Saturday's Post: All Things Federal

What else? Department of Education
Washington, DC

Dave and I saw the movie Breach, with Chris Cooper playing a turncoat FBI agent. (We recommend it.) It reminded me that there's one thing Washington does very well: Federal Buildings.

The Archives
Washington DC
(where the Declaration of Independence is found, as well as the Constitution)

After I took this shot, a guard appeared out of nowhere and reprimanded me for taking pictures of Federal Buildings, saying it was against the law.

Another day, a guard posed for me.
Incongruencies abound in Washington DC
Dave and I thought that had to rank right up there with boring jobs in the universe: walking around a Federal building for 8 hours a day, rain or shine, shooing off the tourists with their cameras.

Door
Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC

Bureau of Engraving
Washington, DC

Dept of the Interior Building
(Not the main one)
Washington, DC

FEMA Entrance
Washington, DC

View of Federal Reserve Building, Washington Monument
Washington, DC

English papers--a new batch to grade--have come in, so that means I'm doing all sorts of things to avoid diving into the correcting. The backstory is that my daughter Barbara came a couple of weekends ago and we spent the time making a Cousins Book. She had this nifty machine, a Cricut, that cuts out shapes and letters.

I found it to be quite reasonable at the craft store, and picked up some cartridges on coupon. It now resides on our dining room table as I spent Sunday evening helping a teenage friend work on her project: clipboards for summer camp. Here are some samples.





And just to show you how dedicated I am at avoiding grading, I made a tag for this baby shower gift.

My daughter laughs when I call her for advice. She told me she likes seeing me "out of my element." (As a teenager she spent several tortured hours making a quilt under my direction--my passion is quilting.) But this is fun, too. Did you know they have stacks and stacks of colorful and decorative paper they're more than happy to sell you? And sticky dots, sticker-making machines, ribbons, laminating machines, glue sticks, glue pens. . .

Department of Really Bad Ideas

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has mandated that, beginning this year, Daylight Saving Time (DST) will begin three weeks earlier than it has in the past and will extend one week later. This year daylight saving time will begin on March 11 and end on November 4.

Saturday's Post, Early or Late: All Things Bridge

Bay Bridge
San Francisco
September 2005

Train Bridge over the Potomac
Washington, DC
July 2005

I've been remiss on my Saturday's Post: All Things. So here's one for a Wednesday.

And what did you do this weekend?

Subject Line of a Recent Email from my Work: Exsponge your Criminal Record

Yes, you too can exsponge your Criminal Record. I received this flier in my email box at work. The subject line was from the sponsoring organization, but thankfully it was spelled correctly (flier below).

EVERYONE IS WELCOMED TO BE A PART OF

{name changed to protect the innocent} COLLEGE

A PRESENTATION ON

“HOW TO EXPUNGE YOUR

CRIMINAL RECORD”

HUMAN SERVICE CLUB

OUR NEXT POTLUCK MEETING WILL BE

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2007

2:00-4:00

IN THE

CAMPUS CENTER

FEATURED GUEST SPEAKER

SUSANNE PASTUSCHEK

WITH A PRESENTATION ON

“HOW TO EXPUNGE YOUR

CRIMINAL RECORD”

THE HUMAN SERVICE CLUB IS ONE OF THE MOST ACTIVE CLUBS ON CAMPUS AND WE WOULD LIKE TO INVITE EVERYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN SOME FUN TO BRING A DISH AND JOIN US. THANK YOUFOR ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE CALL @ (xxx) xxx-xxxx

Lots and lots of fun especially for us un-exsponged criminals.

Shadows, Color and Light

Banana-leaved Shadows
Oceanside, CA
January 2007
(click to enlarge)


Birds and Blue Window
Oceanside, CA
January 2007


Oceanside Library Pool
Oceanside, CA
January 2007

I had an occasion to trip down to Oceanside, and today, when the light has been so gray here in town, I remembered the brilliance of that direct light and its resulting crisp shadows from gangly plants. Or maybe I was remembering the brilliance of some of the quilts I saw in the exhibit.

Quilt Detail

Freeze

While driving home on Monday, I noticed a whole row of rose-lavender cacti, colored that way from the recent cold snap. On some you can see the burnt edges, etched by the freeze.

 

Signage

Califorina
Washington, D.C.
December 2005

They Can Do It Right
Washington, D.C.
December 2005

Long Week

Smokey Hills
January 2007
Yucaipa, California

Orange Building with Shadows
January 2007
Yucaipa, California

Tree Aflame
January 2007
Yucaipa, California

I found out yesterday that a long-worked on project had fallen apart. Where I thought this project had been put to bed, securely tucked in awaiting a lullaby, it had now climbed out and was asking for a drink of water, a snack and to watch another television show.

Today I awoke, heavy-hearted, and feeling very unfit for the labor ahead of me. A normal day on this earth, I suppose, to be added in to the others where gratitude, good fortune and blessings seem to be as abundant and as calming as an orange sunset.

Meet My [Virtual] Neighbors

Today I was bored with my work, so I started clicking the "next blog" button at the top of this blog to see who was on the other side of my site. Thought you'd like to know who the neighbors are on my Blog Block.


First up, Mari from some cold Scandinavian place. (We have an international community here on my street--you ought to see our potlucks!)

Nannette, with some sort of appendage on her name. Nannette-icle, like Chron-icle? She's from LA and imparts counsel like "Everyone needs improvements on themselves." She shares a house with Drama Queen (below), and brought a plastic clamshell container of Five-spice Chicken from the local Chinese takeout to the potluck, althought she did make the sticky rice herself.


Ellen Sofie Hetta is out of town right now, serving as a missionary in Bangkok. If I could lay on the beach and talk on the cell phone with friends like Lise, I'd sign up too. Her cousin's staying there while she's gone, but I don't see her at all.

As it is, I'm a missionary for the English language here in my hometown. A sample from a recent (unedited) email homework: "Your wearing blue and i found the picture in the staff information. I work at redlands Security Company I work 40 hr a week. I taken english class before. My major is busnises manegment. My intrest is my new born son born this year on new years day."

Thanks for writing!


Speaking of writers, on the other side of me is Virgil. Every morning he picks up his paper off the driveway in his blue terrycloth bathrobe, his pipe already firmly clenched between his teeth. When I go on my walks, I hear him banging away at his manual typewriter--no keyboard for him, please. Today's musing details a list of what writers do: "Writers write, for one."

Well, some do. Others blog. I never see Virgil again until the evening, when he goes out to get the mail, dressed in a worn flannel shirt, faded olive cords, and (dare I say it?) penny loafers. He brought Doritos and Safeway brand guacamole to the potluck.

Next to him is the retired doctor, who always forgets to encrypt his wireless, so that Virgil, when he forgets to pay his bills because he's on deadline, can still access the internet from his upstairs study window. (He confessed this when the power went out one summer and we all sat around on the doctor's driveway, shooting the breeze until we could escape back into our re-electrified, re-air-conditioned houses.)

Shortly after posting "How much does your heart cost?" the doctor (never did catch his name), died of complications from his plastic surgery. His wife and son haven't kept up his posts, so I don't really know what's going on with them, or how much my heart does cost. I just know a broken one is way more costly that you think. We still talk about the bacon-wrapped scallops they grilled on their barbeque for the potluck. (Turns out they were from Costco, but who cares?)




Finally there's a young woman who lives in the red one-story stucco across the street. She tends to drive like she's always late and while talking on her cell phone. She has the biggest sunglasses you ever saw and last week ran into her own mailbox. We wait until she's gone for the morning before pulling out. We never see her come in at night, but occasionally in the wee hours, there's a lot of laughing that echoes out from her backyard. I don't know how Nannette stands it, as she looks like a very sensible young woman. I do know Drama's a good cook--she brought a huge chocoloate cake topped with fresh raspberries to last year's 4th of July potluck. Nannette confirmed it was homemade ("You should see the kitchen!"). We didn't pursue the topic.

And that's the neighborhood--at least the only ones I come in contact with.

UPDATE from the future: When my father read this, he thought they were real neighbors, not recognizing that I'd made everything up.  That was in the days when he used to read my blog.

A First in the Nigerian-Scammer-Dept.

I received this today and when I scanned down and saw "Transfer von 18.5 Millionen US Dollar" I realized that the Nigerian scammers are now bilingual. Other telling phrases are: "South Africa" and "für Sie profitables" recognizable even if you don't speak German, which--other than the phrases from Sound of Music--I don't. As you can imagine, the spellcheck on the blog went crazy.

Guten Tag to you too, Fraulein, and do you really live on the Wolfgang Estate?


Guten Tag, ich habe Ihre Kontaktadresse von einem vertrauenswürdigen Bekannten erhalten, dessen Namen ich im Moment nicht nennen möchte erhalten. Ich möchte Ihnen ein, für Sie profitables geschäftliches Angebot unterbreiten. Es handelt sich hierbei um den Transfer von 18.5 Millionen US Dollar . {Edited for brevity.} Ich habe das gesamte Erbe meines Mannes veräußert und verfüge nun über eine beträchtliche Summe von 18.5 US Dollar. Dieses Geld möchte ich nach Europa senden. Hierfür bitte ich um Ihre freundliche Unterstützung. Ich möchte das Geld investieren und würde auch hierfür um Ihre Hilfe bitten. Für diese freundliche Unterstützung möchte ich Ihnen 20% des Geldes zukommen lassen. Ich hoffe auf Ihre baldige Antwort und verbleibe höflichst
Dr.Brenda Wolfgang
Wolfgang Group of Companies Ltd
Wolfgang Estate.
47 Strand Street
Cape Town 8001 South Africa

Saturday's Post: All Things Fire Truck

The most excitement we've had around here for a long time was
yesterday's fire in a neighbor's garage.

I was tired of staring at English 101 lesson plans, so it was a welcome diversion.

Something caught on fire in the water heater closet (don't they read those things about NOT storing anything near the water heater?) but after busting through the garage door, and drowning the box with fire hoses, it was all pretty much over.

So I started noticing the fire trucks, the fire fighters, and how it must have been a slow day it was for fires as we had three fire engines and two trucks.

After a few minutes it was all over.
This truck is backing down the hill and I took this shot just as I returned home.
We drove by the neighbor's house last night and the garage door was back in place, the drowned boxes still on the driveway.

Active Learning

Last night we had our college orientation for Part-Time Faculty (our newest incarnation, although I still prefer "Adjunct Faculty." There's no part-time anything about my job, except the pay). It was on Active Learning.

To drive the point home immediately, the presenter turned on his Powerpoint slideshow.

It could have been this slide, but it wasn't. Right there, we have a dichotomy: do we lecture in a "non-active" approach (static podium approach with lecture, Powerpoint) to get the idea of "active" learning (aka, Ditch the Lecturing) across? I focused on the free sandwiches with the crunchy bean sprouts while he went through a few more slides.

It was getting worse. I remembered the class where I had the students read Edward Tufte's thoughts (no, actually, it's a diatribe) against Powerpoint, and contrasted it with David Byrne's views (he's the lead singer in the Talking Heads).

In it, Tufte makes the point that most Powerpoint charts are "chartjunk" (nice example above from the web) and that content per slide is very low. (Do a search for Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in slideware.) What Powerpoint (or other slideware) is good for is managing slides, that it to say images, etc. I see it used in its best way when I go with Dave to his scientific conferences. Content per slide is extremely high and the best presenters rarely read their slides, but instead reference them. My sister uses slideware in teaching her history classes, where the presentation of images would be a natural fit.

David Byrne used the slideware as a new method of digital art, and made his statements as if it were a series of visual images.

But English 101? A lecture on Active Learning? When the presenter begins slideware show, it sends a message to the listeners that there is a path through this material, thought out beforehand and there will be minimal deviation from this path, Thank You For Listening.


Where I was supposed to be internalizing something like the chart above (Convert! Convert!), the whole evening felt like this:

. . . a bunch of carefully prepared slides that I had to wade through,
figure out, in order to get to the end.

So like a good girl,

I ate my cookie, tried not to think about anything.

Move Over Minnesota!

This morning it hailed for a huge 5 minutes.

Then it snowed. That lasted about 4 minutes.

Okay, now we're back to normal. But it is very cold.

When You Whack Upon a Star

When You Whack Upon a Star (my apologies to Disney)

When you whack upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your game
No request is too extreme
When you whack upon a star
As players do

Like a bolt out of the blue
A good racket sees you through
When you whack upon a star
Your dreams come true

Jell-O Girl Excercises

Jello Girl shows us the way to have a happy and healthy new year, not only by exercising, but by eating lots and lots and artificially colored and flavored gelatin with no known food value. But to look on the bright side (Jello Girls always look on the bright side in their strawberry bubble dresses), it's low-fat!

Jell-O Girl

It's official. After our Christmas Open House, a multi-stake dance for the youth, a fireside, two meetings and a partridge in a pear tree, my brain has turned to gelatin. Check in tomorrow when Jello Girl exercises.