Over the next months I will be putting together my own synthesis and interpretation of the chapters of the Tao Te Ching.  Feel free to read, share, comment, enjoy, hate, criticize, admire, as much as you like!  If you borrow, I am honored to have a reference by name or and by link as well.  Thank you very much!

Only I don’t especially like sailing.

Anyway…. how have I done through now?  I can look at my last goals.

I got my house prepared for winter and what a hard winter it was. Oil heat sucks.  I spent $400 on oil before I turned it off, bought two small space heaters, and saw my electric bill rise by $40 a month while just keeping the area around me above 55.  The olive oil in my kitchen cupboard solidified it was so cold in there.  Next year I’ll insulate the windows even better though.

Owen’s Mach5 guidance is going okay. I feel like I’m doing most of what I can there.  I got him some good books, talk with him as regularly and frequently as he will allow which isn’t much or enough, and generally try to do just some dev work occasionally.  But I am finding it hard to let go of Mach5 and the enticing prospect of turning it into a more solid business, which I know I can do if I wanted.

Tai Chi’s so-so. Piano’s great!  JQuery progress is okay. Programming time sucks! Creative work with kids is going alright.  Being intentional with Melly is working well, too.  The textbook work is a bit aimless on account of Alice 3 not being ready like I thought it would be.  I made A’s in my classes!  They were hard. Nice to have a break!

Next, I’ll update this post with thinking about my goals for the rest of the year.

To my Montreat community:

Yesterday a certain special person reminded me to smile. It changed my day!  That one thoughtful remark likely changed a lot that happened that day.

You’ve always heard phrases like “misery loves company” and “Smile!  God loves you!” – and many of you are familiar with the phenomenon that when an elderly husband passes, the wife will often soon follow.

There are people studying social influence in social networks (not just online but including that too) and the studies reveal some very startling observations of the impact of an individual’s outlooks, dispositions, smiles, obesity, smoking (seems relevant for today – thanks for the great lunch!)  many other behaviors, on the people around them.

Most importantly, I thought of our own culture here at Montreat in light of the last staff meeting, and about how negative or positive sentiments might affect all of us, and about how important it is to be an active participant in the “Body of Christ” out of which we are made – embodying honesty, humility, transparency, respect, openness, tenderness and joy with one another.  These are at the root the “fruits of the Spirit.”  These qualities are not exclusive to us as Christians but certainly we might have a calling to embody them fully.

If you watch this presentation,  I invite you to consider the question:  “Am I now being a builder-upper or a tearer-downer?”  I realize the degree to which my choices and behavior may  have a direct, tangible, measurable effect on those around me, or more specifically, on those with whom I work.

The Influence of Social Networks

Excerpt:

Similarly, social networks are required for the spread of good and valuable things like love and kindness and happiness and altruism and ideas. I think, in fact, that if we realized how valuable social networks are, we’d spend a lot more time nourishing them and sustaining them because I think social networks are fundamentally related to goodness, and what I think the world needs now is more connections.

The universe will expand, then it will collapse back on itself, and then it will expand again…..  and it will repeat this process… forever.

What you don’t know is that when the universe expands again, everything will be as it is now.  Whatever mistakes you make this time around, you will live through in your next pass.  Every mistake that you make you will live through.  Again, and again…. forever.

So my advice to you is to get it right this time around.  Because… this time…. is all you have.”

– Prot.  In “K-PAX”

I did send him a note asking for his position on mountaintop removal.  So far, I’m not impressed with him. He thinks CO2 isn’t dangerous because it’s essential to life, and doesn’t seem to understand the science behind CO2 and global warming and associated climate change.  He needs to watch Bill Gates’ approachable TED talk on the subject.

Or maybe Mr Howard is smarter than Bill Gates!  That’d be nice to know!

Anyway, my litmus test issue this year is mountaintop removal for coal mining.  That just has to stop. It’s not reasonable to trade something relatively permanent (a mountain) for something temporary (coal for a few months).   I’ll let you know what his website says when he gets back to me!  And if he doesn’t… he’ll get a nice bumpersticker on the back of my car.

Jake, please drop the automated machine phone calls.  There’s REASON why we consumers don’t LIKE THEM.  I do expect a personal reply now.  Personal.  From YOU, Mr. Howard, not from one of your aides.

Thanks!

Mike

So I had to get a refund. Thankfully they were very polite. I did that via chat…

>> Vijay: Welcome to Quicken chat support. My name is Vijay. Please give me a moment while I review the info you provided.
>> Vijay: Hi Mike.
>> Mike: Hi Vijay
>> Vijay: How are you doing today?
>> Mike: Well…. Okay I suppose. I’m a bit disappointed.
>> Vijay: Mike,Quicken Essentials for Mac allows you to track the overall value of your investment accounts and the value of your specific holdings by automatically downloading from your brokerage. However, it will not, track investment buys and sells, some advanced investment performance reports, and it will not support manual entry of investment transactions or positions.
>> Mike: I know. I wish that had been disclosed in all the promotional material about how cool the new version is supposed to be. But it’s not. I found it in the installation instructions. I use Quicken to track my business transactions, and to track investment capital gains. I can’t use the new version. I haven’t even installed it yet.
>> Vijay: Okay.
>> Vijay: Do you want refund for the Quicken 2010 Mac Essentials?
>> Mike: I have been using quicken for over 10 years Would you please issue me a refund, and in addition, advise me when you have software that might meet my needs?
>> Mike: I’m not really sure why such a critical functionality was removed.
>> Vijay: May I know the order number?
>> Mike: One moment I’ll get that for you.
>> Vijay: Sure.
>> Mike: Your Quicken Order Confirmation QST3505106975
>> Vijay: Thank you.
>> Vijay: Please give me 2-3 minutes while I look into my resources to provide you with the right answer.
>> Mike: Please put in your “What’s New” page about the software the bit about it not supporting investment tracking anymore. That’s really important for customers to know that before they download and try to upgrade their accounts.
>> Mike: Okay.
>> Vijay: Thank you for your patience.
>> Vijay: Mike,As you have purchase the Quicken 2010 Mac Essentials today.I can not generate the refund today.I will generate the refund in the next 24-48 hours and email you all the details regarding the refund.
>> Vijay: Would it be fine with you?
>> Mike: That’s okay. I realize it has to clear first.
>> Mike: I just really hope that Intuit will provide me an upgrade path with the needed functionality. Are there plans for it? Is there a way to move my data to a Windows version perhaps that might support that type of thing?
>> Mike: I can run Quicken under Windows if there is an easy way to move the data over and if it supports investment tracking.
>> Vijay: Mike,We can not convert Quicken 2010 Mac Essentials data to the Quicken for windows.
>> Mike: what about QUicken 2007 data?
>> Mike: (I haven’t used Quicken 2010 yet)
>> Vijay: Yes,we can convert the Quicken 2007 Mac to Quicken for windows.Please follow the steps in the below link:
http://quicken.intuit.com/support/articles/getting-started/upgrading-and-conversion/469.html
>> Mike: okay. Is there a trial of that software? I would not mind trying that.
>> Vijay: Mike,We do not have trail versions for Quicken 2010 Mac Essentails.
>> Mike: Quicken for Windows
>> Mike: I can look it up on my own I suppose and see if you do. Or if it doesn’t work properly, buy it and try it and see I suppose.
>> Vijay: Mike,We do not have trail versions for Quicken for Windows .
>> Vijay: Sure.
>> Mike: Okay. It comes with a satisfaction guarantee too I assume?
>> Vijay: Yes.
>> Mike: Okay. That’s as good as a trial for me. Thank you so much. Please PLEASE tell your supervisors that dropping the investment support was a bad idea. >.>
>> Vijay: Sure.
>> Mike: Thank you and have a nice day.

• Weekly short tests. Tests in math need to be frequent and cumulative, with lots of opportunities for practice.  Big monolithic tests are harder to prepare for, harder to grade, and harder to scale to time and difficulty.
• In-class self grading – I could have students take out a red pen after the test when it’s over and put away pencils, and then present the solution to them page by page right after on an overhead.  The immediate feedback may prompt them to look more closely at where they make their mistakes.  They’d circle problems they got wrong, with different points for “answer” vs. “solution”, and score it.  I’d anticipate that the grading would take about as long as the test itself.
• Take home “corrections” after the test. The corrections would be a separate mirror test of similar problems in difficulty and structure.  If you miss number 3 on the test, then you can do number 3 on the correction, to earn back half the credit.  Other problems can be done on the corrections assignment as well to earn back up to 10 missed points by doing them for practice   (A letter grade improvement).  The corrections would need to be graded out of class.  This would also put the grading focus on effort rather than aptitude, which is a good thing.

Not being an athletic student, none of my teachers took an interest in my capabilities at all, and didn’t notice that at my cross country meets I would always sprint towards the finish line… or realize what that meant.

When I became a freshman in college we had “naked hall races” one day (a typically freshman activity LOL). We took the competition very seriously though, and the hallway was fairly short. Well…. I won my dorm’s naked hallway race. It certainly wasn’t very official!

Later I found out that one of the other freshman was a track star, and I realized that I was a sprinter, and that if any teacher at the athletic program at my school had ever taken a moment to notice me or encourage me in any personal way, I would have been a track star in high school myself. But because I was seen as a geeky nerdy kid with no athletic potential, the teachers there overlooked that aspect of me entirely.

As a teacher now, I do not want to EVER have it said about me that I missed seeing the potential in a kid, and didn’t encourage it. Perhaps because of my own experience my eyes are very sensitive to unrecognized potential. Do you have areas of your life that went unrecognized too? Areas of your own personal capability as a person that were undeveloped? Perhaps you can share your stories with your own students. Perhaps that can inspire them to be their own encourager. Perhaps your own experience can spark a desire in you to find the idle rocket-builders with big dreams and nobody that has noticed them yet.

It’s nice to see that someone else thinks this too! Though it’s a bit vague:

The United States last month announced $150 million in military assistance for Yemen to fight extremists. In contrast, it costs just $50 to send a girl to public school for a year — and little girls like Nujood may prove more effective than missiles at defeating terrorists.

That appears in a New York Times article about Nujood and her new book about being ten years old, and divorced, in Yemen.

I’ve never thought about how mistreatment of women could be tied to extremism.  There’s a loose connection between the poor education of women and polygamy.  If you have lots of households with one husband and two wives, then you have lots of single, desperate men.   Which in turn feeds a male-dominated culture where education of women is supressed.   Perhaps that is a simplistic presentation, but sometimes simple is good.

But one thing seems clear to me:  Books, not bombs, give the loudest and longest lasting boom!