Networkin'

I finally got my neural network piece on my 25th birthday this year.

Two neurons connected by an axon. It's even got a synaptic gap!
3 meanings from this symbol in reductionist terms:
1) Neurons are part of a network, they all have to communicate with each other and work as a unit ("The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"), much like a community.
2) Represents my brain maturing and critical understanding of young children and inevitably myself and others through neurobiology/temperament
3) Synaptic gap=leap of faith. No synapses actually touch, electro-chemicals must jump the gap to deliver message.
Also, note the thick myelin (repetition/experience strengthens the axon)

I'm looking forward to this year like no other. I feel mid-20's will be like a toddler/teenager stage of human development where I can feel the power of my autonomy and impact in my micro and macro system, but I've still got a lot of learning to do. Though my mileage is racking up, with each year passing, I feel my spirit staying the same or becoming "younger."

K

A short story I wrote for an exercise in my Voice class...

Amidst crusade from a treetop fortress, my brothers and I proudly barricaded our territory from the Others. With enthusiasm, we sharpened our sticks and dug our traps, hoping to snare our enemies with surprise. Engorged with passion and dedication, we shouted and filled the humid air with our cries of honor.

“Bring forth Juniper!” the boy-warrior Nivek declared. With caution, I brought forth the fish oracle, Juniper, who fills our empty hearts with joy and righteousness, who assures us the forest we claim is ours. As I held Juniper in her clear quartz hippodrome, I felt the power amplifying from her sphere to the marrow of my bones, to the cell walls of my mitochondria. Replacing my suffering and doubt, was fearlessness and fortune. Our triumph was clear in the campaign against the Others, now our destiny must be manifest! With sticks and smug smiles, we commenced our dissent down the gnarled bark of our defense, brandishing our scaly and minuscule omnipotent.

With conviction, we left the safety of our shaded citadel, but as we approached the roots, we noticed a radiance coming from the adjacent shrubbery. The Others beamed a light so bright upon the ethereal crystal bowl, thus began Juniper’s circumvention of the inevitable illumination. “Destroy the reflections!” I ordered the warriors to encircle the grove to destroy the immaculate barrage of mirrors and exorcise our adversaries from this quarry. In a struggle that seemed like a million grains of sand in an hourglass, Juniper’s mortal figure floated buoyantly to the firmaments of the surface. What was once a divine orbit for a fish messiah was now just an illustrious sarcophagus.

Through our wails of injustice and with heavy feet, we entombed all our dreams and virtues under the most majestic juniper tree in our acreage and returned to our silent forest.

Candid review of Zardoz

After trying for an hour to post this supposedly candid and low maintenance review, Netflix would not let me post it. Because I picked the "Love It" star, I'm sharing it the review and screen caps here:


I didn't expect much but considering its low budget (some people describe this as "cheesy") the culture of film at the time (1970's/controversial/nudity) and considering the fact that I had just watched a PBS special on the "Dark Ages", I immensely enjoyed this film, chosen on a whim.


This movie strikes me as a cross between A Clockwork Orange, The Labyrinth and some sort of Twilight Zone episode. The characters/writing (Renegades and Apathetics), music, editing and directing are excellent (The whole film is a Wizard of Oz reference), There are several subtle twists, psychological thrills and unintentional (?) laughs. This director really tries your patience with some longer sequences of shots (i.e. the scene exchanging knowledge through "osmosis and touch") but the images
are inventive and the rhythm of editing keeps us Generation X, Y and Zeds interested.



Yes, there are controversial subjects like rape and death, but they are not sensationalized-in the context of the writing it's pretty appropriate. There are also subjects of feminism, the social-emotional and rebellion.


Though I "loved it," there were a couple of parts where I was confused like, if that Alfred guy was really dead or if Zed was just tripping off "knowledge" If you're not uptight (meaning getting past the dated exterior), looking for something you don't see everyday (visual and auditory), try something new.
Haha. Revenge to the Children's Books section!

"I was never like, 'Let me hold your baby!"

http://podcasts.dreamhosters.com/pcr/DiamondDave/DiamondDave-20100514.mp3

Listen to me on Pirate Cat Radio in May 2010! http://www.piratecatradio.com

@ 56 minutes and 55 seconds my interview comes on. Then sometime later, when the Open Mic portion of the show begins, I share a "poem" entitled "I Am From an Island."

I gush about Early Childhood Education being an exciting field to work in presently, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the emerging pedagogy and the real social-emotional application education has, especially in the first five years and partnering up with families, on society, culture (not the wine-and-cheese kind of culture) and its potential capacities. The title is also verbatim.



Lastly, here is a pic of a sensory-science booth at NAEYC's 2010 Professional Development Institute that I attended in June. A chemist and a teacher partnered up to make science products for children, like powder that turns into a polymer-based snow. There definitely needs to be more sensory-oriented tables, especially at conferences.

Note the woman dressed patriotically (White cardigan, red, white and blue plaid sundress, blue nails, red glitter flip flops) who I previously complimented when I was in the "Sexual Behavior in Young Children: When to Worry" workshop that day. She said, "Compliments of Wally World!"

God bless America.

Pleasantries from another world

on my 3 and half day trek across the country, I sat and slept in a seat on Amtrak's California Zephyr-->Lakeshore Limited-->Pennsylvanian lines (San Francisco to New York City). At 20 years old, I was looking for a compass. January 2007:

"going back west the nights are so fucking long. seriously the moon will be halfway in the sky forever. it smells in my car and I am glad I have so many books. which is also a bad thing because while you're reading one book you're thinking whats in the other."

"I'm sitting in the lounge in chicago and I've never seen people like this before. there's amish, born again christians and midwest type woodsie people. I heard a mother say to her daughter, " ur just like ur daddy" after she chose some bbq chips out of a vending machine. I wonder where these people will be or what they would've been doing had they been born someplace different. but I'm sure they are creative in their own diff way."

Excuse the slightly irreverent tone, but these entries had two things in it that I still enjoy to this day: Books and Potato Chips.

Precipice

(Museum of Play http://www.museumofplay.org/)



















I am so grateful to be alive today. This year is unfolding my ravenous hunger for knowledge. I hope my (almost mature!!) prefrontal cortex can keep up ;)




















While gathering my thoughts for an interview I will be doing for Pirate Cat Radio in two days, I looked up the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) future conferences and found this description for workshops.

I am so glad there is interest in the connection of learning and the social-emotional aspect of the brain. Also, that I am not the only one has learned more about myself through the knowledge of Child Development.