The Obblogatory Life

Studies in the Capital of Golf: I never did play

Sep 1 at 3:03pm by ObverseView

I went to school in St. Andrews in Scotland. I majored in Greek of the Classical kind, and while it is true that I wasn’t the most hardworking of the students in class, I learned a profound amount from my experience there.

St. Andrews was famous as the former capital of Scotland for a number of things: oldest university in Scotland, RAF Leuchars nearby, but wherever you went in St. Andrews, you were never far away from its number one export: golf.

There is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the British Open, and at least four more 18 hole golf courses in the town of little more than 14,000 inhabitants and 8,000 students (estimates).

Unfortunately, while I did indulge in a number of the wonderful student activities, including Raisin Monday, pier walks (now not possible), *ahem*, I never did manage to pick up any Nike golf clubs or any other kind of golf club! I will never know why.

It’s not that I didn’t try other sports: aerobics, hill walking, cycling, and so on. It just never appealed to me. Kind of like putting me in front of a pile of delicious food then telling me I have to eat it. I lose my appetite quickly.

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Quotation: Herbert Marcuse

Aug 29 at 3:03pm by ObverseView

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The Future is Yours: Or is it?

Aug 26 at 11:11pm by ObverseView

We were chatting about Post it Notes. That was the reading today. I must confess it was, for the kids in the class, to discuss the importance of problems in the creation and identification of opportunities.

But first the videos:

… there are loads more at Youtube!

The story itself is worth reading but it does identify how problems give rise to solutions and opportunities. That problems themselves need not insoluble at all.

For those who are deciding whether to go to College or pursue Online Schooling instead, this matters because the kinds of problems we face in society today: debt, environment, pace of change, … are all things that may themselves present huge opportunities for our future generations to find fulfilling, profitable and beneficial types of work.

For example, solving one of today’s: CO2. This may involve a range or technologies and ideas that encapsulate energy creation, distribution, storage; but will also include reclamation work, carbon sequestration, and environmental clean up. All of these will require the ingenuity of academic and practical science before we can consider them solved.

Let’s remember, though: in the problems are the seeds of our opportunities, if we are only brave enough to open our eyes!

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AN Whitehead: Process Thought’s Challenge for Education and Life

Aug 23 at 3:03pm by ObverseView

Process Thought's Challenge for Education and Life

Change, progress, and stability, who does not support this unlikely triumvirate? The founder of process philosophy Alfred North Whitehead believes in all three. For him, the art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.

Whitehead's work, The Aims of Education, starts with its recipients. The students are alive, and the purpose of education is to stimulate and guide their self-development. It follows as a corollary from this premise that the teachers also should be alive with living thoughts. (v) His whole book is a protest against dead knowledge, that is to say, against inert ideas. (more)

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Pimples in London: Unglamorous

Jul 20 at 5:05am by ObverseView

Walking around London these past few days has made me self-conscious. Parts of London have very glamorous people, especially around my hotel area.

So with spots on my face (I have some pimples), I’m feeling a little like Shrek might have done. I might pop into Boots tomorrow morning to buy some simple acne creams or even a light topical anti-biotic to reduce the swellings.

You’d think at my mature age I’d be over pimples, but I’m not.

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Myths about Acne: Chocolate is bad for your skin!

Jul 17 at 1:01am by ObverseView

I remember when I was young that I was always told eating too much chocolate was bad for me and my skin! What a pity … I loved chocolate very much when I was young… I do know that the sugar was indeed not so good for my teeth, but the chocolate it seems to have turned into a health food, if you believe the hype.

If you want to learn more and you’re worried about eating too much chocolate for your skin’s sake, don’t believe the myth about chocolate! Otherwise, you’ll just make yourself feel even worse with guilt.

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A library for ESL learners

Jul 16 at 12:12am by ObverseView

For the school library, we started collecting books when we first opened. Though it took many years, we built up our collection to about 500 books for children to read.

That was when we realized that if we wanted to grow bigger, we needed a barcode scanner to automate the entry of our books into the database.

That’s when the acquisition of books took off really. We worked hard to acquire both new and good quality used books from as many sources as we could find. Truthfully, we couldn’t have done it otherwise.

The new book dealers simply didn’t have the depth of stock to furnish our library, nor did they have a lot of classic books, while the 2nd hand sellers just didn’t have enough good quality books. Somehow, though, we built up our collection to about 1000 books for students.

I’m hoping that we could have about 5000 books or so in our collection, but it’s difficult to see how we could really develop that number of books without trying to monetize our resources. Ideas are lacking at this point!

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Knowledge vs. Skills Tests: Which kind are you taking?

Jul 13 at 11:11pm by ObverseView

The exam preparation industry is huge business: You can take courses in almost every conceivable major testing system there is to get the place you want in University: Whether it’s undergrad (SATs), postgrad (for example, gmat prep), foreign study (IELTS/TOEFL), or doctoral work. Whatever you need, these days you’ll find someone who’s helping you to pass the exam.

Of course, as a course prep teacher, I have to say that such tests are often taken by students without sufficient background in the knowledge sets they are asked to be tested on. For example, I have had IELTS students approach the IELTS test not recognizing that it is a proficiency test rather than a discrete knowledge test, thereby making it impossible to improve fast without doing some serious amounts of practice.

So before you decide to take a test, determine its nature, its purpose and the kind of knowledge or skill set you’re being tested on. Because you may get disappointing results, if you don’t.

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Vitamins for the elderly, the kids, and everyone else, too!

Jun 11 at 11:11pm by ObverseView

Some websites recommend that expectant mothers buy prenatal vitamins… is this a wise move? Especially given the toxicity concerns that some overdoses of vitamins can cause in healthy adults.

Unless you are advised by a doctor, I’d urge caution because of the possible side-effects of overdoses of certain vitamins on the young fetus. Of course, malnutrition has its own issues, and should be addressed separately.

One sobering thought: "foods rarely deliver dangerous levels of water-soluble vitamins." So eating more apples or bananas won’t expose you to too many unnecessary risks of hypervitaminosis.

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Panda Eyes Or Polar Bear Eyes?

Jun 9 at 11:11pm by ObverseView

If you wear sunglasses like I do in the summer, it’s possible you will have (not panda bear eyes from the dark circles but) polar bear eyes. Large white circles under your glasses left by the sunscreen that hasn’t given you a nice even tan!

I wonder what eye cream fixes polar bear eyes on a tanned face! Of course, with both trends still strong: one group of tan lovers will fret about this; while the other group of sun-screamers will worry about all the bad things the sun can do to our skin! Which side will you stand on?

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