Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Okay, dinner was really good, conversation was really good, I like my neighbour's friends (mostly his co-workers, as it turns out, so a lot of the conversation was about teaching -- I got an enthusiastic agreement to my observation about most of the work of later math teachers (if they're any good) being trying to undo the damage of earlier math teachers, and questions about how math is taught in the Montessori system), the political sense of those present was close enough to each other for the debates/disagreements to be more fine-tuning or "had you considered" than "how can you think that?" (there was also a round of, "Well here are my reasons for supporting the same candidate you support"), more of the conversation than I could follow was in French, but I mostly sorta kept up when it was addressed to me (and there was much more in English), yet again I was far outclassed in degrees and credentials by everyone else in the room but felt like I mostly fit in (except for having far less classroom-teaching experience than these seasoned pros), and if I'd realized how much rum was going to be in the bottom-crust of the dessert I probably wouldn't have taken the second glass of port that had been offerred a little earlier (I got more tipsy than I find comfortable, which isn't really very much, but if I can notice it, it's usually more than I want to feel). I was a little surprised there was no jam session despite how late the gathering extended to.

I suspect I may want to read the doctoral dissertion of one of the other guests, if I'll understand it.

I really wasn't up to going very far tonight (sitting upright for so long was enough of a challenge with the fibro), so it was pretty cool to be invited to this friendly little gathering just one door away. (This was a not-quite-last-minute invitation, a phone call saying, "I see that your car is here so I assume you're home; would you like to join the dinner I'm having this evening with some friends?" in the afternoon.) I should have bailed earlier due to fatigue, but I was caught up in the conversation. Now to decide whether I'm up to dealing with the trash and the litter box, or am just going to fall right over.

Out-of-town relatives are staying with my mom this week, so I'll definitely have to get out to Bowie for a visit in the next little while. I wouldn't have been up to going that far today even if I'd gotten ahold of Mom in time (I wound up leaving her an Easter greeeting in her voice-mail).

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2005-10-27:

"Other futures may require other pasts." -- Mark Mazower, in his book Salonica, City of Ghosts.

(submitted to the mailing list by Terry Labach)

Well, now we know that Spring is really here. How do we know? The sheep said so!

Okay, it was a farmer with really good collies who said so, using sheep as a medium, but I liked the picture. The idea of writing messages using livestock has always appealed to me ... someday I'll have to talk somebody into implementing my "refrigerator poetry with cows" plan: paint words on the sides of a bunch of cows that graze in a field visible from the highway, and let them rearrange themselves into phrases. (I also want a simulated version of this as a screen saver.)

[Story found on Neatorama, which I was looking at today because keith_m043 linked to a clever M&Ms ad and the story-specific Neatorama URLs don't seem to be working for me.]

Well, now we know that Spring is really here. How do we know? The sheep said so!

Okay, it was a farmer with really good collies who said so, using sheep as a medium, but I liked the picture. The idea of writing messages using livestock has always appealed to me ... someday I'll have to talk somebody into implementing my "refrigerator poetry with cows" plan: paint words on the sides of a bunch of cows that graze in a field visible from the highway, and let them rearrange themselves into phrases. (I also want a simulated version of this as a screen saver.)

[Story found on Neatorama, which I was looking at today because keith_m043 linked to a clever M&Ms ad and the story-specific Neatorama URLs don't seem to be working for me.]