Life

13 tips for childlike behavior

/ hsoi

Posted to Facebook by a friend of mine, an article about 13 communication and life tips that children teach us.

While the article is geared towards business and presentation, the 13 tips about child-like behavior are quite applicable to life in general.

  1. Be completely present in the moment.
  2. Allow for spontaneity.
  3. Move your body!
  4. Play and be playful.
  5. Make mistakes.
  6. Do not concern yourself with impressing people.
  7. Show your enthusiasm.
  8. Remain open to possibilities and “crazy” ideas.
  9. Be insanely curious, ask loads of questions.
  10. Know that you are a creative being.
  11. Smile, laugh, enjoy.
  12. Slow down.
  13. Encourage others.

You should read the whole article; it’s worth it.

As we grow older we tend to also grow up and take life too seriously. While yes there are moments when seriousness is called for, we must have balance and take time not be serious.

I remember when Oldest was an infant and first became mobile; how we had to child-proof the house. One thing that helped? Literally viewing the world through his eyes. I got down on the ground and put my eyeballs at the same level as his and looked at the world. I’m 6’3″ tall, so putting my eyes 2′ off the ground greatly changes your perspective on the world, literally and figuratively. Truly viewing the world through the eyes of a child does open your mind.

The pork has been smoked

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

This morning I took care of the hog I shot a few days ago. Drained the ice water, brought the quarters inside, trimmed and cleaned things up. Since I’m taking the week off work, it was a perfect day to put something on the smoker for numerous hours. So I did.

I took both shoulders, cleaned them up, and put some Special Shit rub on them. Got the smoker going, initially with briquets but then went all oak wood once things got started. Temperature range was 250º to 350º… a bit of a wider swing that I wanted, but I’m still learning this smoker. It was mostly on the lower end of things, but the occasional 300º+ spikes. As soon as the smoker temperature stabilized, put the foil-wrapped shoulders on the grate. I opened the foil a bit for the first hour to ensure a good initial smoke. After the first hour I then mopped both shoulders with some apple cider vinegar and onion (each shoulder got half a yellow onion, sliced and broken apart). Sealed the foil up mostly tight… I want smoke to get in there, but retain as much moisture as I can. After a couple of hours I see one shoulder has less moisture than is desirable, so I baste both shoulders in half a bottle of Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Reseal the foil. After about 6 hours it’s evident the pork is done. I pull it off the smoker, leave it sealed until it cools enough to be handled by bare hands. Pull the meat off the bones, and all is good.

I even fixed a small plate for Sasha.

I think she was unsure of the rub spices, so I took the meat and ran some water over it to wash off the spices. She seemed to like it better. 🙂

If I do anything different next time, it’d be ensuring more moisture retention. One shoulder was great, the other wasn’t… there was a foil puncture due to the bone and while I tried to seal things up I think it wasn’t good enough (and I was out of foil). Still, that shoulder turned out fine, and it shows the key to the long smoke of lean meats is moisture retention.

Anyways, everyone seems pleased with how the pork turned out. So I guess it’s time for a beer and some pork tacos. 🙂

Our childrens isn’t learneded

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Apparently 12th grade public government education-based reading levels are down.

Students scored an average of 288 out of 500 points in reading comprehension, two points better than in 2005 level but four points below the 1992 average of 292, the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress said.

Thirty-eight percent of 12th graders scored at or above “proficient” in reading and 26 percent scored that well in math, said the report, known as the Nation’s Report Card.

“Today’s report suggests that high school seniors’ achievement in reading and math isn’t rising fast enough to prepare them to succeed in college and careers,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement.

And you know what their proposed solution is going to be: throw more money (i.e. your money, via taxes) at the problem. Because throwing more money at the problem all these years so far has of course produced these obviously positive results, so yes, let’s continue to do the same thing and expect different results. *sigh*

 

White and Asian and Pacific Islander students made gains in reading since 2005 but no racial, ethnic or gender group has shown significant changes in scores since 1992. Asian students scored an average of 298 points in reading in 2009, higher than any other group.

 

 

I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a guess as to why. It’s not because Asians have some sort of genetically-ethnic disposition to being smart. It’s because, culturally, Asians care about education. Asian parents get involved in the education system, get involved with their children, they set high standards for their children and expect them to live up to it.

The same would happen with any ethnic group — because ethnicity has nothing to do with education (but it sure makes for good funding justification and victim stories). It has to do with people caring.

I’d also argue it’s a failure of the government schooling system, because it’s a system that no longer cares about true education. It only cares about keeping itself alive. It needs to measure results, administer tests, use that as justification for more funding, lather, rinse, repeat. There’s no caring about actual education, only test scores and funding.

Just so happens that Arthur’s Hall just printed a nice article about “The Public Education Delusion: Why Centralized Education is not the ‘Foundation of Our Democracy’… Or is it?“. Excellent article.

 

Doggie School – Day 5 & 6

/ hsoi

I just realized I didn’t write about “day 5” of Doggie School. But I can’t remember exactly what we did. Everything blurs.

Because yesterday’s day 6 of Doggie School was mostly a reinforcement of all that we’ve been working on. We continue to work on things like sit, down, place and so on, but with added time, distance, and distraction. Specifically yesterday we added food to the mix. So if I say “sit” but then drop a treat to the ground right in front of Sasha’s face? She’s not allowed to touch the food. Sit means sit and that’s all you do until I tell you otherwise: no moving, no barking, no getting things even within reach of you, nothing… you sit. If I get up and move away, no matter how far away I move, no matter how long I’m gone, you don’t get up… not until I say “free”.

The other thing we specifically worked on was the “recall”. That’s the dog being somewhere away from you and you say “come” or call their name and they are to come directly to you. The amusing part? When an energetic 10 month old 75 lbs. dog comes running at your petite wife? Well… the impact sends your wife airborne. 🙂  Wife wasn’t hurt, but she did get some nice air when Sasha barreled into her. One of those moments you wish the video camera was running.

That marked the end of our private lessons. We have the basics for manners and obedience: sit, down, place, come, , heel, no (corrections, both marking with “no” and a tug on the leash), “good girl” for praise, use of primary reinforcers like food/treats, walking on a loose leash. We have techniques for introducing her to people and people to her. We need to continue to take these further, such as sit with more distance, with more distractions, with more time, with food, etc..  We need to extrapolate behaviors such as when she hears the doorbell she doesn’t go ballistic but instead goes to her place bed (which implies laying down and being quiet, until we free her). So the basics are there, we just need to continue to practice and work on them with her.

I don’t think we’ll do another round of private lessons. I think that was necessary for the situation we were initially in, but now she needs even greater socialization. The neat thing about the private lessons was tho it was one-on-one instruction, Sasha was around a lot of distraction and other dogs because Triple Crown wasn’t devoid of activity while we were there. But I think next up we should take their basic manners and obedience class in the group setup. Yes, this would be a repeat of the curriculum we just learned, but it would be in a different context with more dogs and more people. It would help Sasha continue to generalize the commands, it would help us to reinforce the commands, and hey… I know that getting the same thing a second time can be good because the presentation may be similar but won’t be the same so inevitably you learn something new. Next classes that fit our schedule won’t be until January, so we may have to wait until then.

What can I say about Triple Crown? My experience has generally been good. I can’t imagine they’d be doing such good business if they didn’t do something right. But I also have heard stories and opinions from other people who Triple Crown is bad, but typically that’s been on the kenneling side of the business, not the training side. From reading How Dogs Learn it’s evident there are different approaches to training, and before I can put too much stock in stories and opinions I’d need to delve deeper into seeing where these opinions are founded. Perhaps that person views training differently thus Triple Crown’s methods are “bad” in their opinion. All I know is, I cannot debate the results. The Sasha we have today vs. the Sasha of 6 weeks ago is starkly different, and we’re happy both with the Sasha of today and our ability to handle and work with her. But will I kennel her there? That I can’t yet say, only because I’ve heard enough good and bad that I cannot determine what the Truth of the matter is. But furthermore, I just don’t know how well Sasha would take to being penned up and away from the flock she’s to protect for extended periods of time. Maybe as she’s older and more mellow it might work out better, but for now, just don’t know. So at this point, any sort of kenneling is out of the question no matter who does it.

Doggie grows. She’s just shy of 10 months old, and probably is now weighing 75 lbs. She needs to stop eating acorns (we think that’s what’s giving her the on and off diarrhea… we’re working on keeping her from eating them but she gets sneaky on us). She’s learning the groove of things, she’s becoming better behaved and accepting of the world around her. Like anything worth having, it takes time and work. So far, so good. 🙂

THIS is a hero

/ hsoi

Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta is awarded the Medal of Honor. Vanity Fair interview with Staff Sgt. Guinta.

What went through your head when you heard about [being awarded the Medal of Honor]?

“Fuck you,” I said. It sounds really awesome in theory, but what’s it worth? Brennan? Mendoza? No. I did what I did because in the scheme of painting the picture of that ambush, that was just my brush stroke. That’s not above and beyond. I didn’t take the biggest brush stroke, and it wasn’t the most important brush stroke. Hearing the Medal of Honor is like a slap in the face. I don’t think you know what I did. I didn’t do shit.

You’ll get asked a lot about bravery. What is bravery to you? How would you define it?

Bravery to me is doing something that doesn’t necessarily have to be done, doing it full heartedly, accepting it no matter what consequence comes from it, because it really does need to be done. Everyone out there is brave. Don’t have to be in Afghanistan.

By your own definition, it’s brave, what you did out there.

I was one person being brave in a group of a whole bunch of people that were being just as brave. Everything had the same thing to lose: their friends and themselves. I guarantee, no one thought about that out there. Bravery gets thrown around a lot. I served in Battle Company Second of the 503rd with the bravest men I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I’m proud to say that.

What does the Medal symbolize for you?

I want to stress the fact that this is the nation’s highest honor. Awesome. And it’s given to me, but just as much as me, every single person that I’ve been with deserves to wear it—they are just as much of me as I am. This isn’t a one-man show. I’m here because someone picked me. I hope that everyone around me can share in whatever pride that comes from it. They deserve that pride.

The man’s humility is greater than his bravery.

And I think Farker “JungleBoogie” said it best:

“When asked by CBS’s Lara Logan what kind of soldier he was, Sgt Giunta replied: “I’m average. I’m mediocre… I don’t think I did anything that anyone else I was with wouldn’t have done. I was in a position to do it. That was what needed to be done. So that’s what I did.”

What an impressive fellow.

The contrast between this man, a humble and courageous infantryman walking through the Valley of Death, and the self-important, preening, corrupt gasbag politicians who send these guys into harms way, could not be more stark.

Violence Is Golden

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Over at Arthur’s Hall of Viking Manliness, Jack Donovan wrote an excellent article titled “Violence is Golden”.

It’s a well-written piece on the reality of violence’s place in humanity and society.

Go read.

Updated: Looks like Arthur’s website is gone, but Jack Donovan republished it at his own site.

Been a long time since I rock and rolled…

/ hsoi

Daughter has been asking me to teach her to play guitar.

About a week ago she pulled one of my guitar’s out of the rack. Mind you, I haven’t seriously touched my guitars in years… they’ve mostly been collecting dust. 😦   But she pulled out the classical guitar, I tuned it up, and showed her an E chord and sent her to practice it.

Last night I rummaged through a box and found a “new” set of strings and restrung my steel-string acoustic. Now I’ve taught her an A and a D.

She knows 3 chords. She can officially start a rock band now. 🙂

Our fingertips are hurting, but had a lot of fun. Played a lot of Led Zeppelin for her, some Badlands, John Cougar Mellencamp, even some stuff I wrote years ago. Amazed at how much I remember.

Time with my kids, teaching them, seeing the look on their faces as they discover and grow… hard to beat that.