What I'm willing to Trade

No one wants a police state in which we are all under constant surveillance...but...

My feelings of nostalgia do a fine job of wiping away my concerns about Big Brother and all that because, as I age, I begin to wish for something to bolster my fading memories. If only there was some repository of hi-def spy video  of all the places from my youth so I could relive my childhood not in the fading pastels of a clouded past, but in all the vivid detail of a current image.

Maybe if there was an AI service that could take all of my snap shots and photos, correlate elements across images (like a particular intersection of a place) and then compare that place to the google street view as it is and has been over time. Then it could create a VR trip back in time to the way a street looked (in full color and glory) in a particular year. I want to stand in front of my house in 1978. I want to see the bright colors of an early summer's day in 1982. I want to stand next to my mother in 1971. I want to visit my apartment in 1976 or my car in 1990, in full 3-D. Why are we digitizing our past if not to give us somewhere to hide?

Movie review - A Complete Unknown

I saw the Bob Dylan movie this weekend. Here are some thoughts about it. (tl;dr: 2.5 out of 5 stars)

OK, so here we have a movie about Robert Zimmerman (though the entire issue of his name and heritage get 2 lines' worth of mention). I felt like I was watching some really excellent and compelling ACTING by masters of their craft, but I didn't see any care put into the storyline within whcih they were acting. As individual behaviors, I felt their acting was exemplary -- at times intimate and understated and at other times larger than life. But when the scenes tried to turn into a coherent movie, they failed.

When I watched the scene at the Newport Festival, as Bob is playing the opening chords of his third (and contractually required) song, I kept waiting for him to stop, pause, and dive into "Radio, Radio." True fact.

The simplest reqview I can provide is that I liked everything about it except IT.

Chalamet was great. Edward Norton was great. I would love to have these characters over and sit and talk to them. But I had no sense of why they were on screen and what story they were trying to tell me.

Baseball Thoughts

Opening day is here again so I have thoughts and reactions to baseball.

First, is there a statistical database which includes the stats for "has broken up the most ___________"? I'd like to know who leads the league in breaking up no-hitters, or perfect games, or shut outs, or Beatles.

Next, let's talk about the strike zone. I thought that it was batter dependent, higher or lowey based on the size of the guy at the plate, and shifting based on his physical attitude in his stance. But on the Yankee game, the TV coverage included that white rectangle which tells the viewer whether a pitch was a strike or not, and that rectangle did not move. So how can it be accurate?

I also caught a bunch of the Mets game. During the game, a player was up and G, K and R mentioned that he is a pull hitter. In fact, it was noted, all of this guy's 72 major league home runs were to left-center or left field. Within a minute or two, there was a graphic on the screen showing where each of his home rums went out of the park.

I don't know how they make visuals and graphics but I'm more confused by how they had this data, let alone handy. Is "point at which ball crosses the wall" a data point that is regularly recorded? For how long has this been collected? Was this something they had cooked up earlier and waited for a moment to introduce pre-packaged graphics, or can their stat whiz come up with anything at any time?

Anyway, the Mets lost. What else is new?

My review of Twisters

Into the pile of unnecessary sequels we throw Twisters, a movie with some sort of connection to the original but that isn't really discussed at all. The first movie was good and interesting though filled with obvious stereotypes and cliches. This movie goes a step further -- it is full of even more tropes and trite bits but has zero redeeming story to contextualize this.

This movie is a collection of all of the most over done lines and bits and pieces, each presented in the worst possible way. And the effects are surprisingly bad. This really is just bad on many, many levels. Every trope you can imagine pops up somewhere -- genre hopping, narrative twisting, focus shifting. You know how we sometimes share our vision in language of marriage? (eg. "that movie is like if Harry Potter had a baby with Rocky Horror and lived in Free Willy's house") This movie is involved in a polyamorous series of relationships, open to the public and some are abusive.

This is such a hot mess that I was actually retching while trying to dream up a proper analogy for how much of a warm puddle of vomit this film is. And it keeps getting worse. This is everything bad about good movies and everything good about bad movies, just done poorly.

It achieved what I thought was its ultimate form of utter crapulence in record time but the joke was on me -- it was not in its final form. No. Far from it. This movie had not even begun to dig down deeper. This piece of excrement sets constant records for the includion of random tropes and cliches. Every method, every twist, every everything and anything that doesn't make sense or get explained just bolsters the confusion. It treads well-established lines, each a distinct and discrete entry in a dictionary of devices. Every thing is intentional and clear. Just bad. All kinds of bad. In every sentence and at every juncture, there is something I have seem a million times before and always better.

This would make great fodder for a family game night -- play the movie for everyone, and whoever wants to spot or call out a trope, clicke or stereotype must pause the movie and explain it. Others vote on whether it counts as a well established device. Hint -- it is.

Is there a way to give it negative stars? Like, I want to send a bill to the movie guys for my time, which I wasted watching it. They owe me stars. Painfully bad.

Bad editting, lack of continuity, plot holes in the plot holes, and a constant stream of things you recognize, to make you wish you were watching literally anything else. It was horrible. Do not recommend.

Imagine if my commute was longer

 It's not that I'm not flattered

I enjoy seeing you and I want that to continue

and it isn't that you are too forward

it is just that I know what the future holds

you say something nice and you tell me

that you'd love it if I got more comfortable

you showed me a seat and asked me

if I wouldn't take off my shirt

there are two things you must keep in mind

and not that I've been hurt or that I'm afraid

I'll hurt you first. Not that I don't care

I do, I really do.

But anyone who asks to see me, really see me

will either be disappointed by what I am

or laugh at what little pride I have left

and that's not the basis for what I am praying will be

so, again, while I'm honored that

you would choose me, and that you

claim you accept me for who I am, I have to demure

and say that we really should get to know each other first,

Doctor.

-----------------------

I was listening to a commercial for some new wonder drug that helps people who have suffered with the heartbreak of some condition resume their normal drudgery and allows them to rejoin the rat race and pray for some other cause of death. The warnings include things like "side effects include ________" and then the reminder that if you have bloody or black stools, call your doctor. I really don't think I need your permission, Fred. If I see bloody or black stools, I'm calling a doctor -- even if they aren't mine! I mean, that's pretty serious. Who ISN'T calling a doctor in that case? What do we need? A fast talking announcer who reels off side effects that include death and then a caution, "if you have any signs of death, please contact your doctor."

An educational hot take

I believe we need to look at the advent of AI (in terms of writing) in much the same way as we look at the calculator. While, in the younger grades, we can still teach arithmetic, we have to acknowledge that students will end up using the calculator for most everything. Some students just aren’t good at math so the calculator levels a certain playing field – but it can’t make a student who doesn’t understand the process become better at math. It is a result oriented accommodation but we have embraced it.

AI writing is much the same and for those students who don’t have the knack for writing, but who have gone through elementary school learning the basics, it is an invaluable aid. In fact, I believe that we should lean into it and accept that direct instruction of writing will only really work for students who think and process in a way that leads towards mastery of writing. Other students need a way to reach the end result and there is no shame in that.

What I’m saying is that, in the same way that I don’t think that math instruction past a certain level is not for everyone, and science beyond a certain level is irrelevant to many students, writing instruction, as much as we want to think that it reinforces certain foundational thinking skills, becomes a wasted effort at a certain point and we should REQUIRE that students use AI, and teach them how, in the same way that some math classes teach how to use a particular calculator. Who looks up logarithm charts and interpolates anymore? Is it a lost skill or an irrelevant one? Do we diagram sentences now? Already, students rely (for better or worse) on spell check, and I have had to discontinue spelling quizzes because the inability to remember spelling is now considered the standard, not the exceptional case.

This does not mean that we are handing off writing to AI completely. In fact, I fear that, were some of my students to type their current essays into an AI writing engine, the resultant revision might not reflect the intent of the student because the original writing is so confusing that the computer will rewrite it but be unable to discern the point of it. The student will still need to review it (but how many students second guess the answer presented by a calculator, and do the work long hand to be sure?) but mostly, students will assume that if it comes from AI it must be totally correct.

We need to shift our curriculum and reimagine what skills we want students to have. For many students, the thinking and memorization required of the study of Talmud is never going to click and I believe that insisting that those students have X number of hours of Talmud instruction causes frustration in the hearts of both student and teacher. The same goes for any discipline. Does the student who has struggled with math and has an interest in law or psychology or business have a real need to know anything about chemistry? Is there anything inherent in the content that will necessarily relevant to all students? And is there anything that the study of chemistry adds to the brain development and intellectual growth of that student that no other subject can provide?

Some thoughts

On Art:

I feel most vulnerable in the face of artistic expression. Society says that my opinion says more about me than about the art. If I think that something fails but society disagrees, that puts me on metaphorical trial because the peer pressure runs thick.

A first audience decides if the expression is acceptable or flawed and later generations slavishly allow this tradition to continue. Then the content creator looks at the conclusions that masses have drawn and says "I meant to do that."

On God:

We look for external coincidences to validate the way we already feel. The divine is the face that turns these coincidences up to 11 on days when we need them to be.

On Prophecy

I have to admit something -- over the last year or so, I have been conversing on a very personal level with God. Now maybe I'm just talking to myself and half the conversation is out loud while half is in my head, but it feels like God has been sending me messages.

Crazy, right? Yes, but convincing, if you ask me. Anyway, the content of the messages has been very private -- not the stuff I would announce, but it has inspired me to try to make positive changes in my life, and the conversations have been cathartic.

Last night, things got turned up by a lot. We were chatting, and then, bam, I start seeing and hearing things jump out at me. I saw significance in a selection of the words and phrases which I was hearing and seeing on TV. So now, I feel like I have info about the future but this is all very new to me; what am I supposed to do with this information. If I share it and I'm wrong then I'm a crank and wouldn't trust my own judgment going forward. If I share it and I'm right then everyone gets freaked out. If I don't share it and it is wrong then I don't trust myself and if I don't share it and I'm right, I have failed to help someone when I knew the future.

See how maddening this is? And where do I put my "predictions" (which aren't predictions, just a series of words and ideas in no particular order) so that I can prove to the world that they were made before the event in question? I could email them to myself, but someone would claim that I mailed it afterwards but found a way to make it look otherwise.

And is this even prophecy? I Judaism, prophecy is a mesage and a command to spread that message. I received no such command (yes, my craziness accepts rules) so I can keep this to myself and it isn't a prophecy. But it is still a burden.

Meanwhile, you will continue to assume I'm insane for even saying most of this. That's fine. You may be right...I may be crazy.

I guess we'll find out.

This is where I live

 I like the TV show called "How It's Made." I watch episode after episode, commenting on the various processes and admiring the technology. It seems to me, this is my version of a Hallmark story. All the pieces fit!

This is my imagination land. This is where all the pieces are machine fit so everything is perfectly aligned. Very ASMR to me. Precision, perfection and predictability. Watch a set of pieces of metal become a rock climbing wall, and aluminum into an air conditioner. A narrator with a smoothing voice explains what spine fin tuning means and how cotter pins control butterflies. Everything works and no one ever messes up. Products are triple checked so the crinkled potato chips are blown away to be used for some other eco friendly purpose. Quality control, often with workers looking at computer screens, is always the highest priority and if you follow these steps, you, too, can make 24,000 mini cupcakes a day.

This is the world I want to inhabit (and if this doesn't demonstrate phrasal verbs like "live in" what does?). I want to watch things get made, with explanation. I want to understand that there are different types of javelin and apple butter isn't actually butter but is called that because of the textural similarity.

It feeds my brain directly and makes me feel like I can make sense of my world. I mean, I can't but this opiate of a show let's me feel like it. I, in one afternoon can learn what cane juice is, see industrial ceilings fans' airfoils, and learn all about combination wrenches. Then plastic sheds. Awesome.

Gotta go - I'm watching the second part of the cane syrup episode. Masquite. 

Age

What is the oldest thing that you have in your possession? Is it your baby blanket from 50+ years ago? How about your house from 40 years ago? Maybe it is a piece of furniture you inherited and it is easily 100 years old. Sounds old, right?

Time was, age meant something. Now, we are fascinated with the newness of things. A new car every two years, unless we stumble on a vintage car that has been meticulously kept up. A new phone every 2 years and god forbid we fall behind that curve. Do we go out and SEEK old things? Maybe at an antiques store, but we have to hunt.

I blame credit cards.

In the olden days (this) we used to use cash and part of the excitement (for me, at least) was sifting through coins to see what history threw into my pocket. Imagine, a simple transaction and suddenly, I was in unexpected possession of a coin from 1960. Bam, 60 something years old and I was holding it in my hand. I didn't plan for this, but I had a coin that had passed through thousands of hands and was around for all the historic events. I wasn't going to be able to interview it (apparently, we only wish that these walls could talk, but the walls around me are like 10 years old and can't tell a story worth a damn), but it meant something special to me -- I was connected to the past.

I continued to collect coins but mostly by happenstance. More transactions, more coins to look through. More treasures to stumble on. And stumble I did! Then the credit cards came. Cash fell out of favor, and this was made more acute once people could pay with a wave of a phone. So where are the relics of yesteryear that might fall into my lap without warning? I'm not going out there and buying up Twinkies, knowing that one of them is probably a few years old.

No more accidental Wheat Backs. Now I have to go looking.