I’ve been sending a “tip of the week” every Saturday since 2015. Not counting the Saturdays when I didn’t send one. Heh. I am trying to get more consistent. I don’t know if that last sentence was good English.
Every now and then, I will scroll through the old “tips” and think… “Oh, that’s a good idea. I forgot about that. I should start doing that again.”
The fact that I can’t remember my own tips is probably not a good sign.
The point is, I hope this tip helps you, but I think I am writing this one for me. Future me, that is.
I spend a lot of time on my bike.
I avoid cars as much as possible. I avoid driving them, and while biking, I avoid getting hit by them. Two different skills.
When I am on busy roads, I pray. I pray for my family. I pray for guidance. And, I pray that the drivers are not playing with their phones while they are driving.
From my vantage point on a bike, I can see that a lot of people are playing on their phones while they are driving. So, I also pray I don’t get hit.
As much as possible, I avoid cars by using less frequented streets, trails, and sidewalks and by biking early in the morning,
When I am on deserted streets, trails, and sidewalks, I listen to audiobooks. I don’t have anything in my ears, the books just play on my phone. If there are no cars around, I can hear without earphones/earbuds.
Okay, here’s the tip.
You can strap your phone to your handlebars these days. All you need is a phone mount for your bicycle. I couldn’t find the exact mount I used, but this one is similar.
So, there you go. Mount your phone to your handlebars and listen to audiobooks while you ride.
By the way, the link I posted above (here it is again) is an affiliate link. If you buy a phone mount from Amazon, I will get a few pennies. If I get enough pennies, I will likely spend some of them on flashing lights for my bike. So that I can live another Saturday and send out another tip of the week. (Just wanted you to know I was using an affiliate link.)
Summer school
Live classes are officially over for the summer. However, I am still teaching two courses. I will continue to do so unless I decide to go biking out west when it gets too hot in Tennessee. Looks like that will be during the third week of July.
I am teaching a Latin course. In this course, we are continuing to work our way through Exercitia Latina by Hans Ørberg. We are currently in chapter 19. If you are a member of my site, you are welcome to join us. We meet every weekday at 8 in the morning, central time zone.
The other course is a Spanish course. We are reading through the book All Spanish Method by Guillermo Aviles. We are currently in chapter 17. If you are a member of my site, you are welcome to join us. We meet every weekday at 7 in the morning, central time zone.
What do I recommend?
“To learn Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, or German, which books do I order?” This is the most common question I receive.
To find my answers, just go to my site, www.dwanethomas.com.
Find the resources tab, and find the language you are looking for in the dropdown menu.
For example, if you are looking for the books I recommend for learning Latin, click on the Latin tab: https://dwanethomas.com/resources-latin/
Same for Greek. Same for Spanish. And, so on.
Down at the bottom, below languages, you will see three more tabs, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise.
These are the three categories I have used for years to organize my goals. They are based on Benjamin Franklin’s maxim: “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
In these tabs, I include books and links that help me achieve these goals. You may find them useful as well.
I’ll make it easy for you. Here they all are:
- What I recommend for Latin: https://dwanethomas.com/resources-latin/
- What I recommend for Greek: https://dwanethomas.com/greek-resources/
- What I recommend for French: https://dwanethomas.com/french-resources/
- What I recommend for Spanish: https://dwanethomas.com/spanish-resources/
- What I recommend for Italian: https://dwanethomas.com/italian-resources/
- What I recommend for English: https://dwanethomas.com/resources-english/
- What I recommend for Health: https://dwanethomas.com/healthy/
- What I recommend for Wealth: https://dwanethomas.com/wealthy/
- What I recommend for Wisdom: https://dwanethomas.com/wise/
And now… the same thing I say every week.
Subscribers sometimes use my weekly emails as reminders to unsubscribe from my site.
Just keep in mind… I offer something no one else in academia (as far as I know) offers. Stick with me for 3 uninterrupted years and you will have a lifetime subscription.
I now know this is a dumb business decision on my part, but I have heard from many of you that it is a huge help, so, for now, the offer stands.
Of course, if you are just starting out in Latin, you may be happier with Visual Latin.
Visual Latin is a full-blown Latin course. It is rigorous, just not as rigorous as the classes on my site. The classes on my site are more “next level” classes, really.
By the way, if you are into etymology (the history of words), and if you would like to see me make a fool of myself, you might enjoy Word Up.
Five years ago, or so, we launched this series just to see if it would work. It did. And, after years of listening to many of you beg for more, I finally gave in and agreed to make a fool of myself once again. So now, Volumes 2 and 3 of Word Up are available.
And… if you aren’t a member of my site and would like to join, click here: https://dwanethomas.com/join/.
I hope you had a very happy Saturday!
Dwane
P.S.
If someone forwarded you this email and you would like to hear from me every week, just go to this page: https://dwanethomas.com/
Scroll down a bit until you see my book, Via. Enter your name and email and you will hear from me weekly. You will also get a free copy of my book, Via!