Time Well Spent* Beneficiation* On the first beat*

From May 17 - happy to see my transplanted poppies opened in the front yard.  Also, see the new growth on the Canadian Hemlock behind!

Time Well Spent*

Here's an old blog post that I like a lot. 

I began writing an hourly reflection after I thought about "100,000 hour left".  I was thinking "what will you do with your hours?"  (similar to "what will you do with your money?"  I would list items of the day, including small items, like "thought about..." or "listened to...." or "talk with Chris Wilbur in the bathroom about discussion structure...."  

At the end of each hour, do a reflection ("gently lifting the bone from a fish fillet" I write in my journal, but I don't understand why). What was the worthwhile bit?  Not the commute, but the audiobook... or the image in the scene in the book I'm reading.  

Then write: Get rough draft of next hour.  (I write:) item, present, gift.

Then, at the end of the day, I think, I circled some of the events (see photo).  Are these highlights?  Are these possible things that raise themselves from the hum-drum?

I understand now why I said "gently lifting the bone from a fish fillet."  I was thinking of the gentle action of separating "the worthwhile bit" of remembered actions. Be attentive in recalling the day not as a series of events, but of moments within the events.  The memorable moments, the edible sections of the day.  My image of gently lifting the bone from the fillet is backwards... it should be gently lifting the meat from the skeleton (if that's even a thing!). Butchering, I guess, but that's a brutal word.  I separated the wheat from the chaff.  Not "I graded papers.... I answered emails... I did the dishes...." Instead, I was inspired by a line by student X about Y, and I learned about a NYT learning network series that I might use in class next year, and I listened to a new Paul Desmond song that I really liked.    Not: I rode my bike home; nor I saw a lot of things while on my bike ride; but I rode through the heady but brief scent of lilacs while riding downhill.

Some real examples from today:

• while sitting through graduation ceremony at school: excellent song "Switch Over" by Horsegirl (while I was scanning the album for tracks I like)
• sun through the back window warming my legs while I pause before going back to school for graduation... enjoying the high levels of quiet
• also at graduation: the scene in Mill on the Floss where Tom tells Maggie that she can't see Wakim, her secret lover, any more.  intense!
• cafe miel and almond croissant at Standard Market cube with CC -- the way the croissant is so filled with yummy paste that it falls apart like a cinnamon roll

Building a consciousness that is always winnowing, finding the useful bits... not surviving, conquering...  not accomplishing, but exploring and learning, not exactly panning for gold, but ...

Technical and Industrial Terms

Beneficiation: The industrial term for treating mined ore to separate valuable minerals from the worthless rock (gangue).

Smelting and Refining: The chemical and thermal process of melting down massive amounts of ore to isolate pure, rare elements.

Distillation: Taking a high volume of liquid and boiling it down to capture only the purest, rarest vapors. 

On the first beat*

In his famous tutorial, Bootsy Collins explains that the secret to funk is emphasizing "The One," the very first beat of every musical measure. 

He demonstrates that while you can play anything in between, as long as you land hard on that first beat, the groove remains unstoppable and funky.