Stillman family musings

Coincidence? Child misses bedtime again!

2009-04-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

Something strange happened this evening. We visited my brother at his house and wanted to show him a very old jeep we've been working on. It has two seats made of metal and plywood. Doors, a windshield, turn signals and brake lights are optional. (turn signals and brake lights are coming soon). We drove the jeep to see him and parked it at his house being careful to park on the correct side of the street pointing in the correct direction.

We had a great time and left about 8:00 so we could get the kid home at a decent hour. As we got into the jeep, I noticed a populated police car on the other side of the street. As I started the jeep, the police officer drove by and rolled down her window and started talking about safety and car seats and such. Police officers serve the public at large and therefore I didn't really want to argue too much with her so we decided that I would take the old jeep home without the wife and kid and come back for them in a more modern vehicle with a car seat. I made it home without incident and drove the newish vehicle back to my brother's house to pick up the rest of the family.

Arriving at my destination, I left the vehicle to idle while I called my brother to let him know I had arrived. About the time I saw the wife and kid come out of the house, I turned off the vehicle and removed the key to help install the child in his seat. When all was situated, I hopped in and it wouldn't start. No clicks, but power to the headlights, dash, etc. It was like the clutch safety switch had gone out. We called a tow truck and the fellow who arrived we knew from a church we used to attend. Had a great time talking with him as we dropped the rig off at the dealership. Hopefully they will figure out what's going on with it.

Lastly, I read a news article about Chrysler going chapter 11 and idling all their plants starting on Monday. However, Obama said he will fix it and honor my warranty so who is to worry eh?

I think God is trying to tell me something, but I'm not sure what it is yet. All I know right now is the kid went to bed 2.5 hours late and someone could be walking to work tomorrow.

Rationality

2009-02-14T05:55:00.000-08:00

I hope the government considered this scenario before they started throwing around unemployment money. Involve the government in simple matters like employment and all the sudden very strange things start happening.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A restaurant worker was accused of trashing the place in an attempt to get fired and collect unemployment compensation. A criminal complaint filed Thursday said a 35-year-old man showed up at a Qdoba restaurant and started throwing brownies and cookies on the floor.
The man then went into the kitchen and threw pots and pans around, then went into a storage area and threw boxes of hot sauce on the floor.
Police said the man told them he was trying to get fired and couldn't collect unemployment if he simply quit.
From http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090213/D96AVT480.html

The Econmoics of Fear

2009-01-20T18:13:00.000-08:00

This is interesting. Pretty much everyone in the U.S. is in hock up to their eyeballs from the time they leave home until they retire. Contrary to what you may have heard, mortgages do count towards indebtedness.

Part of the debtor mentality is a constant, frantically suppressed undercurrent of terror. We have one of the highest debt-to-income ratios in the world, and apparently most of us are two paychecks from the street. Those in power -- governments, employers -- exploit this, to great effect. Frightened people are obedient -- not just physically, but intellectually and emotionally. If your employer tells you to work overtime, and you know that refusing could jeopardize everything you have, then not only do you work the overtime, but you convince yourself that you're doing it voluntarily, out of loyalty to the company; because the alternative is to acknowledge that you are living in terror. Before you know it, you've persuaded yourself that you have a profound emotional attachment to some vast multinational corporation: you've indentured not just your working hours, but your entire thought process. The only people who are capable of either unfettered action or unfettered thought are those who -- either because they're heroically brave, or because they're insane, or because they know themselves to be safe -- are free from fear.

From http://www.schneier.com. The original quote is from The Likeness, a novel set in Ireland, by Tana French.

Common Sense in New Jersey?

2008-08-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

Looks like someone else has figured it out too...and he's in government to boot. New Jersey in fact.

“With this growing level of scientific uncertainty, it makes no sense to enact a new set of economically damaging regulations prompted by the global warming hysteria of recent years.”

This was said by Assemblyman Michael Doherty. Go here for more. He even mentions the incredibly low sunspot numbers I've been talking about and their possible contribution to lower global temperatures.

Over the past year, the sun keeps getting less and less active. The average sunspot number for July 2008 was 0.5. The last time that happened was Feb. of 1954. My guess is that the month of August will be below 1 and for 2008-2010, we'll be looking at global average temperatures that are low enough that even the media will notice the discrepancy between global warming and reality.

We can only hope.

The EPA, fire, and government

2008-08-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."

This quote has been attributed to George Washington and it is very much applicable in this case. If you are interested in hearing about a horrible injustice in Driggs, Idaho, please read this article about a hard working, diligent man named Lynn Moses who went to prison for following the instructions of local government involving flood control. What happened to common sense in government? Oh yeah, government is like fire.

We hear again and again from the government that they want to pass some sort of law restricting our freedoms and while the law could be used to harass innocent people, we are told that it will only be used to go after the bad guys. That may be true for a year or two, but after a while, government forgets and starts using said law to solidify their own power or just to harass innocent civilians because they can. The story above represents an incredible miscarriage of justice. This didn't happen in California or New York City, but right here in Idaho. Please read it and prepare to be amazed.

When you combine that with the fact that over the past 7 years we have been adding about 1 federal crime per week, it is cause for concern. Read more about it here.

Then get on the horn and tell your congressmen to stop passing crime legislation at the federal level unless it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise we all run the risk of committing a federal crime.

Universal Health Care -- Not Good.

2008-08-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

When you think of Universal Health Care, do you think of it as a good thing or a bad thing? It's a good thing in that it offers health care to those who otherwise could not afford it. It's a bad thing in that it taxes those who make money in order to provide extremely structured care to those who request it. By extremely structured care, I mean the "government plan" determines what benefits you can and can not receive and how those benefits are paid for.

My wife needs a certain kind of medication and must take a brand name version and the recommendation is to stick with one or the other. There are two brands that are essentially the same and cost the same if purchased without any kind of insurance. Lucky us, we have some insurance, however, medicare reimburses one type much more than the other. Our insurance company matches medicare, therefore, we are burdened with some of the same non-nonsensical requirements determined by Medicare. We can either pay twice the amount or make a non-recommended switch to the other brand. The pharmacy emphasized with us, but they are not able to get the insurance company to listen to anything approaching reason since it all goes back to what the government decides.

So, even with the system we have, things are screwed up from an economic/health perspective and currently the government has a fairly small role compared to providing "Universal Health Care".

But wait, it gets worse, much worse. The government already wants to control your actions in regards to recycling, burning, fireworks, car seats, and emissions testing to name a few. What happens when the government is paying for your health care? Then we get laws banning things like, eating too much, lack of exercise, driving instead of walking short distances, rationing of fats, etc.

Read this article from Reuters and you can see where it is going. Here is a short excerpt:

"The findings highlight a need for widespread efforts to improve Americans' lifestyles and keep their weight in check, according to the researchers. Simply telling people to eat less and exercise more is not enough, Liang noted.
Broader social changes are needed as well, she said -- such as making communities more pedestrian-friendly so that people can walk regularly, or getting the food industry to offer healthier, calorie-conscious choices."

If people wanted the food industry to offer healthier, calorie-conscious choices, the food industry would offer them. If people wanted to live in pedestrian-friendly communities, they would create them and live there.

Do we really want to encourage the government to be overly concerned about what we eat, where we live, and how much we exercise? If you are pro "Universal Health Care" that is exactly what you are encouraging.

Why is it such a problem to work for money and spend money on the things you want/need? Why must we run 40% of our income through the government so they can grudgingly parcel out 10% back to us if we jump through their series of hoops?

I'm a lot like the kid. He doesn't like hoops either.

Chickens or Ducks

2008-08-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

We recently were given some chickens and are enjoying their ability to eat zucchini and lay eggs. The kid also likes to feed them and watch them eat. He sits on top of the enclosure and tosses handfuls of corn down to them. His previous exposure to winged animals has been a farm game on the fridge that involves a duck, a farm book about ducks, and the occasional duck that flies into our yard and hangs out for a bit.

For the last week, ever since the chickens arrived, the little bugger has been calling the chickens ducks. In the morning, first thing, he wants to go look at the ducks. When we drive into the driveway he wants to go see the ducks. After lunch, he wants to go see the ducks. Upon further questioning, since we don't have any ducks, he points towards the back door or directly at the chicken coop.

Time and again we let him know that they are really chickens and he still calls them ducks. He won't even say the word chicken. Hopefully he learns about chickens soon because its hard not to call them ducks when he is so persistent. Like many in our society, he thinks that if he truly believes that it is a duck then it will be a duck.

In case you were wondering, chickens like apples, zucchini, pork bones, zucchini casserole, cracked corn, and scratching up weeds. So far they have reduced 60 square feet of weeds to dust and are working on their next 60 square feet. What useful creatures!

Economic Justice

2008-08-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

So, what do you think of when you hear the phrase "economic justice". Justice is a good thing, therefore economic justice is probably also a good thing?

Suffice to say, it is not. Economic justice is socialism. Time and time again we have seen from history that taxing the rich to provide for the poor encourages both groups to work less rather than more.

Why is this important? We have an opportunity in November to elect a socialist or a moderate. The socialist makes statements like,

"I've been working my entire adult life to help build an America where economic justice is being served,"

A wonderful article about this can be found at ibdeditorials.com. Please read it and learn a bit more about the desires of the most liberal senator in the Senate who desires to become president.

As a side note, the moderate isn't much to get excited about either, but at least he has enough sense not to accidentally do something catastrophic to our great nation.

Odd Sunspot behavior

2008-07-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

It's fairly well understood that solar cycles have some impact upon global temperatures, although how much is a matter of some contention. The little Ice Age indicates it is possible there can be considerable impact as this period coincided with the Maunder Minimum, a period of extremely low sunspot activity. Currently, we see sunspot activity similar to that seen during the Maunder Minimum, but while the Maunder Minimum lasted from 1645 to 1710, so far we have only seen corresponding low activity from 2007 to the present.

Interestingly enough, sunspots form when the sun is more active. The more sunspots there are, the more active the sun is. Typically the sun cycles from many sunspots to just a few and back to many every 11 years or so.

Since my tax dollars pay for some fairly sophisticated gear that observes the sun, I like to track the numbers of sunspots every few days. If you are interested, you can view historical information along with current info and predictions from NOAA here, updated weekly around Wednesday. For a real time view, you can visit spaceweather.com and see an image of the sun with the sunspots listed. There have been zero most of the days I've checked for the past several months.

While examining the NOAA data, I noticed something interesting. There is a note at the bottom of page 6 from PRF 1717 from July 29th 2008 that contains this line. RI represents a standard method for measuring the number of sunspots.

"The lowest smoothed sunspot index number for Cycle 22, RI = 8.0, occurred in May 1996. The highest smoothed sunspot number for Cycle 23, RI= 120.8, occurred April 2000."

We are currently at the end of Cycle 23, waiting for Cycle 24 to begin and it is taking its time.
This note tells us a couple things. The first is that the lowest sunspot value detected at the transition from cycle 22 to 23 was 8.0, averaged over a month in May of 1996. Adding our 11 year cycle to this we should have cycle 24 beginning around May of 2007. However, since May of 2007, we have had 9 months with average monthly sunspot values below 8. Not only that, but the last 3 months have been 2.9, 2.9, and 3.1 respectively. So we're currently at less than half the minimum from the previous cycle with little change in sight.

As I'm sure you have noticed, this year has been unusually cooler than in years past. I've heard reports of a hard winter in China, we had much more snow than normal in South Idaho, a friend of mine returned from fishing in Alaska reporting colder than normal temperatures and haying season is about 2 weeks behind previous years. It seems possible it is due to the fact that the sun is counteracting a period of increased activity over the past several cycles (1950's -2000) with reduced activity now. How long it will last is anyone's guess, but if we continue with these very low sunspot numbers we'll be heading for much cooler temperatures which will make us wish Global Warming was really happening and that it was caused by humans. If we could just keep the Greenies from destroying the world's economy in the meantime, we could prepare for the coming time of cooling by storing wheat and other kinds of food on a global scale, but I don't see that happening.

We're going to look back on this and wonder how we could have been so stupid as to listen to the liberal media. With their encouragement we are running cars on food and trying to solve a nonexistent problem some think is caused by CO2. I can only pray that our nation will turn back to God and learn how to distinguish truth from fiction.

God's creation is absolutely amazing and no matter how advanced we become, we will always be able to learn more about how it works. We should not make assumptions based upon a faulty understanding of creation. As a nation, let's trade our belief in the religion of Global Warming and worship of the environment for belief in Jesus. We would be much better off in both the short and long run.

Unhappiness in America

2008-07-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

This article from the the U.K., written by a self described "very bad Roman Catholic", explains the difference between the "pursuit of happiness" and the "right to be happy" and why this makes a difference. Many of our current problems in this area came from the 60's and folks who thought Christian living restrained people from true happiness and acted to destroy the importance of the Christian life in what they thought was the pursuit of happiness. Now, that people realize all the problems this has caused, they have forgotten about how Christian living contributed to the "good life" in the first place.

"The paradox is that if you think of life as a series of duties (as she always has) - and of happiness as an undeserved blessing, rather than a right - you are likely to be much happier than if you think happiness is yours by right.
That's a sense that most of my generation have lost, if we ever had it.
All the emphasis, since the liberal reforms of the 1960s, has been on replacing Christian duties with human rights.
In the process, I believe, we have diminished the stock of human happiness rather than increasing it."

from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1038461/Last-rites-dear-old-mum-bedside-farce-rights-culture-robs-happiness.html

Teaching the child that happiness comes from the pursuit and is not handed to you without effort is why we're planning to home school the kid. It's also a contributing factor towards having a garden and living where we do. It provides the child a chance to work with his hands.

He's less than two years old, and he can vacuum the stairs, pull weeds, identify Canadian thistles, pick grapes, and fetch tools. Labor, using the hands and mind, is a useful tool in the pursuit of happiness.

That is the way God made us and there is not much use in fighting it, contrary to what socialists would have you believe.

It's a first

2008-05-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

Today, the kid, for the first time ever, peed into his toilet. He has a bit of extra incentive because he gets to empty it into the real toilet and then flush. It's all good.

Other, slightly less exciting things that have happened.

Earlier this morning we were awoken at 7:30 by a screaming child. This wasn't a normal screaming child scream, but more of a, I'm trapped and going to die, kind of scream. We entered his room expecting to fend off a hoard of wild child eating wolves (redundancy alert) and found him with his leg jammed through the slats of the crib past the knee. It was jammed tight and pretty much unmovable. I tried tugging, but it was pretty clear it wasn't going to be removed with the knee still attached that way. Then we sat back and tried to figure out how it had gotten into that position. We ended up pushing the leg through to just before the kneecap and then twisting the child onto his side and then extracting the leg. It's bruised in a nice little ring, but doesn't appear to be broken or otherwise damaged as he's moving about and if he notices the damaged leg, he doesn't seem to mind.

As another slightly dated update, the night before last, we watched an episode of The Dukes of Hazard with the kid. He really likes the music, but doesn't quite get the story line yet. Usually he doesn't last through an entire episode of anything, but with the Dukes, he did. Erin would be so proud.

Lastly, he has learned that saying "ma-ma" repeatably earns him the attention of ma-ma. He really likes that. We're still waiting for Uncle Dave to teach him the word spatula!

Great understanding?

2008-04-25T15:23:00.001-07:00

The kid had been pulling bark off the cedar tree yesterday while the wife was pulling weeds in her herb garden. At some point she turned to check on him and scratched her eye on the piece of bark he was showing her. Naturally she continued pulling weeds, but later that evening thought it was hurting a bit more than it should.

This morning she called the eye doctor and got an appointment to see him. I went along to keep track of the kid, who still has a runny nose. We had great fun playing with the blocks and other toys while the wife had her eye checked out.

After the wife got done, the kid and I put the toys away and I noticed his nose was running so I said, "You need your nose wiped!" and then proceeded to check my pocket for the nose rag that the wife had given me earlier. Before I could extract it, the receptionist appeared out of nowhere with a box of Kleenex and I pulled out a couple to wipe the kid's nose.

Then I handed him the kleenex and asked him to throw it in the garbage. Like a gung-ho kid, he started walking before he even looked for the garbage can and there wasn't one in sight. I reached out for his arm and said, "It's not over there, its in the bathroom." Then I pointed down the hall and said, "It's the first door on your left." I should point out that he hadn't been down that hallway yet. He then took off, took the first left, threw the Kleenex in the garbage and then came back. Better watch what trade secrets you spill around this kid.

Memory

2008-04-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

I was momentarily stunned last night when reading a book to the kid. It was a book about colors and had examples of 9 items on each page that were of a particular color. On the 2nd or 3rd page, I decided to ask him to point to the socks before I read any of the page. He pointed to the socks. Then I asked him to point to the tractor and he pointed to the tractor. He pointed correctly to three different objects on different pages when asked. At first I thought it might be random chance, but as he kept picking correctly, I realized he either recognized the picture, or knew where on the page that item was. Later I found out that the wife reads him that book and goes through the pictures with him. She hadn't ever had him point to anything though.

A related incident also occurred last night. We normally have been heading into town to go to Costco after picking up the kid from his sitter. This happens once a week and for the past month or so after the Costco trip we would stop and get a polish sausage and a slice of cheese pizza. The kid loves to eat cheese pizza while sitting in the shopping cart.

Well, last night we went to Costco, but decided to purchase a chicken instead of the typical polish and cheese pizza. We paid for our items and made it past the food court and halfway to the outside door when the child started fussing a bit. The wife and I couldn't figure out what was wrong, but he kept pointing behind us towards the food court. Then we realized that he thought we were going to eat there and was disappointed to not get his cheese pizza. That means he can remember specific events from a week ago, possibly more. Once we told him we were going to eat at home he seemed content. It was kind of like he thought we were forgetting something like when I forget my hat and he alerts me to the fact. He has been quite helpful in that regard.

What a smart kid!

Camping on Easter

2008-03-25T17:50:00.001-07:00

Oh boy, its been a bit since I posted anything. We did make it back from Africa in case anyone was wondering.

Well, we decided to get an early start on the camping season this year and went to Succor creek over this past weekend. We had a good time and the child learned how to climb on rocks and travel over ground that wasn't level. He also learned to sleep in sub-freezing temperatures and did fairly well at that. During a hike in Leslie Gulch, he walked about 3/4 of a mile down a fairly nice sandy path and was carried a little bit. For the trip out, we learned to bribe him with raisins. The wife would go ahead 50 feet or so and the child would walk/run towards her and she would keep walking slowly and eventually the child would catch up with her and politely request a raisin. It was a good time.

Yesterday, I got home from work, and the wife said the child had done something amazing. This is pretty standard and usually refers to a new way to cause mischief. In this case though it meant that he could climb into his highchair without any help. I found this truly amazing and had to watch him do it once before I really believed it was possible. So, now, he can seat himself, which is a helpful thing.

Arrival

2007-12-08T00:15:00.000-08:00

We have arrived

We have arrived. The Potentate slept pretty well considering the time zone. He woke up at 2:30 and at 5:00, but overall is handling things quite well. Joan and Roy (the folks we are staying with) have two kids and they're enjoying Jonathan. He is enjoying playing with them too. Sunday (tomorrow) we leave on a shuttle van like thing around 3:30 in the afternoon.

We're 9 hours ahead of you, just for the record. That mean that while I'm writing this E-mail at 10:00am, it is actually 1:00 in the morning. It's strange that it doesn't feel like 1:00 in the morning. It feels like 10:00. That's probably a good thing.

We may go to a botanical garden later today. I forgot my razor so I had to use Gayla's leg shaving one. Not really used to that so much so I think we're going to go buy one later. It took 10 minutes and I was continually worried about the potential danger of a razor about my neck and face. Just for the record though it is possible.

Jonathan did great on the plane for take offs and landings. He didn't really like sleeping, but he slept for around 5 hours in 2 hour chunks. Roy met us at the airport last night and brought us to his house.

Well, that's probably all for now. .

A tough little kid

2007-11-29T15:22:00.000-08:00

I think that little Jonathan is built to handle pain. He went in for his 15 month shots today and he received 4 of them, two in each leg. He also has 3 teeth coming in and has his first ear infection.

For all that, he really doesn't act that much different. He's a little more clingy and just a touch cranky, but not so much that we really noticed. We were pretty surprised when the doctor said he had an ear infection. There may be an otoscope in our futures.

So now we get to feed him 3 ml of antiboitics each day. We're also trying to figure out how to get him to swallow the little anti-malaria tablets we bought for him. What is needed is a miniature version of what we used to get the calves/cows to swallow scours tablets. If the pill or anything else he decides isn't tasty gets hung up on his tongue, he's really good at getting it out of his mouth hasta pronto. He can eat a bite of caserole and spit out just the kernels of corn or the ham pieces while eating the rest.

I'm sure he'll be feeling better soon. We're pretty excited about him growing extra functionality so he can eat meat.

Walking to the mailbox

2007-10-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

Gayla suggested that Jonathan and I go get the mail today. Jonathan is getting somewhat heavy so I decided that it would be better if he walked. He walked the entire way and had many adventures along the way.

Right out the back door he discovered a stick. He's a big fan of sticks so he picked it up. Then we walked a few more feet and he discovered a leaf that he had to pick up. Then after a couple more steps, he found a bigger and longer stick so he picked that up and dropped the leaf. A little while later he dropped the little stick and started swinging the bigger stick at leaves. He broke it in two, but a piece of bark kept the stick together. Then he swung the end stick around in circles and it broke off completely. So he had to pick it up. At this point we were about 1/4 of the way to the mailbox.

Once we made it to the mailbox, Jonathan decided he wanted to play on the sidewalk next to the street. I wasn't too excited about the idea since I was hoping to read the new Model T magazine that had come in the mail so I managed to persuade him to walk back to the start of the driveway. Then he discovered a black walnut with its husk still on and picked it up. Then he found another one and picked that one up too. At this point he was on top of the old irrigation canal and having a bit of trouble walking in high grass so he gave me one of the walnuts for safe keeping. He walked a bit further to an old apple tree and picked up a dessicated dried up nasty old little apple. I was hoping he wouldn't try to eat it and he didn't. I kept trying to get him to walk towards the house, but he wanted to walk towards the old fruit trees and high grass.

Eventually he got to the grape vines beside the driveway. He saw a bunch of grapes and made his "Please get me some of that" noises so I gave him a bunch of grapes after picking off the nasty ones. He promptly sat down and started eating them. This gave me a chance to read the Model T magazine I'd picked up earlier. Once he was done with his grapes, I thought he'd want to come in, but no. He wanted another bunch of grapes. After the 2nd bunch, I had pretty much finished the magazine and told him I was heading in because it was cold and while he was welcome to come with me, he could hang out outside if he wanted to. Our little walk to the mailbox had consumed 1 hour at this point.

Naturally, he headed straight for the barn. Sensible kid if I do say so myself.
I procured a jacket from the house and went back out to find him and brought a stick of cheese because I figured he might be hungry even after the grapes. He was playing with fun metal
pieces by the barn and I gave him some cheese and he ate it right up.

While he played, I checked out the carpets that were drying from the garden and picked up around the firewood stack for about 30 minutes. Then Gayla hollered "Dinner's Ready" from the back door and again I asked Jonathan if he wanted to go in and warm up and get something to eat. His response was to walk away from me, towards the barn, and play with more sticks and metal pieces. I picked him up and we went inside to eat.

All in all, an entertaining time with the kid. Funny thing is after all that, he wasn't very hungry and didn't eat all his dinner.

Here's a hat for you Dad

2007-10-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

Now this is getting kind of fun. A few weeks ago we were eating cookies after church and I stashed my coat and hat in a corner. About 20 minutes later, Jonathan was at my feet holding up my hat. I put it on my head and then several minutes later he was at my feet again standing up and holding my coat. I think he was ready to go:)

Now at home, he will bring me my sandals from the back door where I take them off and he will put them on top of my feet. Then I'll put them on and he'll bring me another pair. It's pretty fun, but occasionally it can be difficult to find a shoe that was delivered somewhere and forgotten.

The other day I was carrying him upstairs early in the morning and he saw my hat and made quite a commotion until I held him where he could grab it. First thing he did was put it on my head.

Does anyone else know about kids in the 12-18 month age bracket that do this sort of thing? Have you figured out what their motivation is? I think its a combination of wanting to help, and wanting items to be in their proper place, but I'd love to hear about any other ideas.

Thanks,

If it ain't broke, fix it until it is!

2007-10-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

I hadn't really considered how dangerous global warming could be.

First off there is this excellent article that clearly explains the facts about what has been observed about global warming and its causes. It contains quotes from many actual scientists refuting global warming statements typically regarded as fact by the media. It's long, but I'd encourage you to read it.

Now, the "other side" believes that we are all doomed if we don't significantly reduce our CO2 production and therefore minor trivial things like scientific fact don't really matter. What's important is to convince folks that we are dooming ourselves using whatever methods will work to persuade large numbers of people. This is working to some extent, at least until the Earth starts cooling. I'd like to see what the folks who come up with carbon credits, taxes, and other nonsense say then.

For the most part I've accepted this kind of "religious" battle as a fairly standard part of the world in which we live. Environmentalists are happy to bestow economic hardship on most anyone and ignore cherished traditions to accomplish their goals, but I've never heard of one actually wanting to mess with the stratosphere. Generally, environmental wackos at least have the sense to realize that the ecosystems of the world are complicated and tinkering with them for no good reason is a poor idea. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that a "scientist" with the Carnegie Institution’s department of global ecology would suggest the following and that this would actually be printed. Here are a few items from his NYTimes op-ed article.
....
What can be done? One idea is to counteract warming by tossing small particles into the stratosphere (above where jets fly). This strategy may sound far-fetched, but it has the potential to cool the earth within months.
....
Which is the more environmentally sensitive thing to do: let the Greenland ice sheet collapse and polar bears become extinct, or throw a little sulfate in the stratosphere? The second option is at least worth looking into.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/opinion/24caldiera.html?em&ex=1193371200&en=d7432eefaebd3162&ei=5087%0A

I encourage you to share this information with others. If enough people think something that's working fine is a problem, eventually they will make it a problem.

Jonathan walks

2007-10-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Well, its pretty much official. Jonathan walks. This isn't a kind of tottering walk from one parent's outstretched hands to the other or holding onto the cable spool in the living room and leaning over and grabbing the couch, but heading from the living room to the kitchen using "the walk" as the primary form of locomotion.

Along with walking comes the ability to see things on shelves that were previously out of sight. This is a particular problem in the barn because Jonathan really likes metal objects, such as irreplaceable CJ-2A jeep bearings or old rusty bolts. Combine this is an innate desire to put things into other things and you have an automated cleanup machine that takes things off shelves and puts them into the garbage can. The key to this is to empty your garbage cans often and to inspect them after the small one has been playing near them.

So far he hasn't tried to walk down stairs or run, but I suspect that will be coming soon...

Pick your candidate

2007-10-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

An interesting test is available here that asks a series of questions and matches up the candidates who agree with the most issues.

Somewhat frighteningly John McCain came in the highest with 49 while Fred Thompson was a close 2nd at 47. Mike Huckabee was at 35, but he seems like someone with some pretty good ideas.

Hilary, Obama, and that other guy, Edwards were all 7. I guess they like the death penalty too.

Have fun!

Timber

2007-09-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

Boy, so many stories, so little time the last few weeks to write about them.

Last Sunday, Jonathan learned how to play timber at Rob and Karen's house. He would stand on the top of the back of the couch and then fall and crash onto the couch seat. That was such fun. Then he would jump up and grab my thumbs and I'd lift him back up onto the back of the couch and he'd do it again. Then he learned that he could fling himself down and it was more fun.

Today he enjoyed the same game on the bed and when sitting in my lap. If you stand him up and yell Timber and then give him a little push, he happily falls over, bounces up and wants to try it again. Hope he doesn't decide to play timber by himself, but seeing as he isn't saying words very clearly at the moment, he won't be able to give himself the verbal trigger so that's good for now.

Drinking Problem

2007-09-25T20:50:00.001-07:00

We had a bit of a rain storm the other night that dropped at least 1/2". The next day I was breaking up old pallets in an attempt to clean up the place a bit and Gayla was taking a nap. Jonathan was awake having napped earlier so I took him out with me.

A month or two before, the infamous NNU dump had a metal cart with a deck about 2 feet off the ground surrounded by a 8" railing and wheels to boot. I took it home and it works well for moving rear-ends around and also as a little play area for Jonathan. I placed him in it with a few metal parts to play with while I broke up the pallets.

After about 30 minutes or so he got a little fussy just as I was breaking up the 2nd pallet so I gave him some rocks and some more metal parts. There were a few 55 gallon barrels nearby so I showed him that he could whack them with the metal parts to make a nice noise. He really enjoyed it and that kept him quiet through the 3rd pallet. Towards the end of the 3rd pallet I heard a sucking, slurping noise and I looked over and Jonathan had grabbed the top lip of one of the barrels and by stretching as far as he could was able to drink the rain-water that had collected in the top. This caused me a bit of concern so I picked him up and said, "You know if you're thirsty, perhaps you could ask for a drink of water." I took him inside and provided him with a nice plastic glass of water and the little turkey wouldn't drink any of it. Now that he's had barrel water, he's not so interested in the boring stuff.

First Steps

2007-09-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

The small child has taken a few steps. His favorite is the side-step while facing furniture so he can keep from falling if needed. It's pretty interesting to see him trying something new.

He's also been eating the occasional apple. He eats a piece and chews a bit and then spits out the skin, then takes another bite and so on. After a bit he's sitting on the floor surrounded by apple skin bits.

Excellent evening

2007-08-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

My brother invited us, my wife's parents, and her sister and husband over to his place for supper and games. Supper was great with my brother doing a fair bit of improvising which resulted in a wonderful ravioli and some pizzas made, baked, and frozen in Italy then shipped to the States. After supper, we played Ticket to Ride and some Wii Sports.

Finished up the evening with the small one on my knee while I played set and Dave did piano. The Potentate really enjoyed it. He kept trying to touch the hi-hat and the snare, then he grabbed my hand and held it while I was playing. I guess a small child would like the noise and action associated with playing a drum set. Now he's crawling all about not really wanting to go to bed. Here is his attempt to add to this writing:
uh743ey44444444y3t 6cf3333333332rtf4 4444444444444vfc4v22222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222z22\
22zCRFYHfdjgt5rASQ`1
As you can see we're still working on his typing. He finished up by laughing and drooling on my keyboard. Now he just sneezed on my typing fingers. My wife has picked him up and he's off to bed. Boy he has been in a good mood all evening.

Thanks Dave!!

Mark Twain and homeschooling

2007-08-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting article by Mrs. du Toit recently. The first part that caught my eye was the title "Finding Mark Twain". I've always enjoyed the books I have read by this author. Upon completing this article, I discovered an interesting blend of Mark Twain, freedom, and homeschooling.

In my experience working with people there are two approaches you can take to get someone else to complete a task. The first is to essentially require/force the person to do it. This involves having some sort of leverage/authority over the person (boss/employee, parent/child, etc). Our government seems to prefer this method forgetting about the whole "of the people by the people" thing. The second approach is for the person to decide that the task is something they want to do. Which method is better? To answer that, when you are presented with a task, would you rather do it because you have to or because you want to?

A famous example of this second approach in action is found in the book Tom Sayer where Tom found a way to persuade his friend to paint the fence by being creative with his understanding and presentation of the job. His friend then decided that he wanted to paint the fence and paid Tom an apple for the privilege.

This concept directly relates to teaching a child via home schooling or via the public school system. In public school, does the child choose what to learn or does the system dictate what he should learn? Does the school provide free time for the student to learn about the things that interest him? Usually not because free time correlates to kids getting into trouble. Could this be because they are not interested in being forced to learn?

A home schooling situation can be much more student driven. The article "Finding Mark Twain" mentions how Mrs. du Toit had to "unschool" her children before they became interested in learning. This unschooling consisted of her giving her children opportunities to learn on their own for about 6 months. This process started with her children asking her questions about lots of different things and Mrs. du Toit helped them find answers to their questions.

I hadn't been able to put my finger on it until I read "Finding Mark Twain", but one reason I like the concept of homeschooling and plan to educate my son in this manner is because I want him to enjoy learning. I want him to learn about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because he wants to learn about the founding of this great nation. I want him to learn about the Bible because he wants to learn more about being a Christian. If you have a moment, please read Mrs. du Toit's article located here. I think you'll like it.

Learning from history

2007-07-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Well, like a previous post, this isn't exactly a Stillman Family Adventure, but it is right on the money and if heeded would make the world a safer place for the wee one.

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2007-06-03-1.html

In a previous conversation several weeks ago, my father mentioned how the Iraq war is unusual because the U.S. population has not been called to sacrifice. How can we win a war without a populous who is willing to sacrifice a little? That is mentioned in this article as well.

I'm curious to know what you think about it.

3 bumps and you're crying

2007-07-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned previously Jonathan likes to squirm, wiggle, and move. Because its fairly hot in Nampa in the summer we sleep in the basement on a fairly basic bed without a headboard. I was taking a nap on the bed and when I woke up Gayla placed the child on my right. Jonathan likes to crawl over me so he crawled over me to the left and then back over to the right.

To make things more interesting for him I arched my back so he would have a bit more of a challenge when he climbed over me. He almost made it over when he slipped and his head hit my head at about the same time his head hit the wall that the head of the bed is against with a nice thump. Then half a second later a fairly light picture on the wall above us fell off and hit him on the head. Each bump by itself wouldn't have been too bad, but all together they rung his bell a little.

While that was a bit too much adventure for him all at once, he handled himself fairly well. Afterwards it seemed rather amusing.

Human Caused Global Warming?

2007-07-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

Listening to the media, one could conclude that humans are causing global warming/climate change.

Here is an article that tells a little more about the whole story.

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2007-03-04-1.html

Science isn't really dead, its just being manipulated by certain individuals who like to feel the power.

The Dessert Interupt

2007-07-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

Since we can go to the movies for a buck apiece, Gayla and I decided to see something like Remember the Robinsons on Tuesday night. As the small child, aka Jonathan, is now squirmy and wiggly, he is not a good movie watching companion. After a multitude of phone calls we found a friend that was able to watch him (Thanks Joan!).

The movie starts at 7:15 and because it's dollar night we have to get there at least 20 minutes early to procure arm rests for our chosen seats, not to mention drop off the child, contend with construction traffic, etc we needed to leave rather significantly sooner than normal. We had finished the main supper meal in pretty good time and Gayla was running about getting things ready to leave with Jonathan.

Notice that main supper meal does not include dessert so I fixed Dave, Gayla, and myself a nice chocolate covered cookie with 5 chocolate chips on it. Dave and I ate ours pretty quickly, but Gayla was too busy. Whenever I saw her zip through the living room on her way to somewhere to do something I asked her if she was going to eat her dessert. After several times I asked her if I should help her out by eating one of her chocolate chips since it had fallen off the cookie and was trying to escape. She would pause a bit, say "NO!" and then continue on her way. After a few times she started to get irritated. Why that would happen I have no idea. But then Dave helped me figure it out.

He said, "You keep throwing the dessert interrupt so she has to push her registers onto the stack, process your request, and then reload her registers. That's slowing her down when she knows you want to get out the door." Hmm...I thought, "That's an excellent explanation!!"

She did eventually get her dessert and we made it to the movie early enough to procure arm rests. We got pretty good ones, the movie was good too.

The Wiggly One

2007-07-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Potentate has learned how to wiggle. Not just wiggle, but squirm around and all over. This has led to a few changes in the diaper changing department. Just the other day he escaped from the diaper changing pad by flipping over and crawling onto the computer desk in about 5 seconds. The little safety strap really didn't do much.

Wrapping him to go to bed doesn't really work either. He slept last night with his legs under him kind of on his stomach, but at least he didn't wake up. In the morning when we get up he's usually standing in his crib talking to himself while waiting for someone to come and rescue him.

It's pretty entertaining to watch a highly mobile child explore the house. He's still struggling with going down stairs, off couches and bed, etc. backwards with his feet first, but overall he handles bumps pretty well if he isn't tired.

He's getting a tooth

2007-03-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

and he wasn't very happy about it. The first day it emerged he cried a lot and didn't sleep well. He seems to be more used to it now so he is getting back to normal sleep patterns. Overall, he is a bit more cranky during the day.

I think he'll like teeth as it will help him chew meat.

Jonathan and pop cans

2007-03-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

Did you know that pop cans are slightly dangerous for small children? Jonathan was having great fun learning to grab an object with two hands in order to suck on it. Then he got a finger in the opening of the can and didn't seem to like it and shook the can off onto the floor.

I checked a little later and he had a little cut on his finger. Fortunately his platelets are functioning normally and Dave had a bandaid we could use. Jonathan spent quite a lot of time examining his new bandaid. It was somewhat large, but seemed to do the job. He didn't even cry. What a guy!

Jonathan sleeps through the entire night

2007-03-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

This may not seem that interesting to some, but last night, March 5th, Jonathan went to bed at 10:00 and he didn't wake up until 8:00. Normally I check with Gayla in the morning to hear about how Jonathan did the previous night. He has always woken up around 3:00 or 4:00am. So this morning I was worried something bad might have happened to him, but Gayla went to check on him and he was sleeping peacefully. This could bode well for the future....

Jonathan learns about soup

2006-12-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

Normally Jonathan has been content to be bounced in his bouncy seat on the floor while we eat. Recently, however, he has decided that this is boring and he would rather sit on a lap to see what is going on. He's rather a binary kind of child. 0 (quiet) is happy, 1(loud) is change something.

So, for the first time I held him on my lap during supper and Gayla served corn bread and Mexican bean soup. I like to eat the corn bread first so its warm and melts the butter properly. Jonathan sat there looking rather interested and even grabbed the side of the plate recently vacated of corn bread. I probably should have done a little better at recognizing a potential disaster in the making, but who in their right mind would stick parts of their body into someone else's soup.

So, I've got this bowl of soup sitting out of reach with a nice blob of sour cream on top. The moment I replace the plate with the bowl, the silly kid sticks his entire hand through the blob of sour cream and into my soup. I don't believe he had ever encountered a non-transparent liquid substance before. Maybe he though his hand had disappeared, or maybe he didn't like the hot, but his eyes got really big, we counted down 3, 2, 1 and he let out a truely significant amount of noise. It took several minutes for Gayla to get him calmed down. I hope he learned something, but somehow, I suspect I'll be changing my eating habits as his long-term memory isn't that great yet.

It's fairly gross, but I ended up putting his hand in my mouth to get the hot soup off of it quickly. He drools on that hand. Ick. He didn't get burned and he experienced something new so all ended well.