22 January 24

Forty years ago(!): Apple Computer announced the arrival of the Macintosh personal computer on 22 January 1984, through a commercial during Super Bowl XVIII. It was the earliest mass produced system featuring a mouse as an input device. The Super Bowl commercial became famous for its portrayal of the Macintosh as an upstart revolutionary force challenging the bland gray regimentation of IBM (styled as 1984's Big Brother). My "Mice-a-Roni-and-Cheese" tie features several Macintosh mice from the 1980s and 1990s.

20 January 23

Apple Computer announced the arrival of the Macintosh personal computer on 22 January 1984, through a commercial during Super Bowl XVIII. It was the earliest mass produced system featuring a mouse as an input device. The Super Bowl commercial became famous for its portrayal of the Macintosh as an upstart revolutionary force challenging the bland gray regimentation of IBM (styled as 1984's Big Brother). My "Mice-a-Roni-and-Cheese" tie features several Macintosh mice from the 1980s and 1990s.

23 September 21

No special occasion today, so I'm choosing to wear my Mice-a-Roni-and-Cheese tie!

22 January 20

36 years ago today, Apple introduced the Macintosh® personal computer, using the famous "1984" commercial during the Super Bowl. My "Mice-a-Roni-and-Cheese" tie shows mice from various systems, including Macintoshes and IBM PCs. Also on this date: In 1965, in Denmark, Wisconsin, Steve's Cheese produced the world's largest cheese (ever) -- 34,591 pounds -- which was displayed in Wisconsin's exhibit at the New York World's Fair that summer.

4 February 19

Today, Facebook turns 15 years old! Mark Zuckerberg opened the social network TheFacebook from his dorm room at Harvard University on this date in 2004. My Facebook account was opened for me by Ben and Jonathan, around December 2007, as the inanimate object Desk Lamp. Within a few months Facebook banned all such accounts, but I got mine transferred to my "real name." My tie for today shows computer mice (of both Macintosh and Windows ancestry) enjoying some Swiss cheese.

22 January 18

34 years ago today, Apple introduced the Macintosh® personal computer, using the famous "1984" commercial during the Super Bowl. My "Mice-a-Roni-and-Cheese" tie shows mice from various systems, including Macintoshes and IBM PCs. Also on this date: In 1965, in Denmark, Wisconsin, Steve's Cheese produced the world's largest cheese (ever) -- 34,591 pounds -- which was displayed in Wisconsin's exhibit at the New York World's Fair that summer.

22 January 17

On this day in 1984, during the Super Bowl, a now-famous Apple® commercial announced the arrival of the Macintosh personal computer. Its graphical user interface was driven largely by a mouse like the one featured at the bottom of this tie. What was a novelty in 1984 really did mark the start of a revolution that destroyed the impending regimentation of computing, as portrayed in the explosive attack on "Big Brother" in the commercial.

20 January 16

Depending on the source, today is either National Cheese Lovers' Day or National Cheese Day. The wheel of Swiss cheese on this tie is appropriately cheesy (and so are my jokes).

22 January 15

Thirty-one years ago, on 22 January 1984, Apple® introduced the Macintosh® personal computer, shifting everything about the user interface toward using point-and-click "mice." My Mice-A-Roni-and-Cheese tie features several early Macintosh mice (with cables or "tails").

27 April 14

Thirty-three years of computer mice! Xerox PARC introduced the first mouse on this date in 1981.

26 June 13

Happy Pied Piper Day! 729 years ago today, after successfully ridding the town of Hamelin, Germany, of its rodent pest population, the "Pied Piper" lured 130 children away from their village when the town officials refused to pay him for his work. I admit that the connection between the story of the Pied Piper and the computer mice on my tie is cheesy and full of holes. (My grin is cheesy too.)

25 January 11

Yesterday (January 24) was the anniversary of the introduction of the Macintosh® computer, in 1984. This tie features several different Mac mice and a large round of Swiss cheese.

04 November 10

Today is the first day of the Kentucky Convergence Conference, which is an outgrowth of what used to be the Kentucky Higher Education Computing Conference. I am not presenting anything today but others from EKU are, and if I go to the conference I don't have to be in my office!

23 November 09

Two seemingly-unrelated anniversaries for November 23:
1937: John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" premiered in New York City.
1945: Birth of Jim Doyle, governor of Wisconsin, home of much cheese.
Beth thought I should wear this tie.

22 January 09

On this date in 1984, during Super Bowl XVIII, Apple announced the arrival of its Macintosh® personal computer. You can watch the famous "1984" commercial through Youtube. This is the only tie I own that features Macintosh-style mice.














(These photos accurately represent my attire today, but they are from my October 2008 "archive.")

09 October 08

Today was the first of two days of the "IDEA Users Group Meeting," which is a conference about the use of student surveys of instruction (like class evaluations). I had been invited by the organizers to describe the process for managing these surveys online, rather than on paper forms, which we've promoted at EKU for five years. The conference was in Cleveland, Ohio. I wore my "Mice-A-Roni and Cheese" tie. The pictures are repeated from August but the tie-wearing was authentic.

10 August 08

Today our network engineers are upgrading the Blackboard system to version 8. So I'm wearing a computer tie to improve the karma. The design is called Mice-a-roni-and-cheese.