Photo Hunters - Party

When I think of parties, I think of balloons, especially since I have kids. So here are some of my favorite balloon pictures from various parties.


The balloons just before Adam's 2nd birthday party.


At Jessica's birthday party (Adam was just one).


At MacMulkin Chevrolet's Corvette party last summer.

Correlations That Make You Dumb

From BooksThatMakeYouDumb.virgil.gr, click to see it large.

This chart takes the ten most frequent "favorite books" listed on Facebook from students at every college and maps them against the college's SAT/ACT scores. Of course it is supposedly just for "hilarity incarnate", but it draws some questionable conclusions. I agree that colleges have different test scores for their students, but trying to lump books that their students read is a bit far-fetched. Most colleges have a diverse mix of students and do not have predominantly one cultural or racial make-up. Books listed by Facebook members however, often do reflect cultural and racial characteristics. When you look at the scores for the colleges, you can see that CalTech is ranked first, where my Alma Mater (MIT) is only in sixth place. And the creator of the chart is from, big surprise, CalTech. Nothing like a bit of superiority as frosting.

Calling this "Books That Make You Dumb" is great for generating traffic, but sends the wrong message. Does reading books favored by "super nerds" make people smarter? Probably not. Does reading the books on the low end make people dumber? Probably not as well. One of the unspoken messages of this chart, especially since it is grouped by genre, is that books about African-American culture are read by dumb people. And Lolita taking the smartest book spot? Obviously those nerds aren't getting any (it was originally categorized as erotica and then moved to classics)... Most people will dismiss this chart as an interesting correlation. But saying that reading or enjoying those books that "will make you dumb" will simply create a rift between cultures. If people avoid the books on the low end, it will only promote less understanding, more alienation and more discrimination.

I'm not saying that I don't find the chart fascinating, but I hope people don't draw the wrong conclusions from it. There is also a chart which correlates music and test scores. OK, I'll lighten up now. Maybe it's just sour grapes that MIT was in sixth place!

Thursday Thirteen #35 - Favorite Podcasts

If you haven't caught the podcasting revolution, go get yourself an MP3 player and subscribe! It is completely effortless with an iPod and iTunes; podcasts are automatically added and removed to your device. I don't see how people listen to podcasts while sitting at a computer, I'm always clicking around in about five different tabs and do not have the attention span for that. While I'm stuck in the car, traveling or exercising, I cannot live without it. No more crappy radio and lots more choices!

1. The Daily Breakfast with Father Roderick - This is the "must hear" show every morning for this non-Catholic, non-Religious listener. The Dutch priest discusses movies, video games, gadgets, food, health, with a smattering of Catholicism mixed in. He is funny, intelligent and always interesting.


2. NPR Story of the Day - Of course not all radio is crappy, and I certainly need my fix of NPR. Doing the Story of the Day podcast allows me to skip the stories I'm not interested in ("Film captures annual swim of elephant seals" comes to mind) and just hear the ones I am interested in. Plus 5-10 minute stories are the perfect length for my evening commute.


3. NPR Sunday Puzzle - This is the best way to listen to the Sunday Puzzle on Weekend Edition. No need to be conveniently near a radio when it comes on, and I never miss the always composed and charming Will Shortz. I've only entered a few times, and would probably freak out if I were ever chosen to play the puzzle on the air.


4. WGBH Morning Stories - I never miss this father of all podcasts from my very own member station. I've connected with Tony Kahn through messages on Flickr and my sister-in-law has even appeared on the program.


5. This American Life - I used to download and listen to shows that my friends recommended, but now I am hooked and can't miss an episode. It's tougher for me to find hour-long chunks of time to listen, so I've gotten behind. Hopefully biking weather is around the corner?


6. WNYC Radiolab - This hour-long science show, which I have blogged before, is always absolutely riveting and fascinating. Again, I am way behind and looking forward to my next business trip to catch up.
   


7. NPR This I Believe - "The personal philosophies of remarkable men and women from all walks of life". While I don't always agree with all the essays presented, it can be quite humbling and eye-opening to hear other people talk about their personal convictions. The last couple of weeks had an essay by a "busybody" (which I am not, but this essay really makes you think twice) and an astronaut who recorded his essay aboard the International Space Station (click the link for the video). Both gave me goosebumps to listen to.


8. Digital Photography Tips From The Top Floor - Chris Marquardt runs an awesome audio and video podcast and my photography has definitely improved since listening. Can you tell?


9. Naxos Classical Music Spotlight - As I have posted before, Raymond Bisha gives an extremely informative podcast often with interviews with conductors and composers.


10. Thankfully, NPR heard my plea to bring back the From The Top or "Classicool Kids" podcast. This along with the Naxos podcast are my top choices when driving with Dova. Hopefully, she'll be inspired to someday be on From The Top (no I won't be a pushy classical music mom, she hasn't even started lessons yet).


11. Car Talk's Call of the Week - When Adam is in the car, we listen to Click and Clack, although he likes Father Roderick as well for the video game aspect. Doug listens to the entire Car Talk show as a podcast.


12. The Bitterest Pill - The always funny and ironic Dan Klass has switched to a premium pay format, which I haven't sprung for (I am too behind on all my other podcasts to pay to be behind on this one). I understand that he has to try to make a living out of it, but it still irks me to have to pay... Still, I keep up with the once a month freebie podcast as I can't live without my fix.


13. Cush: Things I Say - "Mature words for mature minds". The often self-absorbed Cush never ceases to entertain. I don't always agree with his male-centric view of the world, but it is still a must listen.
    

Looking over this list, I see that it is heavily populated with NPR podcasts (and I didn't even list them all). But that is the beauty of podcasting, you can tailor your choices to your listening pleasure.

Hump Day Hmm - Assertiveness and Gender

As a follow-up to Julie Pippert's post on Is there gender bias on the playground and political field alike?, here is my take on assertiveness and gender. Since I don't follow the political arena as closely as I should, I'll limit my observations to what I'm supposedly an expert on, my children. Having both a boy and a girl allows us to see differences in assertiveness in action, as well as just about every other area. As all parents, we try not to raise them differently but their natural gender tendencies always show through. Let's just say that when Dova plays with Adam's cars, it's to pretend that families are taking a vacation. And when Adam plays with Dova's doll house, it's to line up the dolls and shoot them down with rubber bands.

I hate to make generalizations about gender, as you really need to look at each child individually. But no matter how hard we try to ignore it, there are definite differences in our kids and darn it, they often fall into the temperamental and behavioral stereotypes. Of course we say that we treat them equally, but the fact is that there are areas that they respond to easily and areas that need more work. I like to think that my son is not aggressive, as he is often considerate to other people, but how much was that simply drilled into him over the years? Adam can get out of control and appear aggressive even though it is mostly unbridled enthusiasm and not malice. He will barrel down the slide in front of his sister but not other kids - a double standard or perhaps parenting lessons only apply to the public. He is good about passing the ball in soccer, even to girls, but will take the opportunity to score (many times a games, maybe he is aggressive ). So the main thing we work on with Adam is self-control, not necessarily for aggression, but for calming the whirling dervish in him.

Dova is extremely defiant and vocal about getting her way, but is quick to say sorry all the time. She says sorry so much that I have to correct her and tell her NOT to say sorry for something that isn't her fault. I've been to professional women's seminars where one of the things they teach you is not to say sorry all the time in the workplace, especially when there is nothing to apologize about. How did Dova learn this typical female characteristic that makes her appear as though she has low self-esteem (from me of course, but I've got my esteem intact)? And what is it about males that make them unable to apologize, do they really hate to admit they have wronged someone (I digress, and this will be coming up in a later hump day)? But when it comes to assertiveness, Dova doesn't have an issue with holding back. She bosses her brother around, demanding that he pull her around the yard on the sled. He has been been coming in complaining that he just can't take it anymore, to which I say "Just say no!" Where is your assertiveness now, boy? I think it is just brotherly love. We tell Dova not to boss her brother around, but she still does. But she is sweet at school and overly nice and considerate with her friends, just like the stereotype. Another disarming trait Dova has is that she sometimes says mean things to us and grandma, where Adam would never utter mean words like that. This is part of the "mean girl" stereotype. Let's just say that we have our work cut out for us with this one.

So for the most part, the kids pretty much fall into the stereotypes in terms of assertiveness with exception of their sibling interactions. I do believe that we treat them equally in stopping aggressive behavior as both of them need some reigning back. I agree that there is the general social standard that women who are too assertive are bitches and men who are aggressive become President (oops, no politics on this blog!). That is unfortunate and will take more than equal child-rearing to overcome. Hopefully our two angels will both become upstanding adults with respectable levels of assertiveness.

---

Thank you Julie for this award for participating in last week's Hmm. Looks like I'm definitely hooked! As I'm not a very good passer, feel free to take it if you comment!

Wordless Wednesday - Which Way Is She Spinning?

Put your answer in the comments: clockwise, counterclockwise or both! Since she is a silhouette, it is an optical illusion and you can actually get her to spin both ways. Check Maniac World for more information.

Astigmatism Through Genetics (aka Dova's New Glasses)

Here's Dova in her brand new Barbie glasses. She failed her last preschool eye exam in one eye, so we took her to the eye doctor to find out that she has astigmatism in her left eye, exactly like her brother and her mother. Is it possible that genetics are so specific that astigmatism in one eye can be passed on to exactly the same eye in both children? Apparently it is in our family. Unlike the rest of the family however, she is slightly far-sighted where we are all near-sighted. Brother Adam and dad Doug are slightly near-sighted and I am hopelessly near-sighted, although my vision has improved ever so slightly in my old age (check the links for all our glasses).

I started wearing glasses at 7, not as early as these kids at 5 and 4, but I think early screening has improved. My vision got progressively worse until it hit about -12.0 diopters. But thankfully, glasses or contact lenses bring me back to 20/30 vision so I'm not legally blind. Basically, the only clear distance is about 4" away from my eyes. If I were to read without glasses, I would need to close one eye and move the book back and forth in front of the other. Forget trying to walk around outside my home without glasses or contacts!

We were a little wary about getting glasses for this destructive girl. Two years ago, she managed to destroy two pair of glasses in the store when we bought Adam's first pair. Ripped the arms right off the hinges, torn right through the metal. She insisted on getting the pink designer Barbie glasses she saw in the store, where I was hoping to getting a cheap pair from Zenni Optical or 39DollarGlasses.com. I finally found the same glasses slightly cheaper at TheEyeDoctor.com and they came out great and included a cute Barbie case. We miss seeing Dova's big beautiful eyes, but she now has a different cuteness about her.

Photo Hunters - Wooden

I purchased this man and woman wooden puzzle from the Signals catalog years ago when it went on clearance. I can't find the artist's website any longer, but I remember that he also offered a man-man and a woman-woman puzzle as well. The kids often ask why the woman's heart is at the bottom, and I tell them that is where the babies are made with love. Of course this wooden puzzle was photographed on our wooden birch floor with naturally reflected sunlight.

March 13, 2008 Edited to add - I found a card for this piece and it is called "Yu & Ai" which means "needless to say love and affection" in Japanese. It is made and signed by Joseph Kinnebrew. You can still purchase them at Pique.
Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Participants

1. Cindy 2. Write From Karen 3. Yen 4. Bisdak\'s Footprints 5. Carver 6. Alice Audrey

7. katney 8. FRANCINE 9. so far, so good 10. liza 11. SnoopyTheGoon 12. Angela

13. Andrée 14. Bankerchick 15. Dragonstar 16. mee mOe

Get the code and join the Blogroll here!
View More Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Participants

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

When it comes to spelling tests, order counts

Adam came home from school one day with this atrocious grade on his first grade spelling test. Only 2 correct? On closer examination, it appears that all the words except one are indeed spelled correctly, but just not in the right order. I knew exactly what the problem was. He had memorized the words and wrote them out ahead of time in the order that he learned them. I have seen him do this when we practice with him for homework. In the test, you can see that he actually wrote the second word correctly, erased it and then wrote the word that should have come next in order. He could not accept the random order! Apparently, he is too smart and has too much OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) for his own good.

At first when I saw the teacher's markup, I thought, she must be kidding, actually writing out all the correct words as if he really misspelled them that badly? She must have known he was just doing it in order. But giving him a 2 and not simply putting a note saying that he needs to wait and listen to the words? No sense of humor! When it was brought up during our parent teacher conference, we saw that she did have a sense of humor when she spoke to him about it and was just trying to give him a hard time (whew, but it was not obvious from the markup). She said he was one of the best spellers in the class (actually this one misspelling was the only mistake he's ever made on a spelling test), and was going to start giving him and another classmate extra words that were not so easy to sound out.

Now getting Adam to break this habit of working ahead was still no easy task. I ended up changing our homework routine by announcing the word and its number in random order. He refuses to write the wrong word in the wrong number. Thankfully, he has stopped and listened during subsequent spelling tests and all of them have come back with stars. When he first got the extra batch of harder words, he pitched a fit and told his dad, who is home after school with him, that they weren't the right words and he wouldn't write them. It was only after I came home from work and explained to him that he was special and got extra words because he was so smart that finally did his homework. I kid about OCD, but it may be that he is showing real signs of it. Or maybe he's just been watching too much Monk (for whatever reason, he likes to pick our shows off the DVR and watch them).

Which Sports Car Are You?

I'm a Ferrari 360 Modena!

You've got it all. Power, passion, precision, and style. You're sensuous, exotic, and temperamental. Sure, you're expensive and high-maintenance, but you're worth it.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

I was so pleased with this quiz result that I went on to take the other quiz offered and got these results:

I'm a Mandarin!

You're an intellectual, and you've worked hard to get where you are now. You're a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world's problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you're determined to try.

Talent: 41%
Lifer: 38%
Mandarin: 56%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

Of course, I had no idea what a mandarin was, especially being of half Cantonese descent, but the description is right on the money (not tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking!). According to Bartleby dictionary definition #3, it is: A member of an elite group, especially a person having influence or high status in intellectual or cultural circles.

The most interesting question was:

Which movie do you like best?
Office Space
The Fountainhead
The Paper Chase

I don't think that most people have seen all three of these movies, but luckily I have. After some deliberation, I decided that I prefer the book, The Fountainhead, over the movie. The Paper Chase was too much about school and I've had enough schooling in my life. So Office Space was my answer. I think that result put a check in the Lifer category for me as opposed to Talent (The Fountainhead) or Mandarin (The Paper Chase). Did you get those TPS reports done?

Thursday Thirteen #34 - Favorite Board Books

My parents never kept any of my children's books, especially anything from preschool. So I hold a special place for these books which I have shared with my children and wonder if I'll ever let them go. I'm trying not to turn my kids into packrats, but to give them a balanced sense of sentimentality for their belongings.

1. Count! by Denise Fleming. This book is wonderfully illustrated with rich colors and our kids have memorized the fun text.
   


2. The Three Bears by Byron Barton. This board book version of the classic tale with its bold primary colors is a hit with the kids. We have the voices down for all the parts and they burst out laughing every time.
   


3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This is my favorite Eric Carle book. As a baby, Dova had a sweet one piece suit with its illustrations and now she has a stuffed caterpillar from the Eric Carle museum.


4. Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann. Some people love Goodnight Moon, but it is definitely the mischievous gorilla for our family. We especially love finding the pink balloon as it makes its way through the night sky.


5. The Going-To-Bed Book by Sandra Boynton. And when the moon is on the rise, they all go up to exercise. Got this one memorized too!


6. Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs! by Sandra Boynton. Many people love Barnyard Dance! (in fact we got three of these as gifts), but for Dova, it's the cute and not so cute dinosaurs which capture her imagination.


7. Where's My Teddy? by Jez Alborough. The illustrations are fantastic, especially the spooky forest. The play on size is also quite endearing.


8. Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown. This classic tale is always a cozy read.


9. First Book of Sushi by Amy Wilson Sanger. Who can resist Tobiko flying from Japan? Dova won't touch real sushi, but she'll gladly pretend to eat all the sushi off these pages.


10. Freight Train by Donald Crews. When Adam was two and he memorized this book and could "read" it to everyone.


11. My Shimmery Fun Time Book by Salina Yoon. Adam shredded this book as a toddler, and I meticulously glued and taped it back together. We still love the shiny pictures.


12. Pat the Bunny Another book that Adam shredded as a toddler (my, was he destructive!), which we replaced for Dova. This one has a special place in our hearts because Adam received the book with a small stuffed bunny as a baby. He then picked out a large version of the bunny when we had a gift certificate for him when he was two. Not a car, not a loud electronic toy, but a sweet stuffed bunny. He still sleeps with "big bunny" on occasion.


13. Baby Einstein: Van Gogh's World of Color by Julie Aigner-clark. Believe it or not, Dova still watches Baby Einstein once in a while, and I am partial to Van Gogh.
    

More Chinese Ignorance

Image from Between Heaven and Earth.

My last post on what I would say when confronted by a mom who wanted to exclude a dad from a playgroup reminded me of this post about Doug's experience with apparent bigotry in a playground. Now this woman didn't have a problem with Doug taking his daughter to the playground in the middle of a weekday, but she had some serious ignorance about Asian-Americans. Shortly after I posted, he related another story. She had been having back pains so she went to see a doctor that someone recommended. She said he was a Chinese doctor and seemed very knowledgeable, but she didn't understand why he didn't suggest acupuncture.

OMG, is she serious? Do people really think that all Chinese doctors are acupuncturists? Hello, we live in the US, where western medicine is the norm. In fact I abhor Chinese herbal medicine from bad memories as a child. My parents would make me drink this vile black liquid that smelled like cilantro when I was sick. Even as an adult, when people say that they've found Chinese medicine to be beneficial, I say, good for you, I won't go near it! Even recently, my mom suggested that I take some Chinese medicine for my never-ending illness, and I just said, you must be kidding. Maybe I'm the bigot here!