Saturday, January 8, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Let's Roll!
I want to solicit you.
Whaaaaaat?!?
Get your mind out of the gutter, man!
I'm not that kind of girl. Besides, I'm not sure if I could provide adequate value for the money.
No, I'm talking about our terrific Portland Rose City Rollers and their Quest For a New Floor!
The gals have been skating their butts off for six years now, and for all that they still provide the best show on wheels in Portland, their old track floor is just about whipped. They sure could use some help with a new one.
So follow the link and whip out a double sawbuck and get a bad girl off the street and onto the flat track, where she can kick some ass like a crazy monkey.
Because a bad girl is a terrible thing to waste.
Whaaaaaat?!?
Get your mind out of the gutter, man!
I'm not that kind of girl. Besides, I'm not sure if I could provide adequate value for the money.
No, I'm talking about our terrific Portland Rose City Rollers and their Quest For a New Floor!
The gals have been skating their butts off for six years now, and for all that they still provide the best show on wheels in Portland, their old track floor is just about whipped. They sure could use some help with a new one.So follow the link and whip out a double sawbuck and get a bad girl off the street and onto the flat track, where she can kick some ass like a crazy monkey.
Because a bad girl is a terrible thing to waste.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Weekend Blog Hop 1/6-1/9
Welcome to my Weekend Blog Hop!
I would love if you could drop by and add yourself to all of my blogs this weekend (optional:).
In case I didn't say this before, if you don't have a blog you can link your site, Facebook, etc. Whatever you want, it's all in fun☺
It's simple to participate, here are the rules:
- Please place the "Weekend Blog Hop" button in a blog post and/or on your blog somewhere. This lets us all know where to find each other!
- Follow my blog.
- Visit at least 2 blogs on this list.
- Add your name to the linky list below so we can visit you back. I will be following everyone who posts.
- Comments are optional but always appreciated.
Please support this blog hop by using your Facebook, Twitter, and forums to advertise. It's great for everyone to discover new friends, followers, and fantastic blogs!
Thanks so much for participating!
T♥
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
New Math
So I was helping my oldest kiddo with his homework tonight.
Homework? I hear you say. Homework, in second grade?
Yep. Welcome to the brave new world of American childhood.
The Peep brings home one of these four- to five-page collections of foolscap every Monday and has to turn them in Friday morning. They are typically composed of a page of writing work, another of reading-and-comprehension, a couple pages of math, and a front page for the boy to record his reading, which is set at 20 minutes a night.
He's terrible about it, of course, as you can probably remember from your school days. There's always something better to do than homework - blogging, for example - and the seven-and-a-half-year-old mind is a gossamer and flittery thing. So Mojo or I usually have to wrestle him into submission to get the work done. It is a process that all parties genially dislike.
Tonight we did the math worksheets.
I realized after I started that this was actually pretty sophisticated math for second grade. The sheet header showed a variety of domestic pottery labeled with prices in cents. The teapot is 72 cents, the glass 18, the frying pan 57, and so on. Down the page were a series of written questions, such as; "Alisha has 50 cents. She buys a glass. How much money does she have left?"
I sat down with the Boy and we looked at the first problem. We read it over. I looked at him.
"I have to think." he said. I waited. He thought.
"What should we do to start?" I asked.
"I'm thinking." he replied.
I waited.
Finally I pointed to the example the sheet provided. "Look how they set up this problem. How can we do that here?" I asked.
"I'm still thinking." he replied. "It's time to stop thinking and do the problem." I hissed, at which he protested "I'm thinking! Mister Chun says we need to think about the problem!". His mom added that he was right, and he was told to think about the problems. I looked down at the page, frustrated.
"Do you know how to do this math problem, buddy?" I asked as neutrally as I could.
He frowned at the page. "I think I do." he said uncertainly. "Then what are you going to do?" I asked gently. He wrote down a number "nine" in the box with the problem. "That's the answer." he announced, in defiant hopefulness.
"No, it's not." I replied. "You don't know how to do these, do you?" I asked, wondering at the sort of math class that would start a kid on double-digit addition and subtraction without showing them how to convert tens into units.
So I showed him how, while you couldn't subtract the 8 from the 0 in the units column you could "break" a ten and convert it to ten "ones", then add the ten to the 0 and make it 10...then subtract 8 from 10 to get 2. And then you made a little mark striking out the tens value and reducing it by the one "ten" you moved. And subtracted the tens.
Little man was resistant at first until he saw how this method actually worked better than guessing or whatever sort of computation he was doing initially. By the time we reached the bottom of the second page he was anticipating me in "breaking down" the tens, converting single digits to teens, adding and subtracting.
The thing is, it took me a bit of thinking to remember how I do simple double-digit addition and subtraction; it wasn't nearly as intuitive as I thought it was. And explaining it to a second-grader was almost as difficult. But perhaps the most difficult part was understanding what it was he didn't understand and why. What seemed obvious to me was completely opaque to him; he couldn't make the cognitive jump from the written description to the setup of the numerical problem, and he couldn't do the simple unit addition and subtraction in his head as I could. It was difficult not to see his incomprehension as stupidity, and his math errors as carelessness.
But he kept at it; he slowly worked through the word problems, set up the numerical problems, corrected his math errors, and carefully wrote down each answer. I don't think he ever enjoyed the process, but I think he got some satisfaction from doing the work correctly and well.
And then he hopped up and bounded happily down the hallway to the tub to splash and play with his toys, leaving me tapping the eraser of my pencil on the paper covered with childish handwriting, cartoon cups and plates, and wondering just what we had accomplished.
Homework? I hear you say. Homework, in second grade?
Yep. Welcome to the brave new world of American childhood.
The Peep brings home one of these four- to five-page collections of foolscap every Monday and has to turn them in Friday morning. They are typically composed of a page of writing work, another of reading-and-comprehension, a couple pages of math, and a front page for the boy to record his reading, which is set at 20 minutes a night.
He's terrible about it, of course, as you can probably remember from your school days. There's always something better to do than homework - blogging, for example - and the seven-and-a-half-year-old mind is a gossamer and flittery thing. So Mojo or I usually have to wrestle him into submission to get the work done. It is a process that all parties genially dislike.Tonight we did the math worksheets.
I realized after I started that this was actually pretty sophisticated math for second grade. The sheet header showed a variety of domestic pottery labeled with prices in cents. The teapot is 72 cents, the glass 18, the frying pan 57, and so on. Down the page were a series of written questions, such as; "Alisha has 50 cents. She buys a glass. How much money does she have left?"
I sat down with the Boy and we looked at the first problem. We read it over. I looked at him.
"I have to think." he said. I waited. He thought.
"What should we do to start?" I asked.
"I'm thinking." he replied.
I waited.
Finally I pointed to the example the sheet provided. "Look how they set up this problem. How can we do that here?" I asked."I'm still thinking." he replied. "It's time to stop thinking and do the problem." I hissed, at which he protested "I'm thinking! Mister Chun says we need to think about the problem!". His mom added that he was right, and he was told to think about the problems. I looked down at the page, frustrated.
"Do you know how to do this math problem, buddy?" I asked as neutrally as I could.
He frowned at the page. "I think I do." he said uncertainly. "Then what are you going to do?" I asked gently. He wrote down a number "nine" in the box with the problem. "That's the answer." he announced, in defiant hopefulness.
"No, it's not." I replied. "You don't know how to do these, do you?" I asked, wondering at the sort of math class that would start a kid on double-digit addition and subtraction without showing them how to convert tens into units.So I showed him how, while you couldn't subtract the 8 from the 0 in the units column you could "break" a ten and convert it to ten "ones", then add the ten to the 0 and make it 10...then subtract 8 from 10 to get 2. And then you made a little mark striking out the tens value and reducing it by the one "ten" you moved. And subtracted the tens.
Little man was resistant at first until he saw how this method actually worked better than guessing or whatever sort of computation he was doing initially. By the time we reached the bottom of the second page he was anticipating me in "breaking down" the tens, converting single digits to teens, adding and subtracting.
The thing is, it took me a bit of thinking to remember how I do simple double-digit addition and subtraction; it wasn't nearly as intuitive as I thought it was. And explaining it to a second-grader was almost as difficult. But perhaps the most difficult part was understanding what it was he didn't understand and why. What seemed obvious to me was completely opaque to him; he couldn't make the cognitive jump from the written description to the setup of the numerical problem, and he couldn't do the simple unit addition and subtraction in his head as I could. It was difficult not to see his incomprehension as stupidity, and his math errors as carelessness.
But he kept at it; he slowly worked through the word problems, set up the numerical problems, corrected his math errors, and carefully wrote down each answer. I don't think he ever enjoyed the process, but I think he got some satisfaction from doing the work correctly and well.And then he hopped up and bounded happily down the hallway to the tub to splash and play with his toys, leaving me tapping the eraser of my pencil on the paper covered with childish handwriting, cartoon cups and plates, and wondering just what we had accomplished.
Nice to "Tweet" you Thursday Twitter Hop
Welcome to Nice to TWEET you Thursday! A brand new Twitter Hop! Linky will open on Wednesday nights! We would love if you would post our button and get the word out, the more the better!
Lets start TWEETING and have some FUN!
Make sure to follow your two co-hosts and we will follow you back:(Make sure to leave a comment to let us know!!)
Give It To Me Tara
* AND *
Just Married with Coupons
Simple Rule, Just Follow Back Anyone That Takes The Time To Follow You! Happy TWEETING!
ENTER YOUR TWITTER LINKS http://www.twitter/USERNAME
Make sure to follow your two co-hosts and we will follow you back:
Give It To Me Tara
* AND *
Just Married with Coupons
ENTER YOUR TWITTER LINKS http://www.twitter/USERNAME
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Mid Week Mingle Blog Hop 1/4-1/5
Welcome to my Mid Week Mingle Blog Hop!
This hop is featured on all 3 of my blogs so now you can meet even more friends!
In case I didn't say this before, if you don't have a blog you can link your site, Facebook, etc. Whatever you want, it's all in fun☺
It's simple to participate, here are the rules:
Please support this blog hop by using your Facebook, Twitter, and forums to advertise. It's great for everyone to discover new friends, followers, and fantastic blogs!
Thanks so much for participating!
T♥
This hop is featured on all 3 of my blogs so now you can meet even more friends!
In case I didn't say this before, if you don't have a blog you can link your site, Facebook, etc. Whatever you want, it's all in fun☺
It's simple to participate, here are the rules:
- Please place the "Mid Week Mingle Blog Hop" button in a blog post and/or on your blog somewhere. This lets us all know where to find each other!
- Follow my blog.
- Visit at least 2 blogs on this list.
- Add your name/image to the linky list below so we can visit you back. I will be following everyone who posts.
- Comments are optional but always appreciated☺
Please support this blog hop by using your Facebook, Twitter, and forums to advertise. It's great for everyone to discover new friends, followers, and fantastic blogs!
Thanks so much for participating!
T♥
Ingenious
The day before New Year's Eve (New Year's Eve Eve?) I had a job drilling on a property along Skyline Boulevard. For those of you who don't know Portland, Skyline runs along the crest of the West Hills. These are the West Hills that Everclear refers to in the song "I Will Buy You A New Life", the ones with the shiny new car, the garden, and the handsome man with the athletic thighs?
These hills are, as the song implies, home to many of Portland's wealthy in the tradition that places the homes and lives of the rich and graceful physically as well as emotionally and socially above those below them in the insomnia of the American Dream.
At some point when navigating the West Hills I recall a novel I read in my youth which described a fictional city as resembling the layers of "...an Italian wedding cake, richly emblematic of the crumbs inside..." and describing how each social stratum would use the layer below as the receptacle for its garbage until it reached the bottom where "...it is believed that, there being no one lower upon whom to throw it, it is eaten."
That has nothing whatever to do with this post.
While the elevation of most of the Portland area is about 50 to 70 feet above sea level (MSL), the crest of the Hills is anywhere from 600 to 1,000 feet above MSL. This makes Skyline its own little climate, and you tend to find snow, or ice, there when the rest of Portland is getting our traditional rain. Which makes getting your burger-and-fries at the Skyline Restaurant kinda chancy when the wind is from the east. You have gotta know your tire chains from a handsaw to get up to our work site, which was just north of the aforesaid iconic Portland diner.
So the Hills are really more than "hills"; their correct name is the Tualatin Mountains and I should really do a post about them because the geology of the Hills is kind of fascinating. They're a huge fold in the nap of Portland's carpet, an immense hump of folded and faulted basalt mantled by yellow-brown silt blown up from the Portland basin to the east. Much of the Hills is dominated by Forest Park, which is just what it says it is - a park that is a forest. Very pretty in a dank, Northwest woods sort of way.
But. Every winter we get two, or three, or four, periods when our winds that typically bring the warm rain off the Pacific shift and come from the east. This pushes cold, cold air down off the interior of the continent, and we freeze over. Which is what we're enjoying at the moment. These east wind iceboxes usually last a couple of days or a week or two before the jet stream unspools and brings the rain back.
And when Portland catches a cold, the West Hills freeze right through.
So when the drillers and I arrived Thursday morning, we found that since they had not sufficiently winterized the drill rig the rig pump - soil drilling can be done using air to lift the soil and rock cuttings out of the hole, or with a sort of giant screw (called an auger) but is often done using a mixture of water and a thick bentonite slurry, called "mud rotary" - was frozen.
Solid.
I suggested that we might use their propane torch to thaw the pump and was told that the propane place didn't open until eight (why we hadn't stopped by the day before was left unexplained). But the drillers were undiscouraged, and showing that American ingenuity that we've been famed for since Valley Forge, proceeded to melt the frozen mud within the pump using flaming bits of cardboard stuffed inside.
And off we went.
Is this a great country, or what?
These hills are, as the song implies, home to many of Portland's wealthy in the tradition that places the homes and lives of the rich and graceful physically as well as emotionally and socially above those below them in the insomnia of the American Dream.
At some point when navigating the West Hills I recall a novel I read in my youth which described a fictional city as resembling the layers of "...an Italian wedding cake, richly emblematic of the crumbs inside..." and describing how each social stratum would use the layer below as the receptacle for its garbage until it reached the bottom where "...it is believed that, there being no one lower upon whom to throw it, it is eaten."That has nothing whatever to do with this post.
While the elevation of most of the Portland area is about 50 to 70 feet above sea level (MSL), the crest of the Hills is anywhere from 600 to 1,000 feet above MSL. This makes Skyline its own little climate, and you tend to find snow, or ice, there when the rest of Portland is getting our traditional rain. Which makes getting your burger-and-fries at the Skyline Restaurant kinda chancy when the wind is from the east. You have gotta know your tire chains from a handsaw to get up to our work site, which was just north of the aforesaid iconic Portland diner.
So the Hills are really more than "hills"; their correct name is the Tualatin Mountains and I should really do a post about them because the geology of the Hills is kind of fascinating. They're a huge fold in the nap of Portland's carpet, an immense hump of folded and faulted basalt mantled by yellow-brown silt blown up from the Portland basin to the east. Much of the Hills is dominated by Forest Park, which is just what it says it is - a park that is a forest. Very pretty in a dank, Northwest woods sort of way.
But. Every winter we get two, or three, or four, periods when our winds that typically bring the warm rain off the Pacific shift and come from the east. This pushes cold, cold air down off the interior of the continent, and we freeze over. Which is what we're enjoying at the moment. These east wind iceboxes usually last a couple of days or a week or two before the jet stream unspools and brings the rain back.
And when Portland catches a cold, the West Hills freeze right through.
So when the drillers and I arrived Thursday morning, we found that since they had not sufficiently winterized the drill rig the rig pump - soil drilling can be done using air to lift the soil and rock cuttings out of the hole, or with a sort of giant screw (called an auger) but is often done using a mixture of water and a thick bentonite slurry, called "mud rotary" - was frozen.Solid.
I suggested that we might use their propane torch to thaw the pump and was told that the propane place didn't open until eight (why we hadn't stopped by the day before was left unexplained). But the drillers were undiscouraged, and showing that American ingenuity that we've been famed for since Valley Forge, proceeded to melt the frozen mud within the pump using flaming bits of cardboard stuffed inside.
And off we went.Is this a great country, or what?
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