I still love this hymn…

When I was a member at Our Savior Lutheran in Houston, on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday… They would sing a farewell to alleluia. They used a tune that I loved, but could not place.

Here it is. I still love it, and now I know what it is.

How Shallow *IS* My Thinking Becoming?

I thought it was just me!

I thought that maybe I'm beginning to age. I thought that maybe I was worried or distracted. While I wasn't really worried, I've noticed that I am developing the attention span of a squirrel on crack cocaine.

I don't know if I can make it all the way through "War and Peace" anymore. (Not that I was able to anyhow… Reading it in paper was a huge challenge even when I was strong enough to hold paperbacks. I tried in high school, but it was to heavy-crushing my chest!) I even got bored reading Buzz Aldrin's "MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION," though. I never thought that would happen! It's BUZZ ALDRIN!!! It's about walking on the moon! Talk about a Lisa -book, the only thing missing is Klingon poetry!

I was enjoying the book, but…

Then another book landed in my lap! Nicholas Carr wrote an interesting work called, "The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains."   It is an expansion of an article he wrote in Atlantic, "Is Google Making Us Stupid." (It might be… I didn't have the attention span to finish reading the 2008 article.)

So far, I am thoroughly enjoying the book. Mr. Carr goes into some neuroscience, some history, some literature info… He isn't going to bore me that way! Even for someone with the attention span of a squirrel on crack, this has enough topics to interest to me.

So… Do you think it is possible that we (human beings) are becoming shallower and more incapable of THOUGHT because we spend so much time bouncing around from idea to idea to idea…

I just subscribed to WORLD magazine!

I just subscribed to WORLD magazine!

A great thanksgiving

more later

I'm not posting today…

I'm on the verge of losing my voice, and I have to finish the paperwork and planning for my class.

Yeah, more about my speech

I am adding a page to my website, giving gory details about my speech. :-) It is at
http://lmstapp.com/speaking/

As part of building this page, I am trying to upload an MP4 of the event. My computer is throwing a temper tantrum about that. It may never speak to me again! Worse yet, it may never LISTEN to me again! Oh no! Not THAT, again!

I've said it once and I will say it again:

SPEECH RECOGNITION DOES NOT WORK LIKE IT DOES ON STAR TREK

(Unless you are talking about episodes like this…)

I gave my speech to TOTA

Here I am, all perky and prepared to speak

Some of the people I spoke to…

Saturday was the big day. Leslie and Erica took me, and they seemed to have a good time. Erica made some contacts that will help her as she goes towards her own career.

But… This is my blog. I can tell you that I've learned some things during this experience. For starters, although it makes me nervous… I like speaking. The preparation is difficult. I can't tell you how often I changed everything. From beginning to end, through the whole thing down and start again.

I also learned again that somethings feel best in the rearview mirror.