In case you haven’t seen it elsewhere already.
Category Archives: Ideas (blog)
We need more parents like this one.
Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone.
When I was a kid, say, 8 or 9 years old, there were a rash of “I’ve got candy – get in my car” snatchings. Or at least that must’ve happened at some point. We didn’t have the constant media onslaught but everyone in all the schools were taught not to talk to strangers, not to take candy or puppies or anything else from strangers, and to run and tell an adult if something weird was going on.
Quite frankly, my friends and I (there were quite a few of us in this age group on my block) never got questioned or approached once by an adult who didn’t want to know which way to turn to get to the supermarket, or what the hell road they were on.
And if there was one piece of advice we were much more interested in, it was Avoid Stray Dogs. Because when you’re four foot tall and less than 100 lbs, a stray Laborador is freakin’ huge.
My folks did freak when I missed the bus and walked the five blocks home from the elementary school by myself, but we all lived through it. They freaked because I wasn’t on the bus, more than because I could get kidnapped. I think I was eight, or maybe nine. I had already been allowed to bike up to three blocks from my house — which had been the same house my father grew up in, and he’d biked to the next town over by his early teens.
Even once we moved to the sticks, I biked two miles in one direction or another to see friends, go to the grocery store, etc. and we didn’t have sidewalks (or in many cases shoulders on the road) or helmets or bike lights or anything.
My kid sister (to my knowledge) rarely if ever biked to a friend’s house and rarely if ever walked home from school. Yes, it was partially because we were in the middle of freaking nowhere, but it was also partially because you just don’t let your kids do that had already set in.
I applaud this mother for letting her kid learn and explore his world. He knows she trusts him (he probably also knows the consequences of betraying that trust) and he knows more about his own strengths than a whole lot of kids would otherwise.
Baking day
Starting tomorrow, Nighthawk’s on the low-iodine diet for the next two weeks in preparation for a test scan to make sure the thyroid cancer is still gone, which means I took today off to bake. I went almost as crazy as last time although this time it looks like it’s going to be 2 dozen muffins or so, two loaves of white bread, and some home-made tortilla chips. Plus whatever else I kick out in the next few hours. But it’s already 4:30ish and I don’t know how much more I can get done.
Really, we’re quite well-off food-wise this time, and it’s been an easier process than I anticipated considering that I’m doing it all myself by myself. The kitchen doesn’t look too much like a bomb went off and the food’s all edible so far.
Still, I understand now why my grandmothers and their mothers all up the line had to take a full day to bake. This is just enough food for two people. Bread enough for a starving troupe of 3 or 4 kids plus a hungry husband would be insane. Especially without the stand mixer and the silicone bakeware.
Well, that was painless.
Just updated us to the latest WordPress version, and while you won’t likely see anything on the front end (if I did my job right) ho-lee hell has the admin template changed. If you’re having trouble finding things, don’t feel bad, so am I.
On the other hand, most of the changes are very good things, including better management of tags, posts, etc. It’s just getting over the initial WTF that needs to be handled.
Oh, and I’ll probably be messing with things on here quite a bit over the next few weeks — if time allows — so if you have any suggestions or requests, now’s a good time.
Six Misconceptions About Orphaned Works
Radio Free Meredith – Six Misconceptions About Orphaned Works answers a bunch of questions about copyright you might have had. Even if you didn’t, it’s worth the read. These days, with so many of us having blogs and the like, we’re all copyright creators, so this is important stuff.
I wonder how long it’ll be before this becomes required education in high schools.
Tales of a 31-year-old white belt: random connections revealed
I had a great time out at lunch with two friends who are black belts (one’s a m\Master) in Tang Soo Do today. One of the great benefits of this new activity is that I now have a point of connection with incredible people I might have otherwise lost touch with. That by itself is worth the price of admission.
I’ve also learned through a clothing shopping trip yesterday that my fluffy body has already started to reorganize. I haven’t lost any weight, but certain pockets of fat are starting to disappear. Benefits: less fat. Consequences: now I don’t wear the same style of pants I did 3 months ago and had to move to a different rack at the fat girls’ store. Can’t say that’s a bad thing.
And finally, here’s a skill I didn’t think would be involved in martial arts: sewing. I bought a sewing machine this week because my fat ass takes a size 6 do bokh (uniform) and that’s the same size that my friend the six-foot-four Master wears. Or to put it another way, I had to hem almost 8 inches of fabric off the bottom.
I just might make my fortune by commissioning someone to create Tang Soo Do do bokhs in patterns designed for women. That is, after I do the other eight hundred things I was going to do to conquer the world.
Unrelated aside:
The awesome folks at the Apple Store managed to take apart the monolith, clean her up, and call me to pick her up already by this afternoon. So we’re back on the iMac and life is good. I’m a happy camper.
Dirty dirty dirty!
I’m posting this from the Mac store in King of Prussia. There’s some weird dirt under the screen of The Monolith – my lovely and happy iMac – and I’ve finally gotten fed up with it. Didn’t get a chance to post to give y’all a warning this week. Anyway, since I still have the Dread Pirate Roberts (fastest iBook -hah- in the fleet, which never takes prisoners) I’ll still be posting until we find out the fate of The Monolith, but I can’t say for sure that comics will be on time.