I have to get out of this blogging every other day routine. I need to get out of the blogging late routine. That’s an isolation goal. Let’s see if I can succeed.
Blame and problems or delays in this entry on Laurie MacAllister and Ellis Paul who are streaming live as I write this. Now it’s just Laurie, should that make this twice as good? I don’t think it works that way. If I keep making these short paragraphs it will bring the reading level of the piece down. Word always gives me that when I spell check. Sadly, the mode is between 4 and 5. When I write the more philosophical pieces it goes up to between 7 and 8. I shouldn’t be bothered by this as whenever I teach writing to students I tell them to not try and impress their teachers, that does the opposite. They should concentrate on writing clearly and concisely. Nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs are for wusses. I just cut out an adverb from earlier in this paragraph. I only use long words when no shorter words convey the same thing. It’s so difficult to know what other people know. I used bucolic in speech the other day and my friend wasn’t familiar with the word but was confident enough to tell me that. There are times I send my readers to their dictionaries; those are teaching opportunities. The reading level is 5.5. You should have no trouble following me. Adding that sentence lowered it to 5.4. Am I going to spend the rest of this entry checking my reading level? No, that’s too meta even for me; especially as it’s now down to 5.3.
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Maybe talking about a double idiot story will bring it up. Last night’s dinner was roasted chicken thighs and French fries. I have this down to a science. The chicken takes 30 minutes and the fries 18 so I prepare the chicken with my carefully chosen spices, put it in the oven or now air fryer, then cut the potatoes, prepare them with oil and carefully chosen spices, and pop them in the over with 18 minutes left on the timer. Then I go into the living room until it’s done. Last night I did that, came back when I heard the timing chime, and saw the raw potatoes on the frying tray on the counter. I had never put them in. It’s not a disaster. I just had a multi-course meal with a break. I took out the chicken and put in the potatoes and went on my computer to post this expert cooking tip.
I have an expert tip on air frying potatoes. After hand cutting the potato and coating it with oil and placing them on the tray; You have to put them IN the fryer to cook them.
Very typical self-deprecatory humor from me. I ate the chicken which was perfect. I engaged in banter about the post with friends. I watched TV. You know what I didn’t do? Take the potatoes out of the air fryer and eat them. When I prepared to go to sleep I went in the kitchen, as I do every night, to clean the dishes. That’s when I realized I never at the potatoes. They were not quite down to room temperature and I ate them without heating. They had been made perfectly and I don’t like what reheating does to fries. On the bright side I ate them right off the tray, so I didn’t have to dirty a dish. The nice thing about being an idiot is that it gives me something to write about.
I forgot who yesterday’s conversation was with. That’s not good. Did I forgot to call someone? Did I talk to Katrina? Or was that the day before? As my cell phone is broken I can’t check this by looking at my phone. I had a zoom meeting about a program to fight voter suppression. I’ll be mailing out postcards and texting to get the unregistered registered and the registered voting. This is non-partisan. If you want to help go toReclaim Our Vote.
I’ve been worrying about a character trait of mine that I worry about; I don’t suffer fools gladly. I should qualify that somewhat. If I think a person just doesn’t have the intellectual capacity to understand something I would never say anything critical. It might annoy me but that’s my problem. My friends are far from a random sampling of humanity, and they distort my feel for what the average person is like. I’ve had a few FB encounters with people that didn’t understand something I’d have thought impossible to not understand. A friend, without thinking it through, said he didn’t think it was possible to make mistake X, when an acquaintance had just made mistake X on the thread. The irony being that the friend made mistake Y, which led him to think that somebody else made mistake X. Does any of that make sense? The last thing I want to do is make anyone feel bad.
And that’s what I’m upset with myself about. When someone doesn’t understand something, and then has the mistake explained to them, and then tries to defend the mistake another way, that’s the foolishness I can’t suffer, and I will get sarcastic. I shouldn’t. When their reaction to being corrected is to get defensive then further discussion is not just useless but self-defeating. The only lesson that I’m teaching them as that I can be hurtful. I don’t want to ever be hurtful; but at times it’s difficult to resist. I’m working on it. I’m not beating myself up, I don’t expect perfection, but I can expect improvement. As the sage Captain Kirk said, “I can accept that I’m a killer but say, I will not kill … today.” I can accept that I don’t suffer fools gladly, but I won’t lash out at the fool, … today.
What do you think the reading level is now? It’s 5.5 I’ve been consistent.
Wise Madness 