Things I learned today:
- You can't buy a watch band at any of the places you'd expect. Not at Target, not at Fred Meyer, and not at Walmart (yes, I was getting desperate). The big three are out of the jewelry business except for the fancy stuff that Meyer has in their separate shop up front. They don't even sell cheap watches anymore. I assume that's because with cell phones most people no longer wear watches. I do, I need a new band, and I'M ANGRY I CAN'T FIND ONE!
- I use a lot of idiomatic and vernacular language when I talk and when I prepare slides for my teaching sessions. Joe & Michelle are working at translating into Portuguese the ~300 Power Point slides I sent them and I think I'm driving them crazy trying to find accurate equivalents.
- Goats can be cruel and vindictive. If I rap Stella on the head with that piece of aluminum angle iron (or should it be angle aluminum?) she stops pushing against the barn door but takes out her irritation at being "punished" by going after Dolly to give her a major headbutt. Or one of the kids if they happen to be in the way.
- If you order a case from Amazon for your new phone and get the cheap one it comes from China...on a boat. A slow boat. Expected delivery date for the case I ordered last week is the end of September.
This morning I finished writing all of the daily emails for my class here. Well, not for the rest of the course, but 16 of them, which is enough to cover all the days I'll be gone. I figured I might be too busy or too tired to compose them while traveling or in Recife. So now I just have to go to my Drafts folder, open the email for that day, and click Send. It takes me 20-30 minutes to write each of those emails so this feels like a major accomplishment.
Songs I like right now:
Be Alright by Dean Lewis (empathic)
That Don't Impress Me Much by Shania Twain (don't judge)
Duck Tail by Joe Clay (obscure throwback)
Next book on my to-read list: "Range; why generalists triumph in a specialized world" by
David Epstein. Recommended by one of the guys in my class, a guy doing post-doctoral work in bio-chemistry of something like that so way over my head that I can't remember for sure what it is. We were talking about critical thinking and Andrew recommended this book. He said it has a large section on the death of critical thinking in American culture and how important it is to instill in young people.
I'm too often known for sticking my foot in my mouth. I speak without thinking through all the implications of my words. (It takes SO much time.) But every once in awhile I come out with something the cleverness of which surprises even me.
Yesterday I was trying to explain why, when I was a youth, dancing was something good Christians did not do.
"In the '50s people danced with their feet. In the '60s they danced with their hips."
eh?
That Don't Impress Me Much by Shania Twain (don't judge)
Duck Tail by Joe Clay (obscure throwback)
Next book on my to-read list: "Range; why generalists triumph in a specialized world" by
David Epstein. Recommended by one of the guys in my class, a guy doing post-doctoral work in bio-chemistry of something like that so way over my head that I can't remember for sure what it is. We were talking about critical thinking and Andrew recommended this book. He said it has a large section on the death of critical thinking in American culture and how important it is to instill in young people.
I'm too often known for sticking my foot in my mouth. I speak without thinking through all the implications of my words. (It takes SO much time.) But every once in awhile I come out with something the cleverness of which surprises even me.
Yesterday I was trying to explain why, when I was a youth, dancing was something good Christians did not do.
"In the '50s people danced with their feet. In the '60s they danced with their hips."
eh?
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