When I was a Cognitive Science major I'd think

Godel, Escher ... you suck! was a really funny insult.

*sigh*

today is my last day of being 28. I was looking forward to my 30's, but now that it is 366 days away, I am not sure sure.

I can center 5+ pounds of clay!

For those of you who know what that means, cheer for me. For those of you who don't, Christmas will probably be exciting and surprising this year.

I get to glaze my first pieces next Tuesday.

And my kids at school think it is hilariously fascinating that I am taking and art class instead of teaching one. They are constantly asking to see pictures of what I have made.

Let's just hope that something is done in time for the teacher show.

Dave Returns...

...and almost instantly gets puked on by Jason.

Ahhh, the 24 hour stomach bug that is so prevelant in childhood.

I love having kids!

***

on a completely unrelated note, supermarkets SHOULD NOT be allowed to give away their unsalable toy crap. And certainly NOT TO DAKOTA without my permission.

Furthermore, store managers should be trained not to smack gum and talk on the cell phone at the same time as dealing with customer complaints.

Ah, Texas.

No Scolding Needed

The internet is full of medical advice sites, but unfortunately, most of them aren’t so good. Between the irrational fear-inducing sites, those that are mainly just advertising platforms, and those that are deliberately misleading (no, the chiropractor can’t cure asthma, neither can blue-green algae or colloidal silver), the hunt for useful medical info on the internet can be tough.

2 good sources:

Medline plus: part of the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the NIH
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
Easy to search, no ads, with good overview info for asthma and lots of information about treatment. Also with links to other reliable sources, like the American Lung Association.

WebMD:
www.webmd.com
Also with good information, easy to search, but has some ads on it.

And just in case you ever want to read about the weird medications, therapies, and fads available on the internet - www.quackwatch.org

ASTHMA

Nothing like actual information to give you better perspective on the whole infant ASTHMA thing.

In contrast to the relatively informative article in the site that I've linked above, a major problem with sites like [self-censored] is that it is sometimes written like this:


Problem: Your child is coughing

1) It might be nothing. Don't worry.
2) There is something in between but you have to be a smart doctor to understand what it might be. You are just a stupid patient so, we'll skip straight to your worst fears and then do a tap-dance on them.
3) It may the plauge, also know as "The Black Death" that is afflicting your precious baby. The plauge wiped out 1/3 of Europe in the middle ages, so you must be a very bad parent for letting this into your home. Go to the hospital now! Tell your wife to pray! What? You aren't a nuclear family! S H A M E ! ! !


Ok. That was a slight hyperbole. In any case, that is how I often feel when I am trying to use the internet to find out why my kids feel sick.

(Kerry-

You are more than welcome to scold me for my medical ignorance.)

Sing: Who the heck is Jethro?

Reading about the "Aqualung" game, Kerry had no idea who Jethro Tull was, never mind what "Aqualung" might be.

She wanted to post something on 3 of 4 about this, but did not have an account, so she asked me to make up something funny about it. Hmmm, the wife saying, "Please dear, mock me in public..." Sounds like a setup to me. I think I'll just say that it is completely reasonable that someone wouldn't know the song "Aqualung", particularly in Kerry's case; she spends so much time being wonderful, she doesn't have the opportunity to worry about trivia like old rock songs.

We are thinking about 李 尚 魄 but don't ask me how to pronounce 魄

 
in Cantonese because I don't know. I have been thinking about what Jason's name should be for a while now and because Dakota is 李(Li) 尚(Sheung) 暉(Fai), 尚 魄 has a pleasing balance and harmony like, I don't know... i seem to recall some sort of symbolic representation of this in Asian culture that has been heavily appropriated into the West.

Therein lies the rub, I'm cut-off from the Chinese language and so for all I know 李 尚 魄 means "Soul of the lycanthropic deamon" in which case it would be a great name for my favorite werewolf actor from Soul man. As it is, I believe that his name means "the quality of striving to the soulful quality of the darkness of the moon is a member of the Li family." I am pretty sure that I got the last part right. 

"1 cup of pudding in the mix for extra moist cake"

So Will and Dave come home from a late night ice cream, tp, and cake baking supplies run.

"and look, we got a box of pudding!" Excited eyes and faces from the boys.

Louren, confused, "yeah, and?"

Boys: "to add to the cake batter. To make it more moist!"

Louren: "Whatever"

Flash forward to this morning, as Louren is baking much belated birthday cake for Jason (and early birthday cake for Dave).

Boys: "did you bake the cake?"

Louren: "It's in the oven now"

Boys: "did you add the extra pudding?"

Louren: "Um, guys? You do know that the pudding is already included in the mix, in powder form. And nowhere does it say to add pudding."

Boys: "so did you add the extra pudding anyway?"

Louren: "huh?"

Boys: "we just like pudding!"

The "Aqualung" game

I admit that I am still a bit freaked out by Jason's hospital visits. One moment he is happy, sleeping, being a good boy. The next he is in the emergency room. We've been less nervous parents with Jason than with Dakota, the whole 2nd child confidence thing. Still, raising Jason has been more humbling -- in its own way. Jason has such a different temperment. I did not do anything to influence that, just like, so the doctor tells me, nothing I could have done would have stopped Jason from getting sick, and (if it was a virus) nothing but Jason's own immune system would help him get better.

In the Greek tragedies, all of the heroes seem surprised by their undoing. Their Hubris is such that they don't perceive how small they really are next to greater forces like -- the World, Fate, and the Acts of God. When I say things like "How could he have gotten sick? This must be my fault." That's hubris. Jason's classmates don't stop sneezing and their rhinoviruses don't stop being airborne or landing on surfaces. I really have to get a grip.

So I'm thinking about this as I was driving home, when I started playing the Aqualung game. The first time I played the Aqualung game just sort of happened at Eugene's wedding. Billy Wilson was asking me about the hot tub in my hotel room (Eugene put Louren and I in a room with a hot tub) and I said

"SIT-ting in the the HOT-TUB"

just like

Sitting on a park bench

Which is funny, but in truth -- this line works for just about any place to sit:

Sitting on the sofa
Sitting in my office
Sitting in the move-ees

Which then becomes the basis of the game.. If I want to give a shout-out to the blog that this blog is a parody of I'd say:

How ya do ing Trav-is?

One of Kerry's patients might ask her:

What is the prog nose sis?

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

PRAC tice practice PRAC TICE

Pretty soon, you are hooked and just about every sentence you utter

comes out being lyrics

I always (as in never) have said there are two Jethros in the cultural consciousness that are a real blight: the other one was Bodine.