A small happiness, but I di feel glad I did it.
Was talking over the weekend about blacberry & apple crumble
Mum has prepared and frozen a number of cooking apples she was given this year. I went out for 30 minutes and brought back a box of blackberries. The walk, the time-out and the general nature of... well, nature's bounty, has made me feel great.

And I think it cheered her up a bit.
I offered to soak them for her, but she was happy to do it. Off they go to the freezer to await happy dessert times.

I do have some itchy scratches though.

The Flint and Pooka teamwork is what really gets things done: it's like good cop, bad cop, oh my God should we call the cops?

apparently hebe's grades are awesome. Coming from hippie school, we've never had to deal with grades before. i still find the online grade check thing kinda voyeuristic, though, and tonight was surprised to learn that her grades were really good. I only just made the adjustment to what % = A from Brit to yank, so i guess I was overcompensating.

When I was at school, 70% was an A. here, that's a fail......

Good for her! Do you think the hippie school probably helped her become a creative problem solver?

Some of that, for sure. Mostly I think it taught her that she's in charge of and responsible for her own education, so when she encounters something she doesn't know, she doesn't have the "nobody told me" or the "we didn't cover this yet" attitude that I've seen in some kids (and I guess been surprised by), and she doesn't rely on anyone to remind her when stuff is due.

They always tell us that the transition from the small, friendly, sheltered, co-operative school to the big competitive high schools is easy and Open School kids come out on top, but I guess we don't believe it 'til we see it.

I also didn't know that AC classes bump up theri grades, so the grades I'm seeing on powerschool are lower than her final grade will be for those classes if she keeps it up.

I'm just relieved that she's made the transition OK, that the intense swimming schedule is not affecting her grades and that she's getting the grades I hoped she would (better, even). It's all too easy for parents to overestimate their children's academic and multitasking abilities.

This. The self-reliance thing is so important, and sadly is pretty much ignored by the public school system.

Aboslutely, I see first year uni students drowning because they lack this.

But when you link teacher's jobs and incomes to standardised test results, and then don't test for things like this ...

Not a teachers job to teach self-reliance. That is good parenting.

Zen, dazza tells me that he's noticing a growing number of students entering uni without the ability to write reports and things like that and who seem to expect the lecturer to practically write their papers for them. For example, he'll send them a web address to look for info, and they respond by asking for the exact link that corresponds to what they're doing.

This is a massive problem as I see it.

yeah it killed me last night to hear "your disabled/IEP students have to reach this % of reading and math proficiency for us to pass this test. if they don't, you're going to be seeing a lot more homework and your kids are going to be asked to stay after school and come in on Saturdays...." because that will really help. if they're not getting it, doing it more achieves nothing. you need to do it differently and that takes time. this is some crappy new measurement call Adequate Yearly Progress AYP Absolute Yard of Poop imo.

I think it depends what they're doing exactly. Sometimes repetition does help. Usually it should be a combination of things. It really depends if they're developing or consolidating knowledge. If they're just in the early stages of consolidating, they're likely to benefit from repetition.

I hope they can find a way to work towards helping all the kids. It's hard to tailor a solution individually if the parents aren't involved though thanks to the limited resources available to teachers.

Yup. Been dealing with that for 2 years.
Me: He has virtually no short term memory. What are our alternatives?
Teach: Work harder, more homework, worksheets...
Me: He has NO memory! THAT is his disability.
Teach: your disabled/IEP students have to reach this %
Wash, rinse & repeat.

Sometimes in special circumstances you need to do the research yourself classic. See if you can find out what the alternatives are for yourself then teach the teacher, or at least give them the info you've found and discuss the practicalities, but seriously, no one teaches teachers what to do in every situation. Sometimes it's helpful to do a bit of the legwork yourself. Teachers just don't have enough time to do it all themselves, and even the ones who really do care don't have the time and often/usually no resources.

That is another story. We have gone far past this point. He is now in with a teacher who is much better for him and with him. Its been fantastic, honestly. There are still issues, but we discuss how to overcome them and we both have been innovative in our approach and united in the direction of the lessons. For this year (summer plus a month) its been a win/win/win.
Resources are basically all on me. That was fine when I had an income. Now its a little tougher, but we are still managing. I REALLY want to get him a tablet, but there is no way that is gonna happen till I find a new job.

the point where they are sending the extra homework and scheduling extra classes is long after repetition has failed as a reinforcement tool.

And it's often not the best tool in the first place. But it is the easiest to administer, monitor and grade. And it does work for most, eventually. But not for all, and notably not for a lot of students with IEPs. that's kind of the point of IEPs, i thought, but apparently this stupidity trumps IEPs. MAKE IT SO!

And, just as a fwiw -Hebe has barely had any homework prior to high school. certainly no printed worksheets. She's getting A+ across the board. Not without effort, but the point being that the lack of repetition to this point clearly hasn't damaged her. At our alternative school, once you have something, you reinforce it by helping/teaching others who haven't got it yet. Works a treat. And the kids don't come to hate homework and school. it's funny, our kids hit highschool and they kinda view homework as fun (doubt that will last) -a bit like they did when the preschool teacher gave them "homework" to find and bring in something starting with a certain letter for alphabet week.

Well, not just self-reliance, but initiative, responsibility, many things. Not a teacher's job? I'd say mostly it is parenting, but teachers can help - and they can also undo a lot of good. If the learning strategy is "here is a list of all the facts you need to know, beat them into your heads however you can", then the students will be trained into dependency and sheepicity. (That is so a cromulent word). If the strategy is 'pick a topic, find out stuff, tell us about it" then there is a bit more independence. If it is "find a problem, solve it" then this should foster independent thinkers.

The art of teaching is creating a situation with the right degree of support and freedom.


Yup. Remember, my job is the back-up academic who students like that get referred to. Quite a lot of students are scarecly able to do more thinking than cut-and-paste from a source. Some of them struggle to do that.

To be educated today, IMHO, is not knowing a whole heap of facts, but rather having the ability to figure out what information you need, to find it, to assess the source for reliability, and to apply that information to solve your challenge.


:notworthy: to your school learning strategy! MUCH better than more rote learning.

No finer way to consolidate knowledge than to teach someone else what you've learned.

I have my health, I have a place to live. There's food on the shelf (and booze).

These things are nice.

I have three wonderful children who love me and of whom I am immensely proud. I have the love of a good woman who is beautiful, smart and sexy.

These things make me happy.

Dexter, Season 6, tomorrow night at nine!

Bowl till you bleed!!!!!

YAY!

Holy shit, finally!

I still have yesterday's Doctor Who finale playing out at the edges of my thoughts. It makes me happy that the series clicked together so well. What a great story.


Sometimes, ya know....it's the little things:P

That's what Tony Soprano always said. :D

Got the boy a "food maze".
Couldn't have justified it at full price, but ZooPlus (website) had a sale and I also had a voucher. AND got free shipping.

I've been having a fight this year to reduce Diz's weight. I doubt many people would have classified him as obese, but I know how bony he used to be. The breed profile for a Singapura is stocky, so being skinny isn't something I wanted to go back to, but he did have a paunch.

I stopped his blood & bones diet after he tried to choke to death in May, but ever since then he has got more & more rotund.

So when I saw the Cat-It Food Maze at a price I could afford I was all for it.
I put a weighed portion of dried food into it every morning.
There is still some left when I go to bed.
He is no longer gorging then whining.

He gets a food pouch in the evening, but this is factored into the plan.
It does disappear in about two minutes!

Oh and yes. From the first time he saw it he got it.
Put paws in top to knock beebles down to next level.
Then fish about on second level.
Final level gets them into the dish at the base.
Three levels of difficulty (you can change the size of the holes) and on the easiest level some can be knocked from the top right into the dish. I'll change this once he's used to working for his food....

Happy, happy, happy.

that is really cool.

Somebody said that we will be judged in heaven by the way we treated cats.

You will get a crown of jewels! :queen:

I think it's cool, even if I don't believe in heaven.

Because if I did, I'd already be on the list for hell for being complicit in the poor bugger developing such greedy habits.

At least he's moaning at me less.
He can smell the beebles and knows he can knock them down, rather than calling for food 30 minutes after he ate 1/3 of what he was due per day.

He misses the scoff-fests.
Still, he gets one at teatime (pouch food).

That's awesome. How clever.

Pilau's gained weight. Cropped his fur and underneath he's a right podge! No wonder he was starting to feel heavy when I lift him into the car (he can't jump into the car anymore though bless him he tries).

Alas his quota of guilt-biscuits has risen in inverse proportion to his shrinking exercise quota.

It has to stop. The last thing he needs is a bunch of extra weight on those legs. He's already unsteady enough to blow over in a gust of wind.

That's a very nice kitty feeder there, Sundae. My two aren't (too) overweight, but I know they get bored on weekends when I have to put in 14 hour days at the Bates and then just come home and collapse. :(

I wonder if there is an American equivalent? I did find a little egg-shaped thing that you fill with treats and then kitty has to bat it around to get a treat to fall out. Flicker figured it out right away and loves to play with it (and eat the treats). Sylvester is too lazy, and he just waits for Flicker to bat a goodie out for him. Ain't that a typical male? ;)

Today is my grandson's first day of real employment in a fish hatchery (Lake Merwin, WA).
He's still in the last year of the Fisheries training program at a local community college,
and he'll go for full time employment in the summer.

I'm a bit concerned that he is taking on too much this semester...
14 credit hours + 2 days per week at the hatchery + 1 day per week
at the plant nursery where he's been part time for the past year.

It's been 3 years since his Mom essentially threw him out of the house (drugs),
but he has since got his GED, started community college with basic courses,
and then was accepted into the Fisheries program.

Sometimes it was touch-n-go, but we're very happy and proud of him.

Sometimes it takes a busy schedule to stay clean or at least clean enough. Good for him.

Cat-It (makers of that specific food maze) is distributed by a company called Hagen, that definitely sell in America.
Lamp, that's amazing. So pleased to hear of his progress.

Sometimes a kid needs a kick in the ass like that to come around to reality. I hope he and his mom are on good (or at least better) terms now. He sounds like he's a hard worker at heart, so I'm glad for him.

Good for him Lamp. The young-ins can, and should keep busy.
Just keep on doing what you're doing.

Lamplighter--

Finding a load that is "right" involves trying some that are too light (like before?) and some that are too heavy (like now?). He's using the tried and true Goldilocks method of figuring it all out. I add my voice to the chorus of cheering support, Good Job on him!

I have a job interview next Tuesday.
It's for Sunday work in a large pharmacy chain.

All I can do is hope.
And ask questions of my SIL who works there.
And check out interview questions on the internet, and come up with potential answers that match the person spec.

Yup, it's a Sundae job.

Hey, that's excellent, Sundae!

Good luck Sundae. Wow 'em.

Good luck!

bought a skeleton the size of Thor from the thrift store for $6.50. Thor and Hector had already had $6.50 worth of fun out of it before we even paid for it. Then Thor and I went into the Library. Hector put Melvin the driver's seat, hands on the wheel... He looked awesome. hector reported many double takes and a little laughter. then he had Melvin waving at other drivers. (rushhour, traffic speed non-existent.) some pretended we didn't exist, others laughed and enjoyed. So funny.

:lol:

Although ...
With a big saucepan and some wire you could have saved yourself $6.50.

My girlfriend loves me, and I love her.


there *is* more that matters, but not before morning....

I'm so happy. We got a big box of candy from Sundae last week and I got a card from her today. It only took the card 2 1/2 months to get here. LOL. That's the way it goes when you live in the boondocks.

TY Sundae for making a horrible day at the doctors turn into a great one!!

the inside

So after all my moaning it was actually my own fault for not putting enough postage on!
Oh well, at least they didn't do what they do here, which is deliver it anyway but charge YOU the extra postage plus a 99p fine!

Glad it finally arrived.
Sorry that it still applies all this time later...

The Wife and I celebrated our 18th anniversary this past weekend.

Congrats!

Major congratulations CG.
She is obviously a very specal woman.
(and a patient one ;))

Sarge - just realised, you were reading the date in the American way.
I posted the card on 6 September. Which still means it took a month and a half, but at least I know the reason.

But it's worth knowing if I'm sending something in future.
There is a sharp drop in price sending things by slow mail, so if time isn't of the essence I might use it again - intentionally next time.

So saying, is it time for Secret Santa yet peeps?

Congrats to Crimson and Rose Ghost (I don't know, I'm just wingin it)!!

18 years is an accomplishment worth being proud of. Good job both of you!

What I'm happy about:

I didn't die.

Ok, I know that's very melodramatic. But it could've happened. I have some very abundant lilacs out front and one large branch is/was hanging over and onto some utility lines from the street. Very not good. It was a large branch, as big around as my calf. But the spot where I wanted to cut was aaaaaallllmosst out of my reach. To be fair, it was well out of my safe reach. The thing is, I don't have a step ladder, only an extension ladder and there wasn't an easy place to lean the ladder. To make things more dangerous, the branch, the place where I had to stand was just about two feet from my driveway, which is leads to the garage, duh, ... under the house. That means I was cutting this branch overhead and it would fall (past me, I hoped) into the driveway about five feet below my feet. Five feet I could easily fall, with a snarling chainsaw. Hooooboy.

Out of my reach? Yeah. I wanted to cut it outward from the spot where the utility line was touching so that when it did fall it would just fall, not get hung up on the line. Then I'd planned to cut the remaining stub short of the utility line. This is what happened. But it was touch and go.

I reached up with one hand holding the running chainsaw, like this, but without the helper,

Attachment 34831

and with my free hand I reached up and pulled the branch downward, allowing me to reach the branch with the tip of the chainsaw. I pushed through as far as I could but it wasn't enough to cut through the branch. I switched sides, careful to avoid stepping onto thin air over the driveway, avoiding getting entangled in the rose bushes, avoiding getting ensnarled by the power cord for the chainsaw. I cut again from this second side and cut through a lot more of the branch, but still not through the branch. Back to the first side and I could see a LOT of daylight, giving me a good idea of where to apply my next cut. It came down, not on me, not on the roses, but in the driveway. YAY! I didn't die!

Cutting the remaining stump was anticlimactic, though the chunk that fell straight down and missed my feet. Yep, I'm happy.

Was it really worth the risk doing that job yourself V? Over here we'd probably call that a "hold my beer and watch this" moment.

Glad you're ok. Things could have gone really badly wrong there. :(

You should have leaned the ladder on the branch you were cutting. That way it couldn't have fallen on you.

Hmmmm... for some reason I don't think that would have turned out very well. :thepain:

Well, to do it right he also needs a big, gas-powered chainsaw, with the safety by-passed and the throttle wired open.

and a dull, slack chain

or he coulda called the utility company to come and do it?

this is posed, of course. and the section in red ... sorry, the text landing IN the box, it says ELECTRICAL. But you get the idea. The yellow box above the red electrical, that's the one the the branch was leaning on. I'm on my tiptoes here.

all done now, we're gonna burn the branches in the fireplace tonight.

BigV - you have people that love you and that you love, right? What if you'd seen one of them attempting this? Huh? Please do not do this to the people who love you (I don't mean CellahLurv, I mean the Real Thing).

But cellahlurv too. I've been thinking about this all arvo and I have to say, it just gets dopier the more I think about it.

don't do dopey stuff anymoreV!

P-shaw. My 82 year old dad does stuff like that all the time.

his fondest wish is to die falling off a roof.

Keep up the good work, V! You'll make the news yet!

It could have been a little safer, but I don't see how it was life threatening in any way. You're almost certainly not going to die if you fall 5 feet. Maybe twist an ankle.

Good job, V.

I have a 14 foot pole saw for jobs like this and even though it takes a little longer, it's much more comfortable to use and safer. I use it at least once a year to trim branches around our service entrance wires. Prune them while they are small, and the job is easy. Plus it's a fiberglass pole, so even if you are an idiot and cut into a power wire, you will be safe.