TubaOrNotTuba

While my computer is busily installing a newer version of VMWare (where a machine pretends to be something it normally isn’t), it strikes me that this would be a good moment to catch up on American Idol. Where, as the pundits have it, talent tries to appear where normally it wouldn’t; in the middle of a glorified karaoke show. Harsh words for the most popular program on television right now. In passing, the analog to digital switchover began last evening, although we’re “safe” up here in the frozen north.

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We’re ready to change the family vehicle, and I have to hand it to Detroit. No matter how troubled the economic pool might be, there is no need to court the customer. Self-assurance is the name of the game, I guess. What’s one customer, more or less, when the governments have decided to “carry” your business model?

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The Generation Gap. No lack of press coverage on this one for the last, like, forever. Anyone that has had a parent/child moment has experienced it, and that means that it qualifies as a cultural foundation. The last two evenings, TV has brought an example into our living room, and although this is only one small moment, it serves as a great example.

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One of those odd artifacts left from early education is my ability to do a “book report”. A time-filler disguised as a pedagogical exercise, the book report was a sort of penance in the elementary classroom. Even if your sins were minor, you still had to atone, through the production of an oral AND written report for the education of others. Pick a book, any book (within readability levels defined beforehand) and then (after reading the tome) play author for a day, complete with public readings.

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Today, driven by the gift of a half-kilo of good quality chocolate, I tried my hand at confectionary crafts for only the second time in my life. When I was very young, my mother used to spoil us with home made fudge, so the idea of a sugar overdose is familiar, but that’s from earlier times. Today, using one of those “it’s so easy even you can do it” recipes that abound on the Internet, I tried making chocolate truffles.

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Workers in the field of education must be adept at disambiguation. One of my favourite words; some days it applies to the majority of what goes on around me. The skilled teacher, leading the student to an understanding of a concept. Who am I trying to kid? Too often, just parting the mist is sufficient. This evening, I watched the wonder of calendar creation.

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Now that various newspapers are available “online”, I have a moral obligation to read those from places where I used to live. No matter about the present, because a man delivers a paper copy each morning around about the time I start my coffee and the dog goes ballistic. Or maybe she goes into overdrive because a man delivers a paper copy, and it has nothing to do with my coffee. (More research needed on this question). Back to places where I used to live and the concerned media.

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With no background in cinema, other than as a consumer, I can only wonder at the process involved in directing a film. But with the right elements and a bit of time to waste, I can pretend. After all, no harm in imagining the scene that captures the soul of moment. This afternoon provided such a moment.

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Oddly enough, the call to join a Facebook group celebrating Darwin’s 200th birthday brought back memories of my evolution as a learner of science. Not the same as a scientific learner, unfortunately. I enjoyed my time in high school science classes, with a reasonable mix of laboratory and lecture, using textbooks that still had the odour of fresh ink. My own experience as a teacher of science tested my powers of recall,  as I taught with obsolete equipment from a text that belonged in a museum.

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Somewhere, I read that we have to know where we’ve been to know where we are (going). I’m watching the “first news conference” from the new president, and his ability to speak is such a pleasant distraction after the last eight years, but that’s not what I started to write about. Fortuitous timing. Let’s return to the regular programming.

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