Whelp, I cdan now say I passed a course on-line at M.T.T. and am thrilled....

Took the final today, and really had to sweat it out on a couple of the problems to solve.  Gawwd, I hate the charts to fill out per drag and drop.....   Renembering dates is not my storng point.  But concepts and completing floor plans..   a breeze.

So to sum up my experience with the EdX program.  The concept is fantastic, the interactivity is first rate.  

i dumped my two courses at the university of Texas.  The first one was only doing it by rote and was so terrified of the camera, he was distracting...   looked like a deer in the headlights and the content was so superfluous, wasn't learning much I didn't know.  

The second had me stymied for weeks.  I thought it was my fault, till he got to the eras I know about.  First he pissed me off by trashing Freud, then Wittgenstein, and represented theories in such a vague way, I thought...   this stuff is just masturbating your brain, going in circles and never coming to a conclusion about things soague, they are insignificant.  

But when he got to the Soixties, I knew he was a charlatan, and a racist to boot.  He dissed Kennedy, praised McCarthy, and sorta praised Johnson, and then came to the only thing he thought was interesting about the era, and that was the race riots in 1968...  and said of Johnson, 'He'd given them (the african Americans)  everything they wanted, and they rioted.  And went sanctimonious theatrical, and with hands up, said, 'Why?  Why?   Nobody knows.'

And which point I finally exploded and yelled at the screen and shouted, you sanctimonious ASSHOLE!'

Point one..   he's near my age and grew up in Philly, so should know better.  Point two, I had a course in Salzburg just on the year 1969 alone with a socioligist who is world renowned, it was so important, because it nearly came to a world-wide revolution, and there was mcuh more happening, so I was incensed that he would be teaching young people such revisionist and racist drivel.  

So I got hold of myself, and said...  'Ren, think.   You don't want a flame war.'  So I dropped them both.  The people of Texas are not being served well, if those two are typical of what is being taught.

The course at M.I.T. was balsam.  It was fresh, it came from an unexpected viewpoint and gave a historical view of the world around us and how moments and buildings in history have left legacies in society that have echoed down through the centuries to the present time.  

It was demanding, but fascinating, and that professor was so passionate, and was able to pass on his love of the subject and knowledge in such a way that the way you see the world slants in perspective and seems new.  And THAT is the difference between education and 'edumacation', as Atrios an economist calls it.

.

So...  with EdX, it's a case of picking and choosing   The M.I.T. courses are demanding, but if you have a solid background, very valuable.  Forget Texas at Austin.  

At any rate, I passed the final and fucked up one problem because the icons were too small.    You had to drag and drop the tiny pictures on a world map, but even with my reading glasses, three of them were so vague, I couldn't recognise them even using a magnifying glass.    That was the pits...   so I sort of guessed and got it wrong.

There was a final video from the professor this week.  Thanking for everyone's participation.  Twenty four thousand people enrolled in the course and followed it.  Four thousand will get a certificate, as he set the bar high at 80 percent correctness.  I ended up with a 93 percent overall, and 95 per cent on the exams.  

This made me very happy and satisfied.  But more importatntly, I learned a lot and feel enriched by the experience.  He's going part 2 next year on-line, and can't wait to sign up.  

So to reiterate....  one has to choose.  But hey, it's all free.  But one should try to stay away from the ones who waste your time.  Really terrific professors are rare as hen's teeth.  Professor Mark is a gem.

A requium for a good man..

I had just finished the post below, and got bad news.  Or news...  whatever.  The only one of my former bosses whom I truly liked and respected had just died.  And he was younger than I am.   

Seeimingly he'd had something with his gall, maybe stones, then it was acute, then they operated, then he got sepsis, and died,  

He was from Iran.  

I know, I know, there is a mess of stuff in the right wing media nowadays and for a long time now about Iran, none of it good.   But there is a difference when you know someone from that country, and they consider themselves Persians with a long history of which they are very proud.

Mr. N. was very kind to me, which I found odd...  because we came from diametrially opposite cultures.  He had the Tunesian board of tourism people stay with us, and was explicit about wht he wanted in their hotel rooms.  First time West went contra East hey.  He wanted me to put alcoholic beverages in them.  I said, 'sorry, I can't do that.'  #'And we had this Ausrian guy in the lobby pering up his ears.  

Mr. N. said, listen, there are 55 mph signs on the highway, but people still go faster.  

(His references always made me nearl laugh outright)

When Peter messed up and I left our home, he drove all the way from 'Vienna just to let me know in person that he was supportive, and that if I needed anything, anything, I should just call him, which perplexed me to the max.  

And surely flattered, but, I thought, hey, people of islamic faith aren't like that...   But he definitely was...   He said, I really admire your loylty.'  I thought he meant to the company, but he repeated it with emphasis, and I knew he meant mine to Peter's and it blew my mind.

I know that he was very kind.  And that he lvoed his family above everything on earth.  And I know that he had it bad with his partners, because they treated him with less than the respect he deserved.  So it doesn't surprise me that they galled him to death..,s  so to speak.   

He was very small in stature.  Such tiny feet.  Delicate in frame, and somewhere along the line, had had is eyebrows singed off.  they were just darker red lines above his eyes, which was a bit distracting.

I assume he was Sunni in his religious faith, although he never talked about beliefs.  I recently learned the difference in my M.I.T. course about that.  If so, their beliefs come parallel to what real christians believe.   I found him to be more 'christian' than a lot of people who run around touting their supposed superiority and proselytise their ignorance and try to force it on others.  He lived his faith, and was very kind.

And tolerant.

He leaves a very beautiful and cultured wife behind, and his beloved children.  His eyes danced when you were in favor, and if something rankeled, they turnd to deadlights.  no light, no sparkle, and you knew you'd overstepped a boundary.  He was an artist in a kitchen.  

Paradise is as persian word, I recently learned.  It means a wonderful most beautiful garden you get to live in in the afterlife.  So I hope that Mr. N finds his paradise.  and may he rest in peace.l  and for the war mongers....  well, they really don't know what they are talking about with all their hate.  

He meant much to me.   



                                   

Things you remember.... regretfully...

Props to Jo for the New orleans mardi gras swag...   It really isn't how I thought I would look at sixty four, but I got this present, you see, and  I COULDN'T resist....  

But have waited since I was eighteen for the day, so why not....    Was never a fan of the beatles, and this song drove me absolutely nuts.       Now it makes a bit of sense.  Have fun.   I  was certain I would never reach this age, so happy birfday to me....   or something.....                                                                  

Odd...  when you're eighteen or nineteen, you think you will live forever.  Then you turn around twice, and hey!  you're sixty-four.

Time can be like that.


I was watching the film Logtime Companion last night on YouTube and thought...  'acturally Ren, you shouldn't BE here.   So for what it's worth:    enjoy.

Adventures in Edumacation... Thanks to Steven Colbert...

Sometime back in August, I was watching Steven Colbert's show on the internets...  and his guest was a professor from Harvard, who said he'd gotten together with a bunch of colleges and universities to offer free courses on-line free of cost to anyone who wanted to siggn up for one.    Well it sounded interesting....

Colbert asked him whiy he would do such a thing when it costs sexty thousand dollars a year to physically study there, and he said, it was a way of giving back to the world.

It sort of got my attention, all right.  So I went to the site he mentioned, and took a look at it, and what was being offered, being retired and all, and mostly bored, thinking it would be a change of pace and challenging to see if I still had a noggin which would absorb 'rarified information'.

The course titles looked a bit daunting.  But I found four that were mostly related to my minor subject at UNH forty !!! years agp. amd sogmed up. Three were topic related, one was in science.  Now, in October, have dropped two of them.  One because it was so advanced, I didn't have the necessary basic knowledge to follow, let alone pass, and one because it was badly organised.

Leaves two.  Of the tow, one is at the university of texas at Austin, and am getting by in, but am not so keen on how it is constructed.  The other is STELLAR.  A History of Global Architecture taught at MIT.  I've already learned more about the world in two weeks than I could have at UNH in tow semesters!  It is time consuming and demanding, but really a complete trip.  And is more about the history of the world and how we hot to where we are now than mechanics, and about the buildings themselves.  I really look forward to each lecture, and this past week, had to get through twelve hours of them, but each was a minor revelation.

I've since picked two others, one of which begins today, and one which begins in November.  So it is keeping me busy.  But that isn't the reason I wanted to bring this subject up.

I know from the news about the insane costs of higher education in the US these days.  So for anyone who has children who are strapped for funds, this site may provide a real answer to those who want to study but can't afford it....  BECAUSE...  if you pass, you can earn a certificate which will be acknowledged as course credits by most colleges and universities.

And some of these aren't what we used to call gut courses  (easy).  They set a high  bar and demand some intensive time on-line.

The set up is very easy to folow, and there is a tutorial course on how to navigate the interfaces.

There are no hidden costs.  

So pass the word along to anyone you know who are so strapped, financially, they can't begin or continue their education.   So far, I've leared that some of the courses are just 'edumacation, but others are of very high quality indeed, and challenging.

Just tell them to go to www.edx.com and sign up, which is very easy, and to check what is being offered.

And a tip:  the people at MIT are just incredibly good.

This was a public service announcement.

And Georgie Got His Gun.... back

George Zimmerman killed a sixteen year old kid who was just going home and agressively confronted him, and possibly, the kid tried to defend himself from the creepy ass cracker who was following him..   

George Zimmerman was acquitted.  And the court gave him his gun back.

His racist lawyer said he needs it because now he is more threatened than ever.   open seson on black kids....  or something...  scary.

Seriously, if that were here?  Well...  I've never wanted a gun, but am fairly sure the laws in ma countra would prohibit me from owning one...  And I'm fine with that.  We don't have crazy ass crackers going after minorities out on the square...  it would be a blood bath.  We did have one liquored up asshole backwater mountain guy stab and egyptian ....   once.   Some time ago.  We don't have a culture of violence...  

But we also don't get easy access to high grade weapons...  like at all....  

But Georgie got his gun back.  Here he'd have undergone strict psychiactric evaluation.  There?  n'yeh...  they just returned it to him.  Some people didn't find it a good decision.  I  wonder why....

LET him go out on a RAM-page,    And then they'll say... 'WHO WOULD HAVE SUSPECTED HE'D DO THAT???#

Yup...  Georgie got his gun back.  God help the people where he lives in the future, and oh!  fun fact.  He had a rap sheet.  His victim didn't.

How incredibly devastating...,.

I just learned of the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, and had been certain, given all I'd seen of it, and the intense discussions concerining it, that there would be at least a manslaughter decision, seeing that the murder 2 bar was set very high given the lack of evidence...   

That he was acquitted left me speechless for two hours.  Literally.  I hadn't written about the case before now, because I thought it would be a slam dunk for the prosecution.  

The verdict only proves that there is no justice for african-americans in 'Murka, and that the stand your ground laws only invite disaster.  

It's disgraceful.  But there's a lot of that going around these days, and not only in 'Murka.   

One of the interesting things about msnbc is that they have really increased their hosts with racially diverse backgrounds, and from them I get to hear points of views that I normally wouldn't not having contact personally, and that enriches the discussions people have.

Like the incredibly handsome and intelligent Touré on The Cycle, who can sound off about what it is like to be a young  black man who just by nature of the color of his skin is perceived as threatening , and he gets very vocal about how frustrating it is, or how he and his peers have to behave in ways that do not get them into life-threatening situations.

B ut it was the women who really drove home the results of what that verdict meant to the african-amercan community...  what to say to their children.  Melissa Harris Perry put it best...  she said they have two choices...  live in a predominantly black community where young people can die on the street, usually killed by other young blacks..  or live in a gated community, and even there...  like Trayvon Martin, they can go out to the local store for a snack, and end up  being profiled and killed without having been up to any sort of mischief.  And her frustration was so palpable...   ending with...  there's no place you can go where your children will be safe.   

That is a really damaging conclusion to have to come to.  But didn't surprise me.  The right will make George Zimmerman a He-ro...  but Trayvon Martin is still dead and the justice system in the US failed their minorities.

Disgrazia!  Disgraceful.

So Where Did YOU vacation????

I lurvs me the US morning shows.  Really.  They are anything but down to earth.  I watch college educated assholes who probably had C or D averages jawing on about affairs of the day, and spouting the worst nonsense I ever heard....   but hey...  they went to college, they're in the club.....

I don't mean to offend anyone who went to college because they theought they would LEARN something...  And possibly did.  There is a college trap...   

Let's think about this.  In my day, registration fees were two thousand dollars aq year.  That hardly covered living on campus so I knew some 'poor' people who commuted, and we arraanged to get to our lectures and seminars, and drive back to work 80 hour weeks to psay off our loans so we could finance the next semester, because......

We earned too much and thuis weren't eligible for a grant or scholarship.  The novel Catch 22 was popular back then.  You should read it.

The most wonderful thing that ever happened was when I got to 
German summer school....  oh msn...  2 semesters in eight weeks.  Wow, I was up for it, paid the fees....  only to find they hadn't included the dorm and cafeteria fees.  I was devasated.  Said...'Sorry, I can't come up with that money...'  And they told me to wait and held a conference, and whaddaya know...  I suddenly had a grant from the German government.  Just like that.

Kids in America are fasced with debts on .loans that are so high, it is unimaginable to me.  I spent nearly eight thousand dollars on mx so-called edumacation....  except the government nixed what I was studying, because, hey...  what Ami wants to learn a foreign language, so they didn't have it as a requisite to get into college.  

We never got taught economics.  That got dumped from the lower school curriculum in the Fifties, man....  they didn't want us to understand how we were possibly getting fucked over.

The year I was paying my tuition...  and workind eighty hours a week and trying to learn something...  I paid nearly rwice what a waieter in Austria made...  before tips...  and they lived ok...

No one ever held out a hand to help except the germans...  which was interesting...

So I get back into the rhythm of the news after the fucking loooongg break for the fourth of July, and everyone on these morning shows, who are so attuned to people...  but are in a sort of club...  went ON about where they vacationed......

OOOO...  the Hamptons...

I was in Nantucket.

I was in Cape Cod, but went to Martha's Vinyard for the first time...

That was stupiid Joe.  

But the most vapid of the morning shows, who thinks she has themes that connect with 'üeople'... No, we weren't in the South of France'-  Sje was om 10 Downing Street sittting in Winston Churchhills's chair.  And vistiting her ambassodor brother in 'Sweden...  who is doing a tremendous job!  Everybody'ss should have a life like hers....  except she is always unhappy and suffers from an inferioritys complex....  and because she grew up with every amenity you could ever wish for...  she thinks she cqan empathise with the plight of the average americaqn and chirp and twet and peep and be 'cool'

Why does a liberal chanel liek msnbc let thexse people on screen where you get so frustrated you want to scratch your eyes out?

And then I think of Peter...  except he spread the joy and the money and took people with us because they liked me or loved me.  So, Mika...  I haven't been anywhere in five years, nor can I afford to....

But I've seen Venice over two decades, and Genua, and Rome, and Athens twice, and the most beautiful island in the world Hydras, and the blue of the Mediterranean, and the excitement of Berlin especially after the Wall fell and that ensuing chaos..I sat in Harry's 'Bar in Venice in the 70's, and watched Truman Capote come in for the nien p.m dining sitting upstairs, with his coterie from New York.  

So they should just go fuck themselves, becauser it downt get you anywhere in life, it was a personal experience and they should get over it.  Just because they could afford it doesn't mean that it was more meaningful...  Some of my cheaöpest trips taught me more about life than anything the fenced off upper class would ever imaginge.  

They  really irritate me.