| Harsh |
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| 08:22pm 15/07/2009 |
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We recently bought Link one of those little Thomas trains, named Smudger. This is the information about Smudger found on the back of the package:
"Smudger was a show-off who rode roughly and often derailed. He was reckless and a hazard to the other engines, so the manager decided to make him more useful by turning him into a generator at the back of the engine shed."
So remember, kids--if you're too aggressive and bump into the other kids too much, we won't send you to jail, we'll just turn you into a paraplegic and keep you behind the shed for the rest of your life. |
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Read 5 - Post |
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| Well, poop |
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| 06:27pm 14/07/2009 |
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Tron refused to turn at our appointment yesterday. He's just not very wiggly, rather big (by this point,) and wedged in there pretty well. We're now left trying more alternative methods, like burning smelly shit around my feet and sitting with my hips in the air. Boo.
Meanwhile, I've been making a train table out of old boxes for Link. Does anyone know of a media which will allow me to write/draw/color on top of packing tape? (Most of the 'track' is held together with tape). Or will I just have to make a design on construction paper and tape it on top? |
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Read 8 - Post |
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| Nesting/Homemaking |
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| 07:47pm 12/07/2009 |
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In academia you have the 3 Rs. In homemaking, I've decided you have the 3 Cs--Cooking, Cleaning, and Crafting. You could probably do away with any 1 item (say, outsource your cleaning or never repair pillow cases,) but it'd be hard to call yourself a homemaker if you cut out two.
Between one toddler (constantly trying to destroy everything), getting things ready for Tron, and some serious nesting instincts (MUST CLEAN NOW) I've been homemaking up a storm lately. This morning we got the bedroom vacuumed (YAY!) and reorganized so now things are super awesome upstairs. My floor is so clean, it's awesome. We still have to haul the rocking chair upstairs (whereby 'we' I mean 'klarfax') and the bathroom could use further scrubbing (doesn't it always?) and the downstairs stairs still need vacuuming, but overall things are *almost* clean! (Plus there's the daily stuff, like laundry and dishes and trash, but that's daily stuff.) Today I also cleaned out Link's old carseat to get it ready for Tron (fallen bits of food had made it pretty icky) and am in the process of adding some extra padding to the bottom to make it comfier. I've got my labor bag almost ready (needs beverage) and Link's new baby gift is out of the closet and ready to be wrapped. (mm, wrapping paper.) I'd like to work on his tipi (need to drill holes in the tops of the dowels) but since I need to pick up a pair of smaller shoelaces at the store for that, I might wait on it. Plus, Link thinks the drill is AWESOME and baby + drill isn't the most drilling-friendly combination. Unless you want to drill holes in the baby, which I don't.
Took Link to his first movie today with my mum--he sat for about an hour of it before deciding that the lighted steps were awesome and that everyone needed to know about this. Then we tracked down a salon to get my hair cut, since I will have no more time ever pretty soon. The fellow didn't cut my hair short enough (and I had to ask about 3 or 4 times to get him to shave the sides, because I want it to hang FLAT and not poof out like last time, plus it is bloody hot out,) but it's a pretty nice cut, anyway, and I left a good tip since Link was very cranky and wanted his nap/lunch the whole time. So I might have to get klarfax to shorten it some more for me, especially around the front.
The haircut somewhat concerned Link, who kept saying 'Uh oh' every time he saw the hair falling off.
I have a billion billion things to do, but it feels so good to actually get some of them done! The playroom is clean and the bedroom is clean and the carpet is awesome. And then I made pancakes. :)
Oopsies. Link farted and almost woke himself up :P But I rubbed his back a bit and he went back to sleep. He ate a good dinner today--I made him saag paneer (well, microwaved--Tandoor Chef is awesome, by the way), which is one of his absolute favorites, especially the cheese. He also had apple juice, most of which made it into his mouth and not his shirt. We need to get more apple juice (we haven't been grocery shopping yet this weekend due to Klarfax being majorly busy at work.)
I suppose priorities now (other than getting the carseat reassembled) should probably include getting more prefolds out of the closet and into place, checking out the pump to make sure it's clean, (I know some of the tubing needs work) and printing out Link's 'instructions' for my mum. And finishing them. I should probably go do that now.
Tomorrow we'll try to turn Tron. Wish us luck! |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| 04:11pm 07/07/2009 |
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Note to others: OMG the idiocy. No, really. Yes, I know it is the internet and it's full of stupid, but the stupid has been on the serious upswing lately.
I swear it is not just because I am 9 months pregnant and huge and cranky.
We got new glasses the other day and I could barely look at myself in the mirror to try on the glasses, my face has gotten so fat. When I'm carrying Link it's like I've got an extra 60 pounds on me. How do fat people manage? Weight is so heavy! Hell, I can barely reach the sink to do the dishes.
On the plus side, I managed to successfully cook 2 sweet potato pies and an acorn squash, and only had one minor accident in the process (sliced into my pinky.) Pinky is healing nicely and the pies and squash were yummy.
Also, I'm finding my mother more tolerable. It's like the stupid has transferred from her to the rest of the world. Note to world: when you compare unfavorably to my mother on the annoyance scale, you are doing really poorly. I do not want to deal with the stupid anymore. I want the stupid to go deal with itself.
My father (adopted) wrote to me complaining about 'big gov', and now he's complaining that I responded on the subject. WTF?
Today I found olive oil on sale. Woot.
They will try to turn Tron next Monday. Hopefully that will go well. I have been nesting lots (cooking, cleaning, and crafting--the three Cs). I am a little sad that there is so much nesting to be done, and so little time to do it in. I need to fix Link's teepee so it stops falling over, make a toy out of bottles and lids (more drilling fun!) and am in the process of sewing little blankets into his toy rack to keep the toys from falling through the bars in the shelves. Link likes to come over and 'help' me sew. It's very cute.
He's been big into sounds lately. He'll hear a noise and look up and say, "Sound!" and then try to identify it, like, "Sound, train! Choochoo." He's also been big into the park. Every morning he grabs my hand and says, "Park! Park!" Or if he's feeling inspired, "Go carcar park!" Today my mother and I took him to the playground at the mall because it is bloody hot outside. Goddam summer. Anything over 75 really ought to be illegal. Doesn't the sun know that some of us are pregnant out here?
His other new concept is 'happen'--something happens, and he wants to know what happened. He's also been saying 'sorry' and 'thanks', though I'm not sure he knows quite what they mean.
So far Tron's received two lovely books and a lightweight swaddle blanket (sooo necessary in this heat) and a musical giraffe. He's a lucky baby to have such nice presents :) Today I need to mail my thank you notes.
Well that is all I can think of right now. I need to go write up instructions for my mother for when I'm in labor. |
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Read 5 - Post |
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| 04:01pm 07/07/2009 |
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Note to self: pregnancy makes me cranky and lowers my tolerance for idiocy.
I should probably just avoid the internet from here on out. |
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| Why do we Like Animals better than People? |
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| 10:08pm 05/07/2009 |
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Raise your hand if your eating decisions are determined, at least in part, by consideration for the animals involved--whether you chose not to eat meat because you'd rather not kill animals, avoid drinking milk to avoid exploiting animals, prefer to buy free-range eggs (or beef), buy dolphin-safe tuna, refuse to hunt animals or would prefer to eat animals who were hunted because at least they didn't grow up in a factory farm, etc.
I'd wager it's a fair number of us--myself included. Not only do stores like Whole Foods specialize in providing consumers with more humane food products, from tofu 'ice cream' to free-range beef, but even Target carries cage-free eggs. (Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Wallmart carried them.) And then there are the folks who risk their lives in dinky little boats trying to prevent Japanese fishermen from killing dolphins.
These are all fine sentiments, and I'm not proposing to question them. I think concern for one's fellow creatures is generally a good thing.
But where is the comparable concern for other humans?
Does anyone remember back in the day when I tried boycotting slave-produced chocolate? Part of the problem with this, and part of why I stopped, is that no one bothers to label their chocolate. You'd think "Slave-free chocolate" would be a good seller, but apparently the chocolate manufacturers don't think it's worth the bother to label their chocolate as such.
Where are all of the stores specializing in human-exploitation-free clothes and other products? Yes, you can find 'Fair Trade' coffee at Whole Foods and Ethos water at Starbucks, but what about everything else?
There's a chicken and egg problem, of course--if people don't care about the conditions their clothes are produced under, then manufacturers will feel free to exploit their employees. And if there aren't any non-exploitative choices available, then consumers won't be able to exert purchasing pressure on manufacturers.
There's also the problem of what we mean by 'non-exploitative'. A sweatshop is unpleasant, but the people working there are generally glad for the job, because the alternative is even less pleasant (often starvation.) To take the 'vegan' option and, say, simply raise one's own cotton and make one's own clothes at home wouldn't help these people, because unemployment => starvation. But just because a sweatshop job is better than starving doesn't mean that a sweatshop job is 'good' or that sweatshops are ethical. To be non-exploitative, I think a job must at the very least pay well (in the US, > 20k a year,) not be hazardous or injurious, and performed in a pleasant environment. Ideally, non-exploitative jobs would also not enrich the owners via the labor of the workers--that is, the workers would themselves be the owners or the owners would receive compensation in line with what the workers receive.
So where is the concern for other human beings? If customers can agitate and 'vote with their wallets' effectively enough to get cage free eggs at Target, then why don't we have cage free chocolates, too? If we can have exploitation free ice cream at Whole Foods, why not exploitation free clothes and shoes? Given what a small percentage of the cost of a Nike tennis shoe is actually production, manufacturers could easily triple or quadruple sweatshop wages without changing the final price of the shoe, if they were willing to decrease their astronomical profits per shoe--though this would only happen if they believed that doing so would increase the total volume of shoes sold.
The other alternative, of course, is better legislation/trade agreements. What good is it to have minimum wage laws here if manufacturers can just export production to countries without minimum wage laws? The end result is cheaper products for Americans, but also fewer jobs for Americans. The workers get fucked and so do we.
Just as giving animals huge doses of antibiotics so they'll survive the factory farming system long enough to make it to the dinner table ultimately creates human-killing superbugs like the swine flu,
so our exploitation of third-world laborers to produce cheap products for American consumption ultimately results in the destruction of our own economic base.
I'm not proposing that we stop caring about animals--compassion for others is generally good. I am proposing that we make sure to care for ourselves, too. |
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Read 10 - Post |
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| Latches and Switches |
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| 12:09am 01/07/2009 |
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This was inspired by a similar toy I saw on Amazon. Link loves light switches and locks and latches and things of that nature, so it was right up his alley, but it was WAAY too expensive. So I went to Home Depot and bought my own latches and switches, some wood and sandpaper, then put it all together. The hardest part was making holes for the switches and outlets, since I don't have a saw--I essentially perforated the wood with my drill and then knocked out the sections with a hammer and screwdriver. Once I got those two done, the rest were pretty simple to mount. (I actually glued two pieces of wood together before mounting everything, to make sure it'd be thick enough that there weren't any screws poking out the other side. Finally, I sanded it.)
More pictures under the cut.
( Read more... ) |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| Well, Poop. |
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| 10:20pm 30/06/2009 |
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The midwife did an ultrasound today and found that Tron is breach--head up, butt down. We're going in on Thursday for a consultation with some sort of specialist doctor who'll see if Tron is a good candidate for external manipulation to try to turn him (that is, they'd press on my stomach and try to get him to wiggle into place.) Whether or not they even try to turn him depends on a bunch of factors like where the umbilical cord is (strangling the baby would suck) and how much room he has in there. If they do try to turn him, there's a small chance I could just go into pre-term labor right then and there, so the turning itself has to be scheduled to try to capture a window when he's still small enough to turn, but not so small that being born right then would suck too much.
If we can't turn him, then I'll most likely just end up with a c-section. If we try to turn him and he doesn't turn, then I'll end up with a c-section, too. Spiffy. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| Scary Ad |
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| 12:24am 30/06/2009 |
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This ad just appeared at the top of my email:
"Free C-Section Info Kit - www.csectionhealing.com - Get Your Free Kit Today and Learn How To Prevent Internal Scarring."
Yanno, while I'm all in favor of saving money and all, I still think C-sections are best done by trained, paid medical personnel. :P
In other news, I've been cleaning/organizing up a storm. Last time it was obvious when my nesting instinct kicked in the day I went into labor, but this time I've been so busy cleaning anyway that I'm not sure it'll be apparent at all. Yesterday we flipped the bed (the pillowtop would be a suffocation hazard otherwise) hung the mobile (which Link has decided is a 'bubble', after trying to pronounce it 'momile' and 'bobile'), and today I scrubbed the toilets and sinks and vacuumed and swept and mopped the kitchen, along with the innumerable other things we do each day. We also dropped off a few more boxes at Goodwill, though I still haven't called Salvo about picking up that couch we've had in the garage for a YEAR. Once that and the barstool are gone, we can move the big chair down to the storage closet (where the barstool currently is) and the rocking chair upstairs (I don't know where we're going to put it, but it definitely needs to be upstairs.) And hopefully once the filtery parts of the vacuum dry out (I washed them yesterday) the vacuum will work again (it kind of died in at the end of the living room, which I suspect is from desperately needing it's filters cleaned and certainly hope so.)
Meanwhile, I finally caved and bought Link a highchair, which seems to be working. I've positioned it to face away from the TV, which is helping break his TV habit (though being tall enough to turn on the TV by himself is not helping.) I try to prepare him one or two dishes every two hours, and hope he eats some of them. He's been doing pretty well with his neophobia, especially since he's controlling how much and when the food goes into his mouth. Today he tried a peach (he's had them before, actually, but he's still reluctant on them,) and said "no, no," so I held up my hand and told him he could spit it out, which he did. He'll get used to peaches eventually. He also tried chicken tika masala, which I think he liked. We're unfortunately out of sag paneer, which is one of his favorites. His other favorite is 'nuggets', which can be anything from french fries to mini quesadillas, so long as they're small and brown and fried. I've also discovered that Link doesn't like sippy cups. I don't blame them--having tried them myself, they're kind of a pain in the ass to drink from. But if I give him milk in a regular cup, he has this habit of pouring it out on himself for fun. But if I only give him one sip's worth of milk at a time, and keep the rest in a big cup out of his reach, he'll generally drink that one sip and then not have anything left to pour out. Then I can refill his cup when he wants another sip.
That's about all for now. I'd better sleep. |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| RIP, Billy Mays |
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| 12:04pm 29/06/2009 |
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Billy Mays, the OxiClean pitchman and star of the show Pitchmen on the discovery channel, is dead. He was only 50 years old. He's survived by his wife, three yr old daughter, and 20 yr old stepson.
Billy Mays, I liked your commercials. They were fun. |
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| The Tyranny of STUFF |
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| 04:48pm 25/06/2009 |
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So much stuff. Stuff everywhere. Just overwhelming amounts of stuff.
I try to be responsible and sort things into keep (put somewhere), sell (Ebay or Amazon), give away (schlep to Goodwill) or throw away. But when my mother dumps five boxes all at once on me, and I still have three boxes I haven't fully dealt with yet, the STUFF load just feels absolutely oppressive and I am so, so tempted to chunk it all in the trash. (Bad global citizen, bad.)
Part of it is simply that our home is not all that big and we don't have a ton of storage space for a bunch of stuff we're not using. Even if we say, "Gee, in about 10 years, this will be an awesome toy and difficult to find and expensive to replace," we don't have the space to store shit for ten years.
I'm sure the nesting instinct also has to do with it. I feel like I am constantly battling The Mess, every day. (I bet every parent of a toddler feels that way!) Today I actually managed to get the living room reasonably clean, despite the 2 boxes for Goodwill, the box of trash, the box of things to send back to my mother, and the 2 boxes of things worth keeping.
An entire box of trash, mind you! It consists primarily of my college application materials. Considering that I've already been to college, I don't exactly see why my mother felt the need to keep an entire box (actually, this is the second box) of college application materials for 8 years, much less give it to me. (Most of the things she gives me were at least somewhat 'mine' back in the day, which justifies her unloading them on me, but I claim no responsibility for her making 50 copies of a blurb in the paper about me going to summer camp and then storing them for 10 years.)
Going through the box (the file folders are at least worth saving) reminded me of just how much I hated highschool. I came up with a good metaphor for it, at least: If someone forces you to eat gourmet food, you will hate eating, them, and gourmet food. And then they'll yell at you for being ungrateful to receive gourmet food--why, some kids are force-fed crap.
It's like that. My mother's efforts got me into MIT, among other things. I am and always will be grateful that I went to MIT. But highschool was also a soul-crushing experience that left me dealing with depression, PTSD, and a habit of self-injuring. It was several years before I could even begin to deal with the bureaucratic details of life. (Even today, I'm far better at sweeping the kitchen and doing the dishes than dealing with paperwork, because paperwork makes me feel vaguely twitchy.)
ANYWAY. Stuff. Can't stand it, not in large amounts. I grew up awash in a surfeit of stuff, and have been trying steadily (despite my acquisitive impulses) to pare down the amount of stuff in my life. It's hard, because you don't want to just get rid of perfectly good or useful stuff, selling things on Amazon or Ebay takes time (and people don't always want what you're selling) and taking stuff to Goodwill also takes time. But just throwing stuff away makes you feel guilty (as it probably should.) Which leads to this feeling of OMG, drowning in stuff.
Thankfully my mother says she only has a couple more boxes for me. I sure hope so.
Anyone want a tricorn hat? Revolutionary War style? |
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Read 7 - Post |
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| Link Loves the Camera |
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| 07:44pm 22/06/2009 |
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This is how all of my pictures of him turn out--action shots of him dashing toward the camera in an attempt to eat it. |
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Read 5 - Post |
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| My Own Answers |
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| 06:22pm 22/06/2009 |
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Sorry about not getting my own answers the previous question typed up earlier--I ran out of time.
The obvious answer, of course, is "yes", but like I said, no one-word answers. The next obvious answer is, "What do we mean by ethical, capitalist system, and participation?" Which leaves enough wiggle room to produce almost any result we want.
On the ethics, I'm going to stick to my usual utilitarian/outcomes-based ethics. You can, of course, debate this, but it's my starting point. Therefore, the ethical outcome is the one which a. benefits the most people, and b. doesn't require you to starve.
As for capitalism, if we were discussing a pure capitalist system, then I think the answer would be no--the system would cause a great deal of suffering, and it would be far better for folks to simply immigrate than to either allow themselves to be harmed or harm others through the system.
But we don't live in a pure capitalist system--we live in a mixed capitalist/socialist system, which seems to work decently well most of the time. Some mixed systems seem to work better than others--the economies of Japan and Germany, for example, seem to benefit more of their people than the economies of, say, Albania and Brazil.
If you live in a mixed-system where most of the people are benefiting, then there's little to be concerned about. If you live in a mixed-system where significant numbers of people are suffering and/or being exploited by the owners, then there is a moral imperative to work for a better system--by organizing labor unions, voting for more economically progressive candidates, immigrating, or simply refusing to exploit others.
As for participation, it seems that one can participate in 2 main ways, either as a worker or an owner. The worker can almost never be held at fault, because the worker is simply trying to put food on the table, though they may be morally obligated to vote in certain ways or to go through temporary hardships while on strike. The owners, however, have a definite ethical obligation to not exploit their workers, regardless of the quality of the system they're in.
Which isn't a very shocking conclusion.
The part where I don't know the answer, though, lies in purchasing habits. I can greatly benefit myself by purchasing goods produced via the exploitation of others--cheaper food, cheaper clothes, etc. To what extent am I morally obligated to seek out products which were created without exploitation? (Free range beef, fair trade coffee, WAHM-produced diapers, etc.) What do we do if the only available products, or the only products we can afford, involve exploitation? And what if that exploitation is still better for the people involved than not being exploited? (i.e., working in a sweatshop sucks, but it beats starving.) And is it ethical to spend 8 dollars on a movie while there are children starving in Africa? It's one thing to say that we aren't obliged to starve or suffer for the sake of ethics, but it is another to say that we are entitled to movies and videogames and veal.
Ultimately, what can we do to minimize the harm we do and maximize the good we do? And how much are we obligated to do so? |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| Parents and parenthood |
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| 12:09am 22/06/2009 |
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Of my three half/step-siblings, two are closer in age to Link than me. This means that of my three 'fathers', two of them feel more like fellow-parents with whom I discuss parenting matters and trade parenting tips than my parents, if you understand what I mean. (And the third isn't really mentally capable of being parental in any capacity.)
It's kind of odd, but nice. It gives me something in common with my parents. |
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| Writer's Block: Set the Scene |
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| 09:48pm 16/06/2009 |
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Actually, I've had a lifelong phobia of windows. Not the computer kind, the kind you can look through. Luckily, it got a LOT better when I went to college. It's very rare these days that I'll dart up the stairs in quivering terror that omg there's a window down there. But avoiding windows (even upstairs windows with giant holly bushes beneath them which obviously no one could actually be looking through) was a daily concern right up until I left for college.
I'm not sure what this says about me. |
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| I Make Toys |
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| 09:40pm 16/06/2009 |
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Would you like to join my new community? It's for people who make toys and other crafty things for kids: I make Toys. |
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| Lead Update |
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| 08:29pm 16/06/2009 |
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We saw Link's ped. today and got his blood tested--thankfully, his lead levels are 'low' and completely normal. Hooray. He's also gained a few ounces and grown a bit, and his language skills are quite good for his age. (Yesterday he spoke his first three-word sentence, 'Water go bye', after the water had drained from his bath.) He spent much of the visit trying to climb into the ped's lap, which was pretty cute. Unfortunately he didn't much appreciate his HepA vaccination, and screamed bloody murder at that, but he seems to be recovering well.
This afternoon I built him an easel, which I hope to take pictures of soon. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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