Why I hike

Why I hike. A picture is worth 1000 words

I went hiking in Shenandoah national park Satuday. Pictures here https://pixelfed.social/p/eludom/396268280449793695

I had not been out much lately (winter, cold), but this reminded why I hike. You get to the top (in this case, of “Mary’s Rock”) and have breathtaking views (often when you are already out of breath :-). There is the sense of accomplishment in having finished the climb (in this case a modest ~1000 plus feet up, 1.5 miles). You meet people (I met an older gentleman with a camera, and we stopped and talked photography for 20 minutes, I ran into some old friends). You have time to think (assuming you don’t blast music or podcasts into your brain while you could be letting it enjoy the quite of nature). And it’s fun.

Doing Latin without thinking about it

This may be obvious to people who are fluent in several languages, but communicating in different languages does not have to be like working a proof in geometry. The Latin I learned focused on being able to consciously understand all 144 different inflected forms (yes, 144) of any standard Latin verb. Pretty sure most children in antiquity could not separate a genitive geurnd from a supine from a plural perfect passive participle. But they could talk.

Conspiracy theories can be fun!

Illuminati is a game that allows you indulge your inner conspiracy theorist, hopefully in a self-aware tongue-in-cheek manner. My son apparently made off with my copy. I think he’s in on it. He took it as part of a secret communist conspiracy to keep me from suspecting the truth about secret communist conspiracies…

Adding years to your life, or life to your years?

My great aunt took her first motorcycle ride at 100.

Some thoughts on living in a small town, neuroscience and life.

What are you doing on your 100th birthday?

100DaysToOffload, Take 2

I’m going to make another run #100DaysToOffload https://100daystooffload.com/

First attempt made it to about 40 posts. Interrupted for a year or so in part by a refusal to post anything else on github, which was where I was hosting my blog and the saga of getting a raspberry pi-based blog to my liking up-and running chronicled in part here http://curious.galthub.com/blog/no-marketing/ and here http://curious.galthub.com/blog/hugo-via-mysocket/

Pretty sure I won’t make it daily, but I’ve got a huge backlog of ideas (from my daily paper journal, email to friends, etc) and now, a place I feel good about to put them out.

Career counseling should not take itself too seriously.

These are some musings I sent to a friend who is a career counselor at a local community college.

Short version: I’m pretty sure I could not have planned my current career in “IT” and “Cybersecurity” when neither of those terms even existed until well into my career.

Learning Latin the wrong way, an argument against ignorance.

I’m doing some of the Duolingo Latin course. Who knew you could shop, converse and joke in Latin? Certainly not the classics professors I learned from. Quid pudor est.

There is no reason why learners should be made to treat every Latin text as puzzle to be deciphered into translation, rather than a specimen of normal human communication to be understood as such.

http://blogicarian.blogspot.com/2019/03/argumentum-ad-ignorantiam.html?m=1

"This train's got the disappearing railway blues"

I recently took an Amtrak trip form Pittsburgh to Tucson and back. My cousin asked me

How was the Amtrak ride? It went through Chillicothe for a few years maybe in the 1970’s. Then B&O/CSX abandoned the tracks.

and noted

in the 1920’… there were 5 passenger trains a day from Cincinnati to Columbus

social costs

I sent this to my son who is on the path to being a high school socials study teacher.

This article has me trying to project the impact today’s “social distancing” would have had on a very messed up introverted teenager of 45 years ago. It’s not a pretty picture.

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/im-a-public-school-teacher-the-kids

I’m a Public School Teacher. The Kids Aren’t Alright.

My students were taught to think of themselves as vectors of disease. This has fundamentally altered their understanding of themselves.

But that would be too easy

This is a navel-gazing simple desultory philippic about adventures in yak-shaving. It is dedicated JTR’s ox-hugo theme I’ve borrowed for the second time. Thanks!

“But you could just use wordpress”

he tells himself.

“Ahh, but then think of all the yak shaving you would miss.”

he responds to himself.

“Opportunity cost, he thinks…”.

“Yessss, preciousssss. The opportunity cost. Gollum. Gollum. Gollum.”