The Weekly Smile for the 14th of December, 2020

52 Replies

Hi! This was a strange week. I did a lot of things that made me smile, such as exercise, playing with my dogs work (well…), decorating the Christmas tree, playing with musical instruments, finishing editing of my book The Old Mill and sending it off to two people for their editing skills, reading, eating cookies ;) (yes,it is that time of year), and more, but nothing stood out. I don’t want to do another “it is all of the small things in life!” post, so I will choose something odd.

I like exploring the Universe. A few weeks ago people were surprised that I was reading math books in my spare time. Why not? The Universe is fascinating and mathematics is the most elementary building block of the Universe.

This week I decided to take it a step farther. I joined one of those on-line education things.

There are many I am interested in! I love The Teaching Company, and have done many of their courses, but I do not want to do their unlimited one yet, since I have several courses I haven’t completed – I want to do those first. There is also Master Class, a YouTube thing that is mostly arts based, though also science (a lot of acting and music production). They have award winning artists and scientists, like Steve Martin, Samuel L. Jackson, Ken Burns, Jane Goodall (!!), and Herbie Hancock (!) teaching lessons. I will most likely do this later, but not right away. I chose one called Brilliant, which are interactive courses that go from very simple math and logic and push them through very advanced mathematics, computer science, physics, etc. I am talking beyond differential equations, just shy of graduate level courses.

So I started with some basic courses, which was a lot of fun! I do want to work my way up to the most advanced courses that they have. Yep, I am a nerd ;)

That is my smile this week, starting a new learning experience.

****

Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week.  Why don’t you share it?  I hope you can join in!

Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas.  If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity.  Don’t smile about the misfortune of others.  Don’t smile in a way to excludes others.  Make sure a 12 year old can read it.

To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile.  Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ).   You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me).   Next week I will compile all of the Smiles and do a separate post of them on Monday morning just before the smile.  (I will shoot for around 7 AM EST).

52 thoughts on “The Weekly Smile for the 14th of December, 2020”

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  9. Prior...

    How fun to keep learning like you do – amazing – and I guess it is amazing that you have spare time for extra things like math and music – and writing so much – woo hoo
    ((a little jealous))

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks, Y. Yeah, spare time is a very precious commodity! My only children are fur-children, so that helps. I do not watch TV. Ever. And I break things up. Right now I m not writing, so that time is free. When I get deep into a project, though, everything else goes away for a while ;)

      Liked by 1 person

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  12. Natasha

    Dear Trent,

    The learning curve never ceases to stop and it’s heartening to see how you are taking this forward. Perfect X’mas gift to yourself.
    The courses must be interesting.
    Herbie Hancock also practises Buddhism. :)) So does Tina Turner. I’m a fan!

    Here are my gratitude smiles for the week. I enjoyed listing them out.
    https://natashamusing.com/2020/12/gratitude-multiplies-good-fortune-wordless-wednesday-natasha-musing/

    And I do believe it’s a cliche, but it IS about those small things. ;-))

    Have a Splendid Yule.
    See you around.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I read Herbie Hancock’s book, and he does talk about Buddhism a little in it. I’m a huge fan of his. I really like Tina Turner, and admire her for many reasons, but I don’t follow her as much. Learning does never stop. I joke that when my curiosity is gone, then it is time to bury more, for I will be dead. We remember the big things, but life is made up of all of those little moments, and it is those small things that make it worth living – a friendly smile, petting a cat or dog, being with family, etc. :)

      Liked by 1 person

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  16. Shannon

    I love ordering from ‘The Great Courses’! They have lectures on everything from math and art history to writing and cooking and more. They’re always running sales, so affordably priced, too!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      They are great and I have watched dozens of their classes in a lot of subjects. They now have a streaming version where you pay a monthly fee and can watch as many courses as you want. If you use them often, it could be a great option.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Exercising the mind is as important as exercising the body. yeah, we do need to get away from the screens a bit. I have a lot of books on most of the advanced subjects, so that helps, but I don’t for the preliminaries, so too much screen time.

      Liked by 2 people

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      It was great to finally get the book off – I thought I would be at this point a year ago! Mind, body and soul – it is all interconnected and to be healthy in one, you need to be healthy in all :) And it is fun ;) Thanks.

      Liked by 2 people

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  20. robertawrites235681907

    My son is teaching himself another programming language, Trent. This is in his spare time for fun. He even did a whole comparison of the new one to the one the school teaches. He came and asked me which one I preferred. He’d put the two programmes side by side. I chose one and he was so disappointed. He asked why I chose that one and I told him it looked pretty [smile]. He said it wasn’t the better one.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Very cool that he is teaching himself the new language. I am most likely going to learn a new language soon – I haven’t programmed in ages, and all of the languages I know are pretty old in today’s world (well, things like Perl and Java are still used, just old). lol about choosing the program. yep, been there…

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I do like to read pure math, but there are issues – actually doing problems is much better, which is why I like this course, it is all interactive. I do have all of the Teaching Company courses on advanced math – all of calculus up to their Diff-EQ course, number theory, etc, and I have books on all of them, but this will force me to do the problems and relearn all of that stuff I have forgotten since I took it in college.

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I hope you get a good view of some of the meteors! Always fun, though it is very cold here, and cloudy (last night was clearer, but I didn’t make it out). Thanks, I’ll be by to check out your smile soon.

      Like

      Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I do like the teaching company and have done dozens of their courses over the years. Of course, they are all lectures, nothing interactive, but still very good and covering a huge amount of topics.

      Liked by 1 person

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