Monday, April 17, 2006
The week on Redang and in Terengganu was extraordinary and practically workless in terms of professional advancement. Probably just what I needed: to spend time a completely new and remarkable place, swim in vivid waters filled with hundreds if not thousands of fish, hike in the jungle, write a couple of simple poems and journal entries, spend time with the family, and take a bunch of photos (www.flickr.com/photos/the_funks). I didn’t miss blogging, jogging, and the usual routine, and only wish I could say that I came back well-rested, but that’s not what happens chasing after 2 kids, no matter where you are…
I did finish reading a great book that I picked up on the advice of Eric Jones (another Fulbrighter here), Henri Fauconnier’s The Soul of Malaya (originally published in 1931), which made me appreciate our surroundings all the more.
Not un-glad to return to the fray today, lots to catch up on—a morning of emails, making arrangements for gigs in Bangkok and Singapore, also working out some of the details for a presentation I’m making for an int’l conference on information literacy in Kuala Lumpur in mid-June (http://fpmpp.uitm.edu.my/icil2006/index.html). In the afternoon, finally got to work on some Java programming; I figured out how to “write” (actually, like all neophytes just learning a language, mainly copied) and compiled a little program that makes the question “This is electronic writing?” appear on the screen, and also learned how to put compose a call & response type program. Next step is to figure out how to embed into a web page. Of course, neither of these pursuits has anything to do with what I want to use java for, but figured I better start at the beginning, get familiar with the language, and then move on to the more complex stuff (and hopefully before long, but I’ll need a better book to lead me towards database building).
An almost (but not quite) found poem (tab-step formatting mangled by blogspot):
Saw an “acrostic poetry generator” on the WWW at some point today (http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/acrostic); the classification of generator was a little misleading, however. I’d call it a heuristic tool to get someone to think about how to prepare an acrostic; I wasn’t so impressed by the suggested words that appeared in pop-ups as the program progressed. On the other hand, I’m totally pro-acrostic and sure this would be a good device to get kids to play with language and form it into something directed.
On another front, my dear friends Ben Polsky (http://benholli.tripod.com/benpolsky.htm) and Holli Schorno (http://benholli.tripod.com/hollischorno.htm) have just added a son to their lair, Tilden Sky Polsky (http://www.flickr.com/photos/benholli2/), and have asked me to be the boy’s “God-Father.” An honor, indeed! Accepted with delight!!
I did finish reading a great book that I picked up on the advice of Eric Jones (another Fulbrighter here), Henri Fauconnier’s The Soul of Malaya (originally published in 1931), which made me appreciate our surroundings all the more.
Not un-glad to return to the fray today, lots to catch up on—a morning of emails, making arrangements for gigs in Bangkok and Singapore, also working out some of the details for a presentation I’m making for an int’l conference on information literacy in Kuala Lumpur in mid-June (http://fpmpp.uitm.edu.my/icil2006/index.html). In the afternoon, finally got to work on some Java programming; I figured out how to “write” (actually, like all neophytes just learning a language, mainly copied) and compiled a little program that makes the question “This is electronic writing?” appear on the screen, and also learned how to put compose a call & response type program. Next step is to figure out how to embed into a web page. Of course, neither of these pursuits has anything to do with what I want to use java for, but figured I better start at the beginning, get familiar with the language, and then move on to the more complex stuff (and hopefully before long, but I’ll need a better book to lead me towards database building).
An almost (but not quite) found poem (tab-step formatting mangled by blogspot):
Java, key words
abstract
boolean
break
byte
case
catch
class
continue
default
do
double
else
extends
final
finally
float
for
if
implements
import
interface
long
native
new
package
private
protected
public
return
short
static
supper
switch
synchronized
this
throw
throws
transient
try
void
volatile
while
Saw an “acrostic poetry generator” on the WWW at some point today (http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/acrostic); the classification of generator was a little misleading, however. I’d call it a heuristic tool to get someone to think about how to prepare an acrostic; I wasn’t so impressed by the suggested words that appeared in pop-ups as the program progressed. On the other hand, I’m totally pro-acrostic and sure this would be a good device to get kids to play with language and form it into something directed.
On another front, my dear friends Ben Polsky (http://benholli.tripod.com/benpolsky.htm) and Holli Schorno (http://benholli.tripod.com/hollischorno.htm) have just added a son to their lair, Tilden Sky Polsky (http://www.flickr.com/photos/benholli2/), and have asked me to be the boy’s “God-Father.” An honor, indeed! Accepted with delight!!
# posted by chris funkhouser @ 6:29 AM 
