Dana's Dojo, Week 2: Letting Go

Today in the Dojo: The importance of letting go so those 50,000 words can flow.

 

So, we’re beginning Week 2. By now, the early flush of excitement has probably drained, and it’s beginning to feel like a long, hard slog. You might be at the everything-I’m-writing-is-total-shit stage. If not, you’ll be there soon.

You’ve got to let go.

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Dana's Dojo, Week 2: Letting Go
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Los Links 11/4

The frightening thing, I mean the really scary thing, is that it seemed like I’d read a lot less than I usually do. Yet this week’s linkage looks enormous.

Doubt I’ll hear any complaints. Well, not many.

But I tried to limit myself, I really did. The problem is, people write so much important, interesting stuff, and so much of it feeds into my writing, that I can’t justify ignoring the things that catch my eye. And I have to take longer breaks to rest my hands anyway. And then I’ve read them, and might as well share them with you.

Enjoy!

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Los Links 11/4

The Night the Earth Moved

I used to believe I was a geologic disaster coward. I grew up in the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks, which is actually a single mountain that blew itself apart not all that long ago, on the edge of a volcanic field that was merrily tossing out lava flows and cinder cones a mere 900-odd years back. My elementary school was tucked in the flank of a rhyolite dome. Things had been quite exciting round there, and I used to watch the mountains with a wary eye, watching like a paranoid volcanologist for the slightest sign of steam or ash. We had city-threatening fires nearly every summer, winters sometimes dumped so much snow on us that roofs collapsed (and there was still talk of one winter in the 1970s when snow had reached the second floor and everybody was all snowed in, an event we had happily missed). We had all sorts of poisonous and/or violent wildlife running about. None of those more immediate threats terrified me half as much as the volcanoes.

But, said I, at least there were no earthquakes. Earthquakes were terrible, awful, no good, very bad things that I never ever in a million billion trillion years wanted to experience.

Then I moved to a subduction zone.

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The Night the Earth Moved

Cantina Quote o' The Week: Hsun-tzu

If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement.

        -Hsun-tzu (Xun Zi)

This one seems particularly appropriate for that madness that is NaNo, doesn’t it just?

Hsun-tzu (or Xun Zi, if you prefer that newfangled modern stuff) lived during the Warring States Period, and managed to do some deep and methodical thinking in chaotic times. You’ve more likely heard of Mencius than him, which is unfortunate, because some of his thinking is quite useful. Like his ideas on Heaven: he determined heaven’s not supernatural but natural, and one’s attention is best paid to people rather than to otherworldly stuff. Hard-headed and practical. Never mind the occasional dragon.

Here’s the passage the above quote came from:

Pile up earth to make a mountain and wind and rain will rise up from it. Pile up water to make a deep pool and dragons will appear. Pile up good deeds to create virtue and godlike understanding will come of itself; there the mind of the sage will find completion. But unless you pile up little steps, you can never journey a thousand li; unless you pile up tiny streams, you can never make a river or a sea. The finest thoroughbred cannot travel ten paces in one leap, but the sorriest nag can go a ten days’ journey. Achievement consists of never giving up. If you start carving and then give up, you cannot even cut through a piece of rotten wood; but if you persist without stopping, you can carve and inlay metal or stone. Earthworms have no sharp claws or teeth, no strong muscles or bones, and yet above ground they feast on the mud, and below they drink at the yellow springs. This is because they keep their minds on one thing. Crabs have six legs and two pincers, but unless they can find an empty hole dug by a snake or a water serpent, they have no place to lodge. This is because they allow their minds to go off in all directions. Thus if there is no dark and dogged will, there will be no shining accomplishment; if there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement. He who tries to travel two roads at once will arrive nowhere; he who serves two masters will please neither. The wingless dragon has no limbs and yet it can soar; the flying squirrel has many talents but finds itself hard pressed.

As I said, dragons. But the point still stands. He seems to have been a very practical, pragmatic fellow, and the above is good to remember when you’re in the middle of a long, hard slog and wondering if it’s worth keeping on.

Here’s another passage I quite like:

If you do not climb a high mountain, you will not comprehend the highness of the heavens; if you do not look down into a deep valley, you will not know the depth of the earth; and if you do not hear the words handed down from the ancient kings, you will not understand the greatness of learning. Children born among the Han or Yüeh people of the south and among the Mo barbarians of the north cry with the same voice at birth, but as they grow older they follow different customs. Education causes them to differ.

There you are. A whiff of geology, a celebration of learning, and insight into the truth of humanity, all in one short go.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be on with the dull-and-determined in hopes the brilliant will follow.

Cantina Quote o' The Week: Hsun-tzu

Geology Pays! Plus Other Things of Note

I’ve been lost in NaNoMadNess and neglecting you terribly. So here are a few things by way of apology.

Andrew Alden has a wonderful little piece telling of victories made possible by geology, and celebrating its influence on and connections to the other branches of science. I think it’s quite possibly one of my favorite things this week.

Daniel Fincke has got a lovely roundup of delights from around Freethought Blogs. I say delights, but some of them aren’t so much delightful as they are important, such as Greta Christina’s piece on the American Cancer Society and its rather desperate attempts to pretend it wasn’t discriminating against atheists at all. That’s more infuriating than delightful. But I’ll tell you what is delightful: Daniel’s new banner. It has made me consider the logistics of modifying my bathroom to fit a camel with a hammer. I wish I wasn’t so certain the cat would be terribly upset by such a thing. Perhaps I’ll just have to frame the art in there instead.

Go say hello to Maryam Namazie, who is our newest FreethoughtBlogger, and makes me even more honored to be a part of this collective. She’s an incredible woman.

And, finally, go perform a good deed for the day and tell Delta to stop with the anti-vax insanity, if you haven’t already.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go enjoy a brief visit with my bed before I have to abandon it again….

Geology Pays! Plus Other Things of Note

Donors Choose: Updates! Pictures! Notes!

I’m getting a flood of notes from very pleased teachers, and since it was your efforts that made them happy, I thought I should share.

Mrs. K’s “Places, Everyone!” is getting its carpet:

Thank you all so much for your generous support! I am so excited to have this new carpet on its way! It will be a wonderful behavior management tool, as each child will sit on their assigned square and be ready for learning. You will have given my students the gift of personal space, and made our room more comfortable and bright. You have given me the gift of time and better behavior management. Thank you for showing your support, and your generosity. I’ll be in touch soon with photos, an impact letter, and further updates. Thank you again!!

With gratitude,
Mrs. K

Ms. Blake has got her rock samples:

This is just a short note to thank you for your generous donations. We have used the rocks to understand the differences of metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary rocks and classify them by their properties. Students used the rock samples to test how physical and chemical weathering affect different rock types. We also used them as we discussed the rock cycle and how a rock can transform to a different rock type. Finally we used the center to explore and simulate the process of erosion.
Without your generous donation, the students would not have been able to participate in so many hands-on activities and experiments. The students were engaged and enjoying the learning process. I have no doubt that the students will remember all they learned thanks to your donations.

Because of donors like you, my students will have brighter futures.

With gratitude,
Ms. Blake

And we have got a beautiful note and gorgeous photos from Mrs. Williams:

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks for your generous gift to us. In the three years that we have been using DonorsChoose to fund our overnight field trip, we have never had a donor fund a complete project. Many of our students would not leave the urban environment if it was not for our “Ely Trip”. Introducing children to the National Park experience has become a mission for the fourth grade teachers at our school. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

With gratitude,
Mrs. Williams

Mrs. W's Class Field Trip
Mrs. W's Class Field Trip
Mrs. W's Class Field Trip

Those are some of the wonders the kids got to see. She posted pictures with the kids climbing all over that delicious geology, too, and they look delighted! I think you can see them on the project page – I just didn’t want to reproduce them without explicit parental permission. Minors and all that.

All those happy teachers and excited kids, and you made that happen! Round of applause. I’d buy all of you a drink if I could!

And if you haven’t emailed me in regards to the swag yet, there’s still time, and still swag available. Let me know what you donated, and I’ll put you in for a chance at some of it! Yahoo knows me as dhunterauthor.

You guys are fantastic. I can’t tell you how proud I am of all of you. Go, you! Go, science education!

Donors Choose: Updates! Pictures! Notes!

Out! Out, Damned Dam! Elwha River Restoration

It’s a bad time for dams in the Pacific Northwest. We’re tearing quite a few of the bastards down.

Last year, my intrepid companion and I found ourselves up in the Olympic Mountains just in time for the Last Dam Summer. The dams on the Elwha River were no longer needed nor wanted, and they were about to come down. So we made a point of going up while the dams still stood and got some nice before shots:

Lake Mills, behind Glines Canyon Dam
Glines Canyon Dam

So that was August 2010. What a difference a year and some heavy construction (in this case, I suppose it’s deconstruction) equipment makes!

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Out! Out, Damned Dam! Elwha River Restoration

Geologist Barbie Dream House

Right. Everybody’s dressing Barbie like a geologist (or other scientist), but has anyone given a thought to where she’d actually live? No. They have not. Maybe they’re planning to plunk some rocks atop that gawdawful pink dream house of hers and call it good.

Well, bollocks to that. Geologist Barbie should have a real geology dream home, not some icky pink plastic monstrosity.

Barbie will be too busy drilling core samples for paleomagnetic studies, or analyzing samples on a mass spectrometer, to mess about with a garden. Besides, she’s frequently out of town doing field studies. You think she’s got time to weed and water? Hells to the no. So what we need is a house that has got a garden that’s like a cat: perfectly capable of taking care of itself for long periods of time. It has got to have rocks in (duh). And the house has to be a beautiful, relaxing place for a busy scientist to come home to. This is, after all, a dream house. A house where Geologist Barbie can dream of rocks.

I have got just the thing:

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Geologist Barbie Dream House

Dana's Dojo: Surviving NaNo

Today in the Dojo: How you can write 50,000 words in a month and not drop dead.

 

I said “Never again,” and I meant it. I will not be doing NaNoWriMo this year. Not exactly. More like NaNoWri2Mo, because I’ve determined I must complete a book of short stories by the end of this year. And yes, I’d do NaNo, despite a solemn vow never to do so again, but ye olde wrists may not be up to the task. The spirit is willing. The flesh has thumb tendonitis and very likely a bit of carpal tunnel syndrome to boot. Let’s not push it.

But some of you are young and sound of wrists, although your minds might be suspect, considering you’ve signed up for the madness that is NaNoWriMo. So I figured I’d tell you how I survived my one and only time doing it officially, and all those times I’ve done it on the sly.

Perhaps it will be of some service.

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Dana's Dojo: Surviving NaNo