People who want certainty in their life should become accountants.
"‘Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes,"
-Christopher Bullock, The Cobler of Preston, (1716)
Friday, June 30, 2017
Thursday, June 29, 2017
The Praxis of Evil
The Praxis is the SAT/GRE for teachers wishing to be certified to teach at public schools. I don't know if I want to end up in a public school, but it doesn't hurt to have the certification. And in delay there lies no plenty (so come kiss me sweet and twenty).
So I'm just getting 'er done. But I'll be a monkey's uncle before I do more test prep than I need to. It's pass/fail, and I have no illusions about the usefulness of standardized testing. It's just a piece of paper to wave at the gatekeepers so I can get through the door.
So I got some practice tests, and I'm working through them, to see what I actually need to study. I did two today, math first, since I thought it would be easy (pretty much, though it wouldn't hurt to brush up on some algebra stuff.) and reading. Get the easy one's out of the way, less to think about. Math I only did alright on. Plenty good enough to pass, but just ok. Reading I got to feel good about. I finished with time to spare and only one question wrong. Which is good, because if I was biting it, I have no idea how I would prepare for that.
I'm a little worried about the last one, of the three, the writing test. I'll do fine on the multiple choice questions, but I need to find out how the score bad spelling. Because I have bad spelling. Also, I won't really know what my score is going to be like, since the practice test doesn't include an actual person scoring my essay. And the essays have to be neat and proper and well formatted. Really, it shouldn't be a problem, I mean, for crying out loud, I write monster posts every week, on this blog, even when I try and write something short because I love writing so much. This should be one of my strengths.
On the other hand, they're not going to ask me to write a stream of consciousness post about what I had for breakfast and the purpose of the universe, so it may not be my genre. Though I want to write a blog post in perfectly-proper super-formatted standardized essay format. But about what I normally blog about. Which I imagine will have an aesthetic effect somewhat like stuffing an enormously fat clown into a tuxedo designed for humanoid mantis aliens.
Seriously, there were like ten spelling errors I just corrected, looking back on what I'd written. Hopefully that's just one point off.
Anyhoo, I wanted to share the saga of the Mustache. But... it's already time for bed again. And I'm really trying to not go to bed at a million o'clock.
...
And somehow I never ended up posting this, and it's days later. And there's so much more to post, to write about. so much more to share. Significant oral surgery. Hoards of bumble-bee's frolicking among mint flowers at dusk. Gettin' stuff done like a boss. My last session with my awesome psychologist-in-training (there's a PsyD program at Antioch so therapy is super-duper affordable.)
Ah well. I'll get what I can down in future posts. But I've got a test or two to cram for this week, so that's taking top priority. And right below that is looking for where I'm going to be living next year, once my lease runs out, a month from now.
Good night and much love, friends and family. I hope your evening is as peaceful as mine is, sitting on the patio, surrounded by my mom's blooming garden and trees. Trees rustling in the breeze, a lone bird calling out in the cool, damp air.
-IO
So I'm just getting 'er done. But I'll be a monkey's uncle before I do more test prep than I need to. It's pass/fail, and I have no illusions about the usefulness of standardized testing. It's just a piece of paper to wave at the gatekeepers so I can get through the door.
So I got some practice tests, and I'm working through them, to see what I actually need to study. I did two today, math first, since I thought it would be easy (pretty much, though it wouldn't hurt to brush up on some algebra stuff.) and reading. Get the easy one's out of the way, less to think about. Math I only did alright on. Plenty good enough to pass, but just ok. Reading I got to feel good about. I finished with time to spare and only one question wrong. Which is good, because if I was biting it, I have no idea how I would prepare for that.
I'm a little worried about the last one, of the three, the writing test. I'll do fine on the multiple choice questions, but I need to find out how the score bad spelling. Because I have bad spelling. Also, I won't really know what my score is going to be like, since the practice test doesn't include an actual person scoring my essay. And the essays have to be neat and proper and well formatted. Really, it shouldn't be a problem, I mean, for crying out loud, I write monster posts every week, on this blog, even when I try and write something short because I love writing so much. This should be one of my strengths.
On the other hand, they're not going to ask me to write a stream of consciousness post about what I had for breakfast and the purpose of the universe, so it may not be my genre. Though I want to write a blog post in perfectly-proper super-formatted standardized essay format. But about what I normally blog about. Which I imagine will have an aesthetic effect somewhat like stuffing an enormously fat clown into a tuxedo designed for humanoid mantis aliens.
Seriously, there were like ten spelling errors I just corrected, looking back on what I'd written. Hopefully that's just one point off.
Anyhoo, I wanted to share the saga of the Mustache. But... it's already time for bed again. And I'm really trying to not go to bed at a million o'clock.
...
And somehow I never ended up posting this, and it's days later. And there's so much more to post, to write about. so much more to share. Significant oral surgery. Hoards of bumble-bee's frolicking among mint flowers at dusk. Gettin' stuff done like a boss. My last session with my awesome psychologist-in-training (there's a PsyD program at Antioch so therapy is super-duper affordable.)
Ah well. I'll get what I can down in future posts. But I've got a test or two to cram for this week, so that's taking top priority. And right below that is looking for where I'm going to be living next year, once my lease runs out, a month from now.
Good night and much love, friends and family. I hope your evening is as peaceful as mine is, sitting on the patio, surrounded by my mom's blooming garden and trees. Trees rustling in the breeze, a lone bird calling out in the cool, damp air.
-IO
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Fireflies, summer, and tv
Interesting fact:
Science says for every hour of TV you watch after the age of 25, you shorten your total life expectancy by about 20 minutes. So 6 hours of TV a day, on average, means dying about 5 years earlier, statistically speaking.
Also, in John Hattie's synthesis of over 1,000 metastudies (each of which looked at lots (hundreds) of single studies) of the factors that influence learning, he found that almost everything had some degree of positive effect, or at least was neutral. It was extremely difficult to find things that actually had observable negative effects. But one of the few things that did, was watching television.
Yesterday, June 12th, at night, walking through the scenic graveyard, I saw my first fireflies of the year. And got chased off by the mosquito's, who are out in great number with boundless thirst.
Today, it poured for a few minutes while my car windows were down. The resultant smell in the parking lot, from the rain hitting the baking pavement, reminded me of playing with water and hoses around the house, during summer, at my first house.
It feels like summer has arrived.
"The Platonic Solids"
-Good Nerdcore band name.
Amazing real last name: "Fabrizio"
O.o
This is the name of a superhero who's power involves Fabreeze. Or just a character who is really clean smelling.
Science says for every hour of TV you watch after the age of 25, you shorten your total life expectancy by about 20 minutes. So 6 hours of TV a day, on average, means dying about 5 years earlier, statistically speaking.
Also, in John Hattie's synthesis of over 1,000 metastudies (each of which looked at lots (hundreds) of single studies) of the factors that influence learning, he found that almost everything had some degree of positive effect, or at least was neutral. It was extremely difficult to find things that actually had observable negative effects. But one of the few things that did, was watching television.
Yesterday, June 12th, at night, walking through the scenic graveyard, I saw my first fireflies of the year. And got chased off by the mosquito's, who are out in great number with boundless thirst.
Today, it poured for a few minutes while my car windows were down. The resultant smell in the parking lot, from the rain hitting the baking pavement, reminded me of playing with water and hoses around the house, during summer, at my first house.
It feels like summer has arrived.
"The Platonic Solids"
-Good Nerdcore band name.
Amazing real last name: "Fabrizio"
O.o
This is the name of a superhero who's power involves Fabreeze. Or just a character who is really clean smelling.
Thursday, June 8, 2017
I made a video!
https://youtu.be/vLNRcvTowNQ
Sometimes ideas for things come into my head, and often they come with a particular medium for delivery indicated, like, "comic" "video short" "pop-up book" or "live action performance art." Often I procrastinate on them so long they drift off and are forgotten for all time, never to be made flesh.
But I was recently reminded that, if you have a good idea, it's best to act on it immediately or as soon as possible.
I'm not sure this falls into the category of "good" or "bad," morally, but it was something I wanted to do, for my own amusement, and it has definitely served that purpose.
I'm a bit shy to share it with others, because I'm aware my sense of humor is... let's just call it adjacent to normal.
So, if you don't want to be subjected to such things in the future, you should really let me know, and I will at least try to put some kind of disclaimer in front of it. Though I guess that's what this is, in effect.
Welp, enjoy. (Or don't! I'm not trying to force you to enjoy it like a deranged lunatic attempting to force feed cat food to strangers on the street. I'm just the harmless kind of lunatic, contentedly eating my own cat food, and offering it to others as they pass by.)
Peace,
I
Sometimes ideas for things come into my head, and often they come with a particular medium for delivery indicated, like, "comic" "video short" "pop-up book" or "live action performance art." Often I procrastinate on them so long they drift off and are forgotten for all time, never to be made flesh.
But I was recently reminded that, if you have a good idea, it's best to act on it immediately or as soon as possible.
I'm not sure this falls into the category of "good" or "bad," morally, but it was something I wanted to do, for my own amusement, and it has definitely served that purpose.
I'm a bit shy to share it with others, because I'm aware my sense of humor is... let's just call it adjacent to normal.
So, if you don't want to be subjected to such things in the future, you should really let me know, and I will at least try to put some kind of disclaimer in front of it. Though I guess that's what this is, in effect.
Welp, enjoy. (Or don't! I'm not trying to force you to enjoy it like a deranged lunatic attempting to force feed cat food to strangers on the street. I'm just the harmless kind of lunatic, contentedly eating my own cat food, and offering it to others as they pass by.)
Peace,
I
Monday, June 5, 2017
Control-freak facebook-bashing cinema-nouveau tree-hugger
At my sit spot (or stand spot, as the case may be) this morning, as I was doing my routine, which involves gratitude, introspection, my vision and steps to achieving it, and surrender. As I was standing, basking in the morning light and birdsong, I noticed an incredible creature. It was probably a worm, but like none I'd ever seen before. it was about as thick as a pencil lead, around ten inches long, mostly dark grey, with both ends a lighter yellowish white. It was very vigorous, squirming around a lot, climbing up a pot onto a strawberry leaf, moving partly by thrashing around. At first it looked like a pea tendril in a time-lapse clip, and I thought maybe I was seeing some kind of fast moving vine plant (not beyond possibility, venus fly traps move fast enough to capture bugs.) How cool our world is.
Then, as I went for a super short walk, just down to the end of the block, I saw an SUV drive by, and it wasn't until after it had gone that I realized it must have hit a squirrel, because there was a squirrel on the road, in the wake of the car, thrashing around but not walking or running anywhere. It was kind of heart breaking, and I couldn't help being a bit angry at the SUV, wondering if it was carelessness that had killed the squirrel. I prayed for the squirrel to find peace, and by the time I opened my eyes, it had stopped moving.
It's been a full day. I also wrote, shot, produced, directed, and acted in a brilliant pop-art/neo-impressionist piece about the nature of desire. Not really. I'm being silly. I just made a super simple and very odd (and I think hilarious, but my sense of humor is odd.) little video that had popped into my brain at some point and entertained me enough that I didn't forget about it. I thought it should just take like, a half hour to make, but you know how video editing goes: it's always about four times as much work as you think it will be. At least until you're a pro. Then you know ahead of time that it's going to take four times as long as it should, and maybe it only takes two times as long.
I'll save that for later. Gotta space out my posts. Because... um. Why do people space out their posts? I guess I'm doing it because I assume people are intimidated by long posts and would prefer shorter ones, in the same way that a quadruple decker sandwich is just too big to be convenient for consumption.
Though I think the main reason it's a more popular format is because people trying to sell you things want you to develop habits of consuming their object/media, and training people to come back to your website for the next little food pellet over and over again builds in that habit more strongly.
This is one of the reasons I prefer to consume my media in occasional all-day bursts. The hope is that by doing so it is less habit forming and results in less overall time spent on such things. I don't know if this is actually the case.
But it does make me think strongly of facebook. That website is a drug. Those of you who are getting here via my facebook posts (most of you? I have no idea what the demographics on that are. As far as blogger is concerned I get 0-4 page views max, so I think it's a bit broken. I know for a fact at least 6 people read my blog.) Anyhoo, ahem:
Facebook is a highly addictive drug. I recommend avoiding it as much as possible, if you value your time, or if you do not want to be addicted to things. This is probably true of lots of forms of social media.
It sucks coming up for air and realizing you've just flushed hours of your life down the drain thanks to the glowing screen in front of you.
I know how difficult it can be to overcome addictions, so you have my deep compassion, if you are an addict. The first step is recognizing you have a problem. I think?
Speaking doing things you know you shouldn't be, I need to stop writing and go to sleep.
Still not finished with my apartment room cleaning/organizing. But getting close. So close. There's my addiction right now. Or perhaps obsession would be a better word. Two of my teachers/mentors, both named Tom, have said that, to get really good at something, it is useful to have a degree of focus bordering on obsession. There is just something so satisfying about it, for the control freak in me. I do stuff, and I see an immediate improvement in my surroundings. I am confident in my ability to succeed. I am bringing order and beauty from the chaos, and I am discarding excess baggage, simplifying my life, approaching the zen purity, beauty, and simplicity that I find so aesthetically pleasing. And if I can wrangle it down to a small enough size and order it properly, I can keep it organized moving forward. That's the real motivating vision that I am striving for. Finally having a living space that is clean and neat, and stays that way, rather than exploding days or minutes after being cleaned up.
Good night!
-Me
Then, as I went for a super short walk, just down to the end of the block, I saw an SUV drive by, and it wasn't until after it had gone that I realized it must have hit a squirrel, because there was a squirrel on the road, in the wake of the car, thrashing around but not walking or running anywhere. It was kind of heart breaking, and I couldn't help being a bit angry at the SUV, wondering if it was carelessness that had killed the squirrel. I prayed for the squirrel to find peace, and by the time I opened my eyes, it had stopped moving.
It's been a full day. I also wrote, shot, produced, directed, and acted in a brilliant pop-art/neo-impressionist piece about the nature of desire. Not really. I'm being silly. I just made a super simple and very odd (and I think hilarious, but my sense of humor is odd.) little video that had popped into my brain at some point and entertained me enough that I didn't forget about it. I thought it should just take like, a half hour to make, but you know how video editing goes: it's always about four times as much work as you think it will be. At least until you're a pro. Then you know ahead of time that it's going to take four times as long as it should, and maybe it only takes two times as long.
I'll save that for later. Gotta space out my posts. Because... um. Why do people space out their posts? I guess I'm doing it because I assume people are intimidated by long posts and would prefer shorter ones, in the same way that a quadruple decker sandwich is just too big to be convenient for consumption.
Though I think the main reason it's a more popular format is because people trying to sell you things want you to develop habits of consuming their object/media, and training people to come back to your website for the next little food pellet over and over again builds in that habit more strongly.
This is one of the reasons I prefer to consume my media in occasional all-day bursts. The hope is that by doing so it is less habit forming and results in less overall time spent on such things. I don't know if this is actually the case.
But it does make me think strongly of facebook. That website is a drug. Those of you who are getting here via my facebook posts (most of you? I have no idea what the demographics on that are. As far as blogger is concerned I get 0-4 page views max, so I think it's a bit broken. I know for a fact at least 6 people read my blog.) Anyhoo, ahem:
Facebook is a highly addictive drug. I recommend avoiding it as much as possible, if you value your time, or if you do not want to be addicted to things. This is probably true of lots of forms of social media.
It sucks coming up for air and realizing you've just flushed hours of your life down the drain thanks to the glowing screen in front of you.
I know how difficult it can be to overcome addictions, so you have my deep compassion, if you are an addict. The first step is recognizing you have a problem. I think?
Speaking doing things you know you shouldn't be, I need to stop writing and go to sleep.
Still not finished with my apartment room cleaning/organizing. But getting close. So close. There's my addiction right now. Or perhaps obsession would be a better word. Two of my teachers/mentors, both named Tom, have said that, to get really good at something, it is useful to have a degree of focus bordering on obsession. There is just something so satisfying about it, for the control freak in me. I do stuff, and I see an immediate improvement in my surroundings. I am confident in my ability to succeed. I am bringing order and beauty from the chaos, and I am discarding excess baggage, simplifying my life, approaching the zen purity, beauty, and simplicity that I find so aesthetically pleasing. And if I can wrangle it down to a small enough size and order it properly, I can keep it organized moving forward. That's the real motivating vision that I am striving for. Finally having a living space that is clean and neat, and stays that way, rather than exploding days or minutes after being cleaned up.
Good night!
-Me
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