Ok, It's Monday again... past time to post, right Gail?

Here's the deal... A person just isn't allowed to have this much fun AND get paid for it. I taught my intermediate level algebra class today, and really had a great time. I amuse myself and I have an audience. What's not to like about that?

Bring out the crackers, here comes the whine. Intermediate algebra is a very scattershot course, a skill builder, but one skill that never gets built is abstraction, application of concepts in new and novel settings. The course is all over the place. I was teaching 3 x 3 linear systems last week and today having a go at synthetic substitution and synthetic division. After class I leaned into Chilly's door and complained. Of course he wrote all the master syllabi (syllabuses?) but he's been kicked into administration, so he's not as married to it as he was. "Go talk to J and C... they're revising." Hmmm... do I want to try and get some of my ideas implemented? Should I go there? I have so many interests, time killers of various sorts.

I may have a source of help for finding my password...for the old site. Pete came and went, said he never learned anything about mySQL, and felt no interest in learning it. Nevermind that there was clean up from IKE going on in Houston, he suffered nearly continuous sinus distress the whole time he was here, and just doing enough cooking and eating and getting out for the added entertainment value of a guest; well didn't get the password issue solved there. BUT I'm still looking at this bullet item on THE LIST. Mowing again is there too, on the list. I bet the yard gets chopped before I get this password found.

I've also been wanting to figure out what the method is to stop the madness in bloggers comments.. and allow someone to comment after they passed the "are you a human" stuff at least once. Figuring out those letters is no fun, and Linda can't seem to prove she's a human. I can't either on some blogs...anyway, I want comments. But I've not found how to bypass the drill.

Also trying to figure out what is going on in congress/Wall St. I found an explanation that I'll hope to post later. There's the Republican version, the Democratic version and the truth which may be somewhere between the other two, or more likely is off somewhere else entirely. We all live in "interesting times."

I'm heading for home. Quilting to be done today.

Full Scattershot

One of the persistent whines about the internet is the amount of trash available online. I'm guilty. I post stuff that is of limited interest. But I am heartily glad for the chance to blow smoke or whine or just reach out as we can only do on the internet.

On the other hand, there are some writers who are truly writing well and growing as they go. I've found Richard Fernandez's work out of the Philippines/Australia to be amazing reading. On the internet, if you find someone whose writing you enjoy, you can get your fill of it pretty quickly, or savor the good writers over years. A new find of mine is Bill Whittle, whose blog site Eject!Eject!Eject! had been pointed out to me before. But one day someone linked to his writings, and I was dazzled. Today he's got a winner posted in National Review. The Undefended City comes with my highest recommendation. Included is a little riff on the political indoctrination that goes on under the guise of education. This is a small part of the article, but worth clipping.

I live a few miles from Santa Monica High School, in California. There, young men and women are taught that America is “a terrorist nation,” “one of the worst regimes in history,” that it’s twice-elected leader is “the son of the devil,” and dictator of this “fascist” country. Further, “patriotism” is taught by dragging an American flag across the classroom floor, because the nation’s truest patriots, as we should know by now, are those who are most able to despise it.

This is only high school, remember: in college things get much, much worse.

Two generations, now, are being raised on this poison, and the reason for that is this: the enemies of this (country) cannot come out and simply say, “Do not defend the (country).” Even the smartest among us can see that is simple treason. But they can say, “The (Country) is not worth defending.” So they say that, and they say that all the time and in as many different ways as they are able.

Read his essay on how civilizations fall, and what must be done.

Proverbs 5:15 - 19

Continuing Proverbs 5, an injunction against adultery:

Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be captivated by her love.

What a blessing when you manage to get that right. Too often we fail....

And last from the internet, a clip from Fox News. I realize it's a source that most democratically leaning folk would shun, but this is the best three minute distillation of what's happened on Wall Street, and may yet dog Main Street.

It's worth a watch unless anything with the Fox label is just too offensive to listen to and think about.

Photo is of Gail's quilt top as it left here, sort of. I tried to take the photo out doors, and it almost worked. Next time I'll take the time to get it right.

Ok, ok, I have lost the templates to work on my quilt, I've started and it looks great and the templates have been mislaid.

The fight to find the password so I can use my workpress blog is still active, can't find my way through that maze.

BUT Tania just called. She won an Emmy! I'm not sure.. I suspect she doesn't actually get to keep the award, but they're off to the after party. It was her documentary on the heart that won the award. She's just walking on air. Texted me, then called after.

I was playing some online bridge... can you imagine the bridge train wrecks that caused!

Thanks Gail and Linda for reminding me to post!

Notes on the Week that Was

On the personal front, as we say in Sunday School, I have a praise. I've finally spent the money...and a bit more to come. But I own a dress, shoes, purse for a wedding in October. The dress will be altered, the shoes and purse dyed so the color is at least close to the dress, and I'll be dress up like a matronly woman in a formal gown. I got a gown big enough to go around my ample derriere, and it was nice to see the amount the seamstress had to take out of the bodice.

I need to get the eating back under control. I am an emotional eater, and I've had lots of ups and downs and over and outs... I would really wish to hear from Houston that Deb and her family, Pete and his family are all going to rejoin the world. I'll go buy gasoline tomorrow, and I guess that will be some expensive procrastination. A tank of gas for my small car is going to cost me a full day's living allotment!

I've cut and pieced and put together some of the latest border for Deb's round robin quilt top. Looks like I'll be ready for the wedding when it happens, and I'll be ready with the round robin and supplies for Houston. But there's a class this next Saturday on "Cotton Theory" which I'm a bit concerned about being ready for. Ms. Cotton has a technique for putting together quilts like Ina May is doing the large sampler... quilting small pieces and joining them already quilted. So there's a table runner we're doing using that technique next Saturday.

Tomorrow I'll teach a class at 10 am, and I'll hope to exercise and get some prep done for that class. I have papers to grade for the high school class Tuesday, so after I get done teaching Monday, I'll need to get into papers, but I'll likely not do it. Nah, I'll do it.

Yup, I did some of it already. Last week was the first full M - F week in a long time. This will be the same with some testing thrown in for good measure. Just home from a good long bike ride, and will toss myself into the tub pretty shortly. In fact it's time to be getting ready to go to Chalmette.

So the photo is of a wonderful red headed woodpecker... still not in focus, still trying on that front. But the bird is a beauty. Saw a little blue bird this morning while writing in my journal, feeding quickly on my window ledge.



Hope to be back at my old site soon. C--'s husband gave me a password finder ulitity. If I were computer competent, I'd be dangerous!

Tara and Cameron are here!

That Was the Week that Was

This past week we marked yet again the anniversary of 9/11. Seven is not such an impressive number in the decimal system, but in the psyche of man, it has some important connotations. The seven year itch is when we need to renew or refresh our marriages, on peril of losing something that is too valuable to toss aside. After seven years living with something, it's pretty old hat, it changes from jarring, to just background noise. So seven years ago, our worlds shifted. Now we read reminisces of 9/11 like it had been some sort of natural disaster, a Katrina. It was nothing of the sort. Three thousand people died, and they were killed with malicious intent. The white hot anger of that realization is no longer with us, but that day we knew we were targets. All of us, and all of our loved ones. Now seven years later without a reprise on American shores and it seems like something of an anomaly. Thank God we've not had repeated wake up calls. They've happened, but not on American soil, so we can let out attention drift. Beware. Lack of caution is what leads to a lot of car wrecks... so put down your cell phone and remember, reconnect with that trauma.

This was also the Week of the Palin Impaling. I've read much, much, much of the writing about Sarah Palin. I'd be very surprised if you hadn't as well. The dems and their candidate felt the earth shift under their feet. Peggy Noonan puts some perspective on the whole howling week, and seems to be seeing it much as I do, and better, she takes it in directions I would not have found, but they feel right. A two non consecutive paragraph snip:

Democrats, hit reset. Accept the fact that the race has changed utterly, that you're up against a ticket that has captured the public imagination. Now you must go out and recapture it.

This race is not over. Everyone I know thinks it is, but I don't buy it. Mr. Obama just suffered a catastrophe, his first. Mr. McCain just enjoyed a triumph, maybe not his last. GOP strategists are experiencing premature triumphalism; they're puffing up like blowfish, emitting great bubbles of self-regard. Democrats, be encouraged by this! They make mistakes when they're winning. They always start to think they're the reason.

Fitting here is the clip from Proverbs 5, still reminding against the peril of adultery.

Proverbs 5:11-14

At the end of your life you will groan,
when your flesh and body are spent.

You will say, "How I hated discipline!
How my heart spurned correction!

I would not obey my teachers
or turn my ear to my instructors.

And I was soon in serious trouble
in the assembly of God's people."

Marianne informs me that she is terribly nervous about Sarah Palin's conservative Christian roots. That really doesn't worry me. Christianity comes in a great many flavors, appealing to people at different places on their spiritual journey. But the way to keep on the road is to stay in a church. As a nearly wholly committed atheist, Marianne finds the Pentecostal background too offputting. Our national press organs reflect the same feeling. But I suspect there are still a lot of good Christian people who are not afraid of a good woman of faith. The ground shifted in the presidential race. It just got a lot more interesting. The lunatic fringe is very entertaining!

Now for a picture, from the end of July, the miracle Bible School at First Presbyterian. If you recall the story of our church with no children, no youth, we ended up with a bible school for twelve children. They were welcomed by the puppets, and most were totally enchanted from start to finish. It was a magical undertaking. But I think God loves a good fairy tale. That VBS was a small local fairy tale!



On the personal front, the week past was the longest stretch of work in this semester. My days are much fuller with the teaching, but goodness sakes, the class at the High School was just what the doctor ordered. The teacher of the higher level math classes at Pearl River High School is a retired PhD. Engineer, a tiny wiry guy, who went into financial advising after retiring. Post Katrina, no one was wanting to invest, so he took the job at Pearl River High, with no education experience. They thus have a teacher who knows where math is actually used, and what it's for that they're learning this field. With me teaching this section two or three days a week, he gets to see a more experienced teacher in action, and he may not feel like it's a great experience for him, but he does know it's a bit of time he can actually catch up on paper work. This last week during the evacuation for Gustav he came down with a monster cold, and is sick as a dog, but still hanging in, teaching. So today he was reasonably glad to see me coming!

Quilting this weekend. Katie sent me a bunch of fabrics from her stash, and I'll have to get her a thank you note out... and at bridge the Mosses loaned me a book, The History of the World in Six Glasses. It appears to be a winner! Life is good, life is very good. I even got one of those instructional lessons like the Proverbs refers to, not relating to adultery, but still an important one. I will be working to put it in action in my daily days.

What was the highlight of your week? Good news? Memories of 7 years ago?

Another Aunt Nita

What power, what mysterious connection does Nita have to the cosmos at large? I'm just wondering, because I seem to recall some truly odd stories. She can correct me if she sees this, and I'll send her a link so she does.

Nita bought her "fancy sewing machine" sometime after her husband died. "He would never have brooked so much money on equipment for a hobby," she told her sisters. Nita never did anything by halves and she learned to use all the fancy geegaws on that machine. Next thing we knew she was sewing a fancy gown for a baby, sort of like a baptismal gown, but not so fancy. It was a burial dress for a still born or for a baby that didn't survive the stay in the neo natal intensive care. It was through some volunteer program, and she made her first gown. The tragedy in that story was that she only made one gown for the program and it was her grandchild that was buried in it. How did she know to get moving ahead to be ready?

Another program Nita voluteered for was playing her autoharp and leading singing at the local rehabilitation home. When they needed a contestant at the last minute at an autoharp contest, Nita was ready. She competed, fully expecting to come in dead last, but they had enough entries to hold the contest.

At some point she got involved in hospice, and helping families dealing with family members who were terminally ill. The training served her well when her husband was diagnosed with prostrate cancer.

All of this would just be coincidence, but she also tells of driving home as her mother died, trying to get home in time to say goodbye, and feeling her mother pass her as a shade or a shadow as she drove down the road. She knew at that point that she'd no need to hurry, and that her mother had already said goodbye. I don't think she has particularly worked for this "gift" or tried to develop it. But the woman has an sense, some power most of us do not.

Bits and Pieces

A quip from the comments in BuzzMachine

Someone needs to take away the Government’s right to employ the terminology of economics when they clearly have never understood it.

And finally an explanation for the Palin explosion. The Spectator:

For months, conservatives have mocked the celebrity appeal of Barack Obama, but now they are flocking to Palin in a similar manner. Just as liberals swooned for Obama because his biography appealed to their cultural sensibilities, conservatives instinctively identify with Palin, because, as Cindy McCain put it, she is a "reform-minded, hockey-mommin', basketball shootin', moose huntin', fly-fishin', pistol-packing, mother of five."

Lileks cuts through an article by a Canuck on the Palin Phenom. Not recomended for those with Democratic leanings.

The photo of the day is.... problematic! My own rules, and I can break them but I don't On picture in 10 goes in the blog. The choices today were birds out of focus and about 4 shots of the early morning light on my street. I like low light photography, I pulled out the tripod and then because there was intermittent lighting behind the houses I took a LOT of attemps to get some of the fireworks. No go. But the tripod is needed for these low light shots. My attempts to skip it are pathetic.

Mixed Bag. Tuesday

1955

My cousin Diana, the dark headed of the older two girls, requested some memories of her mother for the celebration of Nita's 80th birthday last July. I just pulled out the photo albums and cruised around till I found something and took a photo to go in the memories. Then I emailed a photo of the photo. Pretty slick, eh?

This was taken at Granny and G'pa Swift's farm, I think about the time Nita's husband George was coming home from serving in the army in Korea. Nita's sure dressed up for a chigger infested hot day in the yard! Shirley holding cousin Kelly (now a grandfather himself) is dressed for the day and time. I'm the chubbette of the very blonde hair, the oldest grandchild. I think at that point that may have been all the cousins of that generation. Now there are 3, 2, 4, 2, 5... at least 16 cousins in my generation. My parent's generation did their part in the "be fruitful and multiply" thing.

Proverbs 5: 6 - 10

She has missed the path that leads to life and doesn't even know it.
My son, listen to me and do everything I say.
Stay away from a bad woman! Don't even go near the door of her house.
You will lose your self-respect and end up in debt to some cruel person for the rest of your life.
Strangers will get your money and everything else you have worked for.

Guess I'll let that stand on its own. It's done fine without my comments for all these thousands of years. Solomon wants to warn against the strange woman, but if I recall he was not prone to spending lonely nights.

I've been absolutely swamped with school duties, hosting a writer's group, and babysitting grands. There is no relief in sight, but I'll just try to do what needs doing for a while and not worry about my "ME" time. This is it.. blogging a whine.

Are you a news junkie? I tried this 10 point quiz. I got 6 right. See how you do. BillOreily's Quiz If you try it, let me know in the comments. Ten questions on current events. How tough can it be? Brag in the comments.

Quieter day tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually do some quilting? Robert and Ann's is just short the label. I stitched on the one for the guild's show in October on Monday. Round Robin has a plan, but the execution is languishing.

Migrated, yet again

Passwords, passwords! The bane of my existence. Meanwhile I'll post what I put together yesterday here and on the server space I rent.

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Proverbs 5

The Peril of Adultery


My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
Lend your ear to my understanding,
That you may preserve discretion,
And your lips may keep knowledge.
For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey,
And her mouth is smoother than oil;
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death,
Her steps lay hold of hell. (or Sheol)



Just a quick comment on the Proverb. I read recently a commentary on the ten commandments, and the notes on adultery were not so much on the straightforward sinful act of taking a man or woman, not your mate, but on adulterating your "Chief End." In Proverbs 4, the Chief End of man would be to seek Wisdom. So in Proverb 5, in addition to the direct meaning, there is an undertone of not adulterating the search for Wisdom and her sister; Truth, Justice and Beauty.

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Sometimes as I cruise the internet, I see things that excite me and I want to share them. Today I found a couple essays that have taken me several hours and phone calls to read through. They excite me so that I cannot sit still but must walk about a bit and let the ideas slip slowly into my consciousness, savoring every morsel as they go.

The first is an Essay that appeared in The Atlantic in the 1930's. Albert Nock, the author is long gone, but the essay, Isaiah's Job thankfully lives on. It's not a particularly hopeful essay, it looks to the seed that rebuild a civilization after it has fallen. Yet I found it wonderfully hopeful.

In the year of Uzziah's death, the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come. "Tell them what a worthless lot they are." He said, "Tell them what is wrong, and why and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten up. Don't mince matters. Make it clear that they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them good and strong and keep on giving it to them. I suppose perhaps I ought to tell you," He added, "that it won't do any good. The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you and the masses will not even listen. They will all keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life."

Isaiah had been very willing to take on the job – in fact, he had asked for it – but the prospect put a new face on the situation. It raised the obvious question: Why, if all that were so – if the enterprise were to be a failure from the start – was there any sense in starting it? "Ah," the Lord said, "you do not get the point. There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it."

This is toward the end of the first of four sections, and the essay is a discussion of the Remnant, a powerful concept. I found the essay however by following a link in another essay. From Bill Whittle who is an amateur writer who has made it to the house of Buckley now, an essay that just makes me glad to be alive in this day and time. You Are Not Alone (Part 1). He begins,

"Folks, you are about to be hit with a BIG IDEA.

It’s not entirely my big idea, but I’m willing to hang some tinsel on it and take credit for it."

A photo of the day... birds... trying always trying to get a decent bird shot.


And a quick video for a grin... JibJab do it again.