os201023  What I Wrote Today: And this day in the past  

Putting my theory to the test

My theory is that I can put in eight characters in the search window of my computer and the engine will display what I wrote on this day going back as many years as those years in which I did write on that day.

For example, to write this essay I used eight characters and numbers (and two question marks to represent wildcards for the two digits that meant the year. This string of eight is os??1023.

Literally this means, on the island of Open Studios and Hospitality, on years indicated by the wildcard question marks, on October 23, what did I write about? In addition to this one which I am writing at present, three articles are indicated, two that are doubled for 2008 and one for 2004, and their titles.

In 2008 one of the two titles is, “Plotline for Amina: Where does she go from here?” referring to Amina Seattle, the avatar of Janet Fisher which she used in Second Life. This virtual world was in our search for a metaphor fitting the plan for Emeralda, a platform for my distance learning plan for printmaking. Amina was the protagonist in the story of a woman who is given a year to live in Emeralda to develop her printmaking. She uncovers a plot to end Earth’s human and other life sustainability. The subject line of the essay says:

“Writing for a video game is not like writing a story or a screen play. Reading has told this author that fact, yet it is not clear just how to do it. It’s straightforward to write for video cut scenes, but a game is interactive, which challenges a newbie.”

The second one for 2008 is titled, “Professor McGee's Message for Amina: An example of transfer,” referring, to James Paul Gee, author of, “What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy “ - a book about learning games. Its subject description says:

“From reading What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy, the artist/teacher may determine how his game resembles one of the entertainment games already on the market—a game called System Shock II. Transfer is key, the book’s author says.”

Four years earlier, in 2004, the title, "Losing my Grip: Between a hard place and a soft place,” has the subject description:

“The author has spent many years considering the software that has grown up around him and his devotion to education—too many years perhaps. Now he’s got a hand on a piece of hardware, and an opportunity to make art instruments. It poses a dilemma for him.”

Skimming this article was valuable. It is one of the examples that enlightens me, like a parable that teaches how an old man learns from a youngster, and he old man and the youngster are both me. One, the younger, sixteen years ago, lucidly explains the logic of a learning game for printmaking which can be adapted to online games.

The other, an old man, grasping at straws to learn how this can be achieved. This date in October of 2004 when I was preparing for my first demonstration of the Legacy model of the Halfwood Press – which would turn into a business. It is the “art instrument” referred to in the subject description. The Halfwood Press remains part of the theories touched upon in this essay and matured into the Teacher-in-a-box.

 pp200924  Press Saves the Earth’s HOLS:  Human and other life sustainability in the balance 

 Imperfect people in a perfect world

Al Gore was an imperfect person. His book title, Earth in the Balance, was not the perfect title, for it implied that mankind could somehow save the Earth. Obviously, it is mankind – among all the living things – destroying only Earth’s human and many other kinds of life sustainability.

I appreciate and admire his effort, however. He was naïve, like me, putting his trust in the wisdom of Americans and trusting that the Republicans would do the right thing. History teaches he was wrong, that there are many humans who hate and fear others and above all they fear they are wrong.

The Dunning-Krueger effect is strong in people who face uncertainty and lack understanding of that which they cannot see or touch. They fear surprises and not knowing what lies around the next bend, over the hill, and the end of their life.

The Earth will go on after mankind is extinct, as it has since other species did. That’s why I always say, let us try to save Earth’s human and other life sustainability. The Earth does not need saving, it is us and our children that we can try to save by helping Earth’s human and other life sustainability.

Face your fears day

October 14 is National Face Your Fears Day. What am I afraid of? Chiefly I am afraid I cannot change Americans who are afraid of things they cannot see or even languages spoken that they do not understand. In their fears and paranoia, they often think something is being said about them! I remember that feeling and I face the fear, studied a few languages and, although I didn’t learn any of them well, the exercise taught me I am not the center of anyone’s attention nor target of derision or jokes.

The Dunning-Krueger effect does not work on me. Yet, when it comes to saving the Earth’s Human and other life sustainability, the effect is fatal, pervasive as it is in the educational systems of the U.S.A. Teachers, even, too often who are trained in institutions where fear wreaks havoc on evaluation systems and teaching philosophies.

Reinhold Niebuhr said: “Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Who was he? A public intellectual and philosopher of theology with sympathies for the poor working class. He is ranked highly among America’s thinkers and his books are widely read.

I think of his famous quote often when I see I cannot change things, that I can see the difference, and I feel the strength to change what I can. It is the how of changing things that I focus on. How can I change the way printmaking is taught in high schools and colleges, for example?

One action at a time, I believe, and the tenacity to stick to my premise – that printmaking is the ancestor of all things STEM and the artform most likely to benefit young people facing the task of saving Earth’s human and other life forms’ sustainability.