August Rush (and not the sappy movie I refuse to ever watch)
No, the subject references the almost inexplicable warping of time that occurs in August as the new school year rapidly approaches. In July, days seemed to drag on (and that WAS OK), but as soon as August hit, each day seems to fly by, ideas for what to do in school, how I want to shape the year etc, are pouring through my brain, and it is battling (as usual) the rest of me that is still pseudo stuck in lackadaisical summer mode. Will be having a lot of driving coming up in the next two weeks. Tomorrow, Marie and I, and a friend of ours, are driving down to milwaukee for a brewer game of UW-GB alum who are all friends still (sort of...it's a spread of a group). We're returning tomorrow night, however, as the friend going with us needs to be up and leave early on Sunday for some sort of youth camp he is supervising. By carpooling, though, we get gas money to help out, and that will be much appreciated. Then, on Tuesday, I head out to Madison to meet up with the English Gang (cohort 7 represent!) and have general catching up, merrymaking, tippling, and such. I'll return here on Wednesday, and then Friday we leave for Kentucky for a friends wedding (my friend Kyle from college). We'll be there through Sunday morning, but on our drive home we'll be stopping off outside of Chicago for friends wedding shower. Yeah, quite busy. Then it's full steam ahead to get ready for school. My goal today is basically to make a kick ass chicken stock. I cooked up a whole chicken last night using the beer can method, and we had a whole left hover HALF of the chicken. The delectable portions of meet etc. I've set aside to use for a chicken stir-fry tonight. The carcass, odds and ends, etc, will be thrown in the stock pot with assorted vegetables and cook away for about 5 hours today, and create a (I hope) rich, ready to be frozen and used in the future, chicken stock. That way, when we decide to make homemade soup, we'll have a great base. The cool thing is we're getting at least 3 if not 4-5 meals out of this one chicken, that cost only $5.40 total. Traditional cooking is such a payoff. I have been a reading fiend recently, devouring a bunch of young adult books to build up my base of books to recommend, and I have been dabbling (per usual) in a variety of non-fiction. For a laugh out loud reading experience, pick up I Love You Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle. I laughed so hard at numerous points throughout the novel, and the writing style is quick, very quick. If you think you recognize the author's name, it could be because he wrote for The Simpsons for a while. Fear not, however, the book is not simply a rehash of Simpson-esque humor. It's actually very independent. On Washington Island (where we were camping from July 30-Aug2) I picked up the non-fiction book The Drunkard's Walk How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. Mr. Mlodinow is a physicist who is particularly interested in...you guessed it randomness. The book teeters on becoming too heady at points, but Mlodinow's writing style is very contemporary, and self-aware, with sprinkles of humor. It is a fascinating glimpse into how math has evolved, and how we perceive what's occurring versus what actually is occurring (why we assign significance to things where there is no reason). I'm only a little way in, but I am intrigued and learning quite a bit (like how the Hindu's are really the ones responsible for our numerical system of base 10, and they had it way back in 700 A.D., not to be shared with Europeans for quite some time). The Greeks were clueless about chance (generally assigning chance to the intervention of the gods), instead basing their entire world view in geometry. Also, I'm working my way through The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee. Reading truly is an addiction. It sometimes feels pathetic, though, when people ask questions such as "So what talents to you bring to this group?" or "And what are your interests" and the only response I offer is "I really like to read. I'm a very quick reader, and can process the information of books rapidly." Usually that response kills conversation in a hurry. I think because everyone is taught how to read, and is expected to read, it's often overlooked on how there is a difference between reading and READING. I do not want to toot my own horn, but I think I offer an asset to others who may be more casual readers, in that I could take printed material, read through it in a timely fashion, and provide a succinct summary of the material. I know my colleagues value this, and that's often the skill I think of to offer others. I desperately enjoy reading, whereas I know, not necessarily by their choosing, others maybe dread it, or at least tolerate reading. That's ok. I strive to encourage others to take time and enjoy reading as I do, but the reason I can, is that by reading so much, I've honed my skill. I am NOT a speed reader (I love detail too much) but.... Well, enough of that. A final thought, if I knew where online I could find an archive link for the article I'm about to recommend, I'd provide it in this post. To move forward, however, I will say I read an incredibly encouraging and enlightening article in The New Yorker about how insight (Aha! moments) occur, and how best to get ourselves more attuned to the possibility of having these moments of eureka. The article is entitled The Eureka Hunt why do good ideas come to us when they do? By Jonah Lehrer. To offer a brief hint, a lot of the conclusions connect back to the righ hemisphere of our brain. Supposedly this is where we register connotation of words, and subtle nuances of understanding. I'm particulary intrigued as I am left handed, thus a bit more reliant on the right hemisphere of my brain. The scientists recognized in the article did narrow down a bit one major component of insight, and that was "a small fold of tissue on the surface of the right hemisphere, the anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG)... ." The article further clarifies some interesting understanding about the aSTG. Lehrer writes "A few previous studies had linked the area to aspects of language comprehension, such as the detection of literary themes and the interpretation of metaphors. (A related area was implicated in the processing of jokes.)" Reading those passages was my own Aha! I write poetry, have always caught onto, and thought intuitively about literary themes and metaphor, and I am known to everyone as a comedian. This all makes sense. I probably flex the right hemisphere of my brain a bit more than some others. I'm sure I'm not unique among english teachers, linguists and such, but perhaps have a bit more natural ability in these realms because of evidence of more right hemisphere influence. Anyway, although not science minded, I am fascinated by research. I highly recommend reading as a means of learning all variety of cool concepts. There's the lesson for today. Peace.