Blogosphere: April 2008 Archives
We were up and out ridiculously early this morning, to fetch the kiddo from this year's Academic Games national tournament, which was held in Orlando. The New Orleans contingent took a chartered bus there and back, and the bus returned to Brother Martin just before 0600.
My son didn't go out on the bus, because the BMHS Jazz Band played their spring concert last Wednesday evening:
Mine's the bone player on the end. He got into Academic Games because both his brother and his old man (once upon a time) played the games. Dad lettered and did OK at the city level, but never won nationally. Big brother (who is now at Ga Tech) did very well in the games, and is now in the AGLOA Hall of Fame. Since little brother puts most of his emphasis and effort on band, nobody really had expectations that he'd follow in big brother's Academic Games footsteps. Imagine our surprise when he came home with this haul:
The New Orleans league competes in four games: On-Sets, Equations, Presidents, and Propaganda. That's two math, one Social Studies, and one Language Arts. Little brother and one other 8th grader from Brother Martin were on a team with a girl from Haynes and a boy from St. Charles Borromeo. (When enough kids qualify for nationals, they make single-school teams; when there aren't enough, they make teams from the league.) AGLOA's signature award is Rodin's "Thinker." The big trophies are for individual titles, the smaller ones for team wins. The colors are Bronze-Third, Silver-Second, Gold-First. Little brother's team placed third in Propaganda, Second in Equations, and he picked up an individual third in Propaganda. Additonally, he received one medal for a perfect score in the elimination rounds of Equations and another for top-ten in Presidents. The acrylic trophy is for placing in top-ten for sweepstakes, the overall championship for Middle Division.
Big brother is very proud of him, even though he's a bit jealous, since he came up empty-handed in his 8th grade year. Traditionally, Brother Martin is a bit weak in the Middle Division because many of the boys have never played the games before, and other kids have been playing since fifth grade. Still, little brother has a long way to catch up with the firstborn:
that haul of gold thinkers on top are his national championship trophies. They both make me proud!
Mine's the bone player on the end. He got into Academic Games because both his brother and his old man (once upon a time) played the games. Dad lettered and did OK at the city level, but never won nationally. Big brother (who is now at Ga Tech) did very well in the games, and is now in the AGLOA Hall of Fame. Since little brother puts most of his emphasis and effort on band, nobody really had expectations that he'd follow in big brother's Academic Games footsteps. Imagine our surprise when he came home with this haul:
The New Orleans league competes in four games: On-Sets, Equations, Presidents, and Propaganda. That's two math, one Social Studies, and one Language Arts. Little brother and one other 8th grader from Brother Martin were on a team with a girl from Haynes and a boy from St. Charles Borromeo. (When enough kids qualify for nationals, they make single-school teams; when there aren't enough, they make teams from the league.) AGLOA's signature award is Rodin's "Thinker." The big trophies are for individual titles, the smaller ones for team wins. The colors are Bronze-Third, Silver-Second, Gold-First. Little brother's team placed third in Propaganda, Second in Equations, and he picked up an individual third in Propaganda. Additonally, he received one medal for a perfect score in the elimination rounds of Equations and another for top-ten in Presidents. The acrylic trophy is for placing in top-ten for sweepstakes, the overall championship for Middle Division.
Big brother is very proud of him, even though he's a bit jealous, since he came up empty-handed in his 8th grade year. Traditionally, Brother Martin is a bit weak in the Middle Division because many of the boys have never played the games before, and other kids have been playing since fifth grade. Still, little brother has a long way to catch up with the firstborn:
that haul of gold thinkers on top are his national championship trophies. They both make me proud!
If you didn't know, Hana is keeping up Ashley's blog. In an update she wrote:
Beats when they tell the kids to donate to the missions and stuff. What a great kid!
This one will make you cry. A 1st grader came to Katerina's teacher during their morning meeting and gave her a bag of coins. He apparently broke his piggy bank so he could help our family.
Beats when they tell the kids to donate to the missions and stuff. What a great kid!
Greta "Princess of Positive" Perry of Kiss My Gumbo and YatPundit
After going to Orleans Parish Juvenile Court to pay a two-year old traffic fine for my now-19 year old son (how does an attorney not send you trial notices for a year and a half??), I hung out downtown for the rest of the morning, because I had a lunch date with Greta from Kiss My Gumbo (and nola.com). She was chaperoning a field trip for her son's 6th grade class at House of Blues.
If I may digress for a moment, any of you who have elementary-school-aged kiddos should take a look at Greta's story about the field trip. I had no idea that HoB had that robust an education program. The cost was reasonable, and it sounds like the kids enjoyed the heck out of the morning. the other thing I really like about this sort of outing is that it put a busload of kids from the north shore into Da Quarters for a morning.
Anyway, back to lunch. Since the group was at HoB, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce Greta to Napoleon House. It was a lovely day, and fortunately we were able to sit outside on the courtyard. Like many buildings in the Vieux Carre, Napoleon House is built around a central courtyard. I haven't dined outside at NH in years, mainly because the courtyard was their smoking section for a long time. I'm no rabid anti-smoker, but I also don't like being in smoking sections. The smoke and tobacco smell is just too concentrated to properly enjoy a meal.
I ordered my usual, half a muff. Greta had a tuna sandwich that had olives on it. It looked yummy, and has inspired me to do something soon at home with grilled tuna and olive salad. Washing down a muffuletta with an Abita Amber on a gorgeous spring day while chatting up a hottie. I thank goddess for living a charmed life!
Our lunchtime chat focused on two cities, New Orleans and Boston. Sticking to the old Southern rule of not discussing politics, sex, or religion in polite company is often a good idea when someone as liberal as I am is getting to know a conservative blogger. When it comes to politics, there's not much upon which m'lady Princess and I agree. Sex was pretty much off the list of discussion topics, given that her son was in attendance, but we did talk a bit of religion, since both of us were born in metro Boston.
But our New Orleans chatting was a good reality-check for me. I believe in and work for social justice daily, but I refuse to wake up and go to bed angry.
I guess it's no surprise that my twitter stream is largely dominated by women who are mommies. It's becoming a reflection of my friends list on LiveJournal in that regard. I've got a solid list of political and issue blogs I read, but when it comes to just personal, relating to my lifestyle reading, I love reading mommy-blogs. These women wrestle with the same parenting and family issues that my family does. I'm not saying that single folks, childless couples, and LGBT singles and couples don't have family issues. On the contrary, many of those writers are excellent. Still, my area expertise, if you will, is being dad to two boys who are now almost 14 and 20.
I enjoy reading about the exasperations of a parent who works full time, then has to deal with school carpool, soccer practice, dance lessons, and all the other things that suck away the free time of a mom or dad. It's good to hear stories from parents of older kids, so I can get some perspective on what mine are doing/feeling. I can actually comment with authority on the trials and tribulations of being a playground parent, and I particularly love it when we go off on tangents like whether or not Steve from "Blues Clues" is cool.
Social/community sites like LiveJournal and Xanga were two of the best places to find parents who blog, but the ease with which setting up a blog with WordPress has become has empowered mommy bloggers to get a bit more independent, reaching out from the communities. Some women have taken blogging beyond just personal journaling, promoting their expertise in various areas through their blogs.
In either case, community or independent blog, the notion of regular, set-piece writing still puts some folks off. That's why forum-based sites and chat rooms are still packed with participants. They are places for disposable conversation. Chat rooms fit the lifestyle of the SAHM/WAHM in that it's easy to sit at the computer a bit, get up and deal with kids, and come back when things settle down. I personally find chat rooms intimidating. It's like seeing a group of 3-5 women sitting at a table in a coffee shop. It would be totally rude for me to just sit down and start talking to them. They would get more than a little annoyed if they had to do introductions around the table just for my benefit, you get the idea.
Enter Twitter and "micro-blogging."
In this regard, Twitter is a variation on the classic chat room. With messages limited to 140 bytes, conversations have the back-and-forth dynamic of chat. Unlike a chat room, however, Twitter is a much larger community. "Following" on Twitter is much less intrusive (and much less intimidating) than jumping into a chat room. Profile entries and pointers to homepages/blogs provide background on those following you. Unwanted followers can be blocked. These features foster a good environment for conversation, and the moms and dads have adopted it.
And that's a good thing.
I enjoy reading about the exasperations of a parent who works full time, then has to deal with school carpool, soccer practice, dance lessons, and all the other things that suck away the free time of a mom or dad. It's good to hear stories from parents of older kids, so I can get some perspective on what mine are doing/feeling. I can actually comment with authority on the trials and tribulations of being a playground parent, and I particularly love it when we go off on tangents like whether or not Steve from "Blues Clues" is cool.
Social/community sites like LiveJournal and Xanga were two of the best places to find parents who blog, but the ease with which setting up a blog with WordPress has become has empowered mommy bloggers to get a bit more independent, reaching out from the communities. Some women have taken blogging beyond just personal journaling, promoting their expertise in various areas through their blogs.
In either case, community or independent blog, the notion of regular, set-piece writing still puts some folks off. That's why forum-based sites and chat rooms are still packed with participants. They are places for disposable conversation. Chat rooms fit the lifestyle of the SAHM/WAHM in that it's easy to sit at the computer a bit, get up and deal with kids, and come back when things settle down. I personally find chat rooms intimidating. It's like seeing a group of 3-5 women sitting at a table in a coffee shop. It would be totally rude for me to just sit down and start talking to them. They would get more than a little annoyed if they had to do introductions around the table just for my benefit, you get the idea.
Enter Twitter and "micro-blogging."
In this regard, Twitter is a variation on the classic chat room. With messages limited to 140 bytes, conversations have the back-and-forth dynamic of chat. Unlike a chat room, however, Twitter is a much larger community. "Following" on Twitter is much less intrusive (and much less intimidating) than jumping into a chat room. Profile entries and pointers to homepages/blogs provide background on those following you. Unwanted followers can be blocked. These features foster a good environment for conversation, and the moms and dads have adopted it.
And that's a good thing.
While this Open Letter for the Women's Bathroom is gross, it's reassuring to us male types to hear that women can be equally gross sometimes.
Ashley Morris passed away last week. Ashley was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at DePaul University in Chicago, but he never moved his family to the Windy City, preferring to live in New Orleans and commute to Chicago. Only a true New Orleanian and Saints fan would even consider doing such a thing, and Dr. Morris was both of those. In his neighborhood as well as the NOLA blogging community, Ashley was ever the activist and advocate for the city, never hesitating to call out politicians, businessmen, and other "leaders" in his blog. Most followers of Ashley's blog consider this to be his best post, but this one will be how I remember him:
Idea: crab boil flavored jellybeans. Full strength. Put one in every bag just to keep 'em honest. Then again, why not? They make licorice...Yeah you rite. I never had the privilege of meeting Ashley in person, in spite of the fact that we shared so many common interests. it was one of those things that I figured would happen when it happened, in spite of both of our crazy travel schedules.
As often happens when someone departs this plane of existence (relatively) young, Ashley left behind a wife and three young children. His funeral expenses (he passed away in FL, will be buried later this week at home) are going to be five-figures. If you can spare some change to help the family, please go here. Think of it as a virtual hat out on the street and Ashley's playing his drum.
