I Don't Need Drugs

I was reading the comments to an NPR story, "Comedian Faces His Addictions To Food And Alcohol" about comedian Jamie Kilstein (http://www.npr.org/2013/10/20/236950670/comedian-faces-his-addictions-to-food-and-alcohol) when I came across Jim Fetter's comment about addiction: 

"Well the alcohol I don't understand, because I never could acquire a taste for something that would operate my automobile."

I hadn't thought of it that way.  My usual response to the question as to why I don't drink is one of the following:

1. Drinking is for grown-ups.
2. It all tastes like Nyquil to me.
3. I never acquired a taste for it.
4. I'm too cheap.
5. I make money being the designated driver.

Now I can add that I try not to imbibe anything flammable.

I don't need drugs or alcohol.  My brain is addled enough.  (My neighbor and I have a standing joke.  In response to one of us saying something loopy, the other will pretend to examine the speaker's eyes, shrug and say, "Dunno.  The pupils aren't dilated.)

As an undergraduate I lived with the hippies and associated with the drug users.  I can honestly say that I didn't use drugs but I got to share their paranoia.

Some time in grad school I realized that I'd distanced myself from the scene when it dawned on me that I didn't recognize the names of the drugs being tossed about.  Not only that, I didn't want to know.  A fellow grad student claimed to have stopped smoking pot because he didn't have any free time.  And, if he had the free time, he said, he had other stuff which needed doing anyway.  (Life's a bummer.)

Musing on a Pear

Pears were on sale this week and thus several came to reside in my refrigerator.  I couldn't resist.  This one reminded me of Picasso's Femme or someone I once knew.

I had to laugh: Lemmings with Suicide Vests

I haven't been in a joyful mood lately: Every day I don't teach is spent prepping for class, some labs I'm trying to create along with another prof are taking forever to get done, there are legal matters which are similarly crawling along, and then there is the House of Representatives being held hostage by Tea Party Republicans. (I've taken my position from  On The Media's coverage, especially James Fallows' comments.)

I actually laughed out loud when I heard Rep. Nunes' sound bite (from the Washington Post):

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) had choice words for fellow House Republicans who are willing to see the government shut down over their opposition to Obamacare: "Lemmings with suicide vests," he called them.

Transformation Forever!

I spotted this in CIO magazine:

"You can't operate under a banner of transformation forever.  You've got to declare victory." - Louie Ehrlich CIO of Chevron and president of Chevron Information Technology (http://www.cio.com/article/704095/Chevron_s_CIO_Talks_Transformation_and_Why_IT_Leaders_Should_Smile)

It echoes Louis Armstrong, who when asked where he thought jazz was going, replied, "If I knew, I'd be there already!"

Which leads me to chat on about learning to program computers.  The connection being knowing where you're going.

People new to programming start with simple problems.  While this makes sense from a pedagogical perspective, it also hides the necessity of analysis.  Many beginners with an aptitude for programming "grok" the problem - the solution seems obvious without a need for analysis.  (The Car Talk guys would say that the solution was "not encumbered by the thought process.")

The ability to solve the introductory problems intuitively can lull a beginner (take this as a true confession) into thinking he's a "computer genius", surely an archaic term now.  As problems become progressively harder the need for planning become more obvious as those who charge ahead find that their code requires reworking and more reworking.  (From my casual observation the few female computer programming students I've seen plan more than the male students.  The result is that it will take the female students longer to code the early programs because the guys just whale away at the code until it works.  The problems at the end of a first semester course usually require the type of analysis and planning the female students seem to use from the start.)