Great news: I've officially been accepted into the Montessori program I applied to! I thought it was likely given what they're looking for and what I am, but it was ultimately a black box of mystery until an answer came out. So, much gratitude to the universe and all the people who've helped me with that, from my dear writing teacher to my graduate school teachers to the Montessori teacher that inspired me to go for it.
That variable has been solved and now I can begin a whole new set of to-do items such as finding a place to stay in San Diego for the summer that's near the school and reserving my spot with a deposit.
The big projects for the next week and a half are the classes I'm teaching for my volunteer work. The final classes for the kids I'm teaching, and the first class for the human values training for adults and the general public that I need to design and teach to finish up my course work for the Training I did in January. I suppose I should put a shout out to any readers who are interested: all are welcome, there will be no cost and in fact no donations accepted, and I'll be talking about something dear to my heart and related to human values. Right now I'm leaning towards a lesson that gets people really clear on what Carol Dweck's Growth mindset is and isn't and how to cultivate it. Useful for people of any age, and useful for parents and teachers who wish to cultivate it for their little charges. More on that when I've firmed up my plans.
Let's see, what else... my office is beginning to turn into something that's not horribly inefficient and distracting.
Oh, I know: I discovered a good anime. This is akin to discovering a significant artifact, since almost all anime is wretched to the point that anime that is merely bad is generally considered good, or even great. By and large, the artistic merit is nil, with boring backgrounds and minimal character movement. Even when the animation is smooth and detailed, it is usually unimaginative or super derivative, and the stories and plots and characters are enough to make one's brain turn to oatmeal from the sheer cliched, stale, flat unoriginality of it. Often, the non-cliched ones are so weird that they are interesting only for the "what the heck?" factor. And then there is a small pool of anime where the plot and characters and art is well done, but the actual content is reprehensible. Dark, violent, etc.
But every now and then, something makes it through that is actually deep, beautiful, original, and doesn't make you feel horrible afterward. Most Miyazaki moves fall into this category, but there are some others out there. Like with all forms of art, there are some masterpieces, and some creations that, while not quite masterpieces, are still excellent works of art. I sometimes browse through Amazon's or Netflix's collection of anime, trying to find one like that, but they are exceedingly rare. I'd put Avatar: the Last Airbender in the category of "Great" and that's all I can think of. It usually doesn't take me more than five minutes of watching to get a good idea of the general quality of an anime. I might skip around and watch a minute or two further in or in another episode just to confirm, but it's not really necessary. 95% of the time all I need is the thumbnail and the short blurb.
I think I'd categorize it like this:
90% horrible, you'd have to pay me really well to even sit through an episode.
8% merely really bad. Some redeeming characteristics but not enough to ever want to watch it.
1.9% actually OK. I would watch this when my brain is mush and I want to relax and be transported into another world.
0.19% very good. I would actually make time in my schedule to have the experience this art is providing. This is where the current anime I just discovered fits.
0.01% Masterpiece, something that could stand the test of time and become a classic.
The other nice thing about what I discovered was it is short. Which is a bonus for me, since I don't have time for long series these days.
I should share a screen shot. The main thing it has going for it is the beautiful world and music. It has it's issues though, so if you're interested in watching it, you can ask me about it and I'll give you the disclaimers. I don't endorse it unequivocally, like Avatar or anything by Miyazaki. Though ultimately it is about good triumphing, which is what I love, it's got some scary and dark and weird parts. For some reason it makes me think of Donnie Darko in that way. (A movie I used to love, but I think I've grown out of.)
Anyways, screenshots:
I think there are other important things happening. Oh yeah, my birthday is coming up! And a whole bunch of other people I know who's birthdays are also in May. I'm not actually sure if I'm turning 31 or 32. Does it really matter? I don't know when I'm going to plan it. Speaking of which, I'm well and truly out of time, perhaps past time. I perhaps should have done a shorter post. But this is kind of how I work: slowly, diligently, and with great focus on one thing, until it is done to my satisfaction. Either that, or improv-riff with no concern for output. I think they both have there place, but one thing is constant; I am part of the vast majority of people who functions more efficiently when given long stretches of time to work with deep focus on something. Task switching is inefficient, but often necessary.
Oh, that would be another good topic for a class: the science behind the iPhone effect, multi-tasking/task-switching, and supernormal stimuli (and what can be done about these things. I never want to introduce doom and gloom and leave people without action steps that can be taken. I don't really want to doom and gloom at all...)
Anyways, until next time (quite possibly another Tuesday, given everything going on) this is your friend Isaac, signing off and taking the empty tea cups to the kitchen.
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