but then, didn't you all know that already?
I was reading The Cat in the Hat Comes Back the other day, and it struck me... how big were those cats by the time you got to the end of the alphabet?
So I'm sitting here with a calculator and a notepad figuring it out.
I've also noticed that I've started typing things in scrambled and dyslexically. I'm wondering what brain changes that heralds.
Had my first mammogram today. As I told J - not nearly as bad as I've heard. But then, maybe when your breasts are as floppy as mine, it's not an issue. (He groaned at that.)
EDIT
Okay, so I finished my calculations. I used algebra again! Which I didn't have to, actually, after really getting my brain engaged, I realized it was just multiplication of fractions. Yay for spreadsheets.
If you've read The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, you know that at some point he needs help, and lifts the hat off his head, and VOILA, there is little cat A there to help him. Each cat successively lifts off its hat and there is another cat all the way to Z (who has VOOM under his hat, don't ask me.) I judged that the Cat in the Hat is about 6ft tall, and his hat 2ft tall (look at the drawings, don't you think so?) so of the sum total of cat + hat, the cat is 3/4 of the total and the hat 1/4. With a handy dandy spreadsheet (not a notebook, no) I come up with this:
Cat in the Hat: 96 inches (both cat and hat)
Cat A: 24 inches
Cat B: 6 inches
Cat C:1.5 inches
Cat D:0.375 inches
Cat E:0.09375 inches
Cat F:0.0234375 inches
Cat G:0.005859375 inches
Cat H:0.001464844 inches
Cat I:0.000366211 inches
Cat J:9.15527E-05 inches
Cat K:2.28882E-05 inches
Cat L:5.72205E-06 inches
Cat M:1.43051E-06 inches
Cat N:3.57628E-07 inches
Cat O:8.9407E-08 inches
Cat P:2.23517E-08 inches
Cat Q:5.58794E-09 inches
Cat R:1.39698E-09 inches
Cat S:3.49246E-10 inches
Cat T:8.73115E-11 inches
Cat U:2.18279E-11 inches
Cat V:5.45697E-12 inches
Cat W:1.36424E-12 inches
Cat X:3.41061E-13 inches
Cat Y:8.52651E-14 inches
Cat Z:2.13163E-14 inches
Okay, so the cats would be fricking invisible to the human eye LONG before Cat Z ("Z is too small to see")... J decided to fuck with my mind by suggesting the cats were crouching in the hats, rather than standing. *sigh* okay, I'll let my obsessive compulsive nature take over here...
If you're crouching, I'd say
oh, fuck it. It's midnight, and I'm going to bed. Carry on where I left off, readers.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Since the post is no longer available for interaction
but I just found it now, and had written down a few quick ideas:
You know, this is a great conversation and I'm being exposed to things outside my general bubble (which is wonderful - being a stay-at-home-mome I don't have many conversations like this at the moment) but I have to take issue with your answer to #4, Michael. My mother is a teacher in a private religious school, so the pay scale isn't the same as public schools in our area. (She has been teaching 20 years there, and I think she makes about as much as a starting teacher in the county, I'm not sure.) But the pay isn't what I'm arguing about - although I have to say, I DO think teachers are underpaid; to have the money for school systems coming from property taxes insures an unequal system that is dysfunctional in many ways)
Wait, I'm getting off what I wanted to say. You said "relatively low hours" - in my experience, good teachers work significantly more than 40 hours a week, and spend their summers taking continuing education classes, going to conferences to learn better ways to get the kids engaged, and tutoring kids to pay the bills in the summer.
For what it's worth, I've long been curious about the voucher system - I don't believe the public school system has any monopoly on an ability to educate; having been to both a parochial school and a public one I have a little experience in both areas.
I have to agree with Shimpei - parents are morons. (not that it was said quite THAT bluntly) Look around at the parents we have today. I'm not sure if they are unaware of the "incentives" you mention for them to care about their children's education, or just don't care, but the end result is the same. Perhaps it is a self-feeding cycle - the public school system sucks, so education end results decrease, so the parents of the next generation and the next generation and the next generation are unable to see a way to make a difference (or indeed unable to even see that a difference is needed)...
You have parents that don't know what grade their children are in. They don't know the teacher's name, they are happy if their kid doesn't end up in jail; doing homework is waaaay down the totem pole of worries. And not to throw the absolute lowest in there as a red herring, perfectly normal lower middle class people seem to have gotten the idea that education is the school's job, and they don't have to worry about it. They don't remember much from their middle & high school years, and they turned out just fine - that attitude is not lost on the kids, trust me. And even upper class, educated people can be stupid - take this example from my mother's school. This parent is an upper class, college grad (at least Masters level, possibly higher), running for the school board mother. One of the exercises my mother did with her students was to send home something that the student had to 'teach' to the parents, have a family discussion over dinner (you understand it better when you have to try to explain it to somebody else, right?), have the parent sign & bring back. After the first one, this student said her mother said she didn't have time. My mom thought there might have been a wire crossed in communication, after all, this parent was on the school board, obviously she had time for her child's education, right? Nope, when she asked the woman, she was told "yeah, the first couple were okay, but I just don't have time for that."
Don't even get me started on parents who believe that the bible is absolute literal truth; they're the reason we have a book at the Grand Canyon claiming it was made by Noah's flood; why we have a president in the White House who said that God told him to invade Iraq and believes he was called to lead the nation at this time...
You know, this is a great conversation and I'm being exposed to things outside my general bubble (which is wonderful - being a stay-at-home-mome I don't have many conversations like this at the moment) but I have to take issue with your answer to #4, Michael. My mother is a teacher in a private religious school, so the pay scale isn't the same as public schools in our area. (She has been teaching 20 years there, and I think she makes about as much as a starting teacher in the county, I'm not sure.) But the pay isn't what I'm arguing about - although I have to say, I DO think teachers are underpaid; to have the money for school systems coming from property taxes insures an unequal system that is dysfunctional in many ways)
Wait, I'm getting off what I wanted to say. You said "relatively low hours" - in my experience, good teachers work significantly more than 40 hours a week, and spend their summers taking continuing education classes, going to conferences to learn better ways to get the kids engaged, and tutoring kids to pay the bills in the summer.
For what it's worth, I've long been curious about the voucher system - I don't believe the public school system has any monopoly on an ability to educate; having been to both a parochial school and a public one I have a little experience in both areas.
I have to agree with Shimpei - parents are morons. (not that it was said quite THAT bluntly) Look around at the parents we have today. I'm not sure if they are unaware of the "incentives" you mention for them to care about their children's education, or just don't care, but the end result is the same. Perhaps it is a self-feeding cycle - the public school system sucks, so education end results decrease, so the parents of the next generation and the next generation and the next generation are unable to see a way to make a difference (or indeed unable to even see that a difference is needed)...
You have parents that don't know what grade their children are in. They don't know the teacher's name, they are happy if their kid doesn't end up in jail; doing homework is waaaay down the totem pole of worries. And not to throw the absolute lowest in there as a red herring, perfectly normal lower middle class people seem to have gotten the idea that education is the school's job, and they don't have to worry about it. They don't remember much from their middle & high school years, and they turned out just fine - that attitude is not lost on the kids, trust me. And even upper class, educated people can be stupid - take this example from my mother's school. This parent is an upper class, college grad (at least Masters level, possibly higher), running for the school board mother. One of the exercises my mother did with her students was to send home something that the student had to 'teach' to the parents, have a family discussion over dinner (you understand it better when you have to try to explain it to somebody else, right?), have the parent sign & bring back. After the first one, this student said her mother said she didn't have time. My mom thought there might have been a wire crossed in communication, after all, this parent was on the school board, obviously she had time for her child's education, right? Nope, when she asked the woman, she was told "yeah, the first couple were okay, but I just don't have time for that."
Don't even get me started on parents who believe that the bible is absolute literal truth; they're the reason we have a book at the Grand Canyon claiming it was made by Noah's flood; why we have a president in the White House who said that God told him to invade Iraq and believes he was called to lead the nation at this time...
Okay, this made me laugh
This chick has an intriguing idea: http://porphyre.livejournal.com/515857.html
Here's what she said:
Focus on the Family, the horrid anti-gay evangelical church based in Colorado Springs that wields too much power for anyone's good, has a store on their website that will give you books, CDs, and DVDs absolutely free of charge. Usually people pay for their items by donation, raising millions of dollars to help Focus on the Family produce more hate-propaganda featuring "experts" on homosexuality who claim it's a curable "sickness". (They're practically defined by their book A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Course, there's no mention of having less kids, which is the only proven method. No, no, you shouldn't use birth control, that would be wrong. They need more worshippers, how dare you prevent god's will.)
It's a little bit time-consuming, but not enough to deter me. (Nor should it you). The chance to take money out of their pockets is too useful, not to mention satisfying.
1. Go to www.family.org and look for the "Resources" link in the blue bar on the left-hand side, right above the "Search" box, and click it.
2. Under the "Resource Category" menu on the left-hand side, you'll notice categories such as "Homosexuality" under "Resource Category." Me, I went straight to the CD's and DVD's under "Resource Format."
3. Go through, find something you like, such as the recently released movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Chronicles of Narnia Radio Theatre Complete Set, suggested donation US $79.00, or the three disc Les Misérables soundtrack. It's not a very wide range of products, but there's bound to be something either you like or you could use as a sweet gift for someone else. Click the "Add to Cart" button.
They won't send more than $100 worth of materials for free in any given shopping trip, so be sure to go through a few times, until you're sure you've dinged them.
4. Select "Add New Shipping Address," decide to send it yourself or someone else, and once you're done picking up to $100, click "Proceed to Checkout." Some people have been sending items to themselves to sell later on eBay, some have been ordering the more controversial items as conversation pieces or educational props, (as anti-anti-propaganda), but I plan on using mine as gifts, mostly. I've found no reports on receiving Focus on the Family junk mail after inputting an address, so I figure it's fairly safe.
5. The next screen asks you to sign-up for an account and give your information. Fill it out with fictitious information, enter whatever name and address you like. You might want to make up a phone number too and an e-mail account too. After filling out all the required fields, click "Proceed to Checkout" one more time.
6. This will take you to the "Here is Your Cart" page. You may have to re-enter your data again after this part to actually confirm your account. Eventually, you'll get to the "How Much Would You Like to Donate?" page.
7. Select "Enter other total amount" and enter 0.00 as the amount you would like to pay. (Don't put in a dollar sign or it will ask you for credit-card information.) Don't be fooled by the field in the lower-right-hand corner that shows you the suggested donation amounts, simply Proceed to Checkout.
8. The next screen is a guilt screen, to make you feel bad about how little you donated. ignore it. Ignore it utterly. Think of how many people they're persecuted and had in their "gay kids can be cured" camps. Just proceed to checkout again.
9. Click "Checkout Now."
So, I'm curious - what do you think? I'm going to head over to the website to see if they've changed things yet...
Here's what she said:
Focus on the Family, the horrid anti-gay evangelical church based in Colorado Springs that wields too much power for anyone's good, has a store on their website that will give you books, CDs, and DVDs absolutely free of charge. Usually people pay for their items by donation, raising millions of dollars to help Focus on the Family produce more hate-propaganda featuring "experts" on homosexuality who claim it's a curable "sickness". (They're practically defined by their book A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Course, there's no mention of having less kids, which is the only proven method. No, no, you shouldn't use birth control, that would be wrong. They need more worshippers, how dare you prevent god's will.)
It's a little bit time-consuming, but not enough to deter me. (Nor should it you). The chance to take money out of their pockets is too useful, not to mention satisfying.
1. Go to www.family.org and look for the "Resources" link in the blue bar on the left-hand side, right above the "Search" box, and click it.
2. Under the "Resource Category" menu on the left-hand side, you'll notice categories such as "Homosexuality" under "Resource Category." Me, I went straight to the CD's and DVD's under "Resource Format."
3. Go through, find something you like, such as the recently released movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Chronicles of Narnia Radio Theatre Complete Set, suggested donation US $79.00, or the three disc Les Misérables soundtrack. It's not a very wide range of products, but there's bound to be something either you like or you could use as a sweet gift for someone else. Click the "Add to Cart" button.
They won't send more than $100 worth of materials for free in any given shopping trip, so be sure to go through a few times, until you're sure you've dinged them.
4. Select "Add New Shipping Address," decide to send it yourself or someone else, and once you're done picking up to $100, click "Proceed to Checkout." Some people have been sending items to themselves to sell later on eBay, some have been ordering the more controversial items as conversation pieces or educational props, (as anti-anti-propaganda), but I plan on using mine as gifts, mostly. I've found no reports on receiving Focus on the Family junk mail after inputting an address, so I figure it's fairly safe.
5. The next screen asks you to sign-up for an account and give your information. Fill it out with fictitious information, enter whatever name and address you like. You might want to make up a phone number too and an e-mail account too. After filling out all the required fields, click "Proceed to Checkout" one more time.
6. This will take you to the "Here is Your Cart" page. You may have to re-enter your data again after this part to actually confirm your account. Eventually, you'll get to the "How Much Would You Like to Donate?" page.
7. Select "Enter other total amount" and enter 0.00 as the amount you would like to pay. (Don't put in a dollar sign or it will ask you for credit-card information.) Don't be fooled by the field in the lower-right-hand corner that shows you the suggested donation amounts, simply Proceed to Checkout.
8. The next screen is a guilt screen, to make you feel bad about how little you donated. ignore it. Ignore it utterly. Think of how many people they're persecuted and had in their "gay kids can be cured" camps. Just proceed to checkout again.
9. Click "Checkout Now."
So, I'm curious - what do you think? I'm going to head over to the website to see if they've changed things yet...
Friday, August 25, 2006
I learned something new yesterday
The kids and I went to the Junior Museum. (Or the Florida Museum of Science & Natural History, or whatever the hell they changed the name to that I can never remember.) It was the best time to go - drizzly, so it was cooler - no people, and almost all the animals were out.
We were coming down the walkway to the Florida Panther enclosure and I heard the most god-awful howling and hissing and growling, I thought "holy shit, are they fighting?" Came around the corner and - um, oops. Those two panthers are a male and a female, yup. From those noises it was hard to tell if she was enjoying it or suffering it. I asked one of the workers later if their panthers were able to have babies - she said no, he'd been vasectomized. (It didn't occur to me until later when mom asked - why on earth would you want an endangered species animal vasectomized? Wouldn't you want them to have as many babies as possible? Maybe they're siblings.)
We were coming down the walkway to the Florida Panther enclosure and I heard the most god-awful howling and hissing and growling, I thought "holy shit, are they fighting?" Came around the corner and - um, oops. Those two panthers are a male and a female, yup. From those noises it was hard to tell if she was enjoying it or suffering it. I asked one of the workers later if their panthers were able to have babies - she said no, he'd been vasectomized. (It didn't occur to me until later when mom asked - why on earth would you want an endangered species animal vasectomized? Wouldn't you want them to have as many babies as possible? Maybe they're siblings.)
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Well, I got to ask the question...
but I never get to ask the followups I want to, dammit.
Amazingly enough, Diane asked some decent followup questions during the entire conversation; I was impressed.
So, according to the experts (whatever their qualifications; I should look that up) of course the US couldn't manage a ground force invasion of Iran, we're too busy in Iraq. Air strikes, sure. Supporting internal dissent, yes. (We're probably already doing this.) They would HOPE that Bush would ask the Congress for some sort of resolution. There is no military answer for Iran. We'd have to have 100% perfect intelligence because if we missed some, like the insurgents in Iraq, they'd just recreate elsewhere.
Well no shit, sherlock - there was no military answer for Iraq, either. That's why Bush's dad didn't follow Hussein in after freeing Kuwait - it's not that Saddam Hussein was that hard to take down; it's because of the ball of crap that Iraq becomes afterwards that Bush Sr. didn't want to step in.
Okay, and now on a totally shallow topic, I heard yesterday that Tom Cruise got fired. J & I talked about it, and agreed that he wasn't being fired because of his religion, but because his recent statements and behaviour have made it difficult for the studio to sell tickets. (Which is all Paramount cares about anyway; if you can't make them money, you're out.) Wonder if there will be a lawsuit anyway.
After his oh-so-educated comments about post-partum depression, I personally think he should be committed. I think the reason scientology says psychiatrists and psychologists are so bad and to stay away is because then some of the nutjobs that join the religion would get treatment and realize how fricking insane the whole set-up is.
Then again, (and I've said this before) when you compare the semi-socialist son of a Jewish carpenter being raised from the dead with thetans infesting your body to a god who talks out of a pillar of fire and likes you to cut up and burn choice parts of animals - who's craziest?
Amazingly enough, Diane asked some decent followup questions during the entire conversation; I was impressed.
So, according to the experts (whatever their qualifications; I should look that up) of course the US couldn't manage a ground force invasion of Iran, we're too busy in Iraq. Air strikes, sure. Supporting internal dissent, yes. (We're probably already doing this.) They would HOPE that Bush would ask the Congress for some sort of resolution. There is no military answer for Iran. We'd have to have 100% perfect intelligence because if we missed some, like the insurgents in Iraq, they'd just recreate elsewhere.
Well no shit, sherlock - there was no military answer for Iraq, either. That's why Bush's dad didn't follow Hussein in after freeing Kuwait - it's not that Saddam Hussein was that hard to take down; it's because of the ball of crap that Iraq becomes afterwards that Bush Sr. didn't want to step in.
Okay, and now on a totally shallow topic, I heard yesterday that Tom Cruise got fired. J & I talked about it, and agreed that he wasn't being fired because of his religion, but because his recent statements and behaviour have made it difficult for the studio to sell tickets. (Which is all Paramount cares about anyway; if you can't make them money, you're out.) Wonder if there will be a lawsuit anyway.
After his oh-so-educated comments about post-partum depression, I personally think he should be committed. I think the reason scientology says psychiatrists and psychologists are so bad and to stay away is because then some of the nutjobs that join the religion would get treatment and realize how fricking insane the whole set-up is.
Then again, (and I've said this before) when you compare the semi-socialist son of a Jewish carpenter being raised from the dead with thetans infesting your body to a god who talks out of a pillar of fire and likes you to cut up and burn choice parts of animals - who's craziest?
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
How to give a realtor proper motivation to sell your house
Tell him you've just received a letter from the mortgage company informing you that if the account is not brought current in 30 days that foreclosure proceedings will be started.
I shudder to think of what language he used when he got off the phone (in his position, I certainly would have cussed up a storm) but he's now in as much of a hurry as I am. Which makes me feel better. Kind of.
So, if anybody's in town and feels like coming and sitting and keeping me company, some adult conversation would be welcome. If Logan didn't have a newborn I'd ask her, but I know how much of a pain it is to function at somebody else's house, and if I went to her house, then I wouldn't be getting any work done HERE.
Garage sale went well; sold some stuff (which is more stuff I don't have to move) and I'll be calling the lighthouse children's home to come get the rest.
Appointment tomorrow to pick up and be instructed on how to use the pulse oximetry machine (or whatever you call it) to find out if I really do have sleep apnea. Whee!
Little girl requested pancakes this morning; she wanted ketchup and mustard to dip them in. I made the pancakes, but I must admit by the time I was done I'd forgotten the mustard. She ate them anyway, amazingly. I'm beginning to develop a complex about the kids not eating what I make them.
I shudder to think of what language he used when he got off the phone (in his position, I certainly would have cussed up a storm) but he's now in as much of a hurry as I am. Which makes me feel better. Kind of.
So, if anybody's in town and feels like coming and sitting and keeping me company, some adult conversation would be welcome. If Logan didn't have a newborn I'd ask her, but I know how much of a pain it is to function at somebody else's house, and if I went to her house, then I wouldn't be getting any work done HERE.
Garage sale went well; sold some stuff (which is more stuff I don't have to move) and I'll be calling the lighthouse children's home to come get the rest.
Appointment tomorrow to pick up and be instructed on how to use the pulse oximetry machine (or whatever you call it) to find out if I really do have sleep apnea. Whee!
Little girl requested pancakes this morning; she wanted ketchup and mustard to dip them in. I made the pancakes, but I must admit by the time I was done I'd forgotten the mustard. She ate them anyway, amazingly. I'm beginning to develop a complex about the kids not eating what I make them.
Friday, August 18, 2006
I am a soldier!
A Soldier in the War Against Stupidity!
I probably have sleep apnea. Expect to see a whole heck of a lot more energy in these pages if the diagnosis is correct and I get a c-pap machine.
I'm recruiting for my Army of the Savvy & Judicious. (I really wanted to use Bluestockings, but as that implied female only, it was sadly too limiting.)
Off to prepare for garage sale. One man's trash is another man's treasure - hope some people see it this way, so I can get rid of some of this stuff.
I probably have sleep apnea. Expect to see a whole heck of a lot more energy in these pages if the diagnosis is correct and I get a c-pap machine.
I'm recruiting for my Army of the Savvy & Judicious. (I really wanted to use Bluestockings, but as that implied female only, it was sadly too limiting.)
Off to prepare for garage sale. One man's trash is another man's treasure - hope some people see it this way, so I can get rid of some of this stuff.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Have I created a list of "things I never want to see again" yet?
If I haven't, this is the start of it, and number one on the list of things I never want to see again is this: my husband being taken out of the house on a gurney to a waiting ambulance.
I'm not sure if anything will beat that to make number 1. Hopefully neither of my children, you know?
It's ten PM, and he's evidently fine, I'm waiting to hear more details. I know they're planning on doing a CT scan, that his EKG was okay, that his blood pressure and pulse rate is okay, and that he was cracking jokes in typical Justin fashion. His brother is up there with him, for which I am eternally grateful. They've not admitted him, and it doesn't look like they're going to.
So any well wishes wafted his way would be appreciated.
And I'm going to try not to stress about (and not to let him stress about) the hospital bills. Heh.
I'm not sure if anything will beat that to make number 1. Hopefully neither of my children, you know?
It's ten PM, and he's evidently fine, I'm waiting to hear more details. I know they're planning on doing a CT scan, that his EKG was okay, that his blood pressure and pulse rate is okay, and that he was cracking jokes in typical Justin fashion. His brother is up there with him, for which I am eternally grateful. They've not admitted him, and it doesn't look like they're going to.
So any well wishes wafted his way would be appreciated.
And I'm going to try not to stress about (and not to let him stress about) the hospital bills. Heh.
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