TITLE: Leftover Notes
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: April 04, 2022  5:45 PM
DESC: 
-----
BODY:

 Like many people, I carry a small notebook most everywhere I go.  It is
 not a designer's sketchbook or engineer's notebook; it is intended
 primarily to capturing information and ideas, a lá Getting Things
 Done, before I forget then.  Most of the notes end up being transferred
 to one of my org-mode todo lists, to my calendar, or to a topical file
 for a specific class or project.  Write an item in the notebook, transfer
 to the appropriate bin, and cross it off in the notebook.

 I just filled the last line of my most recent notebook, a Fields Notes
 classic that I picked up as schwag at Strange Loop a few years ago.
 Most of the notebook is crossed out, a sign of successful capture and
 transfer.  As I thumbed back through it, I saw an occasional phrase or
 line that never made into a more permanent home.  That is pretty normal
 for my notebooks.  At this point, I usually recycle the used notebook
 and consign untracked items to lost memories.

 For some reason, this time I decided to copy all of the untracked down
 and savor the randomness of my mind.  Who knows, maybe I'll use one of
 these notes some day.

<blockquote>
The Feds

basic soul math

I want to be #0

routine, ritual

gallery.stkate.edu

M. Dockery

www.wastetrac.org/spring-drop-off-event

Crimes of the Art

What the Puck

Massachusetts ombudsman

I hope it's still funny...

chessable.com

art gallery

Xena @ tubi

In Da Club (50 Cent)

Gide 25; 28 May : 1

HFOSS project

April 4-5: Franklin documentary

Mary Chapin Carpenter

"Silent Parade" by Keigo Higashino

www.pbs.org -- search Storm Lake

"Hello, Transcriber" by Hannah Morrissey

Dear Crazy Future Eugene
</blockquote>

 I recognize most of these, though I don't remember the reason I wrote
 all of them down.  For whatever reason, they never reached an actionable
 status.  Some books and links sound interesting in the moment, but by
 the time I get around to transcribing them elsewhere, I'm no longer
 interested enough to commit to reading, watching, or thinking about them
 further.  Sometimes, something pops into my mind, or I see something, and
 I write it down.  Better safe than sorry...

 That last one -- <em>Dear Crazy Future Eugene</em> -- ends up in a lot of
 my notebooks.  It's a phrase that has irrational appeal to me.  Maybe
 it is destined to be the title of my next blog.

 There were also three multiple-line notes that were abandoned:

<blockquote>
 poem &gt; reality <br/>
 words &gt; fact   <br/>
 a model is not identical
</blockquote>

 I vaguely recall writing this down, but I forget what prompted it.  I
 vaguely agree with the sentiment even now, though I'd be hard-pressed
 to say exactly what it means.

<blockquote>
 Scribble pages that separate notes from full presentation <br/>
 (solutions to exercises)
</blockquote>

 This note is from several months ago, but it is timely.  Just this week,
 a student in my class asked me to post my class notes before the session
 rather than after.  I don't do this currently in large part because my
 sessions are a tight interleaving of exercises that the students do in
 class, discussion of possible solutions, and use of those ideas to
 develop the next item for discussion.
 I think that
<a href="https://docs.racket-lang.org/scribble/">
   Scribble</a>,
 an authoring system that comes with Racket, offers a way for me to build
 pages I can publish in before-and-after form, or at least in an outline
 form that would help students take notes.  I just never get around to
 trying the idea out.  I think the real reason is that I like to tinker
 with my notes right up to class time...  Even so, the idea is appealing.
 It is already in my planning notes for all of my classes, but I keep
 thinking about it and writing it down as a trigger.

<blockquote>
 generate scanner+parser?  expand analysis, <br/>
 codegen (2 stages w/ IR -- simple exps, RTS, full) <br/>
 optimization!  would allow bigger source language?
</blockquote>

 This is evidence that I'm often thinking about my compiler course and
 ways to revamp it.  This idea is also already in the system.  But I
 keep to prompting myself to think about it again.

 Anyway, that was a fun way to reflect on the vagaries of my mind.  Now,
 on to my next notebook: a small pocket-sized spiral notebook I picked
 up for a quarter in the school supplies section of a big box store a
 while back.  My friend Joe Bergin used to always have one of these in
 his shirt pocket.  I haven't used a spiral-bound notebook for years
 but thought I'd channel Joe for a couple of months.  Maybe he will
 inspire me to think some big thoughts.
-----