Craig > Recent Status Updates

This may take me a long time to read. I keep stopping on almost every page to take notes and jot down questions about my own teaching practice. For something written in 1969, it is incredibly relevant. Here's a quote from early in the book:

"The misinformation problem takes a variety of forms, such as lies, cliches, and rumors, and implicates almost everybody, including the President of the United States."

So infuriating! I had no idea that our federal government, especially the FHA and VA, were so complicit it creating, promoting, and enforcing segregated housing across the country, even in areas where it hadn't previously existed.

A little slowing going at times with the antiquated vocabulary and sentence structure, but many surprisingly relevant passages as well.

Didn't quite make it through before the end of the year. I'll pick it up again in Jan.

Just finished the first book of Don Quixote ("part 1"). Not sure I'm going to tackle the second part. The "adventures" get tedious, as do the embedded novellas. When the jokes have to be explained in the footnotes because the references aren't familiar or the language doesn't translate, it doesn't make for very fluid or amusing reading.

I laughed out loud during the section on "speed reading" techniques - all debunked by physiology, neuroscience, and psychology research. I distinctly remember being taught these techniques in elementary school and thinking (until today!) that I was not as efficient a reader as I could be because I "heard" the words in my head as I read. Curse you, Evelyn Woods (and all subsequent copycats)!!

Just got to the most famous quotation from this work: "I think, therefore I am" [cogito ergo sum]. I had not previously understood the context for this statement. It is Descartes's first step in trying to understand the world by re-establishing his system of beliefs from first principles. I'm thinking about the world, so something ("I") must be doing the thinking. In fact, that's all he/we can be truly certain of.

Started some "light" summer reading about the lead-up to WWI. I'm fascinated by the intricacies of Serbian and Austro-Hungarian politics.

Well, what a way to end the year. The subtitle is: "The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right". The subtitle could be: "How American Democracy Was Subverted by a Handful of Amoral Billionaires Intent on Ensuring their Personal Fortunes and the Ascension of their Crackpot Ideals to the Detriment of Everyone Else Using Whatever Means Necessary (Although Mostly the Illegal Ones)".

I am SOOO looking forward to enjoying this book! I hope it doesn't disappoint!

Lots of members of the staff at my school taking the bookriot.com Read Harder challenge for 2016. Check it out!

What a slog. The book would have benefited from a more aggressive editor. At times, it's as difficult to decipher as a message encoded by Enigma. Far too much noise obscuring the salient features of Turing's life and motives. But I'm determined to make it through to the end.

Just finished the section on Bush v Gore in the 2000 election. Definitely a low point for judicial restraint and impartiality.