Scientific Ink

Category: Life

  • How young is too young for a laptop?

    So, it is nearing Christmas, and I am remembering my intention to purchase gifts mindfully. I haven’t been able to arrange charity exchanges with everyone, but I have got a few takers, and that’s good.

    Theo and Dave

    A colleague at work told me about one laptop per child, an organization that is providing rugged laptops to third world children. It’s a cool concept, building a low-cost, efficient laptop for kids (so no expensive office oriented software). I’ve heard that it is programmable, but also comes with a reset button to undo mistakes.

    The most intriguing part is that one laptop per child is offering a “give a laptop, get a laptop” promotion, allowing us to explore the form, function, and user experience of the XO laptop. It would be fun to touch it and play with it, but it seems to violate the spirit not to give it to a kiddo. I’m wondering if my four-year-old nephew Theo (pictured here eating his first s’more) is too young for it.

    Is 4-and-a-half too young for a laptop?

    11/25/2007 – After seeing him with Dave and Dave’s laptop over Thanksgiving (replacement photo at left) I think he’s going to love it.

  • Personality Profile – Considerate Creator

    So, a bunch of us at work took the PersonalDNA online personality test. They seem to do it right, not asking for personal information up front, providing an interesting experience (not too many questions, not totally superficial, sliders, multi-way sliders, 2-D charts).

    The results were interesting, grouping us differently than I might have predicted. Surprisingly, I grouped with our graphic designer (and others) as a “creator.” Now, I’m a project manager, I typically do not “make” much besides status reports and burndown charts on hours and budgets. I hold a little structure/the larger project view, but that doesn’t fit my idea of being a creative person.

    The more I think about it, though, I do have several pastimes that involve making things – photography, gardening (though with all the change the past few summers, my garden is a bit worse for wear), journaling, blogging, knitting. I spend an inordinate amount of my free time making things, and I really resist structure in those activities. For instance, my favorite knitting reference is The Handknitters Design Book (apparently not pictured anywhere online!) which is a technique recipe book. Allison Ellen provides only a few start-to-finish patterns, but she shares lots of information and inspiration on how to assemble your own patterns.

    Hmmmm. Do I need to get a bit more of that creative spirit into my day job?

  • The power of retreat

    Earlier this year, I took a week’s vacation and came back with a realization.

    I went to Austria with my husband and friends in March. I left behind my cell phone, my laptop, email, IM, everything.

    Just before I left, I feared my family was about to bust apart (stepmother and sister and I were in some deeply uncomfortable discussions about money and shared ownership). I dreaded going away for a week and brooding on the dissolution of my family. Somehow, we accomplished some major repair work by cell phone on the way to the airport. So, family as intact as it ever was, I was able to leave the country with a clear heart and be far away.

    I had several books, the company of friends, and was able to hide out in the mountains in a country where I don’t speak the language. I tried to learn to ski, I went for long walks in foothills. We took a day trip to Italy. We tried several varieties of schnapps. And I didn’t think about home all that much, except to be grateful for the lack of worry.

    After that most complete retreat, I saw the world differently. On the plane ride home, I realized that it was time for me to find a new job. It really was that simple, like crossing a threshold. Something about going away, about really taking a break, changed my perspective entirely.

    The hard part for me is taking that practice and incorporating it into my everyday life. I don’t always have a week to spare to realign my head. The hard part about being an adult is that there is (often) no watchful responsible party to call a timeout. So, I need to look for little opportunities to restore my energies, whether through a nap, meditation, a walk, a bike ride, or taking a long bath with a copy of the New Yorker magazine. I need to become a better judge of when to give myself downtime instead of pushing through whatever it is that seems important.

    I might never know what that rest might provide in terms of insight or new perspective.

  • Gifts in lieu of gifts

    Every so often, I get into a fit about how much stuff we have. I just purchased another set of shelves for our basement (buying stuff to hold stuff), just dropped off a bunch of cast-off stuff to charity, and of course there is all the stuff we just bought ourselves (renovated bathroom, new TV).

    I have everything I need: my health, my mom’s health, a terrific husband, loving family, smart, funny, and talented friends, a world class feline, a wonderful home…So, I’d like to declare a moratorium on stuff, at least for a little while. So, I’d like to propose a truce with those who give me gifts and to whom I give gifts: hold the stuff and spread the love a bit wider.

    I propose to give $ to charity in lieu of a gift. For instance, I just got “The Most Important Gift Catalog in the World” from Heifer International, and instead of a tchotchke to my mom, I can give a share of a water buffalo or honeybees or llamas or rabbits to a family in need. I have a short list of charities, but it seems like anyone who wants to “play” should use their own short list, or maybe we could exchange charities (I give to yours, you give to mine).

    It doesn’t seem quite fair for me to give to charity if you expect a gift instead, so I’m proposing to do this only with folks who agree. LMK!

  • Beware of home improvement

    Our renovated bathroom is pretty much done. It is lovely – tile floor, tile up the walls, actual storage. There are a few minor details to complete: towel rack, tp holder, handles on the cabinets, a shower head that is taller than we are, but we’re 90+% done. It only took 8 weeks of construction (on a 4-week plan), 7 weeks of showering in the basement in Dave’s garden-hose-kiddie-pool-and-submersible-sump-pump wonder shower, several contractor bills (no overruns!), and a weekend when my aunt and uncle stayed in our house while the bathroom had no door.

    You’d think we’d be done with home improvement, but somehow the restless energy has spread to adjoining rooms. It happened when we redid the kitchen, too. The nicer kitchen shamed us into sprucing up the mudroom at its end. This time, after we replaced the light fixtures in the hall outside the bathroom, the one in the foyer I’ve never liked had to go too. Dave took the opportunity to finally get the monster TV he’s been needing. And, after the construction crew returned the hall closet to me, I invited some friends over for a reverse fashion show – they helped me decide to finally toss/give away schoolmarmish and unworn items before they rooted in the closet again.

    Now, displaced by the hulking menace of the new plasma TV, I’ve taken to doing my yoga in the study. My DVDs will play on the computer, and on the computer monitor Shiva Rea isn’t the size of a small truck like she is on the new TV. The study is narrower, but at least it’s all mine, and I don’t have risk throwing out my back dragging the coffee table from the TV room into the hall just to make space for my mat. Now that I’m in here, stretching and moving around on the floor, this place could use a bit of renewal too. Maybe it’s time to replace the rug, or the light fixture, gotta be something around here I can change, er, fix.

  • Sausage likened to cheese, in a good way.

    I recently bought pre-cooked, frozen sausage after America’s Test Kitchen liked it better than “regular.” So, I got mild turkey since I don’t want a gazillion grams of fat & the kids don’t like spicy. Theo (4 years old) has been enjoying veggie sausage for a long time. When I nuked the turkey stuff, I let him know it would be different & hoped he would like it.

    After breakfast, I asked him which he preferred. He looked at me & said “Mommy, sausage is like cheese, and I like all cheese…”