me the recipe and asked my to make the cheesecakes. Mind you, a cheesecake is not a simple dessert to make. It takes a very long time to prepare and requires constant vigilance over the oven as it bakes. But I made five cheesecakes. They were picked up and delivered to the restaurant.

As fate would have it, the food critic of the Louisville Courier-Journal came in for dinner that night. He had my cheesecake for dessert and was very impressed. He asked who made the cheesecake and the waitress told him that cheesecake had been made by the 10-year old son of the pastry chef.

Thus, the food critic named the cheesecake “10-Year Old Cheesecake.” And that is the way it was placed on the menu from that day forward. Here is the recipe.

TEN-YEAR OLD CHEESECAKE

CRUST:

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs or ground nuts ( I like walnuts, pecans or almonds-whole, skin-on, ok)
• 3 T. sugar
• 7 tablespoons butter, melted

FILLING:

• 5- 8 oz. packages cream cheese, softened (can use cream cheese that has less fat but not fat free)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4  eggs
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. lemon zest (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

CRUST:

In a Cuisinart, grind nuts and sugar fine.  Pour in melted butter and pulse until blended.

If using graham cracker crumbs, skip the food processor.  Just add sugar and melted butter and mix until combined.

Press crust mixture in the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform cake pan. Make sure to press against the sides (about half way up) and bottom of the pan. Place into oven and bake for 8 minutes. Let cool.

FILLING:

Prepare the filling by beating 3 eggs and sugar until light.  Can use Cuisinart or mixer.   Mix in softened cream cheese and flavorings until combined. Mix the ingredients into the cream cheese; don’t whip the ingredients. If too much air is incorporated into the filling, the cheesecake will puff when baked and sink as it cools. With too much air incorporated into the filling, cracks are likely to develop. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Place on a  straight sided cookie sheet.  Add boiling water up 2″ on the side of the pan.  This water bath keeps your cheesecake from cracking.   Bake for 45 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 160 degrees . Remove from oven and let cool in waterbath to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight.

And while the names of the companies and products may be different (Friendster and WiFiPod), many of the same technologies still permeate. Facebook has certainly emerged as the social media giant of the day and is dealing with privacy concerns that were touted in this video to make news more personal for us. The outlook on Google may have changed compared to almost five years ago, where maybe the Supreme Court of the United States might be less sympathetic to Google should the New York Times bring a copyright lawsuit. Amazon has certainly been a model for eCommerce, but potentially new legislation to tax sales on the Internet may force a change of that model. But certainly the end of the video demonstrates social tagging of what is happening around your world, which is very much like how Twitter operates today.

Very interesting in retrospect.

From the Preface of "The Children's Machine"

The book “The Children’s Machine” was written by Dr. Seymour Papert in 1993. And while I was only a senior at Hillsdale High School at the time, it is interesting that I have grown up with the technology around the computer has developed (for example, the Internet) and yet teachers still struggle with how to use the computer with their students. It will be interesting as I read this book to see if ideas written in 1993 apply to education technology today.

Dr. Papert also notes in his preface and acknowledgements a list of educational and technology philosophers as his mentors on this work. Philosophers like Mitchel Resnick, Brian Silverman, Carol Sperry, Alan Kay, Sherry Turkle, Paulo Freire, and Jean Piaget. So, it leads me to believe that this work is steeped not in the glitz of the computer, but instead core education and technology theory.

One of the things I am doing this summer is reading several education focused books. These are not necessarily new text, but books that cover all facets and time periods of education. Here I can reflect on those readings and how they apply today. In my line of work as a Director of Technology, the education focus I enjoy takes a back seat to tech issues or personal politics. And now that I have completed my masters work, I don’t have that outlet to study education issues and history. This is my attempt to further my education and thought process.

I look forward to developing my thoughts.

Sine Metu.