Tuesday 27 December 2011
Philosophy of Education: Famous Philosopher's Quotes on Educational Philosophy, Teaching Philosophy Truth Reality
Philosophy of Education: Famous Philosopher's Quotes on Educational Philosophy, Teaching Philosophy Truth Reality: http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Philosophy-Education.htm
Thursday 22 December 2011
Karmic Uncanniness
Many of my loyal readers have, no doubt, been wondering about the etymology of my name. I should start at the historical end of it, when Imus, kind of a strange old hermit who roamed the highlands of Scotland in the mid-1800s, met young Michael Starrak. Long story short, Imus' ancestors had fought alongside members of the Walsh clan who came to the aid of their cousins, the Wallaces (both names derived from "Wall-es," or Wales), in battles such as the one at Bannockburn on 24 June 1314.
Imus, known for talking to God in the same way as the Irish guy in "Braveheart" (a Walsh, of course) predicted that their people would soon leave their homes, again, and cross the ocean. Within a year, famine drove many to the New World on perilous journeys across the North Atlantic. On one such journey, from Glasgow to Nova Scotia, Michael Starrak was on the same boat with families of Walshes who had settled in Scotland in 1314. The Starraks and Walshes became friends and, a generation later, a young Walsh man (Kenneth) married Michael's daughter, and they took a boat to Ellis Island.
The people who registered immigrants at Ellis Island were generally the sons of upper class families who had not proven themselves capable of anything particular during their schooling, and for whom these jobs were annoying stepping stones to higher positions in the public or private sector, depending on their fathers' connections. This is not to say that anyone without the language training would have been able to understand whatever the next immigrant in the line said to them but, let's just say that, through a combination of humor and who-cares, many people's surnames changed radically on Ellis Island.
When they got to the front of one of the lines of immigrants, my grandfather, who had been speaking nothing but Irish and Scottish Gaelic for most of his life, said good day to the clerk in Irish, which sounded something like "Dia Ruit."
"D-E-what?" said the clerk.
"Ehmmm..." said Kenneth, then remembered the English phrase he needed. "Oh! I want to tell you..."
But the clerk had already written "M" and "O," and now asked for Kenneth and his wife's first names...and the rest is history.
Kenneth didn't mind. The person in front of him, from Lithuania, had just had his name changed from "Shva-des" to Smith. They got to be good friends over the time it took to finish the whole immigration process. Then his friend's clan decided that they would head out West. When they got to Indiana, they established the Hoosier Smith clan.
The postscript to this story is that the descendants of Walsh, Smith, and the two clerks at Ellis Island would all meet when they went to Brown University in the mid-1980s. Like their forebears, Max Demo and two brothers named Smith would become good friends, and the grandsons of the clerks would join the same fraternity.
Imus, known for talking to God in the same way as the Irish guy in "Braveheart" (a Walsh, of course) predicted that their people would soon leave their homes, again, and cross the ocean. Within a year, famine drove many to the New World on perilous journeys across the North Atlantic. On one such journey, from Glasgow to Nova Scotia, Michael Starrak was on the same boat with families of Walshes who had settled in Scotland in 1314. The Starraks and Walshes became friends and, a generation later, a young Walsh man (Kenneth) married Michael's daughter, and they took a boat to Ellis Island.
The people who registered immigrants at Ellis Island were generally the sons of upper class families who had not proven themselves capable of anything particular during their schooling, and for whom these jobs were annoying stepping stones to higher positions in the public or private sector, depending on their fathers' connections. This is not to say that anyone without the language training would have been able to understand whatever the next immigrant in the line said to them but, let's just say that, through a combination of humor and who-cares, many people's surnames changed radically on Ellis Island.
When they got to the front of one of the lines of immigrants, my grandfather, who had been speaking nothing but Irish and Scottish Gaelic for most of his life, said good day to the clerk in Irish, which sounded something like "Dia Ruit."
"D-E-what?" said the clerk.
"Ehmmm..." said Kenneth, then remembered the English phrase he needed. "Oh! I want to tell you..."
But the clerk had already written "M" and "O," and now asked for Kenneth and his wife's first names...and the rest is history.
Kenneth didn't mind. The person in front of him, from Lithuania, had just had his name changed from "Shva-des" to Smith. They got to be good friends over the time it took to finish the whole immigration process. Then his friend's clan decided that they would head out West. When they got to Indiana, they established the Hoosier Smith clan.
The postscript to this story is that the descendants of Walsh, Smith, and the two clerks at Ellis Island would all meet when they went to Brown University in the mid-1980s. Like their forebears, Max Demo and two brothers named Smith would become good friends, and the grandsons of the clerks would join the same fraternity.
Saturday 17 December 2011
The I.D.10-T problem
I seem to have it a lot when working with computers. Seems I can't even get a "Buy Now" or "Donate" button to work on this freakin' thing. So just send $3 to my Paypal account in my mom's Hingham Bank for Savings, or whatever, in return for the priceless wisdom contained in the book, if I've sent you a copy. Thanks.
Formatting is a b!t chancy
So I thought it would be easy to at least format and upload a copy of my first book, Tree of Life, so even a small circle of people would want to check it out and comment on the meme therein.
Why? because of the nearby presence of a heavily published novelist and non-fiction author (one JC Andrijeski, who has written non-fiction stuff on the late greats, Hunter S. Thompson and Carl Gustav Jung, but I can't read them until I get a credit card, I guess).
But she doesn't have illustrations, which is a whole other animal. I feel like an old person, unable to do the simplest computer stuff (some words have been modified so as not to offend people who don't like to read "shit," for example).
So I'm going to, at least temporarily, pull my baby book, Tree of Life, down from the site where it stands, and ask anyone interested to Paypal me $3 so I'll send them a Word document, which looks much better than I can make it look on Amazon, until this situation is resolved. T'anks for listening.
Why? because of the nearby presence of a heavily published novelist and non-fiction author (one JC Andrijeski, who has written non-fiction stuff on the late greats, Hunter S. Thompson and Carl Gustav Jung, but I can't read them until I get a credit card, I guess).
But she doesn't have illustrations, which is a whole other animal. I feel like an old person, unable to do the simplest computer stuff (some words have been modified so as not to offend people who don't like to read "shit," for example).
So I'm going to, at least temporarily, pull my baby book, Tree of Life, down from the site where it stands, and ask anyone interested to Paypal me $3 so I'll send them a Word document, which looks much better than I can make it look on Amazon, until this situation is resolved. T'anks for listening.
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