Graduate Grumblings
Friday, January 26, 2024
Monday, January 08, 2024
2024 - Catalyst: Looking back at 2023 and ahead to the new year.
2023 people and places |
Saturday, December 09, 2023
2023 - Year in Review
Becca -- Grade - 5th grade. Ms Williams class. Fav memory: NWA tests especially the math tests are the worst because it has 43 questions, and it has a lot of hard questions because it gets harder if you get them right. One of favorite memories - Going to Cub Creek camp for a whole week. Animals galore, riding horse named Cheyene and new friends. Hoping that school trip to BizTown next week will be the best of the year. Fav summer - No school. Worst summer - Not having stuff to do. Rec - Percy Jackson - Heroes of Olympus and the Insiders. Owl House. Hello from the Hollowood's, Night vale and Taylor Swift. Spiderman, Lana Del Ray
Leila - more detail to come. Leila signed us up for a 18th century ball this year and sewed her dress - it turned out so great. It was such a fun night even if we were late sewing last bits of the costumes. Leila also has new patterns and quilts this year that doing well - check out: Leila Gardunia Quilt Patterns and sign up for the newsletter to get the latest.
Tuesday, November 07, 2023
ADHD meds and response to "Search Engine" podcast
From an email that I sent the "Search Engine" podcast team. It is a really intriguing series and I am pretty invested as I have struggled this last few years with a lot of anxiety and frustration trying to keep focused.
https://pjvogt.substack.com/p/whyd-i-take-speed-for-twenty-years
I feel like I should start this email with something like on talk radio where the caller says - "long-time listener, first-time caller." I have been a big fan since the beginnings of Reply All. It was one of the first podcasts that I listened to every episode of and I have enjoyed the new podcasts you have done since leaving that show.
Saturday, November 04, 2023
Meditations on memory and focus
I don't know if it is a peculiarity of the eye, the brain, or the camera lens but I can never seem to get the focus on the camera to match what I see or remember. As I flew home from India over Greenland, I looked out of the window and saw a plane that seemed to be just below us - so close I thought. Contrails erupted from the tips of its engines and I could see clearly the logo of the other airline and dots of the windows reflecting the glacier and fjords below both of us. But in the photo I took with my phone, the plane is far away and a pixelated blur against the horizon and clouds.
Was it an illusion of the mind and eye that when I looked out the window it seemed to zoom in or is a fault in my iPhone camera skills to be able to mirror this focus and clarity?
This is probably a testable hypothesis or googleable question, but I like the idea that my brain and eye can make the sunset and the nights sky better IRL than the camera of my phone.
I want to be able to pull that clarity on my self and my time. I wish that I could see it better than it is captured by a camera or a word, but the reality is that I cannot and it slips away so fast.
Even the image that I had so clear of the plane, that seemed so profound, is losing its realness. Pieces I can remember - the parts I described above. Those even closer images are zoomed in and crisp, but the rest of the details are just an outline between them and now as I write the memory becomes this. I see the blurry edges like a sketch drawing and the focus sections blown up around.
Will that fade to be replaced with just words and memory of what it felt like to write this? The ache in my hand, the tired feeling from being up too late, the drying tears of the sad book that I finished before looking down on the plane, my cold from India and my suppressed cough in my throat, the sweat on my sandals and my cracked lips.
No, that too will fade. Even as I read these words in the future I will have to imagine this moment. Maybe then I will remember but each time I try it shifts and changes by the act of remembering
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Tuesday, January 03, 2023
Looking back at 2022
Becca
4th grade. Finished
the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus books and favorite Character is Nico
D’Angelo. Trip highlight - being able to go to all the beaches - Scotland, Netherlands,
Greece. Ice cream in Greece, Netherlands.
Recs: Liked Wednesday.
Podcast - Hello from the Hallowood.
Aleah
12th Grade -Senior.
Got accepted into trade school at Missouri State Tech. Loves her construction
tech class at school and interesting economics discussions in AP econ. Likes
that she doesn’t have to take German this year.
Favorite trip thing -
marketplaces and museums - favorite was the Prague National History Museum. Ice
cream in Greece. Recs: Movie rec - Knives out and the Glass Onion. Podcast -
Dungeon’s and Daddies
Colleen
9th grade. This
year’s highlights: got driver’s permit, quitting swim team, color guard, book
club. Really came to love crocs. Best trip memory - walking around in
Edinburgh, walking to the beach in Castricum, Netherlands. So much walking.
Also Mother India restaurant in Edinburgh. Place - Parthenon. Most
disappointing - Big Ben. First Apartment in Greece.
Recs: Books - “Song of
Achilles.” Show - “Seven Lives of Lea.” Movie - “Spiderman - into the
Spiderverse.” Music - Lana del Rey, Favorite playlist - Nightime
Tunes. Labyrinth. Favorite app -
pinterest shuffles
Alex
8th Grade. Best thing
about this year - Making new friends. Playing DnD with Friends and hanging out
at Charlie’s. Best trip memories - pizza place in Edinburgh. Walking around
London with the sisters. Most disappointing - Big Ben.
Recs: Book - “Good Girl’s
Guide to Murder.” Movie - “Do Revenge”, because it is so silly. Show - The Good
Place - rewatched this year. Music - Automatic, Lush.
Emily + Celia
Finished and set
up senior capstone show, graduated went on a long trip with the family, got a
dog, started subbing everyday in Kirksville school district. Celia and Lee
played a lot of ttrpgs, several Magic the Gathering campaigns as well as
Vampire the Mascarade.
Celia’s favorite
part of the trip was Aegina island and swimming in the pool with the kids,
walks everyday, as well as getting to try a bunch of different coffee shops. Emily’s favorite trip memory was exploring the Hermitage in Edinburgh,
especially when she was able to adventure on her own - going “goat” and
following all the little animal paths and scaling big rocks to find berries.
Recs: Shows -
Wednesday on Netflix, Summer Camp Island on HBO. Books: Sapiens by Yuval
Harari, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, and Brain Camp by Kim and Klavan.
Leila
Started substituting a few days a month at the elementary school. Planned and executed a 5 week European vacation with 8 people - we are a full tour group now. New patterns came out this fall. State Fair book and You Can quilt Book published with Amazon Kindle print on demand.
Leila's trip highlights - beach in Netherlands, Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Strawberries in Scotland, Ice cream in Netherlands, fresh juice in Island apartment. Bread/KFC in Czech. Tej in London, morning coffee with Brian in London. Pulling the whole thing off in spite of covid and so many trains, metros, buses, planes, ferries, Ubers, cabs, and rented bikes.
Recs - Books: Listened to
a lot on tape. Veronica Speedwell Mysteries.
Brian
Had a good year
working with cotton breeding at Bayer with new team members that started this
year. I also worked a lot on collaborations with Abacusbio, Roslin, TAMU, and
NC State. I struggled to focus and keep on top of my mountain of email and
meetings this year and was diagnosed with ADHD, which will not be a surprise to
anyone.
I traveled quite a bit
this year, in the US to NH, MS, TX, FL, AZ, Africa - Kenya for meetings with
CGIAR/IITA and Botswana to visit Amanda Jacobsen and family and to see some
rhinos, and our long summer trip to England, Scotland - dual purpose work trip
with Roslin Institute and meetings with Abacusbio, Netherlands, and Greece. We
had the best of intentions of visiting family over Christmas, but Southwest had a meltdown and our flights were cancelled. I enjoyed reconnecting with people
after two years of covid restrictions and hope to visit more friends and family
in 2023.
Best thing about our Euro
trip - morning walks to coffee shops before the rest of the family woke up.
Worst thing - getting covid in Netherlands, although Becca was the very best
quarantine buddy ever and made Netherlands my favorite place we visited. Second
worst thing was the first apartment in Athens, but escaping to Aegina island
was lovely and peaceful.
Recomendations: Books -
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, The Anthropocene Reviewed. Shows - Andor
Movie - Everything, everywhere, all at once.