Wanderers Equinox

We're definitely in full Fall season, coming up on Halloween, is how we thought of it back then (2015).  Wanderers / Pauling House ("Dr. Phil" joining) held its customary celebration however I arrived very late.  My day had already been quite busy in many dimensions, including a follow-up visit with Dr. Bolton, this time with Deke the Geek (as I call him, also Derek).

We wound up at Humdinger which was maybe a mistake on a potluck night.  I ate next to nothing at Pauling House, not arriving until almost 8 PM.  Gus was there, from Silverton.  We joked about the parking meters and talked about what "Liberal" meant, at one time.

Dick Pugh delivered an amazing lecture about the migration west of "religious crazies" (we may afford to be affectionate, a term of endearment lets say), along Erie, down through Ohio and out west to the fork, where it was either Venture Capital (California) or fertile valleys of farm life (predictable, one hopes) in Oregon.  The names of the towns are telling.  We're talking Klan-imposed definition of "white" combined with full blown Manifest Destiny Syndrome (MDS).

Dick tells it better than I do though.  I was entertained.

The Russians did come through but mostly didn't land here:  They headed for Sebastopol, CA and the Russian River area.

Mary especially had extensive knowledge of the giant Chinese ships, that had "farms" in their holds and could trade with one another (the flotilla was a floating city).  More to learn.

We enjoyed other oral recitations I won't go into, including a battle royale twixt me and X, over some matter of logic (or illogic as the case may be).  I'd done the lentil dish.

My top story was about Micheal Sunanda (not a typo), who was on his way from Eugene.  I'd brought some copies of his most recently published issue.  Dick was prepared to argue that Azomite was not the chemical name of anything.  Micheal agreed though.  It's more a brand name, for a mixture of chemicals some have used in permaculture.

He's here now (Blue House), this being the after party at my place.  I'm downstairs for a bit, keeping a lonely dog company.  She no longer climbs stairs.

My innate "misanthropic" (?) tendencies was another topic at the meetup, somewhat customary for me at Wanderers, where I've wanted to be open to non-humans.

I said I'd had a realization that if I were super rich, I'd be donating to all these non-human causes, knowing well that humans were being taking care of by their more loyal donors.

Some need to take care outside that horizon.

Actually my viewpoint was not that controversial.  Mary seemed on my side in that way.

Her rant about the kid who couldn't work or be useful gave me food for thought for days to come I'm sure.  I pretended to be his lawyer at the meetup, but only to uphold my end of an ongoing investigation.  X said she'd dig the holes (Mary needs to plant some roses but her apartment complex can't muster the help, even given a likely candidate).

I should rejoin my party upstairs.  Thanks for listening.

The Nissan needed a new starter and has one.  That's mostly in my Photostream, along with the parking ticket.

Car Karma

When I dropped Carol downtown at Pioneer Courthouse Square the other day, the Nissan acted quite reluctant to start, but finally did.  I'm glad I didn't need roadside assistance in busy downtown, right next to the Max tracks.

Were the problem a low battery, the process of driving home should have charged it up some --that's what the alternator is for -- meaning today the start process should have been smoother.  It wasn't.  No dice.

I had a physical therapy appointment so took off at a good fast walk for the bus 14, getting to my appointment in the nick of time.  Coming home, my smartphone battery had just enough charge to show my still ticking ticket to the driver.  All good.

Fortunately, I'm all paid up with AAA.  If you flip back through my blogs you'll find my AAA stories.  A battery specialist came by and checked the car in my driveway.  The battery is almost fully charged.  The starter itself is now the chief suspect.

Will I need to rent a car next Wednesday, when Carol wants to go to Corvallis, or might it be fixed by then already?  Stay tuned.

Citizen Diplomacy

The Eliot Center is well-known to those of us working alongside Unitarian Universalists, an active and populous church in Portland's downtown.

The Unitarians' Mark Slegers is a strong choral director who gets a lot of eager participation from the congregation, as Curt confirmed this evening.  He married my supervisor at CUE (Carol Slaughter, coincidentally with same last name in a different language) way back in the 1980s when I was still fairly new in Portland.

Anyway, tonight we attended (my mom and I) a celebration of the Jewish New Year (it's 5776), with citizen diplomats from Portland's Jewish and Iranian communities, with a smattering of Unitarians present.  This was not an evening for speeches, just people sitting around big tables and yakking.

Two floors down from here, Carol (mom) received a Congressional lifetime achievement award from Congressman Earl Blumenaur in recognition for her work on disarmament.

The Pacific Northwest Social Form, Econovergence... plus some Barcamps, all staged in this building.  Lots of memories...  Johnny Stallings...

All this talk of peoples needing homelands got me thinking that Quakers should talk about wanting Pennsylvania to really be a Quaker State.  What would that even mean? Quakers have a history of continuing to move west, or to Costa Rica, to escape the slave-owning militaristic yahoos that have dogged the Americas since its inception.  The Quaker utopia envisioned for Pennsylvania never materialized.

I think "demanding" a Quaker homeland is more a jokey way of saying we have a sense of independence and sovereignty too, as a Quaker Nation, and don't plan to always run or move away just because newcomer neighbors plan on being thoughtless blockheads in some way.

We look on the legacy left by the perpetrators of the Indian Wars (Andrew Jackson et al) with some skepticism.  Louisiana Purchase?  Yeah right.  From Napoleon?  Uh huh, sure.

Lets just say the United States is not entirely believable as an entity, despite all the theater, the role playing, given all the contradictions and how much we're asked to take on faith.  As science fiction, however, it has ongoing potential as a plot driver.  I've introduced USA OS (operating system) as a meme in my writings.

Mom and I were yakking about the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) in the car on the way over, having picked up olives on the way.  There's a lot of anti-colonialist sentiment in Scotland as well.

It's just uncool to be tainted by the WMD brush and most nations would rather not sully their image by hosting such retro barbarisms.   The nuke nations form the Nuke Nation Ghetto of less morally developed, more delinquent nations.  Scottish have national pride and want out of the ghetto.  Who can blame them?

Scots provide safe harbor to WMDs (Trident submarines) because the UK / WDC / NATO forces them to do so, not because they think it's smart or the right thing to do.

Hearts and minds have been lost, leaving hollow institutions to strut and puff on the world stage, looking foolish, clown-like, but in an ugly, not-so-funny way.  A farce in other words, neither persuasive nor convincing.

The people in the room tonight are all eager for humans to get to a next level in their evolution wherein their suicidal tendencies are less salient.  Why tempt fate with such hubris?  We've seen so many accidents already.  Why is our drive for self preservation so disengaged?

Curt, a retired neurosurgeon who worked with fish in a hospital setting, didn't have time to tell me if fish get as suicidal as humans do.  I doubt it.  The latter seem to specialize in taking stupid risks with the ecosystem and then paying for it later.  Fish seem less maladapted no?

Speaking of maladapted, I came back to a $39 ticket on my windshield, because I simply forgot the City of Portland changed its policies awhile back and now runs parking meters on Sundays.  It didn't used to be that way.

I don't know why I slipped back in time like that.  I need to get back to the future.  I'll consider it a payment to city coffers earmarked for more refugee resettlement programs (CUE used to help manage those contracts).

The Jewish story of evolution gives humanity a direction towards what's better:  the Promised Land.  The past, in contrast to the future, is a relative nightmare, a state of enslavement (metaphorically Pharaoh's Egypt, no disrespect to the Misr of today).

In heading towards the Light, towards Freedom (Liberty and Justice for all), towards a Peaceable Kingdom -- and away from the darkness of the 1900s -- Judaism and Quakerism steer together in positive synergy.

Echoes

This is my wedding anniversary.  Yes, 9-11.  I'm remembering being in this very room when the planes hit, our living room in Portland, Oregon.

What else I remember was on that very day in 2001, TriMet was unveiling its new Max line, the Red line, to the airport.  Max is our light rail system.

Now, on 9-11 in 2015, Tillikum Crossing and the opening of the Orange line, is a top story.  They lit it up last night.  The actual opening is this weekend.

So far I've noticed no uptick in attention to the concerns of those unhappy with the official explanation of how those WTC buildings were destroyed.

Certainly the airplanes contributed but many architects and engineers see WTC7 at least (emptied at the time) as otherwise demolished, perhaps because although not hit directly by a plane, it had been totaled nonetheless, in an economic sense?  If not a white elephant before, it was now?

Having a system already in place to self-destruct is more than a lot of buildings can advertise.  Better to add to the rubble now by self destructing, than later when the rubble is cleared -- is that what WTC7 was thinking?

NPR takes us into an exhibit (some 911 museum), and discusses how people are reluctant to talk about those events, but without talking about what people are most reluctant to talk about.

CBS likewise:  the word "thermite" is not welcome anywhere near the Twin Towers story, not this year.

Those new to my blogs will see I'm echoing previous postings.

From the Far East

Far east of the Portland downtown (CBD) that is.

We talked about how "official London" is pretty small, compared to Greater London all around it. Steve Holden, whom Trisha asked about, is now working in "official London" on Christopher Street.

Trisha teaches the kind of maths needed by pharmacists, lots of measure conversions, getting amounts exactly correct, lots of stuff I don't know about.

Trisha was blown away by the poetry grand slammer below.  I'm glad she clued me in.  She introduced me to Logan and more of her extended household at a favorite neighborhood public house.

This was free pool night (as in striking a small white ball with the end of a long stick, on a green table, not swimming).

Recap

Flipped Classroom

The "flipped classroom" is not a new idea, nor need "either / or" be the logic, i.e. a school using flipped classrooms need not use them always, not even per a given subject.

Take mathematics in the context of STEM.  Some shared equipment is spendy, such as lab equipment, and team building exercises are critical anyway.  Coding, on the other hand, may require some times alone, ideal for homework, though with on-line collaboration exercises also key (coding is a highly social activity).

Learn your coding skills asynchronously through hands-on practice and give talks about your projects, recorded to the school server in some cases.  Adjourn to the lab for team work.

Does this sound like college?  The personal workspace (PWS) is not necessarily a single location, but access to undisturbed safe study spaces, privacy, time alone, is an integral part of many learning patterns.  A typical campus takes the PWS concept very seriously, from dorm to study carrel.

Lower grades, twelve and below, have historically assumed the classroom as the core learning space, but this is changing.  Depending on the region and school system, learning may look more like scouting and homeschooling, and working in a TV production studio, in addition to sitting in classrooms.

Food prep and cooking may be rescued from Home Economics and placed under STEM.  Both health and chemistry get the focus in serious food oriented courses.  Question dogmas.  The food and beverage industry comes with agendas, sometimes hidden.  Critical thinking means bringing these to the surface for analysis and open discussion.

Critical eating (studying ingredients, nutritional value, production process, environmental costs and benefits) is as important as critical consuming of any kind, including of media.  We're fighting the "mindless consumer" stereotype less so "the consumer" as we all must consume, but lets do so mindfully.

Sharing kitchen equipment, like lab equipment, and learning to cook and clean up for larger numbers, is another benefit of sharing a school.  Larger scale kitchens have equipment not needed in the home.  Food Not Bombs took me into many a church kitchen (OK, a few).  The Quaker Gathering of Western Young Friends was likewise about moving into a large camp-style kitchen and making food for each other.  2 Dickinson Street:  same deal.

Caltrops

Manga on __mul__

For Further Reading:
Bridging XYZ and IVM Volumetric Accounting Systems with the Square Root of 9/8 by Kirby Urner

For Further Eating:
Cubo de Cuba, Asylum District, Portland, Oregon (restaurant review in WW)