Wednesday, March 16

I started the day by introducing Farhan to lists in Scrach. I had rebuilt the game we had worked on so that it operated in a pseudo-3D. More prosaically it now has a sense of perspective: the crab gets smaller as it goes further into the distance and larger as it gets nearer again. Lists make this relatively easy to do and to explain. As Farhan pointed out, MIT might categorise lists as “advanced” but they will prove a lot easier to explain than the maths we used last week to make the 2D grid version.

In the early afternoon I take a break from writing and go for a long walk in which I listen to Scott Joplin’s music played by Lara Downes. She includes two pieces from Treemonisha, one of them vocal, and it reminds me that I have wanted to hear the opera in its entirety since I first learned about it as a student.

Does it even exist as a recorded piece? Perhaps I had better ask Mister Google or his friend Bobby Amazon.

As I near home I stop to photograph a tree in the woods.