Psychology...

I just finished reading A Theory of Human Motivaiton, by Abrabam H. Maslow with my kids.  Some of them got really into it, and some didn't.  We read it mostly based on my only qualifying principle of curriculum development, which is whether I'm interested in it at the moment.  I don't know if that's really good, but it seems to be about the only way I can run a dynamic class.  If I'm curious about a subject we usually read about it.  That's about it.

Anyway, I can't exactly remember what got me started on it, but I told the kids we were going over it for a couple of reasons, first being that it was good reading comprehension practice material, and second, that I thought an understanding of it could help them lead better lives.  And I believe it's not inaccurate, but after about a wee

k of studying it I don't feel as strongly about it as I did in the beginning.  In any case, at the end of it I asked the kids to do a free write in which they speculated on their levels of attainment of the five basic needs, upon which level of need they were living, and how they might achieve a higher level on the hierarchy.  I thought it might be good to try to write about it myself.

There are a few principles you have to know to get it.  First...

So I started writing this a while ago.  Days?  Weeks?  I ran out of the interest, or the energy neccessary to finish it.  That happens to me a lot.  I find in t

he last few years that I get 3/4ths of the way through stuff and run out of gas.  ADD?  I guess.  Anyway, instead, here are some pictures.  I found this little video about aging pics to look like they were shot with a Holga, a kind of legendary cheap Russian medium format camera with a plastic lens.  I bought one a few years ago, but it was just when the world was really making the transition to digital cameras, and I had my first, and all of the s

udden it just seemed like it wasn't worth the money to develop film.  But I guess I can photoshop the pics to make them look like I shot them with the Holga, now.

Pics.

This one doesn't look as Holga-ized, but oh well.

Spring Break...

So, it's Spring Break for me, which means mostly I've been laying on my couch reading and eating way too much.  I read Brisingr, the newest Christopher Paolini book, which was more of his same, not great, a little geeky pretentious fantasy nerdy, but ok fun.  I read a crappy graphic novel, A History of Violence, which is a very rare failure of the "book is better than the movie" rule.  I read a really good graphic novel called Allan's War.  It was just a biography of a GI during, a little before, and a little after WWII.  I really liked it.  The story seemed to be pretty much a transcription of the taped interviews that he made with the guy.  The art was good.  I guess I also finished the second book in the Maus series, by Art Speiglman.  I don't know how to enjoy that one.  It's a holocaust survivor narration, a biography of the author's father.  It's pretty depressing, but good.  I also read most of the Wheel of Time prequel, New Spring, by Robert Jordan.  It's more of the same from Robert Jordan.  Not his best, but far from his worst so far.  I'll probably finish it tomorrow.

Also I watched the complete run (6 episodes) of a British comedy series called Hippies, starring Simon Pegg, and a one season American series called The Black Donnellys.  Hippies was funny, but the Black Donnellys wasn't great, which was why it only lasted a season, and got pulled without a resolution to all the story lines.  Oh well.

So, that's been my vacation.

However, Wednesday afternoon I did take this bike ride.  I went as far as I could up City Creek Canyon, until I ran into the snow a little way above the water station.  It was pretty, but not as nice as when I went up there last fall.  I liked it better then.

Maybe I'll go for another bike ride today.