She was sleeping, not sulking.  She came out for supper and we talked a bit before Th'Boy got home.  Then she went back to sleep.  We forgot about her inhaler so I had to wake her up but she's asleep again.  Argh.

On a brighter note: I cashed in my scratch card for more cards and won $10 and a free card.  Gonna get more cards. 

M. 

Current Mood: discontent

Happy Birthday, hrj!!

For creehawk.

Here is my list of the top ten skills that mothers develop.

Mothers develop the ability...
1. to tune out sounds that make childless people’s ears bleed.
2. to successfully juggle a purse, diaper bag, umbrella stroller, cup of hot coffee, and the baby, and still have a free hand to open the car door. (This later morphs into the ability to juggle takeout, dry cleaning, a soccer ball, three days’ groceries, and a bag of supplies for a celery costume.)
3. to appreciate Barney for the excellent babysitter he is.
4. to differentiate between blissful silence and too quiet.
5. to become a living lie detector.
6. to use guilt as a weapon.
7. to make a child believe you have both psychic foresight and eyes in the back of your head.
8. to tell the difference between “hurt” and “only thinks she’s hurt,” or between “bleeding profusely” and “needs stitches.”
9. to repeat yourself.
9. to repeat yourself.
9. to repeat yourself.
9. to repeat yourself.
9. to repeat yourself.
10. to love unconditionally. Even when your kid is being a rotten brat.

Tags: motherhood

The Blue Cross recently put up some posters around our cafeteria comparing preventative health costs now to remedial health costs later.

Time: Modern Day (though it doesn't really apply here)
Googled: Escrima versus Bo Staff; Bo Staff versus Escrima

Basically, I'm writing a training scene in a Batman fanfic. I've got one seasoned fighter aged 20 using escrima, while drilling a 13-year-old neophyte armed with a bo staff. My googling led me to this youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TY3QXDgbqi4&feature=related which shows me how one can use the escrima to defend against an attack from a bo staff. 

I'm having less luck showing how one might use escrima on the offensive against a bo staff (or any other long weapon).

If the stats of the characters are a significant factor, the one holding the escrima is 5'10", 175 lbs, athletic but wiry and a champion acrobat and gymnast. 

The one with the staff is 5'4" and about 140 lbs, in excellent physical condition but not (yet!) olympic calibre. 

Any tips, pointers or links to youtubes that my google fu missed would be appreciated!

Thanks! 

What is the funniest movie you have ever seen?

maaseru and I were talking about how much we laughed with Death at a Funeral, and I was saying that I don't generally watch comedies, and she was saying that I laugh out loud a lot while watching things - something I'm not exactly self-aware about doing.

So we were wondering what the funniest movies we've seen are. Not necessarily the best, but.... things that made us laugh. In and Out made the grade, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

What else is very funny?

Tags: movies

http://mumpsimus.blogspot.com/2008/05/muxtape.html

Via Meghan I discovered Muxtape, which allows users to create "mix tapes" of up to 12 songs (and yes, I know it got Boing Boinged all the way back in March, but I read Meghan more frequently and carefully than I read Boing Boing...) The simplicity of the format intrigued me, so I decided to give it a shot.

Here, then, is what I created: distantstar.muxtape.com. (The RSS feed is here.) These are 12 songs I tend to listen to when driving to and from work these days -- hence, these are songs that I find in some way or another keep me from going completely and totally nuts while trying to get through the rush-hour awfulness in the miles around the Lincoln Tunnel. What that fact and these songs say about me ... I do not care to speculate.

I'll be changing the mix whenever I have a chance. I was a compulsive maker of actual mix tapes, and this seems like a good outlet for some of that old enthusiasm. Keep your eyes (ears) out -- I expect it will get a bit weird...

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/lotw/2008-05-13

Today's biography from the Oxford DNB:
Hart, Edith Tudor [née Edith Suschitzky] (1908-1973), photographer

I know this is probably a common entry, but does anybody know anywhere that's hiring, particularly willing to hire University students? I've looked online, obviously, I'm just wondering if anybody knows anywhere by word of mouth or something. Me and everybody I know is having a hard time finding a job this summer.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1015

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham		www.phdcomics.com
title: "Vicious Cycle" - originally published 5/12/2008 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/289028993/isnt_maine_one_of_them_there_y.php

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/05/isnt_maine_one_of_them_there_y.php

So what are they doing having their own creationist troubles? It just goes to show that this isn't just a problem for southern yokels in Florida and Texas — it's an epidemic all over the country.

The specific problem in this case is a ignorant kook who has been made director of School Administrative District 59 and has decided to flout the state standards and expectations for science classes. Look at this fellow's arguments:

Matthew Linkletter of Athens says that both are merely theories that represent "personal beliefs and world views," rather than proven science. Linkletter suggested during last week's SAD 59 board meeting that the board discuss evolution, the "Big Bang Theory" and other studies he believes should be deleted from the curriculum.

The school board tabled action on the science curriculum at the April 28 meeting, and will reconsider the issue when it meets at 7 p.m. May 19.

Linkletter, a Christian, said there is no way to prove either evolution or creationism.

"You can't show, observe or prove it," Linkletter said of the belief systems. "It's something you have to believe by faith. It doesn't meet the criteria of science.

"If it's not scientifically verifiable, then maybe we should leave it out of the science classes. When you make a statement that's not backed by facts and just represents a world view, then it has no place."

It's just a "theory"; it's a "worldview"; you can't "prove" it. This is a guy who doesn't know one thing about science but has clawed his way up the political ladder so he poison it. As is usual in these situations, the qualified science teachers are stuck there, trying to do their jobs, and gazing incredulously at the posturing buffoon in the administrative position.

"The empirical proof of evolution is in the study of genetics and how genes relate between organisms," said Ward, who teaches advanced-placement senior biology, senior anatomy/physiology and 10th-grade biology. She said evolution is proven, as an empirical matter of science, through studies of the human genome.

</p>"My personal, as well as the National Science Teachers position, is that you can't teach genetics or ecology without evolution.</p>

I rather like this summary:

Madison Town Manager Norman Dean, who taught science in Madison from 1962 through 1996 and once taught Linkletter, characterized his former student's proposal as "absolutely stupid."

Hyphoid Logic has a round-up of some of the news stories (although they are all saying about the same thing right now), and one godless Maine blogger is urging the locals to join him at at the next school board meeting on 19 May, and also provides contact information for reaching the board. Strangely, while SAD #59 does have a web page, it's mostly blank and doesn't even list the board of directors — if anyone has email contact information, let me know and I'll post it so we can get a fast letter writing campaign going.

Read the comments on this post...

Weird thought of the evening: I think I'd really enjoy buttling. Er, buttlering. Whatever.

This was a building on Friday.

Yes, I realize it's late notice, but there may be SOMEONE out there sitting at the computer wondering to themselves, "Hm, I wonder how I could get to Ecuador to do some archaeology this summer?"

Well, I have the answer right here! Through the Pambamarca Archaeological Project, of course!

The Pambamarca Archaeological Project consists of an international team of researchers investigating ancient, historic and living landscapes in Pambamarca, Ecuador. The project area of Pambamarca is located at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet in the Andean sierra, where snowcapped peaks dominate the horizon. As past participants can attest, working on the project is exhilarating as multiple teams perform a variety of tasks everyday like settlement survey, site mapping, remote sensing, excavations and laboratory work. This year the project will continue to study the massive Pre-Columbian fortresses that were built on the peaks of the Pambamarca mountains by Inka and Ecuadorian societies.