Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 542
March 21, 2012
Radio New Zealand interview
I did an interview with Radio New Zealand this evening. I think it went pretty well. You can listen to it by clicking on the link below.
The most impressive part of the entire interview was my ability to keep my daughter occupied during the fifteen minutes that I was on the phone.
My strategy:
I put Dinorsaur Train on the television and handed her an iPhone with a one hour Winnie the Pooh episode. She literally sat on the couch, desperately trying to maintain concentration on both shows at the same time.
It completely paralyzed her.
Heartbreakingly amusing
It's not easy to record a video that makes your wife sad but also makes her want to watch it again and again.
These two videos accomplish this goal.
New York girl
I love this photo of my daughter.
Taken by her grandfather aboard a NYC bus two weeks ago, I love how she looks like such a little girl and such a big girl at the same time.
March 20, 2012
Gratitude journal: A lost cow finds its way home
Tonight I am grateful for the reappearance of Baby Cow.
Baby Cow is one of my daughter's favorite little people toys, and she has been missing for almost two days. Clara doesn't get terribly upset when a toy goes missing, but she speaks of its disappearance constantly and continually enlists us in the search for it.
I never expected a lost toy to create so much work for me.
Today Elysha found Baby Cow underneath the sofa.
I'm an idiot for not looking there first.
Storm troopers with iPhones
Want a convenient, simple want to charge your iPhone on the go?
How about this?
It's called AIRE. It's a device that allows the user to utilize the force of his or her breath to charge an iPhone.
Yes, it requires you to look like a Storm Trooper, but hey, at least you'll still be able to text your friends when you can't find an available electrical outlet.
Not that you'll have many friends if you start wearing one of these.
And it would be perfect in an apocalypse. While fleeing from zombies, you could simultaneously be charging your iPhone.
March 19, 2012
Gratitude journal: 2012
I saw this tweet by Amy MacKinnon (@AmyMacKinnon) today.
Lately, I'm finding it difficult to listen to the news. Then I think of how it must have been in the 1940s.
#perspective
It's a fine point.
Striking many and wishing death to some still allows time for plenty of math and science
Mathematicians and scientists are often undeservedly assigned nerdy, frail, reputations, and I fear that this perception may steer some students away from these disciplines in school.
As a teacher, it is my job to ensure that math and science are celebrated to the same degree as the arts, if not more. If we want to produce more mathematicians and scientists in this country, we must find ways of letting students know that the sciences are not reserved for quiet, studious, industrious children.
Enter Lists of Note, one of my favorite new websites. Last week they posted a list of Isaac Newton's sins that will serve to assure students that mathematicians and scientists come in many forms:
In 1662, at which point he was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, 19-year-old Isaac Newton wrote, in his notebook, the following list of 57 sins he had recently committed — 48 before Whitsunday, and 9 since. It makes for fascinating reading.
I'll leave you to visit the site and peruse the list yourself, but here are a few of my favorites that will convince even the most rough-and-tumble boys that discovering the secrets of the universe is not beyond their grasp.
Threatning my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them
Wishing death and hoping it to some
Striking many
Stealing cherry cobs from Eduard Storer and denying that I did so
Punching my sister
Beating Arthur Storer.
Apparently Newton has a serious beef with the Storer family.
Star Wars and parenting make for a complicated mix
There are many decisions to make when it comes to your children and the Star Wars franchise.
When should a child first watch Star Wars?
In what order should a child view the movies?
Should existence of the three prequels be concealed as long as humanly possible?
Which versions of the movies should be shown? The digitally re-mastered versions or the original?
In other words, who do you want your child to think shot first? Geedo or Han Solo?
Okay, that might be an easy one.
Still, so many decisions to make as my daughter gets older.
But this is one I can get firmly behind.
March 18, 2012
Gratitude journal: Hes alive, well and interesting.
Tonight I am grateful that my brother, who reappeared from the dead a month ago, is still alive and well. Tonight he and a friend came to our home for dinner, the first time he has visited me in seven years.
I got to know my brother a little better tonight, and I liked what I discovered.
I'm hoping that this is the beginning of something that lasts.
Stegosauruses are for losers
Clara was playing with some large, rubber dinosaurs in the museum's toddler room. She had a triceratops (her favorite dinosaur), an apatosaurus (formerly known as a brontosaurus when I was a child) and a stegosaurus.
A boy walked over and grabbed the triceratops, which she had put down for a moment. She reached out and snatched it back from him. "No!" she said. "I'm playing with that!"
"You need to share," I said. "You can't keep all of the dinosaurs to yourself."
She thought a moment, looked down at the dinosaurs in front of her and then threw the stegosaurs at the boy. It bounced off his chest. He picked it up and walked away.
Clara looked up at me and said, "I don't like that dinosaur."
At last she is beginning to understand the art of sharing.
