Been a while...

I must apologize, it has been awhile since I posted. It's been a month of losses. Our sweet Chewy died of lung cancer this month. Best dog ever and deeply missed.

This is a rather crappy picture I took with my rather crappy cellphone. Chewy used to roll over on her back when she wanted a belly-rub. We all miss her.

School is going...still. I just finished 23 hours (of 62). Next class up is RESearch 722. I am supposed to learn much more about quantitative and qualitative tests for validity, accuracy, and generalizability. EW! It's good though, I have been reading hundreds of studies and when I get to the method and results parts....I jump straight away to the discussion and conclusions. I don't like to read all that VERY IMPORTANT part... :-( I SHOULD have been reading all those parts...but they are dreadfully tiresome reading.

NO, I have digressed. There are more losses this month. My beloved wild cherry tree. We had it cut down because it was struck by lightening. I will miss its sweet scent in the spring. I won't miss those catepillars though. The tree was magnificient. Almost as tall as the tulip tree. The front yard looks oddly bare without it. As for the back yard, we had a tall maple taken out. It succumbed to a drainage problem. Our backyard is turning back into a lake, I think. I kind of like the idea....., especially now that the tree is gone. When the man cut the main trunk, it was very hollow. The tree died from the inside out.

Interesting thought - how things die. Some die from the inside out (like Chewy with lung cancer, and the tree that water-logged). Some die from the outside in (like our cherry tree struck by lightening or a deer, struck by a car).

Sarah comes home finally!! In one more week, I will hug her again. I hope things work out the way that is best for her...whatever that might be. I got to see Katie over Thanksgiving. She rarely comes down and I never go see her. When I am done with school, I will catch up with people. I have so little time anymore.

That's all for now. I start writing tomorrow - I think the Dr. is going to be good, he certainly has an interesting bio. I hope my classmates are lively and the discussion is fun.

should be sleepin'

It's late but I don't want to crash yet. I have been reading for almost two solid weeks. The current class is called "Management Philosophies." I must write an Implications & Conclusions statement tomorrow. The I&C for the reading weeks is the hardest to write. There's so much stuff...I have to decide what, of all that stuff, means the most to me and how will I integrate it into or apply it to my life.

The paper due next weekend, will be a comparison/contrast of the philosophies of Henri Fayol and Edward Deming. I had to pick one foundational theorist and one modern theorist. I chose Fayol because I read an interesting article about him during the last class about how some of his ideas were mis-expressed because of not so great translation of this work to English. I chose Deming because he "invented" TQM and I want to learn more about it. The nuance of this assigment is that the comparison/contrast has to give a sense of philosophical evolution. They are in different time periods - as far back as 1840 for Fayol and as recent as the 90s for Deming.

The cherry tree is dead and I will have to hire somebody to cut it down. I may call the County Extension agent and see if she knows of anyone who would cut it for the wood. It is a black cherry tree - at least three stories high. I will miss it. It got struck by lightening and it's leaves turned brown and dropped off within two weeks of discovering the tree had been struck. It appears totally dead. We have a big maple in the back that got badly damaged in an ice storm a few years ago and it's almost totally dead. If we have to pay to have the cherry cut down, I'll have them take the maple too.

Summer is OVER (Almost)

I have not blogged in awhile - it's been a busy summer. I visited Sarah the week before she left for Ireland...AGAIN! I miss her but she is sending me lots of emails which I greatly appreciate. We had a great time - visited her horses and saw that dreadful house she plans to move into. We had lunch in Old Washington and the weather was perfectly lovely. It's amazing how much Lily and Roanan have changed and grown. Roanan is no longer reddish, but instead is a lovely white with interesting markings on his face. He was very friendly and kept nibbling on me...eventually biting me (I forgave him..I think he thought my finger was a carrot).



Jerry and I took the girls to Yatesville Lake for a picnic and a hike. Yatesville is pretty nice, but I love Cave Run more. Grayson is pretty nice too, the cliffs there are pretty...especially when the mountain laurel is blooming. These are some photos I took over there.

I should get back to reading now. My current class is Management Philosophy and I have plenty to read. Currently reading Gods of Management by Charles Handy. It's kind of interesting and not bad to read...at least I'm not having to use a dictionary every paragraph. For that, I am greatful!

horses and countryside

The girls and I drove over to Maysville today and visited Sarah and her baby horses. The babies are so cute! Joey's baby looks like a toy horse, like she should be stuffed with polyfill and have wheels on the bottoms of her little hooves. Rain's horse is a perfect little horse speciman - bright eyed and I love how the little tufts of main stick up on his neck. I will post some pictures.

In the shot below, Rain is reaching down to give Erin a kiss.

Joey's baby doesn't let her mama get very far away and she wants to be touch her mother all the time. The blend in together in all the shots I took. I wish I had a better camera. Rain and her baby are easier to photograph - at least their contrasting colors make them easier to tell where one horse ends and the other begins.

The girls played with the kitties. Black Kitty was much more friendly than White Kitty. Black Kitty is Siamese and he's not really black...like our kitties. Sarah named this cats when they were kittens.

Speaking of black cats...here's a shot of Jack I found today. His eyes are barely slits..he is pretending to sleep.

So after visiting the horses, we went to Old Washington. That is a pretty neat place; some really old buildings there. Then we visited Stock's old farm in Fleming County. I had only been there once before that I remember. Sarah is taking on some major work in the old house. I do not think she has a clue how much she has bitten off!! Enough to chew on for three years I imagine! Unfortunately, winter will be here before she knows it. Cleaning out the barn is a major undertaking too!

I got my final grade for the research class. I was happy. Next up, Organizational Behavior. Hmmmmm....I really don't know what it's going to be like. Soon I will be making reservations for my second year residency class. G-R-O-A-N!! Another presentation???? I don't even want to start thinking about it. It is two days shorter than the first year residency. I hope that means it's not as much work!

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. I promised Jerry I would play golf with him in the morning. He will then play another 18 with his dad and I'll come home and get some work done. I have MUCH to do as the end of my first week of freedom is almost over. I still need to get Emily's room painted and I need to go shopping for bathroom fixtures, floor, paint, etc. AND, I am going to get this dining room cleaned out because I can't work in this chaos any longer. It's DO or DIE!

Is it 3 AM?

I've been writing all evening, then took Chewy for a long walk. Just got back in a few minutes ago and look at the time! Tonight I am writing annotated bibliographies. These are a bit time consuming because they are critiques of research studies. I must write a topical outline for a literature review to defend a problem statement. I am using a problem statement from a prior assignment so I already had read through parts of at least 4 studies (primary source documents.) Six of my sources must be research studies and I have to include annotated bibliographies.

So tomorrow, I'm writing two posts and finishing up team work - I WISH! Some of the other students are slacking off in this class. One of my team-mates withdrew last week. Maybe they don't have as good a motivator as I have :-)

I am turning in because I have LOTS of writing to do tomorrow.

special gifts

I've had some special gifts lately. I am a lucky woman lately. The first gift I will mention is something I have been wanting for well over 15 years. Sarah gave me two splendid Chinese chestnut trees. Now my delimma...where to plant these beauties. They get big and fat (60 feet in diameter) and you have to plant two so they can cross-pollinate or there will never be nuts. They are messy trees. Chestnut hulls are prickly and large. Still, I am certain that squirrels would like chestnuts. Would rabbits and deer eat them? I wonder if Chewy would eat them? I don't want them to shade our little shrinking garden space. I picked a bouquet of dianthus from my little flower-bed in front of the garden. We reduced our garden by 1/3 last year because our trees are shading it too much. The hickory and tulip trees are still growing apparently. Anyway, I might ask Mr. Berry what he thinks about me planting them right on our property line. He usually doesn't cut to the line and if Someone cuts around them (and we clean up the mess), he will be agreeable. Someone and I talked about buying some of the side yard from him so we can expand our garden. My only other option is to cut down the dying maple on the south end and put them there. My concern is that the drainage may not be good enough. It is still rather damp back there, even though we had drain lines installed. The maple is dying because it's been wet too long. Sometimes I think we should turn that back corner into a pond. It would be very easy to do. Mr. Berry says our whole yard was part of a lake at one time.



OK, I'm rambling. The other gift was a chance to play 9 holes at Sandy Creek tonight. WOW. That was fun! Nobody behind us and only a single man playing a hole ahead..sometimes he got two holes ahead. I had a lot of fun, I was playing pretty well for me. I had some excellent drives, a very sweet 3-wood shot, and a couple of remarkable putts. I had a few decent chip shots too. My chipping has really gone to heck over the years. I really miss playing golf. I'm going to try to get out more, even though I have less time these days :-(Someone kept nagging me to get out and go, and I'm so glad he did. I finally gave in and had a blast. I played from the reds today and we played the front 9 at Sandy Creek. I shot bogie, par, par, bogie, bogie, bogie, par, double bogie, par. The front nine is tighter than the back 9, but the back 9 is longer. I'm not sure which I like best....I can score well on either one. Today, I was OK with my score. It was my first time out in over 8 months. I have been going to the driving range some, but it's not the same.



Also working on my papers this holiday weekend. I wrote about a problem area that I am interested in for my dissertation. I still need to add at least 280 more words to it. It makes me wonder if this is REALLY the topic I can be so interested in. I'm still thinking I'm interested in in the orchard industry in some way. I am writing about..basically, the lack of knowledge sharing in organizations and the loss of business information because it is not valued enough to be captured. If it were captured, it is more likely to be shared and used, right? Is that just my assumption and there is no validity to it? I could design a study "somehow..." to prove it. That would be my area to study. I think I am best suited for a quantitative study. Or perhaps a case study...I am not sure.

Other gifts today???? Many more, but I have written enough for now.

Graduation

Sarah graduated today - Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. I think I am happier for her than she is for herself in her achievement. I think one day she will see that this was a big deal after all. I felt a pang of regret that I didn't go through graduation the last time. Thinking about that today while a thousand names were being called, I remember that I had no desire to hire a sitter, drive to Morehead, and graduate with nobody I knew while nobody I knew watched. I got that degree and really only did it because it gave me a reason to get out of the house at night and Ashland Inc. was paying for it. It's good that I only had 9 hours to go when Sarah was born, or I might have dropped out.

Sarah's dad's parents hosted a party for her after graduation at Park Lake. I had forgotten how beautiful the landscape is in that part of Kentucky. Park Lake is what I wish heaven could be like. Indian Creek is one of my favorite places, and the Licking River Valley is breathtaking. It was wonderful to have a chance to visit the Wood family again.

Emily and Erin watched their sister graduate. Another thing I thought about today is that the next graduation I attend might be mine. :-)

I took some pictures of my beautiful apple trees. I was none too impressed with our two apple trees until last year. Our apple crop was outstanding last year. I had cut the trees back winter before last and that must have impacted production.

So, the first reading week of my class is nearly over and tomorrow I must read all day to make up for NOT reading today. I was gone all day and then Erin and Emily had their spring orchestra concert. It was quite good, I enjoyed it. Anyway, I have no pictures and I regret that. I could have taken my video camera but they always sound bad when I record them...but maybe I could have taken better pictures. My camera doesn't do dim light situations at all unless you are in flash range.

I've blown off the day so now that I've blogged, I'm going to play around with my guitar a bit. Then...I must hit the hay because I need to read 11 chapters tomorrow. I am getting a bit concerned with what I'm reading. I think I understand dependent and indepentent variables, but when I'm trying to figure out moderating, intervening, and extraneous variables....it's pretty confusing to me. I obviously don't grasp what the nature of these variables. Maybe tomorrow's reading will enlighten me.

Nothin' Could Be Finer......

This week has been unusual. I stepped outside and the full moon, the smell of the wild cherry blossoms (and they are so intoxicating the past few days), the clear sky - so clear you can see stars in the night sky with the full moon - it's a beautiful night. The wild cherry tree blooms are right up there with honey suckle, peonies, and daffodils as far as favorites; does anything smell sweeter? OK, maybe cotton candy. Melt-in-your-mouth sugar rush.

This afternoon, I was taking a stroll around the lake with Terry. Behind the old Petroleum building was Charlie and this beautiful bird in the picture below (please forgive the quality, it's the best my cell phone can do). He had flown into a window and Charlie had picked him up and set him in crotch of a flowering cherry tree (or maybe it was a flowering crab...there are several of both back there.) Anyway, I looked him up when I got back to the office. He is called a summer red bird or a red tanager. I have never seen one before so this was exciting for me. These beauties migrate north from Mexico and fly as far north as Lake Huron. He must be lost because he's on the wrong side of the river. He's commonly found in Ohio, but no mention of Kentucky (at least that's what I found on a couple of web sites.)

So I am well into reading week 1 of my new class, called Fundamental Principles of Sound Research. So far, the reading has been interesting to me. It's certainly better than the first half of philosophy I read. As a result of the readings this week so far, I have a much better understanding of the differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods. Now I am really torn because part of me really likes quantitative and part of me loves qualitative too. I think my talents lie more in qualitative.....hmmmmm.

I became a green belt in karate, 6th green, last Saturday. I am now working toward a 5th green. My new form is (sounds like) Pin Yon Som Don. We learned part of it tonight. I will get my first tip next week I think, for 8th code of ethic. The code is some pretty good mantra, except #9. I disagree with #9 which states "I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievments in the future." Personally, I will accept past mistakes but if I forget mistakes, I could repeat them. I have repeated mistakes so forgetting is not good for me. Maybe Chuck Norris prefers to forget his but I prefer to learn from mine. I will learn some one-step self-defense moves this time too. Vickie (in my class) is going to have her hair streaked green tomorrow morning to match her new green belt.

This Saturday, in just two more days, I will watch Sarah graduate from college. Wow, is this really happening so soon? I know it has been an eternity for her, but it seems like only months ago I was bringing her stuff to Butler Hall. Sarah fell in love with that area like I did. Morehead is a beautiful part of Kentucky. She fell in love with Kentucky and the country too and she is living her dream or, well, part of it anyway. If she is happy, I am happy. I couldn't be prouder. Erin and Emily will see their sister graduate just like they watched Katie graduate. I hope they follow in their sisters' footsteps.

I have been working on Emily's old room. It will become the spare room and/or Sarah's new room. We swapped Emily and Sarah so that Emily has the bigger of the two bedrooms. Hers was the smallest in our 4-bedroom house. I cleaned the carpet and it really cleaned up well. I have patched holes, treated and touched up the pink paint, and tomorrow I will repaint the entire closet. I need to revacuum and swap dressers..then start moving Sarah's stuff back into it. She is planning to move her stuff out this summer. Next up, clean the living room, then start on redoing Emily's room. Also, I need to find somebody to do repair work..it's going to be expensive :-(

What's to come?

I finished the philosophy class this week and got my final grade today. I am happy. As copying out some threads for my archives, it hit me like a ton of bricks...what exactly WAS I supposed to get out of this class - what do you know, it's Constructing Meaning. That is exactly what the class was about, but I didn't really get that until the whole thing was over.

The next class is...I forget exactly.....Research Methods. I think we will actually do a literature review. Also, we'll learn about qualitative and quantitative analysis, I think from the point of view how to conduct research using these methods. BUT, there are all sorts of research methods.

I ordered seeds tonight. Silver Queen, bush beans but DANG IT I forgot which ones I ordered. I couldn't find the ones I wanted, Kentucky Wonder bush beans. Plenty of KW pole beans, but we don't have poles and anyway, that just makes them easier for the deer to eat. I also bought some dwarf sunflower seeds and morning glory (heavenly blues) seeds. Anything else, I'm buying plants. I hate planting zinnia seeds and when I buy the plants, I can place them perfectly enough to begin with. I love digging in the dirt and planting stuff.

I best practice some karate. We are testing this Saturday and I still need three tips. Tomorrow night will be my last chance to get the tips.

Workin'...or not

I should be workin'...but instead I'm bloggin'. It's one final big paper and a team project to boot. So far, 2/3 of the team is accounted for in "our" efforts. Along with that, I have to do 5 more posts. Then its' another one down for a total of 13 hours complete, 49 to go.

Hmmmm....I hope Sarah is having a good weekend. She is at MerleFest with the Clack Mountain people and I bet she's singing some pretty hill music and making that banjo sound happy. I hope she gets to play with some fine people, and if she could get Ricky Scaggs' autograph for me, all the better.

Well..I think I'm gonna play my guitar a bit and get back to work.

The Pleiades

I went for a run tonight and the sky was spectacular. The air was clear as was the sky. I scanned the sky and saw three stars of Orion's sword. That's as clear as it gets in this valley. The Pleiades always makes me happy....they are named for 9 sisters in Greek mythology. I don't remember the story so I will have to research it, but I bet it is something like a God (maybe Zues) who casts them into the heavens to protect them from something, or perhaps to keep something else...as in jealousy.

I am writing a paper today(and tomorow...but hopefully no later than Monday evening). I have chosen Michel Foucault, my postmodern philosopher of choice. I like his thinking. I don't always agree with it, but I think he and I have some similar interests (and no, I'm not gay.) I have come to realize that a huge majority of these postmodern philosophers are French. Maybe I've missed something but why is this true? OR..is this just what I perceive to be true because of the literature I have read so far?

I'm fighting a demon tonight so I best wrap up this post and get back to work. I am leaving for Hawaii in 2 days and I am NOT READY. Tomorrow I will do laundry and get "stuff" for traveling. I'm still trying to confirm our housesitting arrangements for our animals. For now, it's back to Dr. Foucault and all about his ideas on the relationship of knowledge and power....not so much how knowledge gives one power, but how knowledge takes away power.

The Joy of Philosophy

If anyone can find any joy in that stuff (the 'P' word), please tell me how you found it. I could tell you all about postmodernism now though. I beat it to death all weekend. I turned a paper in tonight and I was none too pleased. I couldn't think of a reasonable way to organize it, which was the primary problem. I kept thinking of things I wanted to include but I couldn't find a place to fit them in, and then I'd get off onto some other part and forget what I was thinking. The whole creation process was much too disorganized. The paper kind of jumped around until I got to the last page and a half. Then it felt like it came together because by that point I was able to draw all the fragments together.

I need to learn to outline. In fact, that is our week 6 TEAM project. Scary thought.

This class reminds me of the leadership theory class. All these researchers and writers feed off each other's work. It all happens over time and I just can't maintain a sense of history in my feeble brain. I think I would do better if I associated them with dates rather than eras or movements.

I must get back to work. I'M GOING TO HAWAII!!!!! I can't hardly believe it.

takin' a breather

It's Sunday night and I made my post and read some more. I need to read MUCH more. I hope I will find more time to read tomorrow. I finished my post today and Erin finished practice early. We walked down to Hard Rock for dinner, came back, and she went to the party. A sea of middle and high school kids, singing karaoke and it was as bad as you can imagine. Erin competes one more time tomorrow morning at 10:00, and I will work to move us out of this room and check out while she's doing morning practice and the competition.

This is one of my favorite statues; it's just up the street from the Galt House. There are two of these statues, just alike, on both sides of the stairs. I would love to have these sitting on both sides of my driveway!

What else? We visited Kiko and Ron today.It was nice to see them again. They went to Hawaii last month and told me what a great time we were going to have there. I am looking forward to it. We are planning to go to Myrtle Beach but this will be the last big vacation for awhile, unless our finances change dramatically. We can't really be affording this trip but we started paying on it a year ago. I hadn't even thought of starting school and we had no idea what Emily's braces were going to cost at that time. I'm just going to go and have a good time and not worry about the cost. It's almost all paid for already.

Seeing some light

I read 1.5 (I hope) chapters of Sarap's book. I can understand this author - thank you Jesus!!! I am having to look up a fair number of words and phrases, but at least it makes sense. Today is about postmodernism and post-structuralism. There is a French philosopher, Lyotard, who says that post-structuralism is the same thing as postmodernism. I found his ideas about language and knowledge interesting. He predicts that the direction of all new research will be dictated by the parameter that the research results must be capable of being stored electronically. Aren't we like this already? What exists that can't be stored electronically that somebody would find need to research?

Lyotard predicts that knowledge will be the major component in the global competition for power. I've always thought knowledge is power. How many times have I said "If I only knew then what I know now..." But, Lyotard doesn't stop there. He also says that knowledge is not so much an end to itself anymore. Increasingly, it is being produced so that it can be sold. What things exist that could be studied/researched but never sold?

Chapter 4 of Sarrup's book was about post-structuralism. It discussed theories of Nietzsche, Hegel, and a pair Deleuze & Guattari. There was enough mention of Marzism that I ended up researching that a bit. We're not reading the book in order by chapter. First part is chapts 4&6, then 1&2, then one chapter, then another chapter. I am behind on the reading.

So, to switch the subject, the Galt House is really a nice place. Our room is so nice - really big suite, nicely furnished, and I love the crown moldings and high ceilings.

I have to go to bed soon. I need to wrap it up. Words for today:

Subversive - intended to undermine
pastiche - hodgepodge; Imitate another artist's work with satirical intent
allegory - (I should have remembered this one) - symbolic representation; such as the blindfolded lady holding up scales who represents justice.
performative - something that's said that causes something to happen, such as speaking a vow or promise.
incommensurable - impossible to compare or measure
didactic - morally instructing
dialectic - practice of determining truth by exchange or arguments...this must be the kind of thing that happens in court.
sublate - deny; contradict
polemic - controversial argument
leitmotiv - melodic passge; dominant theme
Goethean man - a man who agrees with Goeth, a scientist/writer who thinks man can divorce
himself from participating in nature.
deprecate - belittle
teleology - study of the design or purpose in natural phenomena.

Whew! Second wind. Marx believes that class struggle causes social change. He puts emphasis on the material conditions of peoples' lives. His ideas display sympathy for the working class (proletariat). Dang - that's one of those apomorphisms. Ideas can't disply anything. His ideas...they portray? Emphasize? Demonstrate? I'm at a loss for the correct verb. His assumption is that workers' interests match those of "humanity".

Postmodernism is the impulse to deconstruct totalizing systems of knowledge or belief. Three important postmodernists/post structuralists: Lyotard, Derrida, Jameson.

Post structuralism is the idea that language is subjective to culture and is not a solid medium for basing knowledge and power on. Derrida says there's no "text" outside of "context". the roots of post-structuralism cane from Nietzcheanism. But I really am too tired to go into him.

Sarah is leaving for Ireland Sunday. I must call her tomorrow. I talked to Emily and she seemed to be rather disappointed. None of the younger girls got above second place. Everything Emily did today took second place. Second place is like the middle 2/3 of entrants in their category. They sometimes give a 1st place to the really good acts in each category (if any acts warrant a first place...sometimes there are no first place winners). Most acts are rated 2, and then you get a handful of 3's. I hope she and Jerry find something fun to do tomorrow.

To all a good night!

Reading ad Infinitum

I have been reading all evening. I finally took a break and ran a mile and practiced a little karate...just a little something so I feel human again. Karate is good stuff. I went for a short run, ran harder which I should make more time for. Running fast requires more concentration, and I would much rather plod along in the "dead zone" then have to watch for footing and branches at face level, dogs, night creatures, etc. I have to watch for night creatures (raccoons and possums) because they aren't quick to get out of the way. I'm no stealth runner either so either the critters are deaf or they don't care (or they're really dumb). I almost tripped over a skunk last summer. I half stumbled and jumped over him but I remember seeing the glowing eyes and initially thought it was a funny fat cat behaving out of character and then realized it was a skunk. The moon was full tonight...I like. Interesting shadows from the trees and rooflines, and I play shadow games while I run.

Reading tonight...some parts were OK, some parts were interesting, some parts made no sense to me. I am worried about the parts that mean nothing at all to me. I think I've come to realize that Galen Strawson is somebody all these philosophy-devoted authors write about. I have yet to see anything profound from Strawson that warrants such interest. Tonight, I learned that Strawson is credited with this "idea" or "theory" or whatever the hell...that priori justification makes no reference to experience, meaning priori knowledge is independent of experience (not contingent upon experience).

As an aside to that, and as a result of stuff in the paragraph above, I learned that posteriori knowledge is derived from experience or imperical evidence. Empirical evidence is that which is verifiable from observation or experiment.

Other readings today related to organizations and their values. How their mission and values statements that they push out to the global world and to their stockholders, employees, customers, and partners do not mesh with their behavior. The writings pick apart the wording bit by agonizing bit to show how what it's really about is the bottom line, making money for the stakeholders, and not about the benefit of such an organization to the communities it is a part of. However, if you analyze the business statements of Japanese and German businesses, you find that the wording is different in such that the wording indicates society will benefit more than the stakeholders. American businesses are structured and managers are taught to think in terms of how to control employees and force them through punishment to achieve the specified mission statement. Japanese and German businesses are much more democratic. Structure is less hierarchical, job duties for positions are less defined, and employees are more likely to find a niche where they can feel useful.

So much for that stuff. Some vocabulary today:

ephemeral - lasting a brief time
coterie - small group of people who associate together frequently
panoptic - everything visible in a view
positivism - knowledge is based on natural phenomena and properties are verified by empirical evidence.
archetype - model; prototype...from this I learned that Jung says an archetype is an inherited pattern of thought is present in a person's unconscious.
hermeneutics - theory and methodology of interpretation
discursive - covering a wide field of subjects; rambling

I could go on by I need to go to bed! It's a late night.

Head Smash

I was practicing karate tonight. I was doing San Ju Wazza (not spelled right. It is Japanese for "30 movements.") The head smash is a horrible move to contemplate. You pull the victim's head into your elbow. In a sense, you use one arm as a knobby club. I don't think I want to get that close to somebody I have to defend myself from. I would rather kick the snot out of them than pull them into me. I hope I never have to use it.

Dephlogisticated air; perks

I am posting tonight, treating myself to a bit of esoteric soliloquy. Just that I can even think to use those two words pleases me immensely. I do believe the more reading I do, the more my vacabulary increases. When you see the word used time and again and you look it up a couple of times and FINALLY write it down...it sticks! Actually, that doesn't seem to be always true for me. Some of the words and phrases I have been reading don't mean anything to me much. I read the entire book by Kuhn using my very OLD dictionary....it's the one I used in my Freshman year of college. (Please forgive my excursis.) Kuhn kept using the word "dephlogisticate" and it wasn't in my dictionary. For two days of reading (very long days I might add...I think it took me nearly 18 hours to read the book) I kept reading that word over and over. Tonight, I totally finished the book and looked up the word. I had to actually check a couple of places to find it...obscure word. The best definition I could find said it means "fireproof." I puzzled over that and then it was like a lightbulb over my head. It's from an old theory of gasses where somebody figured out there was oxygen in the air that fires need so they can burn. Actually it's the reverse of that which inspires the term. If air is fireproof, it has no oxygen in it. And that can lead to REALLY fireproofing means that whatever chemicals are used, they can't change to create oxygen (maybe none of those gasses that can burn.)

Enough of that stuff though. Let's see. Today I heard my sweet Sarah on MSPR Public Radio. She was playing that banjo (Jesse called it a banjer a couple of times) and singing; she sounded like a fine Kentucky woman. I do love this music myself but I find the singing a bit harsh. I guess it's because I know what a sweet voice Sarah has and I miss hearing it. I guess I'll have to pull out an old CD of her Irish ballads, and that Russian song (Millions of Roses) she used to do. The banjo, and especially the guitar, I love. The fiddle is fun but my ears don't like the pitch for long - it bites. If I could play anything in a band, I think it would be bass. I realize that vocalists have to sing like that to be heard at all. A banjo is LOUD and so is a fiddle. Using a mic is just not done so much with that Old Time....it loses the Old Time sound somewhat with amplification.

Words for today?? Some of them are:

seriatim - serially
perquisite - gratuity; privilege (Do you suppose this is where we get "perks"???) >:-( That word is not in my dictionary EITHER!! I need a new one!
salient - noticeable
approbation- praise
heterodox - heretical (like from a heretic)
elucidate - explain
tout court - simply; quite short (pronounced too 'coor)
excursis - digression; lengthy point

So I must fold laundry now and practice some KARATE. I must practice the first two parts of (I can't spell it but it sounds like) Pin Yon Yee Don. Also, I will practice (sounds like) Pin Yon Show Don. I need to practice some new combinations as well...3rd set. There are three new ones and I have learned (hopefully) two of them. To all a good night.

Two Days Straight?

I'm a blog addict now. Two days in a row!

I'm excited about what I read tonight. I quit reading the book I was reading last night because one of the books I have to use as a source for my first paper arrived today. It is Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I read the first 34 pages tonight. Actually, it held my interest but like last night's book, I found myself using the dictionary all too frequently.

Tonight's vocabulary:

recondite - concealed, obscure
esoteric - private
morass - swamp
inchoate - imperfectly formed

Maybe I like this author (Kuhn) better because I don't have to use the dictionary as much. What I read last night, I ended up with like 40 words or phrases necessitating a dictionary for interpretation. My favorite phrase from last night was "social veritistic epistemology." My interpretation of what that is: knowledge that a group of people believes is true.

Tonight's reading was about...what? How do scientific paradigms (theories and models) affect scientists in that field of study? The main example I remember was the science of physics and electricity, compared to mathematics. Study of mathematics has been around much longer than the study of electricity. Back hundreds of years ago, Kuhn says the scientists who studied electricity were called electricians. I love it! Anyway, once basic paradigms are established, researchers build verification knowledge (prove the paradigm in depth and scope, or find flaws). I think the whole purpose of this class is to help me find HOW to look for a researchable topic. I think this book is going to help. Another reason I like this book is because I like science. :-)

OK, tonight is karate....I had fun in class. I didn't really want to spar tonight. Sparring is kind of disturbing to me. When I lived on 20th street, growing up, my bedroom was on the front of the house, overlooking the street. Across the street was an apartment building with a busy carry-out liquor store. It was called Gimperline's, and I remember the old man Gimperline who ran it. I remember watching drunk men fighting in the street. We didn't have air-conditioning so in the summers, I always had my windows open. I could hear men fighting in the street and see them beating the shit out of each other. Sometimes the police would come. Women and men would fight too. I never heard gun shots, but sometimes knives and "brass knuckles" or ball bats were involved. I could go outside the day after and find teeth and blood and hair. It was gross. I would sometimes watch from my window. Who couldn't watch that. Like a movie when you don't want to look but you do anyway.

But I'm off topic. Sparring was actually kind of fun tonight. It's so tiring though. I'm pretty good at it, I think I'm the best woman at it there (other than Mrs. Clark...she's GOOD!) I have fun with everyone but Lee (the others refer to him as Moose.) He is a 16 year old 6'something football player. He has hair down to his shoulders and it's curly blond - if I were just 16 again!! No thanks..just kidding. I never want to be 16 again. He kicks and hits too hard. I should wear my mouth guard when I spar him because he isn't careful enough. The time before last, I was wearing my mouthguard and he kicked me in the mouth HARD. My lip swelled and it cut the inside of my lip somehow. My teeth were fine though, thank heavens. Jerry gets mad when he hits me or kicks me so hard. I'm pretty tough though. I'm usually ready for it when he makes contact. When I'm sparring, I usually beat the other women. I can beat a couple of the men. I like sparring Jason. He has a lot of control and he's good. I defeated him tonight but he had already gone like 15 rounds. I gave him a quick back fist tap to the head and he thanked me - he was beat!

I must get myself to bed. I have a hard day tomorrow.

Starting Anew

Here we are again. I will blog tonight. I should be reading, but instead..this.

A new class starts today and I hedged on starting, debated about taking a break and waiting until after the Hawaii trip. I think it's going to work out OK, I'm betting I'll get my big paper done the week before I go to Hawaii. But now that I've made a decision, I'm having doubts. This is a philosophy class and I know VERY LITTLE about philosophy. In fact, I just forced myself to read 18 pages (chapter 1) of the first of 8 books (8 BOOKS???) This stuff is UGH! Dreadful! I'm highlighting text as I read and then jotting notes on words (and phrases) I have to look up because if the author uses them once, I'm going to see it again. The words I looked up today are:

epistemology
Cartesian
veritistic epistemology
social vertitistic epistemology
invidious
purveyor
putative
ontological

So that's 8 things I'm trying to learn tonight. The reading tonight really didn't mean much to me. It was about...what....what is truth? Is truth something more than what we believe to be true? Just because everyone believes something is true this does not make it true. I think that was the gist of what I read...but I'm really not sure what I read. Studying philosphy is sort of mind-bending. With computers, things are zero and one, black and white. The beauty of a system like that is that when you arrange the zeros and ones in the right "patterns" (I'm using that term loosely), things work miraculously well (or not..in some sad cases). Philosophy is like disassembling all the structure of what you think. Or, maybe not disassembling, but looking at each step of a process. I should be good at this. So why is it so hard for me???

Rainbows

I made some time to blog tonight. It has been a few hectic weeks lately. I am dead dog tired but taking some "ME" time tonight. We had some weird weather last week - 70 degrees in February and thunderstorms... check out the rainbow!

Here's a photo of Erin and Emily and Brittany - they were soaking wet. They had been playing in the rain. I'm happy they still like to play in the rain!

I am happy tonight. I have a ton of work to do but I am taking a break from it, and going to bed soon. I turned my BIG paper in tonight. I have another to work on, and time to start next week's work. Last week of class, and then a week or more off. I will have to decide whether to wait until after the Hawaii trip to start back. I hope it works out that I don't have to take a break.

Sarah has recorded new music. I am looking forward to a finished product (what we in IT-world call a deliverable). Gimmee.

Ice Trees

I wanted to share photos of our trees. The sun came out and they were magnificient. The ice melted off our trees today, and now it's what I call nasty winter days. The dirty snow is piled up and dirty ice is everywhere. The snow is mostly gone but muddy puddles are everywhere. I AM READY FOR SPRING!!!

They might just be shiney branches to you, but really, they were spectacular!

Emily had a bit of a sledding accident this weekend. I took a picture of her poor face, but you should have seen her the first few days after it happened! Her eye was swollen shut and she did look somewhat like she'd been mauled by something.

I had a monster weekend. I worked on a paper ALL weekend. I was pretty happy with it when I submitted it this evening but I have NO IDEA if it's even remotely close to what the prof is looking for. I hope it is. I'd accept 90% but if I get less than that...HMp. I read the instructions and set forth...but it seems like the instructions change everytime I read them. I must reinterpret the instructions every time I read them.

Erin wants to see Sweeny Todd and it's running at the Keith Albee next week. The last two times I saw shows there I was very disatisfied with the sound quality. If I'm paying $68 I want to hear the dialog! Emily said she doesn't want to see it and I am rather indifferent, other than the expense. I just recently borrowed some $$$$ to catch up on tuition payments.

Well.....I'm off again. I have one more post due before tomorrow night is over. Then Week 6 starts. No extra papers due Week 6 but I need to start working ahead on the Week 7 paper. Also I need to start checking the Week 8 paper virtual business. I'm liking this class but I just don't like all this security stuff. Ethics is interesting. I'm interesting in "knowledge-sharing" too. I didn't really think much about the difference between knowledge and information until this week.

Been around....

I'm taking time to post here tonight. I should be working, but I went outside a bit to enjoy the frosty cold night. The trees are encased in ice and they sparkle in the lights of the town's darkness. My twin apple trees are especially frilly, but seeing that show reminded me that I need to prune them back next month. I need to go out there tomorrow and see if the ice damaged them or the cherry trees. I wonder if the sweet cherry will survive this ice...it's never been a healthy tree.

My class is coming along. I'm finding some interesting things to read about. I need to write another paper, bigger than the last one, 350 words bigger. Ok, that's about two good paragraphs. Somehow it just seems much bigger. It is going to be difficult though...I have to find conflicting sources. And how about that! If I have to present multiple opinions, it's going to take more words.

I am now a blue belt in karate, and so is Jerry. Erin is our revered 2nd degree UFAF black belt, and I think she has a studio black belt too. As for me, black is WAY in the future. I thought I was now working toward advanced blue, but Jerry insists we jump right to green. Cool. Green is my favorite color (sometimes).

I am "on holiday" tomorrow (which is why I'm up so late like an idiot.) Floating Holiday. Oh my, I just realized it IS my floating holiday! Anyway, I am going to bed now and get up in the early morning and work on my paper. I have MUCH reading to do tomorrow. I need to do some construction work :-)