Stormy's Corner

Book Review: Learn to Program

I picked up Learn to Program for two reasons:

• I was curious about a book that could teach you to program.  Where do you start?  Also, I originally learned how to program (in Basic) from a book with no computer.
• I wanted to learn Ruby and that's the programming language that Learn to Program uses.

I was impressed with the book.  Chris Pine starts out with the very basics - how to set up your computer with Ruby and how to create and run a program and takes you through a few basic programs, algorithms like sort and finally simple interactive games and file manipulation.

If you are looking to learn how to program or how to teach your kid to program, Learn to Program is a good starting point.

Napa Valley Photo Being Used on Website

One of my photos from Napa is being used by Napa Valley Schmap.

Do you live well?

I keep pointing out how cheap things are these days and how much we have.  Most people look at me like I'm crazy and then try to point out how expensive things are.   Really, you can eat out for an hour's worth of work at minimum wage.  Groceries are even cheaper, if you buy the right stuff.  You can buy a t-shirt at Old Navy for $5!  You can buy an entire outfit in very good condition at my local thrift store for less than $10.  Toys are cheap - we consider a lot of them "disposable."  Looks like the author of Our high, high standard of living would agree with me.

as late as 1970 the median single-family home  was still less than 1400 square feet (versus over 2200 now).

I have a personal recollection of the 1960s and 1970s (I graduated from high school in 1977). My dad was a college professor and probably made a pretty good income, but we never had a standard of living as high as lots of "poor" folks seem to have now: We never had air conditioning. We didn't get a second car until I was in high school. We didn't get a color TV until I'd gone away to college. We never took vacations overseas. Eating out was for special occasions.

The only problem I've encountered with living inexpensively these days is that it's hard to find a new, small home these days.  All the new homes in good locations are huge homes.  So most homes are expensive, but it's because they are huge, not because the cost of living has gone up drastically.  It has gone up, but in general, we all live very well.

40 hour work week is made up

Did you know that the 40 hour work week is totally made up.  From Groovy Green - The 4 Day Work Week:

The notion of our standard work week here in America has remained largely the same since 1938.   That was the year the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed, standardizing the eight hour work day and the 40 hour work week.

So when you consider alternate work schedules and hours, keep in mind that there's no real reason you are supposed to work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day.

Caleb's first word: uh-oh

Caleb's been talking a lot lately - but I've had trouble distinguishing any clear words.  Every once in a while he'll say a bunch of stuff altogether and I'll say "yeah!" and he looks at me like I've lost my mind and I wonder what I've just said yes to ...

... but his first clearly distinguishable word is beyond a doubt "uh-oh."  He even uses it appropriately, like after spilling half of a box of raisins on the floor.  It usually sounds more like "yuh-go" but it's very clearly "uh-oh!"

The rooms that writers' create in

Ever wondered what a writers' office looked like?  You can see pictures of them on the Guardian's website.  They range from very austere to very cluttered from the New York Public Library to the libraries of other famous authors.  It's an interesting glimpse into part of the creative process of writing.

Movie Review: Death Proof

Once again Quentin Tarantino shows that he's not your average director.  His movies may be a tad bit too violent, but nobody will ever call them boring.  This one also has some fun loving, tough women.   Not deep but not boring. 

We never did find out why the bad guy wants to kill all the pretty women but I still liked the ending.

Book review: The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan

I am listening to The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan and in the first few chapters I've already learned some interesting things.  On economics:

• The interest rate reflects how much money is available for investing.  Our interest rates are low because people have saved lots of money and are investing it.

About Alan Greenspan:

• He was raised by a single mom.
• He learned math from following baseball statistics.
• His first professional job was playing the saxophone.
• When the 9/11 attacks happened, he was sitting on a plane on the way home from Zurich.  The plane had to turn around and go back to Zurich.

Everyone is in it for themselves

So when your seven year old doesn't listen to you - don't take it personally.  He just doesn't want to do what you were saying.

When the cashier grunts at you - don't take it personally.  She just doesn't want to be at work.

When the guy in front of you in line glares at you - don't take it personally.  He's probably thinking that the cashier hates him.

When your kid's teacher won't talk to you - don't take it personally.  She's probably just too shy to talk to any parent.

When nobody at works stops to say hi to you - don't take it personally.  They are probably worried about that deadline.

But when it feels like the whole world is being mean to you ... well maybe you better figure out what's wrong with you.

I know!  I forgot to put on my happy face this morning.  Seriously, it's a good thing Caleb greeted me this morning jumping up and down and giggling.  Otherwise it would have been a long day.

Are Americans divided into haves and have-nots?

If you are a Democrat, you are twice as likely to say yes: 63% of Democrats say that America is divided into haves and have-nots whereas only 33% of Republicans believe that is true.  PewResearch has a really interesting report on A Nation of "Haves" and "Have-Nots".

Drinks that make themselves cold

We are one step closer to living in a science fiction world.  Coca-cola is supposedly coming out with a Sprite that chills itself when you open it.  The ice is made out of the drink itself so that you don't get a watered down drink.

Book Review: The Cure: How a Father Raised a $100 Million ...

I just finished reading a great book, The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million--And Bucked the Medical Establishment--In a Quest to Save His Children.  John Crowley discovers that his two youngest kids are dying from a rare disease - one so rare that nobody has bothered to invest a lot in a cure.  Crowley ends up quitting his job, starting a drug company and finding a drug to treat his kids.  Only to discover that the FDA considers it a conflict of interest to include his own kids in the trials! 

It's a great heart-warming story of a family's struggle with a little known disease written by a great writer - Greeta Anand.  The book is mostly about the business side (as opposed to the medical side) of the disease.  It's a story about the dad's struggle to find a cure for the disease.  He's never run a company, never gotten funding, knows little about biology or science, and yet he starts a very successful biotech company and finds a drug that works - all for his kids.

I found the conflict of interest part interesting.  John Crowley brings in people suffering from Pompe to meet the people in the company.  Most of the researchers have never met anyone suffering from the disease they are trying to cure!  And get this, it could be considered a conflict of interest to meet the people they are trying to cure!  That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  In the computer high tech world we consider it a very good thing to meet your users - you are making the product for them!  In Crowley's case the visitors helped motivate and empassion his company.

Famous tortilla de patatas!

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from the Tortilla de patatas group pool. Make your own badge here.

Maybe some of you remember the Tortilla de Patatas that I made - my first ever.  It's now part of the Tortilla de patatas group on Flickr!

Getting Caleb into the Attic: "That's what pillows are for!"

Our seven year old likes to play in the garage attic.  To get into the attic, you have to climb a yellow rope and not everyone can do that, so it's a secret hideout.  Turns out he's been working on how to get his one year old brother up there!  Last night he said "I think maybe we could put Caleb in a bucket and pull him up into the attic.  But he might be too heavy."  When I mentioned that Caleb might fall out of the attic, he said, "That's what pillows are for!"

I have eight pairs of eyes

According to a reputable seven year old, I have eight pairs of eyes all over my head.  This causes other people to get in trouble a lot.

Being a step-parent

I've heard from at least three different people in the last week that being a step-parent is hard. 

I think being a parent is hard.  I think being a kid with four parents and two homes is hard.  I really don't think being a stepmom is that much harder than being a mom.  (Once in a while it's a bit frustrating when someone listens to dad when they wouldn't listen to you but most of the time there's no difference.)  The difference is it's just a bit harder communicating among four parents and keeping consistent rules than it is between two, but I don't think I have it any harder than any of the other three parents! 

Now if someone would just show me where that Magic Guidebook to Parenting is ...

Why do you believe myths?

There's a really interesting article in the Washinton Post, Persistence of Myths Could Alter Public Policy Approach about how myths grow.  As an example they used a CDC study that tried to dispel myths about the flu.  After reading the flyer, many people remembered the false facts as true!

It recited various commonly held views and labeled them either "true" or "false." Among those identified as false were statements such as "The side effects are worse than the flu" and "Only older people need flu vaccine."

When University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz had volunteers read the CDC flier, however, he found that within 30 minutes, older people misremembered 28 percent of the false statements as true. Three days later, they remembered 40 percent of the myths as factual.

So the article concludes that trying to dispel myths by stating them only makes them more memorable and more true in people's minds!