§ Here we are, mid-February, with temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s all week, where every year I find myself momentarily convinced we are finished with Winter. This has, at least so far, been a strikingly mild winter, though; I am pretty sure I have only needed to shovel my driveway once. We will see how long this lasts.
§ I started watching Narcos on Netflix. Overall, I think it has been a worthwhile watch. At first, I was thrown off by the format of show, with Scoot McNairy narrating various scenes. Now, though, especially as more and more of each episode is Spanish-language, I kind of appreciate having a narrator there that can recap important things I may have missed.
§ I have been thinking about joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) this spring. I’ve always liked the idea of them but I have never gotten around to actually signing up for one. I think, especially now that I’ve been cooking more frequently, it might be a good time to try it out. It would mean I will have to be more mindful when planning my garden this year, though. In previous years I always found myself getting overwhelmed with certain items — tomatoes, squash, peppers — sometime around mid-summer. My hope is that the CSA would provide variety, not more of the same.
On a related note, I visited a local meat and dairy group share this week. The prices there for some items, most notably eggs, were actually lower than comparable items at my normal grocery store. Plus, it always feels good to support a (very) small local business.
§ I overheard one of my fifth graders say: “Sometimes block coding is hard because it is easy… Like, it’s simple but difficult.” Yup, I couldn’t agree more. I still need to find a good on-ramp to text-based programming for my more advanced students.
I did let a few students experiment with the Circuit Playground board this week. They seemed to have fun. The biggest challenge I have found, so far, is that uploading code onto the device is a bit of a pain. Regardless, I am excited to start developing some projects that incorporate them.
§ Links
- Theory of Mind May Have Spontaneously Emerged in Large Language Models
- Glaze is a tool that prevents generative AI art models from mimicking the artistic styles of specific artworks