4/3/2015 Coursera and the poem of the day

Aleathia says:

I was looking through apps the other day to see if there were something other than games to download.  I spend a fair amount of mindless time playing games when I could be filling my brain with something more enriching.  Hell, I could be reading a book or sewing or making art.  It is all about choices and I have been going with the flow all winter.  I need to break out.

I found an app called Coursera.  It is also available online and it is a place to take online courses for FREE from top notch collages like Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Duke, The University of Edinburgh etc.  It goes on and on.  If you want to learn for learning sake it is a wonderful opportunity.  For a small fee you can also purchase a verified certification of completion of the course from that particular college or institution.  At this point in my life I don't feel like I need the slip of paper, but I do need a place to feed my curiosity.

I can't wait to dig into a class!


and a poem with the prompt "machine":

Magnitude of Force

Somewhere in the dream
I drove half a car, the seat
pure Samsonite with tiny wheels
carrying the weight, rotating
like demons after souls
as I look out the window
of a deconstructed door.

I escaped work
in the middle
of my shift
     to get a drink,
     to free my mind,
     to stop myself
from burning
the eyes out
of my patients,
though secretly
I wanted to smoke
one blazing death stick
after another.

I park my machine
in the lot, dismount
the bionic suitcase
and lock the door
which feels pointless
and rote—something of times
passed as it is exposed
to the air like the rest of us,
and walk to the Chinese
grocery dreaming of menthols
and sesame candy.

The lights flicker out
as I touch the handle,
my heart sinking into
the deserted parking lot
with the last buzz of neon
extinguishing the night.
In the new silence, I hear
breathing not my own,
and turn to see him
standing beside me.

He lets out a sigh,
but does not say
a word as the empty,
crumpled cigarette pack
falls to the wet pavement
making our desires both
friend and enemy.

He leaves me there alone
fighting with reason
and responsibility,
neither of which are winning
as they have always done in the past,
making them whimper as I drive
until gravity won’t
         have
         me
         any
         longer.

Aleathia Drehmer 2015

April 3, 2015

Lit Bits-2/18/2015 Ian Leslie is "Curious"

Aleathia says:

So....no I am not finished with "All The King's Men", but I am getting there.  I have maybe 50 more pages to go.  It is a great book so I am not so sure why it is taking me so damn long to get through it. It might have something to do with 8,000 stitches of my cross stitch project, or maybe my binge watching of Helix or Fringe or 12 Monkeys....maybe.

I have found in my advancing years that fiction is harder to read.  It scares me that I might be losing my sense of literary adventure for more stodgy things like non-fiction...gasp!  When I was younger you couldn't get me to crack a non-fiction book unless it was for homework or astrology.  It just didn't happen.  Michael was the opposite.  He spent most of his life reading non-fiction and is now swimming in the great make believe sea of words known as the novel.  Life is spectacular that way.

In addition to reading "All The King's Men" and "The Buddhist's Handbook", I am also teaching myself Basic Statistics from an online text that is 684 pages long.  Let's hope I finish a few things.

On a trip to the library this week to return some items, I found Ian Leslie's book "Curious" on a stand on the shelf.  I was curious about "Curious".  I liked the owl and his quizzical look.

I love choosing books by their covers.  It lets art lead art. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.  I have made it through a lengthy introduction and the first 15 pages and I am hooked.  "Curious" is a book that pulls apart the types and phases of curiosity.  It explains why it is important for learning more than anything else, and why today's high paced, very connected society is less curious than generations before.

It was interesting to think about how there was a great boom in technology and intelligence once the printing press was invented.  Finally there was a way to spread our individual experiences, experiments, and findings.  The world blossomed and grew.  One would think that in the face of the internet that this would happen again.  We have access to so many remote places in the world.  Ian Leslie states this isn't true.  The internet has spawned a large generation of people with surface curiosity.  These people are not deep thinkers and might not investigate further the new found piece of information or technology.

It talks about how we are stripping away, essentially, the imagination of today's kids by focusing them on only one type of academic path.  Teaching is hyper-focused onto what the kid should become rather than letting the child think and decide for themselves.

I'm not very far into the book yet but I look forward to figuring out how to re-infuse the curiosity back into our world.