Kids

Wacom Bamboo Create… and we’ll see what he creates

/ hsoi

Whereas Daughter is very self-motivated, Oldest is a lot more laid back and enjoys life as it comes. Sometimes I wish he’d have a little more “pressing desire” for things, but he is who he is.

One thing that he’s always been is creative. The medium might change, be it crayons and paper, LEGO, or these days, Spore (and all the creation you can do with it). But he’s always creating stuff. So fine… if that’s what you enjoy doing, can we please find some way to channel all that creativity into something productive? The world needs graphic designers, storyboard artists, moviemakers, video game designers, whatever….

I’ve actually pressed him on these things in the past, but I guess it took him to get all obsessed with Spore to have the breakthrough. I mentioned a Wacom tablet in the past, but it was met with a lukewarm reception. Recently I brought it up again, and he thought that would be so cool.

So I just bought a Wacom Bamboo Create. Well, it’s ordered… whenever Amazon gets it here.

Looks like it’ll be a good model for him to get going with, enough features to be meaningfully useful, but it’s not ridiculously expensive. I like that it comes with software like Sketchbook Express, Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter Essentials… sure it’s all basic stuff, but it’s more than ample for him to get going, learn the ropes, and so on. When he gets to the point when those tools are limiting him, then we can go on to the full pro tools. As well, I want to get him Poser and Anime Studio, because I think those will play well into the sorts of things he’ll like to do.

So we’ll see what happens. One step at a time… and geez yes, if the boy gets good enough at it, he’ll be able to get paid for what he loves to do. Hard to beat that. 🙂

However they learn, so long as they learn

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

My Sons’ room is a mess.

My Daughter is very good at organizing and cleaning.

She made an offer to her brothers, to clean their room for $50. She dropped it to $40 when Youngest said he didn’t have enough money.

Agreement was made, and she’s cleaning their room. Isn’t taking her long, and she’s getting $40 for it. Pretty decent rate of pay.

Wife is a little unsure about this arrangement, but I’m fine with it. Why? Because they are learning a lot.

Daughter is saving money to buy new cymbals for her drums. The cheapest cymbal pack, plus stands and so on? It’s going to run her at least $400, so she’s got a way to go…. but she just made 10% of it. 🙂   She’s setting goals, she’s working towards them. She’s seeing things she wants in life, and tho the kids know I’m willing to loan them money (with interest, of course… everything is a lesson), she refuses to do that because she’s learned that debt is generally to be avoided, especially for non-essentials in life. She’s being resourceful, looking for ways to earn more money, sooner. She’s not afraid of work. I also gave her more lessons in negotiation, which she didn’t have to use with her brothers, but she was enabled with just in case.

The Boys are learning the value of money and time. The landscaping I want in my yard? Sure I could do it and save a lot of money, but it’ll cost me a lot of time, and what else could I be doing with that time? And so, that’s what the boys are seeing… plus it means they don’t have to do something they find unpleasant. But, they’ll learn the bigger lesson when they realize they farted away their time, and also gave up a nice chunk of their money that they now don’t have for other things. But, it’s their money and their time, and they have to learn how to spend them wisely. Perhaps the $20 (each) was a worthwhile tradeoff, because I’ve seen how they clean their room… this way is certainly faster with a lot less complaining and more peace in the household. 😉

Whether good lessons or bad lessons, they are lessons and there are things to be learned.

Bang on the drum all day

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Daughter has been taking drum set lessons for a month now. Yes, we bought an acoustic set (a used Pearl Export 5-piece, older model pre-ISS mounts), no I don’t mind the noise. Actually, I really enjoy listening to her.

I like her teacher because he works not just on fundamentals but also making things fun. There’s a lot to be said for that. Skills are important to develop, but moreso is the love of music.

She’s at a point now where she’s getting some more fundamentals but also some basics of how to get around the set, like the last lesson she started doing some basic fills, mostly just a drill to help her work through the toms and then back into the main beat. Her teacher showed her basic rock beats, but then how to change them up and vary them, especially with bass drum patterns.

So what’s cool isn’t just listening to her practice those things, but starting to experiment and do other things. To just explore. I can tell she’s feeling more comfortable and confident behind the set. I certainly encourage her to just free-form it, experiment, explore, because that’s from where things grow — especially the love of playing.

 

Driving to the bus stop?

/ hsoi / 15 Comments

When I walk home from the gym in the morning, if I hit it at just the right time I walk by a school bus stop. I’ve been seeing something at the bus stop that I find curious:

Why are parents driving their kid to the bus stop and dropping them off?

I’ve seen it enough, and by the same cars/parents, that I know this isn’t some one-time fluke such as Junior running late. As someone who went to public school for K-12 and either walked or took the bus, I do know what a pain it can be for parents if Junior misses the bus.

But that’s not what I see.

Are these children living so far away from the bus stop they can’t walk? Perhaps, but most school systems make the bus routes and stops within reasonable walking distance. From the looks of it, I’d say these are junior-high school kids, so they certainly have the physical ability to walk a little ways.

Heck, the other morning as I was walking home, I saw a minivan pull out of a driveway… drive 2 blocks to the bus stop… drop off the child… then the mother drove back home.

WTF?

Two blocks.

Your child couldn’t walk two blocks?

I’m dying to ask that parent just why they drive their child to the bus stop, especially when this is a vehicle I’ve seen do this on numerous occasions.

Is it a matter of being late to the bus? Well, every parent seems to be arriving well on time and if in fact you do miss the bus it teaches you two things: 1. how to run (faster), 2. how not to be late so you don’t miss the bus again. They can also teach you the value of “hustle”, which seems to have a different meaning to kids these days.

Yeah, I sound like a grumpy old man now… uphill both ways in the snow.

Nevertheless, I find it most curious and perhaps a little bothersome. Maybe it’s because I’m walking home from the gym, which is not just that I’m in a post-exercise frame of mind but because I intentionally chose to walk to/from the gym because I think it’s kinda silly to drive half a mile when the whole purpose is to exercise… it’s like that famous picture of the escalators outside a 24 Hour Fitness. And we go on and on about kids not getting enough exercise, when walking a few blocks every day would certainly do them good.

Could it be they don’t feel the kids are safe? I grant the world may have some ugly people in it, but if you won’t let your child walk 2 blocks away from your own house then perhaps you should reconsider where you live in the first place. Or maybe consider not letting your child out of your sight, ever.

Or maybe this is just that day of helicopter parenting, when parents give all for their children… everything except the ability, confidence, and wherewithal to do things for themselves. Not sure how kids are going to survive because someday they will have to be allowed out from under their parent’s wings.

I’m sure I’m filling in the informational gaps with my own biases. I don’t know why these parents keep driving their kids a few blocks to the bus stop. Still, I find it curious. Maybe one morning I’ll ask.

Parenting: you’re doing it wrong, tale #85992592968290

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Dear Parent of the whiny child at the music store last night:

When your husband went into the cymbal room and the door closed behind him, then myself and the clerk heard this shriek of a small child, we both wheeled around thinking the child got its fingers caught in the closing door.

That was not the case. No… the child was just upset that it wasn’t allowed to go into the cymbal room. Sure, you tried to explain to the 2-3 year old that it was in their best interest to not go into that room, and for their sensitive ears that’s a good decision.

If you had stuck to your guns, if you had remained the parent — you know, the one in control of the situation — things would have been better.

Alas, you did as too many “parents” today do, you gave into the child. In fact, you said something like “Well, if you’re just going to keep whining about it, then ok, you can go in.” And proceeded to open the door for the child and let her/him into the cymbal room.

And now the child knows… if I am not getting what I want, whine and cry, pitch a fit, and eventually they will give in. It doesn’t matter if the thing is bad for me or not, and chances are I, being a small child, don’t know that it’s bad for me… but my “parents” will give it to me anyways.

*sigh*

 

What’s that pounding in my ears?

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

I’m sure my neighbors are going to love me.

Daughter is starting drum lessons.

Drum… set… lessons.

The lessons start next week, but yesterday I got her signed up and last night we went to Guitar Center to get her a pair of sticks and a practice pad. They were out of the method book so I ordered it from Amazon.

By coincidence, it was the first night of Guitar Center’s 2011 Drum Off competition. We stuck around and listened to a few of the folks play. A lot of your rock/metal drumming, but one guy was especially tasty, very smooth.

One thing Daughter noticed? Of all the people lined up to play, there was only one girl. 🙂

I told her it doesn’t matter. It’s not about being a boy or a girl, it’s about being a drummer. If you’ve got chops, that’s all that matters. Oh sure, she will have to learn how to hang with the boys, but having two brothers helps. But in the end, it’s about the music, and anyone that refuses to support and encourage you is as asshole and can go away.

She’s nervous, excited, a little intimidated, and certainly overwhelmed. But she’s happy, so she told me. She’s looking forward to this.

Right now, she’ll stick with the practice pad. Since she’s to learn set, yes eventually we’ll have to get one. People — even the instructor — tells me to get an electronic set. But I’m not convinced, because you just can’t equal what an acoustic set looks and feels and sounds like. We’ll see. If we got that route, I’ll be looking for some basic used sets on craigslist for sure.

And… my neighbors will really, really love me. 😉

Feeling worse

/ hsoi / 16 Comments

Sore throat still present, now with extra scratchiness!

To top it off… I screwed up my ankle last night.

I had just fallen asleep when I hear this sudden crash from the kitchen, Wife, and various Kiddo voices freaking out. It jolts me out of bed, I run towards the kitchen. Lots of “SASHA! SASHA!” and crashing going on, panicked sounding. I was wondering if the dog got one of the cats? the kids? Completely out of the question. No alarm going off, so no one broke into the house… but all this noise and freaking out! What could it be?

Well….

You see, Sasha likes to help out when someone is doing dishes. Put a dish in the dishwasher rack and puppydog likes to lick off anything she can find. Seems last night when she was done helping she turned to leave but her collar or tags got stuck in the bottom rack and she pulled the rack along with her… which freaked her out, then of course dishes and silverware clinking and crashing, which freaked her out more, but being it was all attached to her she couldn’t get away and so it just continued to be a horrible situation for the poor dog. Wife was able to intercept her, stop her, and free her, but oh the poor dog…. she was so freaked out. 😦

I screwed up my ankle because as I tore around through the hallway I slipped and came crashing to the ground. I was basically crawling into the kitchen last night… the kids said it was quite a sight.

What a mess. 🙂

I’m still all sore this morning, can’t speak well, can’t walk well… but I’m just hoping that Sasha isn’t scarred for life now, afraid of the kitchen, afraid of dishes clinking. Wife did a little “rehab” work with her last night before bed, coaxing her with some treats back into the kitchen. I hear puppy awake now, so I’m going to go see how she’s doing.

Rite of Passage

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I took Oldest and Youngest shopping today.

For a suit.

Oldest needs a suit, Youngest just gets one (Easter and all). Full jacket and everything. A tie that doesn’t clip-on. And his feet are big enough that he shopped in the proper mens shoe department… ouch, that cost a lot for shoes he’ll rarely wear. But I also picked up a new shoe shine kit because the few things I have in the shoebox just doesn’t cut it any more.

Time for Oldest to learn how to care for good leather shoes.

Time for him to learn how to properly tie a tie.

Oldest looked mighty sharp in that full suit. Even he liked it…. which came as a surprise to me.

Damn. Do they have to grow older?

My son’s first hog

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

Oldest just passed a milestone — he bagged his first hog; in fact, he bagged his first anything. And it’s a doozy.

The Big Weekend

I’ve been trying, struggling to have a weekend hunt with my long-time friend Charles, of Tactical Gun Review. Something always comes up, usually on my part, and we can’t get together. Charles has a deer lease in the South Central Texas area, but what makes it a great lease is not just the property but that he has year-round access to it. Outside of deer season you can go fishing, dove hunting, turkey hunting, and yes… hog hunting. A few months back we set this weekend on our calendars as a “must do” and it happened. It wasn’t going to be just us tho, we brought our older sons with us as well, who have known each other for just as many years as Charles and I have known each other.

The goal for the weekend? Have fun. If we could bag a hog? even better. And while I would have loved to have bagged a hog myself, what I really wanted was for Oldest to bag one. He’s been out in the field with me before, sometimes a bust, sometimes we got something, but it was always me that did the work, he was just a spectator. This time, he was going to do the work. 🙂

Friday after work I packed my car with food, some clothing and essentials, a few rifles, and away we went. On the rifle front, I originally wanted him to use the 6.8 SPC. The whole reason I bought the 6.8 was for kids to use it because it doesn’t recoil that hard, shorter and thus easier to manage, plus some time ago I bought a powerful red LED flashlight to mount on the rifle precisely for hog hunting. But I changed my mind. Instead, I had him shoot the Savage bolt-action in .308 Win. My reasoning? It was a simpler manual of arms to operate (no gun, light, etc.), and that .308 would provide a much wider margin of error. Being as this would be his first time, he’d get excited, heart pounding, might rush things… never know. I figured the .308 would work out better for him. Prior to the hunt I had him work the rifle dry at home: get a feel for the trigger, learn how to work the bolt. He learned how to work the gun, but he had never live fired it. In fact, he’s never shot something as big as a .308; he’s had aversions to shooting rifles larger than a .22 LR because he doesn’t like the noise, but acknowledges that if he wants to bag something he has to. So, this was into the fire feet first. 🙂

First Night

We arrived Friday evening but with more than enough daylight to get us into the blind and wait. We parked our cars, pulled out the rifles, climbed into “The Beast” (an old Toyota 4×4 Charles keeps at the property for getting around) and headed for a stock tank on one side of the property where hogs had been seen. Unfortunately the pop-up blind blew into the tank, so we just plopped down on stools under a tree and obscured by tall grass. We waited. Night fell, but with that “super-moon” out you could see a lot going on, it was so bright.

We never saw any hogs. Some deer, an owl, lots of other critters. But alas, no hogs. We piled back into The Beast and checked out some other tanks, parking The Beast well away from the area and stalking up on it. It was obvious there was activity, just not when we were around. Ah well. We eventually headed back to the cabin for dinner and hanging out around the campfire drinking beer (boys – root beer, dad’s Dogfish Head brown ale) until the wee hours.

Saturday Morning

After a few hours of sleep we headed back out. Charles put Oldest and I at one of the stock tanks we visited Friday night, while he and his son headed to another area. The sun came up. A turkey was calling and showing and we watched him for a while. Then across the stock tank, probably 100 yards or so away, 2 does. No, 3 does… 4… 5… 6. It was nice to watch all those does grazing, but darn that the season is well-over. 🙂  After maybe 15 minutes or so we noticed the does spooked and took off. Seconds later we see why.

Hogs.

We were atop a high bank on one side of the tank. The opposite bank was probably 60 yards away, then up that bank 35 yards or so starts a tree line. Deep within those trees we saw all these little black masses running across the way. Yes yes yes! Hogs! But they were way back in the trees running in a manner that took them directly away from us with no chance of a shot. Oh man!

“Son, get your gun! get your gun! get it up! get ready!”

I of course went for my gun too, but I put it down. This was for him. Yes I’d love to get one myself, but this was for him. I was going to be the eyes, the coach.

Come on piggy… come on… please don’t run off…. yes!

We see the pigs turn and one by one start to run into the area. It’s a stock tank. Water. Plus there was a corn feeder at the far end. Food. A perfect ambush spot: at food and water. A swarm of piglets runs out. I don’t know… 30, 40, 50 of them? A lot. They all headed right for the feeder. Adults follow out of the trees but head down to the water.

YES!

One goes to drink but is head-on facing us. “No son, can’t” Come on… turn… turn…

More big hogs come down to drink.

“SONSONSONSON! There!  That one!”

A big one. Drinking. Perfectly broadside. And… holding still. You see, hogs almost never stop, they are almost always in motion so windows of opportunity for a shot can be hard to come by. But drinking? He stopped, he was still. Perfect opportunity.

“You got him?”

“Got him.”

“OK, let it rip!”

And the rifle roared.

He got him.

The hog ran for maybe 25 yards, did a circle and dropped.

High fives all around.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Oldest so excited. 🙂  He was wired. Electrified!

Once we confirmed he was down, and of course all the other hogs scattered from the sound of the gunshot, we left the blind and headed over to see him.

I thought he was maybe 150 lbs? But I’m terrible at such estimates. We snapped copious amounts of pictures. We sent text messages to Wife (and kiddos back home), to Oldest’s grandfather and uncle (Wife’s family, life-long hunters). Much happiness.

While waiting for Charles to come get us, another hog came through the trees! I snapped up my rifle and knelt down, got a bead on him and was prepared to take the shot, but a clear shot never presented itself. Either the hog wasn’t positioned well or there were trees/brush in the way. Eventually the hog got close enough, noticed us, and took off running. A second hog would have been nice, but no matter.

Heaving this big boy into the truck was a chore, even with a winch. But we got him back to the cabin, hoisted him up and weighed him.

Just over 250 lbs..

That’s big.

We gutted him (I got more practice at cleaning an animal) and while looking at the organs I saw the heart. The bullet had fully penetrated the heart. Right through the shoulder — and the massively thick “shield” (and his was a formidable one), right through the heart, and complete passthrough. Based upon how the entry and exit wounds looked, it looks like that Barnes Bullet functioned as advertised. This is why I love Barnes Bullets. For the record, it was a Federal Premium P308H Vital Shok (165 grain Barnes TSX). I figure he was shot at about 60 yards, so he got hit with that 165 grain bullet going about 2500 fps and probably hit with 2300 ft/lbs or so of energy, with that Barnes Bullet expanding and dumping almost all of that energy inside the body.

The Rest of the weekend

After we dressed the hog, we put him in a walk-in cooler because we were tired and not in the mood to clean him fully. Went fishing, and Oldest caught a nice bass. Best I did was get some nibbles and got one on but he jumped and threw the hook. Charles landed a nice one, and his son did too. But fishing didn’t last long as it was getting hot and we were all tired and hungry. Back to the cabin, eat, nap.

Upon rising, Charles and I went back to the task of cleaning the hog. That was a chore. Son, next time you need to shoot a small hog. 🙂 I’ve never shot a hog this size or dealt with one this size this close up. It was constantly amazing to me how thick his shield was. The entire side of this hog was just armor, thick, and very heavy. You need a solid and strong bullet, all hail the mighty Barnes. We spoke with the ranch manager and he contacted a local guy to see what we could do with the head. We’re going to see about having a European mount done. We don’t need to make a trophy out of everything, but this is not just his first but yes it is a big one. Might as well have something more than just memories. 🙂

We went back out that evening but we didn’t see anything. Charles and his son did have an opportunity, but the hog ran off and they were unable to connect on the running shot (it’s not easy). Oh and Charles’ son had a bummer earlier. While we were cleaning the hog, Charles’ son was still out in the field. Hogs came by, he stalked up, knelt and took aim and… click. The round didn’t go off. Bad primer? hard primer? who knows, but no bang. He was quick enough to work the bolt and chamber a new round, but alas by then the hogs were off. Bummer that he didn’t get the shot off, but he did everything right from staying in the field to stalking to remedying the malfunction. I say that’s well-worthy of praise!

Had to get home early on Sunday so we left before sunrise, leaving Charles and his son sleeping in the cabin. Bummer we had to go so soon, but we were both tired and drained and ready for a shower. 😉  Charles has the bigger cooler and will drop the meat off on his way home. I’ll take it to the butcher in a few days and we’ll have lots of sausage in the freezer.

My take

I’m so happy.

Oh sure, if I bagged one that’d be nice… but this was so much better. It’s great to see my Son so excited, so ready, so happy. But also, so disciplined. He took instruction from me so well, from studying anatomy charts, to listening to me talking about visualizing success, imagining the hog there, calming yourself, finding the target (“Aim small, miss small, right Dad?”), don’t take too long but also don’t rush it, smooth trigger press. He did everything right, and it paid off.

What all did he take from this? I don’t know. He doesn’t really know either, other than the immediate payoff of the joy of the accomplishment along with lots of meat. As his uncle congratulated him, “You put dinner, lunch, and breakfast on the table!”. I’m thinking more about the long-term. Will there be something in his life that will be able to be traced back to this weekend, to that moment? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Meantime, I have guns to clean. It’s all sandy out there and there’s grit and sand in everything. You work the bolt on that rifle and it just grinds and makes me cringe. I can’t expand/collapse the stock on my 6.8 without it sounding like sandpaper. I think that was the only bummer of the weekend was all the sand and dust everywhere.

I must give big thanx to Charles. His support and generosity made this all possible. Thank you, my friend. Y’all go visit and support his site, Tactical Gun Review.

Son, you did good. I’m proud of you.

No TV for Lent

/ hsoi

I asked Kiddos what they were giving up for Lent. Wife said that it’s going to be a group thing.

They’re giving up TV.

I’m impressed. It’s been a couple of days now and I haven’t heard the TV on and you know, that’s kinda refreshing. A little TV now and again is fine, but the kids have gotten into a bit of a rut and if they’re bored turn to the TV.

I think it will be cool to see what they opt to do to pass time, even if it’s just having to deal with being bored. And more curious, how will they come out on the other side? Will they just revert back to old habits? Or will they discover something new, something else worth spending their time on?

This will be an interesting journey. 🙂