Category: General Page 4 of 116

I appreciate Amazon for its convenience, but really have a love-hate relationship with the company. Like Apple, they are notorious for treating their employees badly, but unlike Apple, they have some products I value, chief of which is the ability to buy products inexpensively and have them arrive at my doorstep two days later. I also find them to be a very convenient place to purchase books for my phone. The problem with my phone is that as I get older, it becomes harder to read. Therefore, when they put their Kindle Fire on sale for $33.33–for Prime Day (the price has since gone back up to $49.99), I bought one. I think the product is actually an OK product. For $33.33, it borders on great, because I really want to read my books on a bigger screen with bigger font. Lorena can do her social media thing (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) a lot better, too. Of course, we have to be within reach of Wifi to access the online stuff and they have a lot of the obnoxious Amazon apps in your face all the time. For me it is not so bad because I usually stay a book or two ahead on my purchases, so even if I am on an airplane and finish a book, I have one or two in reserve. For Lorena, though, it means she will still have to use her phone when she is out of the house. We bought two of these things, one for us and one for Kelly. I am having a hard time deciding whether or not to give the second one to Kelly

Bottom line: If you have a specific reason to buy one of these things

Short Answer: PatrickJMT. We felt like it served our kids needs significantly better than Khan Academy Math although we like Khan academy and used it semi-frequently.

Why should you listen to us on this subject?  Of course, mileage will vary, but since using these programs, the kids described here graduated Magna Cum Laude in Statistics (Kelly) and Summa Cum Laude with Honors in Applied Mathematics (Christian) from a large state university. At the writing of this note (June 30, 2016), they are both midway through PhD programs at national research universities here in the United States. You can read more about that here.

Other posts about our math experience:

• Why we switched from Singapore Math to Teaching Textbooks
• Precalculus: Teaching Textbooks or Thinkwell?
• Our Homeschool Story: What Kind of Homeschool Did We Want to Be? (5.5) Math
• Saying “I hate math” is a cop-out

Longer Answer

We found the instruction given in any one math program was not enough for our kids to fully “get” the concepts even though we used what we believe are the very best curricula: Singapore Math for grades 1-6, Teaching Textbooks for Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry and Thinkwell for Pre-Calculus and Calculus.  Someone asked us what we did in the higher levels of math when the kids got stuck. The question was asked particularly about the Thinkwell program, because they seem to provide less remedial, “make sure it is explained in more than one way” kind of instruction. The following question was asked four years ago, but I somehow (shamefully) missed it. You can read the the original question in context here. So, four years late, here is the part I missed and our answer.

Also, how did you handle any problems with the upper level Thinkwell classes your kids took? If they couldn’t figure a problem out, was there anywhere to go for help? My understanding is that, unlike TT, there is not an explanation for every problem.

Our kids, Kelly and Christian, have very different learning styles. Sometimes the things that were easy for Kelly were difficult for Christian and vice-versa. When they were in elementary school years that was not really a problem. We could handle arithmetic and the Singapore Math program was repetitive, yet interesting for the kids so they learned everything they needed from just following the program. As they moved into higher levels of math, they more frequently got stuck and needed some additional insight beyond what was available in the packaged programs. They got stuck in different places. At first, we pointed them to the Khan Academy videos. They were good, but some friends Christian met on the IRC Math Channel said he ought to try the videos at PatrickJMT. There was no comparison between PatrickJMT and Khan Academy. PatrickJMT was just better. I can not say that will be true for everyone, but it was certainly true for our kids.

Kelly and Christian continued to PatrickJMT after they entered their undergraduate degrees for help in more advance Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, etc. We recommend it highly.

Saw this amazing site on my walk to What-A-Burger this morning. Right in the middle of the city beside the freeway. It made my day.

I know, as a Christian, there is not a whole lot of value in being pessimistic, but we all liven in a fallen world and have sinful natures, so it can be a challenge to be positive. I have to admit I have been in a little bit of a funk lately, what with the nature of the political and cultural landscape in America and around the world along with the instability of our own situation. Several events, though, came together to remind me that, in the end, life is good, true believers in Jesus have everything going for them and even though everything might not be hunky-dory right now, they will be in, what is a blink of the eye in the grand scheme of things, not only great, but literally perfect.

There is no reason not to have joy. The reality is that I lead a wildly privileged life in terms of all temporal measures. And from there, things are looking up. Everything might all fall apart later this afternoon (I am not expecting anything like that, just sayin’), but even if they do, I need that not to rob me of my joy.

This weekend was an odd weekend for me. I planned to work through the whole weekend, but got sick and ended up not doing much other than read a few articles on the Internet, talk to the kids and hang out with Lorena when I was not sleeping. Some of the articles on a fairly disjointed set of topics seemed to form a very interesting theme. The theme, you can decide for yourself whether I am imagining things, is that there are huge chunks of society who are tired of the direction of culture and are starting to push back. I talked to Kelly about it and it seems like there is an undercurrent of rebellion against:

• RINO/Neo-conservatives
• Politically correct censorship of social media (which appears to be in serious decline anyway–who uses Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or even SnapChat anymore)
• The emasculation of men in general and college men in particular

There were more articles, but the ones linked above give you the idea. It is probably too little, too late. I have been reading about Josiah in II Chronicales lately. He was one of the great, good kings of Judah. Still, Judah had been so evil for so long, God told Josiah, through the prophetess Huldah in II Chronicles 34:24-38 he would have peace because he humbled himself, but Judah would be judged harshly after Josiah was gone. Maybe that is where we are headed–it is pretty much been promised that judgment is on its way.

Kelly and I talked about all this last night. She was the one who pointed me to the article on the rebellion of the alt-right. It reminded me of what it was like to come of age in the seventies, surrounded by amoral and immoral hippies and nihilists. A lot of conservative Christians felt pretty lonely on the college campuses of America in those days, but their rebellion against the “feel good” generation led to the Reagan Revolution. Kelly mentioned Ecclesiastes commands to “serve God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man…” and enjoy the good things God has given us. Even though, in one sense, all is vain because we all die, God has good things planned for those who love him that should be enjoyed in this life and the next.

I have participated pretty heavily in the OBoard project. It made the news. Check it out here.

We are enjoying our time here in Texas. One of the best things about Texas, now more than ever time, is its place as firewall against many of the evils of America’s current coarse and ignorant culture. You can even see it encroaching here, but if there will ever be a bastion of sanity against the current evil zeitgeist, I am sure it will be somewhere here in Texas. I got to thinking about this because of something someone wrote in a totally unrelated context:

No doubt about it: conservative Bible Christians are under attack — subjected to stereotypes that, for any other group (except Texans) would be taken to constitute bigotry.

The thing that is good and bad about Texas is the frequently don’t care what non-Texans think because really don’t get Texas. How could they? They are not Texan. I am not a Texan and never will be. In some ways, I know I do not understand it all myself. I don’t want to be a Texan, but that does not mean I do not have anything other than a huge (as it should be here in Texas) appreciation for all the good about this wonderful place.

This is one of those posts I have to start by saying it is a true story. So, Lorena’s number two brother, Jorge was in a wreck this morning. It involved two trucks that ran into each other swiping both the trucks off the road along with Jorge. Jorge was OK, but it scared him to death. The police showed up, the insurance guy showed and they had everything just about worked out when the owner of the property on the showed up. It took them an extra couple of hours at the scene because of damage done to the fence. Take a close look at the fence. It was quite impressive to me that the land owner actually convinced the insurance guys to compensate him for damage to the fence. It was also quite impressive that this could have happened just about anywhere in the world. I think insurance turns people into victims–not that we don’t need it, but give me a break. You have to think though that the guy was probably a soccer player. Soccer, of course is a big thing in Mexico. You see what happens when one soccer play light brushes another soccer player in a even the most unimportant of matches.

Lorena took all her transcripts into the local community college north of Dallas, Texas and to say her experience there differed greatly from virtually every other community college she has attended would be an understatement. They said they would take almost none of her credits because they were taken in a quarter based system rather than a semester system. When she pointed out that most of the classes she has taken were in a semester system, they said (there were three people there looking at her paperwork), I kid you not, “We don’t care.” So in short, the facilities were shabby, the administration was surly and non-helpful, they had non-standard transfer processes, they required Lorena to take tests required for people just entering the system and not people transferring in with more than half of the credits required to graduate–and there is more, but you get the drift. It was truly a bad experience. These are the same credits accepted at better community colleges and state universities in Oregon, North Carolina and Florida. Oh well, we will find another place for her to attend. Maybe it is time for her to start at a four year college.

It might be just us, but I have to admit we have struggled to find a good Mexican food place here in Texas. Of course we can get it with our Mexican family and friends, but it seems like what they represent to be Mexican food here is really Tex-Mex. I am not even trying to suggest Tex-Mex is not good or that it does not have its place. It is just that we really like Mexican food. We found the closest place yet today for lunch, but it was not nearly is close to real Mexican food as what we (actually took a long time to find) found in North Carolina and Oregon. I am going to start asking our Mexican family what we ought to try next, but we are a little bit suspicious that he conflates the two styles, too, in as much as he has spent the vast bulk of his life here.

Christian was a pretty good cook by the time he left home for college. He could more than hold his own when it came to the basics and had a few specialties he liked to do. Kelly had an even wider repertoire and loved to experiment with her mom whenever she got the chance. I am not sure what I expected when they went off to college. I did not really think about it much, but I have to admit I am a little surprised at how much they have both embraced the art of cooking.

The Strawberry-Rhubarb concoction in the picture was fabulous. Kelly’s efforts aim at health as well as taste. She has somehow mastered the art of crust that is light, flaky and healthy. Up in Seattle, she has access to extensive varieties of fresh vegetables that she uses to eat healthy food that tastes good. Her problem is that she is so busy, her exercise regimen is less regular than it was when she is in her undergraduate degree.

Christian, on the other hand, because he follows a fairly rigorous workout schedule when he is not in finals, takes a more utilitarian approach.  During the lead up to the end of the semester he is so busy he depends on this stuff to get the nutrition into his system rapidly and efficiently. That is not a frequent occurrence–the rest of the time he cooks fish, pasta, chicken and eats lots of vegetables and the fruits that are more available in Arizona than colder climes.

The interesting thing is that they both try new recipes on an amazingly regular schedule. Who knew they would get into cooking so much?

Yesterday was a long day with some accomplishments. First, and maybe most important, Kiwi did not die while we were gone. Lorena’s cousin Beto was there to look in on here every now and then, but for the most part, she was on her own. She was and continues to be annoyingly happy to see us.

Toward the end of the day, I had the chance to work on the EKG project. I did not finish as much as I wanted because there were interruptions. I had the signals coming into my program from the EKG by the time I left town for vacation so now I am working on the strip chart that appears on the GUI as it is recorded. I hope to get the charting part complete by the end of the weekend so I can move on to record the data into a database. We will probably need some help from Christian to get the math right on parts of the signal processing of the two different heart rates we want to measure (a pregnant mother and her baby). I hope I have time, but I also am excited that I might get to work with him on something that is so closely associated with the work he does for his school.

Sometime this week, I have to get my Texas drivers license. I am at that awkward stage of life where I am more worried about the eye test part of the exam than the written or driving part. In fact, I do not think there will be a written or driving part. Lorena did not have to take those.

Lorena has all her transcripts from her all the community colleges she has attended so far (Portland, Linn Benton, Johnston, Wake Technical and Clackamas) turned into our new local community colldege in Texas. She has to take an orientation test this evening–we are not sure what that is about.

Beside all that, I am wanting to get back to work on the GaugeCam/Beaglebone Black project because people want to buy more cameras and our cell connectivity system is getting discontinued. I have it started and it has been running at the house for over a month now. My problem is that I just have too many other things going right now to get it done in a timely manner. Maybe I can get someone to volunteer on the project to help us. It is a great little project.

Lorena and I spent the weekend with Christian and our friends, Al and Michele and their family in Casa Grande, Arizona. It was a weekend for reflection. We needed that and came away invigorated. We got up at 2:30 AM in Phoenix to catch a plane so I could get to work in Texas on time this morning. I am not even tired. I am sure I will hit the wall sometime this evening, but it was WAY worth it.

I read a Facebook post from the daughter of a friend this morning that truly captured the zeitgeist of the day. It’s premise was that personal happiness based on one’s own personal preferences is the highest level of human achievement and a worthy way to live one’s life. That seems to be what has gotten this country and the entire world into a state of denial and decay. Self denial and allegiance to a goal higher than one’s own gratification is the single thing that leads to personal happiness and the betterment of society, but only if that higher goal is to follow the commandments of Jesus.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

This says nothing about self gratification.

We have turned off or cellphones and have no computer access during the day. We need to do this more often. It is amazingly refreshing. All we do is sit in done meetings, eat good food, talk with old friends and make new ones, all with no outside interruption.  It is very interesting that it seems I am moving a little off the very edge of the extrovert spectrum. That is no to say I am anywhere close to being am introvert–but maybe just a little bit less of on extrovert.

We made it to Arizona. Christian made it through his finals. We had a relatively leisurely breakfast at ihop. Now Christian is back to work and we are here in the apartment kicking back until he gets a few things done in the lab after which we can start our vacation!