WHUP! WHUP!

There are two blogs, which read in close proximity brought up parallels. Almost like the tree falling in the forest, is there a sound if no ear is there to hear it? In Richard Ferandez's blog, a commenter told this evocative story.

Oct 10, 2008 - 1:53 pm RWE:

Back in the mid-70’s scientists made an exciting discovery: a tribe of people in New Guinea that had no previous contact with the modern world. The team that discovered the tribe promptly radioed for more supplies to support an extended stay. A helicopter was dispatched to the location.

The tribe’s reaction was interesting. They had no knowledge of flying machines and inspects of that size could not possibly exist (proof of their isolation, since they had obviously missed all those 1950’s monster movies about giant ants and tarantulas and so forth). So they refused to look at the helicopter. It did not fit their view of the world and thus could not be acknowledged to exist even as it was going “Whup Whup” right in front of them.

In a totally different context, Gagdad Bob of One Cosmos fame speaking of his first encounter with Meditations on the Tarot

I mentioned in a comment the other day, the first time I tried to tackle it, I got nowhere. It was just too difficult; we were both too dense. But by the time of my second attempt a year or two later, a transformation had taken place within me that allowed me to understand it. Indeed, it was like entering a vast cathedral, only this time with the lights on. In other words, without the Light, an infinite space can appear as a black wall, which is essentially the predicament in which the atheist finds himself. He imagines he's describing an objective wall, when he's really just disclosing his subjective darkness.

My picture of the government trying to fix the ongoing debacle is of the policy wonks throwing money at a disaster with no knowledge of what is what's truly going on, but tinkering with the symptoms of the meltdown, as their underlying assumptions fall away under their feet. There were signs that things were not good. People had been writing about a real estate bubble for years. The whup, whup was going on right in front of us. But this isn't supposed to happen in our world. They're in the darkened cathedral throwin the tax proceeds from my work, my childrens work, and my grandchildren's work at a huge problem.

Oh well. A wedding is happening here. God would have us to be joyful. To Life!

Proverbs 6:1 - 5
Dangerous Promises

My son, if you become surety for your friend,
If you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
You are snared by the words of your mouth;
You are taken by the words of your mouth.
So do this, my son, and deliver yourself;
For you have come into the hand of your friend:
Go and humble yourself;
Plead with your friend.
Give no sleep to your eyes,
Nor slumber to your eyelids.
Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.[a]

I've gotten going on making good on a few promises myself this week. It's midterm week at Nunez, and I'm enjoying my teaching, though the old frustrations are creeping in. Why do I have to teach all these unrelated concepts in algebra classes? They are like a jumble of jig saw pieces with no rhyme nor reason. But the catalog prescribes...

A semester of math can be very much like a story. It's got the preamble, introductory remarks, and then building the story. But we teach it like fifteen unrelated plot pieces. I've searched out several different narrative approaches to the course over the years, but every time the text changes and the master syllabus changes, I have to rethink the thing, and it seems to take a full semester to pull it together. I'm not thinking I want to do this again next semester. Which is probably a good thing, because Nunez's growth is likely to die on the vine after the financial melt down.

H-- was talking at bridge today. She's well into her nineties, and was trying to play through the fog of pain medications. She'd taken a fall.. tossed her cane into the air on the way up, and it came down on her ribs, paining her a great deal. Anyway it was nice to play bridge and leave the midterms behind, leave the wedding behind.

The bride is due in town Saturday, and her father Saturday night. Tomorrow I need to pick up my dress. I'm gaining on the foo foo'ing of the mother of the bride. Got a hair cut today. So a random photo before I head to bed...



Ain't there no mo'. The gardens I used to visit every spring. Zemmurray Gardens in Folsom, La.

Another quick blog

Another presidential debate tonight. The snippets of sniping that the presidential race has come to doesn't include a lot of background information. Most of "my readers" (which sounds way self aggrandizing) are already decided voters. The mythical undecideds are the folks who decide at the last minuted based on who "looks like a president" or some such. Close races are decided on such irrelevancies. It's a democracy, and that's one of the not so great aspects. I'd guess more than half of my readers have decided to vote with the democrats, and I've tried to lay off of political themes. This article in City Journal about Bill Ayers, the 'acquaintance' of the candidate, is pretty clear about who Bill Ayers is and what he represents. I guess you have to decide how much associating BO has done with Ayers. More than he admits to, that's for sure. Also need to decide how much guilt there is in association. We're all known by the company we keep. Sol Stern writes about "The bomber as a School Reformer"

Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer. (If you find the metaphor strained, consider that Walter Duranty, the infamous New York Times reporter covering the Soviet Union in the 1930s, did, in fact, depict Stalin as a great land reformer who created happy, productive collective farms.) For instance, at a November 2006 education forum in Caracas, Venezuela, with President Hugo Chávez at his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chávez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.” Ayers concluded his speech by declaring that “Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of education—a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation,” and then, as in days of old, raised his fist and chanted: “Viva Presidente Chávez! Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta la Victoria Siempre!”

Do yourself a favor. Read the whole thing.

Quick Post

I've graded some half-hearted homework attempts, and gotten a mid term type exam written for College algebra. It should never have taken so long, but I've put hours and hours into the effort. The class you see is this odd hybrid. High school, community college. There are amazing possibilities here, and I want to get as much of it as I possibly can right. The problems will have to be worked out by others later... I'm most likely a one semester marvel, though I'd really like to teach trig in the spring if the opportunity presents.

On a personal level, I was always dismayed at the number of students who really just couldn't get it. Sincere effort, but went about as far as my professional basketball career. This group of 21 really can do the math, though they're young, easily distracted and ready to "play me" when they think they can get out of something. I never bothered with a midterm exam, because I always had plenty of grades for students, and didn't feel like I needed a midway cumulative exam. But high school is hitting the end of the nine weeks, and they have exams scheduled. I'm trying to play along.

Somewhere there is a photo to post... I spent a great deal of time trying to fix up a photo. Now it's stuck in the drive and I'm wondering if I've broken both the drive and the CD. Bother. Took a lot of photos around New Orleans in 2001, and the houses have changed since then. Tonight I'm not trying to retrieve a cd!

Nearly 11.. I'll get that done another day. Wedding just around the corner. Yikes. Make up lady calling on me tomorrow to get a base figured. I don't wear this stuff. Tried to get a dress on for church Sunday and just couldn't do it. The wedding will be a night mare in that respect. Manicure? Sigh.. I guess.

Search for the Punch Ladle Continued

"It's not like it's the Yetti!" Ok, I let Tara hang around and work on her quilt today in spite of that crack. Tania wants a glass punch ladle. Someone told me a horror story at Trundle, Toilette, and To Infinity.... about someone's glass ladle breaking in the punch bowl, and the punch had to be tossed an there was no more to be fixed. No one agrees with me that a nice coffee cup will serve as a dipper. I mean, I have a couple of them with no cracks. We'd bring out the best!

When I picked up Cameron at MDO on Thursday, I pilfered through the drawers in the kitchen at church. I couldn't find the ladles. I know they are there, but I didn't want to hang in the kitchen too long looking suspicious. They don't want me taking Cameron home with me unless I show three forms of ID and fingerprints as it is.

After Cameron came home, he wanted his mommy to nurse his earache. Do all nearly three year-olds have moments when it looks like in all probability the family has just spawned another sociopath? Anyway, he screamed a solid hour at my house, and finally agreed to take medicine. That's a half aspirin dissolved in a teaspoon of water, with ample warning that it tastes disgusting. He finally stopped crying long enough to tell me that was nasty! Then he asked for a band aid. So I got a band aid for his ear, tricky to apply... but the kid wants a band aid, I'll waste one. That was the end of the tears. Why didn't I look in the kid manual and discover that a band aid was the cure for any and all physical distress. I'm told by his aunt Mimi that he was showing off the band aid that evening, but didn't complain about his ear ache.

Tania, aka Bridezilly, had her gown on for the final fitting today. She also is in negotiations for a one year job producing thirteen pieces of a series for Discovery Health. She allows as how the pay for producers instead of co-producers is up in a range that makes her rather happy. So maybe she'll be able to pay off all the cost overruns on the wedding?

Proverbs 5:20 - 23

Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?
For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD,
and he examines all his paths.
The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him;
the cords of his sin hold him fast.
He will die for lack of discipline,
led astray by his own great folly.

And that's the end of Proverbs 5, and injunction against adultery. Since the Hebrew scriptures were studied mostly by men they're written in a man's language. But all of us have the chance to reach out and take something that attracts us, and tangle ourselves in cords of sin, the fruit of undiscipline and folly.

As for me, I'll go play bridge, always an activity with a bit more opportunity cost than I really want to pay, but always something interesting in there. I lose all day tomorrow to working the polls. But I'll have the $$ I needed for the wedding. It's all good.



I remember reading that mushrooms "spring up" from a circular formation in the ground. Is that the explanation for this?

I was glad when they said unto me...

Have you been trying to figure out what is "bailout" and why we need one? John Fortune and John Bird bring you the British humorous edition. I've wondered and worried about things political and econonmic, and so far have come to no understanding. Pete's axiom of organizations, "Organizations are run for the benefit of those who control them." Banks, Senate, Congress, Wall Street, all of them. And the corollary in these peculiar times? Beats me. So let the sun keep shining, and I'll try to be merry.

I'm having a wonderful time, still. I crashed and burned in the high school class on Tuesday because I wasn't prepared, and couldn't focus on where we were going. Part of the distraction was wondering if the sky was falling. But the sky didn't fall. We're in a slow motion lowering of the skies, maybe but not a fall.

Photo of the day is from before Gustav, before Ike, there was Hannah. She rained and rained rained upon us. And the mushrooms mushed. This yellow beauty was in my back yard.



Three things that made me smile today.

1. Almost all my students were present in the College Algebra Class and I'm getting to know them more and more.

2. Tania's to do list included some things I can do. I made a couple more stabs at the punch ladle.

3. The outer border of the Round Robin is going together and I'll have it ready for Houston I think.

Tag you're it. What are three things that made you smile today?