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Papaphilly wrote: "Sabri CONGRATS!My son is almost 30 and most of the bad stuff is forgotten. I remember reading when he napped. It was an activity that I forced myself to do at the time because I was an over the r..."
Cheers for the advice. Out of curiosity what is an "over the road driver"?
Happy Canada Day to all the other Canadians in the group🇨🇦
Thanks Rosemarie, Happy Canada Day to you! It’s a beautiful, quiet day in Ottawa. No clouds, 21 degrees C, a bit of light breeze. I’m sitting outside reading.
It's nice in Toronto too. Perfect for reading outside!
Sabri wrote: "Cheers for the advice. Out of curiosity what is an "over the road driver"? ..."It is the truck driver that spends time on the road going far distances. You spend multiple days on the road. This is compared to a local driver that is home every night.
Ah, that makes sense! Was a little confused as in the UK "just over the road" means "not very far".
Has been a slightly low-energy week after Ralph's first birthday party last weekend. My partner did most of the organising with help from my parents, but the day itself was overwhelming (though hugely enjoyable) and I feel like I'm still recovering!Annoyingly I seem to be getting some kind of tendonitis in my elbows, I think possibly from picking up and putting down baby in crib, but hopefully will be going back to gym once the baby starts daycare in a couple of weeks and some strength work should help sort it out. Not to mention not having to do the put downs for naps twice a day in the week!
The hot summer has been punctured by some serious rain over the last couple of days. But at least that meant we didn't need to go and water the allotment. It's looking like we might get some decent crops this year despite fairly minimal efforts - potatoes, beetroot, asparagus and squash all look to be growing well.
Is your son walking or crawling yet, Sabri? That's when the real fun begins and you'll miss the days you had to put him in his crib!
Yeah he's been crawling for a few weeks now and can "cruise" around on his feet while holding onto furniture/legs. It is a lot to pay attention to but I much prefer it to when he was frustrated about not being able to move around!
They're so adorable at that age! Enjoy your time with him.
I had to take my daughter out of the crib not long after she turned one because she kept climbing out of it or, sometimes worse, pulled anything she could reach into the crib or onto the floor. That's when the baby gates went up but they didn't deter her long either. She was a real escape artist!
My older daughter stayed in the crib but her younger sister was a lot bolder and tried to escape.
The lad started daycare this week. Bit of a mixed bag of feelings. It gives us more time and focus during the day, but it takes a little while for him to adjust to the new surroundings so he's sad to get dropped off there. We're also getting him a passport for an upcoming trip to the Netherlands; taking the photo was a real adventure!We had elections recently in the UK and the incoming Labour government has been staking out their territory. It was obvious that they'd win, although it's the first time I've ever voted for a different party. Labour dropped a few key initiatives (scrapping tuition fees and the two-child cap on welfare), and I don't think any of the main parties are taking environmental policy seriously enough, so I voted Green. That said, it's high time that the railways are being brought back under public control - the private sector has been making an absolute mess of it. I briefly flirted with the idea of voting for George Galloway's "Workers Party of Great Britain", but find their stance on NATO and Russia/Ukraine to be too dangerous.
This weekend we're planning to go to Bedford River Festival on Saturday. It's about an hour and a half's drive from us and the second largest free outdoor event in the UK (after Notting Hill Carnival). My wife grew up in Bedford so I've been there quite a lot and to the festival a few times. There's music, boat races, river activities, and food. Next week on Wednesday we're going to the BBC Proms to see a symphony orchestra covering Nick Drake's repertoire. It's all go go go as next Thursday we're off to Cambridge for the annual folk festival. We started going there two years ago with my brother and sister in law and absolutely love it. The plan is to go for every year of little Ralph's life until he's old enough to tell us enough is enough!
Sounds like some fun times ahead!Two days ago, Tuesday, Toronto got hit by three thunderstorms with very heavy rainfall, after a rainy day on Monday.
There was major flooding everywhere in the lower areas, especially around the Lower Don River which has an expressway beside it. People had to be rescued from their cars, but fortunately no one was hurt.
Well this is the first time this has happened to me in the 12 years I've been on Goodreads. A review of mine of a contemporary folk horror novel has been flagged for "containing excessive content quoted from the book" and GR say they will take it down in 5 days if it still doesn't conform to their guidelines.I reckon my quotes are "fair use" but have asked for details. Anyway, if you'd like to read it, this may be your last chance LINK HERE
And I'd be interested to hear if anyone else's reviews have ever been flagged.
Mod
Bionic Jean wrote: "Well this is the first time this has happened to me in the 12 years I've been on Goodreads. A review of mine of a contemporary folk horror novel has been flagged for "containing excessive content q..."I had a review peremptorily removed last year. It was an old review from years ago. According to GR they received a complaint & took it down. I've forgotten the details but the removal was (imo) borderline absurd. I saved their msg and keep half-meaning to contest it.
Quoting for reviews is explicitly permitted under US copyright law.
Wow, it's been over a year since I posted in this thread...The boy is now 2 years old and a bit. He's running amok; stringing sentences together ("No daddy, sit here!"); sits and reads books for up to ten minutes at a go (well, looks at the pictures); and loves tennis ("bat-ball"), music, dancing, trains, and trucks. It's hard to imagine how much he's developed over the last couple of years. Day by day it doesn't seem like much but every month he's practically a different person.
My employer got acquired a few months back by a big multi-national conglomerate, making some things uncertain at work. Still going through the pain of various digital migrations, but at least I'm now getting opportunities to travel abroad as the parent company is bigger and seemingly has a hefty travel budget.
Every year is hotter than the last and there've been a lot of wildfires in southern Europe the last month. Got quite close to one on a family holiday to the south coast of France the other week - google maps said "travel may be affected by severe fires". Luckily came up against nothing but an area of scorched trees.
I've been meaning to make some recordings of my grandfather's life memories and am planning to start doing it this weekend. His wife (my grandmother) passed away last year, and it got me thinking. I'd like to capture his story in his own words before it's lost to time. Going to have to do it over the telephone as he lives a few hours' drive away - if anyone knows a good way to do this please do let me know! My aim is to move on to other family members and eventually compile an archive of life stories, and maybe build a family website to make them available.
Sabri wrote: "I've been meaning to make some recordings of my grandfather's life memories"One of by hobbies for a last few years is genealogy and there are a bunch of youtube videos how to optimally record life memories, check for them by searching keywords
I did a lot of genealogy work in the 90s. One of the best things I did was on a visit to my cousin's house in Virginia. My aunt & uncle were staying with her, so I sat my mom & my uncle down and asked some open-ended questions to get them talking. They carried on the conversation and I mostly took notes. They were invaluable in filling in that side of my family history. But I have to say get it while you can, because those opportunities can vanish in a moment. All of my grandparents and most of my aunts & uncles are gone now, and there are so many questions that remain.
Oleksandr thank you for the pointer! I figured out the technical aspects this morning using Voicemeeter, Audacity and Phone Link on my laptop, and had an amusing test call with my wife.Allan - indeed. In fact part of my motivation is a recent conversation with my father about his time in Ireland, after migrating out of the middle east but before moving to the UK. He came out with so much fascinating stuff that I never knew about and will get lost if I don't record it somehow. I hope that I can be open-ended as you say, and take myself mostly out of the equation. It's an interesting idea to have multiple participants - I'd imagined only having 1-1 conversations but now you mention it I can see advantages either way.
Family memories: I have 4 sisters. I was the only boy, and the eldest. So, as we grew up, my Dad would sometimes tell me stuff that he (sometimes) didn't tell the girls. So I'm the only repository for some oddments, such as that his family (supposedly) had some Cherokee blood from when they lived in SC. Anyway. I wish our family-history stuff was better-documented. But, with the 5 of us, we can compare notes....
Peter wrote: "Family memories: I have 4 sisters. I was the only boy, and the eldest. So, as we grew up, my Dad would sometimes tell me stuff that he (sometimes) didn't tell the girls. So I'm the only repository ..."My Aunt-in-law has a similar brood - one son followed by three daughters. The son is a few years younger than me. It must be quite an experience to grow up like that! I wonder if he has a similar tale of being the only one to hear certain things from dad (or mum!). I'm curious: is there a reason he wouldn't have mentioned the Cherokee thing to the girls? Is it a bit racy somehow?
Sabri wrote: "Peter wrote: "I'm curious: is there a reason he wouldn't have mentioned the Cherokee thing to the girls? Is it a bit racy somehow?"My Dad grew up poor on a red-dirt farm in north Louisiana. I vaguely recall that he told me about the Cherokee legend after visiting his family, when I was quite young. In Oklahoma, where we lived then, having Cherokee blood was a plus. Wilma Mankiller!
Much later, we had a Cherokee practice teacher from OSU in my HS Okla History class. He was from Bushyhead, Okla (named after a Cherokee chief), and he told us about the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Broken, no surprise. But a fun class! About all I remember from that....
The Evolution of Science Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, 4 Vols (other topics)Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer (other topics)
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? (other topics)
Bleak House (other topics)
A Night in the Lonesome October (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Winston Churchill (other topics)Roger Zelazny (other topics)
Felix Salten (other topics)
Sam Kean (other topics)
Chuck Tingle (other topics)
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My son is almost 30 and most of the bad stuff is forgotten. I remember reading when he napped. It was an activity that I forced myself to do at the time because I was an over the road driver and was stressed when I came home to a house with a newborn, so there was no relief at the time.
As for reading to your child, do it all of the time. At this stage and for the next two years it will not matter what you read, they will associate this with cuddling and good times. It also make them feel safe and calms them. After about 2 1/2, they will start to understand the story and move to their books. They will associate reading with good times with mom and dad. Once they start to read or REALLY look at the pictures, let them have whatever they want with books. It does not matter what it is because at this point, reading is mechanical and like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.
I have two pieces of advice for a new father I tell everyone.
First: Have a sense of humor because you will need it.
Second: Willful blindness is not always a bad thing. My wife's mother used to say sometimes ignorance is bliss.