The weight

And so it begins.

Ingress

I have been playing Ingress for about a month or so. It is great fun, well sort of fun, also very frustrating.

I am trying to figure out how best to approach the game. It is really something that takes a lot of time to excel at developing.
That perhaps is my largest deficit in that I do not have a lot of time to devote. I am lucky to hack a portal driving by. I have altered my travel routes to drive by portals.
Having time to meet up with others and hack together has yet to happen.

In OKC we are faced with the Enlightenment being much stronger and having vast control over the city. The Resistance is weaker and faces an uphill battle on every portal. There are however a few strong holds of the Resistance.

I finally created a field the other night and within about 4 hours it was destroyed. I am not sure if it is a good thing to create links and fields in the area. It gives the player much needed AP points but also calls attention to the portals and invites hacking. I do not know if it is possible to stay under the radar as it were of the green. It is just a matter of time for them to gang up and take over a portal.

Philosophically I would play the game differently. Getting everyone on that page would be difficult.
I think that if all the new L1 portals were captured by Level 1 or Level 2 players the portals could be built up slowly with new or low level folks developing those portals. Low level players would then be playing against each other building up skills and resources  The portals would not face a threat to high level players. When the high level players control the portals it does not give the opportunity for other players to gain knowledge and strength. Yes, I know this is against most game theory based on strength and supremacy but falls in line with the game theory of development and appeasement. Being self interested the game becomes somewhat stagnate. But then I am finding it difficult to not approach the game from developing the game self.
Using the field creation as an example, it develops the points for the player but in the end could have adverse effects on the other players being able to continue to develop the portal and area.

I am just not sure what approach is best. Or what course would be best to take and continue upon.

Forward

Moving along. Forward perhaps, side ways or up. It is good for sure. Destination not so much as the journey.

Catch Up

Odd how time changes the flow. Reading a lot of connected educators and then myself now feeling less connected. Will strive to resolve this.

San Francisco

What a trip. Full of wonderful sights and flavors. Simply not enough time to see and do everything. Need to visit again.
It was great to walk and eat and just hang out for a little while. Mara really seemed to enjoy the city too.
Great to see Kenny.

Competition

So we are in a meeting on Friday. School wide we are implementing the Rachel's Challenge. It is a great program based on loving care and helpful expression. Part of the initiative is the creation of a chain. For each act of kindness a link is created. Each link connecting people and deeds. Another local middle school is also taking part in the program and they are creating a chain. My first thought is to join the chains together. What goodness can come from this. Others in y building expressed that they just wanted to beat the other school in creating the longest chain. Making acts of kindness a competition. That just sits wrong with me. Defeating the purpose and meaning of expression by attaching it to something devoid of kindness. Bending the nature of a children to elevate ones own desire for recognition and achievement. so very odd to me. I do not think that is the way karma wants to be treated.

Thoughts on Reac3h

We had training yesterday on the Core Curriculum. It is a huge nationwide change in teaching content and focus. Math and English are the focus. Everything else is designed to teach Math and English. The REAC3H http://ok.gov/sde/reac3h-network is the Oklahoma based program for everything else to teach.

I have not processed everything yet and much requires some research. Some things struck me during the presentation.

The % of students not ready for college classes and in need of remediation. - I am wondering how many students go to college from High School. Of that percent how many are AP Students? Do any AP students require remediation?
What is the ACT score required to get into college? Does ACT then reflect knowledge. What ACT score cut off number reflects remediation?
Do we need to have a pre-college type institution?

Literacy. The focus is on fiction writing. Speaker says that fiction writing in newpaper and mass consumables is written at 5th grade level. If students only consume fiction writing they will not get anything above 5th grade. At what level is most non-fiction written? At what level of writing is most Television produced?
Speaker gave example of Shakespeare. She taught Romeo and Juliet. She said student could not understand it and would give handouts and materials that explained the writing. Students did not then have to read and comprehend the play as they had the "cliff notes" provided by the teacher. So she admits she was not capable to teaching Shakespeare.

Nexus

I picked up the nexus 7 today at Sam's club. It is a nifty device. Easy to use. Clean interface. Lots of functionality. I like the android system. Very Google.

Back at it

First day of school.

And so it goes

School is here once again. Full of excitement and newness. Looks to be a wonderful year.

Need To

I would like to get down to 200.

You've Got Mail

1998, tom hanks and meg ryan. Interesting state of the union back then. Dial up AOL all but gone today abd the big box book stores are all closing. Don't know if You've Got Twitter would be the same.

RV

I have an RV. It is time for it to move on. It is an enjoyable craft. I had to let go of my motorcycle a few years ago. While I do not regret that decision I do miss it at times greatly. I miss the "freedom of the road" as it were and the thought of it. The ideal it represents. And so it is with the RV too. Jump in and go. Where to? Who knows. Just go. Not likely to happen but the possibility is there for it to happen. Without it the possibility is gone.
It is time for the RV to go to another home. A new owner. One who will care for it. I need to make the decision to let it go.

The spiritual life

That does it say? The spiritual life is not a what? The Spiritual Life is not a Theory. We have to live it.
I heard briefly, during the lenten season pulling the weeds to prepare the grounds for the spring to come.
Pulling the weeds of life that are no longer useful to daily living.