paradigm problems

The more I think about it, the more I think that our education system has things backwards. It seems to me that learning to count in decimal is fine, but why not introduce the concept of powers earlier? Or rather, when powers are introduced, why isn't it applied to our base ten counting system. This would give kids an extraordinarily powerful understanding of how number systems are formed. I can't remember it being explicit in our learning material; maybe it was. 

That said things may have changed a lot in 20 years..

By the by, I feel the same way about radians and degrees. I don't think they're harder. In fact I think that both of these concepts *could* help some kids conceptualise numbers and mathematical problems far better if they didn't have to see it from the point of view of their educator. Ask yourself how big a degree is.. then ask why. Apart from it having many possible factors it seems almost arbitrary.

Whereas radians have an iron clad concept.

Rant over. Off to my exam.

balance

Finding balance in your life is a difficult, but important goal. But computer science/maths is teaching me some useful ways to define it.
Defining it, after all is key to creating and maintaining it. So here's my question to you; "How do you define balance?"
Here's my two pennies worth.

1. Define it - sit down and set your goals for things, relationships, finance and the your development this might help. it helps me
2. Refocus each day - here are some tools I use personally. But you can do it on paper or in your head in the shower. I sometimes use a recording to give me headings to think on and brief/debrief each day
3. Take Action - make sure when you have filtered your action plan to the daily level you follow it and record your progress towards each goal
4. Refocus twice a year - I do the goalsetting thing every six months to refresh my goals and adjust for new priorities. That's why I made it

I hope you find all that useful. It is the system I use to manage my development as a computer scientist, musician, martial artist, parent, security operative, teacher, lover, friend, uncle, brother, son, and everything else that I turn my skills towards in the future.
My website has had some pretty big updates lately, including a new web based image editor (beta) and some new videos. check out www.meds-place.com for regular updates.

The first iteration

Until recently I was a full time martial arts teacher. Martial arts still live at the core of my being, but my life has gone a different way.

Making money doing what you love is the dream, right? Well, I did that and I was successful at times, unsuccessful at others. But it was astoundingly rewarding in many ways besides financially.

So at 32, with a partner, step-son and rent to pay me and said partner brought up the subject of university. It's one of those things that I never got around to. There are lots of reasons why and I'd like to share a couple with you here.

Reason One:

When I was 14 my mother passed away due to cancer. Looking back I can see many events in my life that would have turned out rather differently with her at my back, watching over me or checking up on me...

That's not to say that I regret my life. Sometimes I look at situations that friends of mine are in, and into that factor in the support/berating/kick up the arse from a maternal figure and it confuses me. The role of a mother to a young adult is something that I understand intellectually but not intrinsically. But when I compare these events to similar happenings in my own life and try to overlay the 'mum' factor I can see that occasionally I would have taken starkly different paths.

Of note; I can say with confidence that I would certainly have gone to university at 18 or 19.

Reason two:

I have been let down by systems that I thought would support me or help me take the step up.

Seven or eight years ago, I held a supporting role in Exeter College. During this role I was placed in the music department where they made use of my college experience and musical ability. I attended course aimed at delivering learning to adults and it was arranged that I would teach provisionally on the lower level courses, whilst studying for a foundation degree in music.

Quite suddenly, the department pulled the funding and with one stone killed the two birds named 'hope' and 'confidence'.

...............

I could go on with this rant about how I've been disappointed, but lets face it... boo effing hoo; right?

For anybody that does not know me, these situations are things that I have never considered before in this light. This is not cathartic, I write the accounts down in a purely ponderous way to give some insight into my motivation(?!). They are objective musings to set the scene.

So then, the seed was planted and inevitably grew into a real life event. Now I find myself falling down the rabbit hole of study. After 16 years out of formal education (at least in maths and English), I find myself on an engineering foundation year at the University of Nottingham preparing to undertake my undergrad computer science degree.

The moral of this story is; what-ever your new years resolution is, don't just write it down. Get up off your arse and do two things. Today, make a plan with a timeline on how its going to happen. Straight after you've done that do the first step, whatever it is. Make the first step towards that thing you want, that place you want to go or that person you want to be with (I'm all about motivating stalkers...).

So I thought I would blog about a few of the trials and tribulations that come along the way. This blog has many facets. On the one hand I'm a full-time student who is completely out of his depth (most of the time at least) juggling the roles of father, house-husband and studious learner. On the other hand I'm a mature student returning to higher maths, physics and computer science at 33. Let's not forget that I'm also learning teh Codez and blundering my way blindly through formal and informal education in all of the above.

So this blog will have stories of difficulties, successes and failures. It will have advice for coders who are starting out and probably an extensive library of 'what not to dos' in that area. It will occasionally feature my work which, until I get employed by someone or make something amazing, will be free or open source. There will be some news on the projects that are always available at www.meds-place.com. There will be some journalistic accounts of parenthood and my continuing education and efforts/adventures with the wee Webb (my step-son) and more besides.

So prepare yourselves travellers, for my brain().