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Art Education in a Surprising Place

March 1, 2010 in Art, Products/Services | 2 comments

I recently used Facebook to solicit advice from my friends on where I might buy some new art prints for my home.  One friend (thanks, THP) suggested art.com, and I did find a lot of great prints there to choose from.

But the best thing about art.com is that you can learn a lot about art there.  They have their prints categorized by era (pre 12th Century to 20th Century), by movement (Cubism, Art Nouveau, Impressionism, etc.), by nationality, and by subject (animals, scenic, dance, etc.).  And, because within each category there are dozens and dozens of famous works, you can scan through them and get a feel for that movement or century or whatever you’re interested in.  Yes, you’re just seeing a tiny image which could never capture the subtleties of the actual work of art, and this is no substitute for going to museums and seeing the masterpieces for yourself, or even for taking a course or reading a good art history book.  But this is the best overview of the world of painting that I’ve ever experienced.

I skimmed through a few dozen paintings in each movement from the 17th century to the present day.  I now know why Vermeer is considered such a genius, after seeing his work next to many others from his time.  I saw the difference between Impressionism (nice) and Post-Impressionism (horrifying).  I confirmed my suspicion that, although I can appreciate the skills of the Hudson River School, landscapes bore me to tears.  Not surprisingly, most of the modern movements are a total fraud and just plain ugly.  But now I know a bit more about them.  And I found a few new artists that I love – hurray!

I learned more in 3 hours on art.com than I’ve learned in any one place before.  However, if I had no knowledge at all going in, I don’t think I could have learned very much.  I already had some ideas of what I liked and what many of the actual pieces looked like.  Art.com just helped me with categorization and filling in a lot of gaps.  (The multiple ways to filter makes shopping for prints an amazing experience as well.)  If you’re like me and enjoy art, but are a relative novice, it might be worth a few hours of your time.  Let me know if you enjoy it!

Classical Kids

February 17, 2010 in Music, Parenting, Products/Services | 1 comment

Sammy got some great loot for Christmas and I’ve been wanting to write about all of it, but I only have time for a quick post today, so I’ll tell you about my favorite gift that she received.

Adam’s aunt and uncle sent Sam a few CD’s from this great collection from “Classical Kids - A Symphony of Stories for all Ages.”   They are like audio books with music.  A story is told about a famous composer - Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, etc. - and his music is played in the background, and as part of the story.  There is a little bit of historical accuracy in the stories, but they really aren’t meant to teach you about the composer.  Here is the description from Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery:

The story:  Katarina, a young violinist, arrives at the Pieta orphanage where Antonio Vivaldi was music director.  Aided by Giovanni the gondolier, she searches throughout Venice for clues to her mysterious past.

The Music:  Over two dozen excerpts, including Vivaldi’s best-loved Four Seasons (with real sound effects), guitar, piccolo and trumpet concertos.  Also featured are many of the violin pieces played by young violinists today.

Sammy loves these stories so much.  I think she is listening to the music in a more active way.  I’m fine with excerpts, as opposed to whole pieces.  At her age, it might even be a better way to listen.  We listen to all kinds of music at home, including classical, but the way the stories are interwoven with the music is a whole new experience for her.  She just stands and listens, totally captivated.

I’d been meaning to get her some audio books but hadn’t found anything that seemed right.  These are perfect.  There were times during our snow days that she would listen to Vivaldi three times in a row, and it is over 45 minutes long!  Obviously, this is wonderful for me too.  This is a real alternative to television when I simply must have a break. 

I think these CD’s are a perfect gift for kids from 2-12.  And parents will appreciate it too!

Say Goodbye to Training Wheels

December 10, 2009 in Products/Services | 1 comment

After reading my thoughts on teaching Sammy to ride a bike, a friend of mine sent me this super-cool video of a bicycle wheel you can buy that makes training wheels obsolete.  Gadgets are Good Things:

Announcing the Virtual Objectivist Club

August 26, 2009 in Ideas, Products/Services | No comments

I just received word of a great new opportunity for students interested in the ideas of Ayn Rand:  the Virtual Objectivist Club.  From the announcement:

I helped start the Objectivist Club Network (OCN), an organization dedicated to helping all Objectivist Campus Clubs. OCN is not affiliated with the Ayn Rand Institute, although we support them and regularly communicate with them to ensure our respective organizations are not duplicating efforts.

Recently we’ve expanded our efforts to solve a new problem: there are students interested in joining an Objectivist club where no club exists. Some of these students start their own club, but others don’t have time to start a club or do not find enough participants on campus to form a club.

We’ve created the Virtual Objectivist Club (VOC) for these students — a phone-based discussion group dedicated to the study of Objectivism. Meetings will be weekly, beginning this September, each moderated by an experienced Objectivist. The group is open to any current students who would like to learn more about Objectivism.

My request: Please help spread the word to any students you know who may be interested in learning more about Objectivism. The deadline for applying to the VOC is August 31st. Students can learn more and apply at: http://www.oclubs.org/voc

Please let me know if you have any questions and we greatly appreciate you sharing this with others!

Keith & the OCN Team

If the Objectivist Club Network sounds familiar, you might have read about it at NoodleFood, in Diana’s recent discussion of delegation.  The founders of OCN are entrepreneurs who really know how to run a successful organization and OCN is already off to a great start, so I think this project of theirs is going to become a long-term fixture in the Objectivist world.

529

July 27, 2009 in Products/Services | 2 comments

This week I opened a new 529 account for Samantha.  For all you new and prospective parents, a 529 is a way to save tax-free for your child’s college costs.  I won’t bore you with the details, but I will say that opening a 529 is a no-brainer if you want to start a college fund.  There are many investment options, but if you use your state’s program you might be able to deduct your contributions from your state income taxes.  We had a Michigan-based 529, but we’re moving to the Virginia plan for obvious reasons. 

We’ve put very little money in the fund because we believe Sam should be primarily responsible for her own college costs, if she chooses to go to college.  But we have a credit card through this Futuretrust program, which deposits 1% of our spending into the 529.  This way, we can help Sam out a bit with no pain at all.  When we are financially comfortable, we put a little bit in each month on top of that, and we’ve also received gifts for her that went into the account.  All those little bits have added up nicely.

If you want to find out more, try bankrate.com, my go-to web site for everything financial.

Teach Me Time Clock

July 8, 2009 in Products/Services | 3 comments

Ever since Samantha learned to open doors, I’ve been looking forward to, and dreading, her first foray into leaving her room on her own during the night.  As you can see by my comment in the linked post, I decided to buy a digital clock so that Sam would know when it is ok to come out and when she should stay in her room and either sleep or play quietly.

While browsing clocks at Target, I noticed one that advertised changing colors.  I thought, “What a perfect way to signal that it is morning – the clock changes color instead of sounding an audible alarm!”  Upon closer inspection, however, this clock simply changed colors when you pushed a button, not as an alarm function.  But once I had the idea, I knew somebody must have invented my dream clock.

Teach Me Time Clock

Teach Me Time Clock

Here it is!  We got this cute little clock a couple of weeks ago.  Besides having a color-change alarm clock, it also has a digital and analog display (well, the “analog” display is really a digital reproduction of an analog display) and a game you can play to help your child learn to tell time.  It is super-versatile:  you can adjust the volume, the brightness, the colors, whether the “child buttons” on the front do anything or not, and whether you want digital, analog, or both types of time displayed.  All the important controls are in a latched panel in the back which I’m sure older children can open, but hopefully by the time they can do so they can also understand why they shouldn’t.

I set it up so that its backlight would turn green at 7:45am each morning and so that it displayed the digital time only, but I turned off everything else.  Sam was very excited to have her own clock.  She knows a little bit about time, clocks, and watches, and I explained how this clock would tell her when it is morning.  She still hadn’t ventured out of her room at night, but I told her that when the clock is green, she could come out of her room.  She listened without interest for a while, but at one point in my explanation she looked up, thinking.  I paused, and after a moment she said, GO DOWNSHUSH, PLAY TOYS?  I said, “Yes, when it turns green, you can open your door and go downstairs to play with your toys.”  Her face lit up in understanding.  The very next morning, I awoke to a sweet little face at my bedside.  She said, TURNED GREEN, MOMMY!  GO DOWNSHUSH?

Every morning since, Sam has waited until the clock turned green and then come out of her room on her own.  She positively loves it!  A couple of times she obviously woke up after it turned green and came right out, but many times she has turned up at my bedside right at 7:45, so I know she was waiting for the signal.  Today she woke up screaming at 7:30 (she is not a happy-waker-upper), but didn’t come out until it turned green.  With that one exception, our mornings have been so incredibly pleasant.  Instead of waking up to someone yelling at me to come get her, I wake up to a sweet girl whom I can pick up and cuddle in bed with me for a few minutes before starting my day. 

She hasn’t gone straight downstairs yet, but that day will come!

All Moms Are Pampered Now

March 25, 2009 in Products/Services | No comments

Even if you use cloth diapers, you’ve got to admit that disposable diapers were a great invention.  Well, if you use cloth diapers you probably can’t express an idea very well yet.  And of course, there are those pesky environmentalists.  OK, so you don’t have to admit it.  But I think it was a great invention, and one of my favorite blogs, Heroes of Capitalism, has the story right here.

Earning Money to Adopt

January 15, 2009 in Introspection, Products/Services | 2 comments

Chris

I’ve been hinting at this party I’m throwing for a while now, and it’s about time I explain.  Actually, I’ll let my friend Chris explain because this e-mail she sent was so touching:

Many of you know that Jon and I have talked on and off for a long time about adopting a child.  It is an enormous decision and about six months ago we found ourselves on the same page.  I was still in school so we decided to wait until the fall to make any big moves.  Well, it’s the Fall…and we recently decided that we are committed to moving ahead and have chosen our agency.  This is so very, very exciting to us I can’t begin to tell you!  We are looking to adopt an “older” child from Ethiopia and could not be more excited.  By “older” we mean a child some where between 3 and 5ish.  Jackson has been asking for a brother or sister for as long as I can remember and he is thrilled at the idea.

So that’s the awesome news…

And here’s our challenge…it’s damned expensive!  You may or may not know that adoption, especially international adoption, is frighteningly expensive. The likely cost is between $20,000 and $30,000.  Given that we don’t have that laying around (does anyone?) I have been wracking my brain about how to continue working as a nurse AND raise money on the side toward the adoption…in a way that doesn’t have me away from my family too much more than I already am.  The answer came to me a month or two ago and I am now getting ready to begin!

I’ve decided to sell a line of jewelry independently to raise money for the adoption.  Some of you may be familiar with the line…Silpada.  For those of you who are not, what I can tell you is that I love it enough to sell it.  I really didn’t think I’d be interested in spending time on this sort of thing at this point in my life, particularly with my new nursing job. But I have to tell you…I love the darned jewelry!  For those of you who know [K], she’s bought enough of it from another rep that she’s had to buy a piece of furniture to store it all!  I love that girl!   My hope is that this will allow me to do something independently to raise money for the adoption while not having to take time away from Jackson or Jon to do it…very important.

Silpada Jewelry

So as you can probably guess, I’m hosing a Silpada Jewelry party for Chris next week.  First, I want to help her reach this goal in any way I can.  I admire her so much for her commitment to pursuing her values, and what an exciting goal!  Second, I needed a good kick in the butt to get me started socializing anyway.  I want to meet my new neighbors, and I want to get to know the few people I’ve already met better, so this was the perfect opportunity.

And even though all I have to do is invite people and put out a bit of food, the whole process is terribly frightening to me.  I went through a couple of days of high anxiety trying to put together the invitation list, but at some point, I let go and realized that the worst thing that could happen was I might have to cancel the party if not enough people wanted to come.  Big deal, right?  But my social anxiety is not rational.  I’d like to make friends and be able to attend social events without dread.  Really, this is quite a big step for me.

If you’re interested in the jewelry or helping Chris out, you can browse the catalog here.  You order by e-mailing Chris what you want using the link on her site.  I bought a necklace and earrings and they are some of the nicest pieces that I own.  You might even strategically leave her web site up on the family computer – Valentine’s Day is coming up soon, you know!

More than Three, More than We Could Carry, and More to Come on that Subject

January 7, 2009 in Products/Services, Three Good Things | 2 comments

Three Good Things for the day:

  1. I realized that Three Good Things was taking over all of my blogging ideas and finally started writing other stuff again.  I really love this whole blogging thing.
  2. Sam’s Christmas presents arrived from Florida.  (There was no way we were taking this awesome scooter back home on the plane.)  Thanks, Dad and Deb! 
  3. I sent out the Evite for my party.  I’m telling you, this is really a big deal for me!

Brita Now Comes in Green

January 5, 2009 in Homemaking, Ideas, News, Products/Services | 6 comments

I just got a new Brita water pitcher.  The flip-up pour spout cover on our old one had broken off long ago, and when we moved here to our new house we felt like it was time to start fresh and get a new one.

I love my Brita water.  I wanted to write a whole post about how drinking Brita water is superior to drinking bottled water, but then I found out that the Cult of Green is taking on the bottled water industry, and I hate to be on the same side as those wackos.

Bananagrams and the Ghost

December 27, 2008 in Fun, Products/Services | 1 comment

This was the Christmas of Bananagrams and Finding the Ghost.

Bananagrams is Scrabble on speed.  You use the same kind of tile letters as in Scrabble, but you don’t use a board and you don’t keep score.  You start with about 15-20 tiles (depending on how many players) and just start building words in a crossword pattern.  There are no points for using uncommon letters – it’s all about using them up.  When a player uses up his initial set of tiles, he shouts “PEEL” and then everyone, including the peeler, picks up one more tile and tries to finish again.  There are 144 tiles so the peeling is a big part of the game.  When you build a good base, you can add single letters to your board as quickly as you can pick them up, so the peeling can be a real thrill.  When there are no more tiles to peel, the next player to use up his letters wins.  You can also play Banana Smoothie where you simply divide up all the letters at the start and try to be the first one to use them up.

I think the best thing about Bananagrams is that everybody plays at once, unlike Scrabble, where you spend a lot of the time just waiting your turn.  The game can be serious or raucous depending on your mood, the concept and the rules are simple, it’s super-portable (just a bag with tiles in it), and you can play with only 2 people if you want to.  Just like Scrabble, you get the pleasure of using your mind - concentrating, being creative, and drawing upon a huge storehouse of knowledge.  And the feedback is immediate – win or lose – but completely inconsequential to your success in life. 

Thanks to Adam’s sis (is that a word? I need a Scrabble dictionary) for introducing us to this fabulous game!  The adults played it endlessly the whole week. 

Samantha and her second-cousin (cousin-once-removed?) had their own game: Find the Ghost.  It was nothing more than hide and seek – another game that has a simple concept.  Adam’s dad had joked about their new house having ghosts, so when the ten-year-old cousin gave me a wink and then snuck upstairs, I told Sam to go find the ghost.  That girl is a master hider!  The girls had so much fun with this game that the first thing Sam said the next morning was FIND GHOST FIND GHOST, as if she had been dreaming about it all night. 

Games are fun.

A Little Thing

December 12, 2008 in Little Things, Products/Services | 2 comments

I’m wearing my contact lenses for the first time since I got that series of colds that lasted, I kid you not, 70 days.  Actually, I put the lenses in once when I thought I was getting better but I had to take them out after a couple of hours when the eye boogies took over.  What a relief to take off those glasses!  Soft contact lenses are definitely one of the blessings of our modern age. 

The concept of the contact lens was first proposed by none other than Leonardo da Vinci.  (What a great mind!)  Hard glass lenses were in use in the late 19th century, but I’m not sure by whom – it must have been torture to wear them.  It was in the 1940’s that all-plastic lenses were invented, but they were still very uncomfortable.  The men we have to thank for today’s modern lenses are Czechoslovakian chemist Otto Wichterle and his assistant, Dr. Drahoslav Lim.  They invented the lenses in the late fifties and some countries were using the product in the sixties, but of course, the FDA did not approve the hydrogel or “Softlens” material for use in the U.S. until 1971, when Bausch & Lomb introduced the first commercially available soft contact lens here.  Dr. Lim actually invented the soft, water absorbing plastic they used, hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA).  Another great leap forward thanks to materials innovation! (Summarized from this, this and this.)

I’m sure many of you are thinking that the contact lens is old news and I should be writing about vision correction surgery.  But I write about the Little Things that are important to me, and I’m not a good candidate for LASIK or other corrective surgery since I only have one working eye and so no room for error.  Besides, I thought it was an interesting history.

Mysteries

December 8, 2008 in Homemaking, Mysteries, Products/Services | 3 comments

Does anybody iron their clothes anymore?  I’ve never ironed and yes, my clothes are wrinkled some of the time (but not often, thanks to this).  But, seriously, after sorting, washing, and drying clothes, does anyone really get out an ironing board and an iron, put water in it, wait for it to heat up, and spend multiple minutes per item making them just perfect, then folding or hanging?  And I’ve heard a rumor that some people actually iron their sheets!  What planet do they live on?

When Supergluing Your Fingers Together is Not a Mistake

December 5, 2008 in Products/Services | 3 comments

Ever since my first real winter in Chicago 1999-2000 (I grew up in Los Angeles), I’ve had terrible problems with dry skin.  In Chicago, my heels cracked so badly they bled, which was painful enough, but last winter my fingers started splitting.  Right where the edge of the nail meets the finger I got these deep cuts.  Two of my favorite activities, writing (typing) and cooking, became torture.  It started up again about a week ago and was so bad I decided to try my father’s trick – Superglue.  Yes, I glued my fingers back together.  It works! 

Photos

November 13, 2008 in Products/Services, Technology | 5 comments

I just added a link at the top of this page to photos of Sam on Shutterfly.  I’ve only managed to upload her pictures through September or so.  That’s when I switched to Picasa, and I haven’t quite figured out yet how I’ll share those in an organized way. 

Does anyone have a suggestion as to the fastest and easiest way to manage and share photos? 

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