austin_dern (austin_dern) wrote,
austin_dern
austin_dern

I've heard it said before

The good news: yes, my card works on the new door access things. And they remembered to give front-door access for my students. What they didn't think of, was letting the door to the classroom, another card-reader access point, be programmed so the door could be held open for the class. After a few seconds it beeped, and continued till the door closed. I like leaving doors open whenever possible. We'll have to fix this.

The bad news is, I just taught a bad lecture. I just couldn't get my sentences organized. The problem is I changed my mind about how I wanted to present things from when I made the lecture notes, and didn't make fresh notes, and grazing through my dense notes is a bad practice. At least in the back half I started pulling it together, with a good example and a reasonable ``cliffhanger,'' if the term can be applied to mathematics -- a little calculation on a simple problem starting from the premises that yields what looks like a gibberish conclusion. I just had to reassure my students I didn't make a mistake; I wanted to get that result. And I did.

Somehow to date I've given the dragons short shrift in Chinese Garden pictures. Here's the dragon wrapped around the base of the pagoda lit; there's other dragons on the higher levels which you just couldn't see because the pagoda's the only tall structure. The ones in the open you could see more of, though not walk around. Areas were roped off, and only a few parents encouraged five-year-old kids to hop over and touch a lantern for a better picture. The water dragon didn't photograph as well as I wanted, but it's still a neat sight.

And today's (four-panel) Peanuts features a cameo by 5, so things are pretty cheery.

Trivia: Georges Méliès's first projector was an Animatograph bought from inventor Robert William Paul (barely a month after Paul's January 1896 public unveiling of the projector); with it he got some of Paul's short films and Thomas Edison reels of seascapes, dancers, and boxing kangaroos. Source: Living Dolls, Gaby Wood.

Currently Reading: Measuring America: How the United States Was Shaped by the Greatest Land Sale in History, Andro Linklater.

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