'Tis the Season

So, Christmas is coming. A time when those of us aware of the Gimcrackery flooding our lives make subtle attempts to lessen current Gimcrackery, even if it is to make room for more. This can either be done by gifting others with your Gimcrackery (in good condition, preferably, and with all required components) or simply by getting rid of things.

Yesterday, I took a bagful of CDs and DVDs to the CD Cellar, in nearby Clarendon. They gave me about $27 in store credit, and I used the credit to get a gift for someone else. And yes, a gift for myself. Not exactly scot-free, but at least it was a fast and simple transaction and I ended up with less Gimcrackery overall.

Also, my friend recommended this to me: http://www.secondspin.com/

They will buy many of those CDs/DVDs/Games you find impossible to sell to stores or give to friends as Christmas gifts.

Good luck this holiday season in avoiding Gimcrackery.

Technology: Microsoft Wireless Comfort Keyboard

I've had this Microsoft Wireless Comfort Keyboard for some time now (seen here in a rare QuickCam picture). It is not my first wireless keyboard, though it is my first comfort keyboard, I think.

Gone are the days where most keyboards responded with a satisfying click and clack as the keys bounced back with solid confidence. The comfort associated with this particular keyboard is likely a combination of the facts that the keys have a somewhat frustrating, gradual give to them, and that (as you can see) there is a gentle curve to the layout, presumably to help with the inevitable onset of carpel tunnel syndrome.

My particular keyboard also, and perhaps this is a function of its being wireless, seems to have trouble with registering double keystrokes, no matter how much I meddle with the Keyboard Settings in Windows. Hence, when I attempt to type "good" it often comes across as "god." (Not that I mind the error all that much, but it would be better if the result were capitalized.)

Recently, almost on a whim, I bought a new keyboard: the Belkin ErgoBoard Pro Keyboard with USB Ports. I am certain it is my first ErgoBoard, though I did once own a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro, so it's not my first Pro Keyboard (or Keyboard Pro). It was not completely a whim that brought me to the the Belkin keyboard, as I rather liked the split keyboard design of my old, and the left-hand flip-out riser on the underside of my Comfort keyboard is broken (I have it in place with blue sticky-tack) and, as mentioned before, the keyboard doesn't seem to be as responsive as it could be.

So, now I have this new keyboard, still in its box, with receipt standing by, and continue to use the current, slightly shoddy older one. Shall I keep this keyboard currently under my hands, operating almost satisfactorily despite its defects, or shall I change to a keyboard that has at least one additional practical feature which would be nice (the USB ports) plus the added features of not being wireless and having a split keyboard?

Stay tuned...

Jon : My Education, by Various

Previous to graduate study, my education consisted of in large part relatively compartmentalized cabinets of data, the physical manifestations of which were text books, class rooms, professors of various characteristics, and layers of notebooks of no particular organization which pile up, unused, on the bottom shelves of my bookcases. When I drove with all my things to C.H. to begin graduate school, the physical of these manifestations blanketed the floor of my car in no particular order: I am not a naturally compartmentalizing person.

I almost immediately begin doing research, but for a few years the tenor of academic life remained similar , if not identical to that in my undergraduate years. After all, I had done research of a kind before, and its frequent tedium seemed to be a sort of rhythm section which accompanied the more exciting (and varied) acts of learning which took place in the classroom or at my desk over homework assignments. Most importantly, learning was still easily quantified: if I could easily navigate my way through a problem set or anticipate the direction of a lecture then I understood and if I couldn't, I knew that more energy needed to be marshaled. The feedback produced a lovely sense of satisfaction.

Slowly, though, the tune changed. Classes no longer dominated my attention; occasionally a semester would pass without any coursework at all and I was faced with the daunting task of doing only tenuously directed research, and though I had been a relatively good student I found myself an easily distracted and poorly focuses researcher. Research presents many challenges for which school is poor preperation but the one I'd like to describe here is that it does a poor job training you to know what you know.

In the last year or so I've come to realize that my knowledge is increasingly laid about in my mind in disorganized heaps. At a moment's glance, I can't summon up a summary of it by considering the text-books I've read or the courses I've taken. Most of what I am learning now I pick up as I go, frequently more interested in accomplishing a certain task than arriving at a particular understanding.

My education has come to resemble the houses which inspired us to create this blog in the first place: full of disconnected or unused things, things we picked up at a whim or for a convenience and then never used again. Hopefully writing this article is the first step towards producing a more coherent whole out of the mess that is my mind.

My Education : 3 out of 5 stars
Am I keeping it: Yes

Jon_, JonEducation_