Afrochat.net

I've found a new forum to chat on: Afrochat.net

It's a decidedly afrocentric/africentric chat. It has some 'old heads' on it. You know, people all wrapped up in their ideology an ready to spew it on everyone. . . wait, that's me!

I just posted something outlining criteria for adulthood, hoping to generate some good responses about the topic, when all-of-a-sudden out of nowhere one guy tries to invalidate everything i say, and another pigeonholes me! Sure, i was wide-open for it because i'm new and ready for a fight, but they don't know just who i am!

I can't begin to tell you just how excited i am. all the chat/groups i was a part of that had this kind of conversation have been long gone. And i'm soo excited to be back in the africentric conversation, even though i'm now ALSO a capitalist.

New outlet for my rantings

I've found a new forum to chat on. Afrochat.net

It's a decidedly afrocentric/africentric chat. It has some 'old heads' on it. You know, people all wrapped up in their ideology an ready to spew it on everyone. . . wait, that's me!

I just posted something outlining criteria for adulthood, hoping to generate some good responses about the topic, when all-of-a-sudden out of nowhere one guy tries to invalidate everything i say, and another pigeonholes me! Sure, i was wide-open for it because i'm new and ready for a fight, but they don't know just who i am!

I can't begin to tell you just how excited i am. all the chat/groups i was a part of that had this kind of conversation have been long gone. And i'm soo excited to be back in the africentric conversation, even though i'm now ALSO a capitalist.

a lesson in humility

So, i'm a teacher. i teach software programs to corporate and individual clients. And i think i'm hot shit.

I was at work today and another trainer came in and was turning in his evaluations. Because i teach the MS office, and they want high-quality training, the people that i train fill out either paper-form or web-based evaluations. So, this other trainer has been 'duping' me. He's been talking as if he's a terrible trainer and that he's not that effective. And i've been eating this story up.

So he's turning in his evals and looking through the scores. And as i watched, he was earning nines (why it isn't on a 10 point scale is beyond me) all over the place. Out of about ten evaluations that i went through (under his watchful eye) all of them except one rated him with all nines! The other one was straight eights . .. there's always one, i know. i should've seen that, he's been doing this for about 10 years, he's just new to this company.

So, i walk around like i'm the hottest thing since sliced bread, and i'm not! My scores are good, but i've been doing this for less than a year (my 'anniversary' is the 2nd of january) and my scores are in the 8.36 range ('effective is 8.47). So i've still got a little work to do.

Now, this is against the background of people walking out and telling me that this was a great class, and one student/client comparing me to one of the recent legendary trainers at my compay.

So, i'm going to eat crow and sharpen up on my P's and Q's to become a better trainer. Apparently at national conferences, some of the best trainers get to 'walk the stage' but they've gotta be top notched. I'll be there if i can get my big ego out of the way.

hilarious on books

I was reading the book that i mentioned the other day, and there is a section in it on understanding time and space. And he was noting how people think about different categories . . . and was remarking (yeah, i'll get to it) a about cognitive psychologist roger shepard who obsreved
that "people often wish that they had an office with additional space, so they would have more places to put their books. But they never wish they had an office with additional dimensions, so they would have more ways to arrange their books.

I was giggling at the trolley stop

The stuff of thought

I was about to say that i'm the only person who would read a chapter of a book discussing the ins-and-outs of the difference between the words cut, hit and break . . . but there's the guy that wrote the book! The Stuff of Though by Steve Pinker. It's a great read so far.

The premise of his book is that we can see into the functioning of the human mind through language. As a linguist, he is looking at language to tell us about how the mind works and operates. so far it is a very interesting read. Not only do i find him to be an entertaining writer, i like the subject: words (did i mention that for like four months of my life i would go to bed late reading the thesaurus?)

Basically our thoughts are comprised of basic ideas, and words reflect combinations of these ideas.
The difference between 'hit', 'cut' and 'break' are that they do or don't include more elementary concepts like motion, contact, effects etc.

I don't know what the rest of the book is about, but i'm waiting to get to the chapter about metaphors, because Pinker takes to task one of my other favorite authors George Lakoff, who is the 'metaphor man' in the world of linguistics, and more recently in the world of political spin. look him up.