From: The Best Colleges
October 13, 2011
September 28, 2011
September 10, 2011
Life, the Universe, and My Birthday
With apologies to Douglas Adams, today I am 42.
Which means today this blog is eight.
Now that I’m 42, I’m supposed to know the Answer (you know the one). I guess since I’m writing this on the actual eve of my birthday (three hours from now, to be exact) then at midnight Texas time I will suddenly ascend into all knowledge and know the answers to Life, the Universe, and, well, Everything. Get back to me tomorrow and if I don’t answer it’s because I don’t have time for you puny mortals. Or I’m just eating cake. Hmmm… cake… maybe that’s the Answer.
One year ago I was the tender age of 41, trying to find my way in the world, but now that I’ve achieved the rarified heights of forty-two, things will doubtless come into focus. Until that happens, though, here’s an accounting of the notable events of the past twelvemonth.
Said goodbye to a high school friend: a very good high school friend of mine- Kim Masterson- died suddenly this past year. She had been struggling with cancer for a while and we thought she finally had it beat when it apparently staged a comeback and took her life, leaving her three great kids motherless and her friends shocked. I’ll miss Kim. We hadn’t seen each other since our Baylor days but I still feel like we could have struck up a conversation without missing a beat.
Completed my 20th Year of Sing: and wrote all 20 acts in the show. Years ago when I was first starting out I used to occasionally wonder what it would be like to write the whole show. I had that very privilege in my 20th year. It was a distinctly great feeling knowing that everything from the opening Sing Anthem to the final notes had passed through my brain and fingers at some point. All 5000 pages and 15,000+ measures. I feel like I’ve made enough mistakes over the two decades that I’ve finally achieved Malcolm Gladwell’s mystical 10,000 hours. I feel like I finally have some actual expertise to offer the folks who work with me. Not just the technical aspects of writing music, but the more subtle part of shepherding a creative idea from inception to performance. I may still not always know the words to explain the “X-factor” of what makes an audience say “ahh!” (we don’t have the words in any human language), but I feel like I can more reliably stumble my way into it. It’s a good feeling. It was appropriate that on my 20th anniversary performance in the pit I met Sara Sinclair- old pit band pianist from way, way back in the 70s. It’s good to be a part of such a tradition.
Thanks to friend and Sing Chair alum Lisa Sorenson for the cake!
Focussed on electronics: this year in my personal classroom my topic-du-annum was devoted to finally learning the basics of electricity and electronics. I’ve tried it several times before but I always managed to confuse myself with the basics and end up frustrated and stymied. This time, with the help of several really good books and the two accompanying Make:Electronics packs I was able to dig my way through Electronics 101. I may not be able to hotwire a car or build a taser gun, but I understand V=I/R and basic electronic components. I can put calculate and install LEDs as well as read simple block diagrams (and build a circuit from them!). The area is so big that I’ll probably make it a two year study (I’m only halfway through the Electronics packs anyway). Victory!
Wrote music for Word and Lifeway: I was able to arrange hymns for Lifeway Music’s new hymnal (where my name is now included!) as well as do music and continue mastering for Word Music. Even though I don’t live in Nashville it’s nice to feel plugged in with some of the bigger music companies up there.
Wrote even more music for a University: which I can’t give details on yet because it hasn’t been released, but trust me, this one is a monster. 30 totally original songs. The client just told me that it’ll probably be in limited national release. Exciting stuff!
Wrote even MORE more music for another University: I’m also currently working on a 17 minute fully orchestrated original piece for a different national college’s recruitment video. It’s been fun to be told “just write something cinematic and heroic sounding” and then be cut loose to do my best. It’s some of the best writing I’ve ever done and I’m really really proud of it. I’ll post a link when I can.
Built props: In conjunction with Sing this past year I was hired by several groups to again build props (with their inexperienced but willing assistance) in my shop. We built a giant boxcar, a 10′x 12′ train engine, a set of nesting boxes, various hand props, a full sized giraffe head, a tiki hut, popcorn maker, giant kitchen appliances, various office furniture, trees, signs, and all sorts of other craziness. It’s not just the chance to put in serious shop time that I love, but the opportunity that I get to grow closer to the Sing Chairs that I help. We always have a ton of fun getting sore and sawdusty while building things that thousands of people will see on the stage. And I love the befuddled looks from the drivers that pass by when they see a huge ferris wheel or giant toaster in my yard. Priceless.
Built MORE props: I’m currently working on a 19 foot long by three foot high permanent logo for a client. They have decided to replace their 30 year old former logo with this new redesign and wanted an actual 3d object to put on stage. Made out of almost $1000 in plywood, fiberglass, and paint, this thing is designed to last another three decades. I’m proud of the fact that my building skills have enabled me to tackle these bigger opportunities and I’m having a lot of fun seeing it slowly come together. The only downside is that it’s summer in Texas. 107 degrees is not a good time to be in the shop!
Saw a mentor pass away: A terribly sad though not altogether unexpected milestone was reached a few weeks ago when longtime musical mentor and friend (to many) Robert H. Young passed away. Dr. Young was my director when I was in Chamber Singers at Baylor and he was a sort of Collegiate surrogate father for Erin. We will miss him terribly but will always have his wonderful music and future Chamber Singers concerts to remember him by. Every Christmas we’ll listen to “Who is He in Yonder Stall” and remember this wonderful, kind, talented, and Godly man.
Replanted the yard. Due to a massive invasion of grubs as well as neighbors who feel like the definition of yard care is to mow their six foot tall weeds once per year (no, I’m not kidding), we finally bit the bullet and completely replanted our yard. I got ten cubic yards of dirt (that’s a very full dumptruck load) and spread it out on our front yard until it was 6-8″ deep (HUGE THANK YOU TO NEIGHBOR JAMES AND HIS SON RYAN FOR THE HELP!). After that I tilled it into the old soil and then laid down almost three pallets of zoysia pallisades grass. After several months of watering in the Texas heat (another thanks to James for taking care of it while we were gone) we have what I am sure is the most beautiful grass I will ever possess. It’s dark green, healthy, verdant, and even smells like it should. It’s thick and fun to walk on. I don’t know how it’ll do long term as the years go by but we’re just loving it now.
Shared in an Award: this year I got to see the movie that I did location and post production sound for, Paradise Recovered, win not one but two Grand Prize Awards at major film festivals. It’s been great to see all the hard work by this small and committed group pay off. We’re collecting all kinds of Laurel Leaves! Go Team Paradise!
Got tennis elbow: about eight months ago I started to notice a pain in my right elbow. It grew over the weeks until I could basically do nothing with my right arm that required any sort of bending of the elbow or flexing the muscles just anterior of my elbow bone. Trust me- when you type, play piano, and do woodworking for a living that’s a pretty severe handicap. It hurt to hold my car keys sometimes. Crazy! After several months of ibuprofen and ice packs it’s almost healed now, but I’ll never laugh at tennis elbow again. What a (literal) pain.
Read my own Eulogy: Not really, but close. Unfortunately most of us never say the things to people we care about while they’re still with us. Fortunately, my good friend Barry isn’t like most people. When I mentioned that it was my 20th Sing anniversary he penned a very public and very touching post about it. Upon reading it through suddenly misty eyes I realized that it about sums up everything for which I would like to be remembered. I consider it a rare blessing that I got to read it, Barry. Gratitude.
Traveled. A lot. Well, for us anyway. We started off the year with an early March trip to visit Erin’s cousin in Anchorage, Alaska. It’s been on our wish list for a few years to go to the 49th state and see the beauty of the mountains. Since we both enjoy the cold and snow, getting to go in March was a real bonus. Due to the fact that we were flying Buddy Passes we ended up staying an extra four days waiting for a flight out (and eventually had to buy one way tickets!), but even so, we had a wonderful two weeks and can’t wait to go back. The one thing we didn’t get to do while there? See the Northern Lights. Every night we’d go outside hoping for a glimpse of this elusive phenomenon, only to be disappointed. However, the delayed return wasn’t all for naught. On the flight out at 10pm the pilot got on the intercom and said to look out the left side of the plane. The Northern Lights! We were on the right side but fortunately the only two empty seats on the plane were just across the aisle. So Erin and I trucked it over there and got to witness twenty minutes of otherworldly midnight beauty. It was something to see. Alaska was cold, beautiful, far away, cold, snowy, and COLD. I love the cold.
Our next trip was unexpected (for Erin at least). Thanks to my good friend Sean’s brilliant thinking (well, fortuitous internet surfing), I surprised Uber-Harry-Potter-Fan Erin with a trip to Harry Potter World in Orlando for her 40th birthday. It was among my most favorite gifts that I’ve ever given anyone- especially since I had to keep it a secret for almost two months! Three days before her birthday I made Harry Potter’s favorite dessert (treacle tart) and surprised her with it, then gave her a card that was actually a portkey (and if you don’t know what a portkey is you haven’t read the books… shame on you!). The very next day we were off on a plane to Florida for three days at Universal Orlando. What a blast to do as a trip, and what a fun thing to surprise someone with!
A few months later we got to spend time with friends Matt and Jenna in D.C. (after a failed Buddy Pass attempt to get to Ireland) and spent a week traveling around Philadelphia, Amish country, and Gettysburg. Then we came home and, two weeks later, got to spend a whole month house-sitting for friends in Colorado Springs. *Whew!* Neither one of us has ever travelled for fun quite so much in one year. We just had a confluence of opportunities and events that made it possible this year and we feel grateful. We’re jet-setters!
So there are some highlights from Year Forty One, spent living in gratitude one of the most wonderful lives ever. I wonder what the next year will bring?
August 22, 2011
That’s Why I Chose Yale
Well, not really (I went to Baylor), but this student-produced and alumni-written recruitment video is terribly clever and fun. Fun cameo halfway through.
July 8, 2011
Tar, Feather, Rail
The Atlanta cheating scandal is getting out of control. I hadn’t heard much about it until today, but reading this article has made my educator-blood absolutely boil. The worst part?
Phyllis Brown, a southwest Atlanta parent with two children in the district, said the latest revelations are “horrible.” It is the children, she said, who face embarrassment if they are promoted to a higher grade only to find they aren’t ready for the more challenging work.
Still, she doesn’t believe teachers should be punished.
“It’s the people over them, that threatened them, that should be punished,” she said. “The ones from the building downtown, they should lose their jobs, they should lose their pensions. They are the ones who started this…
…At Venetian Hills, a group of teachers and administrators who dubbed themselves “the chosen ones” convened to change answers in the afternoons or during makeup testing days, investigators found. Principal Clarietta Davis, a testing coordinator told investigators, wore gloves while erasing to avoid leaving fingerprints on answer sheets….At Gideons Elementary, teachers sneaked tests off campus and held a weekend “changing party” at a teacher’s home in Douglas County to fix answers.
Cheating was “an open secret” at the school, the report said. The testing coordinator handed out answer-key transparencies to place over answer sheets so the job would go faster.”
Every single teacher and administrator who knowingly took part in this debacle needs to lose their job, with the leaders losing pensions and spending some time in jail. You do not exonerate teachers who erased test answers, changed testing cards, or had knowledge that their peers were doing such because you want to send a very strong message that, in the future, you need to report this kind of behavior, not hide behind the hope that you’ll be held innocent if it ever comes out. Where’s the backbone? How do you expect to teach your students honor and discipline (as well as hard work) if you aren’t willing to exemplify it? Every one of the teachers who took part in this scandal needs to be perp-walked to court and every teacher that attempted to blow the whistle on them (and got threatened or shut down) needs to be elevated to positions of leadership. That’s the message that a fair and just society sends to the next generation.
July 3, 2011
June 13, 2011
Something to Learn About
“In the past, I might have fought against my interest in the sense of smell, out of a belief that it was unproductive to spend so much time and energy on it. Now, however, I let myself follow such interests as far as they lead — and these passions give me great happiness. Happiness from my interest in the subject, and also from the happiness that comes from the atmosphere of growth created by gaining knowledge.”
The power of sheer curiosity. I can relate (as can some of the readers here) to that sense of overwhelming curiosity about a subject. The kind of curiosity that has you buying multiple books, spending hours researching on the internet, and devising ways to jump into an area to the point of complete absorption. Barbara Sher calls that type of personality a Scanner, and learning that I fall squarely into that category was one of the most liberating experiences of my life. One need not be a Scanner type to show curiosity, though. There are myriad ways of expressing this. The important thing, I think, is to practice some way of exercising your curiosity. Do you love cooking? Gardening? History? Neurology (wink)?
It doesn’t matter what your thing is. Just have a thing.
Three cheers for curiosity!
June 11, 2011
Like, Whatever
David Soloway’s wonderful article on the state of literacy should be required reading for every 12th grader. Required as in: if you don’t understand the vocabulary and arguments, you don’t graduate.
Please don’t miss it.
June 7, 2011
May 25, 2011
May 15, 2011
Make it Tough
(*UPDATE* Sean links to this very relevant comic.)
The line between simple and simplistic is highly subjective. I think the line has been crossed when an articulation of a concept strips a level of complexity from its subject for the sake of ease that, consequently, creates negative implications for the user. It can happen anywhere; from interfaces, to copywriting, to how concepts are articulated. Cable news is often guilty of this in the presentation and debate of political policy, ultimately driving down the public’s understanding of the subject matter. Perhaps a more contentious example of this would be the spell-checking feature in word processors that have made today’s writers too dependent on the feature and unable to properly proofread.
Immeasurable time and resources are put into removing any perceived cognitive overhead in a wide array of our daily interactions. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this, however, over-emphasis on easy comes at a cost. Often, this effort results in a shallow derivative of the subject’s original form which ends up trivializing both subject and user. The premise for removing difficulty is correct, many people do feel intimidated when they are presented with too much complexity. However, the conclusion to remove complexity at any cost misses the mark. While people do feel intimidated when presented with complexity, the issue is often how the subject matter is presented or contextualized. Rather than deal with the real problem of explaining and guiding people through difficult topics and/or processes, it is simply removed or devolved. This results in viewing potentially innovative solutions as dead on arrival if they happen to have the unfortunate side-effect of a learning curve.
In Defense of Hard: When Easier Isn’t Better
Brilliantly put: “In dumbing down our language, our concepts and processes, we are often times warping its true form. If the appropriate language to communicate a concept is complicated, use it. There are plenty of well established methods to help people through these types of issues without resorting to editorial or design changes. It is OK not to understand something, it is not OK to think you know something that is not accurate.”
This comes down to the expert, or person sharing the information, having a well honed ability to educate thoughtfully and intelligently,. You cannot just tell the hearer the information and assume that they’ve been taught. The adage “if they have not learned, you have not taught” is, when applied to a conscientious teacher/learner situation, absolutely true. We all have experience with bad teachers that resulted in our bad grades, or our getting out of a class having barely passed the test but with no long-term retention of the knowledge to show for our time spent in the classroom. If you are given the opportunity to teach- whether formally in a classroom or informally in any setting- make sure that you’re plugged in to the needs and abilities of the listener, and that you do your best to mold what you tell them to how they learn. It’s a subtle skill that takes years of practice, and if done well, will look transparent and effortless.
This assumes, of course, a curious, motivated, and interested student. The tragic lack of those is the subject of a separate and very long essay indeed.
May 14, 2011
Tiny Town
This is just incredible. Since posting the link the other day I’ve gotten lost in the dozens of “making-of” videos that the head builder has posted over the past few years. The level of detailing and custom work for this place is beyond anything I had thought.
Check out this video. It’s in German, but there’s a small cc button in the lower right that turns on the English captions. After this one is done, don’t miss the many, many others that show how the whole project came together.
If you’re one of my computer programming friends you’ll especially like this episode where they go into a little bit of detail over how they control the custom takeoff parameters of each individual plane type.
I must visit this place.
May 5, 2011
The University Has No Clothes
“Americans have become terrified, he says, of what will happen to their children if they don’t send them to college. The recession, widening income inequality, growing job insecurity, the uncertain future of the welfare state, the increasing costs of health care—all have deepened the anxieties that made college such an attractive option for a rising middle class in the first place. “I think that’s the way probably a lot of parents think about it. It’s a way for their kids to be safe, to be protected from the chaos. You’re paying for college because it’s an insurance policy against falling out of the middle class.” The larger question this raises, he says, is, “Why are we spending ten times as much for insurance as we were 30 years ago? And does that tell us something has gone really badly wrong with our country?”
Related: 8 alternatives to college.
I’m not advocating that people not go to college. I’m just saying that it’s not the only way, and the costs can’t keep spiraling up. As the saying goes: what can’t go on forever, won’t.
April 18, 2011
Surrender
Culling is easy; it implies a huge amount of control and mastery. Surrender, on the other hand, is a little sad. That’s the moment you realize you’re separated from so much. That’s your moment of understanding that you’ll miss most of the music and the dancing and the art and the books and the films that there have ever been and ever will be, and right now, there’s something being performed somewhere in the world that you’re not seeing that you would love.
Just beautiful. Read the whole thing.
April 16, 2011
Priced Out
Does a $40,000 a year education that comes with an elite degree deliver ten times the education of a cheaper but no less rigorous self-generated approach assembled from less famous institutions and free or inexpensive resources?
If not, then the money is actually being spent on the value of the degree, on the doors it will open and the jobs it will snag. If this marketing strategy works big, it pays for itself in no time.
A marketing tactic might move the dial, but that doesn’t mean it’s always worth the money.
The question is whether a trillion dollars is the right amount for individuals to spend marketing themselves. What would happen if people spent it building up a work history instead? On becoming smarter, more flexible, more self-sufficient and yes, able to take more risk because they owe less money…
I’m grateful for my education. I’m almost more grateful that I snuck through the system and got out just before the massive inflation in the college market started. Win/win. Unfortunately, I have a lot of friends who are on the other end of that arrangement, graduating with a degree, no job prospects, and $100,000+ in non-dischargeable debt.
April 14, 2011
Autodidactics
…suffice it to say that you and your iPod (or desktop) can listen to the smartest people in the world give interesting lectures on the most important topics for free, or you can pay lots of money to hear an inarticulate and resentful grad student ladle out early 1960s French intellectual fads in one of collegedom’s cavernous freshman lecture halls at a time of his, not your, convenience.
Ouch, that’s got to hurt. Link.
April 11, 2011
Education Bubble
But Thiel’s issues with education run even deeper. He thinks it’s fundamentally wrong for a society to pin people’s best hope for a better life on something that is by definition exclusionary. “If Harvard were really the best education, if it makes that much of a difference, why not franchise it so more people can attend? Why not create 100 Harvard affiliates?” he says. “It’s something about the scarcity and the status. In education your value depends on other people failing. Whenever Darwinism is invoked it’s usually a justification for doing something mean. It’s a way to ignore that people are falling through the cracks, because you pretend that if they could just go to Harvard, they’d be fine. Maybe that’s not true.”
Thiel’s solution to opening the minds of those who can’t easily go to Harvard? Poke a small but solid hole in this Ivy League bubble by convincing some of the most talented kids to drop out of school and try another path. The idea of the successful drop out has been well documented in technology entrepreneurship circles. But Thiel and Founders Fund managing partner Luke Nosek wanted to fund something less one-off, so they came up with the idea of the “20 Under 20″ program last September, announcing it just days later at San Francisco Disrupt. The idea was simple: Pick the best twenty kids he could find under 20 years of age and pay them $100,000 over two years to leave school and start a company instead…
…While a controversial program for many in the press, plenty of students, their parents and people in tech have been wildly supportive. Thiel received more than 400 applications and most were from very high-end schools, including about seventeen applicants from Stanford. And more than 100 people in his network have signed up to be mentors to them.
Thiel thinks there’s been a sea-change in the last three years, as debt has mounted and the economy has faltered. “This wouldn’t have been feasible in 2007,” he says. “Parents see kids moving back home after college and they’re thinking, ‘Something is not working. This was not part of the deal.’ We got surprisingly little pushback from parents.”
Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet. It’s Higher Education.: “”
very interesting thoughts.
March 28, 2011
Entitled
Increasingly, students seem not to realize what a college degree, especially a graduate degree, tells the world about one’s abilities and competence. They have no clue what is expected of them at the higher levels of academic discourse and what will be expected of them in the workplace. Having passed through a deeply flawed education system in which no one is paying attention to critical thinking and writing skills, they just want to know what they have to do to make their teachers tick the box that says “pass.” After all, that’s what all their other teachers have done. (Let the next guy worry about it.)
More here about the sad state of higher education.
March 26, 2011
Old People
Baylor University geology researchers, along with scientists from Texas A&M University and around the country, have found the oldest archaeological evidence of human occupation in the Americas at a Central Texas archaeological site located about 40 miles northwest of Austin.