Bugging My Kids

 Breeder's Corner, Geek Wannabe, General  Comments Off on Bugging My Kids
Jun 292007
 

A little while ago I went into my son’s room to ask him about something, and noticed a Tootsie Roll wrapper on the floor.

I bent down and picked it up…

“I know,” he said, “I forgot to throw it in the trash.”

…I stepped over to the trash can…

“I know, I’ll remember next time.”

…I carefully lowered the wrapper into the trash can, maintaining eye contact with my son the entire time.

“I know! I know!”

I think it’s a sign of good parenting when you can practically make your kid’s head explode without saying a word.

 Posted by at 3:51 pm

Test Anxiety

 Geek Wannabe, General  Comments Off on Test Anxiety
Jun 282007
 

Yesterday I took an online quiz, for my online Managerial Accounting class.

I’d done the online assignments. I’d done the homework, and all the “extra problems” assigned to give us more practice if we needed it. I’d felt like I understood how to do the homework problems pretty well.

Then I got into the quiz, and none of the problems in the quiz looked anything like the problems in the homework.

I was sure I was flunking it. Each quiz is ten questions, and with each question I was more and more certain I was going to be lucky to get half of them right. I worried whether I would be able to pass the course at all. I wondered if I shouldn’t withdraw from the class now, while I can still do so without affecting my grade point average.

I slugged gamely through the quiz, giving each question my best shot, then braced myself and submitted it for grading. (One nice thing about online tests—instant grade.)

I got 9 out of 10 right.

Whew.

 Posted by at 6:48 pm

Bryant Holsenbeck at Wake Tech

 Geek Wannabe, General  Comments Off on Bryant Holsenbeck at Wake Tech
Jun 262007
 

Last spring, Wake Tech hosted a small exhibit by Bryant Holsenbeck. She came onto the campus and created a sculpture out of recycled items such as prescription bottles, bottle caps, and Altoids tins.

Bryant Holsenbeck's exhibit at Wake Tech

Bryant Holsenbeck’s exhibit at Wake Tech

I took the boys to see it, as it’s the kind of thing they’d like. My eldest likes to make art of this type himself, so he was very interested to see someone else’s work.

I took a few pictures, but they really don’t do it justice.


Bryant Holsenbeck's exhibit at Wake Tech

This is mostly bottle caps, can lids, and buttons.

I’ve been adding a little content to the sidebar on my blog page, just so it wouldn’t look so empty over there. Mostly links to other people’s blogs, and a countdown to the next Harry Potter book (one of these days I really should read The Half-Blood Prince). It’s still a bit drab—I need to whip up some graphics or something for it—but it’s a little nicer.

And of course Internet Explorer doesn’t display any of it correctly, so today I’ll have to go apply some hacks. Not than anyone other than my mom will see it. Still, considering that Microsoft helped develop the web standards, it sure would be nice if their software would actually support them. But I’ve seen IE do far worse things to my nicely-laid out styles; this should be relatively painless to fix.

Bryant Holsenbeck's exhibit at Wake Tech

It wrapped all the way around the base of the stairs.

Of course, what I should be doing is studying. But damn, that gets old after a while. For some reason I had the idea that I would have more free time over the summer, not less.

Bryant Holsenbeck's exhibit at Wake Tech

Attempted close-up of one of the features.

Fortunately, classes end the day before we leave on our cruise. Talk about good timing. I should be completely ready for a week of doing nothing by then. My mate will have the kids to drag off on tours with him, so I’ll be free to lounge on the deck of the ship getting fat and sunburned. I’m not a big fan of tours; I like to see places at my own pace, stop and dawdle over the things that catch my fancy, wander back and forth as it suits me. Tours are wasted on me—after the first five or ten minutes my buffer gets full and I don’t take in any more information anyway.

So they can go off and do the tour thing, and I’ll probably just wander around the ports looking at the touristy crap and attempting to talk to the people in bad Spanish.

Bryant Holsenbeck's exhibit at Wake Tech

Another piece set up in one of the windows.

 Posted by at 11:52 am
Bear