Lynn's corrected account

I think a husband ought to know his wife's history, don't you?  Here is Lynn's corrected account of what was posted yesterday.

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I completed my teaching degree at UWSP, with a minor in "learning resources," otherwise known as school librarianship. While an undergrad, I worked part time at the public library and later at the university library. Upon graduation, I taught second grade, then became an elementary school librarian. I got a master's degree at UWSP in audiovisual education during my 11 years there. I spent three more years at the high school library, then went to UW-Madison for another three years, where I earned a Ph.D in educational technology, with an emphasis in computers and a minor in distance education. I taught school library science classes at UW-La Crosse, then moved back to UWSP, where I worked in IT, designed (early) web pages for some departments, worked on evaluation of programs and grants, and taught grad classes until retirement.

My messy-sounding career was perfect for me, a person who loves, even needs variety.

Lynn's "Reasons for Stevens Point"

https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety2/link-to-reasons-for-st-point

Lynn completed her teaching degree at UWSP, which led to 11 years as an elementary school librarian and 3 years as a high school librarian.  Then, she attended UW-Lacrosse where she got a master's degree in school librarianship and taught courses in the subject.  Finally, she attended UW-Madison and got her PhD.  She created the filmstrip "The Reasons for Steven Point" as an undergraduate. I have heard the sound track many times.  Local realtors have used the project in their sales.

CNN Photos of the Week/ 4/27/25

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/world/gallery/photos-this-week-april-17-april-24/index.html

I am sorry I post a link to CNN Photos of the Week every Sunday but they are too good.  I don't have much of visual interest normally and they are too good to miss.

Remembering a number

When I was a kid, my parents ran a candy store for a few years.  At that time, many candy bars cost 5 cents.  Now, many candy bars cost a dollar.  Are they now 20 times bigger?  Twenty times better?  Just like my height now that I am an old guy, things change.  Sure, it may be that greed is part of the reason but chocolate may be harder to grow, more expensive to transport.  Rents, food, other expenses may be higher for manufacturers or their employees.  Candy may be less popular so manufacturers, transporters, sellers need to charge enough to make the business workable.

Things are often more complicated than we know.

One-third of spring has elapsed

Monday was another 21st of a month so that means that approximately ⅓ of spring has passed.  Sometimes, a season begins or ends on the 20th or some other nearby day but the 21st is a good memory point.  The internet says that summer will begin on Friday, June 20th at different "times" in different locations.

Uncovered

We sometimes mislay our phones.  Lynn intuits when it is time to call the missing phone's number, walk about the house listening for a ringing and thus locate the thing.  We resorted to that process the other day.  We had to turn down the covers on the bed. There it is! No wonder we couldn't see it.

Talk, writing

I found in the past years that having a question was helped by a search.  Could be Google or Duckduckgo.  Most searches supply related topics and questions used by others.  It was those similar searches that opened my eyes to other possibilities.  It feels to me like sitting with a group and hearing gossip, ideas, fantasies, questions, confusions - valuable alternative takes and opinions.

My daughter gave me Storyworth services for a year.  Each week, they sent me a question, I write the answer and they collect my answers and publish a little hardback book of them.  They make a big deal over saying I can modify or substitute other ideas if I don't want to work on theirs, But I found that their questions, like the related searches, took me off into areas that my own thoughts didn't. 

Male ego and feminine guilt

I enjoy the tv show "Call the Midwife".  Every once in a while, a difficult situation arises and the particular woman involved comes up with the idea that this troublesome deal is her fault.  I would not be a good head of Nonnatus House. Rather than offer comfort to the disturbed woman, my tendency would be to say "Are you kidding?  What in the world makes you think that this situation, which barely involves you, is your fault?  Do you think that the world revolves around you?  Stash that ego and accept that messes occur."

Such a grab of the ego reminds me of a corresponding but barer assertion by a man that "I happen to be the finest person there is or ever was".

I am quite late today

I don't have a good excuse.  Once I put off writing at the usual time, I tend to think and do other things. During the morning, I make notes of subjects that come up, either events or thoughts.  But it is definitely evening now so I will write more typically tomorrow.

CNN Photos of the Week 4/20/2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/world/gallery/photos-this-week-april-10-april-17/index.html

I bet you came out of a woman

I asked a professor I know if she knew of the book by Ashley Montagu called "The Natural Superiority of Women".  She smiled knowingly and affirmed that she did.  As I have written, I find the tv show "Call the Midwife" the best and most interesting show on TV.

I find it fascinating that everyone I know came out of a woman.  I assume you have a basic understanding of how everyone got in there.  The show makes it clear that getting in is often rather easy but getting out can be more complicated and difficult.  When it is difficult, it can be an enormous help to call the midwife or nurse or doctor.

Just turn the page

I seem to spend more and more time trying to get to the next page of a magazine or newspaper.  Are they using some new device to make the pages harder to page through than before? I claw, I tap, I bend, I flex - even to the point of doubting that the page I have just finished actually has another somewhat stuck or hidden or clinging to it.  I resort to looking at page numbers to figure if the next page I have gotten to.  Maybe I am clawing at the edge of a single sheet but no, the page numbers, when there are page numbers, says there is a page between the one I can get to and the one I am leaving.

School bus

I attended school in the Baltimore area for 12 grades and never used a school bus.  I know now that for some people the images of waiting for the bus, riding on one more or less equal the years of school.

t.ly/XlZ8F

The fleet of buses in our town is housed mostly in a fenced-in yard.  The buses represent a hefty sum and the subject of student transportation to schools is a major side of children's education.  

As a college student majoring in elementary education, I thought I would enhance my finances driving a school bus.  After training, I took my first load of students to their school but on the way, I drove between a delivery truck and a garbage truck.  I didn't notice the side mirror on the garbage truck until that mirror crashed through a bus window.  I got the kids to their school and drove to the housing garage.  I was told to consider myself terminated and not to show up any more.

What do you want for your birthday?

She didn't know.  She already has everything.  I made some suggestions and she had some reactions.  I said maybe a Three Musketeers candy bar.  We agree on a Milky Way.

Desk jobs

It seems to me that the modern, connected, digital world is converting everything into what can be called "desk jobs".

I am reading "Book and Dagger" aloud to Lynn and we have read about 60% of the book.  We know from experience that the software Amazon uses often includes material that we don't consider part of the main text. 

The book is about the use of librarians, library and document researchers and such bookish types in the espionage services of the Allied armies while most people carry an image of a suave, well-dressed man as a spy.  My wife was an elementary school librarian, a high school librarian and a professor of school librarianship and she knows what shepherding books around teens and kids is like.

At the time, I first started teaching teacher-prep students and graduate teachers, spreadsheets were just becoming available.  I eventually had classes of many students and spreadsheets that kept my records were a great help.  I once heard the head of career advising for a college say that knowing how to use a spreadsheet was the single most valuable skill college students could learn.  Having a stack of papers or a file of student email that had to be converted into grades was a very common task for me.

People whose morale stays high and who accomplish various computer and recording-keeping tasks with few or no errors are needed in an increasing range of desk, clerical type jobs.  Law enforcement, spycraft, teaching, research - virtually all jobs call for accurate, up-to-date records and communication.

Nuts

Since I was a little kid, I have liked nuts.  Peanuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds, filberts, - all good.  I think my mother used to shell pistachios but I didn't develop a fondness for them until recently.  I read Andrew Weil on integrative medicine, including his idea that humans can benefit from some ginger each day.  I think Professor Weil's idea is that ginger has some molecules that are good for the body and hard to get unless one intentionally eats ginger.  I buy sugared ginger in a large bag and eat a piece with a cup of green tea each morning.  Over the years, I have added almonds, dates, and dark chocolate.  Lynn likes pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and I like the salted and baked one.  

Recently, I added pistachios to that routine and when I ran out of them, I ordered some from Amazon.  I didn't watch what I was doing carefully enough and clicked on a deal for 6 bags of shelled, salted and baked pistachios, each 1.5 pounds.   That comes to nearly 10 pounds of pistachios and that is an over-supply for us. 

CNN Photos of the week 4/13/2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/world/gallery/photos-this-week-april-3-april-10/index.html?

Trivia 55

Yesterday, at 6 PM, about 300 teams around the world began listening to 90 FM, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point campus radio station.  They listen to questions about admittedly trivial matters, obscure historical facts and such, attempting to secure more points than other teams.  This is the 55th time the "World's largest trivia contest" has been run by UWSP FM 90.  The radio broadcast of questions allows people all over to participate but it is not easy.  The contest runs without interruption or breaks for 54 straight hours, from 6 PM Friday until midnight two days later on Sunday.  That procedure explains some very fatigued persons around town and some sleeping late on Monday.

Chipmunks and writing

One commenter said I seem to have overlooked the possibility that despite their speedy movements, chipmunks may be relaxed all the time.  I admit that seems quite possible. I hadn't thought of the fact that I am a human, with human experience and I may be seeing the tiny animals through my own lens.  The comment made me think of the book "An Immense World" by Ed Jong, about different animal senses that give various creatures information and experience that humans don't have.

The other commenter told me about the pleasures of writing about events and feelings about those events and then later reading over that writing.  With free word-processors for a computer, such as what is available with Google Docs and Drive and free access to tools and facilities for publishing one's writing, such as with Blogspot and Wordpress, observing and writing now and re-reading later, maybe years later can bring deep pleasures.

Just calm down

I am impressed by how good and right meditating feels.  The quality went up once I realized how good an anchor for my attention my breathing was.  I read "Conscious Breathing" by Gay Hendricks, one of my favorite authors.  I also read "Breath by Breath" by Larry Rosenberg and I learned about long periods of meditation, as performed by Buddhist monks in Korea.  I am certainly not much of a marathon anything, including giving myself calm and appreciation of my life and its blessings.  I like to do a little and come back later.

It is the beginning of spring now and that means local chipmunks are out of torpor stage and flirting and fighting.  They run across our back raised deck, drinking some of the water out for birds and wildlife.  I have looked in vain for calm, Zen chipmunks but they all seem faster than a human eye.  I suspect that none of them meditate or are capable of it.

Pockets

Lynn complains that women's clothes often have no pockets.  And, when they do, the pockets are often ridiculously small.  I assume the lack of pockets is meant to avoid modifying the body shape an onlooker sees when looking at a woman.  That female human shape, often called an "hourglass", with its characteristic top, small waist and hips is an eye-catcher for men.

Lynn said today that thrusting a finger into women's pockets often shows that no more than half the length of an index finger will fit in.

I usually have what I need in my various pockets, often with one or two still empty and available.

I realize that carrying a purse can make having quite a number of items handy.  Using Duckduckgo showed that the history of pockets and carrying bags is complex and goes way back. 

Trans fish

I read today that the species of fish called "Clownfish" have a strange deal.  If the main breeding female dies, the main male turns into a female and carries on with her role.  That's all I know.

The last page

I have tried to write a journal many times.  In the past, I have tended to buy a nice clean notebook, write entries on about ⅔ of its pages and drop the effort.  As a result, I have many half-used notebooks.  

I know that I am an anticipator.  When I can see the event almost ready to happen, I tend to jump the gun.  But yesterday, I began writing on the very last page of the notebook I began using for blog prompts on February 3, 2022.  Back then, I had not realized that writing to a general, unspecified audience was an activity that was good for me.  I had not developed a habit of noting ideas for a day's post in writing as ideas occurred to me. I had not invented a limit of five ideas, marking them in a way that showed there were five and writing down additional ideas that came along on that day with a different mark.

I am proud of myself for keeping track of one notebook and using all the pages.  I have definitely discovered that some good ideas come to mind that will slip away at my age if I don't write clues for myself.

CNN photos of the week 4/6/2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/03/world/gallery/photos-this-week-march-27-april-3/index.html

Diminshed effort, very diminshed nest-bit

It is not that they can't find materials.  I think there are plenty around.  I am hoping that the pair are losing their enthusiasm for the site.  There really isn't room for a proper nest.

Looking that up

When I look something up, I can tell it does me some good just to formulate the wording of the inquiry.  I almost always use Duckduckgo since it prides itself on keeping my searches "private", that is somewhat secret.  Normally, I am not ashamed of my searches but I am interested in avoiding having people all over the world sending me emails that explain why I should be buying their products.  

I was impressed by Jacques Barzun's comments that scientists are discovering so much new stuff that it is straining our supply of words just to name new discovered parts, processes and particulars.  One way we handle the strain is to use a perfectly good word for something new, something additional.  Say, I write the computer code for a new program that I want to sell.  Let's call it "slidingboard", even though it doesn't slide and it isn't a board.  From now on, when you look up "slidingboard", the first uppity-up pages of the results will be about my wonderful, handy, lovely program and not about playground equipment.

Again??

Our tax preparer called and said that the IRS says I didn't pay my estimated taxes.  Again.  Ha!  I was disturbed when I found I had forgotten before.  I had to pay an additional penalty and I felt good about paying when I should.  However, it looks like they are correct.  Some payments appear to be missing.  Damnit!

Small temp and small time

We know a fellow who is about our age and suffers from dementia.  She was supposed to take him to a physician today for a check-up but we worried that the roads might be too dangerously slippery with ice. Later, she called and said the roads were not bad at all.  Some of our weather apps said the outside temperature was 32 degrees but some said it was a little warmer, maybe enough to not freeze.

I have four different weather apps on my iPad and they rarely agree totally.  Besides, we are often said to live in Stevens Point but that can point to a rather large area.  There are occasions where one app or another says it is raining or snowing when outside of our house there is no trace of either.  We are used to clocks, weather reports and sometimes computers or house phones not agreeing with each other.

The same sort of disagreement happens with time readings.  My watch, my computer, my tablets, various clocks around the house can disagree as to what the exact time is.  I used the labels "small temp" and "small time" for times when I am interested in the exact time or temperature but I have learned that idea is somewhat mythical.

Woo-Woo

I am interested in the books and writings of David R. Hamilton.  His book called "Why Woo-Woo Works" is about his working as a pharmaceutical chemist but becoming interested in aspects of modern life that did not seem to stand up to modern methods of scrutiny.  His interests can be said to relate to the subject of placebos and nocebos, instances where positive or negative words and beliefs are held by humans who are, or seem, able to affect their own or others' lives with ideas that aren't supported by modern methods of testing, experimentation and evidence collecting.  

The novel by recently deceased author Tom Robbins called "Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates" features an explorer who gets cursed by a tribal medicine man.  The explorer is told that he will die if his feet touch the ground.  The man remains in a wheelchair from then on.