Category Archives: Uncategorized

The World’s Most Important 6-sec Drum Loop

(Community Matters) This report has been fascinating Steven since he read about it in The Economist. You know, it really is exceptionalism to be married to my husband – we have so much fun exploring and learning so many esoteric and pragmatic things.

The Economist  -Seven Seconds of Fire: How a short burst of drumming changed the face of music

Vodpod videos no longer available.

American Exceptionalism

(Community Matters) One of my objectives over the holidays has been to think about American exceptionalism and arrive at conclusions on my opinions of whether this is true ( . . . was true or is true).

Continue reading

Xmas – Let’s Dance & Tell Stories

(Community Matters) flew back in late Xmas eve, morning at the office, then expertly loading the car since packing for 2 weeks and a Marfa new years party for 70+. Christmas day to my parent’s farm where we hung with them (Gloria & Eloy), my brother (Eli), sister-in-law (Luci), niece (Paulina), nephew (Eli), sister (Bridget Lewis) and brother-in-law (Eric Lewis). Except for our older nephew/godson (Shaun Holifield) we were all together – a too rare occurence.

Paulina’s xmas gifts included a Wii and Wii Dance 3 was the hit of the evening.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

and we played Story Cubes – highly recommend them, huge hit with all the family. Great way to embed a capacity and competence for story telling in children, and to refresh as an adult

Boxing Day – early breakfast, then on the road for Marfa

Adrenarche

(Community Matters) hormones bringing on middle childhood (beginning at 5 or 6)

Subsidizing the deft frenzy of brain maturation is a distinctive endocrinological event called adrenarche (a-DREN-ar-kee), when the adrenal glands that sit like tricornered hats atop the kidneys begin pumping out powerful hormones known to affect the brain, most notably the androgen dihydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA. Researchers have only begun to understand adrenarche in any detail, but they see it as a signature feature of middle childhood every bit as important as the more familiar gonadal reveille that follows a few years later. Middle childhood is when the parts of the brain most closely associated with being human finally come online: our ability to control our impulses, to reason, to focus, to plan for the future . . . when children emerge from the shadows of dependency and start taking their place in the wider world. “This is the period when kids move out of the family context and into the neighborhood context.”

First Navy Kiss

(Community Matters) historic

sorry this offended some but it’s historic, makes so many of us finally feel included

sparking controversy

Vanity Fair’s Pin Up Calendar

(Community Matters) I’m partial to May (Huntsman) over September (Rick Perry) – full calendar here

Continue reading

Merry Christmas

(Community Matters) Merry Christmas from the whole family

w/ godchildren: Shawn Holifield, Luke Hayes, Melissa Henderson, Steven, Nico Selby, Eugene, Cameron Lockley, Ben Knaplund & Austin Knaplund (not shown: Lauren Mayes)

Cradle Mountain

(Community Matters) Hard to imagine any better. This trip has been about Celebrating Steven’s 50th. He most wanted to see Tasmania, Tasmanian Devils & other wildlife, and to get to know my Aussie friends better. We’ve definitely done all three and more so. Lots of devils, wallabies, pademelons, quolls, and wombats.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Starting Early

(Community Matters) this is hilarious, my kinda 4yo – from Playbook:

When the big Amazon boxes arrived this week, the Playbooker’s wife ribbed him for ordering $256 worth of Legos for their 4-year-old son. He’s a smart kid, but the 8+ Legos were just too complex. Dad protested: ‘I didn’t order it!’ So they checked with grandparents and aunts and uncles, but no one ‘fessed up. Then when Dad was going through online receipts, he realized that the 4-year-old had discovered Amazon Prime “1-Click Ordering” — and bought the Legos himself. Now THIS is thinking around the corner: Mom and Dad didn’t say anything to the kid, because they don’t want him to know it works!

I wish, I wish, I wish I knew a 4 year old who I could teach this to (and their parents’ had Amazon Prime)

Payroll Tax Cut Extension

(Community Matters) Big frigging deal Pres Obama stood up against 1) Keystone Pipeline, 2) further tax cuts for rich, 3) cuts to social programs for Americans in most need . . . in order to extend this tax cut for the middle class. Kudos to Ds and Senate Rs for standing for America’s middle class.

Boehner: “Why not do the right thing for the American people even if it’s not exactly what we want.” Ponder that! #WhatAnAdmission

Posted from my blackberry from Melbourne

Scary Times

(Community Matters) Joblessness, fear of unemployment, rage against immigrants, Christian religious resurgence, nationalism – scary reading about rise of Hitler. Posted from my blackberry

Franklin-Gordan Wild Rivers National Park

(Community Matters) The Franklin-Gordan Wild Rivers National Park, a World Heritage site

This slideshow requires JavaScript.