Our 4.9-year-old boy is easily distracted, and he knows it.
When doing math or english homeschool work, he often tries to escape challenging questions by getting up, heading to the fridge or the piano, and doing something, anything, else. We growl; he realizes what he’s doing, and apologizes “I’m being distracted.”, then he returns to his work.
This morning, something similar happened. Offered some multiplication/addition word problems, he headed to the fridge again. We looked over. He turned around, faced us, and said
“I was getting dist…”
and returned to the fridge, meta-distracted.
headline: Scientist re-creates Turin Shroud to show it’s fake
corrected: “… to show it might be faked, like he faked his fake”
The credibility of the Nobel Peace Prize committee is rapidly retreating to ridicule. Maybe it’s like the old Star Trek movies: every alternate selection stinks.
Rarely is the left so blunt.
On the other hand, see also.
Moments ago, 2.8-year-old says:
I’m ready to go downstairs. I’ve got everything I need: the toy lawnmower, the truck, the biplane. I want to play the racing game – the two-player one. Let’s cruise!
event: Blog Action Day 2009 against “climate change”
in other words: “globally warming up computer seats”
The National Film Board of Canada has started releasing their vast library of canadian classic documentaries and films for free online viewing. Among my favorites: The Log Driver’s Waltz, The Railrodder, The Sweater
Scanning the NFB library outward from those starting points, one comes across more and more quality. While the above are all a few decades old, recent material seems to be high quality. (Expect some extra links soon.) They are classic, understated, patriotic, lovely works. Their slogan’s great too (and I’m a jaded bastard).
Contrast it with the CBC, another federally funded agency, which creates some original programming along with deplorably fashionable news reporting. Perhaps the two agencies could be merged, chartered with the creation of new public media. Ditch the news and the politics. Just help people love their country.
Well, one can dream.
A recent screwup involving forecast time zone changes made me hack together this little ditty.
#!/bin/sh
if [ "x$1" != "x" ]; then
zone=`find /usr/share/zoneinfo -iwholename "*"$1"*" | head -1`
else
zone=/etc/localtime
fi
year=`date +%Y`
echo $zone
zdump -v $zone | grep $year | cut -f2- -d' '
Some uses:
% tzinfo Brussels /usr/share/zoneinfo/posix/Europe/Brussels Sun Mar 29 00:59:59 2009 UTC = Sun Mar 29 01:59:59 2009 CET isdst=0 gmtoff=3600 Sun Mar 29 01:00:00 2009 UTC = Sun Mar 29 03:00:00 2009 CEST isdst=1 gmtoff=7200 Sun Oct 25 00:59:59 2009 UTC = Sun Oct 25 02:59:59 2009 CEST isdst=1 gmtoff=7200 Sun Oct 25 01:00:00 2009 UTC = Sun Oct 25 02:00:00 2009 CET isdst=0 gmtoff=3600 % tzinfo /etc/localtime Sun Mar 8 06:59:59 2009 UTC = Sun Mar 8 01:59:59 2009 EST isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000 Sun Mar 8 07:00:00 2009 UTC = Sun Mar 8 03:00:00 2009 EDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400 Sun Nov 1 05:59:59 2009 UTC = Sun Nov 1 01:59:59 2009 EDT isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400 Sun Nov 1 06:00:00 2009 UTC = Sun Nov 1 01:00:00 2009 EST isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000