Silent Sunday

Posted on 3rd November 2024 by NomadWarMachine

Autumn Leaves

“Autumn Leaves” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Silent Sunday

Posted on 27th October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

299 Autumn Leaves

“299 Autumn Leaves” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Use more cats!

Posted on 22nd October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

Bribery

“Bribery” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Today in the Active Learning Network CPD session Isobel asks us to reflect on the sessions. The activity that I enjoyed the most was the session by Mark Wilsher called The Purr-fect Grade: How grading cats teaches us about student assessment.

What one thing will you take from the sessions?

  • Use more cats in my work
  • Use cats more in my work

What obstacles might you face?

  • Only having two cats
  • My cats not behaving when/as I want them to

How might you overcome these obstacles?

  • Get more cats!
  • Bribe/train my cats

What might you gain from this activity?

  • It would give me joy!

What might you miss if you didn’t do it?

  • The joy of talking about/stroking my cats when I should be working!
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Predicate Calculus

Posted on 20th October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

Today’s Daily Create asks us to “write a poem formatted like computer code about natural networks”. As I started to think about how to do this, I wondered if a GenAI programme might help with philosophical logic, so I asked ChatGPT to give me an example of predicate calculus. Having ascertained that it could provide something meaningful, I asked it to:

“Please write the following in predicate calculus: bees drink the nectar from the flowers”

Here’s the answer

“Bees drink the nectar from the flowers” in predicate calculus, we need to define some predicates and structure the sentence properly.

Step-by-Step Breakdown:

  1. Define the predicates:
    • Let B (x) represent “x is a bee.”
    • Let F (y) represent “y is a flower.”
    • Let D (x,z) represent “x drinks z” (where x is the bee and z is the nectar).
    • Let N (z,y) represent “z is the nectar from flower y.”
  2. Express the sentence:
    • “Bees drink the nectar from the flowers” can be written as:
    • Ax Ay Az (B(x) ^ F (y) ^ N (z,y) -> D(x,z))

    This means “For all x, y, and z, if x is a bee, y is a flower, and z is the nectar of y, then drinks z.”

This formalizes the idea that bees (represented by x) drink nectar (represented by z) from flowers (represented by y).

That’s poetry to me.

Posted in DailyCreate, DS106, Poetry | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Silent Sunday

Posted on 20th October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

291 Mugdock

“291 Mugdock” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Knightswood Pond

Posted on 18th October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

Today’s Daily Create asks for a time lapse poem

Knightswood pond

“Knightswood pond” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Weather forecast

Posted on 16th October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

Today’s Daily Create asks for a poem about weather forecasts. I look at many weather maps of Scotland, then write a haiku.

October forecast:
Rain, followed by rain, then rain
Good weather for ducks

Ducks

“Ducks” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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Eagles and Doves

Posted on 15th October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

Today’s Daily Create asks us to

Look out of your actual window and then open a nature webcam from somewhere in the world. (here is the home of nature webcams via the US National Park Service) Write a poem that bridges these two views, exploring the connection between your local environment and a distant ecosystem.

I chose the Bald Eagle cam at Sauces Canyon Nest.

Sauces Canyon Bald Eagle Nest

“Sauces Canyon Bald Eagle Nest” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

And contrasted it with a recent view of the birdfeeder in our garden

276 Collared Doves

“276 Collared Doves” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Small birds visit our garden,
Robins, tits and doves,
Dropping in for a daily feed,
Safe from the bald eagles resting in their nest across the globe

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Ducks and Fuchsias

Posted on 14th October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

I don’t believe in God, the afterlife, or supernatural forces. I do believe in coincidence, in seeing patterns in nature and finding meaning when you look for it.

Mum loved ducks – there are ducks throughout her house. Pictures of ducks, plastic ducks, wooden ducks. Every time I see a duck I think of mum.

Mum died on Thursday morning. On Friday afternoon, on the way back from saying goodbye, we stopped as usual at Tebay Service Station, bought coffee and cake and sat in the café to admire the view. As we sat and looked over the pond I thought of mum with more than one tear in my eye.

Ducks at Tebay

“Ducks at Tebay” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine  shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license.

Back at home on Saturday I shuffled the pages of my daily calendar to find the page for the day – and stopped with a smile. What a lovely picture for my weekend.

Ducks on a Riverbank

“Ducks on a Riverbank” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

And then yesterday morning, as I was pottering around the garden I noticed that we had a fuchsia in bloom – a present from mum soon after we moved into this house 12 years ago, and the first time I’ve seen it flower.

288 Fuchsia

“288 Fuchsia” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine  shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Lovely reminders of a mother who loved me, and who I loved.

Posted in Family, Flowers, Grief | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Ode to Father Time

Posted on 14th October 2024 by NomadWarMachine

Today’s Daily Create is to write an ode to Father Time

O silent keeper of all things,
You move unseen through shadows cast,
With footsteps soft, yet never still.
The stars align, the tides obey,
All yield to you—relentless, vast.

Your hands are weathered, old as stone,
Yet you are ageless, ever new.
You mend, you break, you heal, you mar,
A sculptor’s chisel, carving through,
Unveiling lives in cycles far.

A child’s first cry, an elder’s sigh,
The bloom of youth, the winter’s breath—
You’re there, a witness to our change,
A fleeting gift, a final debt,
Each heartbeat passing in your range.

Unseen you turn the seasons’ wheel,
And all our clocks are but your play.
What power lies in your domain,
For all we are, and all we’ll be,
Is woven in your endless skein.

And though we chase, and though we flee,
There is no place to hide, to wait,
For when you call, we go as one—
Forever caught within your fate,
Eternal father of the sun.

Written by ChatGPT

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