JBB’s Final Thoughts Episode 32: Three Odd Encounters with Contentment
Five weeks left in the current school year and it’s been a real challenge. I’m left half-way contemplating the things I want to change, and what I really need to focus on to have more of a sustainable/constructive year versus what has felt much more like running from emergency to emergency. That said, I found myself earlier in the month have several odd sensations that I could scarcely identify. I think I was exper...
JBB’s Final Thoughts Episode 32: Three Odd Encounters with Contentment
Five weeks left in the current school year and it’s been a real challenge. I’m left half-way contemplating the things I want to change, and what I really need to focus on to have more of a sustainable/constructive year versus what has felt much more like running from emergency to emergency. That said, I found myself earlier in the month have several odd sensations that I could scarcely identify. I think I was experiencing quiet moments of bliss.
MP3 Version: https://jbbsfinalthoughts.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/jbbsfinalthoughts_e32_three-odd-encounters-with-contentment.mp3
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Show Notes:
JBB’s Final Thoughts Episode 32: Three Odd Encounters with Contentment
Joe Bustillos, here. Five weeks left in the current school year and it’s been a real challenge. I’m left half-way contemplating the things I want to change, and what I really need to focus on to have more of a sustainable/constructive year versus what has felt much more like running from emergency to emergency. That said, I found myself earlier in the month have several odd sensations that I could scarcely identify. I think I was experiencing quiet moments of bliss.
This podcast is going to be a bit different from my usual monologue, primarily because I sought to capture this odd sense of bliss or contentment and the following three short videos are the result. The first video, recorded on March 27th, was the first time I slowed down just enough to notice something was different.
Video 1: Bliss?
Video 2: LEGOs
While I’ve been a tech-guy for decades, it’s been mostly of the web-based/media-based variety (though I began this journey with a Phillips screwdriver building my own PC-clones before going all-mac in 2008). Block programming and robotics was added to my repertoire in 2015 during the intense Full Sail Labs experience. Then at the beginning of this school year something changed when I was with my team at a student training and found that my students were getting bored, so I broke out the EV3 kits that I brought to have them tinker while listening to the lectures. But several of our robots were missing the third-wheel ball, so I looked at what we had in our kits and MacGyvered a third-wheel from the available parts. I was taking other’s plans and adapting them based on parts on hand and I’ve been at it all year. The following video highlights something that’s become an obsession for me: LEGO, robots and LEGO robots.
Video 3: Music – Some Assembly Required Band
In the Fall I joined the Some Assembly Required Band, which does the music for our monthly Sunday Assembly meeting. I don’t know why I waited so long to participate, but working with the guys has been great and a good challenge to attend to my musical gifts.
Closing: Sustainable Focus
I’m going to turn 61 in a couple of months and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I absolutely love working with the kids, but the year has been enough of a drain and confidence-killer that I do wonder if my gifts and skills could be better put to use in a different venue. I hope that writing and media is a bigger part of that chapter. And even though it wreaks havoc on my fingernails which effects my guitar finger-picking, there’s a definite therapy that’s good for maintaining my finger-strength when I’m working with the tiny LEGO pieces. Like a child, like my students, I see possibilities when I’m working with the LEGOs.
Thank you for spending this time with me at JBB’s Final Thoughts. If you want to continue to participate in my outer monologue you can subscribe to my blog at http://jbbsfinalthoughts.com, scroll to the bottom of the page, click on the FOLLOW button where it says “Follow Blog via Email” and enter your email address. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel, just search for JBB’s Final Thoughts (and make sure it doesn’t auto-correct to “jobs final thoughts”… damn auto-correct!). Catch you later, enjoy.
