[GCFL-discuss] How Times Have Changed

Fri Feb 27 21:04:40 CST 2009

Oh no. Another bit of life that Jeanene and I agree on. Maps are
fascinating. When I'm not poring over them, I draw imaginary maps,
roughly in the same spirit as the Middle Earth and Narnia maps, but,
different patterns inhabited by different populations. Never did get
around to writing a novel to flesh them out. I also like maps of the
medieval world, any part of the world.

Siarlys

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:58:30 -0700 "Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies
List" <gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net> writes:
greenBubble,
I LOVE maps.  I love all of them:  paper ones, globe ones, online ones,
fabric ones, old ones, new ones, out-of-date ones, GPS ones.  There is a
map store in my town and I could spend 40 hours a week there just
absorbing and searching and poring over maps.  I love MAPS!  I am even
addicted to GoogleEarth.  When someone tells me about a place, I always
look it up on GE so I can see what it looks like from the air, what it's
near, etc etc.  I have an innate sense of direction and can almost always
point accurately N, S, E or W.  Even as a child, I have always known how
we got someplace and how to leave and return.  I think it's because I was
always curious and aware of my surroundings.  I was aware of street names
and could give good directions.
On the other hand, my eldest daughter is hopelessly directionally
challenged.  She doesn't have a clue!  When she moved from Tucson (big
and spread out) to southern CA, we bought her a GPS.  She could not have
functioned in a new place without one.  I like the idea of driving on
streets all over the place just to get to know an area.  I like to drive.
The generation of kids who don't know how to look up a word in the
dictionary or find a business in the Yellow Pages scares me a little...
I think I might like being a taxi or bus driver, but I am afraid of
crazies.  It seems not unlike working in a Circle K/ 711/MiniMart kind of
place where your life is in almost constant danger from bad guys.
Jeanene
- People complain I'm absorbed and self-centered.  And this affects me
how?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List 
To: Red 
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 8:28 AM
Subject: Re: [GCFL-discuss] How Times Have Changed

NYS has standardized tests, called Regents Exams, for HS students.  for
math & sciences, high-tech calculators are required.  plotting a graph?
use the calculator.  look up a logarithm or trig function?  fugetaboutit.
 2 clicks and you have it to as many decimal places as you can handle.
The flip side is that when we were young, the fractions always worked out
to easy numbers, and a little thought would save you a ton of work. 
nowadays, you can't make that assumption. 
Who uses maps these days?  you want to know where something is, you go to
mapquest or google.  last week, my daughter took a wrong turn and got
lost.  she called me for directions.  i had her drive around a bit just
to get my bearings and then i told her how to get home.  Once home, i
said to her, "you know there are maps in the door pocket, don't you?" 
Her response: "Like I know what to do with a map??!"
BTW, that's one blessing of the cellphone:  when getting directions, the
person giving directions can know exactly what the driver sees and can
point out landmarks in real time.  
greenBubble 

Subject: Re: [GCFL-discuss] How Times Have Changed

Good for your mom! ?Calculators were big, rare and expensive when I was
in school, but my current philosophy is, nobody should use a calculator
until they can do basic arithmetic in their head, know multiplication
tables, etc. THEN they can start using calculators when the simple
arithmetic is NOT the point of the exercise, just something that
incidentally has to be done to get to the solution.

Siarlys

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