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Puzzling Papa, Puzzling L

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Nana and Papa came over, ostensibly to visit the family, but everyone knows who the main attraction is.

First, Papa had to help L with her puzzle. The Girl can’t quite manage the puzzle by herself, but with some help, she can put it together in a few minutes. Then it’s always the same: “Try again!”

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Arranging

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Examining

Next, bubble time, and here’s where the fun really began. As is often the case, Nana and Papa came bearing a gift: a new Tinker Bell jacket, with a flashing lights the illuminate Tink’s pixie dust when pressed. We hung it in the closet so L could get to it, and every so often, she would run over and give Tink a press. Papa decided to play a little trick on the Girl. Every time she activated the lights, Papa blew some bubbles from the small buble maker.

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L almost caught him in the act a few times.

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Tricking her, though, is getting more and more difficult. And talking about her while she’s there is impossible: she understands just about everything now, and a quiet “Should we take her for a bath now?” can elicit loud protests: “No baff! No!”

New Lens

Monday 26 January 2009

We’ve had the wide end covered for some time now. I bought a Sigma 10-20mm before heading to Polska last year, and of course the camera came with a decent 18-70mm standard zoom. What we were lacking was a high power zoom.

It was never much of a priority, so I wasn’t looking to spend a lot of money. Sure, I’d love to have Nikon’s 80-200 2.8 lens, but at nearly a thousand dollars, it was well out of my budget. If I had no budget, I’d be ordering a

Having a budget that doesn’t quite make the approximately $13,000 necessary to buy that equipment, I looked back at SIgma, being very pleased with the 10-20. So for well under $200 I got a 70-300 4/5.6 zoom. Is it a great lens? For the money, yes.

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1/1600, f/5.3, 240 mm

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1/400, f/5.3, 220 mm

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1/250, f/5.6, 300 mm

The bokeh is particularly warm and deep, but that’s to be expected at this kind of focal length…

Lessons Learned

Sunday 25 January 2009

The first gentleman came in, measured some windows, and then started talking about how great his windows were. Fun little demonstrations of how effective his windows were at stopping heat and such. Finally, the price: for our 1,300 square foot house, 14 windows total, with one of them a large picture window: $10,000. I’m rounding up here — it was nine something. I thought, “Wow — quite a bit more than I was expecting.”

The next fellow came in. Same deal. Why in the world did I not stop him earlier? “I know you’re going to show me all these wonderful ways your windows are going to save us money, but I just need a price.” It would have been so easy. Finally, a quote. This one was going to be big — I knew it. In fact, before K went up to give L her bath, I muttered in Polish, “It will be the same price as the other guy, or higher.” The gentleman wrote it on a piece of paper and slide it over to me. It was difficult to maintain composure.

$20,000.

Twenty grand to change fourteen windows. “We could remodel our kitchen and get a good bit done in one of the bathrooms for that,” I thought.

Finally, some simple, honest contractors came in. We ended up paying less than 25% of the highest bid. The results: K insists on keeping all the blinds up now.

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An honest price.

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Good quality work.

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Guess who’ll get our business again?

Inauguration Among 13-year-olds

Tuesday 20 January 2009

At 11:45, we’re in fourth period. A young man, who is often, quite honestly, extremely disruptive, sits silently at the back of a bunch of desks crowded in front of the television. The invocation begins and the young man bows his head. He is soon wiping tears from his eyes. Other students look at him, smiles on their faces, but they say nothing. As the pastor begins reciting the Lord’s Prayer, the young man joins in. He says his “amen,” smiles at those around him, puts his head down on his hands, watches, and waits.

Fourth Period watches

Fourth period watches

As Obama begins to take the oath, the African American boys — and they are a majority in that class — sit rapt in attention. I don’t think I would be exaggerating to say that I see a certain spark of hope and self-confidence in their face as they watch someone who could look like an uncle or older cousin become the most powerful man on the planet.

While the speech, in their view, drags on (in my view: one of the most nuaunced speeches about our nation I’ve ever heard), the old habits return: the silliness, the talking, the 13-year-old-ness. In short, all the behaviors that make several of them “at risk” students, students who are “underachievers.”

Still, for that moment, it seemed they saw in themselves what I see: potential.

Today was a great day to be a teacher.

Georgia Aquarium, Redux

Monday 19 January 2009

About a year ago, when Dziadek was visiting, we went to the aquarium. The “we” consisted only of Dziadek and me, as the Girl was sick and K was exhausted.

Yesterday, we tried it again.

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“Big fish! Big fish!” the Girl chanted the whole day, excited from the moment she woke up.

The drive to Atlanta was excruciating for the Girl. “Big fish! Big fish!” The time spent in Ikea was torturous — “Big fish! Big fish!” — until we got to the children’s area. Heading out to the car was accompanied by — well, you can probably guess.

Finally, we got to Big Fish Land:

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Beluga Whales

 

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Early exhibit

She was initially a little nervous about the whole prospect. It was MLK Day weekend, and the crowd was stifling. Add to it the intensity of the experience and the general darkness in all the exhibits, and it’s easy to see how a little girl might be a bit nervous at first.

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Tunnel vision


She found her bearings soon enough, though, and was soon found everything fascinating, especially the crocs:

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Finally, the croc book we read comes alive!
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Piranha tank

For some time, L was more interested in the stairs than anything else, much to the probable irritation of a number of people.

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The trip home was filled with excited stories about whom we saw. “I L fish, i Mama fish, i Tata fish!”

When we got home and set up L’s new easel, one might guess what she wanted to draw.

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Surprisingly fishfree

But that guess would be wrong.

More images at our Flickr Georgia Aquarium set.

Assessment

Friday 16 January 2009

Middle School Artillery
Middle School Artillery

A teacher workday can disappear faster than a sugar cube in hot water. I had all these plans for today: finalizing grades; re-organizing my room; extensive planning for the related arts class I’ll be teaching this third quarter; listening to Bach’s Mass in D Minor in its entirety. Only one thing got completed, and that was only because I had no other choice in the matter: grades for the first semester are now complete.

Much of this week was geared toward today’s end. It was, in other words, a week of assessment. And as much as I feel an odd sense of accomplishment watching kids take a test–perhaps it’s a perverse sense of accomplishment–I hate what I know is coming: grading. And that dreaded grading leads me to take the easy way out: Scantrons.

I can vaguely justify it with the understanding that all standardized testing requires filling in endless dots. “Kids have got to get used to it,” I hear, and I think, “If they haven’t by now, thanks to NCLB, they never will.”

I walked down the hall with a stack of Scantron sheets, and teachers I passed inevitably made firearm jokes. “Hope it doesn’t sound like a machine gun,” one said. The history teacher put it in perspective: “Storming the beaches of Normandy?”

It is an odd experience, though, listening to one’s test results. Whir whir whir grrr grr grr grr whir whir grr whir grr grr whir whir grr grr grr whir whir whir grr whir grr whir grr grr whir grr grr grr whir grr grr grr grr grr grr grr grr grr grr. “He did badly,” one thinks, hoping for better results with the next Scantron sheet

Opposing Views

Thursday 15 January 2009

Here’s a comment I posted at aid-gaza.net:

Comment from aid-gaza.net

Comment from aid-gaza.net

(Click on the image for a larger, more legible view.)

The comment, though, didn’t receive the blogger’s stamp of approval, as you can see if you click on through.

It’s hard to take someone seriously who is censors opposing viewpoints after inviting comment. I left another comment, saying just that.

Second comment from aid-gaza.net

Second comment from aid-gaza.net

Wonder if that will make it through?

Update

It did. Spam filtering problems. I suggest Spam Karma.

More Potentially Mutilating Presents

Sunday 11 January 2009

As I get older, I don’t put two and two together as well as I did in the past. My birthday is coming up next week; I never realized the reason the Folks were coming over for lunch was due to that. It was, after all, just Friday that I realized I’ll be 36 in less than a week, and I brushed it off with a smile.

All of that to say that entering the period at which mid-life crises sometimes crop up has not caused any hiccups. I’m getting older; hopefully I can add “wiser.”

Fatter would be more likely, with cakes like this:

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One candle for every six years

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Poppy seed and apple cake — no flour.

Afterward, it was gift time, and knowing Nana and Papa, that means more shop equipment. This time, a table saw,

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which almost broke my toe when a part slipped out while unpacking and landed on my poor, unprotected foot. Fortunately, K caught the moment.

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I couldn’t wait to take it downstairs, of course, and that was a bit of a mistake. It was tough getting it into the basement. Maybe we could have just left it in the living room — modern art.

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K bought me a couple of CDs, including Little Girl Blue, Nina Simone’s debut recording of 1957. Strong stuff: “I Loves You Porgy,” “Love Me or Leave Me,” opening with a great cover of Ellington’s “Mood Indigo.”

L gave me kisses and screams.

A good day over all.

K, L, Nana, Papa, thank you all.