Computers: A Saga
When there's silence in my house ( a rare thing, you should know ), I like to think about giving Ben ways to focus his crazy intelligence on things that are not the TV. Some kids can watch TV and play, taking breaks from whatever they're doing to stare up at the TV a while; Ben can't stop himself. If the TV is on, there is nothing that will distract him from it, even if it's a dull documentary describing dental diagnoses of dingoes. His jaw slacks, his eyes glaze: it's as if he's watching The Most Fascinating Thing Ever.
As a more-interactive substitute for Neanderthalish TV-comas, we tried having Ben share Becky's computer. Being a Mac, there were a bunch of things you could get for it, and we figured it would be good for him to learn how to take care of a computer. This was the worst possible idea we ever could have had, and resulted in the following damages:
- Several of Becky's writings being lost due to Flash-game related freezes
- Mental anguish from listening to crappy sound effects ad nauseum
- Nagging, whining, and complaining when computer time was over
- And, the last straw: A glass of water spilled on the fancy Mac keyboard, shorting it out and turning it into a $75 toy for Alex to bang on
But we're not bitter; we just turned it off. His account, that is. Locked. No more.
"...but Daver! How will he learn about computers???" people ask me. As I've discovered, he will learn about computers the same way I did: by messing with them. And he'll learn faster and be able to do more at the same age as I was, regardless of whether he gets time to play Carmen Sandiego or not.
My father-in-law, however, who is the guy I call when I have the urge to go to Fry's and look at nerd toys, was still aghast that his grandson was not getting computer time at home. Since he always has to keep his gaming computer up to date, he replaced an old laptop with a new rig, and decided to donate his used laptop to the cause. So, since I can't handle there being a computer in my home which is not being used for something, (clever man, my father-in-law), I installed Carmen Sandiego and Python on there for him to play with, along with an e-book called Snake Wrangling For Kids. He's currently working through the book now, learning to program in Python.
I figure in about 6 months, he'll have built Skynet. God help us all.
On Writing About Nothing
My life is full of things that no one cares about. I mean, some people care about them, obviously, because they pay me to take care of all of them, but on a day-to-day, I-might-write-a-blog-post-about-this basis, the pickings are pretty slim. Oh! We need to build this piece of software for that reason or yada-yada lamma-lemma-ding-dong-day, and go figure that so-and-so did such-and-such so now we need to figure out the antigravity flux capacitor california disestablishmentation parameter. By Tuesday. Shit.
So here I am, riding the train home, trying to think of something, anything, that might be entertaining to someone about my week, and folks...I just ain't got it. I have a headache and am really tired, and have managed to eke out more work for myself in the last 12 hours than I had to start for the week, and so...uh...yeah. What I really wish I could do is to teleport home, crawl into bed, and sleep for 12-14 hours. Instead, though, I think I'll end up picking up some Chinese food, putting the baby to bed, and then farting around for a while. And THEN I'll go to bed. Maybe.
And then tomorrow, my kids will wake up around 5am or so, ready to go, and I'll be a zombie.
Oh, and there's this young couple in front of me who are trying to hide the fact that they are snogging. I like the word 'snogging'.
Some day, I'm going to have a point. Some day I'll be on top of all this, and bare my soul for the interwebs to see.
But not today. Today, this is all I have left.
Et Cetera
Been on a bit of a break thanks to my vacation -- since commute time is also post time, the staying-home behavior seriously messed with my dwink.net schedule.
I spent the last few weeks in a bit of a funk, actually, a bit of a placement crisis in the world I've built. Therefore I figured it'd be appropriate to pull out some Red Hot Chili Peppers -- Blood Sugar Sex Magik, not the safe-ass new Adult Alternative crap -- and write for a bit about whatever came to mind.
In my funks, I always am reminded of some of the fundamental things that make me who I am, that keep me together when my imbalanced brain and stress addiction threaten to shred me. Music, for one: I was a musician long before I was a computer nerd. It started when I was a kid, and my brother ( who is five years my senior) was big into music; I started out liking whatever he liked. Then he went off to college, and I found BMG Music Service and Columbia House, and started ordering tons of new music.
I found some of my favorite music during that time: Morphine, Nine Inch Nails, A Tribe Called Quest, REM, U2, Living Colour, Live, Public Enemy, Guns 'n' Roses...
These riffs, hooks, grooves, they coat my brain -- like a good lube, they keep the parts moving. They ease away the tension, the knee-jerk reactions to the idiots and lazies, the doubts and the worries. All that remains is the sound, the smooth high of melody and harmony, tone and and timbre, and if I can ride that wave for a while, the rest of it seems to wash away.
Elbow says it well:
"and out of a doorway the tentacles stretch of a song that i know/and the world moves in slow-mo, straight to my head like the first cigarette of the day..."
So here's to the music: thanks for keeping me sane.
2010
Welcome to 2010. I say it every year, but it feels remarkably like last year, yo. I'm squeezing in a few minutes of blogging while my daughter plays with her new 'activity table' and my younger boy enjoys some Backyardigans action.
I'd like to say that I've got grand plans for 2010, but I think I'll be content if I can just hang in there while Becky gets her empire off the ground. I'm struggling a lot with how my work life is changing -- I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with where things are headed.
I'm thrilled that my family is complete; my baby girl turns the big ONE this year and hopefully by the end of the year she'll be the only one in diapers. My boys are as hilarious as ever and they bring me more smiles than I can handle.
This year I think I need to focus on getting back on top of ME. I have been working nonstop and when I get home taking care of my family and squeezing in time to take care of me only as an afterthought. I think I need to reorganize that -- I'm feeling unfulfilled and isolated lately, and it's not because anyone is forcing me to be that way, it's just how I'm handling the situation I'm in. But I'm finding it difficult to get started on making the changes, because putting myself first is something I just don't really know how to do. It makes me feel guilty.
So here we go. One foot in front of the other, right?
Tweetaholic
- @Ieatmykidzsnack don't jinx it! Punxsutawney Phil is a vindictive mofo.
- @mommywantsvodka WHAT!!!?!?!?!?
- Please brain, forgive me for joining this conference call.
- My alarm went off this morning. I'd only been up for 45 minutes or so. #whybothersettinganalarmwhenyouhavetoddlers
- @Ieatmykidzsnack they could have Tyrone be the Tyroninator and take a shotgun to Ming Ming
The Dwinkosphere
Oldest + Youngest, Best Buds
Ben & Amelia, proving that a 7-year age gap is nothing when it comes to brothers & sisters & Playmobil..
Posted via web from dwink | Comment »
New York, New York
The last time I went to NYC, it was for a conference. I brought along
Becky and Ben, and they went off to visit friends while I went to listen
to people talk about some Compliance thing or another. I don’t remember
much of the conference, to be honest, but I DO remember ditching it one
afternoon to walk around Central Park, Ben happily chasing his “Pumball”
(a wadded up piece of paper — yeah, he’s always been this way). It feels like a lifetime ago. Now, we have too many kids to bring them along, so it’s just me. I’m
going to work, and it’s cold outside. Probably will be so busy that I
won’t even make it over to Central Park, much less to wander around it.
Will be wearing dress clothes, and sitting in meetings, and maybe
getting some of the locals to show me something interesting after work. I’m thrilled to be going again, though. There’s something about NYC that
feels really good to me; maybe it’s that it is unabashedly City, that
it’s such a hodgepodge of buildings and nooks and crannies and people.
Or maybe it’s the streets and bridges whose names are famous nationwide, thanks to
Sex and the City and countless other movies and shows: FDR Drive, Park
Avenue, the Jersey Turnpike, Brooklyn Bridge — as a visitor, there’s
great novelty in seeing that you’re riding on these streets that have
been mentioned a million times. I imagine it’s the same feeling Chicago
visitors get about Michigan Ave or Lake Shore Drive. So, this time I intend to breathe in as much as I can while rushing from
airport to office to hotel and back to office again, embedding another
fond memory into my cortex to tide me over until the next time I get to
visit, because while Chicago is my home, I will always love New York.Posted via email from dwink | Comment »
I gave some advice. Is it good advice? You be the judge.
You Said…
- Mrs Soup on Now THIS is just a little excessive:
- Bill on Now THIS is just a little excessive:
- SoccerMom on Why The iPad Isn’t The End Of Society As We Know It
