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Sara R

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Everything posted by Sara R

  1. I use Google Calendar. I have one calendar for the household, and a separate calendar for my school that shows up as a different color. At the beginning of the semester I go through the syllabuses and map out what time I am in class (and where), what time I'm at work if applicable, what big assignments are due when. If you get extra credit for turning in projects in early, I write down those dates as well. If I ever find that I forget something (mostly things like kids' doctors appts), I tell Google Calendar to remind me.
  2. I'm a TypeWell transcriber as well, working at a college. This college provides student notetakers to students with learning disabilities such as ADHD. Like milovany said, that's not enough for communication access for the deaf and hard of hearing, so the college provides sign language interpreters or TypeWell for them.
  3. Here is a summary from a loss mother about the Not Buried Twice campaign: http://safermidwiferyformichigan.blogspot.com/2014/06/not-buried-twice.html. Lots more links in there.
  4. When I hired a midwife for a VBAC (1st cesarean for breech), home birth stories were a big influence on me. Then I had the birth--long labor, little progress, some fetal distress, hospital transport at midwife's insistence, cesarean and healthy baby, but learned that the distress was worse than we had thought when we decided c-section (meconium, infection starting). It could have easily gone the other way and I am very thankful we were lucky enough to get the healthy baby that has grown into my 14-year-old. You should be aware that the natural birth community censors home birth stories. People with "bad outcomes" (dead or damaged babies for preventable reasons, or even in my case a healthy baby with a hospital transport) are marginalized, blamed for "their" failure, have their comments deleted from natural birth Facebook groups, blogs, and Mothering.com. There's a lot of magical thinking in the natural childbirth community: people think that not thinking about bad things somehow protects them. My point is: even though stories can feel like truth, don't interpret it that way. Or go out of your way to look for stories where things go wrong. Those stories are on the internet now in a way they weren't back in 2000. Unfortunately many women have had bad outcomes because of poorly trained US midwives. Homebirth midwives don't carry malpractice insurance, so if you have funeral or hospital bills because of the actions of the midwife, you have no recourse.
  5. I loved breastfeeding despite a few problems, but that was because it worked for me and my family. If my circumstances had been yours, I would have quit. "Breast is best" only with all other things being equal, which they definitely are not in your situation. Fearless Formula Feeder is a good support resource for people like you who feel the pressure to breastfeed, but it's not a good choice for you and your family.
  6. Go to the accessibility services office ASAP! I used to work for accessibility servcies at a university as a TypeWell Transcriber for the deaf and hard of hearing. I provided a meaning-for-meaning transcript of the lecture. I carried two laptops that were wirelessly connected. I typed on one and the student saw the lecture in real time on the other computer, enabling them to participate in class. (More info at http://www.typewell.com/overview/how-it-works. Milovany, another poster here, also works as a TypeWell transcriber.) Many colleges offer this or similar services, but the more advance notice you can give them, the better they are able to provide services.
  7. How long have the trees been dead? Did the seller know about it and fail to disclose? If so you may have some recourse.
  8. You guys might like Inside the Pitch Meeting for Maleficent, very funny!
  9. A couple of months ago there was an AskReddit on this topic here, also here (NSFW, and this is Reddit so the people aren't as classy as we are here, but still the stories are enlightening). Those abused by women were often drunk or asleep at the time. Often no one takes the complaints seriously or it goes unreported because the man doesn't want the stigma of being too weak to fight it off or the "stigma" of not wanting the sex.
  10. I have seen it at home a few times. It's on Netflix now and I saw it a few months ago with the captions on. It's amazing how much dirtier it seemed with captions. I never knew the exact lyrics of Greased Lightning, for example. And the ending always makes me mad.
  11. A couple of interesting tidbits I picked up elsewhere online: That weird cartoon character that spoke out of the iPad is from a famous art historical piece, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronomous Bosch (the Prince of Hell down in the lower right corner). (Now you can count your watching time as educational!) Also, did you notice that Doug died the way Underwood's great-grandfather supposedly did?
  12. Computer engineering is a hybrid of computer science and electrical engineering (more hardware focused than computer science). Computer science is more programming, and usually requires math through at least calculus 2 and linear algebra. It's considered a rigorous degree which gives a lot of options down the road...a computer science major could get a job as an IT guy, but an IT major probably couldn't get a job as a software engineer. Information technology (IT) is probably more an exact fit for what he's looking for: how to use specific computer systems to solve specific problems, set up and manage a network. Then there's also information systems, as well as computer information systems (CIS) and business information systems, which are more business focused. They have the reputation of taking CS dropouts who can't handle the math. I'm a CS major and like programming but don't consider myself good at IT. I get the sense that IT people are good fix-it troubleshooter type people, good at hands-on, whereas in programming I'm usually solving more abstract problems.
  13. I agree with the earlier posters that the best bet in the long fun is finding another job. But some other ideas I haven't seen yet: While I agree that he shouldn't use the salary information he accidentally obtained, he can check out the information on glassdoor.com, which gives salary information that people voluntarily report from their company. This information would still be a little tricky to use, involving language like "my research shows that my compensation is below comparable positions" or something like that, but it's less risky than the alternative. Another option (that I learned from this guy) would be him letting the boss know he wants a raise, and what can he accomplish in the next 3-6 months to earn that raise. Then circle back after that time period has passed and he has accomplished that and more, and follow up.
  14. How are you at STEM (science technology engineering mathematics)? I always did fine at math in school, and my homeschool journey taught me that I actually like math more than I did when I was younger. I am now in school in computer science with the goal to become a software engineer. It's a skill in very high demand that pays very well, and has lots of flexible work-at-home options, and is a lot of fun. You can combine other talents or skills with computer science and be a lot more marketable (it's difficult to get a job as an artist, for example, but if you can bring art talent to ability in computer graphics you are super marketable). And you can be involved in creating new technology that has the potential to change the way the world works. It's not a field that women going back into the work force typically think of, but it has a lot going for it. If you aren't afraid of math and want something in the health care field, look into radiation therapists (the nurses who help cancer patients go through radiation therapy, not the people who do x-rays). I understand they get paid more than nurses because of the three-dimensional physics they need to understand to do their job. It's a field in high demand and has reasonable hours.
  15. Like I said in the other thread, I'm a computer science student at a college-sophomore level. I am not familiar with this particular curriculum. Data Structures is typically a sophomore level class in college, a semester or two after the introductory class, so probably it's a good post-AP class.
  16. I'm a current computer science student, finishing up sophomore level classes. C was here first, then C++, then C#. Of the three, C is the most basic "low level," meaning the commands are closer to what the computer actually does, and in general harder for the beginning human to figure out. ++ in computer language means increment (add one to the loop index), so the name C++ is a cute way of saying it is like C but a little better. C++ is object oriented (not sure about C). C++ is harder for beginners than C#; the C# language automatically does a lot of things for you that the programmer has to explicitly code in C++. But that makes it a better language for the intermediate student, because as you work with C++ you get a good handle on complicated concepts like pointers and recursion, which are difficult concepts to understand unless you really work with them. Languages like C# and Java "protect" the programmer from those concepts which makes the programmer's life easier in the short run but inhibits learning in the long run. I have heard that C# is a lot like Java, and it is pretty easy to switch from one language to the other.
  17. I'm computer science student now. Is dual enrollment a possibility? I think that would be the best bet if it is practical and the student is mature enough for a community college setting. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are something else to look into. Last year I posted about Scott H. Young's MIT Challenge, where he taught himself the requirements for a MIT BS in Computer Science: http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/mit-challenge/. Check out Reddit's CS Career Questions subreddit, or learnprogramming subreddit. I have heard a lot of recommendations for Learn Python the Hard Way. The HTML version of that book is available free online.
  18. For a Mormon spin on Little House on the Prairie, check out Quicksand and Cactus by Juanita Brooks, who describes life in 1900s Bunkerville (near Mesquite), Nevada, among family that included polygamous grandparents. I can't drive through Nevada now without imagining her father, the mail carrier, traveling on horseback 90 miles three times a week in that horrible desert to reach the train and pick up the mail. I'm LDS, but the book is written to be accessible to non-LDS readers..
  19. While you await your books, be sure to check out HalfPintIngalls (actually the author of The Wilder Life pretending to be Laura Ingalls) on Twitter: http://twitter.com/HalfPintIngalls.
  20. I read about it in The Great Influenza by John Barry, a book for lay people about the 1918 flu epidemic.
  21. Many of these posts are talking about ways to strengthen the immune system, but with H1N1 the immune system response is what causes the severe symptoms and death. Research the 1918 flu epidemic and cytokine storm. That's why healthy young adults are more susceptible than they usually are to the flu. If your daughter knows this, she may be more likely to get the vaccine or be especially vigilant about hand washing.
  22. Do we have any autism researchers on this board? If so, goody! If not, reading (likely pseudoscientific) stuff on the internet is not "doing research."
  23. Eight years ago I got a breast cancer diagnosis, and I asked this board for advice then. My kids were 7 and 5 (2nd grade and K) and homeschooled. People on this board urged me to put school on hold, or cut it down to the bare minimum. I had schooled long enough to know that even bare minimum school was a lot of effort for me. My oldest was struggling to learn to read, and I didn't want to have her be further behind because she wasn't being taught. And what if I was one of the 50% of the people with my diagnosis who didn't make it? With my parents' encouragement, and with a lot of guilt, I put my kids into public school before I began treatment. I thought it would only be slightly academically oriented babysitting, but I needed that. And in hindsight, it was the absolute best thing for all of us. The kids did fine. They weren't bullied and didn't bring home bad words or traumatic experiences. Despite my belief that public school would be worthless academically, my daughter's reading improved. More importantly, school gave them a break from the stress level in our home at that time. Having your mom go through cancer treatment is really scary for a kid. In the school environment they can get a break from that adult-level stress and just be a kid. I was afraid that not homeschooling would lead to less closeness at home, but this fear was also baseless. Actually my kids and I felt closer because I could just be the mom, and not the teacher who has to point out mistakes. Public school parents can also be close to their kids. It was the best thing for me as well. I spent a lot of my time at doctor's appointments, or not feeling 100%. I rested while they were at school so I could spend time with them after school and help with their homework. By the end of the treatment I found that chemo made it harder to do anything mentally taxing. You won't have the physical effects of the chemo, but you will be distracted by the doctor's appointments and by caregiving, which can be just as difficult as actually going through treatment. If you are already going non-stop everyday, something has to give. One of my son's friend's mother tragically passed away from cancer about a year ago. The mother was still homeschooling the younger children. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to go through losing a parent at a young age, but it has to be harder if you have to simultaneously get used to going to school for the first time. Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you that school might not be as bad as you thought, and that it can bring a lot of positives in a situation like this when homeschooling isn't as optimal as it would otherwise be. It was the right call at our house. My thoughts are with you at this difficult time.
  24. Picasa is a free download and making collages through it is super easy. I make simple digital scrapbook pages through Picasa. Picasa also organizes your photos and makes it easy to do simple photo edits.
  25. My kids are in charter schools using Common Core. The 5th grader is still using Saxon, and the school says they will continue to do so because it's in their charter. So somehow they must be able to make that work with the Common Core requirements. The high school math transition has been a little rough, and that is my one complaint. But I think it is a transition issue and by the time my 5th grader is there I am confident it will be smoother. The books were missing this year, and last year I noticed a lot of errors in the books. I've read that in the rush to get the books on the market many textbooks weren't edited well. The math curriculum has changed from an Algebra I/Geometry/Algebra II sequence to Secondary Math 1, 2, and 3. Often what is brought home I had never learned, and I am currently taking calculus so I just finished reviewing all that stuff. I finally figured out that a lot of it was statistics, and then a lot is just taught in a different way. Quadratic functions were introduced with a pretty cool pattern of blocks. There's an emphasis on recursive functions (defining the next term in the function based on the previous term). In literature, they study the classics with Socratic discussions. SWB would approve. I haven't seen the dreaded "informational texts" yet, but I am excited about it on behalf of my Aspie daughter who has trouble with literary analysis. I have been disappointed with inflammatory rhetoric coming out from the local ultraconservative types. It has borne very little resemblance to what my kids are dealing with.
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