Cotton-Pickin’ Days

Bouncy castles, those big inflatable trampoline-type play structures, are a staple of birthday parties. Last year, Stephen was invited to one that featured a bouncy castle that took up half of a small gymnasium and could fit 15 kids on it with room to spare. The party was made-up of children aged 2-5 and was utter chaos from beginning to end.

At any given moment, a child or more would be crying from having been jostled or bumped. One kid even started a “game” where she brought a handful of gummy candies onto the bouncy castle and threw it up in the air with every bounce. Needless to say, other kids soon had to have a try at throwing candy with a few others eating the candy that was thrown. Crazeee.

Personally, I would never host a party that included a bouncy castle (unless it’s at an indoor playground where you pay to get in). As an American, I’m all too aware of the risk of getting sued when children are likely to be injured. And that’s exactly what happened to two parents in the UK who rented a bouncy castle for their triplets’ party three years ago.

Sam Harris, now 13, of Spalding, Lincolnshire, suffered a broken skull when a 15-year-old boy kicked his head at the party in Strood, Kent, in 2005.

Mr Justice David Steel said Timothy and Catherine Perry, who hired the castle, had not provided enough supervision.

Damages, for which Mr and Mrs Perry are insured, are likely to exceed £1m.

The High Court had heard Sam sustained a “very serious and traumatic brain injury” and now needed round-the-clock supervision.

~BBC News

Accidents do happen.

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One of the first things I wanted to do with my Amazon Kindle electronic reader was to read PDF files on it. Unfortunately, you can’t just dump PDF files directly into the Documents folder of the Kindle. You have to convert them first into one of the document file types the Kindle will recognize (.azw, .txt, .mobi*,.prc*). I tried emailing my files to name@free.kindle.com for free conversion and delivery to the email address associated with my Amazon.com account but I never received the files.

Thankfully, Blaine sent me a link showing how to convert PDF files using Mobipocket Creator but the instructions weren’t very clear. Here is a step-by-step on how to convert PDF files into .prc files for the Amazon Kindle.

1. Download and install the FULL version of Mobipocket Creator. (If you opt for the simpler version, it won’t have the PDF conversion option.)
2. When Mobipocket Creator is running, select Adobe PDF under Import From Existing File
3. Choose the PDF file you want to convert
4. Leave the rest alone unless you want to change your destination folder and click Import
5. Select the html file that was just created and click Build from the toolbar at the top of Mobipocket Creator
6. Click Build (you will most likely get a few errors but I just ignore them)
7. Go to your destination folder, open the folder that was created with your publication
8. Copy the .prc file into the Documents folder of your Kindle via the USB cable (if you want it delivered wirelessly, you’ll have to email it to yourself and pay 10 cents)

One of the major difficulties of reading PDF files on the Kindle is the lack of a Table of Contents so you can’t skip around very easily. There is a function on Mobipocket Creator for creating a Table of Contents but I just can’t be bothered to figure it out. My solution is to convert only individual articles and not large PDF files such as the entire digital issue of Scientific American. Sometimes the formatting can also be wonky but it’s still quite legible. I’m willing to put up with this process as I much prefer reading PDF files on my Kindle. Hopefully in future software upgrades, PDF files will be supported!

When I have time, I’ll write more about my impressions of the Kindle. Thus far, I’ve had it for about five days and think it was money well spent.

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Your Mind is Orange

Of all the mind types, yours is the quickest. You are usually thinking a mile a minute, and you could be thinking about anything at all. Your thoughts are often scattered and random - but they’re also a lot of fun! You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about esoteric subjects, the meaning of life, and pop culture.

via Dr. Deborah Serani

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This is very odd. I saw these kinds of soap hooks (the one pictured is from Apartment Therapy) for the first time at Stephen’s school in London. Of course, the soap wasn’t pristine and gorgeous like this. It was gray, cracked, and GROSS!!

At first I thought it was a weird soft plastic container the kids were to squeeze for liquid soap until I realized they simply rub their hands on it. The following year, they replaced these soap hooks with wall-hanging liquid soap dispensers that I think are far more hygienic.

via Bluelines

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To satisfy my own curiosity…. I’ve read more of these books than I expected (~37) but can’t really recall some, esp. the ones I read for school.

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users (my LibraryThing catalog). As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you’ve read, underline italicize the ones you read for school, italicize underline the ones you started but didn’t finish. Here’s the twist: add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. (Had to change the original directions because I did it incorrectly!)

Keep reading…

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1. Women who eat more calories around the time of conception tend to have sons.

As well as consuming more calories, women who had sons were more likely to have eaten a higher quantity and wider range of nutrients, including potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12. There was also a strong correlation between women eating breakfast cereals and producing sons.

via Think Gene

2. “To calculate the calories you need to maintain your weight, multiply your weight by ten.”

~Submitted to Rules of Thumb by: Dr. Robin Kanarek, in Tufts University Diet Nutrition Letter

Putting the two together, it’s quite likely that #2 may be a boy (even thought the ultrasound indicated a girl).

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Christina’s dog had a litter of puppies! This one’s mine and is named Little Shenny.

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Photo oldified using this Japanese generator. The original photo taken in mid April is below the fold.

via Photojojo

Keep reading…

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And this is how I find myself on a weekend when I’d sworn not to even turn on the computer.

But my dear friends, it is NO COINCIDENCE that blog and blood begin with the same three letters!

Daily you will rise and go to your keyboard. You will blog. And you will read what people write in response to your blog. And you will write responses to what they have written. And then you will visit the blogs of those who have responded to you. And you will write pleasant and cheery comments there. And then you will go back to your own blog, to see if anyone has responded to your responses. And then you will go back to the blogs of others, to see if anyone has responded to your responses to them.

~Robin Hobb

via lizardek’s obiter dictum

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And so we welcome….

Keep reading…

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