No secrets 1999

Well, I have houseguests. Since the servers at school will be down tomorrow, I put the pages for the class I'm teaching up here on my site. Now my students will be visiting my personal site. It's kinda like having your parents over.

Note to myself:
try to refrain from talking about politics, sex and booze for a few days. Oh, and don't be a pottymouth.

Note to my students:
I moved the javascript examples up here as well

[***Question as of September 2003: Does that .../archive/240/ content still exist at all?***]

F/X Reunion and finishing the degree 1998

Worked a short day (5 hours) and then jumped through my last academic bureacratic hoop (at least as a student, I'm sure they'll have a new set for teachers). I turned in the final final final binding version of my project report and I am now officially done with my masters degree. They still have to send me a little piece of paper, but I am now Dinah P. Sanders, M.L.I.S.

Had dinner at Fil's house along with Deb, Chris & Tori and we planned F/X: the Reunion. If you were a member of the big happy family of clubgoers and employees, send your name, email and snailmail addresses to [filco.com] and get on the list for an invitation. Better dig out that old black card. You've got until February to decide what to wear. (I'll be doing the website soon - watch this space).

My ISP is misbehaving badly, if you don't hear from me except from work, that's why. Grrr.

Compromises 1998

Got email today from number one on my list of people I lost touch with who I'd love to connect with again. :)
Hi, Elf! Missed you.

Wound up working an extra hour. And missing the bus. *sigh* Still only got home 40 minutes later than I would have if I had a working car, but it got me thinking, sitting in chilly suburbia, about what I could do with those 40 minutes. I could work them, assuming I have a client to bill them to which I currently do, and make enough to make a car payment. And I could stop at the store with them now and then to get the ingredients with which I could spend that time making myself a lunch instead of buying it. Or I could spend them working on Inkspot which might make me some money if I invested more time in it. So, since I do not live or work in a true urban area with flexible public transit, since it's getting cold, since my knee hurts a bit from all this walking, since I can work out a way to afford it, I am abandoning the moral high ground and reconsidering internal combustion. Sorry, Peter. How about if you teach me to ride a bike again next spring when, I hope, my knee can handle it?

Need to rest my arm before typing more, but watch this space for a revised version of my thesis with extra citations to back up my wild claim that the web needs design documentation.

...Hot Bath Interlude...

Followed by a whole bunch of writin' and citin' leading to the revised final draft of my report and bibliography

Bibliography in Word [links removed when post migrated into Typepad in 2004]
also text
also rich text format

Report in Word
also text
also rich text format

I am really tired now. The alarm is going off in 6 hours. I hope that is enough to get me through another long day...

Final Draft 1998

[Used to have links to my thesis final draft document in 3 formats here.]

Sent the report to my advisors. Thanks again everyone.

Good Indian food with good friends and a soak in a hot tub and fun conversation. Feeling loads better thanks to Eric, Robert & Seth.
:)

I think Dreamweaver plays with your column widths. Grrrr. I swear all these pages were supposed to be a maximum width of 600 pixels. I just changed this one to 620. It better stick...

freewriting 1983

    I feel good about the amount of work I am doing. I am getting A's in my classes. I am learning to drive. I am studying for the Achievement tests. I am saving money for the trip. I am doing a really good job.

Freewrite topic

    "Popularity is based on how closely individuals conform"

    I don't agree with that statement. If a person conforms completely they become virtually invisible. Popular people provoke good reactions in others. The conformist is nothing but ordinary and so induces no reaction. True, the more you conform, the more groups will indure [sic] your presence, but you won't be adding anything to the group.

What is poetry? 1983

- Poetry - the embodiment of beauty, emotion, or "high thought" in Verse (esp. a rhythmical composition intended to be more "powerful" than prose)

- Verse - a line of poetry, consisting of a certain number of metrical feet, although modern poems may be constructed in free verse.

- Feet - a group of syllables serving as a unit of Meter in verse.

- Meter - rhythm in verse; measured pattern of syllables as in iambic pentameter.

- Iambic (Pentameter) - metrical feet of 2 syllables, the 1st unaccented + the other accented (occuring 5 times in each line) -> "to strive, to seek, to find, and not, to yield." [with symbols over to mark accent]

- Prose - the ordinary form of written or spoken language without rhyme or meter.

----

- Metaphor - figure of speech in which a word is used (denoting a certain subject or idea) in place of another to suggest a likeness between them - ("I feel shipwrecked")

Major effects on my life 1983

Meeting and knowing Jack Mingo had a major effect on my life. He helped me to see a lot of the games I was playing that were keeping me from being how I wanted to be. I learned a lot from Jack and I am very grateful to him for the changes he helped me make.

    An event that had a major effect? Hmmm. The invention of printing. So many things in my life are heavily influenced by books that I am sure I would be a very different person had they not been made. I love books.

Physical Fear 1983

I don't remember exactly the last time I was physically afraid, but I do remember one particular incident that was very frightening. I was in a canoe accident. The canoe I was in the middle of wrapped itself around a log in the river. Fortunately, none of the 3 of us was trapped between the canoe and the log. We all held on to the canoe in the cold water. I was in the water up to my neck and the current was like something alive trying to drag me away from the canoe. I was terrified; all I could do was hang on to that canoe. My friends pulled me halfway out of the water, but, since I was wearing shorts and my legs were in the water, I was still losing body heat. We caught a garbage bag we had been using in the canoe and I used it to insulate my legs. We sat on that log for an hour while the other members of our group figured out how to rescue us. We dealt with our fear by making jokes and swearing at just about everything within range, especially the canoe. The canoe was bent into a U- shape around the log so we have since referred to the disaster as "the Taco incident".

    I am often afraid in a relationship that it is not going to work out. I am afraid that for some reason we will break up. This fear I can usually overcome because I know I will survive. The fear of death is much, much worse.

Resolutions 1983

I didn't make a resolution for New Year's last year or for this year. I have made resolutions to myself and kept them. Most of the standards I have I stick to. I don't comprimise myself. I have been making resolutions about school. I will graduate. I will go to Santa Cruz next year (even if I have to wait until spring.) [Interesting to see that my resistance to putting the punctuation outside the parenthesis goes back at least this far.]

    The day after graduation I will be on my way to Anchorage and from there on to England. I will probably be gone for 3 or 4 weeks. When I come back it will be my 18th birthday. I will leave home for a day or two and go somewhere with [older guy] that week. I will have, from that point, about 2 months to pack for college. If all goes as I hope I will be at UCSC in the fall.

freewriting 1982

Oh I'm sick of this! I think once he killed Duncan his course was set, he would never be reconciled with his conscience.

F.W. 1982

(2) Macbeth (and all Shakespeare, really) needs to be spoken and spoken correctly. There is a lyricism to it that needs to be heard. It must be acted, otherwise it has none of its power. "The play's the thing"; it's not just the way it's told, it's the story. It needs the depth and fullness actors can create with it.

    I think there are advantages and disadvantages to going through it line by line. You understand and know it better, but you don't feel it. I want to see it again after we are through with it. I think I will see even more than I saw before.

----------------

change of mood, subject, Emphasis, etc.

    I want to go do something with [older guy] on Friday or Saturday. Movies? Walk? Hmmm. Walk up hill? Walk to boat? Eat out?

---------------

Dance? {Test thur. 16 Macbeth}

freewriting 1982

Ah me, oh my. [Older guy]. John. Nick. And gitface isn't here today, how nice.

    Why are the clocks wrong? I suppose I am a flirt, but I hope I'm not a tease. I don't see how I could be. I either don't love any of them (well, really either of them) or I love them all. Maybe Richard was right. [Older guy] can seem so cold, but I guess it's the same with John. I miss [former long-distance boyfriend from SoCal]'s furry face when I kiss, damn those shavers.

[more about boys] 1982

Things are strange this week. I'm going out Sunday with [older guy] (oh joy oh rapture unforeseen) Nick wants to know what kind of candy I like. John wrote a note on my test. Greg is sick, but he would have gone. What fun! Nathan's a git, but nothing's perfect. Not much to do this weekend; No anatomy, no french, some English (actually a lot) probably no gov't, and pies for probs.

    I like to go to the exploratorium. (My computer training shows through, I have a hard time writing 'go to' without writing 'goto')

    Oh blessed friday. What nonsense.

Logic by T-shirts

"If you ain't a cowboy, you ain't shit" therefore cowboys are shit. Somehow I don't think thats what the person had in mind.

Them Guys

Too many pretties
to chose my favorite,
and what if they're ugly inside?

THAT Guy

He may be a good boy
but he tries to get revenge
on me for being loved.
Oh hateful creature,
I will not accept
I will not feel guilty.
What you fail to understand
you cannot punish me for.
Don't even try, I won't listen
I don't want to hear
you will deny it all
because you still don't understand.

presentations on Macbeth 1982

[I'll be on] Mon 13th

1 be ready by day assigned

2 Don't be absent your day

3 be prepared

4 notes are o.k. (extra-credit for lines memorized)

5 between 7 and 17 minutes

6 He [teacher Mr. Johnson] won't be very helpful

7 read up to my point in play

8 grades will not be given on day of report

Aspects of report

1 brief intro or summary of events + characters

2 read or recite passage

3 Describe how it contributes to the overall play {maybe first?}

4 Explain difficult words or metaphors and how they contribute to your passage

5 Themes or symbols that recur throughout play present in your passage.

6 stand and answer questions

Macbeth 1982

Think about what they're thinking

Act 5 Scene 5 beginning of scene    I say a moving grove [My recollection is that when it was announced by Mr. Johnson that we would each read & discuss a scene, my arm hit the air as fast as could be. I'd recently watched an acting program with Ian McKellen in which that very scene was performed and I LOVED (and still love) it.]

Act 5 Scene 5

Macbeth: Hang out our banners on the outward walls

The cry is still "they come!" our castle's strength

will laugh a siege to score; here let them lie {sleep theme}

Till famine and the ague eat them up.

Were they not forced with those that should be ours {reinforced with those who have deserted}

We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,

And beat them backward home. {a cry of women within

What is that noise?

Seyton: It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Macbeth: I have almost forgot the taste of fears.

The time has been, my senses would have cooled

To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair {the hair on my scalp}

Would at dismal treatise {gloomy story} rouse and stir

As life were in 't. I have supped full with horrors;

Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,

Cannot once start me. {re-enter Seyton

Wherefore was that cry?

Seyton: The queen, my lord, is dead.

Macbeth: She should have died hereafter; {book says: she was bound to die sometime} {time theme}

There would have been a time {theme} for such a word

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow {time theme}

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day {theme}

To the last syllable of recorded time {theme}

And all our yesterdays {theme} have lighted {theme} fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! {theme}

Life's but a walking shadow, {light dark theme} a poor player

That struts and frets his hour {theme} upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing. {enter messenger

Though comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

Messenger: Gracious my lord,

I should report that which I say I saw,

But I know not how to do it.

Macbeth: Well, say, sir.

Messenger: As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I looked toward Birnam, and anon, methought,

The wood began to move.

Macbeth: Liar and slave!

Messenger: Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so.

Within this three mile may you see it coming;

I say, a moving grove.

Act IV Scene 1 3rd app. "Macbeth shall never vanquished be until, Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill, shall come against him."

Themes

(Blood), Time, sleep, light/dark, (Night), fire

freewriting 1982

Blah Blah blah, bullshit, hedge, fill, play for time, lie, write garbage.

[angst again] 1982

I'm depressed today. I want to go out with somebody; but I'm worried. If I ask them will they shy off. I don't know what to do.

Greg: It might change a good friendship into something bad.

John: Might get scared off.

Nick: "    +

[older guy]: Might want one thing only.

[handwriting gets VERY bad here on:]
My glasses cost too much money and they don't even fit. I've probably ruined them already!

Freewriting 1982

    One nice thing about a school as big as this is that it is possible to avoid people. N. is just repulsive to me now. I don't want to have any contact with him at all. Maybe that seems really cold, but he just dumps on me too much. I want to kick him.

    John is still attractive. I enjoy his company, but I have a hard time with his [tobacco] chewing, etc. (especially the etc.) Greg is fun to flirt with, but I think things will work out better if we just keep it at flirting. N. is ugly. I don't even want to look at him. [older guy (by a few years) met through Ren Faire crowd]. Why would Roderic tell me to watch out for guys like him? Mayhaps I shall ask [older guy]. I think I'll try to tame [older guy]. He pushes but he does check. I will have to be very careful. Maybe I'll even talk to Roderic about it. [Older guy] is very pretty. Why does it bother me that John parties and not that [older guy] does? Is [older guy] any more trustworthy?

Freewriting II 1982

I am on bart, so it's 'character sketch by description' time.

a. Woman; long blondy-brown hair, quite straight; she has frown lines on her forehead and a tight angry face; she is looking out the window when she isn't looking shiftily around the car.

b. Boy; straight blond hair; blue, heavy coat with hood; he has rollerskates with him; he looking out the window; alert, reasonably intelligent looking.

c. 'a' left. 'c' took her seat in the corner. She (woman) is staring at the back of 'b''s head. This can get boring, no wonder Harriet the Spy didn't write volumes.

Freewriting for 11/9 done 11/13 1982

I would like to teach a course on role-playing games. I have taught this course twice already and I have always found it enjoyable despite it being a lot of work. I have dealt with Tunnels and Trolls, Dungeons and Dragons, and Bunnies and Burrows. I would like to do more research into these 3 and perhaps add one or two more. I could spend the first week talking about my experiences with role-playing and working with the students to decide what we want to do with this class. For the next 5 or 6 weeks we could spend one week on each game, discussing various aspects of it in relation to the player, the dungeonmaster and the purchaser. The last 2 or 3 weeks the students would give their presentations. I would require each student to give an oral presentation and a demonstration of a role-playing game. More credit would be given if they presented a game not covered by me in the course. The objective of the class would be to increase players' knowledge of gaming and role-playing and to help them find the right game (or games) for them. I would enjoy having teachers as members of the class. I think they would find it to be a harder and more serious class than they expected.

English class 1982

Freewriting subject: "Write about some interesting work you are doing in another class. (ideas: art, history, or science projects, shop...) If you can't think of anything interesting, then write about a project that you wish you were working on. Do you think your teacher would considers the idea? Write a course proposal (including objectives) for the project."

---

notes

* Free will v.s. determinism - d: "a doctrine that acts of the will, natural events, and such, are determined by preceding causes or Fate" F.w. "the power to choose"

* Hedonism v.s. acceticism - h "the doctrine that pleasure is the chief good in life." a: "practicing self-denial (for religious reasons, esp.) or spiritual discipline."

*Romanticism v.s. stoicism - R. "emphasis on the imagination and emotions, the self, and 'nature' -- esp. the literary movement in 19th century England" s. "denying passion, showing indifference to pain, esp. after Zeno (308 B.C. Athens)"

freewriting 1982

    Time is flying by, how can it be Friday already. Test tomorrow, S.A.T. Horrors. After the test I will work at the Synergy sale. I guess I'll call Barbara tomorrow night. Eyedoctor monday morning, Library exam in the afternoon. Barbara's party the 13th, go to harvest fest. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Dentist January 21st. I think I will stay here with Wendy. No money though, hmmm, better go home for dinner. I'll stay here, study through 6th period, work with Wendy 'til 4:30 or 5, go home, come back around 5:30 or 6 work for 2 more hours go to the game, walk home, go to sleep, get up at 7, go to acalanes, take S.A.T., go to synergy, work, go home, slow down.

Notes Shakespeare 1982

Born 1564, Died 1616, Dad John - a glover, Married when 18, Anne Hathaway 26, 1st child 1583, twins 1585, between 1582-1600 no record of him, began to emerge as a playwright end of 1600's made money, died rich, invested in theatres, Part owner of Globe theatre, retired 1610, performance before Liz [Elizabeth I], used Hollinshed, Banquo + King James,

Tragedy unmarked by "pleasurable" language; comedy often in the vernacular.

37 plays    154 sonnets    4 long poems
acredited to Shakespeare

notes 1982

Allusion - a reference to something in history or previous literature.

Satire - a literary attempt to discredit vice or folly.

Sarcasm - a sharp, cutting utterance (perhaps ironical) but designed to give pain.

Irony - that which means the contrary of what is expressed; a contradiction of expectations.

Tragedy/Comedy ... tragedy in a dramatic sense is that which is generally sad and typically ends in death. Still there is often some gain in awareness near the end. The chief characters are noble, yet not perfect. It is the one flaw in the protagonist's character or judgement that leads to his fall.

    Comedy stresses human folly + weakness. The comedy is a social play, whereas tragedy tends to isolate the "Hero". Thus tragedies are often named after the protaganist (Hamlet, Macbeth) The comedy is less plausible; it is marked by greater use of disguises + coincidence. It usually ends in marriage.