CNN Photos of the Week

Here's a link to CNN Photos of the Week:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/28/world/gallery/the-week-in-38-photos

Let's go!

She came in and said, "How about a trip?"  I said,"Where?"  She said she thought maybe the Waupaca chain of lakes.

https://clearwaterharbor.com/restaurant-bar/

They serve meals but they also sell tickets for a slow boat trip around the Chain of Lakes.

https://wheelhouserestaurant.com/

We drove there, looked at sites, had lunch at the Wheelhouse restaurant and took the tour.  A very beautiful day, with breeze, bright white clouds and brilliant blue sky.

 Last night Biden and Trump met and held a debate.  I didn't watch the event but I have read several statements about it, both from friends and by media commentators.  I understand that Mr. Biden did not look leaderly and Mr. Trump made several doubtful statements.  Several sources, both more personal ones and professional, have said it was not impressive.

I urge both standing firm and adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

Sometimes I ask

I ask myself who is this person I have lived with for 60+ years. I know where we met.  When I think of her life, I am impressed.  I often read of doubt about becoming parents.  We wanted children.  I often read about women as homemakers vs. women having outside careers.  This woman raised two children with a job teaching elementary school.  Her first year, she and three others were in a car accident in which the driver of their car was killed but the others were unhurt.  She had a minor in college in school librarianship and she got a much closer job doing that.  After more than a decade, she moved to being a high school librarian.  After several years, she became a full-time doctoral student and got her PhD.  She got a job as a professor in a different university.  Both of us tried handling two locations but dropped that and she got a job at mine, teaching about and using those machines called "computers" and creating things called "web pages".

I often read about "matching" - is this person a good match for me as a marital partner?  My experience is more in line with the question "Am I seeing the value, the amazing powers and insights of this gem?" 

New info on Patti Page and the sorrowful waltz

We have known for years that she spotted an old friend and introduced her to her loved one.  We know that while they were dancing, the friend stole the loved one from her.  Recently, it has been learned that the loved one carried a prototype of the iPhone and it included an early AI app. That app was equipped with advanced evaluation abilities of dancing partners and it vibrated the information to the loved one that this new female was the ONE! The rest is history.

However, only recently have records been uncovered that showed the loved one and the friend provided funds and solace when Patti's grandson contracted ooggy-booggy fever that was treatable at Heidelberg medical school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XCvfy6Huyc&pp=ygUacGF0dGkgcGFnZSB0ZW5uZXNzZWUgd2FsdHo%3D

I can't hear, I can't understand

I have been wearing hearing aids for more than five years.  But as I have written before, it is not just detecting sound that I am slipping in.  It tends to be understanding more often.  I can often tell that someone spoke but I don't know what it is they said.  At times, I ask "What did you say?"  Much of the time, I understand what they are saying the 2nd time.  Sometimes, not then, either.

Haven't forgotten

When I listen to music played at dances held by my all-male high school, it still moves my heart.  One of the many songs that got me up, dressed and on the streetcar (what's a streetcar?) to attend school was "Cross Over the Bridge", sung by Clara Ann Fowler, also known by her stage name, Patti Page.  Another one, popular at the time, was "How much is that doggy in the window?' by the same singer.  

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=patti+page+greatest+hits

CNN Photos of the Week

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/20/world/gallery/photos-this-week-june-13-june-20/

Other people's choices

I have been with me since before I was born and our relationship seems well-explored.  So, I am accepting others' choices more often.  What kind of drink, what menu item, what movie - it's an item that my wife chooses.  I thought "King Richard", in which Will Smith won an Oscar portraying the father of Venus and Serena Williams, was fun and informative.  Last night, we watched "On the basis of sex", a story about Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a young woman attending Harvard law school.  What ?? A woman?  Shouldn't she be home attending to kids and cooking?  It was fun, and eye-opening, something chosen by the woman who lives in this house and very worthwhile.

I have written about how worthwhile my daughter's gift of Storyworth has been.   They are the company that sends me a weekly question and collects my answers.  They emphasize that I can modify their proposed questions if I feel drawn to write about something else.  But, I have had my best experiences so far answering a question I would not have thought of.  I prefer their questions as prompts.

Send him a message

Currently there are many ways to send a message to a friend. I listed nine different ways but only by cheating a little, as you will see in a moment.  The cheat, by the way, LOWERS the number of ways, not raising it.

1. Landline

2. Cellphone

3. Email

4. Text

5. Visit

6. Visit a neighbor

7. Facebook

8. Other social media

9. US mail

The cheat is #8, since LinkedIn, TicToc, etc. are more than just one.  Here's a list by monthly active users:

1	Facebook	3 billion
2	YouTube	2.5 billion
3	Instagram	2 billion
4	TikTok	1.2 billion
5	Snapchat	750 million
6	X (Twitter)	541 million
7	Pinterest	465 million
8	Reddit	430 million
9	LinkedIn	<350 million
10	Threads	100 million

*Number of monthly active users worldwide updated October 2023.

But if the desired recipient doesn't use your chosen method, he might never know you sent a message.

Now it is summer

Well, not below the equator, where they are beginning winter!  But here in the northern hemisphere, we have just passed the point where we are into summer.  Today is the longest day of the year and plenty of parts of the US have already had and have very warm weather.

Suspicious

I got an email from a person I rarely get anything from.  It said "Touching basis". This from a woman who speaks fine English?  Sometimes, I would trash that and forget it but I like that woman.  I wrote back and said that it was rare to get something from her so could she write something to convince me the source was genuine?  I received a photo of her husband's driver's license with the message "Now I have proof you."  I explained my suspicions to my wife.  During the conversation, I realized I had not compared the email address with my record. Oops!  Didn't match.

Are you free then?

We have heard of "the golden years", those of retirement, rest and relaxation.  We have heard that the final years are a process of "extraction and reduction, possibly the hardest period we have ever lived."  It may be that a middle road, one of wrinkles and wisdom both, is the sort we will have.  What we have found so far is rather pleasant but very busy.

Friends say we should get together and catch up.  Well, not tomorrow, we are too busy.  Not that day, we have appointments. It seems the main thing that has been extracted and reduced is open spots on our calendar.

Is this exciting?

I am confident that if I don't make this post exciting, it won't be read by many people.  I need to think of something scary or disgusting.  Maybe then, people will read my post and send copies to their friends.  If I could find something uplifting, some kind of good news, that might make my post go "viral", that is, be copied on that network formerly known or that big one.  The whole business of liking what I write and passing it on to others with similar tastes or fears is political, really,  Politics is about people, what gets them excited in either positive or negative ways.  I am really a man so I know that real men, not the fake sort, are unafraid to face unpleasant truths. In fact, sometimes the unpleasanter the truth, the more a brave, feisty real man faces it.  Experience with thinking and looking out for dangers can lead to the basic habit of taking anything comforting to be mistaken.  Maybe I should follow those who say anything that sounds good has to be fake.  I remember reading Loren Eisley's comment that men and apes as well sometimes develop the habit of grouchiness after seeing how many things are come-ons.

Happy Father's Day!

I know.  I have heard it before: fathers contribute nine minutes for a baby while mothers contribute nine months and then the rest of their lives.  I recognize the importance of that other sex but today is for thinking of, thanking, and appreciating fathers.

It may help to download a copy of "He: Understanding Male Psychology" by Robert Johnson. That book shows the basic pattern of male searching, searching, searching for a mate and a place that fits.   It can be lonely and it can be dangerous.  But a quest can result in adventures and in satisfaction.

Today is a good day to look through CNN's Photos of the Week:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/world/gallery/photos-this-week-june-6-june-13/index.html

Richard and Megan

We usually watch a movie in the evenings.  If it is a long one, we may stop after an hour and resume the next night.  

Recently we watched "Megan Leavey" and I thought it was interesting and thought-provoking.  I think I have read that for some people the death of a pet, especially a dog or cat, can be more upsetting than the death of a spouse. I try to earn my place in my wife's heart by wagging my tail alot and licking her face but it doesn't seem to be very endearing.

Anyhow, Megan Leavey is a very real person who did enlist in the US Marines and became a military police K-9 officer.  I found it quite interesting and moving.

Last night, we watched "King Richard", about the father of Venus and Serena Williams and his life as their coach.  I didn't realize that Will Smith won an Oscar for the role.  Again, a real person with a real story, one that is very moving.

Both of these films were selections by the woman with the licked face.  My daughter bought me Storyworth for Christmas, a service that collects my statements about my life and memories.  They make a big deal about the flexibility in their procedure, always open to modifications in the wording of the questions and also in what questions I am to answer.  But I am impressed to find that it is their questions as they have composed them, that get my thinking in directions I would never have even thought of without the service. Lynn's impulses to try a movie, or a restaurant for that matter, often turn out to be gems for me that I would never have considered.

I had an idea but I can't remember it

The most impressive book on memory I have read is "Remember" by Lisa Genova.  She makes a point about forming memories: The reason I can't remember where on that large lot I parked my car is that I didn't form a memory of the location.  I can see that I need to get better at forming a memory. Having difficulty is the reason I try to carry pen (a miniature) and paper in my pocket.  I want to jot down a note of anything I think I want to remember.

Mental habits and abilities

I have been reading "The Power, the Glory and the Kingdom: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism" by Tim Alberta, a book elected by my book club.  The author is the son of a Protestant Evangelical preacher and seems quite worth reading.  I feel somewhat familiar with the basic approach to religion taken by many American Protestants.  In my early years, my family attended a Baltimore Baptist church. I think I was part of one or two summer vacation Bible school seasons.

I also think I have some feeling for the impulse to try to figure life out.  In graduate school, I had two minors, philosophy and psychology.  As a young professor teaching courses at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point in educational psychology, statistics and grading and testing, I developed an interest in Buddhism and in meditation.  My friend, Professor Larry Riggs, and I took a short course in Myers-Briggs personality types and I learned from Professor Arthur Herman about the differences in the approach to life taken by Buddhism and by Christianity.  There is a famous trio of Americans, Jack Kornfield, and two others, who traveled to the East and studied with priests and religious thinkers.

If you are interested in religion, self-knowledge or figuring yourself and your thoughts out, I suggest going to the blog page:

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com

And using the search box in the upper left corner and search the term "Kornfield".  The results suggest many valuable sources for pondering our lives and thoughts.

Our business

We  figure she was about three years old.  We came into the kitchen and here our daughter was up on a chair, with her arm in the open cookie jar.  My wife asked, "What are you doing?"  This sophisticated very young lady answered calmly, "None of your business." We disagreed and told her so.

What's a computer?

When I began teaching at UWSP School of Education, I had just written my dissertation.  To analyze the data involved, I wrote a program in the computer language Fortran.  When I moved to the campus, I wrote in the faculty newsletter that if anyone wanted to discuss computers, I would be interested.  I was hired by the campus business department to assist faculty in using a computer they rented from IBM for $16,000 a year.  Part of that job was to talk to faculty members about the availability of that rented computer for faculty use.  

A couple of times, I struck up a conversation about the availability of a computer for academic research and was asked, "What is a computer?"  I doubt that I would be asked that today.  At that time, of course, people were not generally carrying a powerful sophisticated computer in their pocket as they are now.  Then, we had to write the routine we wanted the machine to follow, "write the program", a job I found difficult and tedious.

Today is an anniversary

Today is the anniversary of my first day teaching in the School of Education, UWSP. I taught two classes that day: tests and measurements and the thesis seminar for the master of education degree.  They were part of the summer session courses and only ran for 8 weeks instead of the fall or spring sessions of 15 weeks.  Such courses meet for 3 hours straight, five days a week.  The seminar is usually the final step in the master's degree requirements, as the doctoral dissertation is the final step for the PhD.  Some doctorates culminate in an EdD degree: Doctor of education.

Tests and measurements was a course that could be taken for graduate, that is, post-bachelor's degree, or for the master's degree.  The link on these page leads to a download of the book I later put together for the tests and measurements course:

https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety1/kirby-tests-and-meas-book-grading-testing-and-instructional-format

CNN Photos of the week 6/9/24

CNN Photos of the week

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/06/world/gallery/photos-this-week-may-30-june-6/index.html

Don't be afraid of the bear.  It is tranquilized

Often retold

As I age, I tend to select the story of something that mattered to me.  That story created a splash and I tell it.  I don't remember who I have told what. So, people get the old-guy experience of seeing him enjoy an anecdote while recalling the last three times he has told the same story, usually with the same emphases, the same pauses and the same evident glee in the same places in the story.  I am interested in this phenomenon so I asked Lynn to tell me something that I have told her too many times.  She quickly cited the exciting story of the single green pea.  I did a search of my blog and couldn't find that story so let me tell you about it.

I was about five years old.  We were eating dinner and I accidentally let a pea fall off my fork as I tried to convey several of them to my mouth.  That pea rolled toward my mother's plate.  The motion caught her eye.  She reached down, picked up the errant green vegetable and ate it!  Isn't that hilarious?

(Now just forget it so I can tell you all about it again, later.)

Wheel of Fortune

I have lots and lots of ancestors, most of whom I never met and never will.  Those I have met seem like nice calm people but not give to high levels of passion. I read today that Mr. Pat Sajak has been the host of the well-known tv show, Wheel of Fortune, for 40 years and is retiring.  I taught at UWSP for 37 years and I asked myself if I would have been happier doing what Sajak did.  I didn't and I am confident I don't have 40 years left to live but naturally I am prejudiced toward my choice and my experiences.  

I wouldn't have applied to spin the wheel for 40 years or even one.  I enjoyed working with students and faculty and I suspect I have the kind of personality, abilities and weaknesses that might well never land me the job of hosting that show, even if it has a nice high salary.  After a few months or years, I might well have become dissatisfied or bored or both.  It is a popular show and it might not have been with a bored host.  

Congratulations to Pat and to me!

My watch-wearing wrist

Habits are a big part of being alive.  I am interested in keeping track of myself and my activities and my watch helps me do that. I wear it on my left wrist.  On Sunday, I talked on the phone to a friend and we talked longer than usual.  I am confident I held the phone in the right hand the whole time.  I should have changed and moved but I didn't.  Some of the muscles in my back protested at being in the same position for a long time.  That has happened before and I treat the muscles with a heating pad. They have been giving less pain but I get annoyed with myself for using my right hand for too much while the muscles are sore.  So, I slipped my watch onto my right wrist in an effort to be more conscious of the right arm and the tasks I use it for.  What was funny was short bursts of a message to myself that I wasn't wearing my watch.  I would get the impulse that I had omitted putting my watch on, look down and see it on the non-typical wrist and erase the impulse.  That probably happened half a dozen times at least.

Society's secret tool

Whether it's a group of scientists, or women knitting or men drinking beer, it is much the same tool.  Google or other search software approximates the same thing.  What is it? TALK!  

I haven't worked with Artificial Intelligence because so far, I haven't needed it.  

I can't get my mother-in-law to like me.

My dog is acting funny.

Etc.

Discussion often involves a problem or a discovery.  Sometimes, it's appreciation: did you see that game last night?

I guess it is quite possible that software or human wetware in the form of brainpower influences or edits possibly related searches that have been performed.  

These days, advertisers or their employees or their web pages are often getting the way of pure thinking.  When I think of traveling to Rio, I may not immediately want to price plane flights but the heck with what I want.  They will just show me several pages of links to airlines, rooms, alternative trips they run to other Brazil destinations.  Sometimes, it helps keep to the subject I want if I put quote marks around the search terms I want.

And yes, I include the helpful subject of Writing in addition to TALK since I can read comments made by people all over the world and from many time periods.

Former Faculty Luncheon

When I finished graduate school in 1968, I read material about the founding of universities in the US.  I was impressed with some differences in various statements.  The universities in the early years were founded with statements about the wisdom of the ancients while those a little farther west had statements that said things like 'all knowledge can be useful, satisfying or beautiful but we want to know why our cattle are sick'.  That sort of statement of purpose attracted me to Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.  I got a job with the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point in 1968 and I taught there until 2005, for a total of 37 years.  I very much enjoyed teaching 5th grade in Baltimore County for 4 years and I very much enjoyed UWSP.

Today, my former college, College of Professional Studies, held a luncheon for former faculty.  Both Lynn and I attended.  She is a former researcher for UWSP and graduate school professor in computers in education.  Of course, in the 19 years since I retired, many former colleagues have died. Many of us walk with canes and have other changes from dealing with the "extractive and reductive" processes of aging.  It is valuable to see pictures of ourselves and colleagues as much younger people, sometimes barely recognizable.

I had a good time teaching and I appreciate the opportunity to see some of the people I taught with.

Walking pens

As I age, I find it helps to write down ideas, numbers, titles but to do that, I need a pen or pencil and something to write on.  I suspect that the act of writing a note is often as valuable as the note itself.  It is amazing that I can pick up a pen in the office and take it into the living room without noticing when I do that.  I return to the office and discover that my pen is gone! My number 1 suspect is me.

We have a good supply of scrap paper just saving sheets that are blank on one side that come in the mail with ads on only one side.  I try to add all the blank-on-one-side sheets to our healthy pile.  Folding such a sheet into quarters gives me a good paper for notes, if I remember that I have one.  For a year or so, I have tried to keep a Bazic Palm Pen in my pocket so I have some to write with.  The design can sure be improved.  They advertise the pocket chain attached but the pen is not on the chain, just the cap is.  The little pen can accidentally get entangled with my handkerchief or it slips into the edge of my wallet and falls on the floor when I try to get to my credit card.

I am trying out "Chinco mini pens" from Amazon.  They are one piece and they twist to bring out the point.  I know I want to be able to jot things down easily and quickly.

Revolving doors, "Extraordinary Attorney Wu", and Temple Grandin

I am reviewing my Kindle books.  I have bought enough of them that I need to stop buying and/or re-read.  Looking over the titles, I selected 11 to check out.  One of the first is John Ratey's " A User's Guide to the Brain".  He first discusses factors that impair good brain development and that brings to his mind the subject of the woman Temple Grandin.  Her condition is often described as "autistic" but a single word is not enough to cover her unusual history, condition and abilities.  

Temple wanted to be better at getting along with others.  She is an "autistic savant", a person with strong disabilities but also high intelligence and a photographic memory.  She wanted to learn to get along with people better but even approaching a person was very frightening.  She tensed and failed to practice usual restraint, getting too close.  She decided her conditions when approaching a person felt similar to what she felt trying to pass through a revolving door, a complex action that caused her tension.  Reading the words "revolving door" immediately brought to mind "Extraordinary Attorney Wu".  That was a tv show produced in South Korea that we watched on Netflix.  Wu is portrayed by a pretty actress who is not hampered but does a fine job emanating an atmosphere of fully unusual behavior in the show.  Like Temple Grandin, she has a very difficult time passing through a revolving door.  Its appearance and motion confuses them very much.  Add the demonstration of difficulty when others pass through easily and there is a problem. I guess Grandin practiced enough and benefited from her practice more than Attorney Wu.

Our pans

Our pans

I just checked with our memory bank, which resides in my wife's head.  That source has told me that we got these pans since we were married.  Before that, we had cheaper pans but cooking with these is easier and less messy.  My father worked for Revere Copper and Brass, a quality pan manufacturer.  Your own pans may carry important history, maybe starting before you were born.