LostSurprise
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Posts posted by LostSurprise
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14 year old says:
Salt to the Sea
Wolf by Wolf
16 year old says:
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Dune
I say:
The Chosen or My Name is Asher Lev
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Once and Future King
Ender's Game
For straight brain candy World War Z and Robopocalypse were fun too (although it's been a few years so I have no memory of curse words).
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Faves
- YA fantasy like Kristin Cashore, Diana Wynne Jones, Joan Aiken, Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, Margaret Mahy, Megan Whalen Turner. (have read all of their books). Read the popular ones like Harry Potter, Hunger Games etc.
- adult fantasy like the Kingkiller series by Patrick Rothkiss, Emma Bull's books, Lois McMaster Bujold, Naomi Novik.
You might enjoy Tam Lin by Pamela Dean or Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.
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I would say it is a bit of an exaggeration to say they've lost a lot of professors. At this time that's just not true. There is definitely a public university shake up since the conservative governor took advantage of the university system having a large surplus and raising tuition year by year despite that surplus. The conservative governor has used that advantage to renegotiate the relationship between the state and higher education institutions. However, the tuition freeze years are over and funding discussions are starting to go up again. Whether the culture will remain the same is another question.
As for the Milwaukee programs possibly being eliminated, all the universities used to be tied together within the same system and part of the above negotiations separated Milwaukee and Madison. This is harder financially on Milwaukee, I think. At least I was skeptical back when I was in grad school there before everything went down and they were negotiating the first changes in the system.
As for Wisconsin:
*HSing is pretty easy.
*SAHMs widely accepted.
*Depending on where you're coming from, home prices are on the moderate to low side.
*Beautiful country (hills, woods, dells, tons of lakes). Great for camping, winter sports, hunting, etc.
*Very mixed politically. People are all over the map.
*Midwestern friendliness. That's not as all-out as Southern friendliness but it does mind its own business and expects you to mind yours.
*The main cities (Madison, Milwaukee) have very different vibes and are interesting for different reasons. Madison is more like the Twin Cities and Milwaukee is more like Chicago.
*It has a strong bar culture. Drinking is very social. If you're not a drinker (I'm not) you can feel a bit left out.
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Howl's Moving Castle
These Is My Words
True Grit
Wild Seed (Octavia Butler)
The Ocean at the End of the World
Annihilation (van der Meer)
The Book of Lost Things
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Fringe
Firefly
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
IT Crowd
Corner Gas
Freaks & Geeks
BBC Pride & Prejudice
Mr. Bean
The Twilight Zone
Fosters Home for Imaginary Creatures, season 2
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Back in the early 2000s I tried this. After making some all-in-ones (with and without covers) and some covers I decided it was far easier (and cheaper) to make some newborn-sized prefolds from flannel and I got lucky and found some used one-size diapers for larger sizes.
At the time Bummi and Prowrap sold seconds at a reduced rate (visual imperfection, not use imperfection). I learned this on a Yahoo Group which traded and sold cloth diapers and covers. I got 3 covers per size and that covered everything.
Hands down, prefolds and a cover are the cheapest. You can spend a lot of money and time otherwise. You can buy or make a few others for nights or time out of the house or the cuteness factor...but prefolds and covers are the most cost effective.
Pro tip: you can buy a yard of microfleece and cut it to fit the business section of the diaper. It keeps wetness away from the babies bottom and it's easy to flip the poop off it into the toilet (no diaper staining).
I also used a spray bottle with warm water and a pack of Walmart washcloths instead of wipes. The same washcloth can be folded in half or thirds and bam! it's a soaker for overnight or naps.
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Leverage
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If you're thinking about something, don't pace the classroom.
DS's teachers in middle school were really nice about this. He would get up and pace the back of the room when he had a thought. Usually they would let him (he's a very polite kid...he didn't interrupt the teacher or go to the front of the room), but if it was an inappropriate time they would silently steer him to his seat. I only heard about it because they were so puzzled by it and wanted to make sure it wasn't anxiety.
I would think 7th graders would be mean about this, but apparently no one said anything to him about it and the behavior disappeared before the next year. He can now think while sitting. ;)
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I think of shyness as a personal attribute and social anxiety as the world telling you shyness is not okay.
I always remember feeling shy (hesitant, careful, reserved, thoughtful, analytical), but I don't remember feeling anxious until my parents, teachers, peers started pushing me to be 'friendly' or commented negatively on my hesitation. It's kind of meta. Your natural feeling of introversion is covered with anxiety that you're not doing the 'right' thing, being extroverted, spontaneous, fun, in-the-moment. That when you try to do the 'right' thing it doesn't come out right because it's not natural to you. Social anxiety is an internalization of the world's disapproval of introversion and shyness.
Different people internalize this at different times, but most shy people have some level of social anxiety by the time peer relationships become important (the teen years). Then, if we're healthy, we spend the next 10 years or so finding our niche, accepting ourselves, deprogramming.
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There's good research on it working for seizure control. I haven't heard anything about it working for other medical conditions. I'd be surprised if it was being touted as a panacea.
It's given as an oil though, and there are a few Ketogenic/modified Atkins/oil supplement which work as special diets for epilepsy as well. The combination of the two seems to bode well.
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We played Splendor over the weekend. DS13 won. I made him play and he's a wildcard but he's quick so he often wins this one.
I'm pretty sure we played something else too, but it escapes me. We talked about playing a lot more. I'll have to ask dh when he gets home.
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I wouldn't mind all of this nearly as much if he learned from his mistakes but he doesn't. It's the same $&@! Problems over and over again. im afraid to try another Psychologist. Last time we sent him to one he became so much worse. It got to the point I was actually afraid to leave my youngest alone with him for any amount of time. He was 11ish so youngest was 5.
If it isn't important to them--they don't learn it. We shield our children from a lot of things. Other things matter to us (clean rooms, non-surly attitudes) and not them (at least right now).
If our sons are similar in personality, changing does happen, but it happens over years and years. (Yeah, I know, not necessarily what you want to hear. There are no easy answers here.)
You are correct IMO that you have a serious problem on your hands. Life is full of rules one must follow. Prisons are full of people who did not follow the rule (the law). The majority of aircraft accidents are caused by pilots who did not follow the rules they were taught. Employers have rules their employees must follow. Those are not things your DC can ignore now or when he is an adult. I don't know how you can change him. Possibly a Child Psychologist with a lot of experience in Behavioral problems.
Are we talking about someone who has no respect for any rules, or are we talking about someone who is generally good with rules but questions his parents and their procedural/scheduling/livingtogether rules? There is a difference.
From earlier in the thread I'm seeing a young man more like my own. Good with societal and school rules ('the big rules') and terrible with house rules and procedures ('the little rules'). They may even be a bit rigid about 'big' rules (always pointing out the rules to siblings, known to be a 'good' kid) but constantly question the 'little' rules and their parents. They just don't understand what the big deal is. It's not important to them personally so they may fight it tooth and nail as little plots to keep them in-line.
I think part of this is the EF problems. A lot of the procedural rules are not natural to them. It's much harder work than it is for us. As they hit adolescence you also get a mix of shame (can't admit to themselves the flaws or it overwhelms them so they stuff it down even when faced by logic) and independence (they can't tell me what to do).
Like I said, there is a difference. I can only speak to the second situation, not to someone with an Oppositional Disorder. BTW, if you're working on specific behaviors it usually helps to use a behavioral psych. That would mean you would be attending together. Standard counselors can help these kids with dealing with their emotions but that's not always the main problem. If their frustrations stem from a physical component, they have to deal with that or nothing changes. That may be why you didn't see any improvement.
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My oldest (18) is very much like this.
What works best for us is to always keep everything very calm. Don't take it personally.
To always have very clear consequences for actions. There's no fight, the consequence is just enacted. Consequences are as natural as possible. (If you're late, if his being late takes time away from you, he has to give that time to you later. Ditto for siblings. If you have to do extra work because he fails in his responsibility, he owes you work equal in either time or work missed. Ditto for siblings. If he is cranky because he stayed up all night, then he needs to spend some time alone/nap/read/exercise...this extends to any non-vital outside meetings or groups.)
Discussion can happen, but you have to recognize when they are not making anything work. I stop discussions when they start to get cyclical and I tell my son I'm stopping because the conversation is not growing or changing either of us. We don't need to repeat ourselves. He can talk more only if he has something new to say.
This son has always had the greatest belief in himself. He learns things from his own experience. He doesn't accept teaching. Because of this I try to allow reasonable negotiation whenever possible. Encourage thinking about the issue beforehand and making a proposal. Be open to some changes. Be honest about your apprehensions and ask him for solutions. Ask him for appropriate consequences when an agreement is broken.
Best of luck with the Executive Function issues. My son has that as well. I've tried many things and at this point all I can do is give him information and hope when he has the right experience or motivation he'll know where to access the information I give him now.
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INFJ here married to an ENFP/ENTP (he's borderline for both).
One thing I've noticed lately is that when overwhelmed I hide (in a book, in knitting, at home, by myself). This is good as a short term solution to help me balance, but it's hard to shake myself up and re-connect to people when I'm exhausted and overwhelmed...and sometimes I just really need that deep connection but it's so hard when you're tired.
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Dh gave me Cottage Garden, a game by Uwe Rosenberg. It's similar to his game Patchwork. If you like the puzzle aspect of Patchwork you would enjoy this.
Besides choosing and building flower garden beds, it also uses sleeping kitties as the markers to trade for refill the flower beds or to fill a single space in a garden bed. Cute!
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Exactly what it says. What have you played lately?
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What did you get for Christmas?
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There's a Boardgame group on here, but I think the posting has become more sporadic. I should work on it a bit this year.
My guys are older. I have one that will always play, anything. One who used to refuse to play any games but now can be coaxed with the right kind of themes (cthulu, zombie). One who will play one game and then wander off. And one who is an agent of chaos.
Today is supposed to be a boardgame day. Cthulu Birthday boy called it.
We have several new ones from Christmas that I would love to play (Aquaspheres, Dungeon Pets, Jorvik), but I'm guessing we'll play Pandemic Legacy (seriously we are only half way through this one) or something with zombies or cthulu (Elder Signs?).
I would love to play more but the agent of chaos makes it difficult. I'm usually tired by the time he's busy elsewhere or sleeping.
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The Gene - nonfiction
Has anyone else have trouble with The Gene because a lot of the early material is really basic Genetics anecdotes? I know not everyone majored in Biology, but it's a big book and that's a lot of pages of background.
Perhaps I connected with his personal story in the intro., so I was disappointed in how much stuff I already knew that I had to sift through.
I am waiting for Multitudes though, and looking forward to it.I finished Thomas Cromwell yesterday (yay!) and started Call the Midwife today. I watched the series while recovering last month and now had to read the book, which I've had since someone recommended it for my daughter here a couple of years ago. Still plugging away at Consider This and Foundation: History of England.
There are 3 or 4 Call the Midwife books. Did you just read the first? Are you planning on reading the rest?
I really found them interesting in 2015. Have you read Lark Rise to Candleford? It doesn't have the medical focus, but it was an interesting look at Victorian rural life and poverty vs. merchant life in the towns. I liked it very much and it also has a lovely BBC series devoted to it (quite a lot of actor crossover once you know them both).I finished I Married Adventure (autobiography of an early 20th century couple who did travel photography), The Wolf Road (future Western Dystopia), and Odd and the Frost Giants (youth Norse myth tale) last week. I wanted to shake the photographers for doing so many dumb things. I loved the main character from the dystopia (even though I weary of dystopias), and the Norse myth tale (complete with Thor, Loki, Odin, Freya) was sweet fun.
I'm working on The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynn Jones (weird kid quest against interdimensional beings), Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin (fiction based on the classical age), and some book about teaching word recognition.
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Too much, too fast, moving too quickly.
It's Fairy Tale month for me. I finished Neil Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giants (boy adventure based in Norse mythology) on audio. I really enjoyed this. Gaiman is a good reader of his own material.
I also finished up The Wolf Road. It was on NPR's 2016 list. It was okay. Elka's a tough, knife-toting young woman in a dystopian Canada. "The Big Dam*n Stupid" has basically pushed things back to a pioneer basis in most places. Weird storms are unpredictable. Tiny Elka is pulled from her home with her Nana by a storm and left adrift in the woods. She finds a man she calls Trapper and he raises her as a hunter. Later she finds out he's a creepy serial killer who took a shine to her. (This is not a spoiler. The book starts with her hunting the Trapper.) A book-long journey ensues where she tries to find her parents in the Yukon gold country and escape her past. I liked the main character and thought her actions were realistic, but there were a few niggling things for me with the pacing and the final twist. I would read something else by Beth Lewis.
Working on more fairy tales (Deathless, The Sleeper and the Spindle) and Lavinia.
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Tam, here's the list with a few typos. Gotta run to work now...
Thank you so much. That was so random it made me ridiculously happy (and gave me a few ideas for the coming year)!
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STACIA!!!!!!! YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!! I just got the coolest gift ever!!! My very own, custom, 240 square Bingo card!!!!!! Yep, you heard that right, it is 5 x 48 squares! And some of the coolest, funniest categories I've ever seen. Let's see, some of my favorites are: Travel Gone Wrong, Has a Cemetery In It, I Would Be Embarrassed To Be Seen Reading This on the Subway, People Wearing Pantaloons, Book With Chickens on the Cover, Characters Need Saddles in the Book, and the list goes on, and on, and on! I hear mumto2, Mom-ninja, and Jane in NC helped come up with some of the categories. Thank you all so much!
Seriously, thanks you guys. I don't think I've ever gotten a funnier and more creative gift. I posted it on the wall right beside my computer and I will have a lot of fun filling it in. I don't promise to fill the whole thing in one year, but I will definitely make a dent in it!
:001_wub: :001_wub: :001_wub: :biggrinjester:
Is it wrong that I'm desperately curious and the photo (in which I can't read any of the categories) only made it worse? Love the categories mentioned so far. Please update us as you go.
Thanks. Quite honestly, most of the truly local authors are pretty bad. I've tried a few in the past. :tongue_smilie:
I could probably re-read A Land Remembered. It's been a few years since I assigned it to ds, and probably close to 20 years since I initially read it. The author Patrick Smith, lived in my county for years. He used to show up at various pioneer demonstrations and seafood festivals to sign copies of that and his other books. I'm just not sure I can take reading (again) about the destruction of Florida's fragile land at this time.
I kept reading this as The Land Remembers and wondered why LadyFlorida lives in southwestern Wisconsin.
Update: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman is marked as a new book from my library and is due today so I finished it last night. Fun fantasy with a steampunk/librarian/alternate world flair. I'm also pages away from finishing Osa Johnson's memoir I Married Adventure. She was married to (and worked with) Martin Johnson the photographer and filmmaker. They traveled to the South Seas and east Africa during the naughts, teens, and twenties and did all kinds of crazy and stupid things. Standard racism and sexism of the time but the experiences were unusual (especially for a woman) and are part of a world which has vanished for the most part.
2 more women for my list...1 fiction, 1 non-fiction.
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When we next play, we're going to use the circular arrangement that was shown in a Rules Appendix that came in our box. We'll use a button to indicate the two cards that are at one's feet, and then move the button around the circular arrangement of two by four cards rather than moving all the cards forward if they're in a line.
Please explain the two napkins that you mentioned. I'm not sure I understand.
Regards,
Kareni
We have the earliest addition, so we don't have the Rules Appendix or the button. Interesting.
In the first edition you have a line of cards several cards in length. Continually moving them forward can be a pain so we take a few folded cloth napkins and use them as a conveyor belt. Generally 3 cards can fit on a napkin. Once the cards are taken off we move the napkin to the back and place more cards on it.
It keeps us from being too anal with moving the line of cards along and neatening everything up every few seconds.
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Since the topic of games has come up, let me mention that my husband and I enjoyed playing a game that I received as a gift. Like Patchwork, it's a two player game ~
MorelsIt also appears to be available, with slightly different artwork and using scientific names, under the name
Fungi.I recommend it.
Regards,
Kareni
I love Morels! What a great game.
We use 2 cloth napkins to help move the line of mushrooms faster.
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Newborn Fashion Fail JAWM
in The Chat Board
Posted
People just stick their foot in their mouth sometimes. Men particularly can think they're funny and not realize the 'joke' doesn't work. I'm sorry.
My male OB remarked right after birth that I still looked like I was pregnant. Come on, the guy had been an OB for YEARS and had a wife and 5 children. Really?? He should have known better. He did know better. People do stupid stuff sometimes, even surgeons.