this past weekend I met with Dan Fulwiler in Chicago, and he has some nice DS photos. It's a real trip to look at the group photo taken on the steps of the Main Building and puzzle out "who is who."
Identifying some people is immediately obvious--others take some real effort depending on sun and shadow, if they don't have a beard but i remember then with one, if they are people who weren't there for very long (a nanny for the Pope children; short term faculty...).
I have very few photos from that period. Does anyone have some to post? Or at least to mention and bost about? --charlie
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
ESL (English as a Second Language) Tutors Needed
Somewhere, not far from where you are right now, is someone who needs you to be an ESL tutor.
Any speaker of native American English can do it.
Actually, most speakers of English can do this sort of work, whether they are a native speaker or not.
some of the English speakers with very heavy accents might want to disqualify themselves. If you speak American with an American accent it is good, since many people want to learn from an American.
I started doing this sort of thing just for friendship. The beginnings were rather serendipitous--I kept meeting more and more foreigners with mediocre spoken colloquial english. I could understand them, more or less, and agreed to meet them sometime so they could practice their English.
The exact techniques vary--sometimes i do diagnostic work, sometimes just talk. Sometimes I tape record the conversation and give it to the other person at the end of the hour.
Some people have a very good idea what they want help with, others have vague feelings of dis-satisfaction. They know they have trouble communicating what they want to say. Often they hear and understand others better than others seem to hear and understand them.
Any speaker of native American English can do it.
Actually, most speakers of English can do this sort of work, whether they are a native speaker or not.
some of the English speakers with very heavy accents might want to disqualify themselves. If you speak American with an American accent it is good, since many people want to learn from an American.
I started doing this sort of thing just for friendship. The beginnings were rather serendipitous--I kept meeting more and more foreigners with mediocre spoken colloquial english. I could understand them, more or less, and agreed to meet them sometime so they could practice their English.
The exact techniques vary--sometimes i do diagnostic work, sometimes just talk. Sometimes I tape record the conversation and give it to the other person at the end of the hour.
Some people have a very good idea what they want help with, others have vague feelings of dis-satisfaction. They know they have trouble communicating what they want to say. Often they hear and understand others better than others seem to hear and understand them.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Libraries and anti-Libraries
Uberto Eco discusses the insitution of the anti-library. This is a personal library. It contains (for the most part) books that one might read sometime, but probably hasn't read just yet.
The more one knows, the more subjects or topical foci are likely to be included in the anti-library. Someone who doesn't know how to read, or doesn't like to read, or doesn't have any interest in books, is unlikely to develop a large anti-library.
In addition, the anti-library presumes a certain standard of living. A subsistence farmer with a hoe, a matchet, a sleeping mat, an iron cooking pot, and two sets of clothes (one for worship and holidays) is unlikely to develop much of a library, let alone an anti-library.
In some sense personal knowledge might grow linearly, while potential topics for the anti-library grow exponentially.
Most of my knowledge of the concept is second hand, as developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb toward the very beginning of his book _the black swan_. But he credits Eco with the idea. Eco discusses the phenomenon very briefly (the read, unread, maybe-partly-read books littering the dwelling) in "how to justify a personal library," in his book _how to travel with a salmon_.
This is a great and grand topic for me because I have lots of books and am purging many of them in the next couple weeks.
Craig Scrivner (DS84) described the desire to hang onto one's old textbooks, other assigned books, favorite novels, etc. as "book cling."
This month I am waging a successful battle against book cling. Check this blog for further developments.
The more one knows, the more subjects or topical foci are likely to be included in the anti-library. Someone who doesn't know how to read, or doesn't like to read, or doesn't have any interest in books, is unlikely to develop a large anti-library.
In addition, the anti-library presumes a certain standard of living. A subsistence farmer with a hoe, a matchet, a sleeping mat, an iron cooking pot, and two sets of clothes (one for worship and holidays) is unlikely to develop much of a library, let alone an anti-library.
In some sense personal knowledge might grow linearly, while potential topics for the anti-library grow exponentially.
Most of my knowledge of the concept is second hand, as developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb toward the very beginning of his book _the black swan_. But he credits Eco with the idea. Eco discusses the phenomenon very briefly (the read, unread, maybe-partly-read books littering the dwelling) in "how to justify a personal library," in his book _how to travel with a salmon_.
This is a great and grand topic for me because I have lots of books and am purging many of them in the next couple weeks.
Craig Scrivner (DS84) described the desire to hang onto one's old textbooks, other assigned books, favorite novels, etc. as "book cling."
This month I am waging a successful battle against book cling. Check this blog for further developments.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
DS and Deep Springers on Wikipedia
Sometime in the past couple years, DS got a pretty good wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Springs_College
you can also see the valley and even some of the DS buildings on google maps.
Perhaps we can keep starting wikipedia pages for each other and then link them to the DS wikipedia page as "prominent Deep Springers."
certainly the inimitable doug pascover should have a wikipedia page by now. or isn't being inimitable enough? how many blogs does a man have to have?
charlie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Springs_College
you can also see the valley and even some of the DS buildings on google maps.
Perhaps we can keep starting wikipedia pages for each other and then link them to the DS wikipedia page as "prominent Deep Springers."
certainly the inimitable doug pascover should have a wikipedia page by now. or isn't being inimitable enough? how many blogs does a man have to have?
charlie
Thursday, June 19, 2008
What ever happened to Doug?
Friends, a good start to this conversation might be catching up on who we are now. More or less, a virtual class reunion catering to the peculiar needs of the balding, sagging, unpressed, unimpressive and dateless.
I, for example, am a modest crank who never married, prospered or sired whelp and lives on the edge of the desert in Los Angeles County with his two dogs. This will surprise many of you who expected more dogs. Above is a photo of my domestic partners, Willie and Walela, taken at Deep Springs in March of last year.
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