What’s on your mind?

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

I seem to recall reading that it was as late as 1979 that the Vatican (very quietly) arrived at the conclusion that it was no longer deemed heretical to concur with Galileo's defence of Copernicus's revolutionary thesis re what body actually orbited what - in other words, where the centre of the solar system actually lay (whether the planets revolved around our Earth, or, whether they orbited the local star, our Sun, instead), in our solar system.

I suspect that may have just been tidying up some old rules that were no longer relevant. Pretty well all governments do that on occasions. Don't forget that the Doctrine of Discovery was only repudiated a couple of years ago by Pope Francis.

Especially since the Vatican has been running an official observatory since 1582. It's hard to have an observatory (and by all accounts, it's a pretty good one) and not know what goes around what.

 

[decafjava]

Enjoyed a terrific two hour chat by phone last night with a good friend (who is also a former student, in fact, the best student I have ever taught).

Very nice! We had lunch meetings with a couple of former students over the summer, it was really nice to catch up.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Enjoyed a few meetings - and discussions - with academic colleagues - comprising coffee, and later, a few glasses of wine - this afternoon and evening.

Very pleasant.

 

[The Clark]

Walk with my lady friend and our dogs today and then hanging out for a bit. Life is great.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Enjoyed a few meetings - and discussions - with academic colleagues - comprising coffee, and later, a few glasses of wine - this afternoon and evening.

Very pleasant.

Afternoon drinking is something I rarely do. Just leaves me sleepy. I guess the coffee and company helped with that.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Afternoon drinking is something I rarely do.

Agreed.

Just leaves me sleepy.

Also agreed.

I guess the coffee and company helped with that.

Afternoon was coffee; later was a few glasses of wine.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Afternoon drinking is something I rarely do. Just leaves me sleepy. I guess the coffee and company helped with that.

The strange thing was I met with two different academics (one was for coffee, to discuss a talk/lecture/seminar I am to give to his students next term) - while the other was a few glasses of wine "after work" - in one day.

An embarrassment of riches, and not remotely typical, still less, representative of my life these days.

 

[Apple fanboy]

The strange thing was I met with two different academics (one was for coffee, to discuss a talk/lecture/seminar I am to give to his students next term) - while the other was a few glasses of wine "after work" - in one day.

An embarrassment of riches, and not remotely typical, still less, representative of my life these days.

Well I had a few beers in Paris last week, but was very reserved. I probably won't have any more alcohol until next year now as I have no more work trips planned (thankfully!).

 

[rm5]

I have a classical piano audition tomorrow, which I am extremely nervous for. Classical isn’t my specialty, but I want to be in the classical piano studio next term so thought I’d at least try. I have my preference of faculty to study with but I think the audition will be in front of all the piano faculty. Playing Bach prelude and fugue in C minor for the audition piece.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Sometimes you come across something that says "This is Australia".
Channel surfing on Youtube, and watched a bit about a couple of highway police chasing a car. On the back seat of the cop car was a packet of TimTams...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I have a classical piano audition tomorrow, which I am extremely nervous for. Classical isn’t my specialty, but I want to be in the classical piano studio next term so thought I’d at least try. I have my preference of faculty to study with but I think the audition will be in front of all the piano faculty. Playing Bach prelude and fugue in C minor for the audition piece.

The very best of luck.

 

[decafjava]

Sometimes you come across something that says "This is Australia".
Channel surfing on Youtube, and watched a bit about a couple of highway police chasing a car. On the back seat of the cop car was a packet of TimTams...

Something I'd like to try just once. I think if I could get them anywhere it would be the "American Market" in Geneva, specialized in imported products from the US as well as the UK. Mostly junk food though some Tex-Mex products as well. Not sure how expensive given current economic "issues".

Anyway, to add a central European complaint to our UK posters about crummy weather, we have had "shade" weather, grey stratus - sometimes a bit white only partially dissipating by the afternoon. This is avoid the shade weather, except you can't. What I mean is in summer especially, shade from trees or the occasio nal cloud is welcome - in early spring, autumn or of course winter the opposite is the case. Even on sunny days in autumn you may feel warm until you get underneath some shade.

 

[rm5]

I have a classical piano audition tomorrow, which I am extremely nervous for. Classical isn’t my specialty, but I want to be in the classical piano studio next term so thought I’d at least try. I have my preference of faculty to study with but I think the audition will be in front of all the piano faculty. Playing Bach prelude and fugue in C minor for the audition piece.

It went really well, and I think I'll be able to be in the studio in the winter and/or spring! I've just received registration approval on the Ellucian site where you register for classes.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

It went really well, and I think I'll be able to be in the studio in the winter and/or spring! I've just received registration approval on the Ellucian site where you register for classes.

Great job

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

One of my sons is on the spectrum + adhd and in the third grade. Handwriting has been tough for him over the past years and last night was an acrostic poem writing assignment. He asked me to do it with him and he did a great job creatively thinking and writing sentences for each letter. The issue was that part of this assignment and what the class is learning is the concept of the rough draft. SO, when it came time to copy what he had written, this was a major life stopping issue for him. In my sons mind, this is completely unnecessary and a waste of his time and he was NOT going to do it. After all he had already written the assignment down. Corrections of not, it was done. It literally took two, almost 3 hours to get him to copy what took him maybe 20 minutes to write initially. I was a little cranky this morning and a lot tired after that haha

Anyhow, I am thinking about what are good strategies there are for explaining the need for rough drafts and that it is an important part of the writing process. This is what is on my mind.

 

[Apple fanboy]

One of my sons is on the spectrum + adhd and in the third grade. Handwriting has been tough for him over the past years and last night was an acrostic poem writing assignment. He asked me to do it with him and he did a great job creatively thinking and writing sentences for each letter. The issue was that part of this assignment and what the class is learning is the concept of the rough draft. SO, when it came time to copy what he had written, this was a major life stopping issue for him. In my sons mind, this is completely unnecessary and a waste of his time and he was NOT going to do it. After all he had already written the assignment down. Corrections of not, it was done. It literally took two, almost 3 hours to get him to copy what took him maybe 20 minutes to write initially. I was a little cranky this morning and a lot tired after that haha

Anyhow, I am thinking about what are good strategies there are for explaining the need for rough drafts and that it is an important part of the writing process. This is what is on my mind.

My daughter was on the spectrum and I feel your pain.
Finding good strategies and explaining them to your children is a challenge.
Miss AFB would never do home work. School work was for school not home. Quite a common issue.

We had a really good Speech and Language therapist (private not through the school). She explained lots of stuff to us.

Do you have someone trained you can talk to?

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

My daughter was on the spectrum and I feel your pain.
Finding good strategies and explaining them to your children is a challenge.
Miss AFB would never do home work. School work was for school not home. Quite a common issue.

We had a really good Speech and Language therapist (private not through the school). She explained lots of stuff to us.

Do you have someone trained you can talk to?

Excellent point. We are lucky enough to have a very good publicly funded support structure of thorough testing and assessment in our public school system and my son was diagnosed in 1st grade and since then has had access to a separate classroom with teacher/therapist who has done wonders for helping him to progress with his primary class. I will reach out to them as well for guidance on this.

 

[chown33]

One of my sons is on the spectrum + adhd and in the third grade. Handwriting has been tough for him over the past years and last night was an acrostic poem writing assignment. He asked me to do it with him and he did a great job creatively thinking and writing sentences for each letter. The issue was that part of this assignment and what the class is learning is the concept of the rough draft. SO, when it came time to copy what he had written, this was a major life stopping issue for him. In my sons mind, this is completely unnecessary and a waste of his time and he was NOT going to do it. After all he had already written the assignment down. Corrections of not, it was done. It literally took two, almost 3 hours to get him to copy what took him maybe 20 minutes to write initially. I was a little cranky this morning and a lot tired after that haha

Anyhow, I am thinking about what are good strategies there are for explaining the need for rough drafts and that it is an important part of the writing process. This is what is on my mind.

On the time involved:
"It will take you less time to complete it according to the requirements than it will to complain about it."

On the requirements themselves:
"Sometimes you have to do things to meet other people's needs, not just your own."


FWIW, I'm always interested in wordplay, and I think acrostic poems are an interesting example. Could you post it (with author's permission)?

 

[rm5]

I had a very good occupational therapist in elementary school who taught me how to write by hand. We would spend like half a hour just working on how to write the letter A. And eventually wrote words and sentences. Took me a VERY long time to learn but now I can write perfectly fine.

 

[rm5]

On a totally different note, played two trio gigs in the college's brand new building. It's got this nice event room, perfect for small-to-medium size events. Music felt good and everyone liked us. Mostly simple jazz standards. Piano in there is really nice, a 5-foot Steinway. Sometimes I actually prefer those over the 9-foot Model D's—they just sound and feel different, and they're great for practicing on, too. They've got the same ones (Model M's, I believe) in all the practice rooms.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Spent the afternoon acquiring blue fingers.
I have been fine-tuning some nibs in Wing Sung fountain pens to be as good as those in my Pilot Custom pens.
That means my cheapy $5 stainless steel nibs write as well and feel as smooth as the $200 Japanese 15K gold nibs.

Nearly there. One larger nib, I can't get just right. It would be acceptable to many people, but I want it to be just that little bit better.

The blue fingers? When you adjust the tines for alignment and gap, you have to do it with a loaded pen. That means ink magically moves from the nib to the fingers.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Tomorrow is the last day of my week off. Well technically I worked Monday.

So on my mind is work. As I was away the week before at a trade show I’ve got two weeks of work to catch up on.

I have another week off at the end of November to look forward to I suppose, but the rest of the year is pretty bleak. Winter is such a depressing time of year. Even when it’s not dark, it’s grey and overcast. Not very enticing to get outside, especially with a camera.
Roll on Spring!

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

On the time involved:
"It will take you less time to complete it according to the requirements than it will to complain about it."

On the requirements themselves:
"Sometimes you have to do things to meet other people's needs, not just your own."


FWIW, I'm always interested in wordplay, and I think acrostic poems are an interesting example. Could you post it (with author's permission)?

Thank you for the feedback and ideas. My son said it is ok for you to read his acrostic poem on hot air Balloons. When the teacher returns his assignment, I will post it here for you to read.

 

[Richard8655]

An important day for expression today. That's what's on my mind today.

 

[JamesMay82]

Tomorrow is the last day of my week off. Well technically I worked Monday.

So on my mind is work. As I was away the week before at a trade show I’ve got two weeks of work to catch up on.

I have another week off at the end of November to look forward to I suppose, but the rest of the year is pretty bleak. Winter is such a depressing time of year. Even when it’s not dark, it’s grey and overcast. Not very enticing to get outside, especially with a camera.
Roll on Spring!

I know that feeling although I do look forward to the time off work at Christmas as the phone and emails go quiet.

It’s got me thinking of ways to separate my work and home life. I’m self employed project manager so I only have 1 set of devices and very often find myself being text or emailed at all times which drives me mad..

I’m thinking of separate user accounts on laptop a work email and a new phone so I can fully switch off.. any tips to avoid a new phone? Do focus modes work?