Going Under the Knife

Today's the day.

At one o'clock the procedure will commence.

A bone graft from the hip.

A plate in the collar bone.

Might not be able to write for a few days.

Wish me luck.

Curious about what it's going to feel like

I'm wondering how long I'll be at the hospital for, and how long I'll be out of school.

I hate missing classes, and it's the end of semester.

I hope that the drugs and pain don't blur my mind too much.

"I" seems to be at the beginning of sentences too often.

It is important to start focusing on things through another viewpoint.

There are ways of speaking about a personal perspective without starting every statement with "I".

Meditation sounds like a great thing to get into the habit of.

Some pure personal focus time.

Internal listening and getting to know the self.

So much to do.

A question begs, will it get done?

pd stuck

I'm stuck in the development of my PD sampler.

I'll get over the hump tomorrow in class.

I need to properly use coll and get some presets rolling.

The soundbank is in the works....

.... in looking for sounds, I stumbled across a track I was working on four years ago and was taken back for a mintue.

I could probably spend a whole summer going through lost songs and piecing things together.

Someday, I'll get the chance to develop as an artist.

A grant might be a solid aspiration.

One more day!

Great Learning + New Features

The three key components that differentiate blogs from personal web pages are comments, permalinks, and trackback/backlinks (Brady 2005 : 7-8).

Blogs are way cooler than they sound.

Do some research and find out why.

I'll post my finished paper, that gives some good links to blog history, once it's finished.

The Classroom and the “New” Material Culture : 

learning through an augmented reality

It's proving to be way more time consuming that I thought it would be. If I wasn't having surgery, I'd have pulled a longer day the last couple of nights and I'd be up another couple hours tonight. It's more important to give myself some rest.

We're going to be CNC milling rings for class next week.

I'm excited to finish my model and see how it looks all ready to be cast.

The whole reason I took the course is finally coming to be a reality.

Safak pushes geometry a lot and it's been a wonderful step back to math.

I'm excited to get more into some of the concepts that we cover.

I've chosen and started my final project.

I'll be making a futurist version of the game Acquire.

I'm looking into generative architecture and getting excited to explore Grasshopper when I get a chance. I am also pumped to get into some geometric origami.

Here's a fun moment for your brain.

I've come to some wonderful discoveries about my processes in research and writing that will provide for much greater success in the future. I am developing a strong framework.

I'll write more about things once the crunch is over.

For the next week and a bit, I'll do my best to log some of what's happening.

Busy Busy Busy

and hey....

Busy can be good, but right now I need it to lighten up a bit.

Search Committee is Over

A long day.

Early presentation and then an intense interview.

Lunch and then back for discussion of hire.

The process has been eye opening and informative beyond expectations.

I am glad to have learned what I have learned, and I feel like I've made some friends from the process.

Next year, I will be on another search for sure.

Being the incoming VP Academic, I'll have to be.

Kara has found a wonderful job opportunity for next year.

A part-time position with great pay.

Getting kids to look into their future in education.

What schools to go to and what to take.

Travel to aboriginal communities and present.

I am very excited to know that the position even exists.

I am glad to see the government taking such initiatives to get present students involved with prospective students.

Surgery is fast approaching and there are so many things to get done.

I won't be able to do much for awhile afterwards and we're moving.

I have to find a job and get ready for a baby.

Life is dropping the hammer.

I sure hope to be able to find something that will provide me the chance to use my brain.

I haven't had a job where I've really gotten to use my brain for awhile.

It's nice to contribute with your strongest asset.

It is sad to have to work "jobs" that are limiting in mental scope.

School is invaluable.

Critical thinking and problem solving on a higher level is essential to a fuller life.... for me, anyways.

I have to just push everything aside right now and sleep.

If I stress and fret about keeping up with the things I "need" to finish and complete, I'll be too tired to go into surgery prepared to recover quickly.

I have to be up early tomorrow and then Sunday I have lots to get done, as it's my last day to get bigger things ready for the move.

Monday, I have class all day and will have to spend the evening focused on relaxing and mentally preparing for the days ahead.

I am very sad at the prospect of missing classes.

I so enjoy being there to be involved in what is going on.

I hope that the painkillers for the surgery won't cloud my mental capacity too much.

I really hope to get some serious reading done and work on completing some desk/bed work.

I wonder what will be happening a year from today.

Sometimes....

everything goes all wrong, and we feel that we are the complete failure.

Life teaches the hardest lessons.

Last Minute Resources

Beyond the conceptual journey a pessimist will go on from the title,

the end of days or something as equally whack, it references getting great information right before it's needed.

Thanks to a follow-up email about a related topic, Adam sent me a paper that has been instrumental in shoring up my research paper.

It has a great break down of tools of technology in learning.

The list isn't physical model technology, but soft model technology that stems from physical model technology.

The internet is an abstract space that is made up of physical technology that allows it to exist.

The internet is the "new" material culture.

The pataphor that is second life, and beyond.

The haloed paper.

I am finding this research so exciting.

I have to create a chart of references from papers.

I feel that it is important to map/chart where authors are coming from and then read back into the history of the thoughts they present.

There are also the anomaly papers that will slip into the mix.

I find these the most interesting, as they are most likely fringe ideas.

Fringe ideas tend to lead to intense hallways of information that lead to vast spaces of new ideas, and groups of people living in the future.

There is a very small percentage of people who can understand the potential of things when they first appear to the mass consciousness of humanity.

A concept passes slowly through the brain of "man."

What part of the mind are you?

With that reflection, I leave.

The Depth of Research

The more time goes by, the more I find to read.

Everyday seems to enlighten my mind with new aspects of understanding.

The closer it gets to the due date, the bigger the paper seems to be in my head.

I'm glad that there is a min/max of 2000 to 3000 words.

It's just a short research paper on the material culture of technology and the classroom;

I will develop it further and change the angle for my conference submission.

I must remember to stay within the bounds of the assignment and not get caught up in the bigger picture. There needs to be more research and development in education, but this is only a small paper for class.

Focus.

Class was productive.

We got into presets and are finally reaching a level where we can make a few tunes.

Alex dropped Afro Samurai on the VideoDj and I totally felt the vibe. We're going to tweak it out and make an awesome piece for the class performance in a month.

I've got my sampler moving along and will soon double its size to 16 channels.

I'll break it up visually into sections of 4, it will be much easier to use that way.

Looking at eight channels is a bit tough sometimes, and sixteen will be worse.

I'm changing the colour coding of the patch as well, it'll be easier to navigate.

I am looking to create a solid GUI sampler.

I have to create a soundbank for it still.

On another note, Greg's patch is sick.

It's a two loop sampler that has a 16 step sequencer.

I'm hoping to integrate the two patches together.

Then one can record the loops created by the sequencer with the sampler and then recycle that with the sequencer.

I'm starting to see mad possibilities with PD, and can understand patches that I used to look at all googly eyed.

Using the programs I already understand with new patches in PD will create a lot of fun and good music.

I hope that I can continue to work with the class after semester, and that Adam runs a section next year.

We could get super tight and travel to play a gig and demo how to develop a laptop band.

Anyways,

hella busy.

Ever Feel Frustrated?

That sense of never quite having enough time.

So many things you're looking to accomplish and you feel like you can't finish any.

I wish I had a reset button.

Start on level one and work my way back up.

I'm interested in focusing on just one thing and finishing it, but my schedule is not set up to provide the opportunity to do so.

I feel torn into different directions.

Life is a challenge, for sure.

I wonder how things will change, once semester is over.

What job will I find?

I have to make sure to tailor next year to provide the chance to focus on my research project.

It is important to provide proof that post-secondary institutions can allow for a more open framework of study.

Students need the opportunity to focus in and complete things at a deeper level.

I am constantly feeling that only the surface is being scratched.

ACAD doesn't even have block week.

Block week every week.

Lego blocks.

Have you ever seen two cats fighting?

There's a form of intimacy.

Time to go and catch some sleep.

I'm excited to be laid up from surgery.

I'll get a chance to do work in bed and have no deadlines.

Deadline : Get better.

nonspecific = random word of the day

"I hope that tomorrow isn't too nonspecific."

That's how I'm feeling....

things are too nonspecific when amassed together.

A big block of lego pieces that make a 'blog' rather than a super awesome castle with a drawbridge.

Time to go and see if I can feel the baby kick in Kar's tummy.

Catablog : Dictation

I wish blogging was called something cool.

Who came up with the word blog?

Catablog

(what comes to mind?)

I think this word is awesome.

I am catablogging my thoughts.

Must complete my own website.

Proper catablogization required.

Making your own stuff is cooler anyways.

I won't totally diss blogger, the community is pretty cool.

More control is needed to turn blogging into something cooler.

I hope 'Kar can start her own blog, so she can stop being jealous of mine.

She's also jealous of my PD skills.

Gotta message on the machine from my father; bass.

Played for the first time in a while.

Felt great.

Drop D.

Irish jig style.

Played for Kar' and Baby in candlelight.

Felt the baby kick in her stomach.

Options are great!

I like how the return/enter key is a return/enter key.

So sad that the splat/command key is no longer the apple/splat/command key.

Saying apple + any key sounds way better than saying command + any key.

Apple's taste way better than commands.

Eat that.

I am so excited!

Lucas and I had a super awesome dance party at the arthole today.

We rocked out.

Felt just like recess.

{As dictated to Kar'}

Streamlining

Read this article for class today.

We had to write a crit of the thoughts put forward by Mr. Holland.

I am curious to see what response, my response gets.

I also made my abstract humanoid model in Rhino.

Kinda cute, in a "sad, don't leave" way.

I'm excited to make some progress on our final project.

Futuristic/Sci-Fi

Cats are crazy.

Art and pricing debate at work today.

Good stuff.

I'm short on time lately.... streamlining is needed.

What can I do?

I'm giving my sampler patch more room to breathe.

Abstractions make things clean. 

Soon, more standard features, and then, some more than standard ones.

I've got name boxes for the slots and have reduced boxes out of sight.

I need to add quantization and volume controls.

I have to have a master kill switch.

I realized today, I can have multiples of the patch open and load a bass set of samples into one, a drum track into another, and a melody into a third.

I'm excited to see how the class likes playing with the patch.

We can all rock out to the same tempo and have different instruments.

We can also all have our own patches working to add extra instruments that aren't sample based.

Werd.

Saw Adam play at the science centre.

Sonic Boom!, the show was called.

Great venue.

I'm stoked to put together a show there.

I had fun.

Haven't been out to see a performance in a little bit.

It cost me $5 and when I left, I found $5 on the ground of the parking lot.

Good balance, I'd say.

Watched RiP: A Remix Manifesto yesterday.

Awesome show.

I found the discussion about biomedical engineering patents very indicative of the biggest problem facing our culture.

Greed based control.

Disney is funny.... in so many ways.

The depth of Mickey.

The entertainment industry is getting scooped by the masses.

blah blah blah.

Watch the movie, and then read about the issues.

Nothing was very new for me, but it was a fresh take and nice to see the movement of worldy understanding gaining momentum.

I have to get some sleep.

So much to do.

So little time.

Almost Crunch Time

Tomorrow I have to get some serious work done.

One paper is fast approaching and I still need to read for it.

Egad!

I'm curious what's going to happen to my schedule once I get this surgery.

How long will I be out for?

13 days until go time.

I wish I could write more.... busy making my poster for teaching kids.

I also put a piece into the Show + Sale.

Title:

Self-Portrait : Self-Destruction

priced at 2500

It's a piece that I'll be sad to see go.

I get a bit attached to my work.

Some pieces take years to finish and then I have a connection with them.

We'll see what happens.

Given it goes, I'll get 2125.

I'm looking to put that money into supplies for teaching.

Saw this awesome learning tool/toy today.

Siftables.

This stuff is brilliant.

I'm excited to get more involved with a company that is doing things to improve the quality of life and learning.

Time to get my CV together.

Go Team!

Blog or Massage?

Massage.

Sampler is the Isht!

Finally!

After much frustration, and some well timed help, I have finished the first stage of the sampler.

It's an eight track sampler with tempo variation (75 to 150 bpm).

slots = tracks

Samples can be recorded into the tracks in preset lengths.

I have everything in multiples of two, stemming both ways from the 1/4 note.

1/64 note up to 16 bars.

There is also a metro for each track.

1/64 up to 16 bars.

Samples can be loaded into the tracks as well.

I have to spend some more time to create name plates that respond to the samples loaded into the slots; it's handy to know what you've got in what slot.

I also need to create a deeper metro abstraction to provide for greater variation and control with playback.

There needs to be a few sets of drums that come with the patch, as well as, a few bass lines.

One click preset loading can be super dope for the person without a sound bank.

I also have to create a mute switch for each track.

I'm just getting started and can see this piece going super far.

The other side of multi-track recording software is coming into my understanding.

eFx will make the sampler even better still.

Delay Lines

Reverb Echoplexes

Distortion

I dreamt up and looked into how to make the recording of samples occur when the adc~ broke a certain envelope. 

Epiphany!!!!

I just figure out the solution to the issue that was preventing me from trying to make it work.

spigot!

Plop a spigot into the flow and stop the env~ from triggering the recording threshold and firing the tracking process again before it's finished.

I'll have to check to see if it works.

This way samples can start at the beginning of the array.

I have been finding that even when I start making a sound as I click the recording button it is too far from the beginning of the table.

Rather than forcing for extreme precision timing and the frequent failure, I'll create a chance for success every time, or close to it.

Adam was off in the family starting moment.... birth of a child ....so, we all got together and worked on developing as a group without him.

The morning was filled with working on patches and sharing ideas.

Jennie explains her concept for our upcoming performance here.***

The afternoon saw me get mad frustrated with my patch failure, while Greg played some music for analysis and counterpoint to PD focused anger.

I believe I said "F*ck PD!!!!" at least a few times.

Everything came together right before the "bell" rang and we got out of "class."

Alex learned that video programs from the internet can suck.

I'm excited to see the fruition of the concept he came up with.

More on that another day.

I spent some more time at home refining the sampler further.

I'm going to post the sampler, and the abstractions for it, on my pdpatches blog.

***My concept for the piece is to gain a rock solid understanding of each other's intentions.

Sure, laptop orchestras have super potential for crazy deep layers of sound and incredible change with flexibility, but it's all for none if you have no foundation and starting point.

We have to pick an instrument and play it with the group's best interest in mind until we can hold down a 3 minute rule.

Once we have gotten that down we'll grow further and expand into a set of tracks and freeform exploration.

Aside:

Since the lemur can be used to control both our tempo and volume, I'm pumped to tie together a set of samplers.

One person can be the DJ while the rest are the records.

Material Culture:

The more I learn about the depth of knowledge it takes to do the "simplest" things the more I am fascinated by humanity. If only we had better documentation of our past. I hope that we can do our future self justice by keeping a solid set of archives of our growth, from this point on.

We watched a film on traditional iron smelting in Africa and my mind just started thinking about the depth of understanding that went into it all.

Making tools to make tools.

Wish I could write more, but it's bedtime.

Getting My Game Back

My shoulder has been bugging me.

I'm getting antsy for the end of the month.

Time to get this procedure done and over with.

Wedding was a blast.

Took a lot of photos and captured some wonderful moments.

Post Production Post Production Post Production

Time to go through and get things looking pro.

It takes lots of time to produce a book.

Started reading the books I've taken out of the library for my papers.

I wish I had a couple months to invest into the direction, completely.

There is a lot of literature and quite a few people to talk to.

I have to focus in on my note taking.

Read and Make Note

Read Notes and Expand with Thoughts

Recycle and Refine

Find new terms that explain the field and explore the depth of understanding that goes with them.

Bibliography Reading : New Sources

I can see this whole process taking a couple of years to fully develop.

Time to get back to reading.

Big Weekend

Wedding.

Sister-in Law is getting married.

Family in town and things to get done.

Photographs to take.

People to meet.

School reading and research must be maintained.

Deadline are coming up and I must make progress now.

Uploading photos for SD tonight.

Things take time.

Volunteer work is tough stuff, sometimes.

Sacrifice is intense.

I wonder what the summer is going to be like.

All the time, I wonder.

Life is one interesting experience.

It is always so different than it was before.

Planning Ahead

Now.

Meeting with Faculty.

Looks Ahead.

Now.

Working on Papers.

Looks Ahead.

Now.

Focusing on Career.

Looks Ahead.

Now.

Collaborating to Hire.

Looks Ahead.

Now.

Everything is now and in the future.

Looks Ahead.

Now.

Looks Ahead.

Now, the future looks birght fir those that....

edit and spell check.

{laughs}

I'm pretty busy as of late.

I'll catch up more in a few days.

I've almost got my feet under me....

Am I floating, swimming, sitting, falling?

I figure, I'm all wind in my face and getting my bearings from the trip out of the canon.

So punny!

{laughs}

sleep

Look for this Paper and Read it

iTunes University and the classroom: Can podcasts replace Professors?

Ugly is the New Beautiful

Collaboration Day.

DRWG 120 meets MADT 315.

Werd.

It was a lot of fun.

My group recorded the sounds we could create with drawing materials.

Sharpening a pencil.

Shaking a bag of supplies.

The sound of a rolled pad of paper.

Cutting with scissors.

Drawing with felt and conte.

Sculpture dangling.

Plastic bag crinkling.

More and more and a bit more.

We came up with the idea of making Tetris pieces and playing a giant size game.

Everyone got to draw their style on a set of pieces and then we played.

We didn't have enough time to run through the concept before it was time to perform for the class.

A run through would have made a huge difference.

While the DRWG students made blocks, I made music from our samples.

I wish I could have had more time to lay out the background music for the game.

I was hoping to have a "successful line" sound.

I needed more layers to create the change in sound that would correspond to the layers of blocks.

Ideally I would add a layer for every layer increased.

The last line before you'd lose the game would be crazy deep and busy, super stress sound.

The beginning layers would be pretty chill and inspiring.

A very solid exercise in group activity and brainstorming.

I took a lot from the experience.

The material culture of Coke.

Interesting class today.

Investigating the effects of a soda on the world and culture.

The class had good discussion and thought sharing.

Now to read some papers.

Name Dropping

Reading a paper that is plagued with names and references.

The ideas are lost in the connections to who wrote on them.

Basically, every other sentence has a date in brackets.

End notes would make the conceptual core of the paper far stronger.

I am also having a hard time with a name rather than a detail with a superscript.

In Example : ie

"...in other cases consumption becomes important in the forging of national identity, as in Foster's (1995) study of New Guinea."

Consumption : Daniel Miller

Why not distill the study of Foster's into an idea and use it instead of his name.

Superscript that isht to the back pages.

I equate the use of references in the paper to blogging as follows:

We bought a new couch yesterday (Karlanda 2006).

Bibliography

Karlanda (2006) 'Sectional Corner Sofa - Calgary Furniture For Sale - Kijiji Calgary', Kijiji.ca, March 9th 2009, http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-furniture-couches-futons-Sectional-Corner-Sofa-W0QQAdIdZ110468172

Real blogging is as follows:

We bought a new couch yesterday.

I guess I might be a product of technology's advantages.

Some systems make things easier.

And here's the worst sentence ever:

"This naturalization of capitalism, though at least as pernicious, since vastly more powerful, than the critique of consumption, is, however, less germane to the question of consumption as material culture, since what is remarkably about it is its lack of concern with the specificity of goods or with the wider nature of materiality and its effects."

wtf was Miller thinking.

Did his editor even read the paper?

You must attempt to read the sentence out loud, to get the truest sense of its cumbersome pretentiousness.

I can see why most people steer clear of academic papers.

The content of the ten pages is interesting, yet, it is lost in the writing.

Tomorrow is going to be pretty awesome.

MADT 315 colabs with DRWG 120

We get to bring sound and visuals into the drawing experience.

More on that tomorrow.

iDance

A song I recorded four years ago has found its way onto an album.

I didn't even have a copy of the track until today (you know how things get lost in the shuffle.)

D.Soul the Soulsamurai

If you're interested, you can find it on Loop Based Life-Form.

I don't feel that it ever hit a mix that was finished, the track does have some fun little nuances though.

Thankfulness.

e.p.

you can find a silly short titled Run if you look hard enough.

The silly days of non-sense.

Reminisce and laugh at the foolishness of younger years.

Perhaps Reckless Exercising might even make it back onto the net.

It needs new music first.

Bruce will have to dig up the original FCP session to throw down new beat.... copyright laws and all.

It might just get reposted and last until it's pulled again.

werd....

"Nice Orange Tang!"

Stability : Housing

The biggest issue in the lives of so many, is housing.

Without a stable environment that one can call home, life can be a transient experience.

The biggest solution to the "homeless" problem is long-term shelter; not shelter like the plastic tied to trees in the city's river valley, but shelter that really is a sturdy environment of protection from the elements.

We have confirmed our new home for the next year.

A year of no worrying about moving.

I hope that it can be a solid two years.

The place is grand.

A baby and a house.

I feel "grown up."

I also feel weird saying that.

We also got a couch for the new place.

Second Hand.

Kar's been doing second hand shopping for the boy.

Once upon a child (warning: site has music that plays automatically upon visitation) is a store that sells "gently used" children's gear.

Designer outfits for a dollar or two each.

Not a 6.95 for a pair of socks type store, but a 1.99 for a sleeper that's adorable type store.

Once the kid's too big then it's back to the store for the next youngin' to enjoy.

Cycles of Being

Free cycling.... not going out for a ride on your fully paid for bicycle, or a friend's, but passing things on to others for free.

I'm working on building a drum machine in PD.

It'll be tailored to 75bpm to open, I'll develop a two button system, or mouse movement response, to alter the tempo once I've solidified the loading/recording samples aspect.

I fully understand how to build it and make it super awesome, I just need to invest the time.

I'll use it as a template to create a series of instruments, and then I'll have a full piece for the class to play.

Laptop Ensemble.

Bass

Melody

Drums

Vocals

Efx

Pads

That'd be a slot for each member of ALORK.

I'm getting my excitement for boxes back.

315 rules!

Rhino was good today.

One step closer to my goal in the class.

I can see it coming to fruition by the end of semester.

Life is grand!

I have to get quite a bit done in the next couple, three days.

I'll see how much I can fill in about things.

Meanwhile, m'out.

http://pdpatches.blogspot.com/

Posted a patch and its abstraction.

It's the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

Sorry I didn't label what everything does, I'll find some time when I'm laid up in bed from my surgery to spell things out.

I got the call today.

March 31st

I finally know when I'm under the knife.

Had my photo shoot with Nick today.

I'm excited to see how he decide to treat the images.

When you get a bunch of shots, you always wonder which two will be chosen for the diptych.

The shoot was a lot of fun.

I'll post a link to the images when they're available to the public for viewing.

Contrast in Appearance.

Enjoyed an Italian restaurant I have had yet to experience.

Wonderful.

They gave a postcard with the bill.

I collect free postcards (I guess it's not free if it comes with a bill.)

Since I send them away, I guess I don't really collect them.

SD meeting at ACAD.

Very productive, in terms of ideas and moving forward.

It felt like we'd finally found our stride.

Momentum is building and the homestretch is in sight.

Time to go for the victory.

Gots to run.

Strange Communications

Between email and cellular communication, I have had a few strange moments.

Both Kara and I have been harassed by random people.

When we lived in Victoria, Kara had a random phone-phile.

This creep would call at the weirdest times seeking sexual conversation.

We had to get the police involved and found that cell phone companies protect people who abuse others.

Due to the fact that there hadn't been any actual physical abuse or threat "in person" (telecommunications is actually a virtual reality : see Ray Kurzweil,) the police couldn't get a warrant to get the number released from Bell.

Without the number they can't confront the abuser.

The person being harassed has to do a lot of work to get no results.

In the end the only option is to change your number.

The world has some people that are in need of some serious social counseling/training.

also,

"The System" has some major flaws.

Watched Blood Trail yesterday and found it to be enlightening.

War photographers are an interesting group.

The movie only focuses on one man, which fails to provide a greater sense of the field.

There are people with issues in every line of work.

I have heard of another documentary called ?War Photographer?

I am waiting on getting the link from Mitch about it.

Had a meeting with Bonnie Murdoch in Extended Studies about the Calgary Board of Education video project. CBE is looking for teaching resources and the assignment is tied into the MADT 416 class. It is nice when one's ambitions and goals line up with one's obligations.

I am focused on the idea of learning resources that provide for self-paced absorption of information. Books are great for learning at your own pace, they fail to reach a lot of people though. There are so many different learning styles.

We must continue to create more learning options.

If we can develop nanobots that deliver oxygen to the blood, we can develop free education that is tailored to the individual.

The biggest question in education is?

There are so many issues that it's mind boggling.

Funding seems to be a major repetition in the excuses column.

I have the feeling that it's ambition more than anything.

The research and resources available are incredible, their distribution is another thing.

Is the world of man really so disconnected from itself?

Are we in need of producing disposable plates and paper decorations for the same parties we throw every year?

I watched The Office, and felt the sting of destruction when they all threw out red plates and cups after the party. Are we incapable of reusing things that last for years?

As a species, are we dependent upon trivially decorating our environment for small events?

There are a lot of questions.

"They" say: 

Don't sweat the small stuff.

The problem is that the small stuff adds up.

How many corporate parties in small, medium and large size offices have similar events to the one in the show I watched this evening?

Combining all that waste and contemplating the resource depletion resulting from its production stretches the mind's capacity to understand the environment we live in.

I feel that we need to teach a connection to natural resources at a very young age.

Do we even understand our connection to teach it?

What resources went into the production of the laptop I'm typing on?

Source every single part and every material that goes into creating those parts, then do the same for the tools that create it.

Does the company that produces the final salable ware even know those details?

Can we engage ourselves to commit to tracking the details from the start to finish?

From the mining of raw/war materials (that's a whole other day of thought) to the tools that put the pieces together.

Perhaps one day we'll start to understand our impact.

I think that will be the day when people disconnect from the must make money approach and start living the must make others' lives better approach.

In the meantime, we have douches tying up the communication waves that were made with the intent of intellectualism.

Respect Future Tolerance

iHuman

The Red Tear Project

I believe that we can make it happen.

Everything has to be timed right to be successful and now is the time.

Now is the only time, ever.

I found over a thousand pages of readings from Alberta Learning today.

Everything is focused on curriculum and studies of technologies for learning.

I am intent on setting up a small group learning environment.

Positive Affirmation

I have taught three groups of children, from the age of five to eight, Alberta's elementary curriculum successfully.

This statement may seem crazy, but it's the key to my achieving it.

I'll continue to re-affirm this concept in my mind and in the future it will come to fruition.

Small groups that have individualized learning can allow people to be ahead of the curve.

The key is creating a connection to passion and the overwhelming sense of interest.

Clarity/focus training is the foundation to all learning afterwards.

Commitment to an outcome, combined with patience, sees results.

There is only so much time in a day.

I am using relax focused time now.

Stop and breathe and listen.

FIND A QUIET MOMENT!!!!!

:there's a social experiment:

response to direction.

tone matters

wording matters

intention matters

Now getting to bed matters.

I am spending more time to spend with Kara and son.

"Getting six hours of sleep just isn't good enough."

A debate.

How much sleep is really needed.

They say 6-8.

Some need 10-12.

Others 4-6.

People are strange beasts.

I'm hoping that I can get at least 6 tonight.

I vote 9 hours and uber productive days.

Running to catch the four one four

The weather can make for horrible roads and altered schedules.

I found myself running after a bus for five blocks.

I made it.

My feet were soaked and my heart was beating.

I felt like a knife was cutting into my throat.

I was on the verge of throwing up for half an hour afterwards.

I need to get back into shape.

316.

Do I find a way to continue and do 416?

It is all dependent upon the opportunity to pursue my research and learning resource creation.

Had a meeting with Kurtis today and hopefully things will start to lend themselves to my intentions with the class.

I am gearing all of my classes on the focus of learning resources and development of education/pedagogy.

SD business meeting.

Afterwards I got into a great conversation with Marc-Andre.

The summation of our discussion is that striving towards creating a future of a fully self-actualized culture that is working to grow through positive exploration is a difficult commitment. Raising the base awareness of people is difficult and depends upon those that control resources. Selfless sharing is a tough sell, even though it's free.

I am building a large collection of papers for my research and development.

I don't have access to a lot of the titles that interest me, but I do have access to some readings and am excited to start compiling a massive understanding of teaching tools.

The more that I look for papers to read the more I am encouraged to keep looking.

Education is the most important aspect of life.

Without the ability to learn and to react to understanding, we are nothing.

Contribution to free wealth of information is essential to the survival of human life.

Refraining from committing to your passion is a sacrifice of the gift.

We are all gifted.

We all can improve someone else's life.

We all must understand that there is no barrier in the collective conscious, there are only obstacles to overcome that we place between ourselves.

Gratitude.

Getting Someone's Name Wrong

Have you ever written someone's name wrong and found out later that you had been doing so?

I feel dumb today.

Such a good guy too. Even if he never knows, I wish I hadn't ever made the mistake.

PD was dope today.

We did sampling and I caught up a little bit on last week's class.

I am getting stoked on boxes again.

I can see the wheels turning in my head and am building an understanding that will allow for successful patch creation.

There are tonnes of tweaky things in PD that I will be sure to discover and have to find solutions for, but whatever.

Once I spend a moment going over Ableton and Pure Data with Jennie, I'll be able to take my fun to the next level.

multitrack clip response with live looping interactive capabilities

I'm also pumped to find more and more controllers to play with.

Controllers!

In due time.

Perhaps, I will take 415 next academic year, and by the time that's done I'll have some isht down packed.

First Year Studies exhibition is up.

I am very impressed with a lot of work.

There are a couple of pieces that I find inventive and inspiring.

It is always nice to see the work of your peers.

GD search committee held phone interviews today.

Three interviews and close to four hours of involvement.

Enriching.

We had six questions to base things around and then we all added a bit more to draw out things of interest.

I was sitting and thinking....

what can i ask that is relevant for a greater understanding from a student perspective and not just a personal interest question?

If you could only teach just one lesson to a student, what would it be?

I found the answers were great summations of the philosophy of the individuals.

We've narrowed it down to two candidates and may possibly conduct one further phone interview as a backup.

You don't want to focus on too few and miss the chance to find the right person.

I feel very lucky to be involved with the individuals on the team.

I hope to keep ties to the members for awhile into the future.

Smart People = Good to Know.

Silva pointed out a couple of artists to me and I must admit that I am fond of Anthony Goicolea's self-portrait Kitchen and Toilet Paper.

Jillian Mcdonald was a bit too creepy for me.

House.

Home.

Conjugal relationships to house building.

Paiwan.

Intense.

301 is an awesome class.

I am so glad to be exposed to the thoughts that it illuminates.

Cultural influence and lifestyles are so diverse.

Communication is something that can be achieved in so many different ways.

I only hope that my paper lives up to possibilities I see in it.

"bedtime."

-Kar'

Learning the Market

Kar' and I have been house hunting.

We have to find a new place to rent and have been looking through various sources.

We visited a possibility yesterday and were disappointed by the layout....

we did see a for rent sign across the street from it though (more on that place in a bit.)

We went to see a top floor 2br + den this morning.

The second I saw the bathroom, I knew it was all over.

It doesn't matter how nice a place is if its bathroom is too small.

Later:

Kar' tells me that she set up a time to see the place I scoped out across the street from where we went yesterday.

We'd called the guy when we first wrote down the number and found out the details.

Full house.

3br.

Efficient.

Price was a bit higher than anything we'd discussed.

So we went to look at it at 5:30.

The tenets let us roam through the house and then answered our questions.

Awesome!

This place is....

well

Awesome!

We are determined to make it work.

It's a turn of the century home with renos.

Beautiful.

Spacious.

Character.

We'll have room for all of our stuff and the ability to do things we wouldn't otherwise be capable of doing.

Now for the iron and the details.

I hope with all my heart that we get this place and can do all the great things we've been brainstorming.

Anyhoo,

it's bedtime.

I have to finish an article and the search committee conducts its first phone interview at 8 sharp.

Zs