...that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens....
-- opening narration to the original Battlestar Galactica series, spoken by Patrick Macnee. You can find a sound file of the narration here.
Small spoilers for tonight's Battlestar Galactica finale follow.
Consider yourself warned.
That original narration fascinated me as a child. Patrick Macnee's delivery of it was awesome, and I loved the lyrical quality of the writing itself. There's also, of course, the idea behind the narration -- which I can't express any more eloquently than the narration itself.
So of course I always suspected that the current BSG's mantra of "all of this has happened before and all of it will happen again" had something to do with that original narration. When they found Earth and it was destroyed, I -- like many fans, I assume -- figured that the BSG story takes place far into our future, where there have been two additional catastrophic human near-extinctions: along with the one on the original Earth, the one on Kobol, and of course the destruction of the Twelve Colonies.
However.
Mitochondrial Eve.
Mito-frakkin-chondrial Eve.
My science nerd and my sci-fi nerd collided into a rush of ecstatic squee. That is just too entirely awesome -- whatever you may think of the rest of the ending.
I mean...Mitochondrial Eve.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Question
What would make a camera suddenly stop focusing and show vertical
halos (as in, more heads on top of real heads), with multiple lenses,
batteries, and a preferences reset? I suspect something physical but
I've never had a camera fail before.
halos (as in, more heads on top of real heads), with multiple lenses,
batteries, and a preferences reset? I suspect something physical but
I've never had a camera fail before.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
A Milestone
Comparison shopping is very hard for Patrick.
I suspect it's some combination of I'm-a-21-year-old-guy impulsiveness and the fact that comparison shopping requires a few higher-level thinking processes, not the least of which are (1) delaying gratification (not buying something cool the moment you see it), and (2) understanding that some nebulous something you might see later might be cooler than this REALLY COOL THING you see right here and now.
We worked really hard on the idea at Disney World this past winter (see, there I go again, making a trip into a CBI (community based instruction) experience ;-)). Patrick's plan is always to get one shirt at each theme park, and in the past, this has meant grabbing the first cool shirt he sees and running with it.
This year, we (mostly jointly) decided to look in all the shops first, and go back and buy whichever shirt was best. Patrick was skeptical at first, until I talked him out of buying some generic shirt at Mouse Gears in EPCOT -- and then he promptly found a really cool (to him) shirt at the Mexico Pavilion. I pointed out (and emphasized heavily) that he would never have found that shirt had he bought the first one.
This time he got it. He carefully perused every shop in every other park -- with the exception of Animal Kingdom, which is a hilly, bumpy, difficult place to walk around if you don't see too well, and which had utterly exhausted him -- and ended up finding some really nice shirt, including his bombest shirt.
Meanwhile, Patrick had been hired by my mom to help her catch up on the shredding at her office. Patrick has been slaving over a shredder for months, with the ultimate goal of earning enough money to buy a video camera so he can take ride videos at Disneyland and Disney World. He is nearly done (half a box more) but was a little crestfallen that he wouldn't finish in time to buy the camera for his birthday.
Today, with the intention (though she didn't tell him that) of taking pity on him and advancing him the money for the camera, we all traipsed to Fry's and Best Buy to look at cameras. He found one at Fry's that he really liked, then willingly -- and without any prompts -- walked away to browse the DVDs, planning to go to Best Buy next.
Without any prompts.
Even though he'd found one he liked a lot.
So we went to Best Buy, and lo and behold, he found one he liked even better. It was available in bright red, and had night vision -- a plus for dark rides.
He perused them, and walked over to browse the DVDs.
(That's kinda a Routine.)
Anyhow, at dinner (mmmm...Bear Pit), my mom asked him which camera he'd liked the best.
(We'd told him he was getting a surprise after dinner, but hadn't told him what it was. In a testament to his growing maturity and responsibility, he never once -- not until after we'd parked at Best Buy -- thought that his surprise might be his camera.)
He said the one at Best Buy, then went back to writing in his notebook.
So, we parked at Best Buy, and Patrick frowned. "We're at Best Buy?" he said. "My surprise is at Best Buy?"
Then it hit him.
"My surprise is my camera?!"
It turned out they were out of the red ones, but he was happy with his glossy black.
A whole day of comparison shopping. Go Patrick!
I suspect it's some combination of I'm-a-21-year-old-guy impulsiveness and the fact that comparison shopping requires a few higher-level thinking processes, not the least of which are (1) delaying gratification (not buying something cool the moment you see it), and (2) understanding that some nebulous something you might see later might be cooler than this REALLY COOL THING you see right here and now.
We worked really hard on the idea at Disney World this past winter (see, there I go again, making a trip into a CBI (community based instruction) experience ;-)). Patrick's plan is always to get one shirt at each theme park, and in the past, this has meant grabbing the first cool shirt he sees and running with it.
This year, we (mostly jointly) decided to look in all the shops first, and go back and buy whichever shirt was best. Patrick was skeptical at first, until I talked him out of buying some generic shirt at Mouse Gears in EPCOT -- and then he promptly found a really cool (to him) shirt at the Mexico Pavilion. I pointed out (and emphasized heavily) that he would never have found that shirt had he bought the first one.
This time he got it. He carefully perused every shop in every other park -- with the exception of Animal Kingdom, which is a hilly, bumpy, difficult place to walk around if you don't see too well, and which had utterly exhausted him -- and ended up finding some really nice shirt, including his bombest shirt.
Meanwhile, Patrick had been hired by my mom to help her catch up on the shredding at her office. Patrick has been slaving over a shredder for months, with the ultimate goal of earning enough money to buy a video camera so he can take ride videos at Disneyland and Disney World. He is nearly done (half a box more) but was a little crestfallen that he wouldn't finish in time to buy the camera for his birthday.
Today, with the intention (though she didn't tell him that) of taking pity on him and advancing him the money for the camera, we all traipsed to Fry's and Best Buy to look at cameras. He found one at Fry's that he really liked, then willingly -- and without any prompts -- walked away to browse the DVDs, planning to go to Best Buy next.
Without any prompts.
Even though he'd found one he liked a lot.
So we went to Best Buy, and lo and behold, he found one he liked even better. It was available in bright red, and had night vision -- a plus for dark rides.
He perused them, and walked over to browse the DVDs.
(That's kinda a Routine.)
Anyhow, at dinner (mmmm...Bear Pit), my mom asked him which camera he'd liked the best.
(We'd told him he was getting a surprise after dinner, but hadn't told him what it was. In a testament to his growing maturity and responsibility, he never once -- not until after we'd parked at Best Buy -- thought that his surprise might be his camera.)
He said the one at Best Buy, then went back to writing in his notebook.
So, we parked at Best Buy, and Patrick frowned. "We're at Best Buy?" he said. "My surprise is at Best Buy?"
Then it hit him.
"My surprise is my camera?!"
It turned out they were out of the red ones, but he was happy with his glossy black.
A whole day of comparison shopping. Go Patrick!
Monday, March 09, 2009
Eureka!
A while back, I posted a Shakespeare quote that had appreared -- I was certain -- on Star Trek at some point, though I was not at all sure where. Googling the quote hadn't helped.
So, tonight, while I was waiting for my update (please have bug-fixes!) for Communicate:SymWriter to download, I tried something more generic: I googled "Star Trek Shakespeare" in one tab and the quote "I shall not look upon his like again" in another. The former didn't help much, although it did link me to a general page reminding me of other Shakespeare quotes in Trek.
But armed with my new knowledge -- namely, that the quote itself was from Hamlet -- I googled "Star Trek Hamlet" and...eureka!
Meanwhile, having more or less struck out on Amazon, I've been searching Google Images for pictures from Nepal, in order to write a short adapted book about it. (One of our staff members this year, Long Term Sub Aide R, is from Nepal, and the kids are dreadfully curious about the place.)
Also, I may be getting Student #12, although I haven't heard back from Program Specialist PM after the parent visit, so it's still up in the air. Turns out Teacher M used to sit in on the student's IEPs as a special educator, because the student was homeschooled. He's sixth grade age, but considered a fifth grader, which would bring me up to six fifth graders, four sixth graders, and two lonely fourth graders.
So, tonight, while I was waiting for my update (please have bug-fixes!) for Communicate:SymWriter to download, I tried something more generic: I googled "Star Trek Shakespeare" in one tab and the quote "I shall not look upon his like again" in another. The former didn't help much, although it did link me to a general page reminding me of other Shakespeare quotes in Trek.
But armed with my new knowledge -- namely, that the quote itself was from Hamlet -- I googled "Star Trek Hamlet" and...eureka!
In 2366, when Data was abducted by Kivas Fajo and presumed dead, Geordi La Forge returned Data's volume of the complete Shakespeare to Captain Jean-Luc Picard. He read two lines from Hamlet Act I, Scene II to himself:Ironically, after my initial googling a while back, I was fairly certain that the quote had come from "The Most Toys" -- which, along with the episode in which the bad guy takes over Deanna and makes her age precipitously, is the only TNG episode I've only ever watched once -- or "Time's Arrow" (a.k.a. the "Data's Head" episode, in which the writers take the mind-numbing "predestination paradox" to new heights, where Data found his head under San Francisco and travelled back in time to investigate how his head was buried in San Francisco, only to lose his head in San Francisco, resulting in him finding his head in the future and...yeah.).
"He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again." (TNG: "The Most Toys")
Meanwhile, having more or less struck out on Amazon, I've been searching Google Images for pictures from Nepal, in order to write a short adapted book about it. (One of our staff members this year, Long Term Sub Aide R, is from Nepal, and the kids are dreadfully curious about the place.)
Also, I may be getting Student #12, although I haven't heard back from Program Specialist PM after the parent visit, so it's still up in the air. Turns out Teacher M used to sit in on the student's IEPs as a special educator, because the student was homeschooled. He's sixth grade age, but considered a fifth grader, which would bring me up to six fifth graders, four sixth graders, and two lonely fourth graders.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Adventures
Back at Christmas, I was the happy recipient of a "nifty 50" -- a Canon 50 mm prime lens that costs around $100. It's mostly plastic and -- as with all of photography -- not the best 50 mm prime lens you can buy.
However, it's a 50 mm f 1.8 lens, so I happily brought it along to ride the new it's a small world and to take some pictures.
I got a couple of good shots, but my favorite of the night is this one, from the also newly-refurbished Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through.
This one was taken with my trusty kit lens from way back when I bought the camera, but I'd paused there to wait for my mom to buy a coffee, and I never take photos from this angle or vantage point.
A couple of small world shots. I like Woody the best, but to be fair, I tried to get away with an ISO of 400 in an effort to reduce noise. I got a surprising number of usable shots, but I think next time I'll go for 800 and see what I can do with that. There's always 1600 if I must.
Meanwhile, still slowly going through San Diego pictures from...ahem...the day after Thanksgiving. Lots of neat Balboa Park architectural pictures, with some Seaport Village thrown in.
Seaport Village:
Balboa Park:
And that's all she wrote, for now.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Various Fannish Stuff
Okay, first, a few words about Dollhouse.
The majority of reviews that I've read online have been...anemic, at best. People who were expecting snappy Buffy-esque dialogue were disappointed with the (heavily-tinkered-with-by-Fox) premiere. Many people see no potential in the show because Echo is "not a character" (read that on a blog; don't remember where). One Fandom!Secrets post complained that Dollhouse is the last nail in the Joss-isn't-a-feminist-after-all coffin.
I was, I'll admit, a little surprised at the...well...normality of the dialogue in the premiere. There was no creative use of tenses, word forms, or sentence structure (just look at the Wikiquote Buffy page, if you don't know what I'm talking about) such as "But not for me the furrowed brow."
The thing is...this isn't Buffy. Or Angel. So why does it have to sound like it?
(To be fair, in the second and third episodes, there are a few turns of phrase that I found quite reminiscent of both, but it's not like it's an hour of Buffy-esque dialogue tricks.)
Now, as for the "Echo isn't a character" thing -- I'd argue against that, strenuously.
(Spoilers below for the first three episodes.)
I'm not sure that Echo, in her non-imprinted state, has much to do with her pre-Dollhouse persona (whose name I have forgotten) but I'm fairly certain that something is lingering even after wipes. Whether that has to do with the flashbacks she had when crazy-hunter-guy was stalking her, or whether it's just a flaw in the process (which the existence of Alpha and of the other doll recognizing Echo at the end of the third episode suggest), I'm not sure.
The fact is, they have shown Echo wandering around where she shouldn't be, out of curiosity, remembering other dolls when she shouldn't, interacting with them in a way that suggests she knows she shouldn't let on that she recognizes them (shaking her head at Sierra), and so on. I think Echo is a character -- and, what's more -- I think that Echo is going to develop as a character over however long the series lasts (or however long Joss has planned, if by some miracle its ratings go up and it lasts more than the few episodes that have been ordered already) into the main character of the show.
And, yes, I mean that as literally as I wrote it -- it's not going to be the "tabula rasa" show -- it's going to be the Echo show. The question is, is it going to be about Echo taking down the Dollhouse from within, or is it going to be a more morally murky situation?
Much is being made in the show of Echo's ability to build something above and beyond what she's been imprinted with. Dr. Fred suggests -- likely because they suspect that's what Alpha did -- that that is a bad thing.
So is Alpha going to be the moral opposite of Echo? The doll that took all the bad bits and pieces and created for himself a persona that seems clearly evil. Or is it? Was he, perhaps, trying to put the dolls out of what he perceived as their misery?
And, say Echo becomes fully self-aware, in between imprinting sessions. Does she retain that after being imprinted? Does she, ultimately, become Echo who is also a ninja fighter?
Personally, I find the possibilities fascinating.
So, say, at some point in the show (I think I remember reading that Joss intends for it to be five seasons) Echo escapes from the dollhouse and becomes a fugitive. Who do you trust? How do you know that the person you're talking to isn't a doll sent to set you up, like Agent Ballard in the third episode.
Incidentally, I could do without the Agent Ballard thing at all. I've just never gotten the fuss over Tahmoh Penikett, even as I rooted for his character on Battlestar Galactica. Someone, though, perhaps on an io9 discussion, suggested that he might be Alpha, and I find that intriguing -- that perhaps the Alpha persona is only part of the character.
Now, based on past history, the fact that I enjoy a Fox sci-fi show with mediocre ratings suggests an early end, a la the much-lamented Alien Nation. Oh well.
Meanwhile, having been inspired by a re-read blog on Tor's website, I have decided to try, once again, to re-read The Lord of the Rings. I've tried three other times before, but was heartened by many, many comments by folks that are now clearly die-hard fans who also made several aborted attempts (all failing very close to where I gave up -- somewhere between Bree and Rivendell) to try once again.
I have no real explanation for why I've never made it through the books -- the rather high-brow language doesn't really trouble me -- but my suspicion is the rather long info-dumps that happen with prodigious regularity in the book. Peter Jackson said once that getting the prologue to Fellowship the right length was an arduous process -- he had to try to give audiences info they needed to know, without having a 23-minute-long prologue. Tolkien, to my observation, showed no such restraint.
So we'll see.
The majority of reviews that I've read online have been...anemic, at best. People who were expecting snappy Buffy-esque dialogue were disappointed with the (heavily-tinkered-with-by-Fox) premiere. Many people see no potential in the show because Echo is "not a character" (read that on a blog; don't remember where). One Fandom!Secrets post complained that Dollhouse is the last nail in the Joss-isn't-a-feminist-after-all coffin.
I was, I'll admit, a little surprised at the...well...normality of the dialogue in the premiere. There was no creative use of tenses, word forms, or sentence structure (just look at the Wikiquote Buffy page, if you don't know what I'm talking about) such as "But not for me the furrowed brow."
The thing is...this isn't Buffy. Or Angel. So why does it have to sound like it?
(To be fair, in the second and third episodes, there are a few turns of phrase that I found quite reminiscent of both, but it's not like it's an hour of Buffy-esque dialogue tricks.)
Now, as for the "Echo isn't a character" thing -- I'd argue against that, strenuously.
(Spoilers below for the first three episodes.)
I'm not sure that Echo, in her non-imprinted state, has much to do with her pre-Dollhouse persona (whose name I have forgotten) but I'm fairly certain that something is lingering even after wipes. Whether that has to do with the flashbacks she had when crazy-hunter-guy was stalking her, or whether it's just a flaw in the process (which the existence of Alpha and of the other doll recognizing Echo at the end of the third episode suggest), I'm not sure.
The fact is, they have shown Echo wandering around where she shouldn't be, out of curiosity, remembering other dolls when she shouldn't, interacting with them in a way that suggests she knows she shouldn't let on that she recognizes them (shaking her head at Sierra), and so on. I think Echo is a character -- and, what's more -- I think that Echo is going to develop as a character over however long the series lasts (or however long Joss has planned, if by some miracle its ratings go up and it lasts more than the few episodes that have been ordered already) into the main character of the show.
And, yes, I mean that as literally as I wrote it -- it's not going to be the "tabula rasa" show -- it's going to be the Echo show. The question is, is it going to be about Echo taking down the Dollhouse from within, or is it going to be a more morally murky situation?
Much is being made in the show of Echo's ability to build something above and beyond what she's been imprinted with. Dr. Fred suggests -- likely because they suspect that's what Alpha did -- that that is a bad thing.
So is Alpha going to be the moral opposite of Echo? The doll that took all the bad bits and pieces and created for himself a persona that seems clearly evil. Or is it? Was he, perhaps, trying to put the dolls out of what he perceived as their misery?
And, say Echo becomes fully self-aware, in between imprinting sessions. Does she retain that after being imprinted? Does she, ultimately, become Echo who is also a ninja fighter?
Personally, I find the possibilities fascinating.
So, say, at some point in the show (I think I remember reading that Joss intends for it to be five seasons) Echo escapes from the dollhouse and becomes a fugitive. Who do you trust? How do you know that the person you're talking to isn't a doll sent to set you up, like Agent Ballard in the third episode.
Incidentally, I could do without the Agent Ballard thing at all. I've just never gotten the fuss over Tahmoh Penikett, even as I rooted for his character on Battlestar Galactica. Someone, though, perhaps on an io9 discussion, suggested that he might be Alpha, and I find that intriguing -- that perhaps the Alpha persona is only part of the character.
Now, based on past history, the fact that I enjoy a Fox sci-fi show with mediocre ratings suggests an early end, a la the much-lamented Alien Nation. Oh well.
Meanwhile, having been inspired by a re-read blog on Tor's website, I have decided to try, once again, to re-read The Lord of the Rings. I've tried three other times before, but was heartened by many, many comments by folks that are now clearly die-hard fans who also made several aborted attempts (all failing very close to where I gave up -- somewhere between Bree and Rivendell) to try once again.
I have no real explanation for why I've never made it through the books -- the rather high-brow language doesn't really trouble me -- but my suspicion is the rather long info-dumps that happen with prodigious regularity in the book. Peter Jackson said once that getting the prologue to Fellowship the right length was an arduous process -- he had to try to give audiences info they needed to know, without having a 23-minute-long prologue. Tolkien, to my observation, showed no such restraint.
So we'll see.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
The Strange Workings of My Brain
I am absolutely convinced that the last two lines of this sonnet were, at some point in time, quoted in an episode of one of the Star Trek shows.
For the life of me, I cannot remember who, what, when, or why, and it's driving me nuts.
"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
I don't suppose anyone out there can help me out? Normally, I'm much better at remembering lines and quotes.
For the record, I think my favorite sonnet is Sonnet 29:
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply** I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings'.
** Haply does not mean "happily," but rather, "by chance" (it's related to "happenstance," I suppose).
Like most of Shakespeare's works, I think that his sonnets should be read aloud to be fully appreciated -- but remember that you shouldn't pause at the end of a line unless there's punctuation there -- so, for instance, there should be no pause between "arising" and "From sullen earth."
That said, one of the greatest talents of my 11th and 12th grade English teachers was finding contemporary language to explain poetry (you should hear how my 11th grade teacher -- who, incidentally, was abysmal at teaching prose -- explained "To His Coy Mistress"), so here's my take on it:
For the life of me, I cannot remember who, what, when, or why, and it's driving me nuts.
"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
I don't suppose anyone out there can help me out? Normally, I'm much better at remembering lines and quotes.
For the record, I think my favorite sonnet is Sonnet 29:
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply** I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings'.
** Haply does not mean "happily," but rather, "by chance" (it's related to "happenstance," I suppose).
Like most of Shakespeare's works, I think that his sonnets should be read aloud to be fully appreciated -- but remember that you shouldn't pause at the end of a line unless there's punctuation there -- so, for instance, there should be no pause between "arising" and "From sullen earth."
That said, one of the greatest talents of my 11th and 12th grade English teachers was finding contemporary language to explain poetry (you should hear how my 11th grade teacher -- who, incidentally, was abysmal at teaching prose -- explained "To His Coy Mistress"), so here's my take on it:
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
When nothing in my life is going well, and I'm crying from loneliness . . .
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
. . . and praying, though it's not doing any good, and I'm cursing my life and my bad luck . . .
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
. . . Wishing that I was somebody else -- someone with friends, or talents, or power -- hating that which I usually love . . .
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
. . . And yet hating myself for feeling this way . . .
Haply** I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
Just by chance, I think of you, and then I love everything about my life (note: I could not in any way do justice to that simile, which to me is one of the most gorgeous turns of phrase I've ever heard (despite the now sinister connections to the term "heaven's gate" and so I chose not to)
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings'.
. . . Because when I think of how you love me, I feel so rich that I wouldn't change my life for anything.
Seriously, though, read it aloud.
Read all of Shakespeare aloud, or at least listen to someone else read it aloud. It takes longer, but it makes all the difference in the world.
Now that I've gotten so sidetracked, let me repeat my plea for help:
Where, oh, where, did they quote this on one of the Trek shows:
"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
I have the niggling sense that it somehow relates to Data, but I'm honestly not at all sure.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Oh, Copyediting
So, there is an interesting headline on Yahoo's front page right about now:
Strangely enough, the headline of the article the link points to makes more sense:
For any screen-reader using guests, the first headline reads "Many TV stations will still switch to analog signal on Feb. 17" and the second reads "TV stations get ready to cut analog signal (AP)." I just included the screen captures as evidence.
(Also, since when are article headlines not capitalized?)
Strangely enough, the headline of the article the link points to makes more sense:
For any screen-reader using guests, the first headline reads "Many TV stations will still switch to analog signal on Feb. 17" and the second reads "TV stations get ready to cut analog signal (AP)." I just included the screen captures as evidence.
(Also, since when are article headlines not capitalized?)
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Is This Cool or Weird?
Okay, I loved the mid-80s TV movie version of Alice in Wonderland, which, of course, prominently featured "The Jabberwocky."
I also like filk music, at least older stuff (classics like Julia Ecklar's stuff, Leslie Fish...that kind of stuff).
This sounds like a filk recording of "The Jabberwocky," but I'm not sure if it's cool or not. Something about the phrasing or pacing, especially at the beginning, seems a
bit...off:
Personally, my favorite nonsense phrase was always: "the vorpal blade went snicker-snack."
I also like filk music, at least older stuff (classics like Julia Ecklar's stuff, Leslie Fish...that kind of stuff).
This sounds like a filk recording of "The Jabberwocky," but I'm not sure if it's cool or not. Something about the phrasing or pacing, especially at the beginning, seems a
bit...off:
Personally, my favorite nonsense phrase was always: "the vorpal blade went snicker-snack."
Saturday, February 14, 2009
My Fierceness, Let Me Show You It
Actually, Pumpkin was just chewing on the hole in her "house," but I love the expression on her face.
Friday, February 13, 2009
General Announcement
I have finally been coerced into joining Facebook, as a mom at our school who did a stint with us as long-term sub for Former Aide S is going to Disney World on a Make a Wish trip for her son, and invited me to join so I could see pictures.
That said, there will be no links between here and my Facebook account, nor links from there to here. This is my place to chat and, occasionally, vent, and to be able to do so legitimately, I need to preserve my anonymity here.
So -- if you are on Facebook and you know me in real life, feel free to search for me.
That said, there will be no links between here and my Facebook account, nor links from there to here. This is my place to chat and, occasionally, vent, and to be able to do so legitimately, I need to preserve my anonymity here.
So -- if you are on Facebook and you know me in real life, feel free to search for me.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Bad Nerd
So, somehow, I missed the fact that Amazon was going to announce the Kindle 2 today.
(Did we know that Amazon was going to announce the Kindle 2 today? I looked for Kindle 2 rumors on a whim about a week or so ago, and everyone agreed it was imminent, but I don't recall a date anywhere.)
Let me start by saying that I have owned both the first generation Sony Reader (the 500) and the upgraded 505. I don't own the third generation, touch screen, backlit 700 -- and after the firmware upgrade to the 505 that gave additional font sizes, I don't really see the 700 as a compelling upgrade. Judging from the unit I played with in Borders, the back light, even when it's not on, decreases the contrast of the display -- and if my batteries are going to run out, I'd rather it be the user-replaceable book light batteries than the Reader's internal battery.
Let me also say that I've always been a voracious reader -- and a voracious re-reader. There are novels, as well as a select few fan fiction stories I've found on the Internet, that I've read at least 10 or more times. One of the most challenging things for me as a teacher is that I rarely have the mental wherewithal to read in the evenings.
So having the Reader, which I can keep in my purse to grab a few pages here or there -- not to mention bringing weeks' worth of reading material on trips for less than a pound -- has been a real boom. It's been as transformative to my life and how I enjoy reading as the iPod was to how I enjoyed music.
The Kindle 1 would never have won any design contests, at least in my opinion (though I'm willing to admit that perhaps I'm biased towards the first device I own -- and am perhaps corrupted by the Apple minimalist design philosophy) while the Reader -- especially the 505 -- has always been slick and sleek.
But the things that kept me looking for Kindle 2 rumors, the things that had me wondering if, somehow, I could scare up some tax refund money, were two simple things: (1) you can buy books on the fly, using Sprint's EVDO network; and (2) Amazon's Kindle store has a number of older, classic Star Trek books (before Paramount moved in, took editorial control, and basically said that nothing was allowed to change by the end of a novel) that I really, really like and would really, really like to purchase legitimately.
Of course, they are available on the Internet for those of a mind to find them, but I try to be honest in my dealings.
(Remember that thing above when I said I'm a voracious re-reader? If you counted only Spock's World, Q-In-Law, Dwellers in the Crucible, The Vulcan Academy Murders, Doctor's Orders, The IDIC Epidemic, The Entropy Effect, Uhura's Song, The Romulan Way, and Vendetta, I would imagine that would account for something like 150 novel readings in my life time. The bolded ones alone probably account for 50. Also, pardon me for not linking, but that's a lot, and Google is your friend.)
So when I checked Twitter tonight and found Molly Wood tweeting about a Kindle 2 review, I was...flummoxed.
The Kindle 2 sounds like an incremental upgrade, at least from the CNet review I read, but that's rather what I expected. As you can tell from the generation numbers, the second generation (505) of the Reader was a "mere" +5 from the original 500, while the vastly redesigned 700 warranted a +200.
In other words, think software updates. Way, way back, long ago, upgrading from Netscape 3.3 to 3.4 was a very minor change, while Netscape 4 became something totally different.
If I'm remembering correctly, the actual readable screen size of the Reader and Kindle are the same, but the large plastic casing around the Kindle makes it seem smaller to me. Perhaps that would change if I could actually play with one for a few minutes, but one of the disadvantages of Amazon being an Internet-only operation -- as useful as it is in most situations -- is that there are no brick and mortar stores like the Sony Style or Borders stores where I've seen the Reader.
I like the fact that the buttons have been rearranged slightly, but I don't like that the Kindle 2 has no expansion slot.
(That said, my Sony Reader will play mp3s as well, and I've never loaded a one -- I would never want to drain my reader's battery by listening to music (that's why I have an iPod and a 9V battery pack for it) and I've never come close to filling up either its internal memory or the 1GB SD card I added to it, and the Kindle comes with 2 GB.)
The Read to Me feature is awesome, though. I've used my own computer's text-to-speech capabilities to make "audiobooks" of certain things but it would be nifty to have a device that could read something to me on the fly -- especially DRMd books, which are exceedingly difficult to make work on my computer.
I'm ambivalent about the keyboard. When I had a Rocket ebook reader (yes, I've been an ebook early adopter for years), it had a pen and limited handwriting recognition, and I did occasionally look up words in the dictionary (sward, for instance, is one I remember getting the gist of from the context but wanting to know for certain). But I can't really say I've missed it on my Reader. Obviously, it's necessary for browsing for books on the fly, but I think it adds to my impression -- again, probably psychological and almost certainly false -- that the Kindle's screen is smaller than the Sony Reader's.
The photos here show that the Kindle is nice and thin, and I like the styling on the back -- which makes me wonder if the people designing the front and back ever talked to each other. I'm not sure I can articulate what I don't like about the front...and I might not feel that way if I'd ever seen a real one...who knows?
Six text sizes is nice, but a recent firmware update to the 505 increased the options for that as well, so that's not as compelling a feature as it used to be.
According to this review, the Kindle 2 now reads .doc and .pdf files -- I'll have to investigate more to see if it's natively (and, if so, how you get them on the device -- see below) as about 2/3 of my content is non-DRMed .rtf files such as my own stories, stories I've downloaded off the Internet, and so on. If that's the case, that's a major deletion the "minus" column in my mental comparison scale for the Kindle.
Finally, we hit one last thing.
The Sony Reader does not work with a Mac natively. There are 3rd party options, but they do not work with the Reader's DRM, which means that I can't purchase a book from Sony and put it on my Reader unless I boot into Windows -- and, if you've been reading my tweets, you'd see that my latest attempt to do so is not going so well.
So, there again, until I someday upgrade my laptop -- to, say, one of the nifty new unibody Macbooks -- and then install Windows, I don't buy or add books to my Reader as nearly as often as I would like, and am completely unable to do so, say, on a long trip.
So where does that leave me?
Unfortunately, back where I began. I'm slightly tilting more towards the Kindle side of the equation -- because, usability issues aside, I feel more secure in Amazon's support for Kindle long-term (because its business is so huge and diversified, it can afford to support a niche market product like the Kindle, where I'm not sure how long Sony would be able to do so), and because Amazon actually carries a lot of books that I would buy, that are not available from Sony's store.
Huge draws: Read to Me (text-to-speech) and WhisperNet (on-the-go buying).
Minor draws: Long term, it might be safer to buy proprietary-formatted, DRMed books from Amazon than from Sony.
Drawbacks: Clunky design (though Kindle 2 is a step in the right direction), already have a Sony Reader (is switching worth it).
Now, if I won the lottery, this would all be a moot point -- I'd just buy a bigger purse and have one of each. :-)
(Did we know that Amazon was going to announce the Kindle 2 today? I looked for Kindle 2 rumors on a whim about a week or so ago, and everyone agreed it was imminent, but I don't recall a date anywhere.)
Let me start by saying that I have owned both the first generation Sony Reader (the 500) and the upgraded 505. I don't own the third generation, touch screen, backlit 700 -- and after the firmware upgrade to the 505 that gave additional font sizes, I don't really see the 700 as a compelling upgrade. Judging from the unit I played with in Borders, the back light, even when it's not on, decreases the contrast of the display -- and if my batteries are going to run out, I'd rather it be the user-replaceable book light batteries than the Reader's internal battery.
Let me also say that I've always been a voracious reader -- and a voracious re-reader. There are novels, as well as a select few fan fiction stories I've found on the Internet, that I've read at least 10 or more times. One of the most challenging things for me as a teacher is that I rarely have the mental wherewithal to read in the evenings.
So having the Reader, which I can keep in my purse to grab a few pages here or there -- not to mention bringing weeks' worth of reading material on trips for less than a pound -- has been a real boom. It's been as transformative to my life and how I enjoy reading as the iPod was to how I enjoyed music.
The Kindle 1 would never have won any design contests, at least in my opinion (though I'm willing to admit that perhaps I'm biased towards the first device I own -- and am perhaps corrupted by the Apple minimalist design philosophy) while the Reader -- especially the 505 -- has always been slick and sleek.
But the things that kept me looking for Kindle 2 rumors, the things that had me wondering if, somehow, I could scare up some tax refund money, were two simple things: (1) you can buy books on the fly, using Sprint's EVDO network; and (2) Amazon's Kindle store has a number of older, classic Star Trek books (before Paramount moved in, took editorial control, and basically said that nothing was allowed to change by the end of a novel) that I really, really like and would really, really like to purchase legitimately.
Of course, they are available on the Internet for those of a mind to find them, but I try to be honest in my dealings.
(Remember that thing above when I said I'm a voracious re-reader? If you counted only Spock's World, Q-In-Law, Dwellers in the Crucible, The Vulcan Academy Murders, Doctor's Orders, The IDIC Epidemic, The Entropy Effect, Uhura's Song, The Romulan Way, and Vendetta, I would imagine that would account for something like 150 novel readings in my life time. The bolded ones alone probably account for 50. Also, pardon me for not linking, but that's a lot, and Google is your friend.)
So when I checked Twitter tonight and found Molly Wood tweeting about a Kindle 2 review, I was...flummoxed.
The Kindle 2 sounds like an incremental upgrade, at least from the CNet review I read, but that's rather what I expected. As you can tell from the generation numbers, the second generation (505) of the Reader was a "mere" +5 from the original 500, while the vastly redesigned 700 warranted a +200.
In other words, think software updates. Way, way back, long ago, upgrading from Netscape 3.3 to 3.4 was a very minor change, while Netscape 4 became something totally different.
If I'm remembering correctly, the actual readable screen size of the Reader and Kindle are the same, but the large plastic casing around the Kindle makes it seem smaller to me. Perhaps that would change if I could actually play with one for a few minutes, but one of the disadvantages of Amazon being an Internet-only operation -- as useful as it is in most situations -- is that there are no brick and mortar stores like the Sony Style or Borders stores where I've seen the Reader.
I like the fact that the buttons have been rearranged slightly, but I don't like that the Kindle 2 has no expansion slot.
(That said, my Sony Reader will play mp3s as well, and I've never loaded a one -- I would never want to drain my reader's battery by listening to music (that's why I have an iPod and a 9V battery pack for it) and I've never come close to filling up either its internal memory or the 1GB SD card I added to it, and the Kindle comes with 2 GB.)
The Read to Me feature is awesome, though. I've used my own computer's text-to-speech capabilities to make "audiobooks" of certain things but it would be nifty to have a device that could read something to me on the fly -- especially DRMd books, which are exceedingly difficult to make work on my computer.
I'm ambivalent about the keyboard. When I had a Rocket ebook reader (yes, I've been an ebook early adopter for years), it had a pen and limited handwriting recognition, and I did occasionally look up words in the dictionary (sward, for instance, is one I remember getting the gist of from the context but wanting to know for certain). But I can't really say I've missed it on my Reader. Obviously, it's necessary for browsing for books on the fly, but I think it adds to my impression -- again, probably psychological and almost certainly false -- that the Kindle's screen is smaller than the Sony Reader's.
The photos here show that the Kindle is nice and thin, and I like the styling on the back -- which makes me wonder if the people designing the front and back ever talked to each other. I'm not sure I can articulate what I don't like about the front...and I might not feel that way if I'd ever seen a real one...who knows?
Six text sizes is nice, but a recent firmware update to the 505 increased the options for that as well, so that's not as compelling a feature as it used to be.
According to this review, the Kindle 2 now reads .doc and .pdf files -- I'll have to investigate more to see if it's natively (and, if so, how you get them on the device -- see below) as about 2/3 of my content is non-DRMed .rtf files such as my own stories, stories I've downloaded off the Internet, and so on. If that's the case, that's a major deletion the "minus" column in my mental comparison scale for the Kindle.
Finally, we hit one last thing.
The Sony Reader does not work with a Mac natively. There are 3rd party options, but they do not work with the Reader's DRM, which means that I can't purchase a book from Sony and put it on my Reader unless I boot into Windows -- and, if you've been reading my tweets, you'd see that my latest attempt to do so is not going so well.
So, there again, until I someday upgrade my laptop -- to, say, one of the nifty new unibody Macbooks -- and then install Windows, I don't buy or add books to my Reader as nearly as often as I would like, and am completely unable to do so, say, on a long trip.
So where does that leave me?
Unfortunately, back where I began. I'm slightly tilting more towards the Kindle side of the equation -- because, usability issues aside, I feel more secure in Amazon's support for Kindle long-term (because its business is so huge and diversified, it can afford to support a niche market product like the Kindle, where I'm not sure how long Sony would be able to do so), and because Amazon actually carries a lot of books that I would buy, that are not available from Sony's store.
Huge draws: Read to Me (text-to-speech) and WhisperNet (on-the-go buying).
Minor draws: Long term, it might be safer to buy proprietary-formatted, DRMed books from Amazon than from Sony.
Drawbacks: Clunky design (though Kindle 2 is a step in the right direction), already have a Sony Reader (is switching worth it).
Now, if I won the lottery, this would all be a moot point -- I'd just buy a bigger purse and have one of each. :-)
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Good Thoughts Needed
I found out on Thursday after our professional development class that...hmm...I don't know if he ever had a blog nickname, so I'll call him Monster Truck Boy, is having more medical problems.
Monster Truck Boy has a rare genetic illness that has resulted in 3 bone marrow transplants, the last of which came after his fourth grade year. He had something like a 10% chance of surviving that one; because of that, I used to tell his mom that he must be a cat, and was simply beginning his fourth of nine lives.
Monster Truck Boy had been complaining of pains in his leg, and an x-ray showed something on the bone. Teacher M, who has been getting texted updates this weekend, says that the current theory -- because his blood work is actually okay -- is that he perhaps has stress fractures.
Given that the boy's had chemo several times in his life and is on all sorts of medication -- who knows...maybe he'll be lucky (relatively speaking) and simply have developed osteoporosis instead of anything more scary.
Monster Truck Boy had a rough start in school, but he and I clicked from the second day I was his teacher (the first day I was his teacher was the first day of summer school, and his birthday, and he DID NOT want to be there), and he'll always have a special place in my heart, so if anyone could send good thoughts his way, I'd appreciate it.
Monster Truck Boy has a rare genetic illness that has resulted in 3 bone marrow transplants, the last of which came after his fourth grade year. He had something like a 10% chance of surviving that one; because of that, I used to tell his mom that he must be a cat, and was simply beginning his fourth of nine lives.
Monster Truck Boy had been complaining of pains in his leg, and an x-ray showed something on the bone. Teacher M, who has been getting texted updates this weekend, says that the current theory -- because his blood work is actually okay -- is that he perhaps has stress fractures.
Given that the boy's had chemo several times in his life and is on all sorts of medication -- who knows...maybe he'll be lucky (relatively speaking) and simply have developed osteoporosis instead of anything more scary.
Monster Truck Boy had a rough start in school, but he and I clicked from the second day I was his teacher (the first day I was his teacher was the first day of summer school, and his birthday, and he DID NOT want to be there), and he'll always have a special place in my heart, so if anyone could send good thoughts his way, I'd appreciate it.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Following a Child's Lead
Some kids don't like certain activities. Some kids don't like any activity not of their own choosing.
And then there's kids like Bulldozer, who like everything to be Just So, and who have a rough time with transition.
Bulldozer and speech therapy has been a rough ride over the last year and a half. Somehow, I got roped into doing one-on-one time with him daily to get "ready" for speech with a speech aide or speech therapist.
I began with the other kids -- so Bulldozer would see that the new "office" area (an idea our principal had) as something desireable.
Today, I decided that if I had to do speech with Bulldozer -- doing repetitive stuff that he doesn't like, and which has little actual communicative purpose, but that's an issue for another day -- I would do speech with Bulldozer.
Forget the stupid line drawings that he hates...I'm gonna draw him in with his favorite thing ever.
Every day, he has to write a four line personal information sheet in his morning journal -- my concession to my fear that someday that will be a CAPA question -- and he loves reading it back to me.
He is supposed to be working on long I words -- because the kid that needs polite protesting needs to work on long I words (?) -- but our speech therapist uses ridiculous boring line drawing pictures that probably come out of some important book on articulation but which don't really work for my kids -- who really need communication therapy more than speech therapy.
But since I know nothing, I have no input over speech goals, which I end up having to implement because all but 4 kids in my class are on consult...and three of the four will probably end up on consult by the time their IEPs are over.
So there we are.
Anyway, I made this:
And then there's kids like Bulldozer, who like everything to be Just So, and who have a rough time with transition.
Bulldozer and speech therapy has been a rough ride over the last year and a half. Somehow, I got roped into doing one-on-one time with him daily to get "ready" for speech with a speech aide or speech therapist.
I began with the other kids -- so Bulldozer would see that the new "office" area (an idea our principal had) as something desireable.
Today, I decided that if I had to do speech with Bulldozer -- doing repetitive stuff that he doesn't like, and which has little actual communicative purpose, but that's an issue for another day -- I would do speech with Bulldozer.
Forget the stupid line drawings that he hates...I'm gonna draw him in with his favorite thing ever.
Every day, he has to write a four line personal information sheet in his morning journal -- my concession to my fear that someday that will be a CAPA question -- and he loves reading it back to me.
He is supposed to be working on long I words -- because the kid that needs polite protesting needs to work on long I words (?) -- but our speech therapist uses ridiculous boring line drawing pictures that probably come out of some important book on articulation but which don't really work for my kids -- who really need communication therapy more than speech therapy.
But since I know nothing, I have no input over speech goals, which I end up having to implement because all but 4 kids in my class are on consult...and three of the four will probably end up on consult by the time their IEPs are over.
So there we are.
Anyway, I made this:
It's simple enough; each square is for him to check off that he's read the sentence. We'll see how it goes in a small group tomorrow, then we'll work on moving him over to the "office" area...whenever I have enough adults to float the rest of my groups.
(Incidentally, Bulldozer is actually a very good reader; he does not need most of that visual support, but I added it in (1) to take up space so that there would be fewer tasks on a page, (2) to add in pictures he really likes (Spongebob, Patrick), and (3) so that it look as similar to in-class materials and as different from speech materials as is humanly possible.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The Bombest Shirt
Sometimes Patrick does things with language that really should be corrected, but instead creep into the family's unique vernacular.
"Whoosh" for Gadget's Co Coaster, for instance, or the various alternate titles he used for his favorite episodes of Star Trek and Xena when he was little -- to the point that I had to make a chart for our dad for when Patrick visited him at work.
On our last night at the Magic Kingdom, we were waiting for our return time to Space Mountain -- which was basically, I think, a gift Fast Pass given to us by the cast member when I approached and asked which queue (standby or Fast Pass) was used for wheelchair access.
Patrick still needed to get his shirt from the Magic Kingdom, so after we rode the PeopleMover (for about the 5th time) and watched the Carousel of Progress again (boo for the "no photography at all" rule -- I get no flash pictures...but none at all...really?), we headed over to a gift shop in Tomorrowland to look for a shirt.
We ended up at the Merchant of Venus (har har har; get it?) and were perusing shirts. Unbeknownst to Patrick, one of my goals for this trip was to curb his "I must buy a shirt at each park, so I will buy the first shirt I see at each park" strategy. So far, it had worked well. He saw a couple of shirts on one side, but we perused the rest of them.
And then, he saw it.
"That's the bomb!" he said, taking the shirt down admiringly. Remember, Patrick likes his shirts loud; this one was deafening. He stared at it, and said, "That's not the bomb, that's the bombest!"
So, with grateful thanks to the Maid Service supervisor who reminded the hotel employees that they are supposed to check under beds for forgotten items, here is Patrick in his newly-arrived bombest shirt:
We bought the shirt and still had five minutes to kill, so we...wait for it...rode the PeopleMover again. "That's the bombest shirt!" Patrick kept saying, admiringly, pausing only to watch the model of Walt's original EPCOT.
"Whoosh" for Gadget's Co Coaster, for instance, or the various alternate titles he used for his favorite episodes of Star Trek and Xena when he was little -- to the point that I had to make a chart for our dad for when Patrick visited him at work.
On our last night at the Magic Kingdom, we were waiting for our return time to Space Mountain -- which was basically, I think, a gift Fast Pass given to us by the cast member when I approached and asked which queue (standby or Fast Pass) was used for wheelchair access.
Patrick still needed to get his shirt from the Magic Kingdom, so after we rode the PeopleMover (for about the 5th time) and watched the Carousel of Progress again (boo for the "no photography at all" rule -- I get no flash pictures...but none at all...really?), we headed over to a gift shop in Tomorrowland to look for a shirt.
We ended up at the Merchant of Venus (har har har; get it?) and were perusing shirts. Unbeknownst to Patrick, one of my goals for this trip was to curb his "I must buy a shirt at each park, so I will buy the first shirt I see at each park" strategy. So far, it had worked well. He saw a couple of shirts on one side, but we perused the rest of them.
And then, he saw it.
"That's the bomb!" he said, taking the shirt down admiringly. Remember, Patrick likes his shirts loud; this one was deafening. He stared at it, and said, "That's not the bomb, that's the bombest!"
So, with grateful thanks to the Maid Service supervisor who reminded the hotel employees that they are supposed to check under beds for forgotten items, here is Patrick in his newly-arrived bombest shirt:
We bought the shirt and still had five minutes to kill, so we...wait for it...rode the PeopleMover again. "That's the bombest shirt!" Patrick kept saying, admiringly, pausing only to watch the model of Walt's original EPCOT.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
An Age of Fear
Okay, so I couldn't wax eloquent on Inauguration Day. Much of this has been percolating in the back of my head for at least a week, though, so hopefully I'll pull something at least readable out of it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Maybe it's the collection of kids.
Maybe it's that they are, collectively, more academically able than just about any group I've ever had. (Yes, I had Shy Girl for 4th grade, and she got re-classified, but I'm talking about the overall 'nature' of my class.)
Maybe it's that they are, by nature, a competitive group.
Maybe it's just that they can all say "Obama."
Yes, all. Yes, even Bulldozer and Elastigirl.
But the fact of the matter is, my little experiment in civics lessons, which began more or less at this time last year, was a resounding success. My students were incredibly invested in the election, in President Obama's move to the White House, and, yes, even in what type of dog Sasha and Malia (and, yes, they can name the girls too) will be getting.
Ironically, though, the experiment arose out of the frustration I remembered during the 2000 elections, when Patrick -- who was not yet old enough to vote -- knew more about the candidates than many people interviewed on the news.
If you'll recall, I said I took a perverse pleasure in the idea that my 9-12 year olds with moderate to severe disabilities might know more about our political system than the Average Joe on the street.
Of course, that didn't happen. The whole world, I would venture to say, was captivated by the election, and I would hope that, whatever side of the political line you lie on, most people were at least touched by America's ability to move past some of its damaged past.
It may be that America elected its first black president. But what would be nicer -- and what we'll likely never know -- would be that America simply joined together in a repudiation of the Bush era and elected the Democratic candidate.
Who just happened to be African American.
Because it will be at that point that America has truly embraced racial equality -- when it truly, literally does not matter.
That moment may in fact be a long way off, but this is the next best thing.
A few weeks ago, I posted a rambling comparison of Aragorn and Theoden's differing approaches to leadership -- as evidenced by their separate mustering of their troops in Return of the King -- and it occurred to me yesterday that, in effect, that that was the choice America faced.
The message there was basically, if I might borrow a Klingonism, "It's a good day to die."
I think America wanted the latter.
America, collectively, I think, is tired of being led by fear -- by fear of the Other, and even by fear of ourselves.
It became fashionable after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to say that the world had changed.
Of course it hadn't.
Terrorism has been a part of history for centuries. In the past, airliners have been hijacked. Bombs have exploded in buildings -- in the World Trade Center, no less. Terrorists have attacked American targets before, and will again.
It was just that, in the scope, scale, and sheer gutsiness of the attack (I mean, really, who would have thought of flying into buildings), we were taken aback.
The world didn't change on September 11th. It was merely our perception of it that changed.
What was once something you viewed with dull horror on the evening news -- a suicide bombing in Israel, an embassy attacked -- was in New York. It was close.
And it was here.
And if it was here, it could be anywhere.
It, of course, was not long before America had declared war on Afghanistan -- something which, while not tasteful, made sense, as they had supported Osama bin Laden.
America was reeling from anger and fear, and we fought back.
But it didn't end there, and without getting into the political implications of the Iraq war, or the War on Terror -- notice the language, there...it's not "war against terrorists" -- it's a war against fear.
We spent months -- years, even -- hearing about how so-and-so had dirty bombs, so-and-so could kill millions with one vial of ricin, how so-and-so had suitcase explosives, and so on.
Remember how, eventually, you got tired of watching the endless replays of the September 11th attacks?
Remember how, eventually, you had to turn off the TV and go read a book?
Remember how, eventually, you watched Saturday Night Live, just to have something to laugh about?
The Bush administration used fear to justify the PATRIOT Act. The Bush administration used fear -- by saying it was protecting us from all sorts of horrors -- to justify torture. The Bush administration used fear to justify wiretapping American citizens.
The problem is -- eventually, one of two things happen.
Either you simply get tired of being scared and want to move on, or you realize that the world hasn't really changed all that much, and that with prudence and caution, you can pretty much look at it like you looked at the world on September 10th.
Because the world did not change on September 11th. Terrorists who had already tried to destroy those same buildings, terrorists who, a few months before, had attacked an American warship, got lucky by trying something no one could ever have predicted, and it worked.
For whatever reason -- and perhaps the faltering economy is one of those reasons, but I'm truthfully not certain -- the American people decided that they want to be led by Aragorn.
America decided that rather than facing the endless litany of things that could -- and, perhaps, should, scare us -- with secrecy and a paternal pat on the head and the suggestion that eroding just one more freedom would be enough to Make Us Safe, we wanted Aragorn.
We wanted someone who could say to us what President Obama said in his Inaugural Address.
Someone who could -- who would -- say with authority that, yes, things suck. That, yes, it will be hard. That, yes, mistakes were made. That, yes, we face an uphill battle.
George W. Bush could possibly have said all that.
But can you imagine -- truly -- George W. Bush responding with assurances that America has, when pushed to its limits, risen to its challenges? Or would George W. Bush have reassured us that the War on Terror and the Department of Homeland Security would make us reasonably safe?
What America chose, I think, was not so much President Obama's vaunted "change" -- I think what America chose was to believe in the slogan "Yes, we can."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Maybe it's the collection of kids.
Maybe it's that they are, collectively, more academically able than just about any group I've ever had. (Yes, I had Shy Girl for 4th grade, and she got re-classified, but I'm talking about the overall 'nature' of my class.)
Maybe it's that they are, by nature, a competitive group.
Maybe it's just that they can all say "Obama."
Yes, all. Yes, even Bulldozer and Elastigirl.
But the fact of the matter is, my little experiment in civics lessons, which began more or less at this time last year, was a resounding success. My students were incredibly invested in the election, in President Obama's move to the White House, and, yes, even in what type of dog Sasha and Malia (and, yes, they can name the girls too) will be getting.
Ironically, though, the experiment arose out of the frustration I remembered during the 2000 elections, when Patrick -- who was not yet old enough to vote -- knew more about the candidates than many people interviewed on the news.
If you'll recall, I said I took a perverse pleasure in the idea that my 9-12 year olds with moderate to severe disabilities might know more about our political system than the Average Joe on the street.
Of course, that didn't happen. The whole world, I would venture to say, was captivated by the election, and I would hope that, whatever side of the political line you lie on, most people were at least touched by America's ability to move past some of its damaged past.
It may be that America elected its first black president. But what would be nicer -- and what we'll likely never know -- would be that America simply joined together in a repudiation of the Bush era and elected the Democratic candidate.
Who just happened to be African American.
Because it will be at that point that America has truly embraced racial equality -- when it truly, literally does not matter.
That moment may in fact be a long way off, but this is the next best thing.
A few weeks ago, I posted a rambling comparison of Aragorn and Theoden's differing approaches to leadership -- as evidenced by their separate mustering of their troops in Return of the King -- and it occurred to me yesterday that, in effect, that that was the choice America faced.
Arise! Arise, riders of Theoden! Spears shall be shaken! Swords shall be splintered! A sword day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride! Ride to ruin, and the world's ending! Death! Death!That, of course, was Theoden.
The message there was basically, if I might borrow a Klingonism, "It's a good day to die."
Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers: I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.
An hour of wolves, and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!
By all the you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!That, of course, was Aragorn. And he was basically saying, "Look, I know you're terrified, and this sucks. I am too. But today is not the day to falter, and for the good of others, stand up and do the right thing."
I think America wanted the latter.
America, collectively, I think, is tired of being led by fear -- by fear of the Other, and even by fear of ourselves.
It became fashionable after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to say that the world had changed.
Of course it hadn't.
Terrorism has been a part of history for centuries. In the past, airliners have been hijacked. Bombs have exploded in buildings -- in the World Trade Center, no less. Terrorists have attacked American targets before, and will again.
It was just that, in the scope, scale, and sheer gutsiness of the attack (I mean, really, who would have thought of flying into buildings), we were taken aback.
The world didn't change on September 11th. It was merely our perception of it that changed.
What was once something you viewed with dull horror on the evening news -- a suicide bombing in Israel, an embassy attacked -- was in New York. It was close.
And it was here.
And if it was here, it could be anywhere.
It, of course, was not long before America had declared war on Afghanistan -- something which, while not tasteful, made sense, as they had supported Osama bin Laden.
America was reeling from anger and fear, and we fought back.
But it didn't end there, and without getting into the political implications of the Iraq war, or the War on Terror -- notice the language, there...it's not "war against terrorists" -- it's a war against fear.
We spent months -- years, even -- hearing about how so-and-so had dirty bombs, so-and-so could kill millions with one vial of ricin, how so-and-so had suitcase explosives, and so on.
Remember how, eventually, you got tired of watching the endless replays of the September 11th attacks?
Remember how, eventually, you had to turn off the TV and go read a book?
Remember how, eventually, you watched Saturday Night Live, just to have something to laugh about?
The Bush administration used fear to justify the PATRIOT Act. The Bush administration used fear -- by saying it was protecting us from all sorts of horrors -- to justify torture. The Bush administration used fear to justify wiretapping American citizens.
The problem is -- eventually, one of two things happen.
Either you simply get tired of being scared and want to move on, or you realize that the world hasn't really changed all that much, and that with prudence and caution, you can pretty much look at it like you looked at the world on September 10th.
Because the world did not change on September 11th. Terrorists who had already tried to destroy those same buildings, terrorists who, a few months before, had attacked an American warship, got lucky by trying something no one could ever have predicted, and it worked.
For whatever reason -- and perhaps the faltering economy is one of those reasons, but I'm truthfully not certain -- the American people decided that they want to be led by Aragorn.
America decided that rather than facing the endless litany of things that could -- and, perhaps, should, scare us -- with secrecy and a paternal pat on the head and the suggestion that eroding just one more freedom would be enough to Make Us Safe, we wanted Aragorn.
We wanted someone who could say to us what President Obama said in his Inaugural Address.
Someone who could -- who would -- say with authority that, yes, things suck. That, yes, it will be hard. That, yes, mistakes were made. That, yes, we face an uphill battle.
George W. Bush could possibly have said all that.
But can you imagine -- truly -- George W. Bush responding with assurances that America has, when pushed to its limits, risen to its challenges? Or would George W. Bush have reassured us that the War on Terror and the Department of Homeland Security would make us reasonably safe?
What America chose, I think, was not so much President Obama's vaunted "change" -- I think what America chose was to believe in the slogan "Yes, we can."
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light theYes, we can face the future as Americans, with all that entails -- all the freedoms that have been in peril the last few years -- with our heads held high.
world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.
America was told we can, that we are able, that we are capable.
I think that is what America was hungry for.
When you take teacher's education courses, they tell you that positive reinforcement should outnumber corrections by 4:1.
People need reassurances that they are competent.
Americans were hungry for someone to say, "Yes, it will be hard, and it will take a long time, but it's do-able."
I don't necessarily want to draw any undue correlations between Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt -- though it's interesting, of course, that FDR was (to my knowledge) another first: the first president with a disability (that he worked hard to hide, but that's a post for another day).
But I think Americans reacted to Obama the way they reacted to FDR, who famously remarked that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
And FDR said that not about World War II, as I imagine most people believe, but about the nation's grave economic troubles at the time, better known, of course, as the Great Depression.
Ultimately, I think it will be up to history to judge not only the reasons for President Obama's election but also the true impact of former President Bush's administration.
Can President Obama truly fulfill all the expectations that now lie squarely on his shoulders?
Truthfully, I don't know.
I do know that, in a few days, America will settle down to blissful indifference, and the only people who will really be aware of what the new administration is doing will be more or less the same people that followed the Bush administration: supporters looking to justify their choice and detractors looking to find fault.
There is still deep animosity between both sides of the aisle, and I think that -- without playing the blame game too much -- that comes from 8 years of the "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality.
For my money, that's the deepest wound of the Bush administration. Guantanamo can be closed, the PATRIOT Act repealed, transparency increased, but it will take real work to extend the goodwill that was largely directed at President Obama yesterday into lasting cooperation between the two parties.
To get back to my original point (which I hope wasn't lost), I think the election of Barack Obama was a repudiation of fear: of fear of the Other who means us harm, of fear of the Other who looks different than us, of fear that our challenges are too extensive to address effectively.
And even of fear of our neighbor -- because I read yesterday that few, if any, arrests were made in D.C. yesterday, even given the enormous size of the crowd and the heightened state of emotion.
During the Inauguration yesterday, most of the school crowded into the cafeteria, where our principal (or, most likely, Retiree DF, as she refers to her husband) rigged one of the computer projectors to show CNN.
My class sat quietly, clapped when President Obama walked on screen, and listened to his whole speech.
It's often said that kids with special needs are attuned to the people around them -- that, for instance, they react with anxiety if they sense people around them are anxious.
So my kids' interest in the election may very well have been a reflection simply of the mood of the rest of the country.
I doubt I'll never know for sure, but I'll tell you one thing: we'll definitely track the next election from primaries on, no matter what group of kids I have.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I've said before that I try to keep politics off the blog, except for things that I feel very strongly about (Prop. 8, for instance). I often find myself a little on the outside of political discussions, for a variety of reasons.
One is that my political views are sometimes in opposition -- to each other. While I'm registered Democrat, my views are actually closer to Libertarian in that socially I'm quite liberal (for instance, referencing Prop 8, if you're consenting adults, I don't much care what gender or how many people are involved as long as all those who are involved can consent), and yet I tend to the conservative where it comes to money.
Another is that I've always been fascinated with history, and so tend to view things with a longer eye than some folks. For instance, I remember blundering into a political discussion with my dad and grandparents (my mom's side) some time in the mid-90s, before I learned not to beat a dead horse. They were complaining about the Clinton administration and perceived corruption in politics.
(As an aside -- from a purely sociological standpoint -- it's always fascinated me that the general perception of Clinton's lying about being...sexually...serviced was categorically worse than selling arms to bad guys and then lying about it...but what do I know, right?)
Anyhow, I pointed out that corruption specifically and turmoil in general in politics seems to be a cyclical thing. The 1860s saw the Civil War and deep divides over slavery and how the South should be repatriated. The late 1800s saw deep corruption at all levels of political activity. The 1960s saw deep divides over racial equality and other social issues. Beginning with Nixon, of course, America saw a string of less than ethically sound decisions from the highest office in the land.
It took until the early 1900s for the corruption to shake itself out of American politics last time around. Is Barack Obama the turning point once again? Will the cycle repeat itself again?
Only time will tell, really.
When you take teacher's education courses, they tell you that positive reinforcement should outnumber corrections by 4:1.
People need reassurances that they are competent.
Americans were hungry for someone to say, "Yes, it will be hard, and it will take a long time, but it's do-able."
I don't necessarily want to draw any undue correlations between Barack Obama and Franklin D. Roosevelt -- though it's interesting, of course, that FDR was (to my knowledge) another first: the first president with a disability (that he worked hard to hide, but that's a post for another day).
But I think Americans reacted to Obama the way they reacted to FDR, who famously remarked that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
And FDR said that not about World War II, as I imagine most people believe, but about the nation's grave economic troubles at the time, better known, of course, as the Great Depression.
Ultimately, I think it will be up to history to judge not only the reasons for President Obama's election but also the true impact of former President Bush's administration.
Can President Obama truly fulfill all the expectations that now lie squarely on his shoulders?
Truthfully, I don't know.
I do know that, in a few days, America will settle down to blissful indifference, and the only people who will really be aware of what the new administration is doing will be more or less the same people that followed the Bush administration: supporters looking to justify their choice and detractors looking to find fault.
There is still deep animosity between both sides of the aisle, and I think that -- without playing the blame game too much -- that comes from 8 years of the "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality.
For my money, that's the deepest wound of the Bush administration. Guantanamo can be closed, the PATRIOT Act repealed, transparency increased, but it will take real work to extend the goodwill that was largely directed at President Obama yesterday into lasting cooperation between the two parties.
To get back to my original point (which I hope wasn't lost), I think the election of Barack Obama was a repudiation of fear: of fear of the Other who means us harm, of fear of the Other who looks different than us, of fear that our challenges are too extensive to address effectively.
And even of fear of our neighbor -- because I read yesterday that few, if any, arrests were made in D.C. yesterday, even given the enormous size of the crowd and the heightened state of emotion.
During the Inauguration yesterday, most of the school crowded into the cafeteria, where our principal (or, most likely, Retiree DF, as she refers to her husband) rigged one of the computer projectors to show CNN.
My class sat quietly, clapped when President Obama walked on screen, and listened to his whole speech.
It's often said that kids with special needs are attuned to the people around them -- that, for instance, they react with anxiety if they sense people around them are anxious.
So my kids' interest in the election may very well have been a reflection simply of the mood of the rest of the country.
I doubt I'll never know for sure, but I'll tell you one thing: we'll definitely track the next election from primaries on, no matter what group of kids I have.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I've said before that I try to keep politics off the blog, except for things that I feel very strongly about (Prop. 8, for instance). I often find myself a little on the outside of political discussions, for a variety of reasons.
One is that my political views are sometimes in opposition -- to each other. While I'm registered Democrat, my views are actually closer to Libertarian in that socially I'm quite liberal (for instance, referencing Prop 8, if you're consenting adults, I don't much care what gender or how many people are involved as long as all those who are involved can consent), and yet I tend to the conservative where it comes to money.
Another is that I've always been fascinated with history, and so tend to view things with a longer eye than some folks. For instance, I remember blundering into a political discussion with my dad and grandparents (my mom's side) some time in the mid-90s, before I learned not to beat a dead horse. They were complaining about the Clinton administration and perceived corruption in politics.
(As an aside -- from a purely sociological standpoint -- it's always fascinated me that the general perception of Clinton's lying about being...sexually...serviced was categorically worse than selling arms to bad guys and then lying about it...but what do I know, right?)
Anyhow, I pointed out that corruption specifically and turmoil in general in politics seems to be a cyclical thing. The 1860s saw the Civil War and deep divides over slavery and how the South should be repatriated. The late 1800s saw deep corruption at all levels of political activity. The 1960s saw deep divides over racial equality and other social issues. Beginning with Nixon, of course, America saw a string of less than ethically sound decisions from the highest office in the land.
It took until the early 1900s for the corruption to shake itself out of American politics last time around. Is Barack Obama the turning point once again? Will the cycle repeat itself again?
Only time will tell, really.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
It's All in How You Look at It
I spent quite some time this afternoon meeting with our speech therapist, principal, and psychologist, about our old friend Bulldozer.
Bulldozer has been doing remarkably well; even amidst a meds change (that last year put him into a several weeks' multiple-meltdowns-a-day), he has had many days without any aggression towards kids, and 7 of the last month's school days without any aggression at all.
When he does have a meltdown, he is able to stay in his seat (I move anything throwable) and is done in a matter of less than 10 minutes. Last year, a "good" meltdown was one where he didn't try to climb over the table at me and screamed for less than half an hour.
So, I am rather pleased with his progress. This has been a huge process of working intensively on pro-social communication (appropriate protests and requesting a break) while simultaneously working on compliance (mostly through fading the immediacy of response to a request for a break -- we're now to the "please finish the activity, and then you may ___" stage). It has also been an interesting process of learning what exactly makes Bulldozer tick, and what his true triggers are.
See, I figured out quite quickly that transitions are a huge issue for him, but what I also came to realize was that the reason for this is a marked rigidity in his thinking, along with a healthy dose of control issues.
So, I added visual timers to the classroom (the Time Timer software; I'd had several Time Timers, but they all broke over the years) and started with task checklists. He only needs them now for super high stress things -- like our CAPA testing last spring. I also added a bunch of transition supports -- transition objects, having special jobs, and so forth. His favorite thing to do is to help pass out our color-coded subject folders, which has the nifty side effect of having him forget he should be loudly protesting the fact that he just doesn't like to do what's in those folders.
This is not to say Bulldozer is perfect, and the reason we had this meeting was that one day he pulled an aide's hair during speech because the speech aide went from preferred to sort of preferred to REALLY NON-PREFERRED (and non-planned, and therefore non-primed and non-prepared-for) activity.
Had Bulldozer melted then, it would have been regrettable but understandable.
But, no...Bulldozer tried in every way he has (gestures, words, vocalizations, and signs) to say "I really don't want to do Thing Three." This is his behavior support plan, and the exact behavior we are targeting -- but the speech aide ignored his protests, and he pulled my aide's hair.
Things hit the fan then, culminating in this meeting, which I requested the principal attend, because our speech therapist has decided that his aggression isn't reducing (??!??!) because I think it's acceptable.
Yes, acceptable.
I don't remember which happened first -- whether I started crying from being insulted or got mad from being...well, mad...but both happened pretty quickly.
The thing is, she thinks I find it acceptable, because I am pleased with the progress he has made in the last year.
The thing is, a year ago, we were happy if he had decreased his meltdowns to one medium one by a Friday. He could not stand in line with his classmates. He threw or tore his papers. He could not participate in whole group activities, at all. When they started, he'd melt down. I am surprised his social studies book is still in one piece.
Now, he has about a minor meltdown (screaming, crying, attempts to hit but stays in his seat) that lasts about 10 minutes at a time a week. Some weeks, he has none. He lines up with his class both before and after recess. He...well, doesn't...tear or throw papers. He accepts transitions to whole group activities. His attention span is small and he doesn't always appear to be listening (and yet, he often answers questions correctly even so), but he is there in body and not melting down. He has only had one meltdown during social studies all year.
Is he perfect?
No.
But am I pleased with his progress?
Heck, yeah.
It's kind of like Elastigirl today -- she came back on the bus because no one was home. To entertain her, I started her favorite CD. She approached the CD player and started pushing buttons. I let her play around for a while, and she figured out what the "stop" button does, that she should push "play" for music (though she often pushed it twice and paused it) and how to switch songs.
Did she listen to more than 10 seconds of any song? No. Did she accidentally change songs when she didn't mean to? Assuredly. But did she begin to learn how to use a device that's hugely important for her leisure time?
YES.
(She also walked up to me and told me she'd had a BM, in an unfortunate way, but she used to just sit there and indulge in her unfortunate way. Would I prefer she didn't use her unfortunate way? FRELL YES. But is that progress? Yes.)
I guess what I'm getting at here is that, if I only measured my kids against the gold standard of age-appropriate, typically developing behavior and academic achievement -- I'd go crazy. I'd never see any success...and why would I want to keep doing a job I continually failed at?
What I tried to explain to Speech Therapist D (and failed to, I think) was that my philosophy is to look at a child where they are, and if they go from 10% to 20%, I am going to celebrate that 10% increase and not focus on the 80% they have left to go -- I'll focus on the next 10%, and the next 10% and so on.
Meanwhile, I have to get on Teacher M's case to document the current behavioral squalls Third Grade J is having, because I swear to Chilnak, I cannot endure another year of "but he never did that before!" -- not that Bulldozer's past IEPs being full of behavioral goals and other Behavior Support Plans made a difference here.
Bulldozer has been doing remarkably well; even amidst a meds change (that last year put him into a several weeks' multiple-meltdowns-a-day), he has had many days without any aggression towards kids, and 7 of the last month's school days without any aggression at all.
When he does have a meltdown, he is able to stay in his seat (I move anything throwable) and is done in a matter of less than 10 minutes. Last year, a "good" meltdown was one where he didn't try to climb over the table at me and screamed for less than half an hour.
So, I am rather pleased with his progress. This has been a huge process of working intensively on pro-social communication (appropriate protests and requesting a break) while simultaneously working on compliance (mostly through fading the immediacy of response to a request for a break -- we're now to the "please finish the activity, and then you may ___" stage). It has also been an interesting process of learning what exactly makes Bulldozer tick, and what his true triggers are.
See, I figured out quite quickly that transitions are a huge issue for him, but what I also came to realize was that the reason for this is a marked rigidity in his thinking, along with a healthy dose of control issues.
So, I added visual timers to the classroom (the Time Timer software; I'd had several Time Timers, but they all broke over the years) and started with task checklists. He only needs them now for super high stress things -- like our CAPA testing last spring. I also added a bunch of transition supports -- transition objects, having special jobs, and so forth. His favorite thing to do is to help pass out our color-coded subject folders, which has the nifty side effect of having him forget he should be loudly protesting the fact that he just doesn't like to do what's in those folders.
This is not to say Bulldozer is perfect, and the reason we had this meeting was that one day he pulled an aide's hair during speech because the speech aide went from preferred to sort of preferred to REALLY NON-PREFERRED (and non-planned, and therefore non-primed and non-prepared-for) activity.
Had Bulldozer melted then, it would have been regrettable but understandable.
But, no...Bulldozer tried in every way he has (gestures, words, vocalizations, and signs) to say "I really don't want to do Thing Three." This is his behavior support plan, and the exact behavior we are targeting -- but the speech aide ignored his protests, and he pulled my aide's hair.
Things hit the fan then, culminating in this meeting, which I requested the principal attend, because our speech therapist has decided that his aggression isn't reducing (??!??!) because I think it's acceptable.
Yes, acceptable.
I don't remember which happened first -- whether I started crying from being insulted or got mad from being...well, mad...but both happened pretty quickly.
The thing is, she thinks I find it acceptable, because I am pleased with the progress he has made in the last year.
The thing is, a year ago, we were happy if he had decreased his meltdowns to one medium one by a Friday. He could not stand in line with his classmates. He threw or tore his papers. He could not participate in whole group activities, at all. When they started, he'd melt down. I am surprised his social studies book is still in one piece.
Now, he has about a minor meltdown (screaming, crying, attempts to hit but stays in his seat) that lasts about 10 minutes at a time a week. Some weeks, he has none. He lines up with his class both before and after recess. He...well, doesn't...tear or throw papers. He accepts transitions to whole group activities. His attention span is small and he doesn't always appear to be listening (and yet, he often answers questions correctly even so), but he is there in body and not melting down. He has only had one meltdown during social studies all year.
Is he perfect?
No.
But am I pleased with his progress?
Heck, yeah.
It's kind of like Elastigirl today -- she came back on the bus because no one was home. To entertain her, I started her favorite CD. She approached the CD player and started pushing buttons. I let her play around for a while, and she figured out what the "stop" button does, that she should push "play" for music (though she often pushed it twice and paused it) and how to switch songs.
Did she listen to more than 10 seconds of any song? No. Did she accidentally change songs when she didn't mean to? Assuredly. But did she begin to learn how to use a device that's hugely important for her leisure time?
YES.
(She also walked up to me and told me she'd had a BM, in an unfortunate way, but she used to just sit there and indulge in her unfortunate way. Would I prefer she didn't use her unfortunate way? FRELL YES. But is that progress? Yes.)
I guess what I'm getting at here is that, if I only measured my kids against the gold standard of age-appropriate, typically developing behavior and academic achievement -- I'd go crazy. I'd never see any success...and why would I want to keep doing a job I continually failed at?
What I tried to explain to Speech Therapist D (and failed to, I think) was that my philosophy is to look at a child where they are, and if they go from 10% to 20%, I am going to celebrate that 10% increase and not focus on the 80% they have left to go -- I'll focus on the next 10%, and the next 10% and so on.
Meanwhile, I have to get on Teacher M's case to document the current behavioral squalls Third Grade J is having, because I swear to Chilnak, I cannot endure another year of "but he never did that before!" -- not that Bulldozer's past IEPs being full of behavioral goals and other Behavior Support Plans made a difference here.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Days 3 and 4
Yesterday:
1. Woke up ealier. Proud of our night owl, non-morning-person-selves.
2. Get to Hollywood Studios to find they opened an hoyt earlier than
I thought. Oops. E-ticket rides out.
3. Great Movie Ride; Backlot Tour; Light, Motors, Action car stunt
show (with Herbie cameo -- Patrick was thrilled); Walt Disney Story.
4. Hotel food court for lunch. Find one more place in property that
Patrick will eat.
5. Nap.
6. Bus to Magic Kingdom. Huge crowds expected -- scheduled to be open
to one a.m.
7. Country Bear Jamboree, Haunted Mansion, Liberty Belle River Boat,
Jungle Cruise (way better than ours, hands down), Flying Carpets,
Obstacle Course o' People through Main Street.
8. Dinner at singing alien restaurant. One more place Patrick will
now eat.
9. Phillharmagic, Tomorrowland Speedway, PeopleMover, Carousel of
Progress, buy obnoxiously loud t-shirt, PeopleMover, Space Mountain.
10. Bus, vitamins, sleep.
Today
1. Wake up even earlier. Catching up to time change in time to leave.
2. Bus to EPCOT Center (it will always be the acronym to me).
3. Test Track, Universe of Energy, American Adventure (where, after
countless visits to Disneyland and two other visits here during the
two Years of a Million Dreams, we got our first-ever dream...we were
First Family and got mentioned by name before show), mango-green-tea
slush from China (yummmm), China 360 movie, buy Donald t-shirt from
Mexico, stop at Club Cool for free international Coke samples, buy
monorail track.
4. Bus to hotel. Retrieve refillabe mugs, have lunch, walk back, nap,
make Magical Express reservation.
5. Back to wait in line for e-tickets at Hollywood Studios (if you
have to wait, better to wait at night with cooler weather and no sun).
6. Tower of Terror. Get caught in post Fantasia crowd. Great Movie
Ride. Snack. Patrick admits to not feeling well after 2 hours of
surliness, decide to skip Toy Story Mania (exact same ride as home;
only queue different) get in line for Rockin' Roller Coaster.
7. Some very nice lady offers us two unused, unwanted Fast Passes.
Yay!
8. Ride Rockin' Roller Coaster.
9. Bus, vitamins, watch TV (NOT Stacy the 7 Top Things girl -- our TV
has front inputs so we can watch iPod stuff), sleep.
Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom in the morning, then EPCOT to ride a few
obscure rides and take pictures to ring in New Year. (Rather than
fight crowds or be stressed by them, this seemed like a good choice.)
Again, my deepest gratitude, Kind Stranger. She mentioned she was
"paying it forward," so I'm on the lookout for someone I can do
something nice for.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Day 3
Too late, too tired. More later.
However, to annoying lady complaining about crowds: it's Disney World
on New Year's week, you idiot.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Day 2
1. Wake up. Fall asleep. Try again. Get going at 9:30. Mini golf
opens at 10.
opens at 10.
2. Discover pro football team at one mini golf course. Go to other.
3. Wait for tee time (!!).
4. Play actual golf like mini course. Patrick surprisingly good when
he aims.
5. Get free golf ball as souvenir. Mine has Stitch.
6. Downtown Disney. Shop. Too late for Planet Hollywood (must
return rental car) and their amazing, wonderful, delicious Caesar
salad (no, really...no, REALLY).
7. Lunch at Earl of Sandwich. Pretty good. Run by actual Earl of
Sandwich, actual descendant if actual guy who invented sandwiches.
8. Return rental car
9. Voucherified taxi ride back to hotel. It would have been $60+
otherwise!
10. Nap.
11. Wait so long for bus for Epcot that we boarded third Magic
Kingdom bus to come by, then monorailed it to Epcot. Due to car
return, nap (essential for Patrick), commuting difficulties, it is
nearly 7:00.
12. Notice stinging in toe.
13. Ride Spaceship Earth, Nemo, and Figment. Stop frequently for pics.
14. Dinner in Morocco. Tangerine slush. Yuuuuuummmmmm. (Pleasant
side effect of unseasonably -- so says the news -- warm
weather...slushie carts are out.)
15. Dinner for Patrick in America.
16. Nearly 9:00. Park closes at 9:30. Decide on Maelstrom in Norway
and Donald in Mexico, then beeline for bus before Illumination is over.
17. Convinced of toe problem.
18. Maelstrom and Three Caballeros.
19. Beeline for bus. Mix up Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs and
wait for wrong bus. (Been doing that since I made reservation.)
20. Wait for bus.
21. Back to hotel.
22. Toe problem is an old one -- one nail cutting into toe next to it.
23. Wonder who on Earth is dumb enough to come to Disney World
without bandaids.
24. TV, vitamins, snack, water, blog, SLEEP.
Also -- Patrick has fallen in love with the 7 Top Things to do in
Disney World that plays on a continuous loop on resort TV...or,
possibly, Stacy, the perky presenter. We have watched it many times.
Tomorrow: gift shop for bandaids and sunscreen (another oops), food
court for refillable mug, Hollywood Studios, nap, Magic Kingdom.
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