Tinkerings

Two things you should know up front before you read (and judge) this movie review.  First, I have not read the books.  I know, I know, I’m a slacker.  I will try to go back and read them now to find all the elements and nuances glossed over in the movie.  Second, if you haven’t read the books or seen the movie, but you plan on one or the other, you may want to come back and read this blog later.  OK, with that out of the way, here is my take on The Hunger Games.

I liked the storyline.  I know, a movie about a game where kids kill kids for sport is a little whacked, but still the storyline (we call that the plot in English class) was, overall, one with a positive outlook where the main characters find they can, indeed, be the masters of their own fates.  Having said that, I had a little trouble following the motif of the storyline.

At first, there were these overpowering images equating the ruling class as Nazi-esque and the weaker colonies as Jews held bound in the ghettos.  The bird emblem, the stone walls, the gray colors, all played a part in sort of portraying this image of the World War II.  And then….poof!  Those images were gone.

Next I sat in an empty theater thinking there was something special about the fact that there were thirteen colonies and the rebellion was really supposed to make us think of our own original thirteen colonies attempting a revolution against King George, on in this case we lost.  Let’s face it, the ruling colony (and Donald Southerland in particular) acted a lot like England under King George or France under Louis.

As I saw bits and pieces of stories from other books and movies and television shows, I wondered if I was trying too hard to over analyze all of it.  Maybe, just maybe, because there was so much borrowing going on, the author really didn’t have anything in particular in mind at all.  After all, I saw pieces of The Running Man, nearly every Shakespearean play ever written, Rollerball, The Lottery, Star Wars, American Gladiators, every season of Survivor, and more.

But perhaps the sharpest frame of context to me was one of the Corporate-run Government keeping the 1% far above the 99%.  Yes, I’m talking about Occupy The Hunger Games.  Every colony was known for something related to blue collar jobs who worked long, hard house in sub-standard conditions so the inhabitants of the Capitol could be entertained 24/7.  And Colony 12 was the poorest of the poor as illustrated by the fact that they were coal miners.  They lived in squalor as if they were still trying to survive the 1930s, while those in the Capitol were interested only in hedonism.  They dressed well, ate grandly, and looked upon the remaining twelve colonies as mere entertainment.

Southerland’s character alone seems to know that in order for the Capitol to maintain its standard of superior living, the twelve colonies must be kept in their places and producing the things the Capitol needs (energy being the main one represented by coal miners).

In a post-apocalyptic North America, it is heartless corporations that come out on top while living in their luxuries on the backs of the majority 99%.  Corporations lie, cheat, steal, and change the rules at random in order to maintain their level of power and status while not giving a rip about the lives of ordinary people like Katniss or Peeta.  The Capitol manipulates the press, organizes The Hunger Games as required viewing, and offers each colony a small glimmer of hope.  But, as Southerland states, a little hope can keep the masses in check.  Too much hope is dangerous.

In the end, it isn’t the strongest or the biggest from each colony that come together for the game.  It is the children.  Reminiscent of Rome’s total debauchery (as indicated by the two television personalities’ emperor names), the Capitol has pitted child against child in a game to the death for the entertainment of its own people and the continuation of its own power.

I don’t have time to delve into the personality traits of the main characters, or the multitude of places where the plot takes great leaps of faith to get from point A to point B, or even those who see Peeta as a type of Christ offering his own life for the life of his love (is it a coincidence his name is Peter after all?).  Perhaps that is fodder for another blog post when the second movie comes around.

Some have seen this heinous game of children killing children to be too over the top, too evil, to allow their own children to read the books or see the movie.  I will have to gently disagree with that decision.

If one comes away from this movie (or the book) moved by the precarious life-and-death struggle of these children and the adult choices they must make so that others do not have to die (the games are a replacement for war as well as a penalty for the uprising nearly a century earlier), then perhaps he or she understands it is the very act of pitting child against child that makes the story powerful.

If, on the other hand, one comes away saying, “Oh, what a great movie!  I can’t wait for the sequel!”, well, perhaps that one has already succumbed to the propaganda of the Capitol.

What were your thoughts about this movie?

There is a certain freedom in letting go of one’s dream.  Sometimes we grasp at something so hard, that the lack of obtaining it colors and shades everything else we do.

I entered education with a dream.  A goal.  A long-time desire.  I’ve worked hard.  Established myself.  Proven myself.  And yet, time and again the dream has seemed nearly in my grasp only to be an illusion.  A mirage.  A disappointment.

So, I am letting go.

Letting go is not giving up.  I’m simply releasing my grasp.  I’m looking a little less at the future and a lot more at the present.

And maybe, just maybe, the dream will come to me if I stop chasing it.

I belong to a great photography Meetup group located in Knoxville, TN.  I got started there by attending a “large aperture” meetup before Christmas in the downtown Market Square.  At the time, I had no idea what “large aperture” or “bokeh” meant, but I went anyway.

I met a lot of really nice people that night.  No one looked at my camera and said, “Why did you come?  You don’t have the equipment we listed.”  Rather, they welcomed me warmly, took me under their collective wing, and helped me understand my camera, its settings, and moved me from shooting everything in “auto” to shooting in “manual” mode. (And made me download my camera manual and actually READ it!)

Over the course of the last few months my photography has changed dramatically.  When I look back at the shots I took a year ago, I just cringe.  And that makes me wonder what I will think of today’s shots a year from now.  I used to save and upload everything that was in focus.  Now, I critique things differently as well.  I look for interest.  I ask myself if the picture tells a story.

After all, a picture only paints a thousand words if it has a thousand word story to tell.

Which leads me to the point of this post.  I’m stepping way out here on a limb and participating in a photography exhibit with 23 other members of the Knoxville Area Photography group.  We are delivering pictures this week and they will begin to display at the East Knoxville, Burlington Library next week for the following two months.

The picture posted here is the one I’m taking up there.  A very special thanks to Ken Shelton for doing a final re-edit for me in Photoshop.  I encourage you to take a look at some of the pictures he’s posted to 500px or or his iPhoneography blog at Posterous.  Ken is an amazing photographer, a talented editor, and a very good friend.  I cannot thank him enough for the help!

So, if you have time and want to experience the work of some local professional and amateur photographers, head up to the Burlington Library and take a look around.

And if you give me a heads up that you’re going, maybe we can meet up at Starbucks.

Sometimes I think life is just a string of serendipitous moments strung together from one to the next.  A week ago I watched a TED Talk with a symphony conductor who talked about “one buttock” piano playing.  Yesterday I had an epiphany while reading a blog about photography (Yeah, I know, photography again).  Both the video and the blog made me think about the ways student work changes over time.  Today, I set out to take a couple of pictures that would illustrate my light bulb moment.

I was thinking about writing.  Well, actually, I was thinking about the possibility of going back into the classroom next year to teach writing, which led me to think about writing.

Most student writing is horrible.

Before you start to throw stones or report me to my school board, hear me out.

In middle school we emphasize the 5 paragraph essay (as if an essay can’t have more or less than 5).  Students want to know several things about these paragraphs.  How many paragraphs are there in a 5 paragraph essay?  Can I just write 4?  How many sentences make up a paragraph?  Are you sure we need 5 paragraphs? Is this long enough?

This first picture sort of illustrates the point.  It is a picture of my breakfast this morning sitting on my dining room table.  There is nothing really wrong with the picture.  Its in focus.  Its fairly centered. You can see my breakfast.  But it does have a problem.

Its boring.

There is no central point to this picture.  Everything carries equal weight.  And as such, nothing really has weight.  Its bland.

Five paragraph essay writing is a lot like this, at least in middle school.  Students are trying to do everything in a perfunctory manner.  Five paragraphs? Check. Three main points? Check.  Five sentences in each paragraph? Check.  Introductory and Conclusion paragraphs? Check.  Got my name on the paper?  Double Check.

This second picture, on the other hand, is more interesting.  It is still a picture of my breakfast, but at least the breakfast is the object of the picture.   The breakfast is in focus.  Everything else in the picture is there to dress it up and make it look more appealing.  (Well, OK, it may not look appealing to you, but believe me, it was really good!).

I got the camera closer to the object I wanted to photograph.  I used a tilt-shift process to blur the background even more than it was in my lens.  And I got rid of the stuff that wasn’t really necessary like the chairs, the other place settings, and even my Discovery coffee cup (sorry, Discovery).

The difficulty in teaching middle schoolers to write essays is not in getting them to count to five.  Or making sure every sentence is complete with no run-ons or fragments (like this one). Or even adding adjectives and adverbs to give their writing a little “color.”

The difficulty is in getting them find a focus and stay there.  It is in helping them choose examples, similes and metaphors, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and other literary devices that make their writing pop with clarity.  It is in getting them to step outside the box of their “two buttocks” writing (did you even watch the video linked above?) and get down to a one-buttock style of writing.

After all, it isn’t a five-paragraph essay.  It is an expository essay.  Helping students move from one to the other is a long, slow process.

But believe me, it is well worth the effort.

In my last post I talked about photography as a metaphor for teaching, learning, assessing, etc.  There are common core elements of photography that go beyond the technology one has at hand.  It doesn’t matter if you own a $7,000 DSLR with a $15,000 lens attached to it or a small, disposable, point-and-shoot picked up at the last minute in the Wal-Mart checkout lane.  Composition is composition.  Exposure is exposure.

It isn’t what we know about photography.  It is all about what we do as a photographer.  (Notice how I have conveniently placed myself in the photographer group although I would consider myself more of a hack than an artist).

In order to be a continually improving photographer there are some things that must be done.  I don’t throw the word must around lightly.  Here is a partial list:

• Continue to adjust your camera.  When I was starting out, I would set everything on automatic and accept whatever picture the camera would spit out at the end of the day.  It wasn’t until I ventured out into shooting in manual mode that I started to see what was really going on with my pictures.  And even then, I would set up a shot, adjust my settings, take the shot, and move on.  Now, when I’m out in the woods trying to get a certain look with the water babbling over creek bed rocks, I take 5 or 6 shots minimum.  Each one has a different ISO or aperture setting.  Photography is not a cookie cutter process.  Zoom your camera in just a little and the focus changes.  Focus on the tree instead of the rock and the lighting changes.
• Study good (and bad) photography.  Not just the photography you like.  Not just the kind of pictures you would take.  Study all of it.  Study the masters like Ansel Adams, or modern-day experts like Scott Kelby, Rick Sammon, or Trey Radcliffe. Read blogs.  Buy books. Go to photography shows or art shows.  Get behind what they see.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at a shot similar to one of mine and thought, “Wow! If I had just set my camera up 2 feet closer to the ground, I could have had something that looked a lot like that!”  I wait with anticipation for friends like Ken Shelton or Dennis Grice or Cindy McMillion or Elliot Hunt to post pictures they’ve taken that day on Facebook.  They take great pictures, and I learn just from seeing them posted.
• Join a group.  I’m a member of two photography groups I found at Meetup.com.  One is based here in Cleveland and the other 90 miles up the road in Knoxville.  They both have professional photographers in the group.  They have really, really, really good amateurs in the group.  And then they have me.  Watch others take pictures.  Ask about the angles, the light, the camera settings.  Then, when they are done, set up right where they were and see if you can do it too.
• Get critiqued.  Either through groups like those above, or one of the four Facebook photography groups to which I belong, I post pictures for critique.  Sure, I want them to Ooh and Aah over it and tell me what a great job I did.  But I also want them to tell me I over processed it, or try it in black-and-white, or suggest I have my camera cleaned because there is consistently this one dust spot that appears in every photo.
• Take pictures.  Take lots and lots of pictures.  Take all kinds of pictures.  I take pictures of family, nature, animals, cars, barns, people on the street (sometimes), and more.  I find that I have an eye for nature photography, so I spend more time there.  I joined hiking groups just for the purpose of going new places to take pictures (well, ok, and meet a few people, too).  I go hiking alone so I can spend as much time on a single shot as I want without feeling like I’m delaying someone else along the way.  The 365 Photo Challenge of posting 1 picture every day for a year is a great way to dive in!
• Delete pictures.  Delete lots and lots of pictures.  When I first started, if I took 100 pictures and 75 of them were in focus (or almost in focus), then 75 got posted to Facebook or Flickr or both. Now, if I take 100 pictures it is not unusual for me to keep 3.  Maybe they get posted.  Maybe they don’t.  Not only do they have to be in focus, but now they have to be “interesting” to me.  I took a pretty good shot of my two oldest daughters and their five children last year.  It was in focus.  You could see everyone’s faces.  It was composed well visually.  But my favorite of the day was an off-the-cuff shot when they broke up laughing.  That one was interesting.  And it turned out to be part of their Christmas presents as well. (Lucky them!)

I could go on, but you get the picture.  Here’s the bottom line.  Whether its photography or NASCAR or football or writing or cooking or math or social studies or science or something totally different, if you “get it” you want to do it.  You want to learn it.  You want to invest in it.  You want to labor over it.  You want to be better at it.

Time isn’t an issue.  Money isn’t an issue.  The latest and greatest technology isn’t an issue.  You just want to do it.

As teachers, we have to move beyond curriculum and testing and report cards.  We have to try to help students get it.  And that is what separates the good teachers from the great teachers just as it separates good photographers from great ones.

My teacher friends might look at the title of this post and think I’m about to write something concerning the continual changes in education across the country, or even just those in Tennessee.  Nope.  Keeping my thoughts to myself about those for a little while.  Instead, this is just another rambling blog about personal changes I’m making to try to steer my life back into the right lane.

I have a few friends on Facebook and Twitter that laugh (but secretly anticipate) my daily check-ins at Starbucks.  I have not always been a big Starbucks fan.  Early on, I thought their coffee was just a tad too bitter (the ONLY coffee I allowed myself to actually add cream to on a regular basis).  And I was frustrated that their wifi was not actually “free” for a long time.

Like most change, the thing you move to isn’t always better.  Its just that the thing you move away from got worse.  In this case, it was Panera.  I was driving all the way across town to reach Panera in the morning for a cup of coffee, a little breakfast at times, and free wifi.  Soon, however, the wifi became the problem.  It was slow.  Sometimes it didn’t work.  I got frustrated with the time limits at lunch.  And it would never open a shortened URL.

So I moved to Starbucks.  It was closer to my house.  It wasn’t extremely crowded at 6 AM.  I allowed myself to get used to the coffee.  And shortly after the move they stopped requiring a $5 balance on a Starbucks gift card to access wifi and simply made it free for the world.

Here’s a Shakespearean aside where I walk to the front of the stage and speak directly to the audience in order to give you more information than you really need…

I eat dinner out quite often…alone.  I like my alone time.  But, like Sheldon Cooper, I have certain places I like to go.  And they are all based on the fact that I can get free wifi (service is second, quality of food third).  So I will stop at places like The Bald Headed Bistro (a lot), Lupi’s Pizza, McDonald’s, The Spot, and others that offer pretty decent Internet access for my iPad or Mac.  OK, aside over.

I have enjoyed my time at Starbucks with its $1.81 Pike’s Place and free refills based on my handy dandy Starbucks credit card app.  It is not any more expensive than getting a cup of coffee at Joe’s Diner (if we had a Joe’s Diner).  And I still plan to visit from time to time.  After all, there’s still that free drink coupon every time I’ve ordered my 15th cup of coffee.  They just won’t be coming every week from now on.

But you know, a year ago I bought a Keurig coffee maker that just seemed to be collecting more dust than coffee stains.  And I realized I was spending more time away from my house than in it.  And (and this might be most important), the light is changing in the morning and I might have the opportunity to go take some pictures before work if I don’t have my behind glued to a comfy chair in the well-lit section of the Starbucks lobby.

So, when a friend of mine called from Sam’s last week and told me that case of Starbucks Keurig coffee shots was only, like, $35 for a case of 50, I quickly did the math and determined that it had to be cheaper than $1.81 for even two cups of coffee (which is all I allow myself in the mornings if I want to stay sane through lunch).

And so here I am, sitting on the NCIS-watching end of my couch.  My feet propped up on an ottoman.  Enjoying the sanctuary of my own living room (now that its clean again).  TV off.  Laptop in my lap.  Just waiting for the second cup to finish brew…

Oh wait, I think its done now.

My last couple of posts have highlighted my attempts to leave my Mac and PC behind in order to more fully implement my use of the iPad in my daily work habits. For the most part this has been a smooth journey.

Most people told me the lack of a keyboard would be my most frustrating aspect of this plan. They were half right. I have set my accessibility features to speak to me when the auto correct feature changes something I have typed. This has helped me from sending out too many incorrect auto corrects.

However, it can be confusing to go from the iPad keyboard that automatically inserts a period when you double space and inherently knows to capitalize certain words to using the keyboard remotely through programs like Splashtop or Team Viewer. The iPad has made my typing a little lazy in that regard.

I posted a little of how I am able to use these tools on the iPad over at www.bcstechblog.org. I wont bore you with typing it all up again here.

So far battery life is not an issue. When I finish at the end of the day I still have about 30% of my battery power remaining. (I do have to plug in my phone to get through the day, however).

My review to date? So far, so good.

Still experimenting.

Today I drove downtown into Chattanooga to take a few pictures along some streets I hadn’t visited in a while.  As I turned onto Georgia Avenue I was simultaneously drawn to three things: the spire of a Methodist church (only the spire remains), the tents of the Occupy Chattanooga group, and a fireman’s fountain that had frozen over in the February cold.

I thought about walking through the Occupy tents and taking some snapshots, but decided to just take a couple of pictures from the perimeter.  I didn’t want them to think I was spying or intruding, and even though I would like to take more street photography, I figured they had probably been photographed enough.

As I stood on the steps of the courthouse taking the shot seen in this post, I was approached by a tall, lean, bald-headed man who asked me what I thought about the Occupy Movement.  He wanted to know if I thought they had a right to be here. I had seen him standing next to a tent making a sandwich, so I knew he was part of the small group encamped on the grass.  My response was non-committal.  “I really don’t have a viewpoint about camping out here,” I said.

He told me that he thought they had probably stayed too long.  They represent the 99%, so 99 days would have been a good symbolic gesture.  They had overstayed that by about 4 days he figured.  I just nodded.  I wasn’t really sure what was expected of me.

He then told me if I really wanted to know what they were about, I should follow him to the large blue tent at the end of the right-hand row.  I was a little worried about that plan, but I tagged along.

Inside was interesting.  There were newspaper clippings taped along the inside walls.  A couple of tables were covered with some of their protest signs.  He picked on up that had “We Are the 99%” emblazoned on one side and a poem on the back.  He read the poem to me from beginning to end.  It was intriguing, but I didn’t really see the connection to the Occupiers.

He picked up another sign.  It had something on one side about the protest movement, but I don’t remember what it said.  I was sort of hedging my body around to go back out the flap of the tent.  The back of that sign had a cartoon of Ol’ Smokey, the Tennessee Vols mascot.  He was wearing a Tennessee sweatshirt with a big, bold “T” on it.  He said, “Some people look at this and see a T.  We see an emblem of the cross that represents the crucifixion of all Native Americans who lived on these lands.  Jesus was one man crucified on a cross.  We’ve crucified thousands.”

My mouth went a little dry I think.

He picked up another sign.  I wasn’t paying attention.  The back of it was brown.  “Do you know what you get when you combine all the colors of people on the earth?” I stared blankly. “Brown,” he said.  Uh-huh I thought to myself.

“The Jews were supposed to return to their homeland a long time before they did.  But they refused to go.  God used Hitler to sort of ‘spank’ them.  They started heading home after that for sure!”

Wait… What?!?

About this time “Bill” came into the tent.  Bill was a tall, thin, bearded, unkempt person with some missing teeth.  I smiled, shook his hand, and took the opportunity to walk back out into the daylight where I could be seen by passersby.

Bill began to wave his hand over the ten or twelve tents along both sides of the sidewalk.  “I took a broom and swept the place up.  We’re trying to get a truck in to get the trash out of here.  We’re gonna bring in some hay and grass seed to try to fix where our tents have killed things.  We’re having a hard time keeping the homeless people out of here and messing stuff up….”

OK, wait, I thought.  Homeless people are the epitome of those whom the Occupy Movement are supposed to be advocating for.  They are truly in need.  And you want to keep them out of your area?  Isn’t that the same thinking you are against when the city government wants to keep you off the courthouse lawn?

About that time an old van drove up and swung into the curb honking its horn.  The first guy asked me what I do for sustenance.  I told him I was a school teacher.  “Do you know Dr. Denning?” he asked?  I knew of him I said.  “Dr. Denning is a close, personal friend of mine.  We’re tight.”

The van honked again, impatiently.  “Fresh bread!” the drive yelled.

As they turned to look, I went quickly back to my car.  Sometimes up close and personal isn’t the best view.

Well, yesterday wasnt a total bomb, but it did have its glitches as I try to untangle myself from cords and weight and…stuff…to work solely by carrying my iPad with me at work.

The first issue came up when I got to work and realized that Splashtop wasnt going to connect to my Mac at home due to the port it uses to get out into cyberspace is blocked by our firewall at school. I knew this, but forgot it in my giddiness to get this project underway. As a result, I had to take a few minutes to stop at my house and open up Team Viewer (the free version).

Splashtop looks and feels like the iPad no matter what device to which you connect. Team Viewer works like a PC. You have to drag the mouse pointer where you want it and then click the screen. But anything that works is better than nothing that works, so it is a small price to pay.

I did a training with some people at the Special Education office on Discovery Assessment report features. Not only was that incredibly easy to do on the iPad, but at least half of those in the room were on theirs as well.

It wasnt until I mentioned using Splashtop and trying to log into my PC at another school location that I remembered the GMail login doesnt work within the same network. You have to have the IP address of the machine you want to use. Then IT Department was nice enough to set the PC up on a static IP address (meaning it will never change), but I had forgotten to add it to my list of machines. That small glitch took about 30 seconds to fix.

Today, I will be working part of the day at one of my schools and attempting to create a PowerPoint style tutorial by controlling my PC across town. I have an idea of how to make that smooth. I will have to let you know how it turns out.

As a side note, I did have to go home and get my Mac after work in order to do a Cover-It-Live blog of our local school board meeting.

Note to self: some days you just need to suck it up and carry the backpack.

Today begins a brief (or lengthy) experiment in the limits and boundaries of technology as a productivity and a healthy living tool.

For the past year and a half I have served as a technology coach at four secondary schools. For most of that time, I had no office. No landing place. I carried my backpack with my Mac, my iPad, cables, headphones, webcams, flipcams, and more every where I went. Everywhere. Every day.

Most of the time it wasnt a problem. But after a while that backpack can cause shoulder, neck, and back problems. Visits to the chiropractor are not considered workmanship comp in this situation, by the way. LOL

Yesterday, the IT Department set up a desktop PC for my use at out new IT Annex building. I spent the day getting programs loaded and files transferred. This morning I booted up my MacBook Pro and left it on the coffee table at home.

Freedom! (maybe)

Im typing this post on my iPad while enjoying my first cup of Starbucks this morning. The WordPress app is handy, but it wont let me upload pictures. I will take some time and work around that. Ive taken a picture with my iPhone and emailed it to myself. I can log into my Mac later and upload the picture. Cumbersome, but it works.

Using a combination of Splashtop, Dropbox, and other assorted apps, I will attempt to get through my day without having to carry dead weight slung over my shoulder.

I will keep you updated.

(Note: Picture was updated from the PC at work).

First update. Splashtop will not reach my computer at home from work. Firewall issues. Understandable, but frustrating. Will be firing up the old Team Viewer app in a bit. Let the tweaks begin!