Home For The Holidays?
I know I'll be home for Yule, but maybe not for the rest of the week. I just heard my brother was admitted to the hospital last night. Add to that my mother just got out of surgery and there may be no one to look after things in his household. If things are bad for him and he's stuck in the hospital for the holiday weekend or longer, it looks like I'll need to head down to take care of my mother, my niece, and maybe my brother until he's better.
Can't say no when family needs help, and we'll see how things stand tomorrow. I hope things are alright.
OMG Weasels!!!
Morganisms are things I used to tweet, but I don't really use twitter that much any more, so I figured I would put them on my blog instead. This latest was said yesterday at Denny's. Morgan was talking about what happens to bad boys.
"No TV, no video games, no viewmaster, and NO WEASEL!"
Anne and I have no idea what a Weasel is.
Lizard!
At Denny's, Morgan burst out loudly with the following:
"The lizard got me!"
I can't make this stuff up. I love him so much.
Bad Idea?
Latest Morganism. I'm sitting at home. Morgan comes up to me out of the blue and says:
"Michael, you got an idea! Let's try something else."
Nearly choked on my soda...
No More Chandeliers
Another one from Morgan. I'm at my computer and Morgan comes out of the bathroom right over to me and stands next to me, saying:
"There's no chandeliers left in the bathroom!"
My reply:
"That's true." Nodding sagely.
Barbeque
I full out laughed so hard at this for five minutes my ribs hurt and I couldn't breathe.
I am annoyed (again).
Either a new cycle is starting, or something that's always around is leaking into the television programs I'm watching. I suspect it's the latter.
The other day I was watching a commercial for a jewelry store. Three young girls were trying to see if their father got the piece of jewelry they suggested for Mother's Day. Well, of course he did, and naturally his wife showed her appreciation with a hug and a kiss. The children were watching and the older one said "Awww, they're so cute at that age!"
That, of course, is when my bile started to rise. What is it with these commercials? I really really hate it when commercials, and TV shows for that matter, portray adults (especially parents and most often fathers) as stupid, immature and/or clueless, while their children are smarter and more mature. The icing on the cake is when the children indulge or tolerate their idiot parents while commiserating with their siblings about how difficult it is to raise their parents.
I said I suspect this was leaking over from other television programs that I don't watch. My chief suspects are children's shows, specifically those aimed at ten to sixteen year olds, or whatever the demographic is for them. I haven't watched those shows, because I'm pretty sure I'd be compelled to stab one or more of my sensory organs after only a few minutes. The script writers and producers of these commercials and television shows thing they're being very clever, but I think they're one of the hands unravelling the threads that hold our society together. Perhaps that's a little extreme, but they are in effect promoting the view that children are in general smarter, more mature, and know better than their parents what's good for them. Anyone over the age of 25 or so knows that this is absolutely not true. Parents and adults are in general smarter, more mature and usually know better than children what's good for them.
I know that you can read commentary from writers as far back as the ancient Babylonians saying that children no longer respect their parents and that society is going to hell in a handbasket, etc. I'm sure everyone thinks that about their own time, but can we please let children be disrespectful on their own, without the help and example from other adults who's sole motivation seems to be making a quick buck off those same children, and who demonstrably have no regard for the consequences of the message they're sending.
What the hell were you thinking!?
An obviously advanced civilization sends an exploration ship to our world. Earth's response: light show to let them know we welcome them and to show them where to land and meet us? Radio messages sent on all frequencies to let them know we eagerly await a peaceful meeting and exchange of ideas?
How about MISSILES OF FLAMING DEATH!!
The aliens somehow managed to avoid detection, perhaps because they are able to travel millions of light years they have technology somewhat past our own. They land and attempt to contact us. Earth's response: Lay out the red carpet? Ceremony of Celebration attended by top officials in honor of our new visitors?
How about CAPTURE AND BRUTAL INTERROGATION!!
Alien visitors tragically crash land on our planet (see scenario 1 above). Earth's response: reverent recovery of their bodies? Touching funeral to honor their attempt to contact us?
How about COLD AND UNCARING DISSECTION IN A SECRET LAB!!
If we detect them in the air, our first reaction is to try to shoot it down if it's flying. If it's on the ground, our first reaction is to capture, hold and brutally interrogate these explorers. If we find their bodies our first reaction is to dissect them. Seriously, what are you guys thinking? Are you really that crazy?
So, when these technologically advanced being send their follow up expeditions, because "Hey Blarkthar, what ever happened to that ship we sent out to that solar system on the edge of the galaxy that sent the ship with the platinum disk saying hello and asking us to come visit?", What are we going to say?
"Sorry, didn't realize you guys could kick our butts! On the plus side, we kept their bodies preserved in formaldehyde! So, you can…like…bury them now or whatever you do."
The Speed of Dark
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
This book is about Lou Arrendale, a man with autism. This was enough to get me interested, because my son has autism and I find most things on the topic of autism interesting. The idea of a novel about a man with autism was very compelling to me and I felt real anticipation and interest building before I even started reading it, emotions I have not felt about a book in a long time.
The Speed of Dark did not let me down at all. I did not expect it to be written from Lou's perspective. I more expected something from an outsider's point of view. At first I had some difficulty with it because the perspective was jarring and very different, but after a few chapters I was able to sink into Lou's point of view. This book truly held my interest throughout and I was always reluctant to put it down when other things came up to deal with, like meals and sleep, for example.
The back of this book has a set of discussion questions meant to prompt a book discussion group. In one of the questions, one reviewer is said to have described the book's ending as chilling, while another called it a cop out. After thinking about how the book made me feel in general, I think bittersweet is the best description of my feeling about the book. As I read the book, I expected events to take the same general course as another short story Elizabeth Moon wrote about a man who thought he would be forced to change against his will. In that case he was going to be forced to have a colony of symbiotic organisms removed from his guts. He ran away and was helped by the people he met to fight for his rights in court. Things seemed to be following that track in this book, but then it took a turn and wound up going in a direction I didn't expect, to my further delight. The choices Lou made were definitely not ones I think I would have made, but were still realistic and understandable. In fact, the more consider it, the more I am not sure what I would have decided to do in the end.
The unexpected direction of the novel, well thought out characterizations, excellent and immersive point of view of Lou, and my own son's autism along with my interest in the subject makes this book easily one of my top ten favorites of all time. If you have a connection to Autism, either through a relative or someone you know, I believe you will find this book interesting. However, if you have no connection to autism, I think Elizabeth Moon's solid storytelling abilities will engage your interest anyway.
The Stopwatch
Today we bought Morgan a stopwatch. He's been asking for it for a couple of days now. We weren't sure why he wanted it, but when he's specific about things he wants we try to accommodate him, so on our weekly grocery run to Wal Mart we found a nice ten dollar electronic stopwatch, a Sportline 228.
We got him home and made him wait while we put the groceries away, finally getting out his stopwatch and reading the instructions (there weren't many) to get it working. I set the date and time, and then showed him how to turn on the timer and how to stop it. He immediately pointed it at me and hit the time button, looking at me expectantly… and looking… and looking. He got really upset and we were trying to figure it out, when it hit me. He expected the stopwatch to actually stop time, and he was upset because I didn't freeze in place when he pointed it at me and hit the button.
This got an Oh… My… God… out of Ash, and then started laughing at the absurdity of the entire situation. I played with Morgan for a bit, freezing in place when he pointed it at me and letting him then move my arms and such around, still staying frozen in whatever pose he picked out for me, then acting as if I didn't know what had happened when he turned time back on for me. He was very happy when it was working, but a little disappointed when he found out it didn't work at all on Mommies or cats, and only occasionally on Daddies.
So now, he's been complaining to Ash.
"Michael won't stop!"
"He doesn't want to stop."
"He won't stop, Anne!"
This is shaping up to be a long spring break.