WTF-Beta

I don't see it to the extent that "students can't read." But I also rarely teach lower level classes, and the one 200-level class I teach is specialized enough that it usually enrolls students with a specific interest in the subject matter. I think in upper level classes, a lot of weeding out has happened and also when teaching majors, there's a different level of engagement from the students.

And most of my grad students received their BAs in Japan, so totally different kind of preparation.

So on the one hand, I don't experience this to the degree that other faculty do.

On the other hand, I can tell that students increasingly seem less academically prepared than in pre-pandemic, and I do feel that the negative influence of AI is starting to creep in.

@AndyD Interesting! That looks somewhat similar.

The cool thing about the kendama is that one goal is to rotate around the device, so that each time, you catch the ball with a different part of it (big cup, small cup, bottom cup, spike).

I'm really good a rotating between big cup and bottom cup, but less so at going back and forth between all four.

Here are some photos.

@AndyD those are very pretty!

I once decided that I wanted to learn how to juggle, and Mr SK and I actually took a juggling class together. That was fun, but I never really got consistently good at juggling three, whereas for Mr SK is easy as pie. Ah well. Maybe I’ll pick it up and give it again some day.

Do you know what a Kendama is? We can both do that, although he’s better than I am.

@Mary-Anna said:

Oh, and the choir rehearses at a church right across the street from my house. I can walk out my front door five minutes before rehearsal and be there with time to spare.

That's great!!

@RealPlayer said:

I wonder if a Bluetooth signal is what tells a thief there’s a device inside.

I never thought of that, but it seems possible. Probably need to completely power things down as well....

@Mary-Anna said:

It's really extraordinary to hold something made by someone who's been gone so long and think of them cutting the fabric, stitching it together, and doing all the creative work it takes to complete a big project.

Yes it certainly is!

@Bernard said:
crumhorn

I had to google that!

@Mark wow!!!

@Mary-Anna beautiful!

I have an afghan my grandma made and one made by a great aunt, and my mother has a few more of her aunts.

I love them all!!

@mary-anna ️️️

Of course me with piano. But also my mother (age 82). She moved here last June and has recently joined a choir. She loves it. Sometimes I help her prep, she comes to my house and we sit at the piano so I can play her notes, that kind of thing. It’s really nice

It also raises the question: What other Bluetooth devices open users to the same attacks?

Yeah, like my bluetooth foot pedal that I use to turn pages on my iPad while playing piano!

@AndyD said:.
there's a lot of pleasure to be had wheeling through shortwave static to find some remote radio station.

Radio! Radio (back in the day) was magical wasn’t it. I still listen to Internet radio (if that’s even what it’s called anymore, Pandora, Spotify). But it’s not the same. For one thing, there’s no DJ and you can skip a song if you don’t like it.

I can remember listening to the radio in the car with my mom… or going to stay at my grandma’s house when I was in JH and HS, I slept in a room on the second floor and she had a radio in there. At night, I would listen to different stations. Because it was a completely different state, I always had to search around on the dial before I found a station I liked, and even then it seemed like the music and the person talking were quite different from home. It was both a little bit exciting and a little bit disconcerting.

Sorry @steve-miller this thread somehow keeps making me feel very nostalgic!

@AdagioM said:
I sold my digital piano several years ago. Roland FP something or other. I like the way sound runs through me from my acoustic piano way better.

Same!

When we moved from Japan back to the U.S., for a long time (7 years?) a digital was all I had (apartment life). After I finished grad school, I kept the digital even though I had two different uprights (not at the same time), both were kind of crummy, but I always played the acoustic pianos, even though they were not the greatest instruments.

But when I bought my grand, I finally sold the digital. I knew I would never play it.

By the way, i I checked the photos I have but I couldn’t find a photo of my grandma’s basement kitchen. I’m going to ask my aunt. If nothing else I’d like to confirm my memory of it.

@AndyD said:
You don't have to like it, just play it better than Ax & Jon

Not likely!!

@Bernard that’s lovely, thank you for posting it!

@CHAS said:
I don't like it very much. Will see.

The funny thing is, a lot of pianists at PT don’t rally like it either. I’m kind of blah about it myself

But nevertheless I plan to polish it (mostly) and upload a recording next month.

As for hobbies, y’all know mine, piano piano piano. ️️

@Mary-Anna said:
"I'd really like a house that has more bathrooms than kitchens." I could see her point.

"overflow" cooking.

I love this expression! That’s basically my grandma. She cooked for family. She cooked for her church. She always made enough to feed an army.

My aunt made a photo/recipe book and I can’t use most of the recipes because it makes enough for 200 people and I don’t know how to scale! . There are these handwritten recipes that call for 10 eggs… (like, you know where a normal person would use two eggs to make something that serves five or six people)

@wtg now I am wondering about my memory of the space … I was much smaller then.

I wonder if there photos somewhere.

Back then, you took photos of people in their Sunday best in the front room, not in their aprons in the basement!

@Steve-Miller When I was a kid my Italian grandma has a kitchen in her basement (in addition to the main kitchen). She had these huge tables down there, we used all the surfaces when it was time to make pasta or bread. Whenever I was there, I "helped" but most certainly not in any way that was useful!

Anyway, I always associate a second kitchen with that.