Finding Damo

16 Apr 2023

Be nice to the dice

The humble die looms large in my life at the moment. I run a DnD club at school and have mostly learned to differentiate a D20 and a D12 without counting the sides.

Five Yahtzee dice all on five in the shape of a cross for no particular reason.

And my wife and I play Breakfast Yahtzee most mornings while – you guessed it – eating breakfast.

I mean, I could (and might later) go on about Dungeons and Dragons and how great it is, and how much I get out of it…

But I’m really caught up in the sentience of Yahtzee Dice.

We play Yahtzee a LOT. So I’m not just talking about one game where things went really well and suddenly “Oh the dice are alive!” We will curse the dice. We will cajole the dice. I’ve even threatened the dice.

And the dice will tease us. They will try to trap us into making a certain move. They will favour one player after another and add insult to injury.

There are three dice reading five and one dice reading one and one reading four (making up a fourth five).

Shereen will sing the number song from Sesame Street to get a large straight. And if the last die drops when she’s singing ‘five’ then she’ll usually get it.

The dice try to help me. I’ll be going for fours. I’ll have three fours and one roll left. The last two dice will inevitably add up to four.

I said they tried to help. Not that they knew the rules of the game. It is honestly like I’m playing with a ghost that is trying to help but has no idea what I’m actually trying to do, so it will assist with patterns that could be useful.

It is a peculiar form of mostly harmless insanity, but strangely insistent. We’ll yell at each other when someone says a number while the other person is rolling. I will find a hand shaking method that seems to work and then ramp it up to ridiculous levels. I try not to say anything that sounds like a number that I don’t want while rolling. The dice might misunderstand and give me the wrong number.

Oh yeah! Do you see that “No dibs”? That’s because one time I said “dibs” on a blank sheet and won every single game. So now there’s “no dibs” and “secret dibs” and waving my fingers over the page is enough to drive Shereen crazy paranoid.

We have score sheets going back years. All have a little W (or a huge crowned W) over either mine or Shereen’s name. And drawings. And notes. And shopping lists.

Every time she writes DS, Shereen says “Crumbs DS!” in a Penfold voice. It’s still funny.

I don’t think I could do it on the computer. I need the feel of the dice in my hand. And it’s good for my basic addition skills.

A row of games where I won every single one. I think this might have been a "secret dibs" sheet.

Anyone else have weird traditions or superstitions when playing board games?

Posted in belief, family, Games and tagged crazy, dice, die, games, superstition, yahtzee | Leave a comment

01 Mar 2023

Why do I work?

My nephew Cai asked my why I work as part of a homework assignment for school. I asked him if he would send me his finished work afterwards. Here it is.

I have worked a lot of jobs throughout my life. There have been jobs I have worked simply to keep a house over my head and to pay for food and movies and computer games. But I never stayed in a job that I didn’t love for more than a year.

There are a few things that keep me working:

I work because it puts me in an environment where I can spend time with other people, interact, learn from and teach each other at the same time.

I work because it is a way to keep my mind active and to stop from being bored.

And I work to earn enough money to enjoy my life outside work.

So would I work if I didn’t have to?

Absolutely. I might not work as much, and I would definitely take a break if I was suddenly very rich, but I have a job that I love and I would hate to miss out on the other parts of work that aren’t the paycheck.

For example, as a teacher, I:

Entertain and educate my students (mostly in that order)
Am constantly learning new things – from the students, from other teachers, and from everywhere else in order to keep up and make my classes interesting.
Play with robots, make movies, write stories, go on camps, play dungeons and dragons, make computer games and interact with over a hundred people every day. It is exhausting and exhilarating and I can’t imagine life without it.

There is the personal satisfaction you get from doing something well. There is the acknowledgement from others and the feeling of being needed. There is the sense of being part of a community and the sense of giving back to the world and to future generations.

Of course, each of these things can be achieved in other ways, but I don’t know of many that can do ALL of these to such an extent.

I think the best thing to do would be to give me a couple of million dollars and see what happens!

Some other responses:

“I am currently studying so I can enjoy my work more in a new career. I
want to work for more than just money, I think work should be fulfilling and
help society.

In my previous job as a teacher I was able to help society and help
support my family through the income but I was no longer finding it
personally fulfilling.”

“There are probably three reasons.

Money – It’s difficult to do things I want to do, travel and look after the people I love without money.
Need to do something with my brain. I don’t know how I would keep my brain engaged without work. My job is challenging and I like to problem solve. If I had holidays all the time I wouldn’t enjoy them. Getting up and getting going in the morning keeps my mental health good. The sense of achievement I get from work also supports my mental health.
Is to do with working in education. When working with volunteer organisations I was not getting any money to teach but I believe in what I’m working for. Education is important and everyone should have access to it.

I have a lot to offer. The work I do fits with my personal ethics and values and is fulfilling.“

“Because I need to earn money to survive. If I didn’t work I would get bored
easily though.“

“For the money and to help people, make them feel good and stuff (Cai’s
paraphrasing of the response).“

Cai’s job was to summarise this information and make some conclusions. It was very interesting.

His report:

Money was five out of five. Fulfilment: 3 out of five. Help people/society: 4 people. Enjoyment: 3/5. Keeping the brain active: 3/5. Connections and learning: 1/5.

Money was a constant between the five people, though everyone had multiple answers and
reasons to the question. There were some recurring themes as shown in the graph above.

His Conclusions:

I think it depends on the sort of person they are and whether they enjoy the job they’ve got,
because some of the answers were really showing how much they enjoyed the job and would do
it even if they were not getting paid and that tells us the sort of person they are. Whereas some
answers were just saying they work mainly for the wages and as they enjoy the job they’ve got,
they would probably enjoy another job more if they could.

All the people I asked are very kind, thoughtful and caring, so it was really nice to see how much
they did it for the enjoyment and to help others.

Posted in conversation starters, education, family, Money, perryperrysource, Reflection, Relationships, School, Success, Teaching and tagged employment, jobs, motivation, work | Leave a comment

01 Feb 2023

ChatGPT

The first SAC for VCE Software Development is to solve a series of programming challenges using a programming language and GUI. I pose a series of challenges to assess the students’ knowledge of the software.

This year I’m working with Python and PyQT6. When the whole ChatGPT conversation started up I thought I’d see how well the AI could complete my course.

It turns out, quite well!

So the first challenge is to create a simple program that takes three grades and has buttons for average, sum and one that tells you whether the students passed or failed.

I thought about the language and gave ChatGPT this prompt:

Aquinas College has requested that I develop a prototype reporting system using PyQT6 and Python 3.10. The GUI should take three scores (each out of 100) entered into a form. The form should also contain the following:

Sum button to display the sum of the three scores in a label when selected.

Average button to display the average of the three scores in a label when selected.

The program must ensure that data has been entered into all the score textboxes.

Pass/Fail button to display Pass if the sum of the scores is 150 or over, Fail to be displayed if the sum of the scores is less than 150, when clicked.

Clear button to clear all the textboxes and the label when selected.

Exit button for the user to exit the application when selected.

ChatGPT responded:

To implement the reporting system using PyQT6 and Python 3.10, follow these steps:

Create the GUI using PyQT6 library, add three textboxes for the scores, and five buttons for sum, average, pass/fail, clear and exit.
Connect the buttons with the appropriate functions using signals and slots mechanism.
For the sum button, implement a function that reads the values from the three textboxes, adds them and displays the result in a label.
For the average button, implement a function that reads the values from the three textboxes, calculates the average and displays the result in a label.
For the pass/fail button, implement a function that reads the values from the three textboxes, adds them and checks if the sum is 150 or over. If yes, display “Pass” in the label, otherwise display “Fail”.
For the clear button, implement a function that clears the textboxes and the label.
For the exit button, implement a function that closes the application.
Implement data validation for the three textboxes, to ensure that data has been entered into all the score textboxes.

This is a high-level overview of the steps to implement the reporting system. The actual implementation would require writing code and making use of PyQT6 and Python 3.10 features.

Cheeky me:

ChatGPT:

Yes, I can write the program for you. Here is an example code for the reporting system using PyQT6 and Python 3.10:

Lots of code later. I pasted into Python and ran it. It worked, but was a bit dodgy, so:

And it just worked!

I want to take this further. I could ask the AI to fiddle with the layout. I could try to add in images. I was going to ask it to add in internal documentation, but thought I’d given it enough to do.

I also want to have this conversation with the students. Explain that completing programming challenges in this way won’t help them learn the basics behind the code. But once they have the basics, this could be an awesome way to learn to debug code. It’s a great way for students to break down a problem (so they can give it to the ChatGPT).

I am actually excited about ChatGPT. We can only hope that it is an evolution for education rather than something the government/education departments just try to squash to keep the status quo.

I’m not overly optimistic:

Posted in conversation starters, curriculum, education, ICT, perryperrysource, productivity, School, STEAM, Teaching, tech tips and tagged AI, artificial intelligence, chatgpt, cheating, education, programmming | Leave a comment

03 Apr 2022

Listening to people on trains

I’ve been hunting through hundreds of old notebooks, trying to find stories I’ve written in the world of Dwarves in Space. It’s been eight years. Like George RR Martin, I’m due a new book. Unlike Martin, I am not able to spin this into hundreds of other properties while I avoid finishing the next one. So I’m back on the trail.

But.

I found that while travelling on trains, I would write down what I was hearing around me. After one particularly disturbing incident, I wrote down the following:

Little snippets of information from people on mobiles to friends or dates.

“Huh, yeah, still at Cheltenham. Hmm? No. The train’s stopped. We had to climb down while some guy held the doors open.”

a police car at night with flashing lights.

“I dunno. The ambulance is here. I thought the train had broken down…”

“…no, the front carriage came off. They’re not letting the people at the front get off. God. I’m going to be late.”

“The train announcer guy is saying ‘until further notice, there will be no trains on Platform 2’ What the hell? Come get me.”

“Oh my God. We ran over someone…”

“Yes, ma’am. It was an accident. He fell from the platform.”

“You know, it almost happened to a friend of mine. Yeah, she was running down the ramp. In high heels, no less. And I wasn’t running for a train, no way. Anyway, she tripped, slid down the last bit. Could’ve fallen onto the tracks.”

“Look at that girl. She’s in shock.”

“Were you with him, darl?”

“no, not with him. Well, not before…”

“Miss, your partner says he needs a blanket. “

“You tell him I’ll get him a blanket when I’m done out here. Go on.”

“Did you know he was here with a girl?”

“The one in the red?”

“Mmm. Poor thing’s in shock. She’s just staring straight ahead. Anyone wanna share a cab into the city?”
“You know if these guys are even organising buses?”

“You got a light?”

“Jeez, how long are we gonna wait?”

Poor bastard. Forgotten already.

Posted in Death, Pondering, rant, Reflection and tagged conversations, death, eavesdropping, train | Leave a comment

13 Oct 2021

2 Comments

What to do with my corpse

We’ve hit that age. The age of colonoscopies and regular skin checks and worrying about spots and not being able to eat anything you want. I mean, I say we, but I mean me. You might be in your prime and looking at me with dreadful fascination. God I’m glad I’m never going to be that old.

Believe what you gotta believe.

Anyway, we’ve had a few scares over the past couple of years and my daughter is now eyeing us both sideways and initiating conversations about what we want to do with our remains after we go.

And yes, I know that I could unpack that train of thought a lot more. But I choose not to.

One of the more interesting of these discussions was when she said:

“We could cremate your remains and turn them into gemstones and then have them placed in your skull and keep it on display.”

And now I can think of no other way I want to be memorialised than that.

I would absolutely flat out haunt that skull. It is a skull made for haunting. I would be remiss if I didn’t haunt it. I pointed that out to my daughter.

She no longer wants me to be a skull.

But we stuck with the remains being turned into gemstones idea. She suggested that I could be turned into a series of gemstones that could be bequeathed to my nieces and nephews (she specifically didn’t mention keeping one for herself). At this point, I am starting to feel Horcrux vibes. Either that or a quest in a few hundred years where a group of my descendants have to track down the gems and bring them together to… what? Save my immortal soul? Prevent an apocalypse? Power a robot me? I’ll think of something.

So now I am intrigued. Is it possible? Pause for research.

Well yes! Yes I can!

So apparently, a large cremation diamond will take 6-8 months. My family will need “200 g ashes or 10 g hair”. Wait a moment! I could get my diamonds done early! (hunts for clippers)

I can choose my cut (Princess cut, anyone?). How many ashes will I produce? Could I create enough diamonds for four niblings? And I feel like I should give one to my daughter, even though she doesn’t want one. Five is the magical number for remains diamonds especially if there is going to be a future quest.

This is why the government is watching me…

OK, so about 6 pounds. 3 Kilos. More than enough for five diamonds. I’m not going to look up the cost. That is definitely someone else’s problem.

That’s two options. My wife wasn’t overly keen on having my skull cleaned. Maybe an Infinity Gauntlet?

My previous idea for afterlife eternal peace was to be turned into a tree. There are a number of companies that turn you into a tree, having your remains buried in the roots of a sapling which will absorb them and you and the tree become one. Haunting a tree sounds nice.

Both wife and daughter want to be scattered. Tasmania, Halls Gap, up in the mountains. If I was to be scattered, it would be at sea. But the haunting possibilities seem a bit slim. And the opportunity to become a sad drowned cursed spirit seem high. I am more and more happy with the skull idea.

When my daughter floated the idea I immediately thought that I could have the skull placed inside a teddy bear. Chucky and Annabelle eat your heart out! Do I even know a voodoo priest?

But honestly, I fully intend to be uploaded to the cloud when I die, and I can’t imagine being overly worried about what happens to my mortal remains after that.

Oh, just so that it’s on the record: the hospital gets to keep the useful bits before the rest gets turned into diamonds. Make sure you’ve ticked the organ donor button people!

Because the possibilities for haunting and possession go through the ROOF when we’re talking hearts being implanted into other people. I’ve never heard of a haunted liver. I could be the first one!

Posted in Death, family, grief, Pondering, Relationships, Religion, story ideas, writing and tagged burial, cremation, death, diamonds, skull, tree

10 Sep 2021

Locked in and ranting

Ok, so what is it like to be stuck in lockdown? I know that it’s not like prison. I know that I have it pretty easy with my wi-fi and my devices and various streaming services and food delivery (to look after the local businesses). I have a job and my wife has a job and we’re working from home and that is pretty damn good. We have it good.

BUT

My feelings tell me different. My feelings tell me that being limited to 5k mean that I am trapped. I want to leave every day. To go out of that horrible red ring on my Google Maps. I look at the walks I can do and the coffee shops I could visit and I long for them. And the longing makes me cranky and sad.

I don’t have to wear a tie. And I tell you, if they don’t ditch ties after this I will hang myself with one. They are a dead item of clothing. I don’t have to wear business pants. I don’t actually have to wear pants at all, but I do, for the social conventions. And I’m wandering around wearing t-shirts and hoodies every day and I can’t imagine that is doing anything for my mental health.

I’m doing the same thing every day, but it is different to the same thing I used to do when I was out and about. It is getting up in the morning, going for a walk, getting a coffee, coming home, going to my shed, turning on the camera, catching up with my students. And then at the end of the day I go inside, watch tv, cook food, play computer games, go to bed.

Rinse and repeat. RINSE AND REPEAT.

And don’t get me started on the masks. I am vaccinated. I want to walk outside in the sun not wearing a mask. The mask just makes me feel worse. Of course, it means that I can wear my Orange You Glad I’m Wearing a Mask mask. And the recreation of my own face.

I want to see my friends outside of a Zoom meeting. I want to drive down to the beach. I want to play Dungeons and Dragons with my nephews in the real world. I want to take a train into the city and watch TV on my iPad and walk in the parks. I want to go and stay in a room with a spa bath and order room service.

So yes, I feel like I have it better than most, but that doesn’t mean I have it good. I am trying to stay positive but I feel like I’m going through the motions. I do the things that make me feel more healthy, but i also do the comfort things that I know are not doing me good, but it numbs. Numb numb numb.

Posted in family, grief, rant, Reflection, School, Teaching and tagged 2020, 2021, COVID, feelings, lockdown, masks, sad | Leave a comment

21 Jul 2021

Old

I’ve hit that age.

Every time I go to the doctor, she adds something to the list.

Last time I went, she looked at her screen and took a deep breath.

A picture of Khaleesi with a bunny on her shoulder.

“OK, So you have high cholesterol. You have sleep apnea. You have psoriasis. You have hemochromatosis, halitosis, osteoporosis and myxomatosis.”

I might have gotten those last two wrong. Do men get osteoporosis? And I’m not sure even rabbits get myxo now. Don’t they get the Khaleesi virus? Wait, no, that’s Game of Thrones. “BOW DOWN BEFORE THE MOTHER OF BUNNIES!”

What was I saying? Oh yes, old.

Old so that the teens wince every time I walk towards them carrying snacks and pronouns. I heard my daughter saying to her friends: “You have to make allowances for the old people. They come from another time.”

I remember rocking up at home in full goth regalia and an earring to shock my parents. It didn’t work. Anyway.

I mean, they’re right to wince. I’m a middle-aged white guy. They have to be wary! We don’t have a good track record. I feel that desire to judge people and pigeonhole them, welling up inside of me, because of my race and social status.

But I will rise above! I created a list. A sort of BIGOTPATCH(TM) that I can use when I’m feeling especially judgemental.

“Damn you, you…” (quick check) “Audi drivers!”

“I really hate… companies that insist on surveys about their performance!” (I really do. Seriously. “How did we do?” Well, you did the thing I paid you to do. Do you want a medal?)

“Go to hell… right-handed people! You have ruined my life!”

Yeah, you know who you are, with your neat handwriting and your ability to use scissors.

Middle aged is a stupid term. And probably needlessly optimistic.

Nevertheless, I got rid of my life insurance this year. I mean, there’s a kick in the teeth for your Peter Pan complex. You’re basically betting a company that you will die before you pay them more than they will pay you!

Not to mention the effect it has on my wife. We bought life insurance and all of a sudden I was worth more dead than alive! I had to look around nervously when I was at the top of the stairs. I kept tasting almonds… in my almond milk latte, but still. That’s how you would do it. And whenever I leave the seat up on the toilet I catch that look in her eye. That speculative gaze, weighing up my earning potential against the instant influx of cash if she bumped me off.

So I convinced her to ditch the insurance. I didn’t mention that it was because it disagreed with my philosophical stance that I will live forever, or that I was stressed out by the target it painted on my back. Just that it was too expensive.

An image of Halley’s Comet taken in 1986. (Image credit: NASA)

Why did this come up? I was thinking about the possibility that I would see Halley’s Comet again. It swings by every 76 years, and the last time it visited I was in Grade 6. The next time is 2061. I’m not saying it’s impossible – I still have two grandparents well older than the age I need to hit to see that. But I’m nowhere near as fit as they are (see above list).

I need to get better at computer programming. I might yet be able to live on in the cloud. Bring on my robot body!

Posted in comedy, Death, family, Love, Money, Pondering, rant, Relationships, Uncategorized and tagged age, insurance, old, standup | Leave a comment

08 Dec 2020

Professional Standards

Tomorrow is my last day as Technology Learning Area Leader at St James College. When I started twelve years ago I was head of Information Technology. Then they made me Head of Technology. Which meant I was in charge of Woodwork and IT. Then they added Food Tech.

To make it feel more like a team, a few years ago I spent the year having Barry Wood (woodwork teacher extraordinaire) to teach all the Tech teachers some basic wood skills. My wood products were rubbish.

I wanted to thank my team for twelve years of Technology so I thought I would make cookies.

My wife pointed out the flaw in the plan. Food Tech teachers are built to critique food.

I am so glad that I am just an IT teacher next year.

I started with a recipe that asked for 4 oz of sugar, and 4 oz of butter, 8 oz of SR Flour and an egg. This led to a rabbit hole about what an oz is, and how butter and sugar can both be measured in ozzes. I went with one cup of flour, half a cup of sugar and 125g butter. The egg was easy. Let me know if I was very wrong.

I should have been worried when the dough stuck to the baking paper and my heads looked like Darth from his death scene.

But I was spurred on by the first batch. They came out nicely brown. The second batch went in…

I am not sure how I burnt two right in the middle. It seems implausible. But I had a few working pairs to turn into jam filled delights.

Oh but wait. I ran out of self raising flour. Online it says a cup of plain and two tsp of baking powder will get the same effect. The above picture gives lie to that statement.

With the ones that looked least deviant, I filled them with jam and then worked on the icing. Next problem: no icing sugar. But you can get icing sugar by blending caster sugar… not that it helped.

So now I need to take these in and hand them out to the staff, including the two Food Tech teachers.

I should have just bought chocolate from Haighs

It’s probably good that I am no longer head of two technology methods that I can’t do. Luckily I am good at the Digital Technologies side of things.

Posted in food, School, Success, Teaching and tagged cookies, Darth Vader, technology | Leave a comment

20 Sep 2020

Psycho Ted

I created the Psycho Teddy Bear back at university. I used to spend more time drawing in class than taking notes. A friend leaned over and asked to see an insane teddy bear, and from there the Psycho Teddy Bear was born.

For awhile, all of my email addresses and signatures contained PTB, before I softened and became OmenToo. I even had an ascii version.

When I started teaching Flash to my Year 9s, I created Spider Ted, which I quite enjoyed.

Once I started playing with game design, I tried to create him in 3D. I had an awful looking Second Life avatar, and then a Mecha-PTB that I created for my Cert III in game design, which looked much better.