Daley Ponderings

Grandma, whose time is quite full with two grandchildren, is still itching for a blog post about the others, so here it is.

I found an old piece of paper witih some notes on it and just searched our blog - I did already post it and it was from 2008!

Ok, here we go:

12/22/2011 - Faith, after listening to the Hallelujah Chorus.  "That did be a lot of hallelujah!"

12/23 - We were visiting an older aunt and uncle (more like great-grand-aunt really) and Aunt Doris was playing with Joy's toes.  She asked me, "Do the piggies still go to the market?"  As in, do young mothers these days still play that game?  But Faith answered her, "No, only the big one does."

12/29 - Looking at an old wedding photo.  Noah asks, "Who's being weddinged?" (More)

11/18 - Jonathan, when meaning to say cylindrical said, "cylindicular"

11/23 - Joy took her first step, accidentally.

11/26 - Joy climbed up a whole flight of stairs.  This was the first time she had done more than one small step.  She was so thrilled with her newfound skill that she did it three times that day.

12/1 - The next first is Joy fell down the stairs.  But now the older kids are better at making sure someone is behind her when she climbs.

12/5 - Noah was partitioning 6 out loud during breakfast (5 and 1, 4 and 2, etc.)  Then Jonathan asked him how many 5s in 20.  Noah thought it was too hard (so did I) but Jonathan was patient and gave good, constructive hints.  He asked how many 5s in 10, then how many 10s in 20, and Noah got those, then was able to make the jump to solve the original problem correctly.  Then he got how many 5s in 40.  So cool!

12/9 - It seems Jonathan has been reading too many spy books without current historical context.  It just so happened that a Russian company hacked into a merchant's credit card swipers and stole our (and a bunch of other customers') information.  Jonathan overheard our calls and frustration in working it out and then said, "I always knew there was something funny about those Soviets."  So I updated him on our political status with Russia and also reminded him that people from everywhere can be good and bad.

12/10 - Joy started climbing over thresholds even when there is no change in height.

12/10 - Joy took two steps to Mommy

12/11 - Four steps

12/16 - Joy went from sitting to standing without pulling up on anything.

I received a free "embedded" light from Microsoft a number of years ago.  I put "embedded" in quotes, because I think it is funny that Microsoft considers a lightbulb connected to a USB power source an example of an embedded device.  I guess I haven't looked that carefully, but I expect there to be two wires in the device, and so not all that exciting from an engineering perspective.

But, the other day I happened across the instructions for the unit (plug into a USB port, flick the switch) and noticed that there is a message on the back of the piece of paper, and I have no idea what it means.  Anyone know?

Here are the last ones to share, I'll try to be more careful in the future to link to posts properly when I "share" things, so you can actually see the content regardless of whether facebook or google or the original poster make it difficult...

Statistics in science: I don't quite understand the difference between statistically significant and practical importance, or rather, how does one make a study that accounts for this problem.

Statistics was one of my two worst courses in college.  In both cases, I went to the professor during office hours when I didn't have a shot of completing the homework and said, "I'm really not getting it," and the professor, assuming I couldn't really mean that asked what parts I wasn't getting.  I pulled out lecture number 1 and said, let's start here...)  I did manage to pull off a B in both courses, which convinced me that grading on a curve is horrible, particularly when I could have pulled off an A in the statistics class had a worked a little harder on the final, but I hadn't realized how far the course was going to be curved, so didn't think it mattered, and I wouldn't have remembered anything after the final anyway, so I wasn't studying for learning, but just a grade.  If anyone got lower than a B in my statistics course, you must now know less about statistics than when you entered the course.

And lastly, an interesting disparity between what members of churches want (or at least say they want in a poll) and what pastors think is a good idea to preach about.

More than a month's worth of notes...

10/3 - Joy's diaper was dry all night long.  She went in the potty three or four times.  This was exciting to me and so the next night I prepared to be diaperless.  I spread a waterproof pad, with towels on top.  But she and I are so wiggly during the night, it was hard to keep the towels straight and then she was cold without anything on her lower half and when she did wet the towels, changing them was a pain.  So, we're not ready to go diaperless yet, but we do have success with pottying in the night.  However, recently (read: several weeks) Joy has been screaming in the night, whether it's changing her diaper or putting her on the potty.  I found that if I'm aware of more subtle movements I can nurse her before she screams (but that is her first vocalization) but I am at a loss for the hygiene part.  Do I just put her in a paper diaperand undo all the work and awareness of needing to go?  Or do I persist in hopes that she'll stop screaming before we both go insane with the sleep interruptions?  I need to go look at forums for suggestions.

10/5 - Joy got her uppder left lateral incisor.

10/5 - Jonathan, "I don't feel like Dad-o is a grandpa, 'cause he still goes up on roofs and stuff." (More)

I think Heather generally does a good job (though I think she might not be taking as many naps as she should be at the moment) of getting rest, and happy to have people come cook and clean for her, but it is always a good reminder to make sure we get enough rest.

I was going to have Jonathan read this article about the status and progression of fiction, as he sometimes questions why we don't let him read or watch certain things, but then I decided the article itself was more than he needs to know right now.

I came across yet another version of a distributed social network, this one with hardware.  FreedomBox Foundation is working on figuring out how to make tons of tiny little web servers that take out the centralized model.  The New York Times has a decent article on explaining why Mark Zuckerburg having all of your information is a bad thing.

The introduction video on FreedomBox's site was a good non-technical description, and with graphics, for all of you who don't like to read that much...  :)

It mentions diaspora, friendica and buddycloud.  I'd heard of diaspora, and I have an account, but it doesn't interact with me very well.  I glanced through buddycloud this morning, and didn't see anything particularly interesting.  friendica emphasizes being able to interact with other current social networks, which is a good thing, since it is a hard thing to get people to switch.

I guess I should spend some time in figuring out how to install one of them and see if it is worth using.  I've not been clear on how much you can customize the installations, and how hard it is to add features, etc.  And how open the development really is, in terms of them wanting features from outside people, etc.

Mostly, I think the problem is that I want it just to work, and so I don't want to spend lots of my own time developing a system.  Maybe I could work on figuring out if I could add plugins into LifeType to make it do some interesting things with the new social networks.  LifeType 2.0 (if it ever comes out) started a couple years ago adding some social networking features, and so it might fit in well; I don' t know.

But, as facebook and google are increasingly unfriendly (Facebook announced they would no longer import notes, such as this one, starting in a couple weeks)  I suppose their theory is that people will manually double post, or move to facebook only, or something like that.  But, that is a pain, so I'll probably just stop posting to facebook.

A good quote from Linux Journal:

There are 100000000000 stars in the galaxy.  That used to be a huge number  But it's only a hundred billion.  It's less than the national deficit!  We used to call them astronomical number,  Now we should call them economical numbers.  -- Richard Feynman

And in case you think I'm getting too serious with all my political posts, here's another one for Wall Street.

And be careful in apple orchards...

(thanks Dawn for keeping me up-to-date with the important news)

Pretty eerie, how similar these situations are.  I understand that being a police officer in a high stress situation is hard, and I am happy that there are people that are willing to step up to that job.  I also know that in some cases, the videos being played are designed to start right after a guy throws something at an officer, but if you look around on youtube, you will find plenty of videos that are showing the entire thing, and in many cases, the officers are overreacting, in my opinion.

This video is somewhat out of date by now, but the "conspiracy theory" that Ron Paul is being ignored doesn't seem like too much of a conspiracy when you see these videos.

My favorite part is at the 2:10 mark of this video:

I recently discovered that due to changes by Facebook and Google, quickly sharing items is harder than it used to be.  There are a couple things I shared recently that I thought good enough to actually type up a post here.  (you may agree or disagree about my choices of "good enough")

Here is a video of a candidate, Herman Cain, who's political and business history looks interesting (though his personal history doesn't look quite as good, assuming the various allegations are true).

Recently, I read One Thousand Gifts, which was recommended by someone whose blog I read, but I can't remember who anymore.  It was a beautiful book and has inspired me to be thankful for the little things once again.  (Briefly, the hesitations I have in recommending it: she writes pretty stream-of-consciousness, and though I think she does it well, those who are sticklers for grammar might have a hard time.  Also, it is written for those who are already Christians.)

The premise is that being thankful opens the door to being joyful.  She writes her journey along the road of thankfulness, her progress through the ups and downs of real life.  It is a good reminder.

It takes me back to my first year at college, when everything was new, from living on my own, to snow, to daffodils.  It takes me back to childhood when everything was new.   This must be why Jesus said to become like a child.

People laughed at me in college, because I was no longer a child.  I kept telling them my "snow age" was five, since I had moved away from snow when I was four.  The cynics laughed at me for taking delight in daffodils ("That's what they're called, right?" I asked.)  Taking pictures of the very first light dusting of snow. Freezing my un-mittened hands at the first larger snow but I couldn't keep from playing in it.

I really was more joyful then, though my email signature still holds on.  Gradually, though, I got tired of being laughed at or watched strangely.  I supressed my outer delight and then the inner faded, too.  I want it back!  I will take delight in the little things.  I will slow down to look at bugs with my kids.  I will let myself be thankful and joyful in all these things, and I will not let anyone's laughing penetrate.  Neighbors may think I'm crazy, taking pictures of the first snow (that was today!) again, but I do not care.  Joy is worth it.

We took a snow day from school today.  I jumped around with my kids and took pictures and we dug out the new sizes of snowsuits and Jonathan made a snowman and Noah made slushies (from the railing snow).  It was great!  It was beautiful.

And I'm glad we seized the moment because in the afternoon the snow turned to rain and most of it is melted now.  Children know how to do this and adults are too busy with "matters of consequence".  May I always remember this!

Well, in the three weeks since I last posted, Joy has made major progress in mobility and the rest of the household is still working to adjust!

9/11 - Joy started crawling longer distances with a cross-pattern belly crawl.

9/13 - Every time we go into PIttsburgh, we cross the Allegheny River.  Faith always asks me what river we are going over.  This day, she said, "Mom, did that be the Alligator River?"  (Now, she says it correctly to the best of her speech ability and names it every time.  She has a little 'Allegheny River' song that she sings.  It sounds like "Ahwee-daynee widduh") (More)