What the internet, 5 dollars, and a dream will get you

This afternoon I was searching for a new storage system for our bedroom/baby’s room when I got sucked down the internet wormhole of fancy baby nurseries! My friend Jazmin told me that the average person spends something like 3K on a nursery. I’m glad that I don’t know anyone who’s actually done that. Our baby will not have its own room, much less a nursery. He will, however, have a colorful Ikea shelving unit that he shares with us and some awesome pictures framed in our house to look at! I mean, nurseries are good for like 3 years and then the kid starts to have preferences and no longer needs a crib. Plus, don’t babies just want to be with their parents anyway? It seems like nurseries are for parents, rather than babies. But if my kid is anything less than a genius, then I will take full responsibility and assume it’s because he didn’t have retro fabric circles to gaze upon whilst transitioning to nap time.

This whole becoming a parent thing has brought out the environmentally conscious person within. I went to the consignment baby store this weekend and picked up some used stuff—I see buying new stuff as sort of wasteful and unnecessary. Don’t even get me started on diapers!

But I digress (I think the pregnancy is also bringing out more strongly felt opinions in yours truly. It’s best to not talk to me for a while.)—I was in this internet wormhole when I came across a parenting blog about recycling old kid toys, and was reminded of these dinosaur planters I’d seen on Etsy a while ago, but forgot about.

I immediately got re-excited about them and decided to go make some! It took me a total of 1.25 hours (including procuring the supplies) and under $25 to make three (and that’s only because I spent $10 on the turtle). The elephant and dinosaur toys were $2.50 at target and the succulents were $2.50 at OSH, making it a $5 project! The ones on Etsy are painted vibrant colors, but I'm a realist and much prefer their natural colors. Although, how DO we know what color dinosaurs were? Skin isn't preserved in the fossil record (or is it? I clearly need more schooling). Are we basing their color on their evolutionary relatives? Plus, don't we now think they all had feathers? The toy industry is way behind the science on this one. In that case I say, "Bring on the pink dinosaurs!". Now I just need people to give them to (secret santa gift! My friend’s birthday! Keep one?!). I will note that NWB is appalled at this project, which means that it must be REALLY AWESOME.

From My Notes on Birth Day

When I first discovered I was pregnant, I got super into the consumption of as much pregnancy-birth-baby literature as possible. I bought a bunch of books and read them as if it were my duty. I'm more relaxed now because I sort of got my fill. I do have to come back to a few books in the next few months, but I'm happily engrossed in the tales of race, oil and football in west Texas right now.

One of the best books I've read so far is called Birth Day and is all about the science behind birth.

One of the things that has totally affected me are studies on the importance of having another woman in the delivery room with you. The longest labors are those that have just the mother and father. The shortest are those that have the mother, father and a close relative or friend of the mother who helps with laboring. The intermediate in length labors are those that have the mom and dad and literally another woman just sitting in the corner not helping! Just the presence of another woman helps the laboring mother! After reading that, I invited my mom and Natan's mom to the delivery room with me (do NOT want my dad or Natan's dad in there). The author basically goes through how women have always given birth surrounded by other women, and it's only recently that fathers have been allowed in the delivery room, but it is still something done best with other women (best meaning shortest labor).

Some other tidbits of information that I liked reading about:
--Nipples smell like amniotic fluid after birth so a baby can find them to feed.
--Babies like the sound of their mothers voice best (duh), but also the sounds of music: specifically rhythm. In reality, however, they mostly hear gastrointestinal workings.
--Some of the early studies on fetal hearing involved sticking a decibel detector into a newly empty womb! Can you imagine signing up for that?
--babies can learn in the womb! Sound studies have shown that babies can learn patterns (they do these experiments by playing loud noises followed by vibrations. The baby learns to anticipate vibration after the noise (as measured by heart rate changes)).

rant of november 16, 2011

Is it too late to join NaBloPoMo? Because blogging has seemed like the thing to do these last few evenings. Maybe I'll go for a half month.

Topic for tonight: business majors and the state of education.

I've been really into several educational studies that have come out in the last 6 months or so that have touched on the following: College business majors.

I make no secret of my feelings about this as an "academic course of study" (it isn't). I want to be clear that I know "economics" to be a completely different major than "business". In economics, you study theories, philosophy and history. In business, as far as I can tell, you study "principals of accounting" and "advanced excel": two things anyone with a good education (or even a good high school education) can learn on the job. You write meaningless papers on trite subjects and generally don't learn anything you can't learn from the newspaper anyway. It is an abomination to the very essence of higher education. Education should be about expanding your understanding of the world through the study of philosophy and science (just to name a few core subjects, which also coincidentally happen to be my college majors! Yay for vanity!).

It comes as no surprise then that NPR has been doing some good reporting on this phenomenon! Did you know that 20% of college graduates are business majors! 1 in 5! It's the most popular major. These people are future voters! They don't understand anything about science (my concern)! Global warming, the basic thermodynamics and atmospheric chemistry that explain global warming? I guess Rick Perry does deserve to be president in the kind of country/culture we are headed towards. The authors of the study seemed more concerned with future leaders (after all, 20% of college graduates will have this degree) deciding to go to war without a basic understanding of world history.

Another NPR story reported that in addition to being the biggest major, it is also the major that gets the lowest scores on tests of general knowledge (science and math majors score the highest. Represent!). I guess we, as a cadre of future adults, think more about the myth of the business world rather than developing actual interests that might sustain a soul (and as a by-product make one interested in learning for interest, rather than for the goal of M-O-N-E-Y). America will never cease to shock and underwhelm (also, reading Friday Night Lights is contributing to this harshing of my mellow).

But I'm being harsh! I know some people with an MBA (namely my brother and my best friend's husband) that found what they love within the business world. I know it exists! I'm just guessing it doesn't for most people (like consultants).

I am reminded of Coach Taylor's speech to the East Dillon Lions during their state-winning year:

"Success is not a goal. It's a by-product. So let's put the work in."

Coal River

Do you know what the hardest part of teaching is, for realz? It’s the subversion of your actual beliefs all day long in order to play the part (metaphorically) of Switzerland. It’s so hard sometimes, like when you just want to start rippin’ big time on Bush and Republicans today, but it’s your moral duty to not do those things and to try to remain level headed and neutral about everything. Something that will forever be vividly planted in my memory is sitting in high school biology and listening to a “debate” on abortion (really just Rose vs. the rednecks that made up 95% of my school). Even as a 15 year old, I knew that the teacher should not be letting this happen (it started when a student was allowed to pass out anti-abortion propaganda) and that it bothered me.

We’re going really deep into coal in my APES class and I showed the documentary “The Last Mountain” today, which was spearheaded by the amazing RFK Jr. and something you should stream through Amazon RIGHT NOW. It’s such a good look into our dependence on coal and the impact of that dependence on Appalachia. Then there’s the political shadiness that is omnipresent in politics today and a strong condemnation of the Bush administration (when is there not really?). All in all, a really good documentary, but when I was asking for feedback, a student totally started going off on Bush and political corruption and corporate donations. These are all things I would agree with, but then you look around and 26 other people are staring at you and you realize that some of them don’t agree with that and that as the designated adult (wtf?), it is your responsibility to get off that ledge. Man, it’s painful. I think I actually defended GWBush today….for the greater good. It felt so weird and dishonest, but my mind kept saying “MORAL DUTY”. Maybe this is what it feels like to be a cop. It was also the tightest lesson I’ve ever given, which feels like a good accomplishment.

day of rest = day of work

It is the end of the weekend and I have written 8 pages of “material”. Three of it for my online education course, which is required to clear my teaching credential. In CA, you have to take two years of classes, and then once you start teaching, you basically have to retake those classes or else your credential expires and you have to start all over from scratch. Twice the fun and twice the money! I don’t think any other state has this “quirky system(!)” of credentialing. I’m in my fifth year of teaching and not yet in the clear. The problem with this is, of course, that requiring so much reflection and work doesn’t actually improve the quality of teaching. I’ve come to the conclusion that successful teachers possess the right combination of native intelligence, education, creativity and disposition. Classes can’t change the fundamental nature of a person.

Moving on, the other 5 pages is for a top secret project that may or may not lead to huge life changes. It was fun and creative, but still: FIVE PAGES! All in all, I spent my weekend working on things that have nothing to do with my actual day-to-day job, which kind of sucks. But since I was in the writing mood, I decided to mix it up, go for page 9 and update my blog!

Some exciting things of late: Today I sampled hot chocolate from two different sources, which felt like a fun experiment to mix in with working. Bagel Shop (1) vs. Starbucks (0), with the BS for the win!

Last week I finished the entirety of the series, “Friday Night Lights”. It ended in the most satisfying way I have ever seen a series end. The only thing missing was Minka Kelly reprising her role as Lyla Garrity. The last frame focused on Tim Riggins, which was a good call. I liked that series so much! There was such great character development and so many real experiences and emotional responses to those experiences. It also took such an optimistic look at human nature and every episode had sage advice on a variety of topics, starting with the very first episode during which coach Taylor dispenses the truest of true advice:

“Give all of us gathered here tonight the strength to remember that life is so very fragile. We are all vulnerable and we will all at some point in our lives fall; we will all fall. We must carry this in our hearts…that what we have is special. That it can be taken from us and that when it is taken from us we will be tested…we will be tested to our very souls. We will now all be tested. It is these times…it is this pain that allows us to look inside ourselves.”

I was suffering from some painful FNL withdrawal, so I bought the book on which the series is based. The book is so different and sad that I’m really glad I didn't read it before I saw the series. There are schools in Texas that were not desegregated until the 1980’s and there are people in Texas who literally see nothing wrong (like it wouldn’t even register as weird, it is so ingrained) to call black people the N-word. Living in the bay area means that I am probably out of touch with 98% of this country, which seems OK to me when I read books like this.