Back Home [August 2023, Days 7-9]

I’ve only been an uncle for under 1.5 years now. It’s an acquired identity

"Come on Mimi. It's too hot outside."
*slow wallet aftermath*

 At the time of writing, it’s past midnight here in Louisiana, but it’s a different day in Washington. I scheduled a few emails and deliveries ahead of time. I still have to hear back whether my conference presentation moved to a later timeslot to avoid a schedule conflict with my Saturday teaching.

At the risk of misapplying some philosophical idea, I’m supposed to always already be a teacher, learner, and lover of wisdom. That’s what the PhD, doctor of philosophy, means.

This reflection fits more of a pre-sleep, pre-travel collection of connecting thoughts situated within the last few days. I’m also on a streak that I will allow myself to break tomorrow in order to get some sleep over in Seattle. I will also edit this by adding to it. I think this one will act as one of those hub posts.This trip has been fun, and it was good to witness my nephew growing up, live, instead of via text.

 

Choosing

Before he was even born, my first gift to my nephew was a choice between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. In the end, he’ll always wind up with all three, like Ash from the anime or Yellow from the games, but his initial preference is probably contextual. The predictions I heard were Charmander because he’s orange, or Squirtle because he vaguely looks like a baby. I didn’t really hear anyone predict Bulbasaur, reasoning something like “Bulbasaur looks the most edible of the three.”

"That one."

Bulba-bulba.

Bulba-saur!

 

Your turn.

By the way, my first starter Pokémon was Pikachu, since I played Yellow Version first.

 

Learning Theory

Na’ilah Saud Nasir, a top scholar in my field, former AERA president and current Spencer Foundation president, describes three kinds of resources for becoming or practicing an identity:

• ideational resources – self-concept of relationship to a practice and what is good in the world
• relational resources – relations which reinforce becoming part of a practice
• material resources – ways in which the physical world shape our relationships

Learning is a part of sociocultural practices, or being part of a group, organization, or community. Onto-epistemic heterogeneity (see Chapter 16 in The Handbook of Cultural Foundations of Learning), a fun term, really has me thinking about what the atoms of an education would be, in the Deweyan sense of “Education is life itself.”

I looked at the mouse flashcards, a pack of A to Z and 1 to 10. This is a material resource to be used by a teacher. I doubt my nephew, as smart as he is, couldn’t learn the alphabet or counting through the resource alone. It would require mama, dada, mimi, or papa, or someone at his daycare, or someone else with prior knowledge of the canon order of the alphabet, or the counting relationship between these positive integers. That relational resource pairs with the judgment that the learning of the content was worth it for my nephew at a time when he’s younger than 18 months old. The pack says pre-K.

A very important question:
Why does that mouse have pecs?

I will call it now that if Common Core State Standards still exist when he reaches kindergarten, homework sessions between my nephew and brother would be worth watching. That prediction is based on the fact my brother shares math memes that usually have ambiguous order of operations or some other gimmick, with the accompanying text to ‘splain.

When evaluating the educational value of the flashcards, the cartoon mouse on the box was kinda random considering all the other products of the same brand. Was it just to differentiate the packs? Were the drawings on the cards supposed to be a form of associative learning? The flashcards cost $1, so there really wasn’t too much of a downside to picking them up.

 

Collecting

My brother has a lot of stuff. Someday, the collection will have to pass on, right?

That's just the half of the room that fits in the picture.

He also has a lot of toys.

I did zero cleaning or de-cluttering in my ten days here. Before I get back to Seattle, I have an air fryer, a Sodastream, and a long comic box headed for my apartment. My thoughts on those purchases were they’ll make it so I’ll keep more organized.

On the plane ride back, I plan on reading Nimona. I have a backlog of low-commitment reads on my shelf back in Seattle, but I think I’ll get through it.

 

Cooking

My studio apartment doesn’t have a dishwasher, and the convection oven seems inefficient; I cook a lot of food on the stove, so I hope the air fryer expands the ways I heat food and make meals. The Sodastream is an experiment to see if I can get personal value. I could just drink water, but this seems to make some economic sense for me, assuming I use it and spend less on getting soft drinks. It's a way to better titrate my caffeine intake instead of coffee and tea, assuming I'd drink them ad libitum.

 

Whipped cream into Shaq face.

Louisiana does have great food. I’m going to miss the “slow wallet” phenomenon of getting my mom to pay for some meals. It’s when you hesitate or pretend to get the check, fulling to be too slow for the other person to get it first. I did cook more than usual on this trip though.

General Tso's Bean Curd (GTBC) with
air fried mushrooms and quick pickled onions.

Discussion

Overall, I do feel recharged after this trip. It was a good break after my summer teaching and before my fall dissertating.

Other Parts of This Trip [August 2023]

• Visit Days 1-3.
• Visit Days 4-6.
• Visit Days 10-11.
  
• View a Stylized Reimagining of this trip back home using DALL-E.

Back Home [August 2023, Days 1-3]

Vacuum sealing works! I used bags that had a double zip top without a pump. The sliders came off, but I easily put them back on. I rolled the bags to push air out, and the sliders popped off anyway. I overstuffed a few bags, but the savings on volume helped. Since I was going home to Louisiana, I took back items I wanted to keep but didn’t use when I was in Washington, mostly clothes abandoned from March 2020. They were rescued and relocated for the wardrobe back home, making my future travel a little lighter.

 

Vacuum sealing for my
Seattle to New Orleans trip (Summer 2023)

I traveled with 24” x 18” x 12” luggage which weighed about 45 pounds. I packed my backpack with my laptop, tablet, planner, and notebooks.

I walked over to the UW Husky Stadium Link Station, down the Burke-Gilman trail on a toasty, shadeless Tuesday evening. The Royal Brougham Way rail needed some work that week, so I had to cross over at Pioneer Square Station, a stop I rarely used. The rest of the way to Sea-Tac was uneventful, but I was temped to drop off my bags then leave for the Taco Bell on 188^th. Darkness didn’t settle until past 9 p.m., so the temptation to relax over there was real.

 

Branching Point

United Airlines didn’t deliver a good experience this time. I used the “bag drop shortcut,” yet the worker who checked my bags stuck the wrong sticker on it! He even checked my ID, but he still mixed mine up with a woman headed to Newark. We had completely different names, and she z-snapped, “I’m not going to no New Orleans.” She proceeded to complain to multiple other workers, “What are you doing to rectify the situation?” The ordeal took about 20 minutes to resolve and required the worker to go through security, to the gate, to get my bag. The actual swapping of stickers took a few seconds, but we all checked multiple times to ensure the bags were headed off to the right gates.

The TSA pre-check line had an estimated 12-minute wait, but it only took about four minutes all the way through. Non-pre-check passengers saw the short line and tried to go past but were re-directed by one airport staff member holding the stanchion. She checked the boarding pass on my phone for the green check. One of the TSA Agents pointed out to the backed-up line “You know, you could go to that lane. Keep moving, keep moving.”

If the mix-up with my bags didn’t happen, dinner would have been much different. I splurged on a calzone, an almond pinwheel, and a drink, all for around $30. I could have gotten Taco Bell for much less, but the heat, the walk, the risk were less appealing after the ordeal with my luggage. The inconveniences in the airport make it easier to sell.

I’m glad I’m taking Alaska Airlines on the 5.5-hour trip back.

 

Houston Layover

The south terminal required a train ride, but I had about 90 minutes between dinner and boarding, so I listened to my playlist specifically to figure out if I’d skip any tracks. I went around the terminal in a mix of figure-8’s and circles like a bee navigating a field of flowers.The flight to the layover in Houston went smoothly, but taxiing to our terminal took forever. 

A blurry, yet grokkable photo of
early-early morning Houston.

Takeoff from IAH about an hour later.

It was full, but nothing eventful, with the attendants emphasizing that they’d let us go to sleep. From Houston to New Orleans, clear skies awaited a quarter-full plane. “You can sit wherever once we’re up in the air.”

Science educator bae appeared on morning news over
Houston. (Tatiana Erukimova, Texas A&M)

 

45 minutes after takeoff, we reached the
Mississippi River into New Orleans.

Sidequests at Home

My mom picked me up from the airport and the various Taco Bells on the way home didn’t have open lobbies for breakfast. Eating at Taco Bell requires the gimmick of dining in to maximize the efficiency for drinking the various Mountain Dews and Dr. Peppers. Otherwise, I’d rather eat elsewhere. We stopped over at our favorite local Thai restaurant for an early lunch, and then we picked up some groceries.

With a kitchen island, it was easier to fill up
a pitcher with almond milk.

After unpacking, showering, and napping, I made some almond milk for the duration of my stay, using more space than my apartment. I also tried out some Impossible meatballs in a spaghetti sauce, and it was far better than previous plant-based spaghetti and meatballs dishes.

I walked my 10,000 steps in the first day back, but Louisiana requires a car to get around. It’s far too hot and humid to walk. That Thursday, I fixed our treadmill, which had some wiring and front panel issues. “It was working before we left!” my mom said. The buttons to slow down sped up the belt, and any of the pre-set speeds registered as 10 mph, so I figured everything just shifted. I removed a few panels on the back, taking out 12 screws, and fixed some loose pins, cables, and wires. I hope static doesn’t build up, but it works now, and I got in my remaining steps.

I fixed the treadmill. Robotics experience helped.
Mostly unplugged wires and plugged them back in.

On Friday, I went into the city with my uncle, and I picked up Nimona, Robins Being Robin, and a few issues on my comics pull-list. I didn’t want to get carried away since I’d want to bring some things back to Seattle. I intend to combine the New Orleans and Seattle collections into one library, but first I’d have to clear some space in both places. I also wish I could import Hansen’s snowballs to Seattle. It works for king cakes.

 

A wholesome, James Beard award-winning
family business for 84+ years.

 

Honey lavender pineapple stuffed snowball.
Air conditioning for my tummy.

My uncle and I saw Teenage Mutant: Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in 3D; I’d recommend it, but not necessarily the 3D; I had a slight headache after. I’m seeing Blue Beetle with my brother on Saturday. And I’ll see Barbie again, but with my mom on Sunday. I ended the day with a Zoom call with some UW students, that lasted about an hour; I took a slow stroll on the treadmill, but it was definitely forward progress.

Other Parts of This Trip [August 2023]

• Visit Days 4-6.
• Visit Days 7-9.
• Visit Days 10-11.
  
• View a Stylized Reimagining of this trip back home using DALL-E.