February 2008 - Posts
I've started reading a book titled Parenting the Strong-Willed Child, The Clinically Proven Five-Week Program for Parents of Two to Six Year Olds. My dad gave it to me some years back and I haven't actually read it...Yet. My youngest is only going to be 6 for another month, but I'm hoping I can get some good practical advice on how to break his will-of-steel without breaking his spirit, and not do it by having to yell or constantly punish him.
It's amazing how personality and temperament completely throws what worked with one child out the window.
I haven't had time to give an update on the STOMP show, which I will do tonight.
Today I have an eye doctor appointment and we'll see if I need a new prescription or not. I'm thinking about getting contacts. On on hand I find contact lenses creepy because I don't like the idea of putting my fingers, or the contact into my eyes, but glasses are becoming a hassle at times, too. And I hate when I walk out the door without them by accident.
Anyway, I feel like my vision has worsened since I first got glasses, but I guess we'll see if that the case in a few hours!
my name would be Carol William. What would your's be? Take your mother and father's middle names and put them together. If I were a man it would be William Carol. You get the idea.
Your NASCAR name is your grandfather's first names combined. My NASCAR name is Bill Alfred, or maybe Bill Alf. My paternal grandfather often goes by Alf, for short.
You can also find out your TV Weather Person name by taking your 5th grade teacher's last name plus a major city that begins with the same first letter. I think my 5th grade teacher was Mrs. Traves, but I'm not certain because 5th grade was split. You had 4th and 5th graders together, and 5th and 6th graders together, so I don't remember if she was my 5th or 6th grade teacher, or both, for that matter. I'll see if my mom remembers....
If you look at all the spam I get, it's all for losing weight or looking younger when it's directed at women, and making your penis larger if you're a man.
Is this *really* an accurate reflection of what is most important to us as a society? I wouldn't think the spam for these particular things would be so abundant if it wasn't lucrative, no?
Wouldn't it be awesome if the spam we received, while still annoying, reflected values of character improvement, helping others, and improving our relationships with them (um, not the carnal variety)?
Yeah, I know....Color me Pollyanna. <shrugs />
Today I got an email in my inbox with a title that read "Pump it up and Fill up the Chicks." 
These subject lines are likely to elicit a reaction of either revulsion and disgust or laughter from most folks, but the fact is that these kinds of emails are sent because, in the end, they are financially rewarded for it. This is really a sad statement about the society we're living in.
1,104 pages of corruption, betrayal, greed, sex and violence in the form of Ken Follett's World Without End.
I really much more enjoyed Pillars of the Earth. I think the plot and the characters were much better developed in Pillars.
One of the complaints I had with "World" is that one of the sub plots of the story that carried through the entire book, appearing to hold great mystery throughout, turned out to be extraordinarily anti-climactic once revealed. I really can't emphasize enough how lack-luster the "surprise" was.
The book was also somewhat frustrating because the characters in the book that you actually liked (which are few) were continuously, almost excessively, being double-crossed, swindled, or otherwise disappointed at every possible turn. Ridiculously so. The author really needs to balance the fortunes of the heroes and heroines a bit more to keep the reader from losing heart.
Anyway, I don't regret reading the book, but I just didn't have the same feelings and experience with this one that I did with Pillars.
I woke up this morning and felt very nauseated, so I'm staying home today. I'll probably try to work a bit from home, but if this doesn't let up I'm likely to just remain in bed most of the day.
Random Thought: My brother's Facebook profile picture cracks me up.
I'm taking the kids to see STOMP next Wednesday and I cannot wait!
If you're not familiar with them, this video gives you a broad idea of what they do. I read somewhere that the creators of STOMP don't like to be called a performing arts group. Basically they make noise, but it's very, very cool, highly choreographed noise.
I saw them at the Shea's Performing Arts Center about 10 years ago and had the best time.
Here's one more video for good measure.
By the recent recognition bestowed upon me by my peers as the #1 person to be stuck in handcuffs with. I'd just like to take a moment to thank my parents, Wayne and Judi Spear, for all that you did that has contributed to the person that I am today, and has ultimately prepared me to receive this honor.
But in all seriousness, this guy's ability is way beyond cool.
Hmmm....I took the memory test and got it perfect (30/30). Well, it *does* deal with vocabulary. An area in which I excel. Perhaps that gave me an advantage.
What is it behind the psychology of humans that they insist on cohabitating with beasts? We allow animals to reside inside our homes, label them with the term "pet", and all of a sudden it sounds altogether rational.
Well, I'm here to say it's anything but rational. Animals belong out-of-doors. I suppose we've ruined some of them for living out-of-doors, since we've gone and domesticated them to a point they were never meant to be domesticated to in the first place.
Let's look at this for a minute. We have to take dogs outside so they can poop and pee, instead of just leaving them outside so they can poop and pee whenever they want. We put boxes in our homes to let our cats evacuate in them and then get to sift through it to extract the nasties and make it all nice and clean for them. Every once and awhile, and altogether too frequently for my taste, they throw up on our carpets, occasionally (or not so occasionally for some) pee or poop on the floor, get into the garbage, scratch the furniture and, depending on personalities, bite or scratch.
Come on people; What on earth are we doing here? Have we gone mad as a society? I vote with a resounding "Yes!"
Oh yes, I know what you're thinking. Pets provide companionship. Bah. Get a pen pal. At least a pen pal can participate in conversations.
I just thought I'd point out the meaningless pattern that my brain decided to associate to today's date.
If I have anything of more substance to share throughout the day, I'll let you know. I wouldn't count on it. I only had 5 1/2 hours sleep last night. Dang this Ken Follett book.
I listen to NPR on the drive to and from work every day and this morning there was a very interesting story about how the way children play has changed, and the impact it has had on their development. It was incredibly interesting and I managed to find the article on the NPR website.
Read the full article here. Here is a snippett from the article to give you the gist of what it's about:
We know that children's capacity for self-regulation has diminished. A recent
study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in
which psychological researchers asked kids ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of
exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without
moving. The 3-year-olds couldn't stand still at all, the 5-year-olds could do it
for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as
the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment. But,
psychologist Elena Bodrova at the National Institute for Early Education
Research says, the results were very different.
"Today's 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago,
and today's 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60
years ago," Bodrova explains. "So the results were very sad."
Sad because self-regulation is incredibly important. Poor executive function
is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good
executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ.
Children who are able to manage their feelings and pay attention are better able
to learn. As executive function researcher Laura Berk explains, "Self-regulation
predicts effective development in virtually every domain."
Also, I didn't realize that toys were only advertised on television just prior to Christmas. Interesting.
I came home from work tonight. Had some dinner. Ran a hot bath. Lit some candles in the bathroom. Poured a glass of wine. Ahhhhh. It doesn't get any better than this.
Tonight I watched a video from my old church of my friend Tawna's husband singing in church. What a blessing to hear him sing praises to God when two years ago you'd never in a million years even get him on that stage in church, let alone hear him sing the words he did. You can only fully appreciate what God is doing in this young man's life if you knew him before he gave his life to Christ. He was someone that had no interest in going to church, or being around people. In fact, he would admit to you that he didn't like people at all. I can related to those sentiments, as that is how I was before I became a believer in Christ. It's amazing to see how God changes people.
This is the song he sang:
I once was lost, but now I’m found
I once was lost, but now I’m found
So far away, but I’m home now
I once was lost, but now I’m found
And now my lifesong sings
I once was blind, but now I see
I once was blind, but now I see
I don’t know how, but when He touched me
I once was blind, but now I see
And now my lifesong sings
And now my lifesong sings
And now my lifesong sings
I once was dead, but now I live
I once was dead, but now I live
Now my life to You I give
Now my life to You I give
Now my life to You I give
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Let my lifesong sing to You
Awesome.
In other awesome news, Justin is asking to be baptized. I'm not sure when that will happen. It's really his choice, because the baptisms at my church are spontaneous for whoever is interested in following the Lord in believer's baptism. The pool is always open. I'll be sure to post the details on here when that happens.
I also found out today that a friend of mine from back in NY is moving to Charlotte in March. Very cool.
Peace. I'm out.
With taking a blogging hiatus, is that I feel extremely backed up right now. It's like I ate too much cheese or something, but it's my head that's clogged, as opposed to, um, other areas.
I had to exercise a lot of self control to prevent myself from sitting at my computer and mindlessly blogging away on more than one occasion in recent days.
Right now, I'm reading Ken Follet's sequel to Pillars of the Earth (Pillars, consequently, is a fantastic must-read, recommended to me years ago by my dad), called World Without End. I'm enjoying reading it, but I will say that Pillars of the Earth is superior, at least to this point. I suppose I should suspend judgment until completing it as it's a fantastically thick book and a lot can happen in the chapters ahead.
Also, Christina Webster is staying with me, visiting from Niagara Falls. We're having an enjoyable time, and yesterday we went to the Imax Dome theatre to see Sea Monsters, then out to a really neat little Irish pub for lunch. I just love the atmosphere of Irish pubs. Our waitress even had an Irish accent! I had the shepherd's pie and it was quite tasty.
After eating we went to church in the evening (the worship was awesome), and then came home and just sat up and talked. I got in bed and read World Without End until 2AM and as a result I'm feeling a bit tired today.
Today is a bit more low-key. We're going to head over to a couple of malls and do some window shopping, and I rented a movie for us to watch tonight.
Well, that's about all I have time to write for now. It's nice to be back.
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