A great short film:
A Good Time
18
Apr
2011
Cyril O
15
Apr
2011
Wash your back
My mother – a really wonderful person – had a great saying:
“Everyone needs someone to wash their back.”
06
Apr
2011
Total Immersion Swimming
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| Total Immersion Swimming |
I am about half way through the book: Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin. I have been swimming my laps for years and do have a pretty relaxed stroke. I’m almost 60 years old and this book with its innovative how-to stuff that Terry has put forth makes me feel like a teenager again. Previously I was mainly interested in just keeping in shape. NOW I’m very interested in doing some racing to see how I fare against others. Still working on finding my ‘zone’ or sweet spot for the techniques that he talks about but I’m doing 14-16 strokes per length compared to most people I see doing 25-30 and and I’m going much faster. The edition that I’m reading is @1995 but there is an abridged on circa 2005. Great book for any level of swimmer.
01
Mar
2011
Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson
Yesterday I finished reading Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson. A more inspiring book I have not read in a long time. He certainly takes you through an emotional roller coaster ride. This man has the single mindedness of a myopic bull. And boy is he successful at what he does – that is: help people. He is also, in my opinion an amazing administrator. He finds capable people in the most unusual places, gives them a chance, shows them what is needed and lets them get on with it. He is also ruthless in his pursuit of the good.
One of the most uplifting parts of the book is that it shows how many really good people there are in the world and they can be found anywhere and everywhere.
22
Feb
2011
The Unschooling of America (and Canada)
I’m a big proponent of Home Schooling. Most of our kids’ ‘schooling’ was done at home – the important stuff. I have listed a few good links here of sites that have some good information and links about homeschooling.
John Holt
Pat Farenga
Wise Teacher
This site has a bunch of great links for information on Home Schooling: Free Child
And here is a quote from a John Holt interview that was done in 1980. Taken from the site: John Holt Interview
“Q: What about the child’s social life?
A: As for friends – you’re not going to lock your kids in the house. I think the socializing aspects of school are ten times as likely to be harmful as helpful. The human virtues – kindness, patience, generosity, etc. are learned by children in intimate relationships, maybe groups of two or three. By and large, human beings tend to behave worse in large groups, like you find in school. There they learn something quite different – popularity, conformity, bullying, teasing, things like that. They can make friends after school hours, during vacations, at the library, in church.”