Monthly Archives: May 2014

Bad day for a dunk tank

So, the weather is being particularly bipolar this spring/summer. We hit nineties in the early part of the week and now we’re in the sixties. I pity the poor bastard who agreed to be part of the fundraising dunk-tank today. Silly managers.

Beyond that, it’s just sort of a grey day all around. I have the motivation of a limp noodle and the distinct dislike of the world. A perfect noir type of day. And I’d love to say that I was inspired, but I’m not.

Work is dull and dragging (as all day jobs just to bring in money are.) I can think of half-a-hundred things to do, but just don’t want to.

I can’t tell if this is just me being under-caffeinated, or if I just don’t care. You know what I’d love? Someone to pay an assistant for me. Yeah, that would be the best gift in the world.

I’ll get my mythical patron right on that.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

AinW: Alice in Wonderland Pillow

I’m a huge Alice fan. I am not kidding about that. In fact, I’ve been working off and on on a collectables book.

I’ll be featuring Alice related items here. Like this pillow available on ThinkGeek for $24.99. Yes, I’ve ordered it. I couldn’t help myself.

Alice Pillow

The Alice pillow is the rectangular one. It’s permanently open and it actually features the Cheshire Cat. (Good ole Tenniel illustrations.) It’s yellow. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, but I think it’s cool to see Alice popping up again. For awhile it was almost impossible to find Alice collectables. (Even in Disney World.)

Leave a comment

Filed under Alice, Alice in Wonderland, Cheshire Cat

Russell Blake » The Decline of Reeding

Russell Blake has a wonderful and powerful message about the decline in literacy in the United States. This is something we can stop. As teachers, writers, humans, and bloggers.

That is, if we are willing to challenge our readers.

Russell Blake » The Decline of Reeding.

The less comfort we have with words, the less command we have of them, the less we can think in a meaningful manner. We lack the terms, the basic vocabulary, with which to frame the narrative or debate. We can’t reason, use logic, because we don’t understand its basic concepts and rules. We don’t understand what argument from authority or post hoc reasoning or any of the other logical fallacies are because we don’t understand the concepts or the words used to define them, so we make poor decisions or are easily deceived. Again and again. Like a smoker who makes the poor decision to light up a cigarette 20 or 30 times a day, and who ultimately winds up with respiratory problems or worse, we as a society make poor decisions on a daily basis that result in an unhealthy host, a diseased culture riddled with morbidity.

via Russell Blake » The Decline of Reeding.

Leave a comment

Filed under Literacy