I was glad to have some time away from projects for Tara's birthday dinner tonight, sorry Carol wasn't able to join, though in spirit she might have, from Pendle Hill (a Quaker HQS). Dawn's ring turned out big time for Tara's coming of age two years ago, me just returned from Lithuania. This year, just me and the two sisters, with Laurie & Terri.
We ate out in the rain, the apple tree doing plenty to keep the drops to a minimum, excellent vegan and carnivore options, with me supplying the garlic and olive oil bread dip (bread included). We chatted pleasantly, me lapsing into geek sometimes, yakking up world domination, with or without our XOs.
I also mentioned my Princeton thesis quoting Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, one of Terri's favorites as well (she's a geek too). Some Thoughts on the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein (mine) should be at the Mudd Library in Princeton.
I was glad FixMyDeadPC could turn it around quickly, brought them a fresh terabyte drive yesterday (a Seagate Barracuda from Office Depot, greetings Clint). Tara will have her Sims 3 running soon, my thanks to the Lott family for treating her so kindly. Best wishes to Elise and Ruth at the horse contest (I know it's not called that). We are blessed with dear friends.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
Favela Rising (movie review)
You could screen this as a double feature with Burma VJ and get a lot out of it, expect activists in both camps will compare notes by this means, as oppression has a similar face, as does fear, across human cultures.
I'm guessing Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs (Woody Woo we call it) has this DVD in the docket, required viewing in some courses. This isn't Marxism or Christianity so much as a clear eyed indigenous movement borne of pain and suffering, and therefore brilliant, perfect for its time and place. The film makers do a magnificent job with this, another political film that's likewise an art film.
A chief characteristic of the AfroRegge political analysis is not waiting for external authorities to solve the problem, although international investment certainly helps big time. The biggest temptation, leading to the longest detour, is to give in to revenge as a primary motive. You'll find people on all sides ready to stop and reconsider, and that's what's most hopeful.
People living in dire poverty can't be blamed for needing and wanting to self medicate, just like Iraqi troops and civilians alike are heavy into Prozac, plus those Rio police obviously get stoked (the guns themselves are an addictive drug, a symbol of power where people feel powerless -- druglords and cops form a seamless business, is one of the ecological facts on the ground).
Poetically, the medical profession steps in at a very high level to apply a fix, pulls a miracle out of the hat, great when that happens. The DVD itself is destined to fuel our Music Millennium going forward, which is something to celebrate. AfroRegge is highly reputable and professional, another group to win games for when our Coffee Shops Network hits the ground running.
Shortly after viewing this film, I found myself with Carol (my mom) interviewing Keiko regarding her personal experiences with favelas in Brazil. That fear of getting lost between the airport and downtown Rio was palpable through her story, even though she's fluent and a veteran of São Paolo and LA. Many USA zip codes inspire similar feelings of dread, confront pretty much the same issues.
I'm guessing Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs (Woody Woo we call it) has this DVD in the docket, required viewing in some courses. This isn't Marxism or Christianity so much as a clear eyed indigenous movement borne of pain and suffering, and therefore brilliant, perfect for its time and place. The film makers do a magnificent job with this, another political film that's likewise an art film.
A chief characteristic of the AfroRegge political analysis is not waiting for external authorities to solve the problem, although international investment certainly helps big time. The biggest temptation, leading to the longest detour, is to give in to revenge as a primary motive. You'll find people on all sides ready to stop and reconsider, and that's what's most hopeful.
People living in dire poverty can't be blamed for needing and wanting to self medicate, just like Iraqi troops and civilians alike are heavy into Prozac, plus those Rio police obviously get stoked (the guns themselves are an addictive drug, a symbol of power where people feel powerless -- druglords and cops form a seamless business, is one of the ecological facts on the ground).
Poetically, the medical profession steps in at a very high level to apply a fix, pulls a miracle out of the hat, great when that happens. The DVD itself is destined to fuel our Music Millennium going forward, which is something to celebrate. AfroRegge is highly reputable and professional, another group to win games for when our Coffee Shops Network hits the ground running.
Shortly after viewing this film, I found myself with Carol (my mom) interviewing Keiko regarding her personal experiences with favelas in Brazil. That fear of getting lost between the airport and downtown Rio was palpable through her story, even though she's fluent and a veteran of São Paolo and LA. Many USA zip codes inspire similar feelings of dread, confront pretty much the same issues.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Saving Trees
Forest-loving Portlanders have a problem with wasting trees, even if we recognize legitimate uses for lumber. We have more intra-urban forest park than any other Lower48 city I'm pretty sure.
Take those big dummy textbooks for example (BDTs), the ones that make little kids fall over backwards, cause back injuries.
How much worthy geometry or geography will you find in one of those? Was it worth a whole forest?
We call these "gutless wonders" (a synonym) and know to look in the index for "what's missing" from their dogmas.
We feel superior in knowing some of the "math heresies" -- called "being literate" in my neck of the woods, same as in New York I'd suppose.
Take those big dummy textbooks for example (BDTs), the ones that make little kids fall over backwards, cause back injuries.
How much worthy geometry or geography will you find in one of those? Was it worth a whole forest?
We call these "gutless wonders" (a synonym) and know to look in the index for "what's missing" from their dogmas.
We feel superior in knowing some of the "math heresies" -- called "being literate" in my neck of the woods, same as in New York I'd suppose.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Out Riding
Had you been availing of the perfect cycling weather today, not too hot, nor yet these wind gusts of later afternoon, you might have spotted me along Spring Water Corridor, hobnobbing with Darl, our cycles at a temporary stand still.
Yesterday, you'd have seen me in Movie Madness with a gnu math teacher from West Virginia, running on parallel tracks. Sometimes these are Wanderers, other times, who knows.
Hyzy and I walked down to that coffee shop and back in Ladd's, without Josie this time. That'd be typical, with no Mr. Spocks going "fascinating captain" (OK, maybe sotto voce they do that i.e. in a voice imagined "in the head" (the approved metaphoric location for "hearing voices" in western civ -- as long is it's your own, plus you're supposed to have just the one, by convention (plus an "indoor voice" for speaking quietly))).
What many Portlanders take for granted, not having lived in other cities, is that adults are free to go about their business without almost every movement considered potentially scandalous and incendiary.
You're not answerable to busybodies, whose business is to know your business. We don't employ those types of people. We're each seen in the company of others, in all kinds of social and business situations, ethnically diverse, monoculture, whatever.
But then, this is just "life in the big city" to some, i.e. we get more privacy, not less, and like it that way. Dawn and I took this mostly for granted as well. I never had to worry about reports she'd been "seen with strange men" (like duh, what other kind is there?).
This doesn't mean there's no gossip, but that the various "scenes" stay somewhat isolated, as no one outside the circle really knows "what to make of it". This cuts down on "mob psychology", the kind you get in batman's Gotham, where everyone goes crazy in the same way at the same time. Here, we spread it out a lot more, plus pace ourselves seasonally (this is Rose Festival and graduation season, looking forward to some festivities).
All that being said, celebrities still make a business out being seen together or apart, estranged and/or with someone else i.e. it's not like we don't have our entertainment pages. I'm just happy there's no criminalization of consenting adult relationships, despite remaining conventions against public nudity except in appropriately labeled venues (we share Hollywood's rating system, even though we have our own Hollywood and might invent our own rating system someday, if bored or needing a new growth industry).
Yesterday, you'd have seen me in Movie Madness with a gnu math teacher from West Virginia, running on parallel tracks. Sometimes these are Wanderers, other times, who knows.
Hyzy and I walked down to that coffee shop and back in Ladd's, without Josie this time. That'd be typical, with no Mr. Spocks going "fascinating captain" (OK, maybe sotto voce they do that i.e. in a voice imagined "in the head" (the approved metaphoric location for "hearing voices" in western civ -- as long is it's your own, plus you're supposed to have just the one, by convention (plus an "indoor voice" for speaking quietly))).
What many Portlanders take for granted, not having lived in other cities, is that adults are free to go about their business without almost every movement considered potentially scandalous and incendiary.
You're not answerable to busybodies, whose business is to know your business. We don't employ those types of people. We're each seen in the company of others, in all kinds of social and business situations, ethnically diverse, monoculture, whatever.
But then, this is just "life in the big city" to some, i.e. we get more privacy, not less, and like it that way. Dawn and I took this mostly for granted as well. I never had to worry about reports she'd been "seen with strange men" (like duh, what other kind is there?).
This doesn't mean there's no gossip, but that the various "scenes" stay somewhat isolated, as no one outside the circle really knows "what to make of it". This cuts down on "mob psychology", the kind you get in batman's Gotham, where everyone goes crazy in the same way at the same time. Here, we spread it out a lot more, plus pace ourselves seasonally (this is Rose Festival and graduation season, looking forward to some festivities).
All that being said, celebrities still make a business out being seen together or apart, estranged and/or with someone else i.e. it's not like we don't have our entertainment pages. I'm just happy there's no criminalization of consenting adult relationships, despite remaining conventions against public nudity except in appropriately labeled venues (we share Hollywood's rating system, even though we have our own Hollywood and might invent our own rating system someday, if bored or needing a new growth industry).
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
ISEPP Thread...
This refers to the fragment below (previous post), snipped from a longer set of conversations, including with Allen Taylor of SQL for Dummies fame. This first appeared at the Math Forum, immediately following a post against centralizing math standards to protect lazy publishers from biodiversity.
The threads I'm pursuing with the ISEPP list, a private archive, involve unfolding this map I was explaining to Richard, about some states wanting to try a "digital math track" in parallel to the standard one. You don't want to switch everyone all at once, may want to achieve a hybrid down the road, but for PowerPoint purposes, making sense to the state lobbyists, we just have to keep it simple and talk about two tracks.
Once you have two tracks side by side, there's the question of how to jump across, like if you're teaching "analog math" (featuring real numbers, perfect continuity, all that ghostly greek metaphysics about infinite planes, infinitesimal points) and want to test the waters on our side for a change, how would you do it? You could read Karl Menger on his "geometry of lumps" as prep for class, but the hands on would be more about ray tracing than clay, as we sculpt with light and pure geometry (not forgetting about textures).
We talk a lot about "the observer" in digital math, more like artists than traditional scientists, who think (0,0,0) is the only important position, i.e. one's "point of view" is less often discussed (called "objective", otherwise known as "pretend there's no subject"). We advertise this approach as both more engineer and female friendly, bleeping over how that works for right now (trying to stay on topic: recruiting from the rank and file). We have a (0,0,0,0) to tell some stories about as well, with links to some of the Lakota lore (again, I wander off topic).
This is where the practice of pair teaching comes in. We'll pair you up with a geek, maybe an engineer from one of our companies (Silicon Forest, formed in my very neighborhood), and you'll co-teach a few segments. That'll get you entre into one of our math labs. You might have different students. But you won't be alone. Training will happen, and you'll be one step closer to maybe getting a merit pay position in the math teaching vanguard.
Those digging through my detailed posts find out there's an international component, which I could explain if someone cares to know. Contrary to this hypothesis of 46 states agreeing to standardize on some non-existent "global standard", I would suggest that other countries will be implementing a digital math track, even if we don't, so think about that, next time you want to speak with authority about Singapore or the Philippines.
The threads I'm pursuing with the ISEPP list, a private archive, involve unfolding this map I was explaining to Richard, about some states wanting to try a "digital math track" in parallel to the standard one. You don't want to switch everyone all at once, may want to achieve a hybrid down the road, but for PowerPoint purposes, making sense to the state lobbyists, we just have to keep it simple and talk about two tracks.
Once you have two tracks side by side, there's the question of how to jump across, like if you're teaching "analog math" (featuring real numbers, perfect continuity, all that ghostly greek metaphysics about infinite planes, infinitesimal points) and want to test the waters on our side for a change, how would you do it? You could read Karl Menger on his "geometry of lumps" as prep for class, but the hands on would be more about ray tracing than clay, as we sculpt with light and pure geometry (not forgetting about textures).
We talk a lot about "the observer" in digital math, more like artists than traditional scientists, who think (0,0,0) is the only important position, i.e. one's "point of view" is less often discussed (called "objective", otherwise known as "pretend there's no subject"). We advertise this approach as both more engineer and female friendly, bleeping over how that works for right now (trying to stay on topic: recruiting from the rank and file). We have a (0,0,0,0) to tell some stories about as well, with links to some of the Lakota lore (again, I wander off topic).
This is where the practice of pair teaching comes in. We'll pair you up with a geek, maybe an engineer from one of our companies (Silicon Forest, formed in my very neighborhood), and you'll co-teach a few segments. That'll get you entre into one of our math labs. You might have different students. But you won't be alone. Training will happen, and you'll be one step closer to maybe getting a merit pay position in the math teaching vanguard.Those digging through my detailed posts find out there's an international component, which I could explain if someone cares to know. Contrary to this hypothesis of 46 states agreeing to standardize on some non-existent "global standard", I would suggest that other countries will be implementing a digital math track, even if we don't, so think about that, next time you want to speak with authority about Singapore or the Philippines.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Jackalope Down
The workhorse laptop wouldn't boot this morning, I have a number of theories, mostly revolving around hardware.
This is a blow, a set back, and partly accounts for my rant this morning, yakking with my friend Barbara, a Wanderer in California, looking after her mom. This is a slightly edited version, compared to the one that went out to subscribers. Sounds like I'm giving up, but more I'm just venting, cop to feeling demoralized after a lot of uphill. Daddy bear (see below) needs a walrus (not!).
I haven't tried booting off the CD yet, other tricks I should try. Right now, I'm supposed to be driving people around though, don't have time to obsess.
Barbara:
I agree with all you said, totally. Not sure why desert is your choice of teaching environment, except that few distractions and great sense of space. Make it desert in winter, not high summer, though. I assume you mean high Oregon desert, but it still gets scorching there.
And, of course, solids, shapes, graphic, geometric play. And always look to nature for elegant solutions to questions of form and function.
Me:
Yeah the desert part is maybe not required, just thinking about the XRL (extreme remote livingry) I want to see developed, lots in my blogs, with a focus on the Crooked River (dramatic site).
Probably the storyboard should be some private sector contractors collaborating with the feds on building something futuristic, the idea being that the feds still do futuristic stuff that's civilian i.e. this isn't a pork barrel project for Blackwater or other mindless thugs who just want to run the USA into the ground as a mercenary state, which is close to all its become of late, nothing admirable, can't even think about torture coherently (embarrassing to watch pundits, hard to stomach any TV with Washington DC thinking behind it, so pukey and awful).
The goal is to get some freedom to develop a different way of educating our young that's more generous with technology, explaining how things work, and more positive about where we might be going, i.e. isn't just global warming or war on terror 24/7, i.e. isn't so devoutly fear-based or pessimism-driven.
That's partly my motivation for having a large international component, sharing the desert facilities, other places, with overseas students. It'd be good PR for the USA, show we still have a brain of some kind.
Of course the fact that it's all in storyboard and I'm this single dad in Portland trying to lobby a new education system that pays at least some attention to my Medal of Freedom winning hero's approach to spatial geometry is more what's true on the ground, i.e. it's more last ditch and hopeless-seeming at the moment, given Washington DC still monopolizes TV with its drivel, making Americans look foolish and stupid for all the world to see (not talking about Obama, just about all the pundits who use that characteristic "know it all" authoritative TV voice but actually don't even know what A&B modules are, ergo don't know shit from my perspective, so shouldn't be speaking for anyone but themselves -- but of course that's just my bias against other think tanks that suck, dime a dozen, spoiled brats from hell etc.).
Mostly who gets the cool retreat centers in exotic remote locations are these fanatical religious groups, who collect private donations and then have a place to send their kids for higher level brainwashing. Then they go out and proselytize overseas. Or they go to mercenary camp and learn how to defend and offend against heathen who probably won't convert -- so OK to kill 'em then, the American way.
It's an ugly civilization and probably too late to turn it around, but I thought Oregon might make a last stand of some kind, before we sink into the slime of this dark ages forever. We had a fighting chance. I just want to leave that on the record, in case anyone thinks our fate was inevitable. We chose it, whatever it was. Looking back, we'll see what we chose. Unlike Brian, I don't think failure is foredoomed, just somewhat likely, given no 9th grader in Portland is learning anything about the geometry I care about (and a lot of other people too).
This is a blow, a set back, and partly accounts for my rant this morning, yakking with my friend Barbara, a Wanderer in California, looking after her mom. This is a slightly edited version, compared to the one that went out to subscribers. Sounds like I'm giving up, but more I'm just venting, cop to feeling demoralized after a lot of uphill. Daddy bear (see below) needs a walrus (not!).
I haven't tried booting off the CD yet, other tricks I should try. Right now, I'm supposed to be driving people around though, don't have time to obsess.
Barbara:
I agree with all you said, totally. Not sure why desert is your choice of teaching environment, except that few distractions and great sense of space. Make it desert in winter, not high summer, though. I assume you mean high Oregon desert, but it still gets scorching there.
And, of course, solids, shapes, graphic, geometric play. And always look to nature for elegant solutions to questions of form and function.
Me:
Yeah the desert part is maybe not required, just thinking about the XRL (extreme remote livingry) I want to see developed, lots in my blogs, with a focus on the Crooked River (dramatic site).
Probably the storyboard should be some private sector contractors collaborating with the feds on building something futuristic, the idea being that the feds still do futuristic stuff that's civilian i.e. this isn't a pork barrel project for Blackwater or other mindless thugs who just want to run the USA into the ground as a mercenary state, which is close to all its become of late, nothing admirable, can't even think about torture coherently (embarrassing to watch pundits, hard to stomach any TV with Washington DC thinking behind it, so pukey and awful).
The goal is to get some freedom to develop a different way of educating our young that's more generous with technology, explaining how things work, and more positive about where we might be going, i.e. isn't just global warming or war on terror 24/7, i.e. isn't so devoutly fear-based or pessimism-driven.
That's partly my motivation for having a large international component, sharing the desert facilities, other places, with overseas students. It'd be good PR for the USA, show we still have a brain of some kind.
Of course the fact that it's all in storyboard and I'm this single dad in Portland trying to lobby a new education system that pays at least some attention to my Medal of Freedom winning hero's approach to spatial geometry is more what's true on the ground, i.e. it's more last ditch and hopeless-seeming at the moment, given Washington DC still monopolizes TV with its drivel, making Americans look foolish and stupid for all the world to see (not talking about Obama, just about all the pundits who use that characteristic "know it all" authoritative TV voice but actually don't even know what A&B modules are, ergo don't know shit from my perspective, so shouldn't be speaking for anyone but themselves -- but of course that's just my bias against other think tanks that suck, dime a dozen, spoiled brats from hell etc.).
Mostly who gets the cool retreat centers in exotic remote locations are these fanatical religious groups, who collect private donations and then have a place to send their kids for higher level brainwashing. Then they go out and proselytize overseas. Or they go to mercenary camp and learn how to defend and offend against heathen who probably won't convert -- so OK to kill 'em then, the American way.
It's an ugly civilization and probably too late to turn it around, but I thought Oregon might make a last stand of some kind, before we sink into the slime of this dark ages forever. We had a fighting chance. I just want to leave that on the record, in case anyone thinks our fate was inevitable. We chose it, whatever it was. Looking back, we'll see what we chose. Unlike Brian, I don't think failure is foredoomed, just somewhat likely, given no 9th grader in Portland is learning anything about the geometry I care about (and a lot of other people too).
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Earth (movie review)
The theme is family teams aboard a swiftly tilting planet, lots of single moms especially, struggling to make ends meet, dad off taking stupid risks somewhere, ends up in walrus hell (in the one case).
Sometimes I chose to disbelieve the narrator, James Earl Jones, who really sounds like he knows what he's talking about, has the music on his side.
Most of the funny parts I agreed with, but when he made it seem this huge ordeal, to trek thousands of miles or whatever, I'm thinking what else would one do with a gorgeous bod like that, if not take it for a spin, a real workout.
Nature doesn't hatch these gorgeous specimens just to have them sit idle. She really goes for the gusto, tests herself mightily.
Mom and baby whale seem to have the best life. It's a long way (well duh) and mom is "ravenous" but when they flap their arms in the storm like that, I don't think it's that scary, not an economic crisis. They're just goofing off, enjoying the stormy weather. Maybe they're just waving at the silly helicopter.
And if you're really equipped to fly right over the Himalayas like that, then hey, why the hell not? It's a privilege, an adventure. Your instinct is to school with a huge peer group and take on the world, follow the good weather to greener pastures. So listen to that urge, use the force. It's what geeks do too, using engineering.
Nature films always make it sound like the animals hate their day jobs, get dragged through life kicking and screaming the whole way instead of just towards the end (and even then, some go peacefully). Left to their own devices in the wild, most animals are actually quite professional, know what they're doing, although those birds of paradise looked pretty crazy doing it and the lynx just seemed lonely (and beautiful).
Given I'm always thinking about the peekaboo invisible camera, the faux "3rd person" of novelesque origins (knows what everyone's thinking, some spy on steroids, every gossip's dream vantage point), I was gratified to see some of those "dork outtakes" at the end, reminding us that humans are making this show, and we push to extremes as well, just to get this film in the can.
But pushing the envelope in the human sphere is not like what that cheetah does, so slender and graceful. When it comes to outward athletics, we're more like that gazelle, one long slow fumble, very NFL -- and so then onward to something new? (or repeat the same level? -- no I'm not an authority here, go ask someone with a badge maybe)).
Back to mom and calf whale (not sure "calf" was a good name for those), we've generally moved from semi-happy camper family to possible predator in the wings, so when the water starts boiling and our storyteller turns ominous, I'm thinking "oh no, what now? -- whalers in submarines?" (only half joking).
Actually, humans don't star as vicious predators in this movie (not Fast Food Nation), more just as uber-voyeurs (what they're best at -- spectating), watching papa bear die without any friends, instead of throwing him a TV dinner or something, some government program...
No, not whalers, and actually it's bait and switch, because what gets eaten in the end is an innocent seal, just swimming along minding his own business. Maybe watch the Youtube trailer (46th second), or don't let me spoil it for ya and see the whole movie, on a big screen with children.
Any little ones, their first time to a nature film, and who thought Planet Earth was an entirely safe ship, won't think that upon leaving (or so we hope). The world is a dangerous place. That's what Disney always does so well: professionally scares children -- including those inner ones adults cling to -- all while keeping that golden G rating.
Mother Nature: having some no kidding fun in the sun.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
A Summer Marketing Campaign
[first posted to Synergeo, enhanced blogged edition]
I think we'll try marketing XYZ as "old fart math" and the hypercross version as "XYZ on steroids" ergo by the transitive property "old fart math on steroids". Of course this is somewhat juvenile, but we go with the army we've got in the summer (not the most serious krew).
What we need for Synergetics is: (a) trig (b) GIS/GPS (c) stats (d) some topology (e) some chemistry and (f) some physics. We're free to mix physics and chemistry as a higher level brew called biology, use "biomass" as an entry point to the general systems theory basis for Home Economics (high school subject in Pleasantville USA, home of the Square and Qyoobist Authoritarians aka "old farts").
These manga ideas go with some of the others I've been storyboarding, blogging about, including a certain castle with a moat and everything, httpRequest and httpResponse suitcases traveling too and from (a kind of Spirited Away scene, like where they come on the boat).
At the core of the castle is our SQL "keep", or maybe it's a CouchDB thing for a throne, but either way, the client wants to visualize, which is where the guilds come in, the templaters and boilerplaters (hammer men).
In Django we talk about MVT, which is really just MVC but toning down on "controller" (more just passive switchboarding).
These castles appear in my posts about Boosting Bandwidth e.g. giving students more continuity in terms of a place based education, mixing fantasy worlds with their more immediate environment (not willy nilly, but in a constructive way i.e. simulations impart real skills). Supermarket Math has to do with that biomass, sun-powered and dirt fed, water cooled, ending up as food groups with lots of vital stats on the label. Kids learn their arithmetic less in terms of dollars and cents and more in terms of calories and amino acids.
Focusing on food without feeding them would be cruel of course, so that's considered criminal, out of bounds (not a real school, more a prison or torture chamber in design -- or an under-served hospital).
Where the Synergetics comes in is where you'd expect in many cases, and we have ways of attributing to Conway and Guy where they think Synergetics is too subversive, certain zip codes in Massachusetts maybe? The uphill battle in Lower48 is around NCLB, as teachers don't want to do much around Phi or "golden cuboid" and yet this is critical to higher order thinking, not to mention reading Da Vinci Code (or see da movie with Tom Hanks).
The "NCLB Polynomial" and "NCLB Polyhedron" were brushed aside as so much silliness, as those crazy teachers went on and on with their droning, teaching their Old Fart Math (OFM) and, in college, OFM on Steroids. Really stinks, to be so bigoted and non-inclusive of others all the time (but then hobbits are like that, both parochial and proud, Rivendale coulda told ya that).
So the solution was to say "fuck Loser48" and go with the Anglophone Philippines, other places, and this is really paying off. What fun to work with people with some IQ for a change, plus it overlaps with the OLPC and AFSC work we're doing. I feel like one of those cypherpunks back when public key was verboten, pumping out PGP from New Zealand. Very hip hop, very gangsta rap, very "talk like a pirate".
Synergetics fits in other places too, but I'm mostly just using it as a vehicle for Pythonic Math, helping to jump start interest in blander topics (e.g. "casino math" aka "probability" (= stats)) with the coolest eye candy on the block, bar none ("we've got the bling!").
Teachers in other schools don't do Watermans (really pretty), don't play with free and open source software (FOSS), have never heard of the octet-truss (e.g. Tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, also Bell's stuff).
So our tech track feels faster, better, stronger, more packed with useful tips and tricks (e.g Django on SQL, Ruby on Rails... what ya need for that school intranet you're supposed to already have). We have better toyz, brighter vistas. Let them vote with their feet (where voting is permitted, not saying in your zip code, where you may be oppressed by know-nothings, the status quo in many a backward swamp -- maybe try to escape?).
I think we'll try marketing XYZ as "old fart math" and the hypercross version as "XYZ on steroids" ergo by the transitive property "old fart math on steroids". Of course this is somewhat juvenile, but we go with the army we've got in the summer (not the most serious krew).
What we need for Synergetics is: (a) trig (b) GIS/GPS (c) stats (d) some topology (e) some chemistry and (f) some physics. We're free to mix physics and chemistry as a higher level brew called biology, use "biomass" as an entry point to the general systems theory basis for Home Economics (high school subject in Pleasantville USA, home of the Square and Qyoobist Authoritarians aka "old farts").
These manga ideas go with some of the others I've been storyboarding, blogging about, including a certain castle with a moat and everything, httpRequest and httpResponse suitcases traveling too and from (a kind of Spirited Away scene, like where they come on the boat).
At the core of the castle is our SQL "keep", or maybe it's a CouchDB thing for a throne, but either way, the client wants to visualize, which is where the guilds come in, the templaters and boilerplaters (hammer men).
In Django we talk about MVT, which is really just MVC but toning down on "controller" (more just passive switchboarding).
These castles appear in my posts about Boosting Bandwidth e.g. giving students more continuity in terms of a place based education, mixing fantasy worlds with their more immediate environment (not willy nilly, but in a constructive way i.e. simulations impart real skills). Supermarket Math has to do with that biomass, sun-powered and dirt fed, water cooled, ending up as food groups with lots of vital stats on the label. Kids learn their arithmetic less in terms of dollars and cents and more in terms of calories and amino acids.
Focusing on food without feeding them would be cruel of course, so that's considered criminal, out of bounds (not a real school, more a prison or torture chamber in design -- or an under-served hospital).
Where the Synergetics comes in is where you'd expect in many cases, and we have ways of attributing to Conway and Guy where they think Synergetics is too subversive, certain zip codes in Massachusetts maybe? The uphill battle in Lower48 is around NCLB, as teachers don't want to do much around Phi or "golden cuboid" and yet this is critical to higher order thinking, not to mention reading Da Vinci Code (or see da movie with Tom Hanks).
The "NCLB Polynomial" and "NCLB Polyhedron" were brushed aside as so much silliness, as those crazy teachers went on and on with their droning, teaching their Old Fart Math (OFM) and, in college, OFM on Steroids. Really stinks, to be so bigoted and non-inclusive of others all the time (but then hobbits are like that, both parochial and proud, Rivendale coulda told ya that).
So the solution was to say "fuck Loser48" and go with the Anglophone Philippines, other places, and this is really paying off. What fun to work with people with some IQ for a change, plus it overlaps with the OLPC and AFSC work we're doing. I feel like one of those cypherpunks back when public key was verboten, pumping out PGP from New Zealand. Very hip hop, very gangsta rap, very "talk like a pirate".
Synergetics fits in other places too, but I'm mostly just using it as a vehicle for Pythonic Math, helping to jump start interest in blander topics (e.g. "casino math" aka "probability" (= stats)) with the coolest eye candy on the block, bar none ("we've got the bling!").
Teachers in other schools don't do Watermans (really pretty), don't play with free and open source software (FOSS), have never heard of the octet-truss (e.g. Tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, also Bell's stuff).
So our tech track feels faster, better, stronger, more packed with useful tips and tricks (e.g Django on SQL, Ruby on Rails... what ya need for that school intranet you're supposed to already have). We have better toyz, brighter vistas. Let them vote with their feet (where voting is permitted, not saying in your zip code, where you may be oppressed by know-nothings, the status quo in many a backward swamp -- maybe try to escape?).
Monday, May 25, 2009
After Life (movie review)
This exquisite film inherits from Spirited Away, Beetle Juice, Defending Your Life... Lost, or one could see it that way, though it's also plenty original and deftly executed, a highly competent work of art.
Every week a few more of the recently dead trickle through the facility, and the only goal for the staff is to assist these individuals in choosing that one memory to carry forward, with all else to be forgotten. That one memory is to be staged in a short film, to be shown to the staff and guests, and those completing the process move on at this point.
You might imagine a dryly bureaucratic process like this would have a somewhat dreary building and a skillful staff that nevertheless has its own interpersonal dynamics, just like in a real hospital or school.
You would be right in this case.
"Lots of mirrors" would be an easy review, lots to think about in any case. During the ensuing discussion, Nancy mentioned appreciating the gentleness of the process, whether successful or no. I had to agree with her there.
As a close viewer (like a close reader), I think I followed the director's eye in falling in love with Shiori, a shining gem in a "man's world" of yawners. What appears the great self-discovery of the guy she's tracking, proves somewhat a re-enactment of his earlier mistake I thought, so yeah, like Groundhog Day.
"Kiss the girl dammit" was all I could think of, from my death bed er chair.
The venue was fantastic. The final meetup after a seven year run, with some striking Jungian making this her own swan song, leading the discussion. We met in a branch public library, at no cost, on a Memorial Day weekend. Some of us had been to cemeteries recently.
Nancy and I repaired to the McMenamins on Xavier, to speak more of the living and the dead, enjoying a bright Portland spring, feeling lucky to be here. I wore my USPO Marvin the Martian tie, seeking to blend with my toontown context.
Every week a few more of the recently dead trickle through the facility, and the only goal for the staff is to assist these individuals in choosing that one memory to carry forward, with all else to be forgotten. That one memory is to be staged in a short film, to be shown to the staff and guests, and those completing the process move on at this point.
You might imagine a dryly bureaucratic process like this would have a somewhat dreary building and a skillful staff that nevertheless has its own interpersonal dynamics, just like in a real hospital or school.
You would be right in this case.
"Lots of mirrors" would be an easy review, lots to think about in any case. During the ensuing discussion, Nancy mentioned appreciating the gentleness of the process, whether successful or no. I had to agree with her there.
As a close viewer (like a close reader), I think I followed the director's eye in falling in love with Shiori, a shining gem in a "man's world" of yawners. What appears the great self-discovery of the guy she's tracking, proves somewhat a re-enactment of his earlier mistake I thought, so yeah, like Groundhog Day.
"Kiss the girl dammit" was all I could think of, from my death bed er chair.
The venue was fantastic. The final meetup after a seven year run, with some striking Jungian making this her own swan song, leading the discussion. We met in a branch public library, at no cost, on a Memorial Day weekend. Some of us had been to cemeteries recently.
Nancy and I repaired to the McMenamins on Xavier, to speak more of the living and the dead, enjoying a bright Portland spring, feeling lucky to be here. I wore my USPO Marvin the Martian tie, seeking to blend with my toontown context.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Show Me the Polyhedra!
24-trapezoidal comboof 7.5 RT & 6 RD, color coded
by David Koski
Sometimes the PR around the concentric hierarchy we like to jazz about runs into resistance from skeptics, who say polyhedra are not all that relevant and maybe lead to gayness to boot, so lets get back to algebra, easier on the eyes and our delicate constitutions.
However, polyhedra are merely the canonical stand-ins for a non-virtual world of dogs, dishwashers and racoons, all with moving parts, all modeled with polyhedra in the virtual analogs (like in Over the Hedge). They're everywhere in other words, very hard to get away from them. You're sitting in one, 24/7, if we might agree on that grammar.
Sometimes in my 2nd or 3rd grade classes (following along with my daughter), I would have us think about V, F and E as distinguishable topological features in any scene or painting, also with tactile aspects e.g. an F is a flat surface, possibly smooth. V + F = E + 2 makes more sense once you've imbued it with all this "surround sound" and taken it out in the jungle as it were (edges = vines, good for swinging if you have a Tarzan complex, possibly short-lived).
The pre-frequency versus frequency distinction we make in similar terms, of reality versus verisimilitude. On low budget special effects, you'll simply substitute a model boat for a real one and splash it around, simulating a perfect storm. Because of sliding scale powering rules, relating 1st, 2nd and 3rd powering according to topological aspects again (radials, areas, volumes), the physics changes as we range through the size spectrum.
Strategies that work for a real-sized praying mantis, wouldn't work at the Godzilla scale, but that doesn't keep the motion picture studios from messing with the physics. They do it in Star Trek all the time. People pay good money to see reality distorted (good therapy, good escapism -- take your pick).
So in pre-frequency, where we care only about shape (angle), we don't really have any physics to speak of, just pure geometry. We might do some literary allusions, talk about cyber stuff, in keeping with the ethereal nature of this so-called "Platonic realm" (some cultures wouldn't call it that though).
In frequency, we don our BS detectors and start smelling the fishy stuff. Science is a lot like police work in that folks will dream up all kinds of moneymaking schemes, and yet the science just isn't there to back them up. AI gets to be like this. OLPC makes a lot more sense.
In my own case, Isaac Asimov was an influence in that he harped on using credible science in his plot lines a lot, not just fantastic elements. This gave his science fiction a satisfyingly didactic flavor in that you knew some of his speculations might be transferable to a real world context someday, i.e. you might use what you'd learned, reading in the car, to pass a chemistry test down the road.
We're fortunate in the Fuller School in that our geometry works, checks out, and the literary stuff is of high quality, and furthermore the physical specimens, the domes and trusses, the house and the car, do a lot of credible load-bearing, i.e. there's nothing all that bogus on the M-side or the P-side in our U=MP.
That high level of metaphysical integrity means our curriculum is fairly easy to teach, compared to a lot of the competing material, which is far more obfuscatory and riddled with pitfalls.
Go ahead and poke around, see what you think after an hour or two. We know a lot of you come back for more, sometimes as paying customers.
We thank you for your business.
EuroPython 2009
28th June to 4th July 2009
Birmingham, UK
28th June to 4th July 2009
Birmingham, UK
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Lost in Oregon
This was a time for the Swedish side of my family to converge, to a church in Cornelius. Uncle Bill Lightfoot was there, and the Hancocks, Wilma and Howard, Bo, some of the July 4 circle, which overlaps the Thanksgiving circle. We were there in support of the Person family, in memory of Martha Jane Person (April 1, 1943 - May 16, 2009).
I got a late start then got all turned around in a beautiful and bucolic scene, turned it into an opportunity for worship and communing with nature. I got to thinking about dad, his mother Esther Person, Carl... a continuing conversation.
Bill Hancock briefed me in on Humphrey Bogart's operations, Portland bars where they served you drinks from your own bottle, while you schmoozed with other customers. Humphrey seemed always just coming or going, so you felt his presence.
Bill named two of the bars he'd been at. I'd like to learn more.
Vis-a-vis Washington, Oregon was the more untamed state, less under the boot of the killjoys.
Exploring my heritage, recording what I find, is a big part of what I do. Call me an historian in that sense.
Barbara Hancock used to be a nurse on long distance trains. She taught herself to ski to keep up with Bill and they ran a dynamite ski school when not running the small business (surveying).
Their daughter Alice has been living across the lake, having lived in Hong Kong in an earlier chapter, and discovered the container shipping business, big in Seattle, even bigger than Boeing.
As the reception wound to a close, my relatives popped back into regular clothing. Howard had his bib overalls again, just like always. We were the informal family again, keeping on keeping on.
Uncle Bill, the maritime historian, is starting for Florida in the morning, caravaning along I-84 to I-80, then I forget how it goes, ending up on I-75 in a week or so. He'll fly back, although I suggested he rent something and drive it a different way, take a month or so why not? He said he'd never thought of that, sounded intrigued.
Gordon and Susan had me over for lunch today. Susan heading for yet another visit to the dentist, got a kick out of Steve Martin's rendition of that Little Shop of Horrors character, which she'd not seen before. It's fun being able to old movie scenes of the ether and share them, in addition to just telling old fashioned stories -- those still work wonders as well.
I shared an XO from the back of my car with Barbara & Bill as we prepared to disperse. They'd not seen one before, though were aware of the idea, and happy about it. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) was a topic on edu-sig today as well.
I got a late start then got all turned around in a beautiful and bucolic scene, turned it into an opportunity for worship and communing with nature. I got to thinking about dad, his mother Esther Person, Carl... a continuing conversation.
Bill Hancock briefed me in on Humphrey Bogart's operations, Portland bars where they served you drinks from your own bottle, while you schmoozed with other customers. Humphrey seemed always just coming or going, so you felt his presence.
Bill named two of the bars he'd been at. I'd like to learn more.
Vis-a-vis Washington, Oregon was the more untamed state, less under the boot of the killjoys.
Exploring my heritage, recording what I find, is a big part of what I do. Call me an historian in that sense.
Barbara Hancock used to be a nurse on long distance trains. She taught herself to ski to keep up with Bill and they ran a dynamite ski school when not running the small business (surveying).
Their daughter Alice has been living across the lake, having lived in Hong Kong in an earlier chapter, and discovered the container shipping business, big in Seattle, even bigger than Boeing.
As the reception wound to a close, my relatives popped back into regular clothing. Howard had his bib overalls again, just like always. We were the informal family again, keeping on keeping on.
Uncle Bill, the maritime historian, is starting for Florida in the morning, caravaning along I-84 to I-80, then I forget how it goes, ending up on I-75 in a week or so. He'll fly back, although I suggested he rent something and drive it a different way, take a month or so why not? He said he'd never thought of that, sounded intrigued.
Gordon and Susan had me over for lunch today. Susan heading for yet another visit to the dentist, got a kick out of Steve Martin's rendition of that Little Shop of Horrors character, which she'd not seen before. It's fun being able to old movie scenes of the ether and share them, in addition to just telling old fashioned stories -- those still work wonders as well.
I shared an XO from the back of my car with Barbara & Bill as we prepared to disperse. They'd not seen one before, though were aware of the idea, and happy about it. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) was a topic on edu-sig today as well.
Friday, May 15, 2009
More Developments
:: for guido, from chinese user group ::The Oversight Committee meeting went well this evening, with several impassioned speeches (rants), including one of mine -- something about not wanting to be like Dr. Phil, but you had to be there I think.
This idea that Quakers just say quiet and polite things to one another is maybe stereotypical, but somewhat far from the mark in many cases.
We also use cell phones (I did from the meeting, called Andy re Friends Peace Teams), Facebook, Twitter, you name it.
Per PSF minutes (not a Quaker organization, but the idea of "minutes" is common to both), the NiceTime proposal failed a second time at bat, and now I'm urging we dump Gattegno for a more radical masthead (lets turn some more heads).
Do we really want to pander to that younger crowd? Don't Scratch and Squeak have that demographic covered? Monty Python isn't Teletubbies. Guido isn't Mr. Rogers or Captain Kangaroo.
I'm concerned that our product placement campaigns might be most effective at TV-14 and above, more like Jay Leno (i.e. late night TV).
We've been batting around the airport concourse idea, as a place for the logo.
Speaking of Jay Leno, I caught Katie's appearance as his guest last night.
Yeah, I agree the brave troops have an impossible job getting between the opium crop and fundamentalism, even while promising schools, jobs and health care, winning hearts and minds all around (Operation Valhalla).
This level of security is hard to accomplish, even in the homeland (we're not there yet), let alone as some stranger in a strange land with minimal relevant language skills. I was just writing about that yesterday (see below).
This is like mission impossible on steroids, makes you wonder what else those so-called policy gurus have up their sleeves in DC. They think soldiers are superheros don't they? Too much TV growing up? Too many Marvel comics?
The merciful thing would be to discover a civilian political process that incorporates religious fanaticism somehow, Israel a good model (ultra-orthodox have a role).
Don't balance your books on the backs of your military, if you know what's good for ya (I think the First Lady would agree). Use TV effectively, to foster national debate -- let people see for themselves who the players are.
I'm sure the Pakistanis have some thoughts on these matters. In a recent interview I saw by Lara Logan (also CBS) of Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari, there was some thought the out-of-towners should have visas, including if appearing in some combat capacity (not recommended).
Non-visa bearing troops seem a tad like an invading and/or occupying army, which builds sympathy for the locals (we saw this in Iraq as well), including for its more radical elements.
Smart commanders know better than to lose the battle for hearts and minds so easily, so I'm guessing the visa situation is being addressed -- not my area of expertise, but there's probably something in the papers about it.
On the ISEPP list, we've been chatting about some Endogenous Economics out of California. Terry thinks this guy Romer makes a lot of sense, and he does.
Although I feel somewhat superior towards Californians (am a typical Oregonian in that way), I could nevertheless see applications of EE to the brand of Home Economics we've been cooking up for Portland Public Schools (PPS).
Our stuff may be more futuristic than some people are used to, but we could still have some Julia Child videos, Martha Stewart too why not? Maybe also Roz Savage? We focus on joules and/or calories a lot, so-called Supermarket Math. Guys get to play too.
:: visiting china, early 1970s ::
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Recap
JetBlue Bizmo, Blues Festival, PDX 2005.
Photo by Don Wardwell
Photo by Don Wardwell
Just to review the structure of these three blogs of mine, BizMo Diaries (this one) is supposed to be about me 'n my crew in this "traveling circus" except more corporate and button down in some ways, as we're advertising attainable futuristic civilian lifestyles, and no, not "just like on Star Trek" (too 24th century) nor "The Jetsons" (when?) either -- although both would be influences.
We're just slightly ahead of our time, more like orchestra conductors (or like "mad men"). We read the same tea leaves you do, steal ideas from the same theme parks.
The bizmo is like an RV. Some say it has military origins in dark budget projects, which adds to their mystery (the black ones with no license plates compete with the black helicopters for attention on Coast to Coast).
Be that as it may, they're oft decorated with comforting decals, from companies we know and love. You'll see these things on the road even today, just not in caravans maybe, unless military, in which case we're back to square one.
In going into the schools, we're doing like an event, for assembly, but we're mainly there to empower peer teachers, in the sense of giving them more interesting stuff to work with down the road, starting then.
Our DVDs are exclusive firsts, or, if compilations off the Internet, lovingly edited by people who really know our business. We have good games, cool toyz, work opportunities of clear benefit to others.
A curriculum isn't just a hodge podge. We have high standards. That's why it's a lot like a circus (like Monty Python's flying one) and yes, we might sometimes have helicopters, as disaster relief includes using those, as does simply getting from here to there sometimes.
In Control Room, we're aware of control room lore (in science fiction movies especially), There, I focus more on providing bizmos with their various criss-crossing itineraries, a negotiation process. In actual practice, many companies might be involved in this kind of scheduling (many control rooms), including some religious ones e.g. revivalists of some description might field their own mobile Church of Elvis or whatever.
As a Quaker subgenius type (not quite the genius I'd like to be -- I cut myself slack), I count myself as one of these "true believers" and often think how Quakers used to own Cadbury's, Lloyds of London, maybe even Quaker Oats itself (we don't at the moment, though you might imagine how that might seem a holy grail of sorts).
Grain of Sand is of course a Blake allusion, and signifies "one among many". Like I'm not wanting this lifestyle for "just me" and in a lot of ways copied it from Charles Kuralt, which CBS is well aware of my doing (no lawsuit threatened, just saying they know).
I'm a big believer in "institutional wealth" like airports, like libraries, and yes, like aircraft carriers. If you own your own personal submarine, then you're like Dr. Evil in the those Bond movies, or at best like Paul Allen or one of those. You can't just be another dweeb on the beat, not that I'd cop to being a dweeb in every dimension but you know what I mean.
I'm not hoping to own the only bizmo in town (or even own one at all really -- I'll check it out from the fleet), nor even the most wowy one, with pipes sticking out. This isn't about me being one of the super rich, in other words. I'm pretty studiously middle class, only eat caviar once in a blue moon, when I'm invited to a party maybe.
Despite the darth vader undertones, the circus bus fleets don't leave the garage much these days because Gnu Math sounds too hippie. The generals think once my fleet is on the road, it'll just be freaks chasing a Grateful Dead concert all over again, and we know how that goes.
In other words, lots of stupid projections are keeping our lifestyle in check, while they go over our curriculum with a fine tooth comb, looking for things to nitpick about.
In the meantime, USAers wallow in intellectual squalor, not learning Gnu Math or understanding much about World Game in general (they still think it's about aping Rome or living out some other antiquarian fantasy, something about 24 Hours, which I rarely look at -- but has a control room I notice -- go Team America, World Police!).
So should we do this in Russia? That'd be fine except I don't speak Russian or any of those, so would be like Family Guy in that episode where he applies for a Macarthur grant (for geniuses) but ends up two standard deviations on the other side of it (he makes the most of it). Plus I am a family guy, don't really want to move to some Gulag just yet, like my base.
I'm pretty sure the "bizmo phenomenon" will continue spreading, as we gear up around delivering better health care. The clinics will have them, some dentists already do. Whether we call 'em "bizmos" (business mobiles) or not is not really up to me, and I'm fine with "RVs on steroids" or "whatever Dave Ulmer has, except maybe smaller", whatever descriptoids. How about a "geek bus"?
The Control Room krew has to be pretty smart though, lots of GIS (i.e. global data). You don't want to promise all this Internet connectivity, get a school all galvanized, and then discover there's no affordable way to supply even minimal DSL.
Sometimes a robust intranet is all they need, if extremely remote, with fat pipes for downloading, only relatively thin ones for uploading. Some planning needs to happen, before the roadshow comes in. A lot of what happens is more behind the scenes, of necessity.
I'm not saying it has to look just like mission control in Houston, but given all the video feed coming in from the field, it's likely to resemble something rather familiar to the television industry, the industry most likely to produce these shows anyway, given those stables of celebs already rarein' to go (though in need of training a lot of 'em, some kind of geek boot camp?).
Friday, May 08, 2009
New BFI PR
:: we're liking this, looking forward to more... ::
Not that new actually. A next challenge is underway already. Should I enter our Coffee Shops Network? We should be able to attract our own capital given the vendor / consumer alliances presumed in our business model. Let's leave the BFI prize money for projects that really need it. I already got $500 as a Synergetics Explorer Award, along with David Koski.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Cinco de Mayo
:: cinco de mayo ::Glenn invited me to Tim's and Kym's for their weekly potluck, which was well attended. A lot of people had made the connection to Cinco de Mayo, so we had plenty of burritos, enchiladas, margaritas. I brought Mexican beer with some limes.
This was an upscale Beaverton crowd, very West Hills, very Intel (i.e. cosmopolitan, multi-lingual) if I may be permitted to stereotype (talking zip code demographics).
We were middle aged successful professionals, often with children (Tara had another engagement, but maybe she could come some other time -- lots of kids her age, with their own space).
What I found interesting about the chatter: seems like every guy my age is developing an application for the iPhone; we're really interested in energy, yak about the grid as if it were our shared backyard (which it is, sorta).
I heard very little about politics, either local or global (not that energy is apolitical, except it is, sorta).
Terry wants me to join the ISEPP board, given he's trying to promote his ISEPP salons, has lost Doug Strain among others. I'm to send him a short bio. The salons (per Nirel's nomenclature) will be themed and involve wiki-backed reading programs.
The salons are a way to disseminate multi-disciplinary information through both presentations and schmoozing, Q&A with the invited experts (architects, policy analysts... GIS professionals), something universities aren't so good at (inter-departmental cross-talk is a rarity).
Per our Wanderers marketing:
"Science would be ruined if it were to withdraw entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are wanderers-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines."Given our overlapping interest in coffee shop subcultures, I see this as consistent enough with my heart's desires to be worth pursuing. Thx Terry, I'll get to work on that paragraph.
-- Benoit Mandelbrot
Sunday, May 03, 2009
First Day
As I've mentioned before, Quakers went through an ultra-Puritanical phase wherein anything inherited from pre-Xtians was considered "too paganesque" or whatever, ergo "Sun day", "Moon day" etc. were too scary, ergo they said "first day", "second day" and so on.
In retrospect, I think it's all pretty goofy, shades of technocracy in some ways. But then I'm not all that impressed by the metric system for everything geographic, either, so call me a dinosaur, a living fossil or whatever (I'm thick enough skinned).
Hey, I bent a spoon yesterday, first time in awhile. Lost control of it when trying to stir up a vortex, hit the blade in the blender, berry blend everywhere, and glass. Shades of our science experiment. Dr. Nick entered the scene, took a few seconds to process this wasn't blood. Tara also an observer of my "junior moment" (or "senior moment" depending on biases).
Yesterday we had family over, plus I got that date with Larry finally, over Thai food again, comparing notes about Kennedy Space Center, near where Dawn went to high school (Satellite Beach). Then he showed me the two opening episodes of Mad Men (on loan from Gayle) which I'd long been curious about, his dad having been one (on Madison Avenue and everything).
Larry is one of the smartest managers in Lower48 and then some they tell me, though I know him mostly through Quakers. He used to work on McGovern's campaign, has a prospering business, really cool kids. His wife Chris was Tara's Montessori teacher.
Obviously I used the opportunity with a pro to rush through my Providence story then flipped to Coffee Shops Network on Jackalope, popping open the hood. My mind clears when I'm able to serve as tour guide to my own life in this way -- blogging serves a similar purpose (reflection, introspection -- also networking).
Next up: lunch with Laika (saying it that way because of alliteration, though it's also true enough). Follow-up: ate at Than Thao, enjoyed a bloody mary, Glenn joined us, having shown off his new collage. I yakked about FOSS boot camps.
Wednesday: visit with Gordon (reminding myself). Gordon's partner Susan was Tara's piano teacher.
In retrospect, I think it's all pretty goofy, shades of technocracy in some ways. But then I'm not all that impressed by the metric system for everything geographic, either, so call me a dinosaur, a living fossil or whatever (I'm thick enough skinned).
Hey, I bent a spoon yesterday, first time in awhile. Lost control of it when trying to stir up a vortex, hit the blade in the blender, berry blend everywhere, and glass. Shades of our science experiment. Dr. Nick entered the scene, took a few seconds to process this wasn't blood. Tara also an observer of my "junior moment" (or "senior moment" depending on biases).
Yesterday we had family over, plus I got that date with Larry finally, over Thai food again, comparing notes about Kennedy Space Center, near where Dawn went to high school (Satellite Beach). Then he showed me the two opening episodes of Mad Men (on loan from Gayle) which I'd long been curious about, his dad having been one (on Madison Avenue and everything).
Larry is one of the smartest managers in Lower48 and then some they tell me, though I know him mostly through Quakers. He used to work on McGovern's campaign, has a prospering business, really cool kids. His wife Chris was Tara's Montessori teacher.
Obviously I used the opportunity with a pro to rush through my Providence story then flipped to Coffee Shops Network on Jackalope, popping open the hood. My mind clears when I'm able to serve as tour guide to my own life in this way -- blogging serves a similar purpose (reflection, introspection -- also networking).
Next up: lunch with Laika (saying it that way because of alliteration, though it's also true enough). Follow-up: ate at Than Thao, enjoyed a bloody mary, Glenn joined us, having shown off his new collage. I yakked about FOSS boot camps.
Wednesday: visit with Gordon (reminding myself). Gordon's partner Susan was Tara's piano teacher.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
CyWar in CyBeria
Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow
Tara's home with a food reaction, devouring House M.D., me jacked in through Jackalope, dominating the world (geek job description).
Speaking of which, they had a geek on CBS Early Show this morning, one Garth Sundem, hadn't met him before, might not be a Python guy or whatever, but he knew who Linus Torvalds was, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs.
All guys apparently.
Then he expounded on the meaning of "geek": it means "passionate about something" with "world domination" being sort of video game shorthand for "mastery" or "fanatical dedication to an activity" or "at the top of one's game".
So then like Lara Logan might be a "news geek", Lance Armstrong a "bicycle geek", Roz Savage a "rowing geek" and so on. Hey, I like it.
This House character bugs me quite a bit. I routinely attack him, though today I'm being quiet and letting Tara enjoy her heroes (it's the whole crew that makes it fun, I get it).
Here's me fulminating in an earlier email (link added):
Bringing more FOSS into classrooms for the purpose of teaching basic numeracy is overdue, not feeling like a supplicant really, more like a guy who pays into the system, have democratic rights, and yet my entire subculture is shoved to the side, like gypsies, and yet engineers are expected to keep the infrastructure going, and yet we're denied our supply of potential recruits, in part by "math teachers" with no worthy skills who sidetrack the little darlings into meaningless years wasted slaving at desks to no good outcome.Sounds like some guy on the war path. Call me a geek.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Metaphors Matter
Quoting from Chapter 2 in Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve McConnell (Microsoft Press, 1993):
For example, one of our upcoming OS Bridge talks looks at farming. I don't know much about farming, but was thinking of this proposal when I did my imitation of David Beazley's more professional introduction to coroutines in Python.
A confusing abundance of metaphors has grown up around software development. Fred Books says that writing software is like farming, hunting werewolves, or drowning with dinosaurs in a tar pit. Paul Heckel says it's like filming Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. David Gries says it's a science. Donald Knuth says it's an art. Watts Humphrey says it's a process. Peter Freeman says it's a system. Harlan Mills says it's like solving mathematical problems, performing surgery, or butchering hogs. Mark Spinard and Curt Abraham say it's like exploring the Wild West, bathing in cold streams, and eating beans around a campfire.I'm probably more in that Wild West school, but I'd think you'd want to use metaphors friendly to your subculture / ethnicity. There's no need to narrow it to one namespace surely.
For example, one of our upcoming OS Bridge talks looks at farming. I don't know much about farming, but was thinking of this proposal when I did my imitation of David Beazley's more professional introduction to coroutines in Python.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Testing Jackalope
tutorial on gSculpt by Geoffrey Frenchrunning on mplayer in compiz cube
The screen flicker in my case maybe wasn't due to wifi and AC power concerns in the nVidia driver, but a wrong setting in the X Server settings. I'm still looking into it. At the moment, the problem seems resolved. I upgraded through Intrepid Ibex yesterday, from Hardy Heron, stopping only long enough to fix a few things. I figure my OS Bridge presentation should be state of the art.
The media has needed to see more dots connected to be able to omni- triangulate the story more clearly. Who has been resisting the design science revolution and why? Translating to FOSS terms, GNU/Linux has come out on top, but still needs to propagate. There's a lot of romance in the lore, epic sagas, that we need to keep telling (and we do). The "Bucky file" (B-File, like an X-File) adds a tremendous number of puzzle pieces, to where our geek culture is now "ready to roll". I don't think as many journalists will get side-tracked into the "Bucky as Britney" genre this time, i.e. all that "poor slob Bucky" talk is too squaresville, to qyoobist, for many readers to care anymore. He was an average joe who committed his life to healing the world, like any good medical doctor engineer. (March 7, 2009, Synergetics for Yahoos i.e. Synergeo).
testing OpenOffice, from GIS in Action slides
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Earth Day 2009
I did my big carbon footprint yesterday, in driving to Vancouver, so today I'm wearing my halo, being sanctimonious, walking around like a European in a well planned, pedestrian friendly town.
Many USAers are afraid to leave their cars with good reason. My walks to and from the Hyatt in Chicago involved traversing shovel ready dirt sidewalks turning to muck in the snow.
The woman with the suitcase had an even harder time, had to pull it in the street. I'd have offered but she was clearly in self reliant mode so we just chatted instead.
Another time, after dark, me trudging from the Blue Line station, a black SUV pulled alongside and suggested I hop in, which I did, given I knew the people. Not having real sidewalks leads North Americans to waste gas.
Dotting the landscape with company towns built to a human scale, self sufficient enough to forgo the "bedroom community" fate, would be another way to go.
So-called retirement communities would do well to keep some business channels open, as some oldsters have sysadmin skills, want an intranet to keep playing with. Retiring boomers want access to GNU/Linux, not shuffleboard so much.
People learn to live this way (in walkable, golf cartable communities) on small campuses especially, but also in religious establishments set aside for scholarship and contemplative living.
The latter often specialize in wine, cheese, chocolate, beer or other agricultural product for barter and/or ecommerce shipment.
Today, a given XRL might offer web services, advertising, technical writing, even television production. Some serve as call centers.
By hearsay, I know of one such remote community that specializes in state liquor laws, getting establishments licensed in whatever county. They fly around a lot, but have this base to came home to. That shifts the fuel mix, as cars and jets take from different tanks in the refinery.
Some cars and trucks also run on agricultural products, making them more competitive with bovines in some cases, in terms of driving up the price of grain. However, not every source of biodiesel is as attractive to farm animals.
Many USAers are afraid to leave their cars with good reason. My walks to and from the Hyatt in Chicago involved traversing shovel ready dirt sidewalks turning to muck in the snow.
The woman with the suitcase had an even harder time, had to pull it in the street. I'd have offered but she was clearly in self reliant mode so we just chatted instead.
Another time, after dark, me trudging from the Blue Line station, a black SUV pulled alongside and suggested I hop in, which I did, given I knew the people. Not having real sidewalks leads North Americans to waste gas.
Dotting the landscape with company towns built to a human scale, self sufficient enough to forgo the "bedroom community" fate, would be another way to go.
So-called retirement communities would do well to keep some business channels open, as some oldsters have sysadmin skills, want an intranet to keep playing with. Retiring boomers want access to GNU/Linux, not shuffleboard so much.
People learn to live this way (in walkable, golf cartable communities) on small campuses especially, but also in religious establishments set aside for scholarship and contemplative living.
The latter often specialize in wine, cheese, chocolate, beer or other agricultural product for barter and/or ecommerce shipment.
Today, a given XRL might offer web services, advertising, technical writing, even television production. Some serve as call centers.
By hearsay, I know of one such remote community that specializes in state liquor laws, getting establishments licensed in whatever county. They fly around a lot, but have this base to came home to. That shifts the fuel mix, as cars and jets take from different tanks in the refinery.
Some cars and trucks also run on agricultural products, making them more competitive with bovines in some cases, in terms of driving up the price of grain. However, not every source of biodiesel is as attractive to farm animals.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Waning Moon
:: moon kitty with sarah angel ::
We did have a good time celebrating Matt's coming of age (51), with young high schoolers in prom clothes all about, as it's that time of year. Looking at all the stretch limos, I came up with the "stretch Smart Car" as a humorous oxymoron.
We could rush Moon to a 24/7 pet hospital and pay for some MRIs. She's not yowling in pain much, is mostly not too distressed, more just frustrated when she tries to move her back legs.
Will we postpone the Red Cross training tomorrow, already once rescheduled? I'm having trouble switching gears. I'm on tap for a memorial service, serving as greeter. Tara's supposed to take the bus. But what about Moon?
Do we have a budget for expensive pet care, or pet insurance? Maybe I'll make some calls. I'm owed, but everybody has those stories. The prognosis looks grim, so why disturb a peaceful kitty with a lot of bright lights and melodrama? A car trip in the middle of the night?
Speaking of melodrama, I continued poking at NCTM on Math Forum today. I've been wrestling with that organization since the 1990s, when I tried to bring up the Bucky stuff with them. I don't think I made many friends in so doing. Math teachers are quite defensive about what they're not teaching.
Rose and Tara watched Slumdog Millionaire again, without the glitches. I need to settle with Hollywood Video, am also still missing a library book (about Pascal's Triangle). My inbox is far from empty these days.
These concerns seem petty I realize. Should I write about deeper problems?
Solving refugee problems would be a good place to start with the college credit courses. You'll get experiences you can't get just staring at a screen, although screen time is part of it.
You'll also need physical coordination, management skills, training with equipment, many kinds of practice.
Civilian service is no less a challenge than military. A lot of the same skills carry over.
Earlier today I joined a Friendly Care team spearheaded by Leslie Hickcox way out on 151st street. I ended up behind a van saying WAR 151 on the license plate and imagined being one of those people who gets in a tizzy about coincidental events. I went so far as to take a picture anyway. We were there to assist in a moving project.
Later I went to Home Depot and got a blind replaced, the one that broke while I was away in Chicago.
Tara wants to skip the babysitting training tomorrow and maybe have a last day with Moon Kitty. We think Red Cross will be understanding and let her postpone, after we missed the April 11 training.
Followups: Tara got her Red Cross babysitting certification, no rush on the Moon scenario, we've agreed to consult with a professional pronto. Great meeting some of you at Ray's memorial service. April 20: vet confirms diagnosis and prognosis (no blood pressure at all in the lower frame), recommends a swift course, which we choose. We'll be getting an urn. Ray loved animals, another part of the sharing. We honor them and miss them when they leave us.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
SAO Meeting
I'm doing the ping ball thing again, getting to lots of meetings. This one with Chris was excellent, helped me connect dots with Saturday Academy, think in some new tracks about how we're doing it in Oregon.
We talked Ubuntu quite a bit, also the gender imbalance, which SAO has funded some studies regarding. I mentioned this being a focus at OSCON as well, plus the fact that the female FOSS bosses we do tend to have goddess status right out of the gate i.e. it's not a matter of smashing a glass ceiling, unless you're 2nd tier, in which case you're more likely a guy (because of the ratios involved, like 9:1::XY:XX in many venues).
We had lunch outdoors on Hawthorne, enjoying a modest spring (sunny, but not blindingly). I had coffee and a spinach salad, brought along some show and tell items, including StrangeAttractors (Design Science Toys), CubeIT! (Huntar), Ball of Whacks (Roger von Oech's, comes with seminars!), a Sam Lanahan flextegrity, an XO, some GIS literature, and a small Bucky book from the art museum, still shrink wrapped. All this fit my OSCON bag, believe it or not. We had fun.
Other Oregonians are moving quickly on these issues, not just me, which is gratifying to learn. Given I'm such an old guy, I was able to talk about Visual FoxPro and dBase as if these were just yesterday's tools, whereas they're actually the day before yesterday's (smile).
That got me reminiscing though, had to agree with Patrick O'Brien: Python has a lot to recommend it over xBase. Still, our "dot prompt" culture isn't so different, in terms of our expecting a shell.
The FoxPro development environment by the VFP Microsoft team had a to-die-for GUI design environment for a thick client (ala wxPython), i.e. a great way to go if you're not taking the thin client browser based route (see Ellen Ullman's Close to the Metal for more on the evolution of database technology and what it was like in those days). VFP's development environment was even better than Visual Studio's in some ways, pioneering Intellisense (which I'd tend to turn off).
Of course it sounds funny to call today's web browsers "thin", as if FoxPro runtime were any bigger in terms of sheer megabytes. But the point is, the browser is an open standards well understood environment and almost everyone has one, meaning the actual application gets defined on the server, even if the downloaded Javascript ends up controlling the client.
The HttpResponse suitcases delivered over the wire unfold automatically within your DOM, setting the stage for JQuery or GWT magic or whatever fun and games. All this apparatus then disappears when you log out and drop the connection, whereas with FoxPro you have these multiple thick clients lying around in the form of exe and dll files, or should, unless you want a lot of unnecessary network congestion (like downloading a whole browser every time you want to use one).
Ian and I talked by cell for a long time this afternoon with several interruptions. He's eying the iPhone for his outreach applications (colorful algebra games), which coincidentally kept cutting out when we talked about Androids (a competing model), but only because he was in a busy neighborhood with lots of buses.
Oversight meeting this evening, no rest for the weary, hope it's fun at least. We went to Noah's bagels this morning, used our coupons.
We talked Ubuntu quite a bit, also the gender imbalance, which SAO has funded some studies regarding. I mentioned this being a focus at OSCON as well, plus the fact that the female FOSS bosses we do tend to have goddess status right out of the gate i.e. it's not a matter of smashing a glass ceiling, unless you're 2nd tier, in which case you're more likely a guy (because of the ratios involved, like 9:1::XY:XX in many venues).
We had lunch outdoors on Hawthorne, enjoying a modest spring (sunny, but not blindingly). I had coffee and a spinach salad, brought along some show and tell items, including StrangeAttractors (Design Science Toys), CubeIT! (Huntar), Ball of Whacks (Roger von Oech's, comes with seminars!), a Sam Lanahan flextegrity, an XO, some GIS literature, and a small Bucky book from the art museum, still shrink wrapped. All this fit my OSCON bag, believe it or not. We had fun.
Other Oregonians are moving quickly on these issues, not just me, which is gratifying to learn. Given I'm such an old guy, I was able to talk about Visual FoxPro and dBase as if these were just yesterday's tools, whereas they're actually the day before yesterday's (smile).
That got me reminiscing though, had to agree with Patrick O'Brien: Python has a lot to recommend it over xBase. Still, our "dot prompt" culture isn't so different, in terms of our expecting a shell.
The FoxPro development environment by the VFP Microsoft team had a to-die-for GUI design environment for a thick client (ala wxPython), i.e. a great way to go if you're not taking the thin client browser based route (see Ellen Ullman's Close to the Metal for more on the evolution of database technology and what it was like in those days). VFP's development environment was even better than Visual Studio's in some ways, pioneering Intellisense (which I'd tend to turn off).
Of course it sounds funny to call today's web browsers "thin", as if FoxPro runtime were any bigger in terms of sheer megabytes. But the point is, the browser is an open standards well understood environment and almost everyone has one, meaning the actual application gets defined on the server, even if the downloaded Javascript ends up controlling the client.
The HttpResponse suitcases delivered over the wire unfold automatically within your DOM, setting the stage for JQuery or GWT magic or whatever fun and games. All this apparatus then disappears when you log out and drop the connection, whereas with FoxPro you have these multiple thick clients lying around in the form of exe and dll files, or should, unless you want a lot of unnecessary network congestion (like downloading a whole browser every time you want to use one).
Ian and I talked by cell for a long time this afternoon with several interruptions. He's eying the iPhone for his outreach applications (colorful algebra games), which coincidentally kept cutting out when we talked about Androids (a competing model), but only because he was in a busy neighborhood with lots of buses.
Oversight meeting this evening, no rest for the weary, hope it's fun at least. We went to Noah's bagels this morning, used our coupons.
sent by cell
Monday, April 13, 2009
OS Bridge Meeting
I'm at Selena's with a crew of five other conference organizers (Audrey is co-chair, also Jason, Ed, Brian), wading through all these talks. We've already voted on relevance and interest, so now have an initial ranking.
I'd missed seeing mine included, think I forgot to vote on it (not out of false modesty -- I probably thought it was maybe one of the magical first cut but no, I may not make the finals, let's see what happens).
Ditto with Saturday Academy this spring, students aren't biting across the board (hey, it's spring!) and I have only the one offering. I had a good talk with an SA: staffer though, shared some follow-up with the Wanderers list.
We could branch more into teacher training, was the gist of it.
PHP has a lot more frameworks than I realized.
Co-working and hacker spaces are needed on the biz track. Doesn't have to mean hardware...
Some discussion of Scala versus Ruby, in terms of speed. This is apparently big news in the blogosphere because of that Twitter engineer, or so they tell me.
Selena is tracking everything in PostgreSQL. "I need to do an inner join", "I haven't quite memorized the schema yet".
We need my talk for long format under Culture, bridges higher and elementary ed (my focus is high school). Keith, looks like we've got yours too. Score two for ISEPP then, or at least Pauling House Wanderers.
This is good soup, thank you Selena.
I'd missed seeing mine included, think I forgot to vote on it (not out of false modesty -- I probably thought it was maybe one of the magical first cut but no, I may not make the finals, let's see what happens).
Ditto with Saturday Academy this spring, students aren't biting across the board (hey, it's spring!) and I have only the one offering. I had a good talk with an SA: staffer though, shared some follow-up with the Wanderers list.
We could branch more into teacher training, was the gist of it.
PHP has a lot more frameworks than I realized.
Co-working and hacker spaces are needed on the biz track. Doesn't have to mean hardware...
Some discussion of Scala versus Ruby, in terms of speed. This is apparently big news in the blogosphere because of that Twitter engineer, or so they tell me.
Selena is tracking everything in PostgreSQL. "I need to do an inner join", "I haven't quite memorized the schema yet".
We need my talk for long format under Culture, bridges higher and elementary ed (my focus is high school). Keith, looks like we've got yours too. Score two for ISEPP then, or at least Pauling House Wanderers.
This is good soup, thank you Selena.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
What Shall I Do?
This is in the Wanderers tradition of rounding up colleagues for a soul searching, otherwise known as a clearness committee (Quaker namespace). Art did it expertly, laid out his credentials, his options, ended up making wise choices I thought (such as not to move to Washington, DC, already crowded). Then Jeffry gave it a spin, ended up branching off in a new direction. Helen added a framework, called Appreciative Inquiry, so now even more of us are doing it, as we see the potential benefits.
In my case, it's about insinuating into that gap between public and private sectors, by which I don't mean tax-funded school vouchers (I'm against those, if used to bolster competing systems, many with no use for Uncle Sam). As someone who cut a lot of teeth in the private sector, I feel uniquely qualified to come forward as a trainer of public school teachers, hoping to add to their arsenal of relevant skills and tools, perhaps in exchange for more merit pay and bragging rights as to their "pilot project" exclusiveness, if selected for the program. I'm half teacher, half recruiter, half location scout (math joke about 3/2).
So how do I retain PPS as a client. "Go for the ESDs, Luke" said one advisor, "and use da force" (Pinoy accent). "Yes Yoda" I said, "but many of them hate me, because I support LEP High, charter schools as public schools, merit pay, all that Obama stuff the Democrats want to bury. Means I'm persona non grata in some circles". "Present to NCTM" was my other advice, but now I'm thinking "ATM" would be nicer (more congenial), given the Caleb Gattegno connection and a stronger constructivism. Lots of this Lower 48 stuff is merely marketed as constructivism, but then they hold back the real toyz (no computer programming for you young lady, that's just for the Phillips Exeter kids (lucky devils, learning Python at a tender age...)).
I'm not wanting to let go of hospital work either, which is why I keep thinking "clients" (in the plural). I've always had multiple clients and find that keeps me more open minded. Besides, I'd lose my private sector street cred if I became a full time classroom teacher. The whole point of "mining the gap" is to keep a foot in both worlds -- if that makes any sense. Out here in the Silicon Forest, we use Python as an industrial standard, to test Intel chips, to write eCommerce sites. In there, in the math classroom, you could be getting more of our Supermarket Math then, not because you'll all become green grocers (though some of you will, and that's a high tech area what with RFID (maybe just let 'em push the cart through that door, no checkout lanes, sucks the Visa without anyone even opening a wallet (try in a PX first, for cigs and beer only?))).
I mentioned to Tara about Project Earthala again (we already have our first Queen), a little microvillage in the boonies, lots of Quaker aesthetics, but accessible to television, better than phony HBO stuff (love HBO, Extras especially, though that's BBC through HBO in some ways). Dot these around, among other religious, get the eCommerce going (Catholic brandy, Jewish vodka...), and voila, a market for tiny commuter jets, from the same people that make your dwelling machines (economies of scale there). I could do some teaching, even hospital work, from these high bandwidth XRL sites, doubling as computer camps when the schools aren't in session (or even when they are, in parallel). The drawings are here in the blogs, just waiting for Lockheed-Martin to get back to me (defense puts me on hold a lot, thinks I'm too tiny a customer).
I'm also a movie and TV critic, blogger extraordinaire.
So let's see what happens next. The big question, on everybody's mind, is whether we'll be seeing more Mites, Sytes and Kites on public television. I'll have to say something to OPB next time I get a chance ("Hey OPB, come visit our Coffee Shops Network sometime, get some free samples"). I also need to get to work on the Synergetics article for Wikipedia. I'll switch to doing that now, need to add some pointers.
In my case, it's about insinuating into that gap between public and private sectors, by which I don't mean tax-funded school vouchers (I'm against those, if used to bolster competing systems, many with no use for Uncle Sam). As someone who cut a lot of teeth in the private sector, I feel uniquely qualified to come forward as a trainer of public school teachers, hoping to add to their arsenal of relevant skills and tools, perhaps in exchange for more merit pay and bragging rights as to their "pilot project" exclusiveness, if selected for the program. I'm half teacher, half recruiter, half location scout (math joke about 3/2).
So how do I retain PPS as a client. "Go for the ESDs, Luke" said one advisor, "and use da force" (Pinoy accent). "Yes Yoda" I said, "but many of them hate me, because I support LEP High, charter schools as public schools, merit pay, all that Obama stuff the Democrats want to bury. Means I'm persona non grata in some circles". "Present to NCTM" was my other advice, but now I'm thinking "ATM" would be nicer (more congenial), given the Caleb Gattegno connection and a stronger constructivism. Lots of this Lower 48 stuff is merely marketed as constructivism, but then they hold back the real toyz (no computer programming for you young lady, that's just for the Phillips Exeter kids (lucky devils, learning Python at a tender age...)).
I'm not wanting to let go of hospital work either, which is why I keep thinking "clients" (in the plural). I've always had multiple clients and find that keeps me more open minded. Besides, I'd lose my private sector street cred if I became a full time classroom teacher. The whole point of "mining the gap" is to keep a foot in both worlds -- if that makes any sense. Out here in the Silicon Forest, we use Python as an industrial standard, to test Intel chips, to write eCommerce sites. In there, in the math classroom, you could be getting more of our Supermarket Math then, not because you'll all become green grocers (though some of you will, and that's a high tech area what with RFID (maybe just let 'em push the cart through that door, no checkout lanes, sucks the Visa without anyone even opening a wallet (try in a PX first, for cigs and beer only?))).
I mentioned to Tara about Project Earthala again (we already have our first Queen), a little microvillage in the boonies, lots of Quaker aesthetics, but accessible to television, better than phony HBO stuff (love HBO, Extras especially, though that's BBC through HBO in some ways). Dot these around, among other religious, get the eCommerce going (Catholic brandy, Jewish vodka...), and voila, a market for tiny commuter jets, from the same people that make your dwelling machines (economies of scale there). I could do some teaching, even hospital work, from these high bandwidth XRL sites, doubling as computer camps when the schools aren't in session (or even when they are, in parallel). The drawings are here in the blogs, just waiting for Lockheed-Martin to get back to me (defense puts me on hold a lot, thinks I'm too tiny a customer).
I'm also a movie and TV critic, blogger extraordinaire.
So let's see what happens next. The big question, on everybody's mind, is whether we'll be seeing more Mites, Sytes and Kites on public television. I'll have to say something to OPB next time I get a chance ("Hey OPB, come visit our Coffee Shops Network sometime, get some free samples"). I also need to get to work on the Synergetics article for Wikipedia. I'll switch to doing that now, need to add some pointers.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Grip Slip
I messed up doing my job as volunteer escort today, forgetting a regular gig. So sorry.
I've been leaving a somewhat tortuous trail of signature lesson plans at the Math Forum that at least Anna is looking at.
In terms of breaking through to a wider public, that's proving difficult in this economy. My services are admittedly esoteric.
I need to try a new approach maybe, find some new breakfast of champions, other than Fruit Loops. See footnote [3].
Congratulations to Senator Ted Stevens, on his exoneration and vindication.
I've been leaving a somewhat tortuous trail of signature lesson plans at the Math Forum that at least Anna is looking at.
In terms of breaking through to a wider public, that's proving difficult in this economy. My services are admittedly esoteric.
I need to try a new approach maybe, find some new breakfast of champions, other than Fruit Loops. See footnote [3].
Congratulations to Senator Ted Stevens, on his exoneration and vindication.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Math 2.0
Here's an excellent slide show from Maria's blog, and not just because she links to 4D Studios.
If you think math is boring, maybe you're not being "social" enough. Think of math as a contact sport -- doesn't have to mean rough, although when life gets that way, math can help sometimes (or call it computing).
And remember to help your partner, don't be selfish. Teaching your peers is the name of the game (plus let them teach you as well -- they'll learn more by doing it).
The teaching is to the teacher, and comes back most to him. -- Walt Whitman
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
