ocelotmom
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Posts posted by ocelotmom
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:)
From an utterly apolitical standpoint... http://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/monday-december-14th-admiral-ackbar-cruz
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I think Rey bears way too much resemblance to Leia and Padme to not be related in some way. They do that stuff on purpose.
I got spoilered about Han Solo literally an hour before seeing the movie last night. That was a little frustrating.
I think Rey is Luke's daughter as well. There was one scene that has me questioning it, though, and that was when Kylo/Ben was unmasked and up close to Rey in the interrogation room. I thought there was some sizzling sexual energy between the two of them--at least that's how I read it. Did anyone else pick up on that?
Given that 35 years of jokes that have ensued since Luke pursued his sister, you would think JJ Abrams wouldn't go anywhere near an "in the family" attraction.
I agree with you about the energy. But the history makes me feel that they wouldn't hesitate to go there. It would be about as surprising as incest in a V.C. Andrews book.
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That sounds like my personal version of hell... Yikes. Were you all ok?
Mentally or physically?
No one got stung (yet. I'm still having to swat one every so often). I realized what was happening fairly quickly, and they were still pretty slow and sleepy, so "streaming out" meant lots of them crawling out of the log in a short time, not massive swarms flying around.
But the kids and I may all have nightmares.
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Not everyone can lay a baby on the floor. Here we have scorpions in the houses running across the floors and up the walls. Better to put baby on a bed. Pest control keeps their numbers down but we can expect to kill a dozen or two in the house every year in this new city we moved to. I lived in the city next to it for 42 years and never once saw a scorpion. Here all the neighbors go out around their property with a black light in the evenings and kill half a dozen or so in the summer-the numbers are lower in the winter. It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen one in the house. It keeps down how many you have to kill in the house. Most people can tolerate one scorpion sting but some people can't. There's an anti-venom available at nearby hospitals.
That does it. We're not moving to Arizona.
I just had to deal with a piece of firewood that apparently had a wasp nest in it. When we brought it in the warm house, all the wasps woke up and started streaming out. It was like a horror movie.
Can't deal with the image of scorpions so close on top of that.
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You should also be able to buy just the code directly from the publisher. I'm sure it's slightly more expensive for the code itself than buying it bundled, but less than the total bundle if the used book is inexpensive enough.
I treated it as an overall numbers game. For an individual class, I might end up spending more buying used and then finding I had to buy the new version or something. But, in the big picture, that meant spending a few dollars more than I would have on one class, while saving hundreds on all the other classes.
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I just had a thought about content. You may want to preread the last book in the Protector of the Small books. While nothing is explicitly shown the antagonist is a sort of dark magician who (spoiler) murders children to give life to his war machines and there may be a reference to a rape of some refugees who are captured. I can't get at my books to double check right now. The first books in this series have none of this and are all about the years she spends training to become a knight. They fight off some bandits and defeat some monsters but mostly she is training with a bunch of other pages and then becomes a squire. The last book is after she becomes a knight and is sent to defend a refugee camp during a war. The first books could be read without the last. If you would rather put off this series It could be moved to either before or after the Trickster books.
If your daughter was 14 or 15 I wouldn't really mention it, but at 11 I thought you should know.
Hmm. That part apparently didn't register with me, and I read those books from a parent-prereading perspective.
But it reflects the overall problem with her books in terms of younger readers - the stories mature with the characters. The earlier books are just fine for younger kids, but then they'll want to read them all.
It just showed up from the library today. I figured I'd give it a go and see what she's in for. I gotta say it's a bit hard to get into. Part of it is the same struggle I think many have with Tolkien - the world is so rich with so much backstory and it's described to the reader as though they were just as familiar with it as the characters in the book. You almost have to read through it 2x. By contrast, Harry Potter is pretty easily accessible because the main character knows nothing, just like the reader, so the reader learns along with the protagonist. Here you have to pick it up by osmosis. Challenge is good, but I'd like to ensure she doesn't get turned off before she gives it a legit shot.
Are they all this way?
Nononono! There's a reason that no one recommended reading the Beka Cooper series first!
Everything you mention is a problem with this series in general. While the world itself is familiar, it takes place hundreds of years before the events of the other books, as well as focusing on a totally different subculture. Everyone is a little lost.
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On the silver lining side, the day is warm enough that it's totally possible to line-dry 8 loads of laundry.
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I'm sorry. I've had all 4 within three days, with 2 of them actively vomiting today. I'm just sitting here hoping it hits me today so that I can be all better before I have to work on Friday. Thankfully, this particular one seems unusually short-lived, even moreso than a typical GI bug.
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Well, I meant hype that YA speculative fiction in general is oversexed, but yes, there is Tortall-specific hype. There are people in this world who feel that an adult woman who has three romantic partners in three years - the last of whom she marries - is "bedhopping" and that not showing it onscreen is as bad as showing it explicitly with all the details. (Also, see Daine and Numair hooking up, and so on.)
They are entitled to their opinions.
Now I feel the need to clarify my comments.
I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with Tamora Pierce's books being my kids' first literary exposure to sex. Her depictions of sexual relationships generally are positive, consensual, and non-coercive (and safe, though it's an apparently foolproof magical contraceptive charm, so not totally realistic). When less-than-healthy behaviors are presented, it's clear that this is the case.
(Daine/Numair age difference aside. I don't think the relationship itself is unhealthy in context - she'd been living as an adult for quite a while before they got romantically involved. But I can see how it could give the wrong idea.)
My literary introduction to sex was descriptions of sexual abuse, I suppose because that's ok to put in books aimed at kids because it's a teaching thing and not something that's likely to make them want to run out and have sex. Back when Twilight was the big thing, it was the most popular book among 3rd graders, both boys and girls, including Breaking Dawn. That's certainly not what I want my kids imprinting on, even if it was within the context of marriage.
I'd just rather wait until puberty hits to get them going on the books with more adult themes, and I recognize that a lot of people on the board are a lot more conservative than I am, and unappreciative if they were recommended as great for kids without warning about sexual content.
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But I'd probably start with the Alanna series.
Then the Protector of the Small. (Having never read the Immortals I do not know where they fit)
Then Trickster since it is about Alanna's daughter.
I found a chronology, though it's way too cluttered to follow easily. Protector of the Small and The Immortals (which I was calling Wild Magic) take place during roughly the same timeframe, with the events in the Trickster series happening a few years later.
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I prefer some of the other Hour of Code tutorials for my kids. If you go to code.org, you can see all the tutorials available, including Khan Academy's, and compare the topics and recommended age levels. They also have a full 20 hour computer science course available, and several off-line courses to do without the internet.
That was our experience, too - the kids preferred the other tutorials. Hard to compete with bigger budgets and branded characters.
It wasn't something that spurred any sort of long-term interest (yet), but I was impressed with how it taught.
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If you're comfortable with mild sexual content, I'd start with the Alanna books. If not, the Protector of the Small and Wild Magic series would both be good starting points (I started with the Wild Magic books, back when the Alanna books and Wild Magic were all that existed).
The Trickster books are on about the same level as the Alanna books. I can't quite see them as being a starting point, but I'm biased since they didn't exist when I started reading the series (I actually have the same problem with Protector of the Small, but have come to accept it as the best entry point for younger readers).
Beka Cooper is much more on the Young Adult end of the spectrum. I've also had a very hard time getting into it.
But I agree with Tanaqui that, overall, it doesn't matter which series you start with. Each series can be read as a standalone.
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Single mothers are in the military now. They have to have a "plan" for when they are deployed. Not sure why that would give them a deferment.
Because a mandatory draft and voluntary enlistment are very different things. Like I said in another post, I'm basing this on current posted policies and historical precedence, not random speculation.
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Currently, single, custodial parents get called up from reserves and sent to combat zones. Active duty members of the armed forces who are also single, custodial parents also get sent to combat zones. I don't see that it would be any different were a draft instituted.
Draft runs by different rules than voluntary military service. Hardship deferment because of the needs of dependents has both historical precedence and support in current law.
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I'm mostly concerned about what happens to children when both parents or single parents are called up. The last time there was a draft there weren't a whole lot of single dads.
They have hardship deferments. I don't know how hard it is to qualify for this, but I'd imagine being a single parent or remaining undrafted parent would qualify.
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It's a curriculum jointly created by the Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ. The UU version is non-sectarian (I wouldn't call it purely secular, as it does encourage exploration of an individual's religious/spiritual beliefs related to sexuality), the UCC version includes a liberal Christian element, and there is apparently also a variation without any religious/spiritual aspect, so the secularity would depend on who is presenting it.
It is a sex-positive program that takes an affirming and inclusive attitude towards subjects such as alternative sexualities/genders. It encourages physically and emotionally healthy decision making and self-respect. I am told that it encourages abstinence outside of healthy committed mature relationships, but not abstinence-only or abstinence-until-marriage. It is very thorough, and fairly graphic, but tastefully so.
They should have a parent information meeting that will give you a good overview of what exactly is involved. If you missed it, the instructors would probably be willing to talk to you individually.
I would totally send my kids (and only haven't yet because we live quite a distance from the nearest UU church), and encourage it for anyone wanting a sex-positive comprehensive sex-ed curriculum for their kids, as I think it's a subject that's often very difficult for parents to comfortably teach. But I recognize that a lot of board members would consider it incompatible with their beliefs.
I know we have a trained OWL instructor on the board. Hopefully she'll chime in.
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I had much better luck with buy-back prices on Amazon than through the school. Obviously not as much as selling the books directly, but extremely low hassle.
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3 of my 4 were within an ounce of 6lb10z, which was also my birthweight (and neither DH nor I is a particularly small person). The fourth was smaller (I suspect due to a knot in the cord). I worked through two pregnancies, didn't work through two of them. Homeschooled during two of them. Varying diets, lifestyles, starting weights, pregnancy weight gain, and levels of exercise during pregnancy, all of them natural onset of labor... and they all ended up exactly the same (except one).
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One note on Tamora Pierce's books -- Some of them have mature (or 'more mature than some 10 year olds would want') content. DD#1 likes this author a LOT. Once, when looking into some sequels to the Magic Circle books, I found them in the teen section. I decided to preread & figured out why they were separated. I can't remember if it was "The Circle Opens" sequels or the "Circle Reforged" ones that have the more mature content. They do get more harsh & bloody, too.
Yes, I should have said this. I don't recall mature content in the series I mentioned, but it may not be clear that other series set in the same world (and, in the case of the Circle books, specifically following the same characters) do have more mature content, nor is it necessarily obvious from the book descriptions. And I have run into problems with my oldest wanting to read the other series after reading the tamer ones.
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Some of Tamora Pierce's series might be good. The Immortals, Protector of the Small, and Circle of Magic are appropriate for her age. Some of the other series are more mature. But you might want to try one and see - the violence and danger could be a bit much.
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Mash and freeze, either as guacamole or plain.
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I'd be interested in joining.
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No idea whatsoever. I remember not liking her name, and giving her a different one, but I can't remember either the name she came with or the one I gave her.
Someone made me a knock off CP doll too. Wasn't the same. : (
I know, call that bratty of me, but it was a huge deal. Everyone in my class had at least one of those dolls. They even brought them to school.
My mom made me one. I think I would have liked her just fine, except the feet ended up looking like hands. I was kind of a brat about it, but I was like 5.
I got the real one the next Christmas, when they weren't as popular.
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I recommend the condensed versions. I haven't seen the condensed versions, but I've used the 12 volume set. Ugh. It's just.too.much.
I agree. I have the full set, and still think about getting the condensed version instead.
Maybe I'll sell the full set and get the condensed instead. They've been more expensive than I was interested in paying when I looked in the past, but now it looks like I can probably cover the cost of the concise edition by selling the full set.
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S/O -- Did your family own a VW Bus?
in The Chat Board
Posted
Well, we owned a VW station wagon until I was 5 or 6, but not a bus.
I owned a VW bus as an adult.