Ashby McGowan
I write poetry, plays, and prose. I am a Buddhist and a vegan. I also write multi-voice poetry which is on you tube. A short film I was involved with: http://youtu.be/ym3r-Rh4w5M
Location Glasgow
Activity
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I enjoyed the course. It was excellent.
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Thanks for the information!!
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I enjoyed the course. Learning Thai you need to use a course like this that gives you the sounds of the words.
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Ashby McGowan replied to David Peachey
Thanks for the information!
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Do you a friend, does not make sense in English.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I am tone deaf so hard for me to judge. However I am trying to decide exactly what happens in rising and falling tones. The other are easy to understand.
Some books on Thai for beginners contradict themselves and each other.So, does a rising tone start from mid tone then go lower and then go higher?
Also, does a falling tone start from mid tone then go... -
That helps a lot. Many thanks.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
The grammar is very easy. The tones is the difficult bit.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I don't understand the letters in English that are used in: Jee. And in Boorisat. Are they an "e" and an o"? And in the Thai for name, for the vowels.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Sorry I am not able to do this with the PC and equipment I have.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I try very hard but cannot say the Thai for Hello. I have Thai friends and I never get it right. I have a Thai girlfriend. I am tone deaf so find tones very hard. We have been video calling for a year and I still find it very hard. I am starting with only two tones and some phrases. I use middle and rising tone only at the moment.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
All useful information done at a good pace.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Very different from English.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Much more difficult than consonants.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Good to have the download!
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Looking forward to the Course.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I knew nothing of Thailand. I am a Buddhist so know a lot about every other manly Buddhist country. I am learning Thai as I intend to marry a lady from Thailand . I want to know some phrases so I can talk to her and her family. I will probably never be able to learn Thai written language.
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Ashby McGowan replied to Ashby McGowan
Thanks for the information and for running the course!
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Lots of interesting material. Something that would be good to look at again. You only have short access to the course though don't you?
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I have recorded things for posting online. I find the microphones on video cameras not very good. You need a separate microphone. A shotgun microphone is excellent. Get a good one.
I use Audacity to edit material. It is free and has an excellent noise cancellation mechanism.
I have not done it, but would be good if pupils filmed events themselves. -
Ashby McGowan made a comment
Looks good.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Excellent talk.
I used to check out interesting sights to be seen in the sky. I would print up a poster of the next months naked eye astronomy and place up somewhere easy to see. -
Ashby McGowan made a comment
I particularly enjoyed the videos. I shared the one about the Seasons on Facebook and it got 200 likes. Just the right length and complexity. Most people know little about the seasons and the motions of the moon.
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Ashby McGowan replied to Ashby McGowan
Thanks for the nice coments
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I have a friend who is a devout Baptist. They send me you tube clips ridiculing science. One film shows Newton being praised as having perfect knowledge. Then Einstein being praised. Then each being shown as fools who know nothing. I try to explain that science works because new theories come which improves old theories. No scientist knows it all. Only...
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I like the idea of pupils learning about life in the school yard which might survive on other planets eg lichens.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
My favourite film is Contact. Which is about alien life. A wonderful film.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Many years ago I became fascinated by Maxwell. Einstein was a fan of his.
I went to buy a book about him. It was £40 and was 100 pages of Mathematics. However three years ago a popular book came out about Maxwell which is excellent. Shame he died so young. -
Ashby McGowan made a comment
Interesting and good visuals.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I am not a Teacher and am a Science Technician. I have a great personal interest in Cosmology and Science.
Gravity is a bending of space time.
I also see that Zurich and Fermi lab say there is a new force. Should be interesting . -
Ashby McGowan made a comment
An excellent video. I will share on facebook. Informative and with a few jokes thrown in. Easy to understand.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Looking forward to more new ideas
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Encouragement from Educators.
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Thanks for the comment.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
My inability to understand Maths makes astronomy hard for me as a Science Technician to understand.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
My own ability to understand astronomy is limited because I am not good at Maths.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I could not comment on the previous step as I am a Science Technician and and not a Teacher.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I am Ashby. I am a Science Technician and want to help understand what Teacher's teach about Space. I have always been interested in astronomy. I work in a Scottish School.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
A course like this will always have points that someone disagrees with. However the evidence is certain that being vegan is a good way to fight man made climate change. There are no arguments - I had thought - about that. I know meat eaters of 30 and 40 years that are trying to go vegan. I can assure you that if you do research factory farming it causes...
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I think we use the value of ecosystems in our augments to protect them. We need every argument we can use. There are powerful bodies arguing for no change for the better: Petrochemical, Nuclear, many chemical companies, National farmers Union, Trump et al
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
As I said in my press release I feel Natural England have written a press release for the National Farmers Union. They do not mention animal farming being a leading cause of man made climate change. They do not mention the damage sheep do to the environment. That animal farming uses more land , energy and water than farming plants.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
An excellent task. But sometimes the press releases and newspaper articles are lies or full of exaggerated comments and biased to give one view. Heroes and heroines are often demonised to devalue their views and opinions.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Thanks for the additional information.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I think Nuclear [power is far too dangerous. Dangerous over thousands of years. We have other options. I do not trust Scientists or companies or Governments to tell the truth. Before Chernobyl everyone said it was impossible to have a Chernobyl. Every time there has been an accident we were told, it is impossible for this type of reactor to have an accident.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I agree with this idea. many years ago cars in the USA were very dangerous. Small inexpensive changes to cars could be made but the car companies did not want to link the words "car" and "danger". They refused to discuss the subject. It took Ralph Nader, many years of battles in Court (he was spied open and had a terrible time of it) to force car companies to...
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Thanks for the real life scenarios
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Asbestos was used in the shipping industry where my uncle worked. Bosses and scientists knew of risk but he didn't. He died a horrible death from asbestosis.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I think nuclear power is too dangerous. Scientists and governments have lied to get reactors built. And they cost too much to decommission.. We should be using wind wave and hydroelectric.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
An excellent course.
My own view is that most of us believe in human rights. I believe in animal rights. I think there should be environmental rights for the earth.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I think it is hard to argue for high speed limits when so many people die. Fast cars is not a good enough trade off.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I think the evidence re man made climate change is convincing we need to take action now
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Most people are happy to believe anything they are told by the media. I think there should be an independent body that can judge on biased reporting. And have penalties for those at fault
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I do think it can work. I think there needs to be fixed level on all pollutants.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Excellent film. Moving quite fast though and think there is enough material to make the course last 4 weeks. And would like to see more links and real life scenarios.
I once lived next to a factory that i alleged polluted the local area. No media outlet would take on their companies lawyers
And for certain pollutants there were no fixed environmental... -
Ashby McGowan made a comment
Excellent thought provoking points
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
As a Buddhist and animal rights person i believe that elephants have an intrinsic right to exist.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Excellent video. Simple yet comprehensive
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
An excellent way to look at environmental challenges using philosophy and religion and laws
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
As an animal rights vegan, Buddhist i belive we have a moral duty to protect nature. And i also accept it makes economic sense to do so
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I think mindfulness is a great help for depression. It helped me 40 years ago
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I write poetry about overcoming depression
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Looking forward to the course. I am from Scotland and work in a school
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Excellent course and lots of links to research!!
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I do go back and back and check and check if the door is shut, if I have logged off a PC, if.. I
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I also write everything important down. It makes me remember and it makes me commit to it.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I have to confess that I would never have thought the lift scenario behavioural experiment would work. But I trust the course organisers enough to know that it must.
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@SYLVIACHIN Well done!
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
When I walk up town doing shopping just now. As it is near Christmas people seem to be as bad mannered as they can. I know there are lots of genuine and nice people. However, I have had lots of bad "luck" when dealing with people and trusting them. When you are let down a lot you think that someone who is "merely" rude and selfish is actually deliberately...
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Yes, been there and done it. Had those thoughts.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Fascinating list. I know almost every one of them intimately.
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@KseniaGusarova Well done!!
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Having (partly) accepted that life is not fair I feel a bit better. I no longer expect things to always be good. For life is not fair. I know people who think nothing truly bad will happen to them. But that is not correct. People have sayings like "What happens is all fate, and everything that happens to you is meant and will not go past you. Its all karma....
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I am always twenty minutes early for every meeting. As soon as I get there twenty minutes early I automatically think what will keep them late this time. How long should I wait before I go. How long to wait before I text them. I am annoyed with them before it is time to meet.
I suppose I think that I am a person who does not deserve people to turn up to meet... -
Ashby McGowan made a comment
As an example of being very down which is not uncommon (perhaps eight times a day) I thought back to when I had a chance to meet a lady and said all the wrong things and another man aggressively grabbed her and more of less made off with her. I have analysed that scenario where I was very shy and very trying to respect the woman's rights but I did everything...
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Ashby McGowan replied to Dr Michelle Lee
Has went in very quickly.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Always good to have a quiz as you learn that you did not know certain things as well as you thought.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Enjoyed the pace and content. well done.
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@KseniaGusarova Ksenia, that is such a lovely reply and thanks for posting. People should always say nice things to others. It can mean so much. To comment on you tube you just need to join Google (which runs you tube) but glad you commented here. You capture what I intended in the poem. I am on Facebook as Ashby McGowan if you (or anyone who likes the...
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I think the week was excellent and I have learned a lot. I hope there are some things in the last week that I can use to help me (specifically).
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I think I can comment on the Mindfulness findings. It seems to have worked well.
And there seems very few side effects with mindfulness. I have done Mindfulness under a Psychiatrist at a Buddhist retreat-he was showing it to 100 Buddhist meditators. I read a lot about the efficacy of Mindfulness but as with most things they often comes a back wash of people... -
@KseniaGusarova Thanks for that.
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I think people being rude and hurtful are not things I think (I am not an expert) that you could make yourself immune too by graded exposure. It is just people being awful. It is a shame that some people get great enjoyment from harming others. Shame you have had to put up with it. I have read books on bullying and some of those techniques might be worthwhile...
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Fascinating stuff that I never knew.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I never knew that the fear reaches a plateau and does not spiral ever upwards.
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@KseniaGusarova Thanks for the nice reply.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I have a fear of needles/injections but it is because I have had a few injections where things went wrong (e.g. Nurse could not find vein so had to be done again and again) . I realise that I still need to have injections and just look away and tell the Nurse or Doctor I am a coward.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I suppose a positive benefit would be he was used to working on his own and survived being alone. I suppose though he could still feel lonely even when it was him that pushed himself to be alone.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Like the very interesting speaker, when very low I go out of my way to do something anything that "should" give me pleasure. And I too push myself very hard and have to be good as I can at everything-even being good at finding happy things. I have never noted down how well or otherwise I have done.
Five years is a long time to struggle but I suppose it... -
Ashby McGowan made a comment
Interesting seeing the cycle being drawn again.
Seeing some one else unable to act, you just feel it can not be so hard to get them started on doing activities. Yet most of us find certain tasks almost impossible (without help). -
Ashby McGowan made a comment
A nice simplistic example.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Interesting to see all the symptoms listed. I do not have any close friends. I find that the less physical exercise I do the more tired I get. Whereas doing exercise gives me energy.
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@NormaM Thanks.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
A good structure to the week and looking forward to next week.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I try to avoid all possible sources of anxiety. A big worry for me was if I ever had to go into Hospital. I am intensely shy, I never spoke to a woman (outside my family) until I was 18), and as a vegan I thought I would struggle with getting vegan food. I went into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital - after breaking my leg badly - and the Staff were lovely and I...
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@EllaQ I recently thought about retirement and I had to work out when I thought I would die. I could take my retirement as a lump sum or as a bigger monthly cheque so getting value for money meant a month of working out when and how I would die. I decided not to retire.
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When I get home and see letters for me I just think: "Bad news and bills" and do not enjoy checking them". I never think that they could be good news.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I am anxious about everything I do. I am a perfectionist. I do not mean that everything I do is perfect but I try to make it so. Being human I still make many errors. And regret them afterwards.
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I do performance poetry and after ten years I still get amazingly nervous when performing. Once I totally forgot what I was doing and could not remember my lines.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
I cannot plan travelling anywhere because I am sure I will get everything wrong. And anyway -I believe- things will all go wrong when I visit another country. I am ok planning things as long as they are not personal,.
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Ashby McGowan made a comment
Yes, I actually forgot to say that I also suffer from stomach pains. And may have developed an ulcer because of anxiety. Doctor not sure.
