Fail, 2017 (POOF - learning!)

Colleen Prieto wrote:
We didn't last 5 minutes before POOF - learning!!!
The rest of that and lots of others above and below it are here: July 24 at 11:45 am

Shan Burton told a couple of stories and summarized:
The Burton family - Wildly successful at utterly failing to learn nothing.



Emily Strength wrote in 2017 (and has let me share it):
_______________

A Learn Nothing Day Report

I had to work today so I knew I was doomed to fail. I didn't even try.

Aviva bombed it as soon as she woke up. She watched ABC, number and nursery rhyme videos on youtube while I worked.
By the time all the kids were awake and I remembered to tell them what day it was, Zaria had already watched a video with a kid getting stitches. Too late for her too!

When I told them what day it was Liliana asked what Learn Nothing Day is all about and when I told her, she said, “Well now I just learned something!”

Ezabella remembered from last year, so you'd think she'd be on top of things. But NO, she went and asked me who came up with Learn Nothing Day. So I told her Sandra Dodd did and why.

Everyone had technically already failed the day, but I was determined to try to redeem it.

Ezabella told me she was going to use her Triller app to make music videos and I said that was fine as long as she didn't use any new features or songs. She immediately disobeyed me and learned how to use new filters!

Zaria and I had to look up the Amazon river and piranhas, because she was asking about them when we went to the lake yesterday. But 10 or 15 minutes of maps and fish videos wasn't too bad, right?

Then Zaria and Ezabella watched music videos, and since they were all songs they knew by heart, I thought they'd be fine. But no, they had to make up new dance moves!

We ran out of propane, but Zaria said it was ok, because the microwave still had propane. I couldn't keep my mouth shut... I went and told her that it runs on electricity.

We went swimming. I thought that would safe, since they all know how to swim already, except Aviva who uses her floaty. Surely they couldn't learn anything new in half an hour of swimming.

But then the neighbor kid and her mom came with us, and the mom brought her crystal singing bowls and used them while we swam. Of course the kids asked her what they were and how they worked. Ezabella connected them to her quartz rocks. The neighbor and I talked about yoga, energy, meditation, the frequencies of linen and wool and the science behind the Bible saying not to mix them, the gems on the high priest's breastplate and more. The kids heard it all and talked with us!

Ezabella asked me if sharks ever swim or hunt in groups. Fortunately I don't know much about sharks and could only give her some guesses and tell her we'd look it up later, so that one was mostly averted. Maybe she won't look it up till tomorrow.
When we came back from swimming, Liliana wanted to crochet a hat for her sock puppet doll that she sewed yesterday, so I gave in and showed her how. After the pool, there was no redeeming this day anyway.

Zaria did a little crocheting and a little bracelet making.

Liliana walked down the street to pick blackberries.

Ezabella wanted to buy hair dye, and we almost did, but then we read that she should stay out of the pool with dyed hair. So she decided to buy a book with her money from washing the neighbor's cars the other day.

The rest of the evening, I was working and Damien was with them. I haven't asked what they learned, so I'll just pretend that if I don't know what they learned, it means they didn't learn anything, and that we had a successful evening.

Now we're about to go outside and look for the new moon.

The end of another failed Learn Nothing Day. We'll try again next year!

_______________

If I find links to blog posts or other accounts, I'll add them here, for the record, to warn future generations how easily this can fail.

A hobbit gift from Joyce Fetteroll

This was new in 2014 but I'm bringing it back to the top because I've made a playable version here: Joyce's Hobbit-Gift Quiz




July 7 is Joyce's birthday!

She has built art made of puzzles. On the Radical Learning Info group on facebook, she wrote:
This is a hobbit birthday present for Sandra. And everyone. :-)

All the letters come from the first letters of words in the titles of 1960s TV shows. Except one which is a final letter.

I can't guarantee Sandra watched them all, but all were popular at the time. Though some have since drifted into obscurity. (Plain block lettering on title screens was surprisingly common back then so it was tricky finding distinctive letters. I wasn't *trying* to be obscure!)

Some, I think!, are relatively easy. Some have clues in the images. One, having a little knowledge of the uses of calligraphy will help with. (And then knowing there was a show—up until last year—that had to do with that :-)) One is from an updated logo of a show that lasted 31 seasons! Some I'll be real surprised if anyone gets. One of those has a connection with Sandra's years just beyond the 60's.

There are additional layers of 1960s mystery besides the letters. There's a better look at the screen behind the words here:

It would be preceded by this:


And followed by the background image on the right (on Joyce's art at the top). The one on the left was a constant annoyance.

Even the dials are becoming mysterious. 11 was supposed to snap into 11 but on bad reception days the challenge was to get it to stick at almost-11.

Click here for a larger version of Joyce's art (and click the image again for close-ups).

Banana who?



Banana leaves are not easy to find in New Mexico. This one was in Samoa. The lettering and photography is by a Samoan offering services as samoaislandlife, on Fiverr.

This one was the title image for this blog for a couple of years, and now it's here:

Reality and fake snow

Even real snow globes have fake snow, but this kinda makes me think about the actual nature of virtual reality.
Ignore that little red hat, until December or so.
Ah... maybe you hadn't seen the little red hat.
I bet you see it now!
Doh!


This doesn't even say "Learn Nothing Day," but it doesn't need to, I guess, to be shared with the rest of the Fiverr haul of 2017.
I'll try to remember to bring it back out in December, at Just Add Light and Stir.

Artistry by ceeworks (USA)

Think about it

One week to think about it, and then you're ON.



Although Napoleon Dynamite is a fictional Mormon kid from Idaho,
the person who set this image up is in New York.
legitinstafame on fiverr

Shhh...... Quiet, please

♫ Don't sing love songs ♫
♫ You'll wake my...

.... chicken.




This chicken and his artist friend are in Macedonia / FYROM xpuctujah on fiverr.com

Very cool, for July



art by amazingimage, at fiverr.com
(from the U.S., and I don't recognize the make of the car—
I have a smart car, but the wipers don't cross over that way)




I asked on Facebook. Brie Jontry found it. It's an early smart car, 2007 or so.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155775747251162&set=p.10155775747251162&type=3

...with the fishes

Learn Nothing Day swims with the fishes... in a good way!




knezaberada, from fiverr, who did the art with the cat and the pool, wrote to say that I was her first sale, and so she had made me a surprise gift. This island and fish option isn't even on her page (yet? might be later?), so I am happy to share this gift with all those who will participate in Learn Nothing Day in 2017, and in years to come. Just picture yourself relaxing on this island, or swimming in that water, without learning a single, solitary thing. So peaceful.

The Last Big Deal

The last time I made a big deal about Learn Nothing day was 2014, when it was the 7th.
This year (2017) will be #10.

There isn't another fancy number coming until 2027, or 2032. If I'm still around and if Learn Nothing Day is still remembered then, I might buy some crazy art and make a "woohoo!" celebration out of it then.

For now, though, I DO have some art still coming. There are chickens from Macedonia (in motion), a magic trick from Jamaica, a banana leaf from Samoa, an air brush demo, and some more photoshop fun – something nearly every day until the 24th.

From the 10th Learn Nothing Day until the seventh anniversary of Just Add Light and Stir (September 2, 2017), I'll ask for donations. I didn't do that last year. I won't request financial help again until 2020.

Thank you for reading this, and for your kind words, well wishes and good will.

Not teaching, not learning, just being happy!

Two weeks left until Learn Nothing Day!



(If you can't see the video, it's on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dME3NwueNE)

Ezhil and his cousins, doing busines as funnyguys at Fiverr.com, made this video. They wanted $10, but I gave them $20. They live in some Tamil-speaking part of India. It's silly, but they must be having fun and making some money, because they have over 2,500 reviews on Fiverr, and a five-star rating.

Paper stars




The artist is in the U.S., but the folded stars have two Korean connections for me—one factors into a kdrama called Healer, which I love and have watched half a dozen times. And Alex Polikowsky learned how to fold stars like this, from a Korean friend in Minnesota. But the art above is by a fiverr artist named Rochelle, here: fiverr.com/ceeworks

Not my cat

This cat lives in Spain. That picture isn't really wet. Cosmic.


Photoshop by knezaberada at fiverr.

Don't get the wrong idea

This is from 2012, from another place, but think about it:



Because I put a post on About Unschooling, I looked at the site stats, so I can see if there's a bump. It's not important, but what I found was this:

I told Holly a lot of people came to the site on Learn Nothing Day. She said, "Nearly three thousand? That sounds like three thousand people who didn't even try to learn nothing."
So it goes.

(original)

One more month of learning

I'm posting this on June 24. July 24 is that One Big Holiday for unschoolers. Learn as much as you can before the big lull, the shut-off, the power-down, the void. Oh, that reminds me about the discussion of how difficult it was to translate "void in Utah" to French. Even "Learn Nothing Day" can be hard to translate.

Everything reminds me of lots of things.

This art was new in 2015. The Lego arrangement, photo and image were all created by Alicia Gonzalez-Lopez with help and encouragement from her artistic children.



Alicia sent me "Lego Sandra" with her wheelbarrow (inspired by my "Wheelbarrow things" blog: Wheelbarrows). The little sign is really a miniature little physical sign). I gave it a train ride, on the Cumbres & Toltec, in August that year:
  

It rode inside, but I posed it on the engine when we stopped for lunch.

Tenth Learn Nothing day will be in 2017

The tenth one! Coming soon. Learn all you can before then.

Below are some portals to the learning of trivia or profundity or both, in case you want to learn.
When July 24th comes, try NOT to learn. Try to not learn, that day, for sure.

Click the randomizing dice:
Thinking Sticks—Ideas and connections

Images and quotes and links and smiles
Add Light and Stir

If you choose randomly, I'm probably in there. Not all of them, but lots. "More Extra Bits" at the bottom is all me.
(Me and Amy Childs, the interviewer/creator of the beautiful, short podcasts.)
Unschooling Support (you might need to download to hear in full, now)

Happy Learn Something Day! (One of 364 or so.)

Already, in April? No, just a thought




Virginia Warren made that as part of a long thread of examples of worthless posts, at Radical Unschooling Info.

Learn Nothing Day #10, coming in July!