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Bittersweet News from School by Josh

Posted by Doug Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:41:01 GMT

My wife and I have been back and forth for years about Microsoft. I made her use Linux as her desktop for several years before we Switched. Even now she wants a copy of MS Office. I keep telling her NeoOffice/J is good enough. Plus, I’ve given enough money to BillG over the years. I’m done with that.

So here’s what she tells me via IM last night:

7:21:30 PM lathigirl: oh I am soooooo laughing
7:22:10 PM lathigirl: Joshua just asked me “at school we have a program called Microsoft Word, can we get that program do we have it?”

Ouch! My own son stabbing me in the back without even thinking about it! Obviously it’s time for me to call home.

One thing I’ve always encouraged in him is imagination. He loves to draw and make “books”. Basically, his books are what’s called “Graphic Novels” today but are probably better known as “Comic Books”. He draws a little and writes a little on every page. I’ve got a nice collection of his books that show his progress. He’s just a couple weeks shy of eight now. I guess he’s been doing this for at least three years.

So he’s pretty excited about MS Word. It lets him write and it “prints like a real book” (his words). He was also excited about clicking on a button to get these pictures he could put in his book. It took him just a little while to remember that it’s called clip art. I admit I was a little surprised when he used that phrase. This is another thing Carla’s pestered me about for years. In her opinion (that of a former elementary school teacher), you can never have enough clip art. So now Josh wants clip art to paste into his books he writes in MS Word.

Of course, clip art looks nice. It’s clean and easily recognizable for what it is. It’s easy to use. On the other hand, I really, really hope he doesn’t give up on drawing just because his pictures don’t look as good as clip art. This may be my excuse to get him a tablet.

I’ve been lax. I haven’t spent much time getting a computer that’s setup for him to use. I have a couple old CRT iMacs that run OS 9. I haven’t made sure they’re in running condition when the kids trash the config. I haven’t been working with Josh to teach him about computers. I’ve been content to just buy them kids games and let them play. Now that he’s wanting to do his book projects on a computer I need to be more involved.

One thing I had been attempting was to teach him to type. He’s been interested in computers for a long time. I figured he was getting old enough to write email or IM or something. I bought him Spongebob Square Pants Typing. He’s played it a little, but didn’t really understand the value of what he was trying to learn. Maybe now it will make more sense to him.

Posted in Josh, Family | Tags Graphic, Kids, Microsoft, Novels | 1 comment

Cows in the Field

Posted by Doug Mon, 25 Jul 2005 03:02:03 GMT

The boys and I were heading up to Middletown for the Balloon Festival this weekend (pictures to come later). We were traveling the back roads up there and passed by a cow pasture. I don’t know exactly how many cows were in the field. I’m guessing somewhere between 50 and 100 crowded in the corner of this field. It wasn’t a mind boggling number, but certainly more than we’re used to seeing in one place in these parts. So I said, “Boys, look at all those cows.”

Without missing a beat Josh said, “If there were an evil cow those could be its army.” I think he watches too much TV.

Posted in Josh, Family, TV | no comments

Pinewood Derby Part II

Posted by Doug Sun, 20 Mar 2005 19:54:00 GMT

Yesterday was the Pinewood Derby for Josh’s Cub Scout Pack. Overall I think we spent about 10 hours on his car getting ready. On the way to the race we talked about how much fun we had working on the car and what his favorite parts were (painting it and sanding it with my Dremel). We also talked about how it was important to have fun and not be too worked up about who would win. Honestly, I didn’t expect us to do very well.

When I walked into the gym where the track was, my first thought was, “I really hope our car can finish the race.” It seemed so long; almost an entire basketball court. I was really surprised though. The cars were very fast and didn’t have any problem finishing. We actually won our first race! They raced all the cars six times (one for each lane) and then totaled the running times for each race. They then awarded certificates to the top three boys from each age group. Then they raced the winners from each age group to find the fastest cars for the day. So, it didn’t really matter how many individual races we won (I think three or four of the six), but what your total times are. We ended up sixth in our age group.

It was a really fun day. A couple of the Dads commented we should do two races a year. I think that’d be fun, but I don’t really know how much work went on behind the scenes to pull the day off. I used my new Canon 50mm/F1.8 lens exclusively. It was more challenging composing the shots because of not having a zoom, but I really liked the Depth of Field it afforded. Overall, I ended up with 16 good images of the day.

Posted in Josh | 1 comment