The 5 year old (actually he’ll turn 5 in a few weeks) starts kindergarten today. I’ll go home from working Grave Shift early Monday morning to get him and his Mom and we’ll all go to the school so he can start his first day. And with this, I had a curious thought. What kind of things is he going to learn? He’s a smart kid and knows a lot already of course. I mean what kind of parents would he have if we didn’t teach him the ABC’s, how to count, colors, etc. But what else, I know he’ll learn to read, learn to count better and add and subtract. We’ve been working on days of the week and months of the year lately. But, but what other things will he learn?
I Googled “things you learn in Kindergarten” just to see what came up. There was a lot of stuff listed with variations of that entry. But the top one on the list really seems to be the best answer. ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:
* Share everything.
* Play fair.
* Don’t hit people.
* Put things back where you found them.
* Clean up your own mess.
* Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
* Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
* Wash your hands before you eat.
* Flush.
* Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
* Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
* Take a nap every afternoon.
* When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
* Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
* Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
* And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
Man… I hope he gets all of this. I for one, and I’m sure his Mom will as well, will be working to make sure he knows this and lives this.
Source: “ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN” by Robert Fulghum.
This was previously posted at Mommy23Monkeys.com, here.
A friend of mine turned me on to this cool website, Cubeecraft.com. He showed me that he was building a cube Mario from Nintendo Mario Brothers. When I saw it I immediately thought of the kids and how much they would love seeing it. I asked my friend to shoot me a picture of the Cube Mario when he is finished and send it to me. He’s not quite done yet so I’m still waiting. And I think I’ll help out and make some Mushrooms and Piranha Plants to go with the Mario.
I looked around on the web ( ya gotta love Google ) for pictures of Cube Mario and actually found a picture at a site called Technabob.com. We’ll post the real thing later, but take a look at this.
Just like what I was picturing with his Mario and my Mushroom and Plant….
But in the mean time, I went to the site and downloaded a Cube Sonic and a Cube Mario. I’ll update the pictures later when I have them done…
The little wizards have been really tearing it up on the Wii. Normally I wouldn’t be too worried. We have it all figured out for them taking turns, ant they’ve been getting pretty good on the Wii, trading between the old school Mario Karts and the Mario Galaxy game. And when I have time, I’ve been moving up in the Mario Galaxy game myself. Until the other day when I found that MY SAVED GAMES ARE GONE!!! I had gotten half way to unlocking Luigi, completing I believe about 66 levels. And when I got there to try the next one, it was all gone. I was not happy, to say the least.
I had to start over. Geez… Now granted, having done it before, it shouldn’t take forever to get back to where I was, but it took a long time to get there in the first place. At this time, I’ve managed to get back 32 of the stars I had. And, when I’m playing, the kids really enjoy watching, as if it were a movie they’re watching. Pretty funny.
There’s a new rule in the game. If I catch someone playing in my character, they can’t play for awhile. I’ll take the disc and put it away in my office and they’ll only get to play when I’m home to watch.
Maybe the Wizard should turn them all into a Toad.
For three days we slept about 80 feet from this Rattlesnake
We went camping for the Fathers Day weekend. Lots of good food, fun with the family, no sleep (groan)… It was over all a good weekend. The kids all got really good nature lessons. They got to see many types of bugs, tadpoles, a green snake, many birds and at night, bats flying around. Very interesting and lots of fun.
We found a Rattlesnake near the camp, which was a little unnerving at first. After awhile we were going out regularly to check and see if he was still there. It was all pretty foolish in retrospect. We started the weekend warning the kids to be extra special careful looking for snakes and to run away and tell us right away if they were to see one. Then what do we do? Take the kids out to see it (from a distance of course). But in the grand scheme it was good learning for the kids for what they are and what they look like. Of course we were very careful to make sure the kids were a good distance from him and the adults were between him and the kids.
This snake was sleeping under a large log at the campground we were at. It was less than 100 feet from where we were camping. This shot is taken from about 5 feet. His body was about 5 feet long and as thick as my wrist.
Things just keep appearing at our door…. It’s amazing. Last week this thing called a Vroom arrived. After a quick install, our kitchen is cleaning. Amazing. The other day, a terrific 16X20 poster showed up of the little wizards. Truly amazing. Before that, it was a Laptop Gelskin from Lenovo, in anticipation of the Star Trek movie that recently arrived in theaters. The wife received a cool charm bracelet not long ago, and there was the Bissle Green Machine, and a Flip Video Camera a couple weeks before… And, believe it or not, some KY Intense arrived, too?
It’s like Magic or something…
If this keeps up, we might have to get our own zip code or something…
While mining in non secure space last week, I made an error and left 5 drones in an asteroid belt and logged off. I’m assuming that’s what happened, since the next time I went to mine, the drones weren’t there. I was pretty tired that night and I’m sure I just flew off without them. Not too big a deal actually, except for losing the T2 drones.
Until the next mining day…
Now this Hulk that I mine with is a really good tank against the local rats. I can sit there all day without too much of an issue against 3 1.4 mil Isk rats (Raven class Battleship) and tank their damage. The shields will never drop below 25%.
So, when I went mining a couple of days later, when the rats arrived, I noticed I didn’t have the drones. At first I didn’t think anything of it since I can tank these rats just fine. They started pounding away, I kept mining, and the tanking was working OK. Then… a problem. One of the little rats started Warp Scrambling me. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be a problem because like I said, I can tank just fine. But now, I couldn’t leave. I had no way to stop the Warp Scramble on my ship, so I could go back to the POS. If an enemy player were to come into the system while I was trapped, I would be unable to escape.
For the first 10 minutes, I wasn’t too worried, but as time went on I became more concerned, and after about 20 minutes, I started calling for assistance from the Alliance members. There were some that were up to 10 jumps away that said they could refit and come to help but 10 jumps would take some time.
30 minutes go by… What am I going to do? I can’t get immediate help, logging out will get my ship popped, I can’t run, I can’t fight…
So, I called my little brother, 2 time zones away and begged him to log in and save this noob. How embarrassing. He said he was almost asleep too. But being the good little brother that he is, and the good corp mate, he jumped online, and came to my rescue. It took him another 5 minutes or so to log in, and fly to my location and take out the Warp Scrambling cruiser flying with the 3 Battleships.
Whenever I fly out to an Asteroid belt now, I will make sure to remember: Never fly a mining ship without drones. Never. You might find yourself in an uncomfortable situation you can’t get away from.
I received exciting news today. It was just announced that Free Realms has soared past one million registrants in only 17 days, an unprecedented achievement for a new IP. To celebrate this accomplishment, Sony Online Entertainment will be rewarding all registered players with Free Realms gifts. Current players will receive a limited edition in-game t-shirt for their character and pet. Selected players will also receive 200 Station Cash along with the new t-shirt. And, the lucky one millionth person registered to Free Realms will receive a free LIFETIME subscription to the game, a one-of-a-kind in-game astronaut suit, and 10,000 Station Cash.
In Free Realms, players can customize their characters, explore, quest, battle monsters, and play a wide variety of minigames in a safe, online environment, packed with stunning visuals, distinctive environments, and social networking capabilities. Players are free to do or be anything: Fight like a ninja, cook a tasty meal, raise a pet, battle goblins, set out on epic quests or connect with friends through a safe, social networking site.
Also available is the Free Realms Trading Card Game: a full-featured trading card game, playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and offline via physical card decks available wherever you buy trading cards.
Now on a personal note, Mr. A, my little 4 1/2 year old wizard in training absolutely loves this game. We have been in checking out all the sites and experiences available in the game. He has thoroughly enjoyed learning to be a brawler, a cook, a race car driver (demolition, even), and has figured out how to train a pet. I just asked him and he says he loves fighting the goblins the best, and earning money to be able to buy stuff to fight better. The only drawback for him is that I need to make sure and read all the text to him to keep him moving the right direction. But as long as he is following the arrows on the screen, he can usually find his way to where he needs to be next.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, signing up is free and much of the content is free, though you can buy a membership for a nominal monthly fee which adds more content .
Here are a few screen images from Mr. A in “Snowhill”, one of the quest areas in the game
I had a short conversation in game recently about mining etiquette. This was a friendly conversation in my corp with other corp members, talking about what they should do or can do.
I thought I’d bring this question up and see what kind of response I get.
In the Eve Forums, the topic has a lot of different points of view, from “there are no rules”, to the use of moral codes, etc. Basically, the way I see it, this is a MMORPG, that simulates how a real life situation might be. Some players play from the point of view of the Eve-Online game player, others as if they themselves are the pilots trying to carve out a living in the dark confines of space in New Eden.
Personally, I don’t want to make any enemies anywhere, in high sec or low sec, especially from mining. I guess I’m more of a relaxed player. Others, of course, don’t have that same attitude, and I respect that, though if someone is stepping on my while I’m mining, I might not like it. It’s just my point of view though…
—A winner has been chosen! Laurel D is the big winner of the Star Trek Laptop Gel Skin. She told me that she liked the Y530 laptop from Lenovo! Nice choice, I must say.
I used Random.org to help pick the winner. Out of 53 entries, number 11 came up and that turned out to be Laurel. She has 48 hours to contact me to acknowledge the win. So, a big congratulations to Laurel, and a big Thank you to all that participated.—
I have to tell you, I am a HUGE Trekker, and I can’t tell you how excited I am about the new Star Trek movie, Star Trek, which opens in theaters on May 8th. To celebrate, Lenovo has put its best laptops on sale.
In addition to the amazing laptop prices, Lenovo is also hosting an awesome sweepstakes! Right now, you still time to win a ride for 4 people in a Zero Gravity Flight. You and 3 friends could experience zero gravity the only way possible without going into outer space. Check out here for the official Lenovo Sweepstakes rules.
For all you Trekkie’s and Trekkers out there (there is a difference), Lenovo is letting me GIVE AWAY this Star Trek Laptop Gel Skin (sorry, laptop not included).
The Star Trek Gel Skin fits nicely on any 15″ Laptop and is a very cool addition to any Star Trek memorabilia collection.
My Mandatory First Entry:
To enter my giveaway, visit Lenovo and check out their terrific sale. Come back here and leave me a comment telling me which laptop you like the best. Window shopping is always fun and with these prices, maybe you can get that new laptop you’ve been wanting.
Bonus Entry:
Boldly Goand enter the sweepstakes for that zero gravity flight! Come back and leave me a comment and give me the same email that you used to enter that sweepstakes. You can enter the sweepstakes once per day until May 8th, 11:59pm, Eastern Time. So, you can get one extra entry here per day, one for each sweepstakes entry.
Extra Entry opportunities and contest rules.
The giveaway contest for this 15″ Star Trek Gel Skin will also end on May 8, 2009 at 11:59pm, Pacific Time. Winning comment will be chosen by Random.org. Winner will be notified by email and have 48 hours to reply before prize is forfeit.
Here’s kinda what I did during the week. The wife, kids, and I worked on keeping the new lawn watered. At least that’s what I want it to be, a new lawn. A couple of weeks ago I spent most of 3 days completely re-doing the lawn in the front of the house. We’ve been trying to get it watered in and growing quickly, because of impending water rationing due to drought in Southern California. But growing quickly it isn’t. Kinda disappointing. But we keep watering it, hoping it will hurry up and grow.
Putting in a lawn.
And another thing… part of the project included trying to slow down the gophers that keep intruding on my yard. The last yard was destroyed by them. While I was replanting the yard, I laid Avery Cloth down to try and discourage them from coming into the yard, and they found a seam, I guess, and have been again tearing up the yard. Any ideas how to get rid of them without using a Shot Gun? I’m open to suggestions.
Anyway… Wednesday, Earth Day, was beautiful here. I worked that day but it was beautiful when I got home and we all played outside until dark, enjoying the Southern California springtime. The kids went right to bed without baths that night ( I know… eeww…).
Thursday was a kick back day… I was off work and hanging out with the kids at home. Then on Friday, we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. There were 2 great exibits there that we saw, the Butterfly exhibit and the Lorikeets. Butterfly’s were pretty cool, but the kids went nuts over the Lorikeets. The pictures in the head of this post are from that. Cute, eh?
Then Saturday was recovery day, from all the walking at the Wild Animal Park.
So what did you do last week for Earth Week? I’d like to know. Drop me a note and let me know how you celebrated Earth Week.
Think I gotta stop reading tweets for the weekend. Wife's in New Orleans, I'm not... SD Comic Con is going on... I can't go... oh well... :/ 1 week ago
Lost somewhere in New Orleans.... @mommy23monkeys... But I hear she's having fun..... 1 week ago
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