Categories
Politics

Flapdoodle

I think Megan McArdle hits the nail on the head:

It is tempting to blame the candidates, but ultimately, I blame the situation. The candidates do not have a big program, because there is no money to pay for big programs. Whoever spends the next four years is going to have to do some unpleasant things to taxes and spending. No one wants to hear about those things, and they certainly don’t want to tell us about them. And so we have piddling personal attacks, half-hearted promises, and vapid reaffirmations that America is so great because it’s exceptional, and exceptional because it’s America.

I also liked this paragraph:

The true object of these debates is to say as little as possible about anything of substance. Mitt Romney promises to be Obama Lite, with one third less social democracy than regular Barack Obama- but fortified with a full day’s RDA of social conservatism! Barack Obama claims that Mitt Romney only wants to be president so that he can invest the Social Security trust fund in companies that will ship all our jobs to China- jobs that under Barack Obama would be done by hard-working American robots. It is a carnival of claptrap, a festival of flapdoodle.

Of course, read the whole thing.

For as long as I’ve been paying attention to politics, the game has been about what a candidate is going to give their constituents, be it tax cuts, some kind of money for health care, retirement income, legislation that kills competition, some kind of government contract to make something or research something, or money for education. No one that I can remember has stated “I’m going to take something away.”

I understand the reasons. We all want someone to give us things because, deep down, we know that we deserve it. We worked hard all our lives and it’s about time we collected our just rewards. So when James Q. Politician comes along with his legion of “expert” enablers and says he’s got a plan, we uncritically swallow it because we want to believe and, after all, we’ll only be around for so long anyway. Might as well get ours along the way.

Short of guaranteeing that everyone will get a job, though, it’s hard to imagine what else can be promised at this point. Even if something more could be promised, where’s the money going to come from to provide it?

In my humble opinion, the math of the federal budget doesn’t add up for either of these guys. We can’t tax our way back to a balanced budget, and we can’t cut enough programs because too many people are dependent on those programs. Politicians have, over the years, systematically over-promised to the American people and the result is a government that wants to legislate away risk, at the expense of one citizen for another.

The day is coming where we will discuss who’s going to get screwed and how; what promises the government has made but can’t be keep. But today is not that day. Today, we get flapdoodle.

Categories
Misc

A Random Though About Lance Armstrong

I was asked years ago whether I though Armstrong was likely guilty of using PED’s and my answer at the time was “My head says yes, but I’d like to be wrong.” Given the recent revelations, well, I still wish I’d been wrong.

More recently, a friend asked what I thought about the recent news about Armstrong and his doping operation. The only interesting thought that came to mind involved Armstrong’s continued statements that he didn’t cheat. Given all the evidence, it seemed an odd statement.

But then, thinking about it from a lawyerly perspective, or parsing the words a bit more, there is one context in which they make sense. From Armstrong’s perspective, everyone else was using some kind of PED at the time. Therefore, his taking them meant that he wasn’t “cheating” in the sense that he had given himself a competitive advantage. He was keeping the other guys from gaining an advantage over him. When competing at the highest level, that’s probably all the rationalization needed.

While Armstrong is taking the brunt of the criticism here, it’s telling that the Tour will not be awarding the Armstrong’s now stripped victories. I take that as an admission that the entire era was out of control with regards to PED usage. To the point that they can’t name a victor because it’s likely that rider would also subsequently be found guilty. So, from an enforcement and “high ideals” perspective, that time period was not cycling’s best moment.

I guess the big question here is, does it really matter? After all, we’re talking about a time when everyone was “cheating”, and Armstrong won 7 Tour victories in the time period. If everyone was doing it, what’s the BFD?

I guess I’d go back to a couple of simple minded lines of reasoning. First, the sport, and the Tour particularly, is about endurance and pushing limits. How far can a man push his body over the course of the Tour? If the competitors are using PED’s, then we don’t get a credible answer. Second, by allowing the victories to stand, then a competitor can rationalize that it’s worth it. After all, the governing bodies for cycling won’t catch up until some time later and by then, the victories will be years in the past. By stripping those victories, a message is sent that it won’t be worth it. The rider’s name won’t appear in the books, except with a large asterisk that means “HE CHEATED TO WIN.”

Ultimately though, the whole thing is just terribly disappointing. For those years when Armstrong was winning, the race was interesting to everyone. It was probably a high-water mark for popularity of the sport, and the Tour in particular. Plus, Armstrong had a very compelling story with his cancer recovery. Looking back, it seems too good to have been true.

Turns out, it was.

Categories
Family

Well That Didn’t Take Long

When last I spoke of the boy (what, a couple days ago?) he had plans for world domination by raking yards. Alright, I exaggerate; but he definitely had his sites set on a DS game where he could conquer the world. So I didn’t exaggerate by much…

The Wife had a cagey idea to give him a better idea of what he was getting himself into. She hired him to rake the leaves in our yard. In this case, he didn’t even have to bag anything, merely rake them to the sides and into the woods. She offered to pay him $20 for the work, but he had to do it to her satisfaction.

So the boy went outside to start his work. At the time, I was working on my post from earlier, so he was on his own for the most part.

Sadly, 20 minutes later, it was over.

He came storming into the house, in tears, and went stomping up to his room. I went to check out his progress and he had not made a lot. The Wife had missed the histrionics, and was wondering where he was. She’s the one who went upstairs to find out what had happened. At that point, I actually thought he’d broken the rake and thought he was in trouble.

The Wife came back downstairs and it was clear that he had underestimated the time and work involved. He was upset because he realized this, and with that understanding he decided he couldn’t (or didn’t want to) rake yards. So there would be no DS games or other stuff to get with all that money he’d already made plans for.

I suppose when looked at from that standpoint, it’s understandable why he was so upset.

Categories
Misc

Mt. Greylock

First, let me just say that Mt. Greylock has to be one of the coolest names for a mountain.

It sits in the Northeast of Massachusetts and is the highest peak in the state, standing 3491 feet above sea level. It has an interesting history and was one of the first preserves started in the statei, starting as a 400 acre preserve to stop the practice of strip foresting. The preserve has expanded to over 12000 acres today. It’s on the Appalachian Trail and has a lodge at the summit for weary hikers to grab a hot meal and a dry night’s sleep.

We arrived there on Friday, along with a number of other friends, to celebrate a birthday. Not mine. It was raining pretty good for most of the day, and particularly at Mt. Greylock. We saw a lot of runoff areas as we were wound our way to the summit:

They’re actually designed into the road, as it pools in large drain areas that shunts the water under the road. Otherwise, we’d be driving through all that.

This is Bascom Lodge, which sits at the summit:

It’s as rustic inside as it looks from the outside. The lodging is simply rooms with bunks in them. The dining room seats probably 50 or so, though there is a covered porch on the back side with more seating. The menu is whatever they are cooking for the night. Though I will say, the food was good.

During our arrival, the rain basically killed the views. It also drenched me as the parking lot is about 100 yards from the lodge. With the wind, it was raining horizontally, so the umbrella didn’t help me much during my walk. I also have a bad wheel at the moment, so my walk was leisurely.

But it started clearing yesterday morning, so we were able to get some nice pictures after all.

This is the Veteran’s War Memorial Tower which is also at the summit. We couldn’t see it at all the night before, even from the lodge. That’s how cloudy and foggy it was. You can climb the tower up to a room that’s just below the globe on the top. From their, you have views into New York, Connecticut, Vermont and Eastern Mass.

To the North:

To the South:

To the East:

To the West:

Of course, the views are further when there aren’t so many clouds. But it’s kind of cool that we seemed to be at the same height as the clouds.

Finally, a few final shots from the road as we were leaving yesterday:

Categories
Family

The Entrepreneur

One thing that the boy seems to have firmly grasped is the concept of money. He still doesn’t really know how to value it. For instance, he wouldn’t know if a dozen eggs for $5 was a good deal or not. But he’s pretty clearly figured out that money is a key to other things. Like getting other things.

For awhile, he seemed to have the notion that money was “free.” That’s probably because he sees the Wife and I make purchases and just hadn’t made the connection about the Wife’s work. More charitably, its possible he just figured we were getting a prize or something.

But lately, he’s realized that money has to be earned. Part of this is almost certainly due to his popcorn fundraiser for Cub Scouts. I organize “Show and Sells” at local businesses whom are kind enough to let the boys pester their customers on the way in (or out) of their store. The Scouts ask people if they’d like to purchase popcorn to support Scouting. It’s not exactly back breaking work, but it is work and, to their credit, the Scouts do an admirable job of getting people’s attention.

Another portion of the Scout fundraiser is door-to-door selling. I haven’t been able to take him around yet, but I plan to. Again, to his credit, he’s been pestering me to take him out to do so. Time and circumstances have, so far, conspired against me.

But the combination has, I think led him to another idea. He wants to rake leaves for some of the neighbors. He’s been trying to figure out how much to charge them by asking me how much I thought it was worth. I could only go based on what I might be willing to pay someone to rake out yard, which I figure is probably around $15-$20, depending on my mood. But then I tried to explain that he might need to look at a yard before making that decision- a big yard with more trees would likely be worth more than a smaller one.

His logistics aside, it almost certainly puts me on the hook as well, since he can’t get anywhere without some supervision. Also, frankly, he’ll need some backup to finish these yards that he’s been eyeing up for the past week or so. I’ve told him that I’d take him to a house to let him try, so I’m on the hook for that. Then we’ll see what its worth to him.

Categories
Family Politics

Kids and Politics

I’m not surprised this happened, though I’ll cop to a little surprise at the early age.

On the way home from soccer practice today, the boy asked “Dad, who are you voting for, President Obama or the other guy?”

Before I could answer, he continued “My friend at school said that the other guy wants to make the rich richer and also wants to go to war, so he’s voting for President Obama because he wants to make the rich poorer and the poor richer and he doesn’t want to start any wars.” Except for the “My friend” part, where he actually named his friend, the quote is pretty much verbatim.

I thought for a moment and said, “Well, I don’t think your friend knows what he’s talking about. Mitt Romney wants to make everyone richer and, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t want to start any wars. Though, I think he’d be willing to fight if he was forced to.” I actually know the friend in question pretty well. He’s a smart kid, with a pretty good imagination. My guess is he was repeating talking points his parents had spoken to him.

“You mean like in karate? Where you don’t go looking for a fight but sometimes you have to?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s it exactly.”

“So are you going to vote for Romney?” he asked again.

“Yes, I will.”

“I am to,” he said. Then, amusingly, he add “I was going to vote for him anyway, before you said it. I was just curious what you were going to do.”

I’m well aware that kids almost overwhelmingly adopt the politics of their parents. Having them, it’s obvious why- what else could they have to base that kind of decision on?

Then, the boy asked me another question: “Why are you voting for Mitt Romney?”

Somewhere, when he reads this, the boy’s Grandfather is smiling. Not so much about Mitt Romney, but more because he seems to be taking an interest in politics.

Going back to the boy’s question, I was trying to figure out a good way to answer him. Something that he could understand, sort of at least. Ultimately, I figured that the answer had to be suitably generic. So I told him “President Obama wants the government involved in our lives more, Mitt Romney doesn’t. I don’t want the government involved in my life anymore than it already is. I think it does too much, and most of it not very well. There are other people who disagree with that, but that’s my opinion.”

The boy nodded in agreement, which made me smile. Not in a “good, he’s following my lead” sort of way, rather in a “like he really knows what any of what I just said means” sort of way. He was having an “adult” conversation with Dad, so he was enjoying it.

I’m not really in the habit of telling the boy what to think when it comes to stuff like this. The lass either. I have no expectation that he should follow my lead, or unblinkingly mimic my own reasoning. I want him to be his own man someday, and to do that I have to teach him to think: to gather data and then make a guess as to what that data might mean. When it comes to politics, there’s so much to it that he can’t possibly think for himself on it. I realize that my own opinions will feed his own future opinions, perhaps serving as a baseline. My hope is that he’ll question all of that someday and come to his own conclusions as a result.

If they comport with my own views, so much the better.

Categories
Politics

A Simple Theory on the Presidential Polls

Since the first debate, the most dominant theme has been how Romney’s performance completely changed the race and the polls have been swinging strongly in his favor ever since. As such, I’m sure the next round of polls to come out will also get a lot of attention, mainly, to see if President Obama was able to stop that apparent momentum with his performance.

Via Glenn Reynolds, the latest Rasmussen tracking poll shows Romney continuing to press his advantage. Some caveats apply, like the majority of the data was from interviews prior to the previous debate. So we have a couple more days before any real firm interpretations can be made.

But I’d like to point out this, which points out that Romney was actually moving back to parity with President Obama prior to the debate.

There’s been a lot of talk about the polls and whether they’ve been biased in the Presidents favor. That is, up until they weren’t showing the President with a lead. I’m going to propose a simple reason for Romney’s swing in the polls: bad data.

Now, this doesn’t mean that polling outfits were cooking their results. All it means is that prior to late September, all of the polls were worthless because they were not getting an accurate sampling of the electorate. Then, somewhere in late September, that started to change. This comports with the what seems to be conventional wisdom that most Americans don’t start paying attention to political races until Election Day is close at hand. Most Americans are busy earning a living in a field that doesn’t involve paying attention to politics every single day. Further, my guess is many are jaded to the point that they don’t care about the vast majority of the stuff that gets political pundits excited.

Based on this theory, I don’t think it’s a stretch to conclude that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to get a clear picture of what the electorate is thinking before hand. Thus, pollsters do their thing, but they get hangups or people don’t even bother to answer or participate. (Count me among those- I don’t ever participate.) So whatever data they get is unreliable. It was recently reported that participation in these surveys is down to 9%- meaning 1 in 10 people participate in the polls. It used to be closer to 25%. I think this has to have an effect on polling reliability.

Once that corner is turned in late September; however, the sampling data improves because now more people are engaged and now pollsters are able to get a more accurate sampling (i.e.: better data) of the electorate.

Note that this theory does not predict that we’ll always see a big change in the polls come late September, early October. It merely means that the odds of it happening aren’t as unlikely as some may like to think, especially if, on balance, their preferred candidate has a lot of other problems. It also means that the polls aren’t necessarily as event driven as pundits like to think. Note in my second linked piece, the author is at loss for a reason for the move back to Romney, since nothing noteworthy was going on in the time frame he noted. I think this supports my theory and gives us a period of time where the sampling data began improving.

Also note that this theory does not predict who benefits. It could just have easily been President Obama. Thus, I think it blunts the effect of the first debate. My guess is that debate helped Romney to some degree, but did not have the huge effect most pundits are attributing.

A more interesting scenario would have been if Romney’s performance had been less notable. In this case, my theory means we still would have seen a move towards Romney because that’s where the electorate was already leaning. This might seem odd, but remember, I’m talking solely about the data and its reflection of reality.

One thing I do think it means is that, in this case, President Obama has been operating under a false assumption: that he’s had a solid lead. It would appear that, in fact, he really should have been trying to overcome a deficit.

Categories
Family

Finding Out if Less is More

I picked up the kids at school today and it was obvious something was bothering the boy. Probably had a lot to do with the taciturn demeanor and the glum expression on his face. Whatever it was, it seemed to be affecting the lass as well since she was just as quiet. I tried to pry something out of him, but he was clammed up tight. So I didn’t bother pushing.

After we’d arrived at the house, both kids went up to their rooms. The Wife came down after several minutes and informed me that the boy had opened up to her. Apparently, the boy had sat down with his teacher to gone over a worksheet with her. The teacher had corrected everything on the paper and he was upset by the experience.

Personally, I think the boy is being a bit thin skinned, but the Wife is more on his side though and was wondering if his teacher might have been a bit over the top. Now, we’re thin on details so it’s difficult to say. The Wife told me that it wasn’t clear what had transpired between the boy and his teacher based on what the boy had told her. But from her perspective, it was enough to really upset him and that was her primary concern.

The boy came downstairs, ready for his martial arts class and apparently the talk with his Mom had helped his mood considerably. I figured I’d pry into things and see what I could glean about the situation.

But I never did.

For one, the boy seemed to be over whatever was bothering him, this appearance, more than anything else, compelled me to hold back on questioning him. And the longer I held back, I started thinking of other possibilities as well. He’d spoken with the Wife already, so he’d already gotten it off his chest. Also, he wasn’t bringing it up, so maybe he just didn’t want to talk to me about it.

So I opted to respect his space.

The rest of the evening went off without any problems. He finished his outstanding homework and even took some constructive criticism along the way.

It’s easy to fall into the mode of wanting to know and be involved in every little detail of your child’s life. We parents do that because we want to make sure we’re there to help them with their struggle. But they’re growing all the time, and there does come a point where they have to be able to handle their own problems. Maybe they can pick some of those moments themselves.

Categories
Computers

Kudos to Barnes & Noble

So awhile back, the charging cable for my Nook crapped out. It had a little help- one of the kids dropped the Nook and it hit connector-first. It slowly flaked out from there to the point where it no longer worked.

It was not big deal at the time because the kids inherited a Nook so I used their charging cable. Sadly, that too has expired. Which left us with 2 Nook’s that couldn’t be charged.

Thankfully, both are still under warranty and tonight I happened to be in the area of the closest B&N. I brought the Nooks in to a sales person, who promptly took the serial numbers off of the tab where the micro SD card goes(both Nooks were out of charge so they couldn’t be powered on to get the SN’s), typed them into a computer, hit several more keys and then said “Let me get you 2 new cables.” I waited a couple of seconds and he came back with the cables and handed them to me.

And that was it. Places like B&N get excoriated all the time for what the mess up. I just figured I’d give credit where it’s due when they don’t.

Categories
Misc

Apple Crisp

Fast becoming a family favorite is apple crisp. Of course, it’s hard to go too wrong with apple crisp, but there are definitely better recipes than others. Here’s the one I’ve used the past couple times I’ve made it:

  • About 4-5 pounds of Macoun and Cortland apples. If these aren’t available, then go with something that’s sweet and crisp, but not hard. No Granny Smiths.
  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter
  • 2 cups of white flour
  • 2 cups of Brown sugar, divided into 1 cup portions
  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of Cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

You’ll also need a 9×13 casserole dish and a couple of mixing bowls. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Start by combining 1 cup of the brown sugar, the salt, the nutmeg and the cinnamon. Set aside for a moment and then skin and cube the apples, placing them into a mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar mixture and stir the apples into the sugar until everything is coated, including your hands. Take a moment to lick your hands clean, then pour the apple-sugar mixture into the casserole dish and set aside.

Now for the topping. Mix the flour and oatmeal together. Cube up the sticks of butter and start combining it with the flour, but don’t try to do it completely. Stop when the flour get crumbly- there will still be chunks of butter.

Now add the remaining brown sugar and the granulated sugar. Work the sugars into the mixture until it takes on a coarse, crumbly texture. Most, if not all, of the butter will be absorbed into the mixture.

When the topping is completed, distribute it across the apples. Fill in until the top is completely covered with the topping. Throw it in the oven and bake for an hour. The topping should just be starting to brown at this point. Leave it in the oven for as long as it takes to brown the topping to your liking.

Take it out and wait for a few minutes. No really- it’s still too hot to eat yet. It just came out of a hot oven!

I like to eat mine with a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream. I’d post a picture of the batch I made tonight, but we ate it. Too bad for you, but good for us.

Categories
Family

The Boy Gets Taunted

The boy finally got back to playing soccer this weekend after a 2 week hiatus due to Columbus Day Weekend and a Scout event the week prior. The flow of the game itself was interesting. The opposing team seemed to be slightly better- they had better spacing and seemed to have more guys aware of the ball and able to track it better. They outplayed the boy’s team in the first half.

But then the 2nd half started, and it was like an inverse of the first. The boy’s team spent most of the half attacking and keeping the other team on their heels. They were down for most of the game, but they’re constant pressure yielded some late goals and they were able to eke out a tie that felt more like a win.

The first thing the boy said when he got off the field was “I don’t ever want to play that team again. They were mean.”

So I asked him why they were “mean.”

He said they were saying some nasty things out on the field, including calling him particularly an “idiot.” Seems at some point his feet got tangled with one of their players and their player went down while the boy did not. That happens a lot actually, because the boy is bigger than most kids his age. After that minor altercation, the taunting began.

Not being on the field myself, I can’t judge to what degree it went to. It could be anywhere from a one-off heated comment to a full-on any chance they had to do it. But whatever the case may be, the boy was bothered by it.

I’m not surprised as he takes anything like that, especially from his sister, personally. Too much so in my opinion. Regardless of the fact that I’ve told him those kind of comments from kids he doesn’t know shouldn’t bother him, it bothers him. Some kids will never be bothered by that sort of thing, the boy just isn’t one of them. He just needs to develop a thicker skin.

When it came time for bed, I was curious about what the boy thought about his play today, so I asked him. He was generally pleased with how he’d played, but then he switched gears and asked “How should I handle it when kids call me names? I know I shouldn’t get mad and hurt them…” He was clearly still bothered by the “idiot” comment.

I wanted to try and explain that name-calling is a form of gamesmanship. But then I realized there was no point because he wasn’t ready to understand the mental games involved in sports. So I opted for advice my Dad would have given me: ignore it, play harder and make the taunter eat his own words. I didn’t bother to tell him that, sometimes, the taunter still gets the win. It’s better that he think “good” always wins right now.

I think part of him hoped I would reveal some kind of special incantation that would turn his adversary into a toad, or something. The advice isn’t the sexiest, but if he follows it and practices it, he’ll ultimately develop the ability to block those kind of distractions out. When that happens, he’ll have a big leg up on his competition.

Categories
Computers

fetchmail and Intermediate Certificates

It seems like I go through this sort of thing every couple of months. Some kind of email retrieval issue crops up, typically involving SSL. Luckily, I take the time to jot it down so I can refer back in case it’s a repeat. Today’s problem turned out to be something new, so it now gets its own place here on the blog.

Continue reading “fetchmail and Intermediate Certificates”
Categories
Misc

I Hate Pine Needles

Here’s about a millll-yun reasons:

I intended to get those raked up today, but Mother Nature decided that we needed more rain. Thanks for that.

Categories
Football

Mike Florio- Model of Consistency

Mike Florio, July 6th, 2012:

If the anonymous tipster isn’t willing to step out of the shadows, even when given assurances that the league will react swiftly and aggressively if the whistleblower-turned-witness experiences retaliation, that should be a red flag regarding the overall reliability of the information that has been provided while tucked safely behind the proverbial curtain of a third-world courtroom.

Mike Florio, October 10th, 2012:

As NFL owners prepare to gather in Chicago for their first full meeting since a string of embarrassments smacked against the shield like repeated pecan pies in the face, the gratuitous outing of a whistleblower who never became a witness can be added to the list of things for which the owners could be demanding a full and complete explanation.

It’s tempting to call Florio a hypocrite based on these articles. In one case, he’s arguing for the release of the whistleblower’s name because the accused should get a chance to call their accuser names, or something. In the second, he’s calling the league a bunch of dummy-heads for releasing the name of another whistleblower whom didn’t provide any evidence in the bounty case. But Florio’s lawyerly background shines through, as a careful reading reveals he distinguishes the two cases based on the relevance of the whistleblower to the NFL’s case.

But mainly, these show that Florio is consistent at finding ways to mock the NFL. You know, the very same NFL that was a huge success long before Florio came around, and guided by the very people Florio likes to mock. The NFL that put Mike Florio on the map, or the web?

I know, it’s churlish of me to point this out because, certainly, the NFL is not beyond criticism and just because Florio is another parasite glommed on to the NFL doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the occasional point. But having read him enough, his constant nitpicking makes me think nothing the NFL can do will ever be good enough.

The fact of the matter is this is football, not National Security, and it’s a bunch of rich guys with a hobby, albeit a very lucrative one. None the less, they’re going to make they’re fair share of screwups and even be assholes every now and again. The glee with which Florio trumpets all these mistakes is out of proportion with the offenses.

But that’s the way pissants like Florio operate.

Categories
Misc

New Math

I had a Cub Scout Den meeting tonight and had to pick up one of the Scout before the meeting. There wasn’t any school today so I had no access to the school to hold the meeting, so I had it here at my place. This particular Scout goes to a local private school, so he had a little homework and, amazingly, he wanted to get it done since there were only 4 problems and he figured he could get them done before the meeting started.

We got back to the house and he settled in to work on his problems. The boy and I got ready for the meeting and when I came back down, his friend asked me if I could help him with his homework. So here’s the first of 4 problems he’s working on:

Which of the following helps you solve 35 + 16?

  1. Think of 16 as 10 + 6
  2. Think of 16 as 8 + 8
  3. Think of 35 as 40 – 5 Explain your answer:

35 + 16 = ?

I had to look at this a bit to figure out what the heck was going on, it was understandable that the boy’s friend was having trouble with. After looking at it a bit, then squinting at it and looking at it from some other angles, I figured this is how they make math have “no wrong answers.”

To the Scout’s credit, he new the answer. To the math part that is. So, trying to help him answer the homework question, I asked him how he figured it out. He said “I just added to two number together…” The sheepishness in his voice was a nice touch.

The fact is, this type of thinking needlessly complicates math. It was clear that the Scout was having trouble with the concept of substitution. But there was no need to use substitution to solve this problem. For whatever reason, “new math” does a lot of this- complicating simple problems.

My old school mentality will come screaming through here, but the best way to learn addition, is to do addition. That means know all the single digit problems, then teaching carrying. Learn single digit subtraction, then teach borrowing. Give them practice word problems. Boom. Done.

The boy has been coming home with dots and “fast tens” and “fast doubles” and “doubles +1” all these terms that allegedly help the kids learn how to add. But what does it teach? The idea behind “doubles +1” is for a problem like “8+7”, the student is supposed to think, “Well, 7+7 is 14, plus 1 is 15.” Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous?

Happily, I can say “No.”

We ran out of time for finishing his homework. After the meeting ended, when his father showed up, I explained what we were doing. The father, who teaches accounting, rolled his eyes and said something to the effect “Yeah, that’s the ‘New Math’…” At which point, one of the Mom’s nearby, who teaches science, overheard and said “Oh my God, it’s ridiculous. Their coming home with dots and games and spinning things… why can’t they just learn the math?” At which point, another father, who is a pilot, jumped into the conversation rolling his eyes about these new teaching methods.

After all, it’s not like any of us were able to figure out math…

Categories
Family

Another Year of Hockey

When last we left our intrepid hockey player, he was sick of hockey. I remember quite clearly his final words as we left the rink at the end of last season: “I won’t ever play hockey again.”

I’ll admit that, at the time, I was of a mixed opinion on the matter. On the one hand- YES!!! Weekends free next year! No more tears over equipment and early mornings! On the other hand, well, I hated to see him dislike it so much. Hockey really is a good sport, I’d hoped he’d at least have a better opinion of it than that.

Then, about 2 months ago, the subject of hockey came up at the dinner table. The boy stated that he thought he’d like to play again. It was all I could do not to choke on my food. The Wife’s reaction wasn’t quite as strong as my own, but his statement caught her by surprise as well.

Ever since, we been waging a covert campaign to figure out what he really wants to do. The Wife and I both have strong senses of how thing will go if he chooses to play: after a couple weeks the complaining will start, halfway through he’ll be phoning in the practices with half-assed effort, buy the end he’ll be mad because his team can’t do anything and he’ll hate hockey. Again. That said, we are both reluctant to just out-and-out deny him the chance to play because we could be wrong.

We’ve both spoken with him, trying to couch the conversation in terms of his having thought about his martial arts classes and does he really want to give up his weekends? But he’s consistently come back with the conviction that he wants to play. So it looks like our weekends will be occupied this Winter.

As for the lass, she’s been in for quite awhile now. She’s a different beast altogether from her brother when it comes to sports. The boy wants to be an All Star without putting in any work. The lass just wants to have fun.

So the countdown has begun. 3 weeks to go.

Categories
Misc

Fall II

Some more pictures from the weekend. The Wife went out early this morning to shoot in better lighting conditions. Here’s what she got.

From the deck:

This pumpkin is bigger than a basketball. Ironic because the Wife and the kids both thought the plant dead several times after the planted it.

The treeline in the back:

And my favorite of the lot:

Categories
Misc

Fall

Frosted Trees:

Birds Going South:

Leaves:

Categories
Misc

Science Proves What Parents Have Always Known

Willpower is simply the ability to choose to do something and stand by that choice. Scientists have, apparently, demonstrated it’s a finite resource. Apparently, the culprit is glucose, or lack thereof. Turns out it takes energy to exercise willpower:

Further studies have suggested that willpower is fueled by glucose- which helps explain why our determination crumbles when we try to lose weight. When we don’t eat, our glucose drops, and our willpower along with it. “We call it the dieter’s catch-22: In order to not eat, you need willpower. But in order to have willpower you need to eat,” says John Tierney…

Every parent since the beginning of time has run up against this phenomena:

Child: Can I have some candy?
Parent: No.

Several seconds later…
Child: Can I have some candy?
Parent: No.

Several seconds later…
Child: Can I have some candy?
Parent: No.

Several seconds later…
Child: Can I have some candy?
Parent: No.

Several seconds later…
Child: Can I have some candy?
Parent: FINE! HAVE THE WHOLE BAG! ROT YOUR TEETH!

Not to mention all the times where the initial request is just a feint. They ask for the candy, but they’re really after video games or something. It’s like Chinese Water Torture. Except, I’m not Chinese and there’s no water involved.

Of course, this evidence also suggests a solution. Go grab a candy bar before our willpower gives out. Just be sure sure to brush our teeth afterwords…

Categories
Family

A Promise to the Lass

Last year, the lass was so excited about homework that she would come home and complete it as soon as she received it, despite the fact that as a kindergartner, the assignments were due whenever the kids chose to finish them. The Wife and I were very impressed.

Now that’s she’s in 1st grade, her only real homework each week is reading and studying for her spelling tests. After a couple of weeks, she’s decided that studying for her spelling tests is not so much fun. She typically has only 8 to 10 words to work on.

So she has her test coming up tomorrow and I sat going through the words with her. This weeks words are: trip, trap, grass, grab, crab, crib, grand and craft. The final two are bonus words. I guess the emphasis is on learning blended sounds like the “tr” and “cr”.

She didn’t like the way I went through the words because I didn’t do them in the order on the sheet. I told her that if she really knows them then the order won’t matter. She struggled a bit, but managed to get them all correct.

Since she struggled a bit, I decided to go through them again. She rolled her eyes at me after I said one of the words again and said in an exasperated tone “We’re not going to go through these like a million times, are we?”

“I promise we won’t,” I replied. “We’ll just do it as many as it takes for you to know them well.”

She did much better the second time around.