Anything but boring →

Published July 12, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 12  ·  

…what I see is not chaos but home. A prose style that interrupts itself, that can’t seem to make up its mind, promises me the thing that I open a book looking for: a friend. That friend might be insufferable (Hello, Mickey Sabbath!) or maniacally self-involved (Bonjour, Marcel!), but what she won’t be, her parentheses assure me, is distant, withholding.

~ Ben Dolnick from, Opinion | (Let Us Out of This Clause) – The New York Times

slip:4unyoi4.

Say what you will about the Times—no really, go ahead, I’ll wait—but I am frequently glad that I keep the old Grey Lady in my RSS reader. skip skip skip skip yawn skip and then oh-hello! This piece is fun, and his perceptions about parentheticals and asides is something along with which I nod. (I shall torture my mother-tongue as I see fit.) Meanwhile, if I can get you to say, “not boring”—my goal isn’t so low, but while aiming for the stars I’ll settle for it—if ever asked to assess my blog. (Yeup, that sentence is broken just to make you read it multiple times.) A few days ago I was talking about texting. Today’s ramble through the brambles—is that a movie title? …it should be—feels like a postscript to my bit about how texting, (in it’s various forms,) slots in as sub conversation but supra full-on prose. Because I feel that my writing is as close as I can get to having a conversation… if you were a blind mute whom I couldn’t see.

End of line.

ɕ

Baseball →

Published July 11, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 11

If I stick with it, however, my mind eventually downshifts — quieting the noisy neuronal clamoring for easy entertainment, and leaving instead an unencumbered attention of a type that I often seek in my work.

~ Cal Newport from, Deep Habits: Listen to Baseball on the Radio – Cal Newport

slip:4ucabo6.

Once or thrice I’ve heard a baseball game on the radio. This would have been back in the 80’s when with some neighborhood friends—brothers, whose father was a plumber—we’d occasionally ride to a baseball game. The kind of game where we were playing as kids; semi-organized little league games at random churches’ baseball fields scattered around the Pennsylvania rolling hills. A homerun into left-field was in the graveyard and into right-field was in the corn field. I can’t convey in writing what it sounded like riding in the truck with the radio on; some combination of a monotonous announcer with a touch of crowd noise, a big ‘ol truck engine—this was the plumbing truck full of plumbing supplies in the back—a 5-speed manual floor shift and 3 rowdy kids with the windows rolled down and the smell of fields and manure and baseball gloves.

I think I had something else to say about baseball and focus when I started typing. But I forget what it was.

ɕ

Dam! →

Published July 10, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 10

If memory serves, this was shot from the new-ish highway bridge that carries the interstate above the canyon. I love the complexity of how everything is all jammed down into the canyon.

ɕ

Let’s grab a kayak →

Published July 9, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 9

Let’s grab a kayak to Quincy or Nyack
Let’s get away from it all

~ Lyrics by Tom Adair

The secret to life, of course, is to first get away from it all, then grab that kayak. Because wherever I go, there I find myself. The things that one wants to “get away from” are all things over which you exclusively have control. That stack of papers that should be filed… This mountain of debt… That broken air conditioning… Even really hard things like mortgages, needy pets, frenemies, toxic family members… you are in control of how you act and how you assess those things.

Have you truly and honestly examined the things in your life which are weighing on your mind?

You have? Great! That’s the easy part.

The hard part? Let go. Toss things out of your life. Realize the hearse has no luggage rack. 15,000 years from now nothing you did or worried about will matter at all. You have exactly this one lifetime. Apprehend why each thing is in your life and appreciate it, right now. Build things up. Help people. Create. …we humans are creatures meant for social interaction, of course. But no regrets. No could’a should’a would’a.

ɕ

Niko Pal | Intention-based Coaching →

Published July 8, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 8

On Castbox.fm — Niko Pal | Intention-based Coaching

How do the roles of teacher, coach, instructor, and leader differ, and how can understanding these distinctions enhance one’s effectiveness as an educator?

Understanding how intention, communication, perception, and interaction influence education can transform how we engage with students.

Besides just looking at the titles of teacher, coach, leader, instructor— we also started to define some really important words like intention, communication, interaction, and perception. Those were the four words that I really felt like I wanted to highlight this time.

~ Niko Pal (8:08)

The conversation explores the nuanced distinctions between different roles in education, particularly teacher, coach, instructor, and leader. A significant portion highlights how these roles overlap and how educators often embody multiple identities depending on the context. The discussion emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and reflection when choosing how to engage with students.

Another key focus is on the core concepts of intention, communication, interaction, and perception. These elements shape how educators approach their work and influence their effectiveness. The conversation also touches on how the unique environment of the retreat fosters open dialogue, mutual learning, and the sharing of perspectives that challenge assumptions and lead to personal growth.

Takeaways

Intention — Having clear, purposeful goals drives the effectiveness of educators in guiding their students.

Communication — Open, honest exchanges between educators and students are vital for growth and alignment.

Interaction — Body language, tone, and presence play a significant role in shaping how messages are received and interpreted.

Perception — Understanding how others see you and how you see them is essential for effective coaching and leadership.

Role Definitions — Differentiating between teacher, coach, instructor, and leader helps clarify educational approaches and goals.

Student-Centered Approach — Effective educators prioritize the needs and interests of their students rather than projecting their desires.

Retreat Value — Participating in collaborative environments like the retreat enhances professional and personal development.

Resources

Forge Parkour — Gym in Portland, Oregon where Nikko Pal coaches.

Art of Retreat — Annual Parkour leadership and education retreat.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

ɕ

Our responsibility →

Published July 8, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 8  ·  ,

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

~ Richard Feynman

slip:4a396.

The writing is easy →

Published July 7, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 7

The hard part is deciding what to share.

At no point am I at a loss for something to write. Instead, I’m at a loss to decide what is worth sharing. This is true for this web site, conversations I have with podcast guests, and my personal journal. The way I sort out whether something is worth sharing is to think about who is it for. I read my personal journals in an ongoing way—each morning, (give or take,) I read that day’s entry from various numbers of years ago. So in my journaling I know that capturing my struggles and frustrations will serve me well; 9 years later, I read those entries and am relieved to see how that story turned out.

Other things—this web site, the podcast conversations—are not meant primarily for me. And so with pieces like this I try to have a point. Today it’s: Language, writing, conversation, reading, etc. are tools. As with any tool, it’s the intention of the user which matters most. You can break things or build things up using any tool you care to consider.

But first you have to ask yourself are you using your tools intentionally?

ɕ

Open Graph and oneboxing →

Published July 6, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 6  ·  

This is a standardized way to present a preview of a URL. Instead of just showing a URL, like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

It can be presented as a “onebox,” like this:

That’s just a screenshot from a system which is able to do oneboxing. The magic is that when editing, (wherever you are editing,) you simply paste in a raw URL and the oneboxing is done automatically by the system.

What wizardry is this?

It’s based on the Open Graph Protocol (OG). Facebook started this as a way to get sites on the open web to provide software-understandable, summary information. It took off everywhere because it’s just downright awesome.

A web site includes information stuffed out of sight, in the source HTML of the page. Software can fetch the URL, notice the OG information and craft a meaningful summary. This grew into the idea of presenting a single box summary—”one boxing”—of a URL if it has OG information.

Testing it

When something doesn’t onebox as you expect, how would you figure out which end has the problem? (Was it the end serving the URL content that doesn’t have OG data? Or is the end fetching the URL that couldn’t parse the OG data?) So someone wrote a handy tool that lets you see what (if any) OG data there is at any URL you want to type in:

http://debug.iframely.com/

ɕ

You don’t deserve happiness →

Published July 5, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 5

Happiness isn’t something that is deserved or earned from something outside yourself. Happiness is created within yourself. And it’s created by the simple and constant choice to accept what is. To look at the pain in the face and not blink. To confront one’s fears and struggles and embrace them rather than fight them.

~ Mark Manson from, 5 Simple Ideas That Can Change Your Life

slip:4umava1.

Manson has written a number of articles that feel like the fist from the adage: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” (~ Mike Tyson)

ɕ

The way we communicate →

Published July 4, 2020  ·  All posts on Jul 4  ·  

So, don’t feel bad about procrastinating when you need to write—humanity put the whole thing off for a couple hundred thousand years! By a conservative estimate, we’ve had writing for about 4% of the time we’ve been human. Chatting is easy; writing is an arduous chore.

~ Erika Hall from, Conversational Design – A List Apart

slip:4uaiai1.

The more time I spend texting—in all its various forms—the more I’m growing to understand the allure of the mode of communication. I’m a digital immigrant, born far enough before cellular, wifi and the Internet in general… or at least the publicly accessible one. Anyway. As an immigrant, I’ve always found the written form—email, forum, message boards, etc.—the easy form of communication, and the ephemeral “texting” the more challenging. Like anything else I suppose, the more you use it, the more you become accustomed to it. I’d say I’m a solid C+ at texting these days. The digital natives can spot me in 10 seconds. But I’ve learned to appreciate the medium.

After reading this piece from Hall, I’m shifting my opinion: I used to think it was, in descending utility, spoken word, written word, and then texting. But now I’m thinking texting slots in as better than the static written word precisely because it’s a form of two-way communication. When I write… *ahem* I get to spend all the time I want, preparing this salvo of characters to be launched at you. *tap* *tap* Hello? Is this on? …yes? Okay, now I can broadcast at you on and on and on and on and on until your eyes glass over and you stop reading. On the other hand, texting requires me to interact with you, not quite in real time, but it’s an interactive conversation.

Hey there! havent talked in ages!!! :D Wats up??

ɕ