Pursuing Repeat

As I have written, I listen to music in my car while driving. I have what is to me an elaborate audio system and I have by no means mastered all the details of its capabilities and their use.  As I listened to Beethoven's 5th, I let the CD repeat.  It has been repeating for a couple of years.  Sometimes, I want something different and I switch to the iPod that has been repeating "The Elixir of Love" by Donezetti.  So, by now, my brain has pretty well memorized the music.  

I find that music coming to my mind, unsummoned.  When a passage ends, I can hear in my mind the next few notes.  So, when I learned somehow of Prof. Elizabeth Margulis's book "On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind", I was interested.  As usual, I first checked Amazon for the book, preferably in Kindle form.  They have it but they price it at $37.94.  

I could scrape together the next weeks' milk money but I won't.  I have gotten into buying too many books, enough that I have little chance of even opening each before I leave this life.  So, can I borrow it through the Libby app?  No, they haven't heard of the author or the book.  I looked up the book in several places, including the campus library.  On line, the library looks much like always but the actual building is being torn down and replaced.  The librarians have worked rigorously and imaginatively at moving the umpteen different desks, services and collections elsewhere, trying to keep university library functions while the building is closed to patrons.  

A couple of days ago, I found a Wisconsin library with a copy so I jumped through hoops and pressed buttons and made the right arrangements.  The arrangers said to be on the lookout for an email that said the book was waiting at the campus relocated library.  I was and I have the book!

Ebooks for children

Lynn started tutoring a pair of 2nd graders, a boy and a girl.  The main academic goal is to become a more fluent reader.  Many people have heard of the summary of basic education, called the 3 R's.  They were readin', 'rithmetic and writin'.  Note that reading is considered the basis of the basis.  It is a complex skill and can take a few years to develop.  No matter how many years you have been reading, getting into a complicated field in a high-level textbook can still be a challenge.  So, if you have read books, thank a teacher or several, maybe including your parents and others who got your interest up, kept you at reading when you were discouraged.

Today was a day for Lynn to go to the elementary school and tutor.  She needed to get a book of appropriate difficulty to use with her pupils.  As she talked about doing that in various ways, I got to thinking myself.  I like ebooks,  just about exclusively from Amazon, since they aren't very expensive and are as quick as a phone call.  I got my first ebook in April, 2008, fourteen years ago.  I have many now but until this morning, I had never even thought of ebooks for children.  

Of course, the basic characteristic of books for children is including colored drawings.  My Kindles don't show colors but read.amazon.com does on a computer.  I found there are quite a few children's books on Kindle and today I bought my first one ever.  It's "There was a cold lady who swallowed some snow".  The physical, social and equity ramifications of the story are extensive.

Up to date

I don't actually use my electronic devices.  I can't.  I am too busy.  Between keeping them charged (but not when they don't need it) and updating the operating systems and all those apps, I have a fulltime job.  

That is not completely true but is any statement completely true?  Even if it was completely true In My Opinion an hour ago, conditions may have changed and made it less true now.  Between updates and electricity charging, I have plenty to do.  How's that?  Is the truth value of that statement higher than the one in red?

It seems to me that using the on/off switch on a device has some interesting parallels to human life.  When Mommy and Daddy make a new person, that person develops a heartbeat that keeps plugging along for the rest of life.  We don't cotton to no interruptions. But if we could and did, we might be able to take energy-saving breaks and vacations.  Maybe even life-extending actions.  But then I would need another app on my iPad or my phone or my computer that would "scientifically" evaluate a proposed interruption for the estimated value so it could be compared to the probable value of continuing as usual.  Life is hard, right?  Tricky, complicated, full of estimates of this and estimates of that.  Maybe it's better to just continue to use the system we have and try to avoid getting too detailed. 

The Legend of the Virile Victors

As an 8th grader, I was invited by a classmate to spend a day and a night with him in the family's place in a seaside resort.  That evening, he and I saw the musical "The Student Prince" by Sigmund Romberg.  It is filled with stirring, rhythmic music urging all manly guys to drink and drink some more, toasting, honoring, adoring their sweethearts.  The songs and the lyrics must have affected us since when we got back to the apartment, we felt charged with energy.  My friend's older brother was out on a date and the movie encouraged us to imagine he was having a merry and manly time.  We wanted our share of his attention so we placed a wooden chair on his bed with a note "The Virile Victors".  

I thought "virile" meant "manly".  After all, I took Latin.  In that language, man can be "vir" and I had heard the word used once or twice.  We were feeling especially powerful and daring so the note seemed right.  We never heard any reaction the next day or ever.  I had no idea that many people reserve the word for manly powers between the sheets in the company of one's sweetheart.  She was portrayed by Ann Blyth in the movie.  (Ann was a teen crush of mine even though I never met the lady.)

At the time, we had no credentials for virility, in or out of bed.  Some words can surprise a person.  You can see one or more versions of The Student Prince on YouTube. 

Tired after a holiday and much cooking

I have felt somewhat tired and somewhat grumpy today. My wife slept a bit longer than usual today.  A friend wrote that she was exhausted.  

I do feel grateful for all the things we thought of yesterday. We definitely have many good things, both material and immaterial.  We have plenty of turkey meat.  It is 43° outside and our snow is mostly melted and gone, leaving all kinds of green lawn visible.  

Often, when we think of complete perfection, you know, back to clouds and harps and wings again.  I suspect that we need better Heavenological thinking.  It may be that instead of kindergarten thinking of zero worries, complete satisfaction with no pains, maybe life is actually impossible that way.  Maybe we need hangovers, broken bones, scams and such to know which way is up, what is good and what isn't.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have been advised to "count our blessings".  I often see research and therapy that agree that being aware of things we are happy about, thankful for, is good for us.  I don't like too much counting and last time I tried, I found more blessings than I could count.  

Hope many blessings surround you, visit you, bless you!

Two subjects that might be of interest

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oIHvIPabMb2v0H91_m_WDnC6EcB-CZFfLL7LOj2oldU/edit?usp=sharing

Bill

Where should I put my attention?

I could look over there or over in that other direction. I could listen to this or that.  My mind can travel in other ways to other places.  I can focus on the past or the present or the future.  A large group of people focus on a combination of the past and the future.  They say that an important form of God was born about 2000 years ago.  Some believe that he will appear again.  

Working with Buddhist and related ideas, it is possible to focus on being more aware of the present.  How do I feel right now? What seems to be on my mind at this time? It is possible to be so wrapped up in preparation for the big family dinner that I forget to put on my pants.  That particular omission will probably be corrected when I step outside in the 33° air.  When a person, perhaps a professor who is thinking about the Peloponnesian War, forgets that he has a glass of milk in his hand and spills it, we call that person "absent-minded".  It's funny since the one thing that is not absent is the mind, although its owner is not focused on his present circumstance.

Meditation can be a tool to practice being aware of one's present.  So can the books and ideas of Ekhart Tolle, author of "The Power of Now". Am I in pain now?  Am I happy now?  Am I aware now of my current hopes for this day? When I read Walden years ago, I was impressed by his reminders to apply, strengthen and deepen my appreciation of what is NOW.  I want to savor the flavor of this moment, this person, this scene, this accomplishment. Watching the Adam Sandler movie "Clicker", I developed caution about fast-forwarding through the tough parts of life.

As we age, we may be pleased to see, hear, smell, taste and appreciate what we have, what we are NOW.

I can't do that!

Lynn shared an item on Facebook about a five month old godwit that some birder tagged in Alaska.  That bird with tag flew to Tasmania, off the south coast of Australia.  It flew for 11 straight days, covering 13, 560 kilometers.  I have been to the coast of Tasmania but I had the help of planes and ships.  I didn't do that when I was five months old.  I can't fly and I couldn't walk for 11 days, non-stop.

A friend recommended we watch the PBS Nature program "Snow Bears".  We did watch it last night.  A mother polar bear bore two cubs, male and female.  Because of season change, she had to get herself and the cubs to a place where they could get food.  When she had trekked with them for some days, she managed to kill a seal, their main food.  When she ate some of the seal, it was her first food for seven (7) months!! A couple of Google results say that I might be able to last one month or two.

A month from today will be the shortest daylight of the year.  3:47 PM Central Standard Time will be the moment when the days start lengthening and we have 3 months of winter.

Fwd: Fw: How did we go from this to this

Sent by friends

Worth looking at in my opinion

t.ly/hgNR (shortened link)

Complexity, pills and computers

I read about how complex humans are.  Just their brains and nervous systems are quite intricate and interwoven in ways we don't understand.  We are trying but there is more to go.  I read recently that one hypothesis about advanced forms of life is that reaching our level or higher leads to extinction since we can't manage to handle our powers without missteps.  

I am interested in complexity and ways I and others deal with it.  I decided to try what might turn out to be handier with computers and connected devices.  One problem with that is I don't tend to use my devices in a popular or expected way.  Therefore, web pages and routines, even the placement of buttons, are not very much designed for my wants and tastes.  I often have enough inner fire and bulldogedness that I will keep trying various ways to get what I want, all the time following hunches and guesses as to what goal is a good one and what methods (I can understand) will satisfy my plan.

It doesn't simplify things that I keep changing what I want, what I think will be fun or interesting or worthwhile.  Various sources keep encouraging me to do good, help the poor, etc.  I can get enough goals and basic plans that they conflict with each other, plus raise my blood pressure and anger.

While I am fooling around in semi-dark, Lynn is "doing the pills".  That is a job I tried once but nearly made a hash of it.  I am trying to get Windows to accomplish a configuration I guess will be a happy one sometime in the future and she comes along with questions about what the nurse practitioner said would be good for me.  Good thing we are both retired and at ease!

Might read it again but might not

I often ask friends and contacts what they are reading.  It is just an attempt to enter their world.  Many people aren't reading anything.  Some seem reluctant to say so while some explain they are working on squirrel cages or packing for a trip or preparing for a son's wedding.  As an older person, I am interested in the after-effects of reading a book.  

I guess it does matter what sort of book I read.  I have read enough hot sex scenes, heart-breaking death and loss scenes and scary there-is-a-monster under the bed scenes that I am not attracted to such books.  Usually, when I use the Libby app (https://libbyapp.com), I usually set it to show me only non-fiction books.  I am not drawn, these days, to magazines, audiobooks or fiction. I do read some fiction and I plan to read more but there are so many books that I am drawn to that are non-fiction I am attracted to that sort of reading fundamentally.  

As I age, I find that I have less memory of a given book.  I have some lists of books I have read 

t.ly/4S6i a 1983 list        t.ly/c2Gi  a 2011 list

and I can usually remember the author and the title and a few impressions from the book but not much of it.  When I read of lost days of schooling due to Covid, I doubt that not reading Tom Sawyer or Silas Marner will actually hamper a person very much.  I am confident that humans of just about any age who are not led or directed by an adult with an agenda will tend to find activities and experiences and thoughts of value.  I realize playing with matches or loaded guns and such can easily lead to trouble but a little watchfulness by an adult may be enough to guard against mishaps and still leave room for exploration and novelty.  

I guess one way to look at my mind is like the office magazine reader.  He is paging through Field and Stream while waiting to be called for teeth-cleaning.  He doesn't expect to stumble on an article that changes his life but he finds spending a little time reading about duck blinds is an ok way to engage his mind while waiting.  I just clicked on the 1983 link and tried looking at titles 25 and 26.  I bet they are fine books but I don't recall much from them.  It is quite possible that my current ideas about education and thought were influenced by #25 or #26.  I can tell you five minutes or so of speech about book 27, quite memorable.

Writers and notebooks

I am enjoying the book "Writers and Their Notebooks" by Dianna Raab and others.  I don't feel that way but writers' notebooks can be a really big deal.  A couple of writers said they put more effort into their notebooks than into the manuscript they gave to their publisher.  

I have been paying more attention to my notebook myself but it is for a rather ordinary reason.  I have said for quite a few years that I want to use my blog to be aware of my life.  Some aspects of my life are hard to miss.  Taking a trip to Cuba or Hawaii takes time, money and effort so of course I notice.  My memory seems to be getting more selective and more spotty but I do remember a big thing like a trip involving flights and money and far-off places. But much of the time, what happens to me happens in my mind.  Sometimes, interesting thoughts occur to me more or less out of the blue.  For those sorts of internal experiences, often fleeting and easily forgotten, I can make a note or two that helps me remember the idea or sensation I had.  

Sometimes, what I experience is basically a feeling and it can be helpful to select some words to describe the feeling or its apparent cause or consequence.  I can't write about something without something to write (or draw or describe as a symbol or reminder).  I usually write a daily blog post in the afternoon and post or email it between 1 and 4 or 5 PM.  I enjoy the blog much more if I have a strong idea of something to write about, something I at least momentarily care about.  

I believe in meditation, ranging from a single conscious breath to 10 or 15 minutes.  Some of that activity is usually aimed at noticing the beauty and mystery of being alive and what comes with it for me.  Sharply unpleasant or irritating events, forces or ideas are useful writing focuses, too. I don't feel that my notebook is especially valuable but I am getting old and my memory can be erratic, especially for an idea or impression.  I try to write five notes, each of which may serve as a theme for a post.  Sometimes I have more than five but five is usually enough.

Garrison, Amadeus and me

Garrison Keillor wrote in "Garrison Keillor and Friends" today that he enjoyed and was uplifted by a Mozart violin concerto.  I often listen to classical music, too. After taking friends to an airport, I turned on my car CD player and listened to Beethoven's 9th, performed all over the world.  I kept listening to those 4 tracks over and over for about a year.  I learned of Elizabeth Margulis's book "On Repeat : How Music Plays the Mind" and I will track down a copy sometime.  The Kindle version is too expensive.

After a year or so, I switched to the iPod in my car.  It is set to play "The Elixir of Love" by Donizetti (1832), in English, repeatedly (t.ly/Qt4C).  It is a lightweight story with a tremolo baritone repeatedly complaining he is dying of love until a con man sells him a bottle of Bordeaux that "Dr." Camara says is a magic med that will surely make Adina fall in love with him immediately.  I actually am interested in what is often called mind-body medicine and deals with placebos and the biological power of belief.

I sit at a red light and nearby autos are playing country western or hot metal and I wish I could introduce those listeners to classical music and its greater richness and variety.  When I assemble a bowl of breakfast flakes, Elixir tunes and arias come to mind, just as Margulis says they will.

Devices, communicating and juice

I have multiple devices that connect to the internet.  I use an iPad and an Asus Windows machine most.  I keep the Windows computer plugged in all day so I don't check its amount of charge.  I see that several machines are now engineered to charge their batteries to only 60% of capacity to make the battery last longer.  Some of my devices are elderly and very slow.  Those I more or less forget about.  The others I try to keep charged enough to be of some use.  

I am interested in interface design.  That's the layout of words, buttons, colors, etc. that the user can use.  Sometimes, a particular button or action can be used more than once, as when a button is pressed twice in rapid succession.  That sort of thing can be somewhat like casting a spell according to the steps the medicine man prescribed.  I think it is very possible to use a device for years without ever realizing it has some capacity you never learned about.  Besides that wrinkle, once you learn of an ability that enables you to do just what you want, you find to your annoyance that few users employ that ability so an upgrade removes that function.

One of the last things I do at night is check some basic devices for the amount of charge they have - will it last me through the next day or should I charge them overnight?  I have a phone that fits in my small pocket but has a limited set of abilities, several of which require me to use another email in addition to the one I depend on.  I have a smartphone that seems pretty handy but it is too big.  I have looked at smartphones that fold to a size that fits my pocket but they are far more expensive than I want to pay.  I don't take many calls on any other line than our landline anyway.  I still find that two hands on a keyboard and the greater power of a computer suit me best.

Internet business

Since about 1990, the internet, traveled by "browsers" like Netscape and Edge and Chrome and Firefox and many others, have been a way to advertise and conduct other kinds of business, to visit sites or cyberspace places.  Many smaller businesses hire someone to create a website, where a phone number or business hours are posted.  Sometimes, I read about Amazon disturbing the commercial world with its extensive web site where I can order a garden rake or headache medicine or just about anything.  I am in my 80's and we had Montgomery Wards and Sears, with their very large paper catalogs and ability to supply items ordered by mail or phone.  

I see that Montgomery Wards and Sears are still in business.  I think smaller businesses can forget that they have web sites and make changes in their product lines, business hours or other things without remembering that website.  Some businesses seem to depend on a Facebook page but that may not be a resource that people think of checking.  Even if an owner or employee does think of the need to change the language on some internet business page, he may lack access to the page or knowledge of how to change it.  

We are still in the infancy of communicating by internet.  My wife has constructed various pages and sites for others, including me. Both of us often run into obstacles or out-of-date information on business pages.  One bother I am aware of is the handling of privacy.  My main health services provider no doubt has both actual legal matters as well as matters of politeness and good manners to consider.  Still, getting an email, probably automatically sent to my public email that says I have a new message in my special private account, finding my logon and password, going into my special privacy-enabled account and reading a message that says ``Thanks for being our patient/client/customer" is a pain.

Miscellany of 7

For the first time, I had my cart taken by mistake in the grocery store.  I thought I had a cart right over there but no, the cart there has several items I didn't pick.  I was pretty sure.  I looked around and there was a couple who had an empty cart.  I didn't think it could be mistaken for the full-ish one.  I pushed the orphan slowly toward that couple.  As I approached, the man said to the woman "This isn't your cart." They saw me pushing their items toward me.  The man immediately said to me,"She has had a very bad morning."  Turns out her flight was canceled and she was redirected all out of the way.  The story of many people these days.

I asked my greatgranddaughter, a very withit young lady, if she ever read my daily blog posts I email her.  "Sometimes".  A lovely answer.  If the day is too busy, if the title is off-putting, if I am a bit tired of Grandad, nah.  Judgment maturing!

CNN Photos of the Week: t.ly/8E_u

New report from astronomers on why we haven't met any intelligent life in other parts of the universe.  Their idea: all such forms killed themselves off as we are doing with climate change, etc.

Had a family gathering.  What noise!  What energy! What a pleasure!

Don't forget the library in your pocket.  Google, Duckduckgo and other search engines can immediately put you in touch with answers and new ideas.

I read of a man biking outdoors for exercise.  The path led beside a highway.  A deer ran in front of a car and was hit and thrown into the air.  The carcass landed on the biker!  Just what he needed?!

A widespread art

My wife is a member of an artists' cooperative, an organization of artists working in several arts like painting, pottery and photography.  They are an active and energetic group.  But I notice that there are basically no word workers.  They do sell some greeting cards but the language arts seem to have been skipped somewhat.  

The question can arise: what is an art?  I think we can speak meaningfully of the art of snow removal and I know the art of cooking is a big deal, a giant deal.  However, I think the art of speaking, and by extension, the art of deciding what words to put on paper or monitor screen is a very widely used art.  Little kids are polishing up their statements for parents and elders to convey Christmas gift desires.  Men are deciding what to say in a proposal of marriage.  

Yesterday, I read a statement by Miriam Nestle, a food scientist, mentioning the book "Nose Dive", a book about our noses and sense of smell. While looking in various places for a copy of that book to look at, I saw "The Ape Who Spoke: Language and the Evolution of the Human Mind" by John McCrone (1991).  Whether we are speaking or writing, we are engaging in an art, using our knowledge of a language and our feelings of who and what we are, what we are feeling emotionally, what we are trying to convey.  We do in fact have many words for our language productions, such as statement, testimony, poem, essay, letter and such.

A big portion of education, on just about all levels, involves the production and reception of language.  You might speak some words that educate me and I might write some that convince you I have learned.  We produce words so often during the day, it is easy to overlook how much our lives are made of words.

Seeing and hearing others

When I was in junior high school, my stepdad gave me an article written by Bruce Barton.  It attempted to explain three valuable principles for living.  One of the principles was "Stand at the head of the class in English."  My stepdad was the man who said it was clear that I had been vaccinated with a phonograph needle, emphasizing how much I talked.  I liked English and I liked books but I didn't pay much attention to communicating.

I communicated all right but I rarely was accused of going on too long.  I saw examples of the damage one can do to himself and others with a compulsion to go on too long.  Besides, many examples of masculinity are walking models of taciturn living, the sort of manly man who utters one syllable per week.  Plus, I was aware of turning heads away when a listener lost interest in what I was saying.  Also, glazed looks.  

You may have heard that old smarty Socrates said that it is basic to "Know Thyself".  Self-knowledge seems to get a little easier as I age, possibly because I have a longer set of years of experiencing myself.  Plus, several trails of wisdom advise watching oneself both internally and externally.  

But recently, the internet, the rise of "influencers", the popular use of social media like Musk's Twitter and Facebook/Meta and other platforms have helped me see how in a sense communication makes us.  True, I get impressions of how others feel from looking at their faces, paying attention to the emotional tones of their voices and seeing their actions but what people say and what I know of what they do gives me most of the picture I have of who and what they are.

Various books and films emphasize how our roads and rules and wealth develop by communication by voice or writing.

Dark instruction

I like to use Libby.   An app that is well-constructed and handy for borrowing ebooks for free.  You can go to the app store on your phone or tablet or just visit https://libbyapp.com on a computer or other connected device.  Using that today, I found the book How to Be Miserable by Randy J.Patterson, PhD.  He is a practicing clinical psychologist.  He isn't actually helping people be miserable, of course, but trying to show what can lead to misery that can be stopped or modified.   

One source of difficulty is just pure chance.  Patterson was riding his bike and a car near him hit a deer.  The deer flew into the air and landed on the biker.  At that point, some people say "What are the odds?" but they don't really care what they are.  They are likely asking the ancient question "Why me?"  You know that Job was minding his own business.  In fact, being an outstanding example when the Devil said to God that even such a model man would curse God if enough difficulties befell him.  Deliberate torture and bother of a model citizen ensued.  See?  Don't be too model.

How to be miserable seems to be well-written and if you accept ebooks, you can get your own copy for $8.99 in ebook form or a dollar and a half less if you can wait for used booksellers to mail it to you.

Loss of "Heaven"

You may have heard that someone had a winning lottery ticket for a prize of 1.9 billion dollars.  A friend's adult son calculated that such a prize, taken in monthly payouts, would bring 35 million $ a month.  Months have 31 or fewer days so that amount would be more than a million a day.  A man recently commented that he didn't want that much money.  His wife said that is too many doughnuts.

If you take reaching the age of 40 years to be a good lifetime for primitive and early humans, we are consistently reaching twice that number in many groups.  I suspect that in the years past age 70, we find new sorts of wisdom and recognition of life's truths.  Among these is the revelation of the difficulty of picturing paradise.  Lying or sitting on puffy clouds while playing harps seems a limited way to spend the rest of all time.  I guess when humans, say in Europe or some other feudal place, worked under the authority of a local lord, that man's house and position might well seem heavenly.  However, those workers are more educated now.  They can often read and write.  Their education, regardless of which genitals they have, urges them to stand up and live a life of their choosing.  They are more likely to have smartphones and can develop critical thinking, doubts as to the truth values of longtime guidelines their parents and earlier ancestors took for granted.  

Yesterday, I ordered a paper copy of the book The End of Power by the Venezualan journalist Moises Naim.  From the write-up about the book, it is a review of the downsides of being in charge, being the top dog.  The very fact that an elderly man in a small city in Wisconsin knows about such an author and book is just one sign of more critical thinking flaring up all over among humans.

I am falling back more and more on the conclusion that this life, this wife, these friends, are as close to paradise as I am going to consciously experience.

Being careful

I am married to several fine women but they all live in the same body.  One of them can place a great emphasis on exactitude.  She spooned out two servings of coffee chunks ice cream.  She offered one dish to me and then quickly switched offers and reached out with the other.  This puzzlement stimulated her interest in exactness.  She got out our scale and weighed one serving: 7.50 oz, including the weight of the bowl.  She weighed the other dish: 7.50 oz. The same to three digits.

She was satisfied with the scale and the reading.  She was indifferent as to which serving I took and which was left for her.  I took the bigger one and we are both pleased with our participation and with our partner.  Be exact!

FOMO

Some months ago, I read of FOMO.  I am not up on the latest expressions but I was curious so I looked up "FOMO".   What I found said that the letters stood for "fear of missing out".  I think that sort of worry can pop up when I hear that a wonderful party was held but I hadn't been told or invited.  

We have many ways of communicating these days and information about an exciting event can be sent by email while I am only looking at Facebook.  Lynn and some other women have devotedly used US Post for communication once a month for decades.  They know they could send a text message but they want to stick to handwriting on paper that gets put into an envelope, stamped with a US postage stamp and mailed.  I might develop FOMO when I find out that people I know talk on Google Voice but I don't check that service. 

Anyone who uses tv or the internet or borrows books from a library can actually see that they aren't keeping up and cannot.  Viking and Elderhostel/Road Scholar make it clear that there are many parts of the world I have not visited.  

The more I estimate and calculate, the clearer it becomes that whether I have a fear or not, I am going to miss out on many trips, books, friends, movies, etc.  I have several thousand Kindle books, many that I have never opened. Each Monday, I can go online using https://libbyapp.com, the app/program called "Libby" and see more than 12,000 books I can borrow for free.  Netflix offers me 3700 movies I can watch.  

I am moving away from any fear of missing out and improving my acceptance of my gorgeous limitations of time, patience and interest.

Leeway

I never met my great-great-great-great-great-greatgrandfather.   I am confident that he is deceased.  I have nothing against his contribution to my descent and I imagine it was ultimately a fortunate contribution, judging from a quick glance at ME!  The guy could have been a cattle rustler or a bankrobber.  He might have contributed to Communist causes if he had been given an opportunity to do so.  The tone of the world that man lived in and the tones of the world since can be characterized in many ways.

My thesis is that since I don't know, it is better to stay sort of neutral about the nature of great6-grandfather and many other things, people, ideas, causes until I learn more and perhaps verify to my satisfaction.  I was listening to a talk by Prof. Sean Carroll today on the physics of time.  He described Galileo's attempt to measure the time taken by a swinging lamp in the ceiling of the church when a boy.  Carroll said that all boys in that town had to go to church and they did.  I dispute that statement because I am betting that two or more boys in that town at that time skipped church at times.  If you track me down and show that 100% of the boys dragged their tired, bored selves to church during Gally's time, I will try to expand my argument to accept not paying attention while physically present and try to have such mind wandering accepted as a type of absence.

I understand that attempting to cover all counter arguments results in annoying and picayune statements that try peoples' patience.  I am getting some amusement from keeping my eye open for statements that may well have a little leeway that goes unrecognized.

Hit in the head

Years ago, I was a high school senior minding my own business when the track coach told me that the school's main pole vaulter was out due to injuries.  He invited me to try to substitute for the missing athlete.  I thought to myself that I might be good at the event.  I put on shorts, got a pole, found the area and gave it a try.  I had vaulted over a ditch or two and, of course, I was attracted to the idea of being a sudden hit, scoring big points and setting amazing records.   Who needs talent when you have imagination?

I ran down the lead path with my pole at the ready.  No one watched me, which turned out to be a good thing, in a way.  There was a small cement pit for the pole to catch in.  I knew that I should let the point of the pole catch in that little pit and take off.  I did take off but did not sail up very high.  I came down in a state of disappointment, which quickly turned to pain, as the long, sturdy metal pole toppled into my head.  Ouch!  O, yeah!  Don't forget about the pole.  Cast it away from yourself.  Try again.  Run, leap!!  This time, I had not remembered to shove the pole away but I remembered to protect my head.  The falling pole was trying to score again but I raised my forearm to protect my head.

There are important nerves that run along the arm.   If you raise your forearm to deflect a falling metal pole, there is a good chance that the pole will strike a nerve.  In this case, it did.  Yow!!  

I tried several more times.  I cast the pole away from myself and suffered no more blows to the head or arm.   Each try, I managed to get a foot or two off the ground.  I ended my pole-vaulting career that same day. 

Preparing to write a master's thesis

Many teachers don't like math.  But in many school systems, getting a master's degree will improve a teacher's pay level.  So, at some point, teachers may be staring at the business end of a degree beyond the bachelor's.  Getting a master's degree often includes writing a thesis, the term for a paper that culminates the master degree program.  The word "thesis" can also pop up meaning something like "in a nutshell, what is your idea".  A master's degree doesn't have to include writing a thesis.  Writing a thesis doesn't have to include numbers or numerical analysis of data.  More and more qualitative research studies are being done. 

If I can assert that 90% of people are left-handed, I may have arrived at that figure by checking a reasonably large number of people.  Just determining an acceptable sample size can be one or more statistics lessons.  I would sit through those lessons if I needed credit for a statistics course or if I planned to do a quantitative study that involved samples and larger numbers of people.  However, many teachers know how intimate and individualized learning is.  For that and other reasons, the number of qualitative research studies is on the increase.  So, as a candidate for a master's degree, I might aim in a slightly different direction.  I might confer at length with some left-handers, perhaps all of the same age or perhaps of a range of ages, and talk with them about positives and negatives of being lefthanded.  

The paper I write might explain advantages and disadvantages that lefthanders mentioned facing.  In preparation for writing such a paper, I might take a course on interviewing and not take anything about statistics.

First light and then dark???

This may be hard to believe but I have looked out each window and I see trees, houses, lawns, roads.  Then, later, I look out of the very same windows and it's all black!  There are spots of light here and there but black?  What gives with that? Some people tell me that the light I see comes from that big yellow ball in the sky.  They say the ball moves!  I have looked carefully and I don't see any movement.

I have observed that this blackness comes earlier and earlier.  I definitely like the light time better.  Lynn says that the Earth spins and moves our house away from the sun for a while.  I have an app on my iPad that says where the light is on the earth and when it will come back to my part of the world.  I can see the light when we have it and I can feel its warmth but I think this is an odd way to live.

A fabulous post today!

I saw an article the other day entitled "What's left of our right to vote".  I am interested in what gets people thinking one way or another.  I was struck by the presumption of the title.  I am often struck by the angle or slant that writers and people speaking take.  An article or book needs a title.  It functions like a name.  If the writing is to be referred to, we need some name or identification tool to alert search engines or librarians to what we are searching for.

There may already be research on the influence of the title of a piece.  I see writing from many sources.  The greatest number of writings come from using the Foxfire browser, which has been programmed to show me articles for a wide range of publications and writers.  Each suggested article has a name.  If my wife and I agree to name our new son "Muscles" or "Champ", that name may well influence how he comes to see himself and how he is treated by others.  I have read that some governments have tried to control the naming of children and outlaw names like "Trash" or "Clumsy" or "Barbarian".  

The same factors come into play with a title.  Of course, writers and playwrights and marketers for a movie want to use superlatives, calling their new film "World's Best Mystery" or some such.  I think modern citizens are ready to dismiss exaggeration unless friends warn them: "No, it really is the best ever.  Brenda and I were transfixed.  We couldn't stop talking about that movie."  I have heard of various artists trying to avoid setting a tone with the title and using less descriptive words like "Painting 77".  Doing something like that seems related to wanting to avoid picturing or describing a beautiful young woman or a scary dark night.  I think there may be some tries at poetry and writing in that direction but I think less description or pre-set works better in visual art or music.

Using clocks

We saw a London clock that had no face and no hands.  It was built to simply chime when the hour changed.  I often go to the web site of the US National Bureau of Standards to see the time.  We have four main time zones in the US plus other zones.  This is the web page that I often turn to, mostly just for fun.

https://www.time.gov/ 

I read recently that the Chinese emperor was presented with a European clock and immediately decided to keep it for himself.  I wondered why and what he planned to do with it.  The book "How We Got to Now" by Steven Johnson has a chapter on time.  He says that not so long ago each US town would keep its own time, using the sun to set its own time.  

I find that I enjoy trying to know the exact time and to do things with a connected device at agreed-on or set times.  I am quite aware that various clocks and time devices such as the time shown on phones and tv sets disagree a bit as to the current time.  The web page linked above includes a statement of how much off my computer is when showing the time.  

I don't enjoy having to wait until the right time to meet or call or whatever.  I have found, as I think many others have before me, that getting involved in a task or a book or something can move the time effectively and often profitably.  I don't usually get so engaged that I am late.