taxonomy of educational objectives*

dreadful mouthful, but i want to remember these lists:

domains of learning:

1. cognitive - information processing
2. affective - attitudes & feelings
3. psychomotor - duh

cognitive learning:

1. knowledge
2. comprehension & application
3. problem solving (analysis synthesis evaluation)

*taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook 1: cognitive domain (1956). benjamin s bloom (ed.). introduction & appendix.

entitlement error

it appears after an entire spring and summer thinking this is a baby squirrel that he is actually a chipmunk. zoology was never my strong suit.

the list

my favorite tech toys:

laptop

iPod touch

cellphone

dSLR

all adopted in the past ten years.

who would have thought?
what did i use before?

sick bay

the D70 is still in the workshop. iMiss.

china dolls - m yu / b kan (2007)

stereotype driven. flat. heavy handed. totally forgettable.

i must stop reading new authors just because they purport to break ground in asian american works. the only immigrant writer who has been an unmitigated joy to read is ha jin. read a free life (2007). he writes with a spare prose that teases suggests and slyly guides you, in much the same way the best chinese writers do. with the book's end you reluctantly end a parallel journey that has allowed you a glimpse into somebody's beautifully crafted world.

china dolls, on the other hand, evaporates from your head as you read it. this is arguably the worst book i have read this year. ugh.

pleasures

our family attends HOM's company picnic. it turns out to be a cheerful congenial and enjoyable afternoon of sports food and private jokes which we top off with a swing to the store and dinner out.

it's been a time. four differing sets of priorities make it simpler not to try too often for unity of purpose and action. this outing is a gift to remind us that the immutable ties that bind are not always burdensome.

dire straits

we are like mother hubbard's cupboard tonight. i resort to drinking chocolate milk for supper. in our family, milk is a garnish for the coffee or the cereal. when it becomes a meal the inventory has dipped to an underbelly sort of level.

weather update

high temperatures over the past three days: 94-98 F

some body some where missed the memo. it's fall, people. i want to unpack my jackets and feel some crispness in the air. perhaps plant some bulbs this year. grow my hair out into a sleek winter cap. catch the tail end of my children's childhoods. have a final thanksgiving with our entire family here.

we are officially two days into our fifth autumn in the u.s., sixth if you count that one long ago in morristown n.j. i could ask for nothing more.

starting out

J1 and i go shopping for his work wardrobe. this is a far cry from shopping with HOM for his work wardrobe. HOM goes directly to classic wrinkle free stuff from his tried tested and proven brands of choice and only has to  decide the number of items to purchase for the trip. the younger needs must trawl the racks for the best deals to fit the maximum number into the budget. today's trip transports me twenty years into the past. goldlion. van heusen. brentwood. these days the names are different but the context returns, recycled.

bequest

HOM has a pair of dress pants that he never wears. navy wool beautifully cut and quite dashingly elegant. every man has a pair of these, he tells me, handsome but unwearable because they hearken to an earlier waistline. they are necessary, he says, to prod a man to better living.

today J1 lands his first internship and needs to acquire a new non-denim fray-free wardrobe. today HOM bequeaths his special pants to his son. when a man faces his reality it is good to leave a legacy.

limping along

there are few things more draining i think than an altercation with teenage intensity and vehemence. 'nuff said.

hallowed ground

beneficence

non-maleficence

autonomy

veracity

fidelity

a little disconcerting to realize that we generally give little thought to the why's and the what's and the who's. whose autonomy? to what extent? why, and what price fidelity? or veracity? where stands beneficence in the economic scheme? veracity or non-maleficence? are all equal, or do we weight each differently? how do we begin to think? what thoughts?

wisdom, i start to think, is an complex potion containing bits of common sense prior reflection long study and honest humility undergirded by a helplessly hopeful awareness of something divine.

melon choice

allowing me to choose a watermelon is hazardous. i am variously told to go for weight aroma and thumping and each time the result is pretty much up for grabs.

now J2's friend says to listen for a vibrating G note on hitting them melons. G, apparently, is at a good balance of non-mushy sweetness. this sounds almost preposterous. i can tell stony dull and resonant on percussion but to expect perfect pitch is excessive. 

astray

it turns out that due to an addressing error the D70 did not return to its maker as we arranged but to a repair agent with whom we have no prior relationship and who therefore cannot be expected to know what to do with a camera that turns up unbidden at its doorstep. 

additionally it turns turns out that due to heavy call volume the repair agent is unable to take my call and i am advised to call back later during normal operating hours. which, considering i am told this repeatedly in the morning, you would think i am allowed to do by now, in the afternoon, but apparently not.

yessss

i finally manage to shuffle font and image sizes not to mention image placement on my blogs. the secret, it turns out, is in the mysterious html code. not that i can write it, but now i know where to cut and to paste it. so i can do this. and this. and in case you wonder, those nice editing short-cuts that blogger provides on the task bar sometimes work but sometimes don't. and now i can try to override when they don't.

the widow's mites

read this. in short, big plans* to encourage big time philanthropy in china inspires underwhelming response.

is organized extravagant pro-active habitual philanthropy counter current to the communist† paradigm? or to confucian‡ sensibilities? or to memories of recent indigence§? or is this simply a congenital chinese affliction? or a reflex hostility to western* presumptuousness?

HOM says it is because chinese are genetically programmed to prefer to gamble with their assets than to give them away. J2 thinks that outside of the judeo-christian tradition it is difficult to persuade someone that his wealth  is not strictly his to keep.

*by bill gates and warren buffet.
†where the government has final responsibility for communal welfare.
‡where your own family comes first before your society.
§the wealthiest in china being all nouveau, perhaps still insecure in their wealth?

not again

fresh from my laundry debacle i commit the more egregious sin of leaving my ATM card in the machine. i wish i could just break out of my foggy grogginess, or groggy fogginess.

life, interrupted

at close to midnight J1 drives into a traffic snarl. the beltway lanes are shut down because of a vehicular accident and the cars come to a standstill.

J1 wanders out of the car to hang out with strangers who become friends after an hour. they commemorate it with a shoulder to shoulder group photograph. this is a new twist on making lemonade, i suppose.

back east, such bonhomie is less likely. what is more certain in singapore is that bystanders will parlay the experience into a 4-D* buying opportunity.

*a public betting pool. in a traffic accident the plates of vehicles involved will naturally inspire the permutation of digits that bets are placed upon. 

this has to stop

for two days in a row i forget to detergent my laundry loads. this is unacceptable. not only does this squander resources it totally sets my schedule off and undermines my authority to nag. it irritates me no end. you would think a body would remember the suds by her mid forties.

long road to freedom

J1 drives himself many more miles than usual through the afternoon gridlock to attend a rock concert. i wait a long time to find that he finally makes it there in a journey that lasts an hour longer than google maps says it does.

i want to tell the anxious mothers of little tots to ration their apprehension. developmental milestones playground heartaches and school performance are all rather tame in the face of a maturing frontal lobe driving potentially lethal machines over progressively longer distances. patience, i want to say. this will pass, and in time you will need to draw ever more deeply from a well of courage and faith you do not now imagine you have.

i foresee tonight is going to be lengthy.

reflection

being home more often than not in the past decade has had a major upside. it is this, that i have been given the privilege of informing my children's opinions.

geriatric habits

our age is telling on us. when HOM drives at night i find myself insisting on taking over because he has yet again left his eyeglasses at home. when i drive at night HOM spends the entire trip on the edge of his seat.

then again i doubt he has ever left the edge of his seat when i have been at the wheel, day or night.

psalm 90:12

teach us to number our days aright

because He is so infinite and we are so circumscribed; because one is so eternal the other withers like the day's grass. i see, sometimes, in a momentary flash of sight, how mortal my desires issues and fears are, and pray with moses, teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. if even moses the man of God, i think, had need of a prayer like this, so much more do i, for the clear sightedness to value the brevity to not regret the mistakes and to dare hope for the days to come.

taking stock

our current camera lenses:
three autofocus versions two of which cover overlapping distances in addition to a tiny manual one that HOM buys off J2 for more than she paid for it at the thrift store.

it might be fruitful though if we had a body to fix them onto.

solipsism vs materialism

HOM wants me to de-clutter. specifically, he wants that i should stop accumulating physical books and convert to an e-reader. BUT:

• you can't beat the thrill of a cheap thrift store acquisition,
• you can't caress a kindle the way you flip a book, and
• how do you gloat possessively over an electronic shelf?

think of it, he murmurs. a bijou apartment in our dotage, with a dinky e-pad, wherever. sans the corporeal library. the question is, whither the magic? in the palpable pages, or within their contents?

book review

at any time, the type of books i'm reading:

serious*

non-fiction

frivolous

suggestions for first two categories are welcome. there is a list of frivolous books waiting to be read, so i'm good there for now.

*something technical, to put it broadly.

fount of every blessing

...my wandering heart...

prone to wander lord i feel it

prone to leave the God i love

-robert robinson

the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.  -prov 1:7

withdrawal symptoms

the D70 returns to its maker in a desperate bid to restore its cmos sensor to original non-acne infested state. this leaves me without camera and a sudden profusion of nice pictures asking to be taken. i feel like i have mislaid an arm, or my pda. something's just amiss.

day trip 2

some days you can forget teen angst college app generation gap and the struggle for autonomy just as diaper changes teething pains and the 3 r's have all been forgotten. some days like this one you are just grateful.

day trip

HOM takes a day and we traipse to the art galleries for some cultural infusion. what makes the difference, i wonder, between a great painting and something you buy from central market in k.l.? perhaps the fact that the painting appears to speak to a response in me, so that i just want to stand there and stare.

detail from the lovers by picasso. yeah right the guy could paint real people too!

my favorite today is monet. all that hype, i discover, is justified. up close to his painting you just wonder what he is all about. then you step away and the scales fall away from your eyes. magical.

i also love whistler's nocturnes. they are almost pictorial equivalents to wuthering heights.

the perfect storm

hormonal cycling

sleep deprivation

persistent backache

constant chatter

on good days a stay-at-home-trailing-spouse thinks she is the bulwark of her family, the big momma that her home thrives around. on not so good days she realizes that most times she is the convenience who gets bills paid transportation settled meals cooked pantry stocked and various calendars synchronized. you could say she is the unemployed gofer who oils the joints.

on days like today intravenous caffeine helps.

new school year 2

i am back at staples in an uncanny re-play of yesterday. today, mercifully, the line makes a turn near the front of the store. i've never seen this place so busy! says my fellow shopper in line behind me. you ain't seen nuthin' yet, brother, i think in my heart.

new school year

you would expect after four years one would learn but i obviously have not.

this afternoon i battle rabid traffic under a baking sun for the privilege of paying through my late nose for J2's must-have-by-tomorrow school supplies. as per previous years, half the population is of the same mind at the same place. the line to pay snakes the perimeter of the store. the only thing keeping me in line is the thought that if i skip out i will just need to re-play this after i cook dinner.

facebook (again)

these days i actually have a fairly constant group of "fb friends" the way people have drinking buddies or book club mates who were not my drinking buddies or book club mates before. facebook is really rather remarkable in this sense. it is the watering hole of this half decade for my generation.

facebook

here is my fb blocking policy:

• farmville fishville restaurantville and such
• hugs pokes jabs and other physical contact
• people with a questionable sense of appropriateness

and this is my fb policy:

• i'm looking for friendship
• not business contacts or mindless entertainment
• with like-minded balanced preferably interesting individuals

cultural differences

J1 drops in unannounced on his old teachers and coaches at his alma mater and has a good time catching up. this prompts two observations.

firstly, back in my day, back east, this would be highly unusual. my principle has ever been, minimal extra-curricular contact between my private and scholastic personae, please.

secondly, in singapore, an ex student attempting to visit is a potential security risk. only a very naïve one, or an academic superstar, would.

new toy

we are proud owners of an ice cream maker thanks to having two foodie wannabes in the family. today J2 produces her first batch of chocolate tofu ice cream. HOM is waiting to get his hands on the machine next. me and J1, we are eagerly waiting for dinner to progress to dessert.

i'm thinking mint mocha.

church camp 3

my jaded appetites bow to this. 

HOM and i are nevertheless happy to be back to our bathrooms and our bed.

tea

meet oscar the crab that J2 caught. mmmmm oishi.

turns out oscar is a female. 

church camp 2

the boondocks turn out to be rather avant garde. we get a/c hot water electric keyboard and wireless internet in addition to great views of the chesapeake bay served up with a side of fantastic weather. i say this practically compensates for the communal bathrooms.

this is my first retreat-like retreat in decades because my experience has become limited to hotel type retreats of late. the genuine article turns out to be quite charming. a little real quietude is good for the soul.

the essence of it

but God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.  -  acts 6:9-10

what an audaciously concise summary of joseph's lengthy roller coaster life of trials tribulations and disappointments. and yet i suppose this is sine qua non for me as much as for that old patriarch. if you want to be short, it's really that simple.

yay!

HOM returns today. i feel like a teenager awaiting her date delicious anticipation and all. nothing beats consistent congenial non-dependent adult company with benefits.

a college education

J1 has a class in jazz improvisation techniques at the community college. it goes like this:

• he drives there in the evening,
• with his guitar and amp,
• they jam for three hours, 
• he comes home late at night.

he has classmates who have been attending for ten years. this is manifestly not a class. it's a subscription paying club.

botox

here is a close-up of our driveway, which will be getting an overdue makeover this weekend. it will be nice, J1 says, not to have the most disreputable looking pavement in the neighborhood soon. and it will be great, i think, to be able to shovel snow instead of bits of cobblestone come winter.

moon madness 2

at the chinese supermarket, i discover that mooncakes belong to two species. the majority are eminently affordable aimed at the proletariat and made in the people's republic of china. a small number sits separately  costs three times the former and comes from wing wah of hong kong.

i circle the display several times and decide that ideology has to capitulate today. my blanket avoidance of made-in-china goods remains, but for this full moon, we will partake of p.r.c. mooncake. there's a price to pay for principles an' all, but this one's exorbitant.

church camp

our church goes to retreat this weekend. we will brave the elements and hole up at a back-to-nature campsite that boasts breathtaking scenery. i am told to spend time with God and the great outdoors.

what i want to say is, there's a time and there's a place. the time for a huckleberry fin adventure is when you are his age, which i am not. the place for repose and meditation is surely some location where i do not need to bring pillows bed linen and insect repellent. one only hopes there is electric lighting.