Hey guys,
Quick post tonight because I'm wiped. No sleep plus eight hours on my feet makes a tired Owl. Certainly one without much in the way of coherent thought.
Tonight I wanted to share my next project for the blog. I'm planning to do a series on US history, specifically focusing on stuff a lot of us learned in high school and haven't revisited since then. Or things I think we should have learned in high school, but (at least I) didn't.
It's going to be called Citizenship 101, mostly because I think anyone who is, or wants to be, a citizen of the US should make sure to know at least the basics of how our government works and what some of the really important landmark moments in our history are. I know I will do installments on things like the country's founding, the three branches of government, a range of social issues, geography, and things of that ilk. What I would like to know is if anyone has any other suggestions or things they want to know more about. Like: why exactly did we fight the War of 1812? What made the Gilded Age gilded? Or just general areas of US history you think are important.
Let me know in comments and I will do it!
Also due to a 16 hour work day ending at 11pm tomorrow, the blog will not update. Forgive me, I have no desire to wake up at 5am to do a blog post. I'm just not that dedicated.
Until next time,
Owl
Showing posts with label projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label projects. Show all posts
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Raven is Reading: looking for alaska, Mort, The Carpet People
Lately I have been bad about making time for just sitting down and reading. Which is why I was proud of myself for dedicating a solid chunk of time towards reading today. I started John Green's looking for alaska today while waiting for Owl to get off from work, and am nearly done with it now. Even though it is a book that I am not entirely sure I like, despite trying very hard to do so, I am still grateful to have made the time to read it. (Well, almost all of it. I'll finish tomorrow, if not later tonight.)
Since I did a review of the shows Owl and I were watching a few months ago in the post "Rivendell is Watching..." I thought it would be interesting to do an occasional update for what we, or at least I, am reading, as well. If nothing else, it will help make me aware of how much, or little, I am actually reading, so that I can remind myself to devote more time to it.
I'm almost always reading at least two books simultaneously, often many more. I guess I just like to have options for what I read, depending on what mood I'm in, or what interests me in the moment.
So, here's what I'm reading currently:
looking for alaska
John Green
I still have yet to decide whether or not I actually like looking for alaska. I still have about fifty pages left, and I have enjoyed reading it, but that isn't necessarily the same as liking it. I certainly respect John Green immensely, both for his writing and for his videos, and he's done something that almost nobody else has been able to do, which is getting me to read books that center heavily on teenage angst and romance, so that's already a great credit to him. looking for alaska just isn't clicking with me the way I expected it to, and that's okay. It certainly has captured my attention, and is absolutely thought-provoking. For those who don't know, looking for alaska centers around Miles "Pudge" Halter as he experiences his first year at Culver Creek boarding school----a setting very much based on John Green's own experience with boarding school in Alabama. He is instantly drawn to Alaska Young, though I will admit this: I cannot fathom why. I find Alaska wholly unlikable. But this is redeemed by a strong and memorable cast of supporting characters that are clever, funny, and incredibly enjoyable to read, which more than makes up for my distaste for Alaska (and Miles, when it comes down to it.) The book's most notable feature is that it centers around a clear turning point. The nature of this turning point is only made clear when it happens, but the entire book is framed in two sections, before and after, with each subsection consisting of a day during Miles' first year at Culver Creek. The days are either formatted as "xxxx days before" or "xxxx days after" and it certainly added an element of suspense to the story, even if the turning point itself wasn't much of a surprise for me.
Mort
Sir Terry Pratchett
I started rereading Mort about two weeks ago. The Sunday before last, I managed, in an act of true stupidity, to injure my head, enough for it to bleed quite a bit but not enough to be concussed. The details involved a very ill-placed cavalry sword in a heavy steel sabre we were given as a gift last Christmas, a wobbly bookshelf, and me re-shelving some comics. Perhaps you can guess the details. Suffice it to say, head wounds hurt, swords don't go on high places if they're unsecured, and Owl is a trooper for, once again, tending to my bleeding war wounds.
After the blood had been sopped up, I sat on the futon in our spare room with an ice pack to my head, and Owl brought me in a book. She knows that I like to read familiar books when I'm upset, sick, or in pain, and she also knows that there's not much in the world I enjoy reading more than a good Pratchett book. (Good, in my mind, means all of them, by the by.) Without asking, she brought me one of my very favorites, and since then I have been reading it slowly, savoring it, allowing myself the luxury of returning to an old, beloved friend even though I have resolved to spend more time reading new books and less time rereading old ones.
Mort was the fourth Discworld novel to be published, in 1987. Pratchett's Discworld books are often broken up into "mini-series", based on which group or entity they focus on, and Mort is the first book in the Death "miniseries". Though Death appears in all but one of the Discworld books, Mort is the first book to focus on him, and in Mort, he takes on an apprentice...fittingly named Mort. Mort, to me, is a prime example of what character development should look like. At the beginning, he is a somewhat simple country boy with little going for him, but when he his apprenticed by Death he begins to change, gradually but ultimately drastically, until he can stand up to Death himself. One of my favorite books, I always enjoy reading Mort, and I find myself cherishing every reading of a Pratchett novel all the more in his passing.
Which is why it shouldn't surprise anybody that the third book on my list is...
The Carpet People
Sir Terry Pratchett
The Carpet People was Pratchett's first novel. I started reading it quite a while back (I first mention it here, when, just days after Pratchett's death, I am stunned into silence by a simple memorial to him in the form of a Barnes and Noble endcap honoring his legacy) but was interrupted several times due to various instance of Real Life getting in the way, and have not made much progress. As I am not very far along in it, I won't say much, but I will say that it is as clever and as witty as I have come to expect from Pratchett, and that if my first book could be a slim fraction as enjoyable as his was, I should be so lucky.
I am also making my way though The Runaways, which I talk about here, and Pandemonium and Parade, which I talk about here.
In closing, I am, for reasons that will soon be apparent, looking to make a number of relatively quick posts (but still interesting and informative) in a very short period of time. Do you have any queries I can answer? Lists you would like to see? Pressing questions about archaeology, video games, or Battlestar Galactica? List them in the comments and maybe I'll make a post on them! It might be a Reader's Digest version, or, if I really like your question or if it sparks a much more detailed post, it may be saved for later to get a nice long post of its own!
That's all for now,
Raven
Since I did a review of the shows Owl and I were watching a few months ago in the post "Rivendell is Watching..." I thought it would be interesting to do an occasional update for what we, or at least I, am reading, as well. If nothing else, it will help make me aware of how much, or little, I am actually reading, so that I can remind myself to devote more time to it.
I'm almost always reading at least two books simultaneously, often many more. I guess I just like to have options for what I read, depending on what mood I'm in, or what interests me in the moment.
So, here's what I'm reading currently:
looking for alaska
John Green
I still have yet to decide whether or not I actually like looking for alaska. I still have about fifty pages left, and I have enjoyed reading it, but that isn't necessarily the same as liking it. I certainly respect John Green immensely, both for his writing and for his videos, and he's done something that almost nobody else has been able to do, which is getting me to read books that center heavily on teenage angst and romance, so that's already a great credit to him. looking for alaska just isn't clicking with me the way I expected it to, and that's okay. It certainly has captured my attention, and is absolutely thought-provoking. For those who don't know, looking for alaska centers around Miles "Pudge" Halter as he experiences his first year at Culver Creek boarding school----a setting very much based on John Green's own experience with boarding school in Alabama. He is instantly drawn to Alaska Young, though I will admit this: I cannot fathom why. I find Alaska wholly unlikable. But this is redeemed by a strong and memorable cast of supporting characters that are clever, funny, and incredibly enjoyable to read, which more than makes up for my distaste for Alaska (and Miles, when it comes down to it.) The book's most notable feature is that it centers around a clear turning point. The nature of this turning point is only made clear when it happens, but the entire book is framed in two sections, before and after, with each subsection consisting of a day during Miles' first year at Culver Creek. The days are either formatted as "xxxx days before" or "xxxx days after" and it certainly added an element of suspense to the story, even if the turning point itself wasn't much of a surprise for me.
Mort
Sir Terry Pratchett
I started rereading Mort about two weeks ago. The Sunday before last, I managed, in an act of true stupidity, to injure my head, enough for it to bleed quite a bit but not enough to be concussed. The details involved a very ill-placed cavalry sword in a heavy steel sabre we were given as a gift last Christmas, a wobbly bookshelf, and me re-shelving some comics. Perhaps you can guess the details. Suffice it to say, head wounds hurt, swords don't go on high places if they're unsecured, and Owl is a trooper for, once again, tending to my bleeding war wounds.
After the blood had been sopped up, I sat on the futon in our spare room with an ice pack to my head, and Owl brought me in a book. She knows that I like to read familiar books when I'm upset, sick, or in pain, and she also knows that there's not much in the world I enjoy reading more than a good Pratchett book. (Good, in my mind, means all of them, by the by.) Without asking, she brought me one of my very favorites, and since then I have been reading it slowly, savoring it, allowing myself the luxury of returning to an old, beloved friend even though I have resolved to spend more time reading new books and less time rereading old ones.
Mort was the fourth Discworld novel to be published, in 1987. Pratchett's Discworld books are often broken up into "mini-series", based on which group or entity they focus on, and Mort is the first book in the Death "miniseries". Though Death appears in all but one of the Discworld books, Mort is the first book to focus on him, and in Mort, he takes on an apprentice...fittingly named Mort. Mort, to me, is a prime example of what character development should look like. At the beginning, he is a somewhat simple country boy with little going for him, but when he his apprenticed by Death he begins to change, gradually but ultimately drastically, until he can stand up to Death himself. One of my favorite books, I always enjoy reading Mort, and I find myself cherishing every reading of a Pratchett novel all the more in his passing.
Which is why it shouldn't surprise anybody that the third book on my list is...
The Carpet People
Sir Terry Pratchett
The Carpet People was Pratchett's first novel. I started reading it quite a while back (I first mention it here, when, just days after Pratchett's death, I am stunned into silence by a simple memorial to him in the form of a Barnes and Noble endcap honoring his legacy) but was interrupted several times due to various instance of Real Life getting in the way, and have not made much progress. As I am not very far along in it, I won't say much, but I will say that it is as clever and as witty as I have come to expect from Pratchett, and that if my first book could be a slim fraction as enjoyable as his was, I should be so lucky.
I am also making my way though The Runaways, which I talk about here, and Pandemonium and Parade, which I talk about here.
In closing, I am, for reasons that will soon be apparent, looking to make a number of relatively quick posts (but still interesting and informative) in a very short period of time. Do you have any queries I can answer? Lists you would like to see? Pressing questions about archaeology, video games, or Battlestar Galactica? List them in the comments and maybe I'll make a post on them! It might be a Reader's Digest version, or, if I really like your question or if it sparks a much more detailed post, it may be saved for later to get a nice long post of its own!
That's all for now,
Raven
Friday, April 24, 2015
Can Your Smartphone Make You Smarter? Click this link to find out how!
Hi Owl,
Yeah, okay, I forgot another day. This every-day-posting thing is harder than I remembered!
On Wednesday, Owl talked about our mutual love of languages and how we have started to use the technology freely available to us to learn them. Free educational technology is something that amazes and delights me. Mobile and web apps, Wikipedia, eBooks, software, and online classes have become normal, integrated components of our daily lives. I once heard it observed that many of us carry devices that store the entirety of human knowledge in our pockets and we mostly use them to look at cat videos and settle bets with friends. The Internet is an astonishing treasure trove, a digital archive of nearly everything we have ever known, wondered, or created. And the astonishing thing is that so much of it is free. Anybody with access to a computer that has Internet has, at their fingertips, immediate access to enough information to put the Library of Alexandria to shame. (That the predominant uses of the Internet seem to be mostly arguing over Youtube videos, posting pictures of food and cats, and finding ways to avoid doing whatever work you should probably be doing right now is a whole different discussion entirely.) Broadly speaking, if you want to learn something, the Internet can teach you. Take Youtube for example. If you've ever wanted to learn how to play guitar, brush up on your Spanish, weave a basket, create your own projectile point*, or even make an instructional video, Youtube has your back.
With so much information and so many useful tools for obtaining it, it's hard to know where to start. The first step is generally to figure out what interests you, but if you are anything like me this can be quite a challenge, as the answer to that, broadly speaking, is everything. Seriously, I just heard an NPR interview about a guy who wrote a book on office supplies and it sounds genuinely fascinating. So, narrowing down fields of interest can be tricky. Fortunately, you don't necessarily have to narrow down that much. One of the great things about the Internet is that it has made large expanses of information easily available in small, digestible portions, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Take, again, Youtube. CGP Grey specializes in short, explanatory videos, but his topics vary in range from politics to geography to economics to the upcoming robot revolution. Grey's videos are relatively short and he does not have time for in-depth analyses, but he gives phenomenal summary explanations, and when a viewer catches a topic of particular interest to them, they have the entirety of the aforementioned digital treasure trove at their disposal to find out more.
Today I'd like to provide you all with some of what I think are the most useful educational resources that the Internet has made possible. And best of all, they are all free. (Provided that you have access to the Internet, and in some cases a smartphone or a tablet. Some in-app purchases are available but not required. Batteries sold separately. Some exclusions may apply.)
So without further ado, MORE LISTS! This time, in threes! I'm leaving a lot of great stuff out, I realize. I'll try to do a more extensive list later, so if you have suggestions, leave them in the comments!
Apps
Duolingo: Great for learning languages, though options are limited. Read: No Chinese :(You can "enroll" in as many language courses as you want, and the app treats it like a game. You start each lesson with three hearts, and for every question you get wrong you lose a life. Complete lessons to earn experience and level up. The game even allows you to track your progress against friends, and Owl is currently kicking my butt since she tested out of the majority of the Spanish course. The app incorporates reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and one of the best language-learning aids I've seen yet.
Memrise: Utilizes image association to help recall terminology. User-submitted courses means that the variety is endless, though quality is variable. Currently Memrise is helping me brush up on archaeological terms, testing my knowledge of geography, helping me memorize herbs and spices used in cooking, and teaching me basic Russian, among a number of other things. It's not enough to help me master any of these subjects, but a few minutes every day makes a big difference in terms of rote memorization, and I don't need an in-depth explanation of oregano, I just need enough of a reminder so that I can pick out a fresh batch at the Farmer's Market without getting it confused with sage. Memrise sends you reminders to practice daily, lets you set daily goals of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 20 minutes of study each day, and treats lessons like seedlings that you have to water so that they can grow and blossom. It's a cute design, and a great way to keep up with skills you don't need a full class on, but want to maintain a working knowledge of.
Elevate: Elevate is a bit of a cheat, since it isn't really an "educational" app in the strictest sense of the word. It's a brain trainer---for the unpaid version, it gives you three daily games, rotating between 29 games total (most, though not all, of which are available in the free version). These games are target such things as estimation skills, brevity in writing, name recall, and reading connotation, focusing on five main areas: math, reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While the verdict is still out on whether or not "brain training" apps actually improve intelligence, they definitely help keep mental muscles well-honed. Elevate was selected by Apple as the 2014 App of the Year (don't worry, if you're an Android user like I am it's still available for you!) and with a sleek and clean design and fun, often surprisingly challenging games, it's easy to see why. This one is definitely a deviation from the rest of the list, but it's part of my daily mental exercise routine, and Owl and I both get a lot of use out of it, so I'm putting it on anyway! My blog, my rules :D
Video Channels
CGP Grey Mentioned above, these videos are simply wonderful. Beautifully designed, humorous and witty, they are absolutely worth checking out. He covers a broad range of topics, but his videos on geography and how it is occasionally exceedingly silly are some of my favorites. It's also a favorite topic of his, so there are tons. Thanks to Rook for reminding me that he exists and getting me hooked on his videos again.
Crash Course Brothers John and Hank Greek of vlogbrothers Internet fame (and The Fault in Our Stars real-life fame, in John's case) made a channel of truly well-done explanatory videos. Hank talks science, John, history and economics, with a bit of politics thrown in. Usually funny, always informative, and tons of fun.
Mental Floss The Green brothers have some influence here, too. John is just one of many recurring hosts, and the crew at Mental Floss talk about a stunningly wide range of topics. These videos are about as bite-sized as they come, so don't expect any sort of analysis or examination. This is primarily a list show, and is full of trivia, but not necessarily trivial in and of itself. Like Elevate, this is cheating a bit, since I wouldn't recommend Mental Floss in any sort of academic context, but it absolutely has its place in an educational, if not academic, setting. I primarily listen to Mental Floss when I'm at the gym (guys we have elliptical with TVs in them now. Guys, the future is here! And it's the reason I spend so much time doing cardio over weights...Call me when they put TVs on weight machines, please) because the videos are short, easily digestible, and don't require a lot of thought, but still teach me enough to pique my interest in an array of subjects.
Online Classrooms
Coursera The King of the MOOCs, Coursera takes lectures from real, often highly prestigious, universities and makes them available for free, online. Some courses even allow certification. Professors give lectures, students turn in homework and engage in class discussions, and everything is done online, with no set schedule. Students can listen to lectures whenever fits their schedule, and can turn in homework anytime before its deadline. Since all non-certification courses aren't graded, there is less pressure to perform, and more freedom to learn. I've taken courses on the art and archaeology of Ancient Nubia, Python programming, the impact of science fiction and fantasy on modern living, game design, and the intentionality of philosophy and science, to name a few. While the lecture-heavy course structure provided a stark contrast to the discussion-based courses of my alma mater, I nevertheless found all the courses I've taken so far to be both interesting and enjoyable. I don't think I will ever prefer online courses to the "real" deal, but you sure as hell can't beat the price.
Khan Academy Khan offers even more flexibility than Coursera, since most of its courses are archived, which means that they can be accessed literally anytime, not confined within the time period that the course is being offered. It focuses on math and science, but also offers a broad range of courses in the humanities, and is another good resource for language learning. Khan favors interactive exercises over homework to be handed in, and is less of a classroom structure like Coursera and more a self-guided learning tool like the apps mentioned above.
edX Created by Harvard and MIT as a digital platform for their lectures, edX is very similar to Coursera, though because it features almost exclusively highly prestigious universities like the founding universities mentioned above, the selections are somewhat more limited. Like Coursera, edX works on the honor code system: because all non-certified courses are free and ungraded, the philosophy is that if you cheat, you're the only one who loses out. The ideal edX user is self-motivated and has a drive and a desire to learn, and all edX courses and materials are presented with this ideal user in mind. The lectures are all of a high caliber, and the course selection, while not quite as impressive as Coursera's, is still remarkable.
That's all for now. Questions? Comments? Additions to these lists? Complaints? Leave them below!
*A more academic demonstration can be found in this video featuring Dr. Benjamin Bradley
Yeah, okay, I forgot another day. This every-day-posting thing is harder than I remembered!
On Wednesday, Owl talked about our mutual love of languages and how we have started to use the technology freely available to us to learn them. Free educational technology is something that amazes and delights me. Mobile and web apps, Wikipedia, eBooks, software, and online classes have become normal, integrated components of our daily lives. I once heard it observed that many of us carry devices that store the entirety of human knowledge in our pockets and we mostly use them to look at cat videos and settle bets with friends. The Internet is an astonishing treasure trove, a digital archive of nearly everything we have ever known, wondered, or created. And the astonishing thing is that so much of it is free. Anybody with access to a computer that has Internet has, at their fingertips, immediate access to enough information to put the Library of Alexandria to shame. (That the predominant uses of the Internet seem to be mostly arguing over Youtube videos, posting pictures of food and cats, and finding ways to avoid doing whatever work you should probably be doing right now is a whole different discussion entirely.) Broadly speaking, if you want to learn something, the Internet can teach you. Take Youtube for example. If you've ever wanted to learn how to play guitar, brush up on your Spanish, weave a basket, create your own projectile point*, or even make an instructional video, Youtube has your back.
With so much information and so many useful tools for obtaining it, it's hard to know where to start. The first step is generally to figure out what interests you, but if you are anything like me this can be quite a challenge, as the answer to that, broadly speaking, is everything. Seriously, I just heard an NPR interview about a guy who wrote a book on office supplies and it sounds genuinely fascinating. So, narrowing down fields of interest can be tricky. Fortunately, you don't necessarily have to narrow down that much. One of the great things about the Internet is that it has made large expanses of information easily available in small, digestible portions, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Take, again, Youtube. CGP Grey specializes in short, explanatory videos, but his topics vary in range from politics to geography to economics to the upcoming robot revolution. Grey's videos are relatively short and he does not have time for in-depth analyses, but he gives phenomenal summary explanations, and when a viewer catches a topic of particular interest to them, they have the entirety of the aforementioned digital treasure trove at their disposal to find out more.
Today I'd like to provide you all with some of what I think are the most useful educational resources that the Internet has made possible. And best of all, they are all free. (Provided that you have access to the Internet, and in some cases a smartphone or a tablet. Some in-app purchases are available but not required. Batteries sold separately. Some exclusions may apply.)
So without further ado, MORE LISTS! This time, in threes! I'm leaving a lot of great stuff out, I realize. I'll try to do a more extensive list later, so if you have suggestions, leave them in the comments!
Apps
Duolingo: Great for learning languages, though options are limited. Read: No Chinese :(You can "enroll" in as many language courses as you want, and the app treats it like a game. You start each lesson with three hearts, and for every question you get wrong you lose a life. Complete lessons to earn experience and level up. The game even allows you to track your progress against friends, and Owl is currently kicking my butt since she tested out of the majority of the Spanish course. The app incorporates reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and one of the best language-learning aids I've seen yet.
Memrise: Utilizes image association to help recall terminology. User-submitted courses means that the variety is endless, though quality is variable. Currently Memrise is helping me brush up on archaeological terms, testing my knowledge of geography, helping me memorize herbs and spices used in cooking, and teaching me basic Russian, among a number of other things. It's not enough to help me master any of these subjects, but a few minutes every day makes a big difference in terms of rote memorization, and I don't need an in-depth explanation of oregano, I just need enough of a reminder so that I can pick out a fresh batch at the Farmer's Market without getting it confused with sage. Memrise sends you reminders to practice daily, lets you set daily goals of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 20 minutes of study each day, and treats lessons like seedlings that you have to water so that they can grow and blossom. It's a cute design, and a great way to keep up with skills you don't need a full class on, but want to maintain a working knowledge of.
Elevate: Elevate is a bit of a cheat, since it isn't really an "educational" app in the strictest sense of the word. It's a brain trainer---for the unpaid version, it gives you three daily games, rotating between 29 games total (most, though not all, of which are available in the free version). These games are target such things as estimation skills, brevity in writing, name recall, and reading connotation, focusing on five main areas: math, reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While the verdict is still out on whether or not "brain training" apps actually improve intelligence, they definitely help keep mental muscles well-honed. Elevate was selected by Apple as the 2014 App of the Year (don't worry, if you're an Android user like I am it's still available for you!) and with a sleek and clean design and fun, often surprisingly challenging games, it's easy to see why. This one is definitely a deviation from the rest of the list, but it's part of my daily mental exercise routine, and Owl and I both get a lot of use out of it, so I'm putting it on anyway! My blog, my rules :D
Video Channels
CGP Grey Mentioned above, these videos are simply wonderful. Beautifully designed, humorous and witty, they are absolutely worth checking out. He covers a broad range of topics, but his videos on geography and how it is occasionally exceedingly silly are some of my favorites. It's also a favorite topic of his, so there are tons. Thanks to Rook for reminding me that he exists and getting me hooked on his videos again.
Crash Course Brothers John and Hank Greek of vlogbrothers Internet fame (and The Fault in Our Stars real-life fame, in John's case) made a channel of truly well-done explanatory videos. Hank talks science, John, history and economics, with a bit of politics thrown in. Usually funny, always informative, and tons of fun.
Mental Floss The Green brothers have some influence here, too. John is just one of many recurring hosts, and the crew at Mental Floss talk about a stunningly wide range of topics. These videos are about as bite-sized as they come, so don't expect any sort of analysis or examination. This is primarily a list show, and is full of trivia, but not necessarily trivial in and of itself. Like Elevate, this is cheating a bit, since I wouldn't recommend Mental Floss in any sort of academic context, but it absolutely has its place in an educational, if not academic, setting. I primarily listen to Mental Floss when I'm at the gym (guys we have elliptical with TVs in them now. Guys, the future is here! And it's the reason I spend so much time doing cardio over weights...Call me when they put TVs on weight machines, please) because the videos are short, easily digestible, and don't require a lot of thought, but still teach me enough to pique my interest in an array of subjects.
Online Classrooms
Coursera The King of the MOOCs, Coursera takes lectures from real, often highly prestigious, universities and makes them available for free, online. Some courses even allow certification. Professors give lectures, students turn in homework and engage in class discussions, and everything is done online, with no set schedule. Students can listen to lectures whenever fits their schedule, and can turn in homework anytime before its deadline. Since all non-certification courses aren't graded, there is less pressure to perform, and more freedom to learn. I've taken courses on the art and archaeology of Ancient Nubia, Python programming, the impact of science fiction and fantasy on modern living, game design, and the intentionality of philosophy and science, to name a few. While the lecture-heavy course structure provided a stark contrast to the discussion-based courses of my alma mater, I nevertheless found all the courses I've taken so far to be both interesting and enjoyable. I don't think I will ever prefer online courses to the "real" deal, but you sure as hell can't beat the price.
Khan Academy Khan offers even more flexibility than Coursera, since most of its courses are archived, which means that they can be accessed literally anytime, not confined within the time period that the course is being offered. It focuses on math and science, but also offers a broad range of courses in the humanities, and is another good resource for language learning. Khan favors interactive exercises over homework to be handed in, and is less of a classroom structure like Coursera and more a self-guided learning tool like the apps mentioned above.
edX Created by Harvard and MIT as a digital platform for their lectures, edX is very similar to Coursera, though because it features almost exclusively highly prestigious universities like the founding universities mentioned above, the selections are somewhat more limited. Like Coursera, edX works on the honor code system: because all non-certified courses are free and ungraded, the philosophy is that if you cheat, you're the only one who loses out. The ideal edX user is self-motivated and has a drive and a desire to learn, and all edX courses and materials are presented with this ideal user in mind. The lectures are all of a high caliber, and the course selection, while not quite as impressive as Coursera's, is still remarkable.
That's all for now. Questions? Comments? Additions to these lists? Complaints? Leave them below!
*A more academic demonstration can be found in this video featuring Dr. Benjamin Bradley
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Hola, ola, 你好, здравствуйте, hallo, hallå, and dia duit!
Welcome to the language jungle, friends. Raven and I, as some of you may already know are foreign language junkies. Between the two of us we are dabbling in all the languages I greeted you in above. See if you can guess them all before you get to the bottom of this post where I'll list the answers.
During college I majored in languages and learned to near fluency both Russian and Spanish. I have been out of college for more time than I care to admit now and most of my Russian is gone. Thankfully a 6 month immersion in a Spanish speaking country has paid off for me and my Spanish is still near fluency. But it can be hard to maintain vocabulary and comfort in a language when you don't speak it much. The practice I get these days is minimal so I was looking for a way to keep in practice and maintain my vocabulary.
Turns out there are a million apps for that and thanks to Crow I have access to a tablet so I can download all the apps. I get to spend a few minutes every day going through a lesson and reviewing vocabulary for Spanish. I also, of course, found a whole bunch of new languages to experiment with. Though I know studying multiple languages at once isn't the way to get fluent in any of them I am hopeful that I can at least get to a conversational point in a few of them (especially the ones that are closely linked with Spanish).
Even if all I do is learn a few new words and get to see the way other languages are constructed that will be enough for me. It is enough to stay engaged with learning for the moment. If any of you know any good apps for language learning please share them with me! I would love to have more ways to learn.
Raven and I have also been brushing up on our geography skills through apps. Turns out we're both pretty okay at world geography, but we have some definite problem areas... like most of Africa. And a good chunk of central Asia. It's pretty sad how little I know about both areas, but I have to start somewhere and knowing where I need work is the first step.
What are some areas of world history or geography that are a blank for you all? How many countries do you think you could fill in on the map? Half? Two thirds?
Here's that list: Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, German, Swedish, and Irish.
During college I majored in languages and learned to near fluency both Russian and Spanish. I have been out of college for more time than I care to admit now and most of my Russian is gone. Thankfully a 6 month immersion in a Spanish speaking country has paid off for me and my Spanish is still near fluency. But it can be hard to maintain vocabulary and comfort in a language when you don't speak it much. The practice I get these days is minimal so I was looking for a way to keep in practice and maintain my vocabulary.
Turns out there are a million apps for that and thanks to Crow I have access to a tablet so I can download all the apps. I get to spend a few minutes every day going through a lesson and reviewing vocabulary for Spanish. I also, of course, found a whole bunch of new languages to experiment with. Though I know studying multiple languages at once isn't the way to get fluent in any of them I am hopeful that I can at least get to a conversational point in a few of them (especially the ones that are closely linked with Spanish).
Even if all I do is learn a few new words and get to see the way other languages are constructed that will be enough for me. It is enough to stay engaged with learning for the moment. If any of you know any good apps for language learning please share them with me! I would love to have more ways to learn.
Raven and I have also been brushing up on our geography skills through apps. Turns out we're both pretty okay at world geography, but we have some definite problem areas... like most of Africa. And a good chunk of central Asia. It's pretty sad how little I know about both areas, but I have to start somewhere and knowing where I need work is the first step.
What are some areas of world history or geography that are a blank for you all? How many countries do you think you could fill in on the map? Half? Two thirds?
Here's that list: Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, German, Swedish, and Irish.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Fake it Till You Make It
Hey all,
Tonight I wanted to write about being An Adult because it's something I'm grappling with a lot these days. What does it mean to be an adult? How do I feel more grown-up? Will I ever really feel grown-up? How do I become a mature, responsible, and employed adult while not losing the things I value from my childhood and adolescence? I don't have the answer to any of these questions and I'm pretty sure it will be a long time before I formulate answers, but I can tell you what I've been thinking.
This list basically boils down to exactly what Raven said when I asked her what being an adult meant. She said (and I'm paraphrasing) that being an adult meant having the ability to eat cake for dinner and the knowledge to realize you shouldn't eat cake for dinner. At least not every night (my addition). As a kid we all think being a grown-up will mean freedom. From rules, from homework, from our parents. But when we get there we realize that there are a whole a bunch of rules that were there for a reason, not to mention new rules like rent, debt, job performance, the list goes on. And now that we are grown and dependent primarily on ourselves the rules have become a lot more important. When you broke a rule as a kid you got sent to your room, maybe yelled at a little, perhaps even grounded. As an adult if you break a rule the consequences can be longer lasting. Don't go to work? Get fired. Don't pay rent? Lose your house. Don't pay your student loans promptly? You will never buy anything on credit ever. Seriously, it will be a struggle to get a credit card.
Now those might be exaggerated consequences of each event, but you get the idea. Consequences as big and very real in your adult years. So how do you manage all the rules and expectations of you while avoiding the very big and very real consequences and trying to have some fun while you hold on to parts of your childhood on the way?
That's not rhetorical, by the way. I don't have an answer. If anyone out there does I would love to hear it.
Every time I contemplate adulthood I can't help but picture my ideal of an Adult: my mother. I always thought as a child that someday (when I was 20 I think was the random age I picked) I would wake up and it would click, I would have superpowers just like her. I would be able to cook meals that rivaled a master chef, keep an apartment clean with basically no effort, wrangle difficult children (read my sister and I) with ease, run errands in a flash, and pop out of bed early every morning wide awake and happy to be that way.
Needless to say that did not happen on the morning of my 20th birthday. And I'm sure that wasn't what my mother's life was really like, but let me tell you - she made the toughest job in the world look so easy. Everyone's heard the saying that daughters eventually turn into their mothers, right? It's a pretty common trope on sitcoms and romcoms. It's supposed to be a bad thing, but that what I wanted more than anything else in the world.
But now that I am a grown-up I have to face the hard truth - I am so far away from being my mother. I'm sure my mother would tell me that that's okay. That I am just different and have my own strengths. Strengths she doesn't have, just as I don't have hers. But still, when I close my eyes and picture an adult, it isn't my face I see. It's hers.
And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's a goal I would like to work towards - becoming my mother. Maybe not in all ways. We are, after all, very different people and I know we both appreciate the differences. But I want to get better at the things I most admire her for. So I'm going to end this post the way I started it: with a list.
Time for bed like a responsible adult. Work in the morning, then I have a fun surprise planned for Raven. I wonder if she'll read the blog before we go to bed tonight...
Best wishes!
Owl
*If you're curious... I've got numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 down most days, but the others are a constant struggle.
**Some people say if they could look like their mother when they get to her age they'd be happy. I would be happy to look like my mother right now.
Tonight I wanted to write about being An Adult because it's something I'm grappling with a lot these days. What does it mean to be an adult? How do I feel more grown-up? Will I ever really feel grown-up? How do I become a mature, responsible, and employed adult while not losing the things I value from my childhood and adolescence? I don't have the answer to any of these questions and I'm pretty sure it will be a long time before I formulate answers, but I can tell you what I've been thinking.
Let's start with my list of qualifications for adulthood in no particular order... (This is all what I think being an adult means)
1. Living away from your parents (this one is super culturally bound, but for me it would not be possible to be an adult in the way I want if I still lived with parents)
2. Working towards or furthering a career - not a job
3. Being (somewhat) financially secure (I don't mean you own a home and have a 401K - though kudos if you do - I mean not worrying about missing rent at the end of the month)
4. Having an active and healthy social life/dating life (dating life only if desired)
5. Developing a strong sense of self (we are constantly developing ourselves so we should never be completely settled in who we are, but as an adult we should have some idea and be working on it actively)
6. Eating and living in a healthy manner (diet and exercise, y'all)
7. Decorating your living space (it's not college anymore, a home is somewhat more permanent and should reflect that)
8. Not moving every single year
9. Cleaning (this goes along with #7 and your house not looking like a dorm room)
*
This list basically boils down to exactly what Raven said when I asked her what being an adult meant. She said (and I'm paraphrasing) that being an adult meant having the ability to eat cake for dinner and the knowledge to realize you shouldn't eat cake for dinner. At least not every night (my addition). As a kid we all think being a grown-up will mean freedom. From rules, from homework, from our parents. But when we get there we realize that there are a whole a bunch of rules that were there for a reason, not to mention new rules like rent, debt, job performance, the list goes on. And now that we are grown and dependent primarily on ourselves the rules have become a lot more important. When you broke a rule as a kid you got sent to your room, maybe yelled at a little, perhaps even grounded. As an adult if you break a rule the consequences can be longer lasting. Don't go to work? Get fired. Don't pay rent? Lose your house. Don't pay your student loans promptly? You will never buy anything on credit ever. Seriously, it will be a struggle to get a credit card.
Now those might be exaggerated consequences of each event, but you get the idea. Consequences as big and very real in your adult years. So how do you manage all the rules and expectations of you while avoiding the very big and very real consequences and trying to have some fun while you hold on to parts of your childhood on the way?
That's not rhetorical, by the way. I don't have an answer. If anyone out there does I would love to hear it.
Every time I contemplate adulthood I can't help but picture my ideal of an Adult: my mother. I always thought as a child that someday (when I was 20 I think was the random age I picked) I would wake up and it would click, I would have superpowers just like her. I would be able to cook meals that rivaled a master chef, keep an apartment clean with basically no effort, wrangle difficult children (read my sister and I) with ease, run errands in a flash, and pop out of bed early every morning wide awake and happy to be that way.
Needless to say that did not happen on the morning of my 20th birthday. And I'm sure that wasn't what my mother's life was really like, but let me tell you - she made the toughest job in the world look so easy. Everyone's heard the saying that daughters eventually turn into their mothers, right? It's a pretty common trope on sitcoms and romcoms. It's supposed to be a bad thing, but that what I wanted more than anything else in the world.
But now that I am a grown-up I have to face the hard truth - I am so far away from being my mother. I'm sure my mother would tell me that that's okay. That I am just different and have my own strengths. Strengths she doesn't have, just as I don't have hers. But still, when I close my eyes and picture an adult, it isn't my face I see. It's hers.
And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's a goal I would like to work towards - becoming my mother. Maybe not in all ways. We are, after all, very different people and I know we both appreciate the differences. But I want to get better at the things I most admire her for. So I'm going to end this post the way I started it: with a list.
10 Ways To Be More Like My Mother
1. Be more organized in my routines and my home
2. Keep calm and carry on (my mother was and is a master of this one)
3. Live intentionally and with a purpose
4. Take more walks in nature - be more a part of nature
5. Be kind and loving in every interaction
6. Patience. Patience. Patience.
7. Listen more
8. Do what I love and find a way to do it for a living
9. Exercise more**
10. Pursue lifelong learning and enrichment
Maybe we all just fake it until we become it. We find an adult we respect, imitate them, and after a while it isn't imitation anymore. It's how most animals learn how to survive and thrive, after all. To all of you who aren't Owl Mom: Thanks for reading my ramblings about my mother. I can never find too many good things to say about her. I don't know if Owl Mom reads this blog, but if she does: Thank you to you, too Mom Owl. I learned it all from the best. Someday I want to be a grown-up like you - just like I wanted when I was a kid.
Time for bed like a responsible adult. Work in the morning, then I have a fun surprise planned for Raven. I wonder if she'll read the blog before we go to bed tonight...
Best wishes!
Owl
*If you're curious... I've got numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 down most days, but the others are a constant struggle.
**Some people say if they could look like their mother when they get to her age they'd be happy. I would be happy to look like my mother right now.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Pandemonium and Parade
In her last post, Owl talked about reading more literture of substance. This was brought on in part by a conversation we had late one night about reading as a form of self-enrichment, and how reading mindfully and deliberately was a skill we had both once actively cultivated, but have let rust out a bit more recently. Owl made a resolution fo rherself which she talked about in her previous post, and I wanted to do something similar, though not idential, for myself.
The first step in my plan is virtually idential to Owl's. After we had our discussion, we (too eager to wait until morning, and too fearful that we would lose momentum befoure our projects even began were we to postpone) made our way out into the main room. This was tricky, because as of the time of this conversation, less than a week ago, our living room floor was...less floor, and more book. It was carpeted with hundreds of novels, anthologies, textbooks, almanacs, and more dictionaries than anybody really needs to own. Hundreds of books, sorted into a dozen categories, waiting to be subdivided further into a score of subcategories*. Books, as you may be able to tell, are not something we take lightly here. We collapsed beside a listing tower of non-fiction, which, spwaling out around the legs of our dining table, threatened to spill over into reference on one side and realistic fiction on the other. (You will be pleased to note, incidentally, that this madness is now all happilly contained to our seven bookshelves. And it only took a week) Sorting through the stacks, we together selected just over a dozen books. They currently live by Owl's nightstand, and the idea is that we will each pick one from the stack every month and read it. Eventually we will both have read all the books in the stack, so that when we throw parties we can delight all of our guests by our eerily-uniform knowledge of archaic Chinese burial customs.
...wait, what do you mean thats not what people talk about at parties? A-are you sure?
Anyhow, though it might not be quite the party trick I was hoping it would be, we have a pretty exciting selection of books. I admit to having read some of them before. I've kept most of the books I used in college, either as assigned textbooks or as research material, and they are among the most prized installations in my library. Owl very patiently let me pile on a fair few books on my two major collegiate interests: Chinese history and culture, and archaeology. There is a big difference between reading a book for class and reading it for pleasure, however, and I look forward to approaching these books from a new perspective, nd at my own pace. The rest of the books were either picked out by Owl as pertaining to one of her particular areas of study, as is the case with Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit, her current read, or were chosen since their subject was of interest to us both, or sufficienly unfamiliar to us that we felt we had much to learn from it.
Currently, I am (re)reading a book I read for the special first-year seminar all freshman at my alma mater were required to take. My particular course was Supernatural Japan, and we studied Japanese ghosts and monsters as they pertained to Japanese media and culture. This was a topic that stayed with me all throughout college---in a wonderfully cyclic coincidence, I ended up writing a paper on the pervasiveness of yōkai (妖怪) , Japanese monsters, in popular culture for my Asian Studies seminar my final semester. The book is entitled Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yōkai by Michael Dylan Foster, and it was one of the first (if not the first) book I ever read at the collegiate level. It was formative in shping my mindset as a scholar, or at least as a reader of scholarly works, but save for the few chapters I consulted for the aforementioned capstone paper, I have not had the opportunity to revisit this work since I was a freshman. I am only a few chapters in but I am enjoying the experience immensely, and it is good to be reading metacognitively again.
The second step in my plan is to write more about what I read. This will force me to read carefully and analytically, will help me cogitate on what I have read, and will ensure that I understand it well enough to speak (or type) coherently about it. You can expect to see some, if not all, of that writing here in the coming months. If hearing me talk about archaeology bored you before, just wait until I start talking about some of my favorite archaeology textbooks! No but seriously, they're superb.
Stay tuned for more talking about reading, and possibly pictures of our sea of books! Maybe even pictures of our pretty, organized bookshelves, if you're lucky.
*And if you're really interested, we can provide you with that breakdown. We have lists. And labels! And pictures.
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