Cotton-Pickin’ Days

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

via Photojojo

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Created using Spelling with Elements

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When I was taking Japanese classes, one of the first conversational questions we learned to ask and respond to was: “What are your hobbies?”

For several years, my answer has included:

1. Writing (blogging)
2. Reading
3. Needlework (cross stitch, crochet, sewing)

Now I’m wondering if I should scratch #3. According to Unclutterer, it may be time to say farewell to a hobby if I’ve spent less than 10 hours or less on it in the last 12 months. I have not sewn anything more complicated than a button since July 2007.

The thought of clearing any bit of my stash is depressing. I’ve got about three large packing boxes full of sewing supplies, books, and magazines sourced from all over the world. I’ve ordered old magazines from eBay and collected a marvelous load of goodies during the four-plus years we were in Japan. Most of my stash is irreplaceable and was already hard to find in the first place. It would be MADNESS to get rid of it, right?

I’m thinking that someday when the kids are old enough to leave my stuff alone, I’ll be able to set-up a stitching corner for myself. Right now, having needles and pretty colored thread laying about is too tempting and dangerous for little hands. And having only late nights to stitch isn’t great for my eyesight nor do I have the stamina for it anymore.

In any case, if the ultrasound was accurate and baby #2 is a girl, I’ve got plans to make a kimono-clad dolly for her from a kit I bought that was designed by a Japanese crafter. I hope it will turn out as half as cute as the dolls joybucket makes.

What are your hobbies?

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Thought it was time this 29-week pregnant cow got a makeover via Taaz. What do you think?

via TechCrunch

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Do I look like dancer material? British ballet company Balletlorent is recruiting 12 pregnant women to star in MaEternal along with six professional ballet dancers.

Artistic director Liv Lorent:

You can’t get a 25-year-old size 8 ballet dancer type body to move with the weight, the gravitas or the sheer cheerful spirit a pregnant woman.

Clearly, she has not been hanging around THIS 28-week pregnant woman. I have the weight and the gravitas, maybe even the sheer spirit, but I am far from cheerful!

But seriously, it sounds like a great opportunity for pregnant women up to 32 weeks. There will also be an active birth therapist at rehearsals who will “advise on the movements and abilities of expectant mothers.” Maybe she could have helped prevent the bad fall I had last month when I twisted my left ankle so badly that it was swollen and bruised for over a week.

via Jezebel

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It may or may not surprise you but I was quite the liar in my younger years. Now I learn it’s to be expected considering how cognitively advanced I was. *cough*

It starts very young. Indeed, bright kids—those who do better on other academic indicators—are able to start lying at 2 or 3. “Lying is related to intelligence,” explains Dr. Victoria Talwar, an assistant professor at Montreal’s McGill University and a leading expert on children’s lying behavior.

Although we think of truthfulness as a young child’s paramount virtue, it turns out that lying is the more advanced skill. A child who is going to lie must recognize the truth, intellectually conceive of an alternate reality, and be able to convincingly sell that new reality to someone else. Therefore, lying demands both advanced cognitive development and social skills that honesty simply doesn’t require. “It’s a developmental milestone,” Talwar has concluded.

This puts parents in the position of being either damned or blessed, depending on how they choose to look at it. If your 4-year-old is a good liar, it’s a strong sign she’s got brains. And it’s the smart, savvy kid who’s most at risk of becoming a habitual liar.

~New York Magazine

Now I’ll have to try and remember when or if Stephen started lying to me….

The New York Magazine article by Po Bronson is excellent. From it I learned why kids lie (and all kids do it a lesser or greater degree):

1. To feel like they’re in control
2. To assert status
3. To avoid punishment
4. To increase their power
5. To cope with frustration
6. To get attention (/me raises hand)
7. To be polite, i.e., thanks for a (crappy) gift
8. To be autonomous and independent from their parents

While parents can’t stop kids from lying, it is possible to teach them the value of honesty. That if they are honest, the punishment or disappointment is less severe than if they’d chosen to lie. And most importantly, there’s no reason to test kids’ honesty or put them in a position to lie by asking whether or not they did something when you know full well they did. Better to be straightforward, explain why they shouldn’t have done something, and leave it at that.

In any case, you can’t get me to ‘fess up publicly on all the lying I’ve done in my sordid past. But feel free to spill some of your own lies. I’m all ears!

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When have I ever talked to Dilbert’s Scott Adams?! He seems to know me well.

I know a few people who switch exclusively between two states:

1. Talking
2. Too busy to listen

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I may look innocent here at age 5
but look closer into those eyes and
you’ll see evil plots brewing.

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From Techno Tuesday via Question Authority

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One of the moms at school was telling me about her daughter, then six, who was at a girl scout retreat. An older girl was gagging at one of the meals because she hated the food. My friend’s daughter said to her,

They’re not asking you to like it. You just have to eat it.

I love the sentiment of that because making it in life requires such a stalwart attitude. You don’t have to like something to do it and to do it well.

Take me and cooking, for example, I simply don’t enjoy the mess in the preparation and clean-up. If I can get a dish prepared for me that tastes the way I like, I’d rather buy it than make it myself. That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to cook that dish, or that I don’t cook for my family, or even that I don’t know how to cook at all. It just means that cooking is not high on my list of priorities. I have better things to do with my time (like blogging for example ). I still cook at least five or six days out of the week but I do not like it. I don’t like cooking but I have to do it and I do it well.

Other things I don’t like but do just fine:

• Shower (heh)
• Keep track of money
• Discipline children
• Socialize
• Take tests

Similarly, just because I can do something well doesn’t mean I like it. Such is the imbalance and unfairness and general suckitude of life.

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