Untitled

[ohdwg]

Enjoying the Process (most definitely not an annual report)

One of the reasons that I’ve been a bit quiet here lately is that I had some grand idea forming in my head that I would start a tradition of an annual report on my reboot process by going back and pulling up my initial objectives and examining progress on each one(*).  Well, not only did that stop me cold in my tracks, but I suspect that it would have been about as interesting to read as the…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

The Intersection of Dancing and Programming

The Intersection of Dancing and Programming

Venn diagrams are such fun tools.  I wrote a post a while back about the career planning Venn diagram that I ran across.

And that is still what’s driving me.  Where to find that intersection between Enjoyment, Skill Set, and a Paycheck.

So let’s talk about another Venn diagram (I promise I’ll loop back around to careers in a moment).  Two of the things that I enjoy most are programming and…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

The "Top 10" Reasons I Enjoyed Teaching

Yesterday was the last day of school. I’ve been volunteer teaching Introduction to Computer Science to high school students at a (semi) local school. (The first post about that is here and the full thread is here).

At some point once things have settled down I may attempt to write a balanced post on the pro’s and con’s of this experience. As my first attempt at classroom teaching and my first…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

What I did on my Summer Vacation (o lo que hice en mis vacaciones de verano)

What I did on my Summer Vacation (o lo que hice en mis vacaciones de verano)

As promised, here is a quick trip report on the week Señora Reboot and I spent in La Paz on a misison to improve our Spanish.

First off, this was a really great experience.  It would never occurred to me on my own to take a week to try to pop my Spanish at this point in my studies, but it was definitely a lot of fun and I made progress in ways that I have not been able to manage at home.  So…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

Drowning in Spanish

Señora reboot and I just returned from La Paz, where we spent a week studying Spanish in an immersion environment.  It was a really incredible experience and I intend to write a post about it in more detail sometime in the near future.  But I seem to be blocking on that for now, so here’s a quick juxtaposition of one of my biggest meta-learnings from that trip and something that popped up in yoga…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

Reconcilable Differences: Context Matters (with a sprinkling of Language is Hard)

One of the things that started me thinking along the lines of “Reconcilable Differences” was a pretty firm case of “Context Matters” with a sprinkling of “Language is Hard”. I was working on Triangle Pose(Trikanasana) in yoga and the teacher kept telling me to isolate my upper body. Well in the competition dancing that I did as a youngster, the phrase “upper body isolation” was almost always used…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

Reconcilable Differences: Bodies are Different

Reconcilable Differences: Bodies are Different

Note: If you just stumbled upon this post, it’s part of a loose series. There is no need to read the whole thing, but you might want to scan this post for context.

One of the things that I value most about teachers of physical skills is where they are able to translate their knowledge to the context of my body. I’m a middle aged man who did nothing at all resembling physical activity from for my…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

Reconcilable Differences: The Student Forgets (or doesn't hear)

I am going to start my first content post of the “Reconcilable Differences” series that is only marginally fits and adds a whole new category to my original taxonomy. But it so top of mind right now that I can’t resist.

Yesterday I was working with a student one on one. I was trying to get him to realize that in order to change the direction of a counter variable’s movement within a loop he could…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

Taxonomy of Reconcilable Differences (Introduction)

http://wp.me/p2GWRC-4W

I’m going to try something a bit different.  I started a “Reconcilable Differences” blog in my usual style.  Which I would describe as a (hopefully) humorous observation about something related to learning, often inspired by something that happened in one context that shook something loose that I’ve been picking at in a different context.  Since I am doing a decent amount of breadth right now I…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

The Focus/Awareness Quandary (In Yoga, Programming, and Life)

I’m a bit worried that I think too much in terms of dichotomies, dilemmas, quandaries and paradoxes (especially because I could only spell one of those words without the help of the spell checker).  But this one hit me over the head from a couple of different directions in yoga class this morning, so what the heck.

First the rant version:  I got to class this morning and put my mat in the back…

View On WordPress

[ohdwg]

Yoga, Binary Numbers and Introversion

One of my favorite yoga teachers opened class the other day with an exercise that I had never seen done before although I think it’s more common in ‘softer’ yoga practices.  She asked everyone to turn to a neighbor and share a way that they use their yoga practice outside of class.  Well, since I’m an off the charts introvert (I am going to get around to writing that post one of these days), I…

View On WordPress