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I just got back from an idyllic loooong weekend on the beach, where I stayed up late, played lots of games, ate junk food, swam in the ocean, and rollerbladed six miles with D and N (SIX MILES). So, I was particularly primed to read this article about video games and learning, which has an interesting assertion:

VIDEO GAMES OBVIATE TESTING. The current assessment system forces teachers to teach to the test. Video games hold out a different way of thinking about assessments: namely, that we don’t need it. Compare a student who’s taken 12 weeks of algebra classes to one who’s played the video game Halo on the most challenging setting. The algebra student must take a test to assess what he knows on the day of the test. The Halo player has mastered the skills needed to get to the final level – and that’s his ultimate goal. No need for a test in that context. “Learning and assessment are exactly the same thing,” Gee said. “If you design learning so you can’t get out of one level until you complete the last one, there’s no need for a test. There would be no Bell Curve. It’s unethical to test a student based on one day’s knowledge. We have to change the attitude about testing on a government level.”

There are plenty of other interesting bits in there - including the idea that games encourage risk-taking, teach problem solving, and encourage kids to love challenges - but that bit above is the one I'm chewing on.

Thoughts? :)

What do you do, when in conflict, to pull yourself out of your own head and see things from (the /an)other point of view?

What hinders you from doing this?

Because when you get an email in Danish mis-sent to your address, you can easily identify that it contains a recipe for a delicious-sounding simple basil cream, because Danish is basically Norwegian. Then, you can politely thank the sender for the recipe, and put it on the agenda to try tonight.

BASIL CREAM FROM MARGIT, VIA THE INTERNETS
------------------------------------------
200 g light cream cheese
1/2 cup creme fraiche (Margit used 18%; I may sub sour cream)
Leaves of a potted basil
1/4 cup chives, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
Salt, freshly ground pepper


...sounds good to me. I wonder how much basil that is, though?

Yesterday, I:

• Had a hot breakfast-in-bed made by two small girls without adult supervision
  
• Ate brunch at 3 Little Figs
  
• Put in some sweet LED lightbulbs, restored the hidden reading nook to its former glory, and sorted the mail
  
• Snuggled my kid while watching dorky TV
  
• Discovered a magically squeaky clean kitchen had replaced the previous one while I was lounging
  
• Took the aforementioned girls out to Roller World for some skating, and got a lot of time skating solo
  
• Practiced skating backwards, a skill I never picked up
  
• Walked in the Fells with the girls and dilletante and jojotbird
  
• Explored PANTHER CAVE (which was epic)
  
• Went out for bedtime drinks with redheadedmuse
  
• Came home and enjoyed my marital privileges

...yeah, that's basically the best mother's day I've had in more than a decade. I'm a lucky lady.

Last night, I saw Bobby McFerrin with aroraborealis, dilletante, and young N. And even though I've wanted to see him live for as long as I can remember, I was blown away by how good the show was. He is grounded and ridiculous and *funny* and *beautiful*. It was in a huge theater, and we were in the top balcony, and it still felt like we were just hanging out with him.

Natalie was entranced, of course, and said, "I think we should invite him to stay with us for at least three days. Also I want to take a music class with him."

MEEEEE TOOOOOOO.

She continued to spend the whole concert being amazed and wanting to dance and sing along, which was sadly inappropriate a lot of the time, but oh my god it was so good for her to see someone being loved and respected for being so silly and spontaneous and human. She was tapping on her body and trying to make his silly noises and dancing in her seat (and sometimes out of it).

One of the best parts - he brought volunteers out of the audience, one by one, to jam with him. They came up and sang their own songs and he backed them, or they improvised together, or whatever. it just... songs they wrote. Or songs they liked. And with the last song, he forgot the words and transposed them in a ridiculous way, and got stuck in a giggle fit for a very, very long time. Well into the next segment.

Later, near the end, he asked people to come up and dance one by one, while he and his cellist jammed around what they were doing. Heart-stopping.

N looked at me and earnestly announced that it was ORDINARY PEOPLE DOING EXTRAORDINARY THINGS.

He also asked a small high-school choral group to come up and sing a song, and his daughter came up and sang with him, and the whole, whole concert he was grinning, and I just: I want to be him when I grow up, now, and that's a feeling I haven't had in a long time.

This year at Somerville Open Studios, I did a reprise of last year's project. Here's the idea: I set up a backdrop and do "five-minute photoshoots". No complicated anything - just: show up, I take photos of you for five minutes, and you get the results, whatever they are. This is not a complex portrait sitting. It's silly, it's quick, it's chaotic and fun. After you leave, I duck behind my little setup and pull the photos off of the camera and onto a USB stick and hand them to you to walk away with, and then I never have to think about it again.

( thinking about photos and photoshoots )

A selection of shots from the weekend is here. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and said hi, even in passing; I felt super supported. Thank you also to concrete, who turned the camera on me and took a few great shots, which I unfortunately seem to have deleted, thereby preserving my near-perfect record at having no photos of myself.

(photo by Diana Hunt, kid by... herself)

OK, with all the 20/20 stuff last week, I actually read Facebook for a few days. I had to stop again. Really, I wish I *could* read Facebook, and keep up with so many distant people and old friends, but it always feels like the social-media equivalent of a too-loud, overfull party.

"...THE VIOLENCE WILL BE BEAUTIFUL."

After a moment of reflection, I realized that violets are blooming right now, and we'd been picking them just that evening. And they are, indeed, beautiful.