Student: Why go on?
Master: To make a difference.
Month: March 2006
Wednesday comes around every week
It’s that Lost day again.
It’s the Simpsons!
And just incase anyone has been living in a cave for the past week, here’s the incredible video of the Simpsons introduction using live actors instead of animation. And incase your cave is REALLY deep, here’s the Internet Movie Database’s info on The Simpsons.
Get a new domain name for 50 cents
Slickdeals.net tells us that today between 5pm and 6pm EST or until all coupons are gone (think within 3 minutes) that Dotster will be issuing a 50 cent coupon for a new domain name registration if purchased today or tomorrow.
One coupon per order, per account and/or per IP address. There will be a total of 1000 coupon codes. The promotion will last for 1 hour or until the 1000 coupon codes are gone. The coupon will be valid on March 9 & March 10, so the Happy Hour will ONLY be to GET their individual, unique coupon code, they can’t actually purchase their domain until the next day.
Exercise + Food = Strong Mind
BoingBoing points to another study showing exercise and proper eating being very beneficial to our brains. This complements the information in Make Smarter Children.
Blingo March Freenzy continues!
Have you signed up with Blingo yet? No spam. No catches. Signup under someone and that someone wins too. More info.
A couple of brief notes regarding Blingo. The main rule to be aware of is that each household is limited to winning 2 prizes per month. If I win a movie ticket, since I signed up under my wife, she also wins. She has the option of turning it down but if she accepts that means our household has won 2 prizes and within that month and we are no longer qualified to get more prizes. I wrote Blingo to ask if during their freenzy they would temporarily increase the number of prizes each household could receive and, with a very nice letter (unlike the evil Blogger.com employees), Blingo explained that the freenzy is to help increase awareness of Blingo and that the prize limit has to remain at 2 per household even during the freenzy.
Could you, would you save a life?
Yesterday a 13 year old girl, Megan, on Sarah’s Bearden Middle School bus fell over with a heart attack. The girl beside the victom screamed. The bus stopped, students evacuated the bus, paramedics brought in a AED, rushed the girl away, and that’s all we know.
Poor Sarah. Bomb threats, lock downs, and possibly death. Too much reality for a 12 year old. The sad thing is Sarah keeps everything locked inside of her and I can’t get anything but stoic, short answers from her. I was the same way at her age and it pains me because I know that keeping things bottled up can only last so long and eventually it all has to come out; the longer she waits, the harder it will be to deal with the bottled up emotions. I bet she thinks she is being strong; strength would be talking. At least she has caught blog fever and perhaps we can communicate that way. She shared more information about the incident in her blog than I could have dragged out of her with any other means.
Taking advantage of the situation we had this dialog:
Dad: "So Sarah, would you have liked to known CPR to be able help?"
Sarah: "They taught us CPR at camp."
Dad: "So did you try to help?"
Sarah: "She didn’t need CPR. She needed those paddle thingys."
Dad: "An AED? A defibrillator?"
Dad takes a moment to explain CPR, the functions of the heart, lungs and brain, and why CPR saves lives until an AED can be brought on the scene.
Sarah glazes over and tunes Dad out.
Dad asks: "Would you like to be trained in CPR?"
Sarah, exasperated: " I don’t want to learn that medical stuff!"
Dad, starts to explain how she could have helped the girl today, or perhaps her grandparents or even parents.
*Ring ring*
Saved by the bell. The phone rings to end the conversation.
I have to say I found the conversation a little disheartening. More people should be trained with the American Red Cross.
My Famous Wife
Silenced and Pseudo-Instapundited in the same day.
Grouping UNIONed Data
Calling all programmers. Soliciting your help! The following is a bunch of coding stuff. Click MORE to view post.
From the mouths of babes
Granny: "Tommy, you don’t have to write phone messages down for your mother. You could instant message them to her."
Tommy, dead serious: "How will she get them if she’s not here?"
From the mouths of babes
Amy, sharply to Mom: "Don’t talk!"
Dad, thankful to be in another room, doesn’t say a word.
Blingo March Freenzy continues!
Of Grasshoppers
Student: I don’t have time.
Master: Make time.
Buuzzzzzzzz
Time to wake the doughnuts.
Make Smarter Children
Today MSN has an article by Martha Brockenbrough titled Two Ways to Make a Kid Smarter. My pet peeve is the horrible eating habits my children exhibit and her first point in the article is "The body portion: Feed your child’s brain."
…more protein, which kept them alert, energetic, and less prone to anemia, an iron deficiency that dulls thinking skills…if they’re not eating a lot of fish, or taking fish-oil supplements, then there might be an opportunity for some gains. Foods rich in omega-3 fats–such as salmon, fresh tuna, herring, and sardine–contain something called eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA, do three things:
- boosts blood flow to the brain
- helps make hormones that boost brain function
- helps boost the immune system by acting as an anti-inflammatory agent
The study on which this article is based showed results all parents would enjoy.
kids who took fish-oil supplements, which contain omega-3, showed huge improvements in spelling, IQ, and reading. Even their behavior got better.
Her second point is "The mind portion"
The second reason their IQs soared was that their parents put more emphasis on schooling and were more literate themselves.
As parents we must encourage school and help our children see school positively. We need to save our complaints about the teachers, the administration, and the failing education system for times when there are no small ears listening. We also need to continue to improve ourselves as adults. Make time in our hectic schedules to read (take a book into the bathroom, wake up 10 minutes early and read a chapter) and do a brain booster everyday. Our improvement does not have to be a solo activity. Play games with our children (chess, memory, chutes and ladders) and grow their minds as well as yours.
especially when there is leisure time to read or do other brain-boosting activities. Also, people who work jobs that challenge their minds get smarter.
Take time to engage your children.
You need to make sure your little ones are engaging in conversations, practicing making observations, and organizing information in their minds, or they won’t be ready to get the most out of school.
And socialize them.
Kids also need to know how to get along with others–everything from sharing toys to taking turns.
In a stressful day, I find nothing more relaxing than to take a few minute to get down on the floor with Evan and stack blocks for him to knock over, to read a book to Amy or figure out together how to build a bristle block house, to build a model engine with Noah, fight with Sarah, or play chess with Tommy. Oh. Yeah. Maybe I haven’t quite figured out how to interact with a 12 year old girl. These activities, minus the joke about fighting, are wonderfully relaxing, take very little time from our day, and mean so much to the children.
Read the full article.
