Priming for Educational Success

I totally need to write a book called "Priming for Educational Success" or, how to use the psychological and behavioral "priming" to help students learn, succeed, and just be smarter....

Seriously. Starting to collect data now.

Winter. It Happens Every Year.

So, WKRC just called this the "winter of our discontent" and is busy now with the Wicked Winter Weather graphic doing a story on Winter Weather Fatigue Setting In. How long will it last? When will it end? (To her credit, after all the gloom, Angenette Levy did say it was beautiful as the poor thing did her live bit from outside).

Seems like I have experienced Winter every year, and every year, without fail, it ends, and Spring arrives. Every year. Yes, it's cold. It's winter. Spring will come.

Am I the only one that is more sick of people complaining about the weather than the weather itself?

My Mom said not to waste any energy complaining about the weather, you can't do anything about it other than dress appropriately. We also used to sit on the porch and watch storms, because it was cool seeing the trees blow and the rain fall. She also said, as I do, that Cincinnati is a great place because we get all 4 seasons. It is!

Not everyone agrees, and everyone can't move to their preferred climate. I get that. Wallowing in your discontent is, however, not helping you feel better, is it?

One last weather anecdote. Larry Valmore (UMYF counselor, leader, role model) used to tell the story of delivering papers, and how miserable he was on those early mornings when he sat on the tailgate in the rain, throwing papers. One day, he accepted the fact that he was going to get wet, and getting wet wasn't a big deal anymore.

It's winter. It gets cold in the winter. Spring will come.

I Make Movies In My Dreams

Not that I had a dream about a movie, but a dream that could have been one.

I had a job, somewhere, it was new, some kind of computer job, maybe tech supportish (which I don't do) but I know I had a change of clothes, and that I found a little shared office with a couch/cot/bed in it that I was going to sleep. There was a photo of four guys (two white, one light skinned black, one Indian) and/or a notebook, and it was signed by one of them, one that survived a mountain hike where "one got left on the mountain."
The guy that used the other half of the shared office mumbled something about it belonging to the other guy that worked there, who was definitely of Indian (the country) heritage, but American. Where he was and why I was using his space to bed down for the night (I had "worked" in another spot across the hall of something) wasn't clear. This morphed into seeing bits of the hike, including parts of them carrying a wrapped body down a rocky trail. Then more scenes of them climbing up, including the victim of the story (the black guy) getting weak, but soldiering on, then getting groggy, unable to focus, and them exchanging concerned looks. Lying him down by a fire, the top of his head almost in it, all showing like footage shot for a show, all in color. I specifically remember them trying to get him to eat, but he groggily waved his hands like he couldn't grasp the food much like an old sleepy nursing home occupant might (as opposed to waving it away). Other bits of getting ready to hike/climb (but not technical climbing at all, definitely a more recreational camping hike gone bad, but it didn't look like he should have died in the dream), and maybe scenes of a rescue of someone else or news-like glimpse of either a rescue of body recovery.

As always, I wish I could remember more, it fades so fast. It had all the elements, though: a frame story of me (or whoever it was) in an unfamiliar place, discovering a relic, which leads to an explanation of the relic and seeing the resulting story unfold that the relic is a part of (or a memento of). I awoke before the wrap up and ending frame part. Dangit! I always miss the ending.

I have these seemingly original story dreams fairly often, I had several vivid ones on vacation over Christmas (on the boat), which I figured may have come from the Scopolamine patch I was wearing, but that wasn't the case last night! I don't think that that is one of the side effects, anyway, according to my ridiculously brief Wiki reading.

Wherein I Take An Opportunity To Hate On The Hobbit Films A Little More

Well, a little Box Office Number News gives me the opportunity to opine on the latest iteration my most hated franchise, Peter Jackson's Ruination Of Tolkien The Hobbit, Desolation of Smaug.

On a weekend in which much of the nation was shivering through bitter winter weather, it seems somehow right that “Frozen” was the No. 1 movie at the box office.

The animated musical blasted past snowstorms and the new horror film “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” to take in $20.7 million and knock “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” out of the top spot it had held for the past three weekends.

Ha! Take that, movie makers of crap! A FAMILY ORIENTED MOVIE takes over in it's 6th week!

Disney’s 3D family film is still going strong in its sixth week of wide release and has rung up nearly $300 million domestically since just before Thanksgiving and more than $600 million worldwide.  It’s the second-highest grossing Disney Animation release of all-time, behind only “The Lion King.”

 ...compared to the Blobbit:

Blockbuster “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” which has been No. 1 every weekend since it opened on Dec. 13, finished third with $16.2 million. The Warner Bros.-MGM production is up to nearly $230 million domestically, and is on its way to $700 million globally.

and it was running in fewer theaters: “Frozen” (3,318) and “The Hobbit” (3,730)

I am disappointed about this, though:

Disney’s “Saving Mr. Banks,” the Tom Hanks-Emma Thompson drama about the making of “Mary Poppins,” was next with $9 million. It’s at $59 million domestically after a month in wide release. 

So, while not free from some predictability in its story, a new, original animated movie is beating recycled horror sequel crap and bloated bad literary sacrilege? There is justice in the world.

Friday: Things (VW), Wanderlust, Tumblr, the usual.

Let's see, I've been back "at work" for a day and a half, and I have to tell you, coming home from a vacation on a Wednesday sucks. Gotta remember that.

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on Tumblr (be careful, though, there's a lot of nsfw there! it's still the interwebby, after all), and the usual time on the Samba and searchtempest looking, wishing, wanting. Not, clearly, working.

After the cruise, I am reminded of this quote used in EPCOT's Impressions de France film (during the hot air balloon scene) from Baudelaire:

Mais les vrais voyageurs sont ceux-là seuls qui partent
Pour partir; coeurs légers, semblables aux ballons,
De leur fatalité jamais ils ne s'écartent,
Et, sans savoir pourquoi, disent toujours: Allons!

I like the movie narrator's translation of the last lines best: "they leave for the sake of leaving, and without knowing why, they always say, 'we must go'"

Even though, I just got home, I am ready to go. I want to travel more, but reality (3 kids, a mortgage, etc.) makes it difficult. Check my Pinterest page for the bucket list. A few other things make me want to travel more, by the way. Like, for example certain cars. The Land Rover Defender will cease production in 2 years. That sucks.

Then, when looking on Tumblr for any peeps in Cincy that have tumblrs, I find this one filled with images that make me want to just go. Anywhere.

So, lets go somewhere and buy a Thing. Oh wait, I don't have any money. Oh well. $1500? Please. Dangit! This guy has no idea what it's worth and I am broke, as usual.

Here's another one that I think is underpriced at $5000. Dude, spend $100 to get it going and ask $7000.

That being said, here is what I would call a fairly priced Thing, just up in northern Ohio, $4700.

I thought I'd posted this one before, it's in Texas and is down to $2500 OBO, and if it runs, it's definitely a steal. I like to toggle between the first 2 pics and make the doors open and shut. :)

of course, if this showed up on my doorstep, I'd be fine.... talk about going anywhere, this (or this) would do that:

Time to plan some trips and sell some stuff to make some money, maybe, eh?

Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

News Busters nails this.

"The Russian ship, Akademic Shokalskiy, was stranded in the ice while on a climate change research expedition, yet nearly 98 percent of network news reports about the stranded researchers failed to mention their mission at all. Forty out of 41 stories (97.5 percent) on the network morning and evening news shows since Dec. 25 failed to mention climate change had anything to do with the expedition."

In fact, rather than point out the mission was to find evidence of climate change, the networks often referred to the stranded people as “passengers,” “trackers” and even “tourists,” without a word about climate change or global warming."

Again, it's all about how the media communicates the stories to the unwashed masses. They lie.