Retelling the Hagadah, as if it were on face book...

Very funny page, telling the story of Passover, in facebook format. A friend on facebook (where else!) recommended it, and he's right, it's great.

Always Amazon

I've been debating whether or not to buy a Kindle - I'm it's target audience, in that I read at least two books a week, and books are often the most space consuming thing I have in my suitcase when we travel.

One might think the Kindle is a no brainer - but I'm also an avid supporter (ie user) of new york's public libraries. - There are one million books at my finger tips, all I have to do is order them online and mysteriously they appear at my local branch, and I get an email telling me when they are ready. Really, who could ask for anything more. The first kindle would not let me read books downloaded from the library. That's like an ipod only letting you play music bought from itunes, no uploading your own cd's, no other formats accepted. The new Kindle is a bit more accepting, but it still really prefers you to get your books from Amazon. It's geared for that and while you can do this thing of emailing texts to your special amazon account and them then uploading it for you... well, that's not welcoming enough for me. When I combine that with the $359 cover price, it's not so appealing.

Last night I was on amazon at midnight (is there a better time?) and found the perfect birthday present for DS's friend. But it wouldn't arrive in time if I took the free post option. And I looked at the amazon prime option they are always trying to sell me, anything delivered within 2 days, no $25 minimum, includes grocery items, all for the quite expensive sum of $80. And I say to DH shall I get the one month free option (which we both know means upgrading at the end of the month) and he said, well you use it alot, and I thought, it will deliver more than the kindle (can't download my coffee - (which I know is suspect and others find disgusting, but it's a legitmate line of coffee) which Food Emporium has decided to stop stocking and I can only get it on line now. Thank goodness for Amazon!) and in that moment I made my decision, no kindle, but yes to amazon prime... let the ordering commence

I know I've already blogged today, but this is so suits my needs right now - I went to 3 meetings about overcrowding and the education system this week (and I could have gone to 4, thank goodness DH had a work function for me to attend!) and dark and difficult they were (and informative and frustrating and useful, I don't mean to demean them or my companions who go with me, I just get tired sometimes that the good fight is taking so damned long!) and here is a colourful exploration of education and democracy, a gift!

Just in Case vs Just in Time

You know when you hear a new idea and you just know it's right...

So a friend of mine was telling me about Just in Case vs Just in time, how it impacts manufacturing (do you keep nuts and bolts just in case you need them, taking up cash and inventory space, or do you keep abreast of what you need and order them, just in time. Traditional manufacturing used to have a lot of just in case stuff lying around, leaner, more profitable manufacturing keeps it's cash and inventory freer and orders things to be just in time. Of course, you need some sensitivity and balance here, but that's the idea in a nutshell) and, more importantly (for me!) are you doing this in your life (as I have no factories to manage.)

Certainly in my life I have plenty of Just in Case (JIC) things in my cupboard - sensible things, like medicines that I don't need now, but keep just in case I get a cold, and, many more foolish things I keep, just in case I might want day need them, or even more likely, find a use for them. I'm actually not one of those people who have great emotional difficulty throwing things out. I like clutter free zones. So if even I can immediately see I have way too many JIC items in my house, I'm pretty sure everyone does.

And I feel that a lot of this JIC stuff is taking up way too much psychic (and financial!) inventory. Sometimes there's not enough room for new thoughts, new people, new ideas in our lives, because we are so cluttered with the backlog of JIC stuff that we are carrying around. I think I could discard some of it and have more options to collect things JIT.

But when I went to google this phrase, I came across all sorts of interesting blogs/information of JIC vs JIT and learning (don't you just love the internet!) Lots of computer people are writing about how we learn - how the entire school learning seems to be JIC information - in case you become a doctor, you need to know this, learn it now, it has no outside world relevance now but learn it any case. There are studies that prove learning information that has no extraneous use is harder to both learn and recall, than learning information that you need to know now (JIT knowledge.) One eg given was - if you buy a new phone and read the instructions, and put them into effect, you are far more like to remember them, than if you read instructions for a phone you don't own and may never want.

Well, if you put it like that, obviously you aren't going to recall the technical specs for phones you don't own or want. But that is how we approach a lot of our teaching of high school kids. And the second I read that I knew it to be true. I know it to be true from my own life experience (how much of what we sweated to learn have we ever referred to in later years?) and from what I see of students learning today.

I do believe there is knowledge that people should have just to be citizens of the world - you don't have to know every historical fact, but a sense of history gives you a sense of time and place, even if you don't know why you need to know it right now. However, if you embed history in a story that the students find relevant they are far more likely to listen in the first place and be able to recall it later.

Ditto with science and math. If I give you math problems which are totally abstract (my personal bete noir - if two trains from different stations leave at different times and lots of other details, when will they meet?) solving them is complex and formulaic. But if I tell you, you have $117.37 to buy your favorite songs, but, and add in complications/give you 12% extra or something else, now tell me how much music you can buy.. (or, if you want an adult eg - you bought your house for X amount/square foot, now, it's selling for Y amount/sqf, what's the new total - I've seen people do that in their head after a bottle of wine!) Embedding the knowledge in personally relevant information moves the learning from JIC to JIT, and makes everything easier...

Encouraging young writers

For the young writers in your life -

I was photocopying flyers in the basement of my son's school (people are dazzled that I can get the photocopyer to both collate and staple!) and came across this poem that someone had overcopied and left a few sheets behind;

It's a Writing Kind of Day

It is raining today,
a writing kind of day.

Each word hits the page
like a drop in a puddle,
creating a tiny circle

of trembling feeling

that ripples out
and gathers strength
ringing towards the stars

by Ralph Fletcher.

It reminded me of Love that Dog by Sharon Creech that I bogged about previously.
I'm always looking for ways to encourage DS to write, and I loved that poem (probably much more than he did) but Ralph Fletcher also has a page called Tips for Young Writers on his site, and I hoping DS will like some of the suggestions there...

the new music

So this genius with way too much time on his hands has created this piece by overlaying a host of youtube clips and creating a new piece of music. I love it, like making art out of trash, he's combined 10 or so clips to make a cohesive whole. And it gives strength to the illusion that we are all part of some grand orchestra, that we could all hear if we only stood far back enough...

measuring my inner bitch

Me at Food Emporium buying pancetta

I'd like it an inch thick

He cuts me a hair thin slice

I say no, much thicker, an inch thick

He cuts me a wafer thin slice

I say no, an inch thick

He says an inch is relative

and without thinking I say, no, an inch is an absolute measurement.

And he slices me the width I want (which, realistically, was no more than half an inch)

And I laughed to myself, an inch is a relative term.. well, not really.

We will transcend..

So two things about women and friendship and marriage -

First, saw the excellent Gods of Carnage on Tuesday night. I described it later as 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf, with Hamsters'. Viciously funny, full of real belly laughs, full of lines you've either said yourself or heard or thought of. Two couples meet after the 11 year old son of one, has hit the other son of the other, and broken a tooth... What a juicy place to start!

I told everyone to go and see it 'but only if your marriage is in a good space - then you hear it and laugh. If your marriage is at all fragile, don't go and see it. It's too close to the bone.' as we watch the 2 couples expose all.

And then a friend emailed me this you tube clip, and I cried, as it described women's friendships as we go along in life, and how it helps, just as I returned from breakfast with a new clique of girls I have met, and like. This year I feel unusually rich in friendship, and what a gift that is... seven years in the country and finally I feel I have roots, and friends, and opportunities. It's a good place to be.

How many of you expect to die?

How many of you expect to die is the title for one of the blog postings about aging in the New York Times

The father of a friend of mine died last week. He was 87, in good health until the last intervention, living at home and not in diapers. They discovered cancer, gave him his first session of chemo, he had an allergic reaction to the chemo and a week later he was gone.

To my mind, this is not a bad passing. A long active life, a life lived at home and still of sound mind, a quick, relatively painless, relatively inexpensive death (one fear that lingers for many Americans is that the titanic efforts at the end of their lives, to extend it by a year or two, will eat their house, and leave nothing for their children. Frankly, I feel this fear to be real and true for me.)

When I think about how I want to die, the answer is always, in my 80's I want to be diagnosed with cancer, get 3 months to put my affairs in order (yes, my will is written, but really, do I want someone else to go through my old underpants? Surely I can throw out the 20 almost empty bottles of perfume in my cupboard and not make my son look and wonder why I ever kept them) throw one last cocktail party, buy a really expensive something for each (any?) of the grandkids, and then, without chemo but with painkillers, quietly make my way... I like the scenario, it gives the illusion of control, of not leaving behind a mess.

I do think we don't talk enough about death. I know the Victorians fetishized it, but we've really taken to acting like we are going to live forever, and somehow astonished when it's proved otherwise.

Of course no one in their 40's expects to die, and yet, there was that awful plane crash the other day, and car accidents happen every hour. I have organized a living will (please pull the plug, take my eyes, take my liver if you think it will do any good... it's just meat by then, and the thought that my final act/choice could improve someone's life substantially gives me a sense of comfort.) made my wishes known to friends and family (I'm sparing my son, he's only 11, but I imagine when he's 21 I'll give him an envelope with final instructions, so he doesn't have wrenching decisions without any guidelines)

I would encourage everyone reading this to do the same... It's actually far easier to do it when we are all healthy and active, than have to make these decisions in the harsh light of the hospital waiting room...

much to celebrate

Last Saturday we had a party. We usually have one a year but somehow I think it's been 2 since our last one... This year we were celebrating 7 years since we moved to NYC, DH turned 46 and our marriage turned 21.

One friend had googled it and found out that 21 years of marriage is brass, and got us a brass ornament. A very sweet thought - though we both agreed that those rankings need to be reassessed. I think brass, if it's going to be anything, should be 2 years max, and by the time we get to 21 years, it should be emeralds at the very least! 10 can be silver, 15 gold, none of this paper and common metal stuff.

It's always lovely to put all your friends in a room and watch them interact. I'm always surprised that they don't all know each other! Somehow I think if I know them, they must be friends with each other as well. And then the odd connections that do happen, 2 friends figuring out that they went to the same elementary school (both raised and remaining in NYC) Others that they work in the same field. All of them friendly and interested in each other. And in a cultural difference, where in Sydney you invite people for 7.30 and they turn up at 9, in NYC everyone was there by 8. The last stragglers left at 12.30. It was a really fun night.

For the first time, we hired a bar tender. He was a great addition, we're definitely having one when ever we have another party! So drinks were taken care of. I, as per usual, worried over much about the food (though spent only 3 days obsessing, not even a full week, so I would say I was almost relaxed.) I made gazpacho and put them in tiny 2 mouthful cups, and that was very successful. DS baked a carrot cake and I made this so called flourless cake which was more like a giant truffle, that I cut into tiny portions, topped with a raspberry.

There was much laughter and chat, and afterwards I realized that I hadn't taken any photos and in that oddly adult way, I have 12 million shots of my child, and even my friends children, but very few of my friends, and certainly none of them with me. But DH said he had thought of it, but didn't want to, it would make it seem stilted, and I agreed, where better to be purely in the moment than at a party...