Life

Windy day

/ hsoi

I wanted to go for a nice long motorcycle ride this morning. But again, we’re having heavy sustained winds and some wicked gusts. Just doesn’t make for the most enjoyable riding, so I’m opting to skip it.

In the spirit of making lemonade, I’ll see about going and flying a kite with the kids. I’m curious how the kite we bought at the Kite Festival can fly at higher altitudes… just couldn’t fly too much at the festival since it was so crowded.

In related windy day news, that momma duck and her ducklings are still coming around, however the day after my blog entry there were only 4 ducklings. 😦  Who knows. Hit by a car, taken by one of the many neighborhood cats, I’ve seen turtles in the pond take a duckling under. Such is life.

If at first you can’t succeed…

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

… lower the standards.

If I remember correctly, the grade scale in my public government school was:

A	100 - 94
B+	93 - 90
B	89 - 84
C+	83 - 80
C	79 - 74
D+	73 - 70
D	69 - 64
F	63 - 0

So the students referred to in the article have to maintain at least a 70 to participate in other activities, but parents are complaining it’s too high and want to go to a 60.

To me, that’s a big fat fail no matter how you cut it.

Monsters vs. Aliens

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens.

It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t incredible, but it was enjoyable… I didn’t feel like I wasted my money when I walked out, but I didn’t feel like the Earth was moved. It was fun. A cookie-cutter predictable plot, only so much character development and thus attachment (at least Susan developed and you had some sort of bonding to her). The animation was good, the 3-D was pretty well done. I did find myself laughing out loud at some things, and was into the suspense when called for. Some memorable lines that the kids and I quoted on the drive home.

So, not bad. A fun flick, and good time with the kiddos. 

Of course, seeing it at The Alamo Drafthouse makes anything better. 🙂

What I really liked was some previews. I’m looking forward to the next Pixar movie, Up, and seeing the preview for 9… oh yes, I want to see that movie. I’m a sucker for Tim Burton.

 

Updated: I forgot to say. There were some uh… “negligent discharges” in the movie. Violation of rule number 3 (booger hook on the bang switch), violation of rule number 2 but in a way #2 was OK since it was technically pointed at something worth destroying.  What does it say about me when while watching those parts of the movie the rule violations were the first things that went through my head? Then I used it as a “teachable moment” with the kids on the drive home? 🙂

Of wind and ducklings

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Today is particularly windy. Sustained winds in the mid 20 MPH range, with gusts pushing nearly 40 MPH. 

There’s a pond near our house, and it is home to many ducks. Being springtime, the ducks are wandering the neighborhood in search of food and nesting areas. Our house is a popular destination because we always put black oil sunflower seeds out for them. The usual crew of mallards and muscovy ducks made their routine morning visit, but then we were greeted by a new group:

A mother mallard and her seven babies.

Of course my children were all excited, proceeding to name each one of them. We put down more seed just for them and watched them eat. Then… the wind would blow. I don’t know how much a duckling weighs, but it’s not much. The wind would blow a strong gust and you’d watch all seven ducklings get blown into the yard, rolling tuckus over teakettle, struggling to get back on their feet against the blowing wind. It was a pitiful sight, but of course had a good degree of cuteness to it. I wish I was able to catch some video of it for truly it was a sight to see.

Socialization

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

So I’m reading JR’s blog and he refers to this article from DirtCrashr. The article talks about the so-called “GIVE Act”. What actually hit me about the blog post wasn’t so much the content of the posting, but that along with the visual that hit me when I was reading it. Here’s a screenshot (you can click on it to see it larger):

Just look at that. Yes, read the words… then look at the pictures, especially the one on the top-left and the one on the right. Just take in the whole visual state of the blog posting.

You see, Wife and I homeschool our children. What’s the #1 thing that people say to us regarding homeschooling? Why, the “S” word of course: socialization.

Kinda takes on a whole new meaning now doesn’t it?

This is not parenting

/ hsoi

Consensual living. When I first saw the headlines I thought it would be about something between adults, in this case an adult child still living at home with parents probably due to economic reasons but yet still living as an adult on their own (e.g. you may live here but you’re going to pay some rent, buy your own food, do your own laundry, etc.). 

How wrong I was.

Back in our early days of parenting, Wife and I bought into this new-agey parenting bullshit. Thankfully we realized the error of our ways and reverted to proven old school techniques. You know… where the parent is the parent, the child is the child. The parent is the one in control, the child obeys; if the child doesn’t obey, there are negative consequences but if the child does obey, there are positive consequences. The child and parent are not equals, as there is a hierarchy and the parent is on top. Parents are not to be friends to their children; they can and should be friendly, but they need to be something far more to the child — their parent!

I will say, there’s some worth to the new age bullshit. For instance, I was raised fairly old school, and I never appreciated that some edict would be handled down and I wouldn’t be told why. I was told this was the way it was and not to question it. I hated that. I wanted to know why, I questioned to know why, not because I was questioning the authority (as it was assumed) but because I was seeking to understand. If I can understand, then I can better extrapolate that knowledge and the reasoning behind it to other situations, which better serves me in life. So I am willing to explain to my children, not just expect blind obedience (although sometimes that is required). If my children wish to question, I’ll answer. If they wish to object, that’s fine… it doesn’t guarantee they’ll get their way, but if they wish to present a well-reasoned argument I’m certainly willing to listen. But of course, this only applies to older children. A 3 year old just learned, maybe, to wipe is own butt, he doesn’t understand what where and why. If you ask why he did something the answer will likely be “I don’t know”… so if they admit they don’t know, how can you say they know best?  I’m not saying not to listen to your child, you certainly should, but remember that you are supposed to be the parent. You are supposed to be the one that guides them, that teaches them, and helps them learn how to be a functioning member of society. Sometimes you will have to make decisions for them and that’s final, because you as the parent ought to have more life experience and be able to better understand long-term consequences of actions.

But then… we have movements like this, which I guess shows that perhaps not everyone does understand the long-term consequences of actions. There’s some merit to this approach, as it seems to encourage communication and understanding. However, if you take it too far and let the child rule the roost, you’re only going to succeed in raising a spoiled, uncontrollable brat that is going to fail in life because the world will not cater to their whims like you are so willing to do.

An old man and his LEGO

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

TXGunGeek isn’t an old man (well, he’s older than me and I’m just ribbing him), but he does lament where his old LEGO has gone.

I deal with this on a daily basis at my house. I grew up on LEGO as one of the coolest toys ever, and I still think they are. So of course as soon as my kids were old enough to not view them as little cubic candy pieces, there was LEGO in the house. Heck, Oldest just used the money he’s saved up to buy himself a Brickmaster subscription.

I do understand where TXGunGeek is coming from. My first LEGO kit was just a giant box. You opened the lid and there were lots of little compartments that just held bricks. Nothing fancy, but just oodles of bricks and endless imagination. No mini-figs in sight. But man, once Town and Castle especially Space came around, dude, that was so cool! Now it just wasn’t basic bricks, but you had other pieces in shapes like cones or wings, so now you could build airplanes or rockets. The mini-figs were cool too because now you had “to scale” people that you could put in your creations. 

When I got a new LEGO kit, sure I built the model that the kit was designed around. But then I built more. Many times the box had pictures of other things you could build with the set, and it was always a challenge to build those things because you maybe got only one shot of the thing and so you had to figure out for yourself what bricks you needed and what you had to do to fill out the rest of the model. Then of course there was just happy free-form creation. One of my cousins was a bigger LEGO nut than me (I swear he lived for LEGO; I recall him writing a paper for school on LEGO), and his free-form creations were awesome. I remember visiting him one time and he had just made this double-decker 6 foot long space ship. It was incredible. Then, one of our younger cousins proceeded to throw it down the stairs… yes, we were livid.

So recalling my memories, I look at how LEGO is now and I have to wonder a bit. I often think there is too much emphasis put on the models, on merchandising. I mean, there’s Star Wars, Spongebob Squarepants, Indiana Jones, they did a thing with the NBA, there was that stupid Galidor thing that wasn’t even LEGO, Harry Potter, Batman, Thomas The Tank Train, Bob the Builder…. and there’s been many more things they’ve done. But is that so bad? If this allows LEGO to stay in business, if this helps to get some kids interested in LEGO that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise be, is that so bad? Plus I’ve seen a lot of the pieces that come in these model sets, and there’s some really cool pieces. Not to mention one of the larger consumers of LEGO, especially Star Wars, are adults.

Let’s not forget LEGO’s own creations. They still have City, there’s always something Space (now it’s Mars Mission), they’ve got Pirates, Vikings, Castle, and we can’t forget Bionicle. Bionicle is a huge hit at my house. I’m not so hip to the latest Bionicle because it’s certainly more about milking a franchise now, whereas the original Bionicle was truly an extension of the Technic series (gears and levers and “doing stuff”). Then there’s Mindstorms. What a great thing that is.

The thing is, certainly some LEGO kits remain as-is. Some people like the model aspect of it all, and really this is no different from any other model making, be it Revell models or basla wood planes or whatever your choice of medium. But without question, the kids still take things apart. They still use their imagination to create their own things. They still play. They still have to be challenged to think, or even just learning how to follow the directions and pay attention to detail… these are all good and positive things for kids.

Yes LEGO isn’t the same as it was when we were kids, but in all the ways that matters it still is.

Teach your children

/ hsoi

… how to shoot!

I recently blogged about kids and guns. And if you’re no stranger to my blog, you know that my kids are no strangers to shooting.

Which reminds me… it’s Daughter’s turn to go to the range. I need to schedule that in. I also need to get the scope remounted and re-zeroed on the Ruger 10/22. Furthermore, I need to restart my quest to find a good .22 pistol.

Aim low, baby

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

It’s saddening to read that 1 in 3 people want a salary cap for movie stars and athletes. And not just any cap, one imposed by the government.

*sigh*

If I can’t have it, you can’t have it either. It’s not fair, they lament whine.

Whatever happened to dreaming big? To chasing your dreams? To having the gumption to get off your ass and make something of yourself? Why would you want to impose any sort of upper limit on what people could earn? I guess only because you feel you’ll never earn that so it’s OK… that you never think such a limit will come back to bite you because you never envision yourself earning that much money. Just because you can’t envision yourself rolling in dough, why should you demand that others can’t either? I may not be rolling in that level of money yet, but I’ve been working my way up and along all my life, and I’m not stopping now. I’m willing to dream big and aim high and work and sacrifice to get there. I’m sorry you’re not similarly motivated.

If you don’t want these people to make that sort of money, it’s simple. Don’t feed into their revenue stream. Stop going to see movies. Stop watching sports. Stop being a consumer of the things that enable them to have that high salary. If you stop feeding the beast, it’ll either have to go on a diet or go hungry. But I know… this route requires you to make some effort, which we’ve already established you refuse to do. So instead, “thereoughtabealaw” so it saves you from having to make any effort and take any responsibility for yourself’.

Alas.