Day Five

What good is it to run your own "school" if you can't play hooky once in a while? Eh. Not a totally wasted day, but I did pretty much decide to chill instead. That said, I obtained my drawing board and mirror, and I think I've accumulated just enough frustration that next week I'm going to be a Drawing maniac.

It's helpful to remember that we don't teach reading and writing to produce only poets and writers, but rather to improve thinking.

Yep. The author called me retarded 'cause I can't draw.

Cinema. On the advice of an Indian friend, I introduced myself to Bollywood by watching Slumdog Millionaire. (That same friend recommended Mamma Mia!, which I've heard elsewhere is terrible, but if I watch through a Bollywood eye, maybe it'll be art.) I kind of like the idea of a lazy day of learning, and watching significant films I would otherwise have missed probably isn't a total waste of time. If I could learn to listen to music without also needing visual distraction, there's probably something in that world, too.

No, I don't feel guilty about it. I've been listening to a History of Rome podcast on the treadmill, so I'm secure in my geekulinity.

Extracurricular. I can now also make the announcement I'd mentioned, since I passed my Technician Class license test this past Saturday: My call sign is KJ4JWS. I am now a licensed amateur radio operator, a.k.a., a "ham". Besides the natural progression in hamdom—the General Class is the next step and allows transmit privileges on even more of the spectrum—there's circuitry and antennas and all sorts of retrogeek cool stuff.

I suspect I'll have something to add, too, because from everything I've seen so far, these guys just don't get the modern Internet. They know a hell of a lot more than I about digital signal processing (DSP) and packets and protocols and all that stuff, but they don't seem to care about the content and what they can do with it. /chuckle. I asked at the meeting if there were someplace I could actually handle a radio before buying it—I mentioned the retro aspect of this hobby, right?—and they assured me that the club's website had all the information I needed. Yep. And about a thousand hits I didn't. Google without the ranking. Thanks. Oh, and every club has a web site just like it.

But Morse Code! Among hams (and perhaps universally across all license types) it's called "CW" (from "Continuous Wave") on the air and "code" as a language. I have wanted to know code since my Hardy Boys days. Now I have an excuse. It's no longer a requirement for much of anything in the way of licensing, but it'd still be cool to be that guy.

Music Theory. I finally remembered to have The Boy drag out his keyboard for me to use. I'll need to pick up a pile of D-cells sometime this weekend.

Day Four

I started off a little off balance because I ran late getting to work and then got caught up reading the web. (Phillip Jose Farmer died yesterday.) The upshot was that I showed up to the gym still burping from the Chik-Fil-A chicken biscuit I wouldn't normally have been anywhere near.

PE. So we have our little group on the treadmills, as expected, and suddenly I'm being expected to maintain an 11:20/mile pace—my "slow jog" at 5.2 mph—indefinitely, with sustained boosts of speeds up to 1.5 mph faster. Okay, so that's not exactly Olympic class running, but if I could already do that much, I wouldn't need the class. I tried for as long as I could, then just dropped back to finish my current baseline 50 minutes walking 3 1/2 to 4 mph at 3 degrees. (Typically it's 4 unless I'm stumbly, in which case I'll usually drop back to 3.8.) I did throw a few more jogs in there because I could and ended up covering almost a half mile more than Tuesday's workout.

I did talk to the instructor afterward, and now that she understands I'm a walker trying to move up, she'll have a slightly different approach. I don't expect it to be any less draining—I'm wiped out—but it should mean that I can keep up enough to move on to the exercises and things everyone else was doing while I finished.

Penmanship. I wanted to play hooky after what the gym did to me, but I pushed on. I got a page of lines in, just to be sure, and then messed wtih Ms for a while. I wish I could figure out why my hand wants to draw the top half of a hexagon instead of a curve. Ugly.

Spanish. A few more paragraphs, and there were even a few sentences I could figure out without help. I have found a few words that I can't find in my translator. Work, of course, has all online translations blocked. (Don't get me started on the company's web policy.) Anyway, it's going well, and I'm continually inspired by my son's first reading of the first Harry Potter: The reading level was way over his head by the time he started it, but he grew into it by the end.

I skipped History.

Extra Credit. I have finally taken the time to finish my friend Tab's YA biography of Joan of Arc: Joan of Arc: Heavenly Warrior. Definitely a good read.

Day Three

Grrr.

I started the day in a foul mood: We've a temporary preponderance of poopy puppies these days, and one of the permanent poodles pissed me off. The day was fairly busy as well, with an hour or two of work, kids coming for dinner, and having a meeting uptown at my youngest's school.

Anyway, I worked in my Calculus book for a little while, mostly long enough to realize I'm going to have to go back and read some more, maybe even from a book targeted at a wider audience, Teach Yourself Calculus or something. It's not that I've forgotten the big concepts—and my algebra and arithmetic will take care of themselves as I get back into practice—but some of what I would expect to be fundamentals seem to have slipped. The product and quotient rules for derivatives, for example, I don't even remember, much being able to apply them without thought. Odd, that. I'll continue with what I have for the time being, but I'm definitely in the market for a better refresher approach.

My Spanish comprehension turned out to be a little lower than I thought, but that's not a roadblock. It just means I'll need to read more actively, and I'll start keeping a list of new vocabulary until it becomes unnecessary or too cumbersome to help. (Excellent penmanship practice, too.) I'm only two full paragraphs in, but I'm pleased with the book I'm using. "I had never imagined that my name was the least of my troubles, nor that I would live up to my last name." The "live up to" phrase was unabashedly idiomatic and the literal translation spoke of reaching heights. Nice.

The irritation and grumpiness just wouldn't go away, so when my Penmanship Ms seemed to echo despondence, I quit for the day on that.

Drawing is still not happening. Now I need a hand mirror and maybe a drawing board. Dammit.

Day Four will have my first (and last?) "class" at the gym. Spanish, Penmanship, and—if I can find a mirror—maybe Drawing, although I'm not hopeful I'll actually be able to find the quiet time for that kind of concentration. I'd probably better take my History reading to help avoid unplanned idleness. I have a buddy in town, too, so an extended lunch is probably part of the equation.

Day Two

I had a voice mail waiting for me when I got into work this morning. They've cancelled—well, modified—the running class that was supposed to start Thursday. There weren't enough sign-ups, so instead of beginners, intermediate, etc. groups running outside, they're going to conduct a single group inside. They're also not charging me for the class, so I'll give it a shot, and if it doesn't work out, I'll fall back to the Couch-to-5K Running Plan I tried to start a couple of years ago. (With decent running shoes this time, maybe I won't bench myself with an injury three runs in.) 3.25 miles this morning including a contiguous quarter-mile jog without walking. I wish the treadmill had a metric display.

Then I realized that the Spanish dictionary I'd been carrying around in my backpack was actually my Spanish dictionary, not my translating dictionary. Oops. I read some late in the day, probably hitting 30% comprehension without the aid, but I lost track of what was going on just after the introduction. I'll find the other dictionary and continue. I sense a breakthrough on this stuff soon—I've been fiddling with it for years—so excitement is still high.

I did get my art supplies gathered or built, except for masking tape, which should be pretty easy to find in a quick run to the grocery store around the corner. Oh, and the "nonpermanent marker". I suspect a dry-erase marker is what's needed, and it's hard to imagine it matters if it's green or something, so I'll burn that bridge when I get there. Tomorrow, if I can find 90 minutes of uninterrupted time, I'm going to do the "before" pictures. I don't expect it to be pleasant. I really, really hate doing things I'm not good at.

I drew lots and lots of straight lines today for penmanship exercises. I can still see room for improvement, but it's getting there. I was even starting to think it would be good enough... Until I tried the next pair of exercises. They weren't labeled as such, but they were long connected strings of capital Ns and Us, and when I drew them, they were ugly. Picture that last dirty, battered half-gallon of milk left in the back of that ambitiously named "cooler" in the seediest, onliest convenience store for miles. Yeah. Not quite that nice. But that's my handwriting, and that's why I'm doing this one.

I need to ask the Boy if he has a keyboard I can mess with. I'm amped about the Music Theory, but I really do need something I can use for audible output if I'm going to understand anything I'm reading. I'm sure there are good free keyboard emulators out there. Maybe a lot of 'em. But I'd also guess there are about a million others with fewer features, poorer interfaces, higher actual prices, and better SEOs getting in the way of my finding them.

Math tomorrow, I think. And definitely Spanish. But Drawing first if I can find the block(s) of time. I should probably plan to work on those Ms and Us, too, if I don't want nightmares of angry nuns.

Day One

As much of a dodge as it sounds like, I probably picked the wrong day to start. Lunch with an old high school friend uptown, eldest of the kids in surgery, three extra folks in the house, at least one of two visiting unpoodles busily demolishing living room flora while everyone was at the hospital, and kids to pick up from the high school, each with a different ultimate destination. I also talked to my boss and picked up 45 minutes worth of work I'll need to get done before about lunchtime tomorrow. I've been interrupted twice just trying to finish this paragraph.

But I tried. I've begun with the handwriting exercises. "First you train, then you practice." Considering how poorly I picked it up the first time through, I'm trying to be patient. That said, I've switched to a new (probably temporary) pen and a new (probably permanent) grip. But even with those minor changes, unless I try to write with balls-to-the-wall speed, my handwriting is now legible--perhaps only barely--to folks who couldn't decipher it before. Tested and confirmed, I promise.

I should have read further this past weekend in Drawing. The last version I worked with required only a pad, a #2 pencil, and pencil maintenance accessories. Now I need the same things but also an 8x10 glass or clear plastic panel, a couple of viewfinders I'll have to make, and some other things including "a nonpermanent black felt-tip marker". I don't even know what that last one is. Nonpermanent on what surface? Can I use a dry erase marker? And why it gotta be black?

Today was a good day. The surgery went fine and the peripatetic teenagers cleaned up the plant mess in the living room before getting to where they needed to go. It just wasn't as good a day for what I'd planned as I'd hoped it would be.

Tomorrow will actually be at the office, so the interruptions will be different, but probably with less impact. I think I'm going to decide the calculus book is just too big to carry into the office with all my other junk, but I think I can get started on the drawing and continue with the handwriting. And tomorrow's a gym day, so I'll have PE at the least.

Hello, World

My work calendar has been a little light.

Okay, that's a bit of an understatement. Through various decisions and their consequences, all of both well beyond my control--everything from idiot grandbosses to global economic catastrophe--I am bored as hell and I can't take it anymore. I haven't had an opportunity to do productive, useful, significant work--at work--since about August.

No, it isn't as cool as it sounds. The first couple of weeks, sure. I've caught up on TV shows I might have cared about the first time around if I'd had time, and I've seen movies I probably never would have sat down for. Many of these experiences have broadened my horizons. But pleasure reading somehow isn't, if I'm sitting at a desk designated for work.

Enough. If I had time, I'd learn Spanish. And speed-reading. And how to draw. And I'd improve my handwriting. And I'd get in shape. And. And. And.

And, there's that whole global economic catastrophe thing, so I'm out of my current job in the next <insert finite time frame here>. Assuming I understand the company policies, I'm in good shape compared to a lot of folks: I'll have about 2 months at my current employer to find a new job within the company. When that doesn't happen--my "good faith" will be "amazingly good faith" in my attempts, but the economy isn't going to be gentle to me--I'll have about 7 months where I'm still paid with benefits. All said and done, I foresee a stable income for the next 12 months from this moment. Then I'm fucked like everyone else.

I suspect it's time for a career change. IT has been rewarding, of course, and it's mostly been a good home for my geeky worldview, but I am sick and tired of being on the cost center side of the house. I just want to get away from the mindset that thinks quarterly shortfalls can be made up for by cutting staff and office supplies from the support organization. I'd much rather be on the (equally confused) side where there are new leather chairs and free beer to celebrate the gross revenues.

For that matter, I'm not sure I'm willng to ever again be a "resource", nominally human or otherwise.

So, career change. I always wanted to teach high school math, and my experience as a band booster tells me my age-group inclinations are right. IOW, my sense is that elementary school kids aren't yet fully human and middle schoolers are vile piles of hormones, but high schoolers are actually capable (sometimes with some prodding) of rational thought. My "sense" is flawed, of course, as any good elementary- or middle-school teacher will tell you.

So, career change. I love to cook. I've even taken a couple of introductory classes at the local community college. But the hands-on knife skills and commercial equipment usage and brigade approach and all of that is stuff I haven't been able to take classes for around a full-time job. With close to nine months of what would amount to paid leave, I could get in the basic cooking (and maybe baking) classes that would allow me to progress. While I don't need another Associates degree, I'd learn stuff I want along the way.

Anyway, the purpose of this post, this blog, etc. I'm going back to school. Home school. Extreme home school, because I'm the teacher.

Curriculum candidates--most or all of which are "if I had time" things--currently include:

Spanish - I think my subject knowledge is finally to the point I can begin reading YA novels to build vocabulary. I am convinced that the "Me llamo Phrits" sort of nonsense actually slows down many adult learners. I am no longer interested, for example, in "where's the library?" and would rather be able to ask "have you eaten here before and is it as good as last time?" Relevance is interest.

Drawing - on the Right Side of the Brain, actually. I had astounding results with the first lessons from the book many years ago, but I didn't follow through. Enough years have passed by to start over.

Penmanship - Why the hell not? If I need to write on a board... Besides, it's sad to be unable to take notes I can read a month later.

US History - Sneaky, but volume two of Taylor Branch's history of the Civil Rights movement has been hard to get into. I blame circumstance rather than the author. Make it part of the curriculum, and he gets at least a few minutes a day.

Math - I still have my Calculus book, which happened to be the same author for both high school and college. Most of it will be review--the parts I've been through anyway--but probably less than I expect. If I can make myself work some of the problems, my algebra and arithmetic skills might come back to life.

Music - I have a could-have-been-written-for-me book on Music Theory (nothing exotic) to work through so that I am no longer intimidated by phrases such as diatonic triad nor still too ignorant or intimidated to identify a diminished chord.

PE - I'm running a 5K in May. I'm already easily walking it on the treadmill, so getting to the real thing from here is at least visible.

I also have an extracurricular project I'll announce in the next couple of weeks (if I pass my test this weekend). My curriculum is lacking in science, but if this goes as it should, it will cover that and pick up some other cool things too.

So, way too long-winded, but it's a first post. Then again, others will likely also be long-winded. Welcome aboard.