I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
April 10, 2013 - 11:41 p.m.
It's a little late for me to be writing but I couldn't earlier and I promised My Gentle Readers an idiot story tonight. There are several but they are related. But first a recap of the last couple of days. There's music involved, you'll like it. And yes this will be on the test.
Speaking of tests I gave two yesterday. The finite math test was short. I wanted it to be short, We didn't cover that much material and I wasn't going to add questions just because I could. Believe it not I finished grading it but not assigning the scores. There's a big spread. A number of grades in the 80s and 90s and a lot of people failed. Many of them have not been coming to class. I don't know why they bothered coming for the test. Did they think they'd get lucky and pass? They didn't even know what the questions meant.
Between classes I not only went out for lunch I took a walk through Central Park. It was such a beautiful day. I ran into one of my students in the park, one of my favorite. She was in the late class and went to the park to study. She asked if I could help thinking I'd say "no." I said yes. It was my usual office hour and I'd still be outside and this is her second semester with me. We ended up sitting on the rock I used to study or more often nap on when I was in grad school.
The students shouldn't have had trouble finishing the precalculus test on time but they did. The test was in two parts. On the first they could use a calculator. When there were done with part 1 they put their calculator away and I gave them part 2. I thought that was a clever way of handling it. I knew there were problems when they didn't finish part 1 in a couple of minutes. They were all just calculating exponents or compound interest. there was never anything to figure out. I can't see what anyone would spend time doing? I have a feeling they were learning to use their calculators because they had never done any homework. I am thinking of writing a poll they can answer with checkmarks or maybe even a scantron to see how many did how much homework.
Last night was John Platt's On Your Radar. The link now leads to our Reverbnation page. Check it out. the guests as you can see were Poor Old Shine, Caitlin Canty, and Jon Shain. I of course got there early, before doors open. I'm still getting the hang of OYR at Rockwood When I looked in I saw lots of people. I thought there might be an earlier show but it was just Poor Old Shine and I think some entourage. I knew it was the sound check when I heard Caitlin singing. I went over to talk to someone that looked friendly to introduce myself and found it wasn't someone from Poor Old Shine but Jon Shain who I knew. But I only met him once and had a beard then. I saw him play with Pat Wictor, they are good friends and did a song swap and accompanied each other. That was years ago but I had just hooked up with him on facebook when I reposted the five year old entry. I said very good things about Jon then and seeing again let me know that they were justified. I like being a reliable source. As you might expect from a friend of Pat's he's a bluesman. What you also might expect is that he's delightful. I didn�t write last time that he's funny but he is. Yes you can write funny blues. He was accompanied by Bill, who has a last name but I forgot it but I'm still proud that I remember his first name, on an assortment of harmonicas and a jew's harp!
Caitlin was up next. It was one of the best set's I've heard her do, I loved the song mix. She can write. Jon is such a good interviewer, I discover things about people I know when he interviews them. I didn't know that Caitlin was a bio major. Fred cheered when he heard that. He's a microbiology major. I should have taken notes. there were a couple of song she did that I wanted to write about but now it's gone. It isn't easy not having a brain, Good thing I'll be seeing her again next month. I need to get her records too,
I had most of my usual crowd around me, Lori not LORi and Joe, Rona and Bob, Richard sans Viki, Maggi, Barbara, Paul, Katherine, John not Platt, Suzanne, and of course the people I'm forgetting. Anthony was there. Can you believe he's graduating college next month? Andrew Vladeck was also there. I used to see Andrew all the time but it's now been years since the last time. I ran into him in the bar part of the Living Room after a show and we caught up then. He sent me an advance copy of his new CD, All We Got. I loved it. It's the best he has written, Funny thing is years ago I arranged for them both to do Kelly Flint's Upstairs Sessions together. I pointed out Anthony to Andrew and they started talking and they have a lot in common,. For one they were both history majors and Columbia. the reason Andrew was there was because he is a friend of Caitlin's. It is such a small world. I love when the people I like like each other.
I spent much of today helping Coco prepare the eBlast for First Acoustics. We have to use an terrible email list program that makes things very difficult. How difficult? There is special code to insert a video in an email. The way we work is to just clone last month's eBlast and just change the content about the performers. So I deleted the URI of a video from last month and copy and pasted one of Spuyten Duyvil. I got the message, "invalid URI." It wasn't. it was the correct URI. I tried copying and pasting the URI of the Deni Bonet video we posted last month into it,. I knew that URI worked. I got the same error message. I copy and pasted all the code from the Deni Video and it work. I copy and pasted the code then copy and pasted the URI from the address bar and replace the one there (the exact same URI) and got the same error message. I examined the code of the video that worked and the one that didn't and they were identical. When the impossible is eliminated then whatever is left no matter how improbably must be the truth. Instead of copying and pasting the URI I typed it by hand right next to the URI of the working video then backspaced the old URI away. It worked! then it hit me that perhaps the problem wasn't with the pasting but the deleting the old URI. So I copied the URI form the address bar, backspaced the old URI away and pasted. That worked. No idea what happened but I figured out how to get around the program being difficult. I was proud of myself and even said that I was smart.
That reminds me, I owe you idiot stories. They are about not being able to keep track of my own schedule. Oh and for getting this idiot story wrong. Good thing I caught it before I wrote it,
I have some busy weekends coming up. On Sunday I am seeing Raina Rose at Gene & Isabel's house, aka Courthouse Concerts. I hadn't checked that when I made plans to go down to Concerts at the Crossing to see Mark Berube, Honor Finnegan, and Carla Ulbrich, a night of 1000 guffaws. But I can't see how to make it back in time and not be dead for the show on Sunday. Now here comes the secondary idiocy. I thought I couldn't go anyway because I was going to see Spuyten Duyvil at First Acoustics. I even told Coco I was silly because I invited Mark and he has a gig. But First Acoustics is a week later. Have I mentioned that I'm an idiot? But wait this isn't over. For months I've been planning on going to the benefit concert for Lori and Wrona's School. I never put it in my calendar. If I had tried to I would have seen that I already had plans for that night. Emilie my fruhead opera singer friend from England is performing in an opera for one night only. I of course bought tickets as soon as I could Guess when" Yes a week from Friday, the day of the benefit concert. I might be willing to eat the cost of the ticket but I'm not willing to miss my only chance to see one of my favorite people perform in an opera. Now I have to find time to see Emilie socially. that's rough because she is here smack dab in the middle of the FUV pledge drive. I will even give up missing a day of that to see her if I have to. I'll even move my therapy if necessary.
So that's my idiot stories. I can't keep track of the simplest things and I keep confusing this week with next. I was afraid that Aubrey's memorial might get in the way of my seeing Emilie but that's this coming Monday. I'm pretty sure that she can't see me till after the performance on Friday. Though I'll check. Emilie you reading this? Let me know.
OK I've written 1671 words. I think that's enough. Do you like a late night Wise Madness? I used to update this time regularly. It is easier for me as I'm usually not busy. The downside is I think less people read it. Let me know what you think.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile April 10, 2013
| site search by freefind | advanced |
Follow on Feedly
