Book Bins for Calvin

A couple of weeks ago Jaeger and I decided we needed to do something about Calvin’s books. I do not feel like Calvin has an excessive number of books. However, they were spilling randomly out of his shelves and we were running out of places to stuff them.

Because I don’t monitor Calvin closely in his own room, I don’t want bookshelves that are high enough they could topple onto him. My first plan was to buy a 3rd shelf that matched the two he has now. However, it turns out they don’t make this shelf anymore. So, I started to look for alternatives.

I found a lot of very cute bookshelves that were unsuitable because they couldn’t handle the number of books we have. Eventually, I decided I should take inspiration from an organization that specializes in having vast quantities of picture books available for browsing: the library. Most newer libraries have “book bins” that allow for easy browsing at the child’s level and have shelving underneath the book bins for extra storage.

I found some book bins from Jonti-Craft that I liked. However, they cost a bit more than I wanted to spend for furniture that would last a relatively short time. Once Calvin grows taller and graduates away from picture books, the book bins will have limited functionality. Calvin’s favorite was a taxi book bin. It is very cute but would have an even shorter lifespan than the basic book bins.

After a while, I stumbled across some modular storage cubes. These are meant to be stacked on top of each other, along with other furniture in the set. However, I realized I could rotate one of the divided storage cubes and create makeshift bins. I ordered two to see how feasible my idea was.

The first set of cubes arrived. As “promised” they are hollow-core and definitely not superior quality. However, my idea worked fairly well and the manufacturer even included brackets to bolt the two pieces together1. The only thing that I hadn’t realized was how deep a 15″ bin is. The good news is it easily handles Calvin’s largest books. However, Calvin has to stand on his tiptoes in order to flip through the books. I tried thinking of a variety of ways to fix this problem. The “easiest” solution would have been to cut the boards down to the correct height. However, the hollow-core construction made this seem like a bad idea. Eventually, I decided a step stool worked well enough2.

Having decided the prototype worked well enough, I ordered 4 more divided cubes. Since each divided cube is about 30″ wide, three sets fill one side of Calvin’s room almost perfectly. The cubes arrived yesterday and I spent most of the evening putting them together.

Like the rest of Calvin’s room, the book bins are very white3. This evening I let Calvin decorate the book bins with some Lightening McQueen stickers. It wasn’t until he had the stickers on that I realized we had inadvertently created a Lightening McQueen theme in his bedroom. Calvin’s sheets, step stool, and stickers are all related to Lightening McQueen.

I’m fairly happy with the bins. There’s enough space to fit all Calvin’s picture books in the top bins. The far-right bin is reserved for library books and can accommodate them all. The lower shelves contain his board books, chapter books, and beginning readers. As Calvin gets older, we can unscrew the book bins and flip them around to provided additional book shelves for beginning readers and chapter books.

Calvin poses with his new book bins.

Calvin poses with his new book bins.

  1. Screwing the bracket to the back of the cube is tricky because the wood kept trying to split. However, screwing it into what normally would be the “bottom” of the cube worked flawlessly ↩
  2. During our earlier brain-storming sessions, Jaeger suggested, mostly in jest, that we should get Calvin four-foot high shelves that spanned the entire wall and came with a ladder on wheels. I’ve always wanted something like that for myself. Too bad it isn’t very practical, at least for us. ↩
  3. When we first moved into this house we gave Calvin the option of picking his room color. The prior owners had painted the room green with a purple accent wall. I thought Calvin was going to decided on purple but he surprised us by insisting on white. ↩

Life of Pi

Last night I finished reading Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. It reminded me why I don’t like reading literature. It was a very good book but left me profoundly disturbed at the end. However, this seems to be what great literature aims to do. I will grudgingly admit that there is some merit in the approach but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

If you plan to read Life of Pi, you probably shouldn’t read the rest of my post. I will be vague but my thoughts will probably still count as spoilers.

The book is divided into three sections: Pi’s early life, his survival on the ocean after his ship sank, and his recooperation in a hospital and recounting his adventures to investigators. I liked the book tolerably well right up to the end when Pi is recounting his adventures in the hospital. In the hospital, Pi tells the investigators the story we have been reading. The investigators don’t believe the story can possibly be real. Then, after being pressed, Pi tells an alternate version of the story that is both plausible and terrible. The reader is encouraged to believe the story they like best is the “true” story.

At one point within the story we learn the protagonist, after recovering in the hospital, goes on to get married and have two children. Thus, we are assured that the story ends well. However, the end of the book stops shortly after the horrible alternative story. In this, I suppose, it is the opposite of romances I usually read. In a genre romance you are guaranteed a happy ending1. Of course, we all know that if the story continued the couple wouldn’t always be madly in love with each other and are bound to disagree once or twice, even in the best marriage. In Life of Pi we know that the protagonist ends up having a good life but that isn’t the note the story ends on.

However unrealistic it may be, I strongly prefer my books end with unambiguously happy endings. Yes, you can pretend Life of Pi ends happily as long as you forget about 9 of the 319 pages. I have not watched the movie but the impressions I’ve gotten from reading reviews is that the movie ends a bit more unambiguously than the book. I’m not sure if this is true or not. However, if I do watch the movie, I’ll walk away once Pi lands in Mexico and Richard Parker, the tiger, walks away.

Ah well, it was a good experience for me. I don’t regret reading the book, exactly, I just wouldn’t ever have chosen to pick it up if I had known about those 9 pages.

  1. Romance Writers of America officially defines the ending of a romance as “Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic”. Apparently “happy ending” is just too boring a description. ↩

Reading Goal: Update 1

A couple of posts ago I mentioned I was going to try to read a certain number of books from various categories. I have not made a huge amount of progress. The only book I’ve finished so far was a Christian fiction book. However, I have nailed down at least some of the books I’m going to try.

The Christian fiction book I read was Just Beyond the Clouds, by Karen Kingsbury. It was fine. The handling of the protagonist’s former fiance made me uncomfortable but other than that it was a nice and sweet book. The book appears to be well-thought of on Amazon and LibraryThing but it didn’t particularly speak to me. I think perhaps it was because neither partner in the romance was particularly proactive. Perhaps some of this is due to the genre and the characters being accepting of God’s will. However, a little more spunk would have been nice to see.

For my next Christian Fiction book I think I’m going to try a non-romance. After I stopped reading Christian fiction the thriller/mystery/fantasy sub-genres really exploded. It’d probably be good for me to get a feel for some of those books.

Jaeger kindly provided a list of his recommended reads for me. My current plan is to start with Old Man’s War. This is a book I picked up and started reading once but only read a couple of chapters before I got distracted. Since then, I’ve read Heinlein’s Starship Troopers1, of which Old Man’s War is, I believe, a homage. I expect I’ll enjoy the book once I get past the lack of a female protagonist2.

The book I’m currently reading is Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. I’m counting Life of Pi towards my “literature” category based on it winning The Man Booker Prize in 2002. When I first started working in the library it was a really big hit. I was told by numerous librarians that I should read it but never did. However, with the movie currently out, it seems as good a time as any to read it. I am currently number 83 on the request list for the Blu-ray version of the movie so should have plenty of time to finish the book, and forget about it, before I watch the movie.

First impressions of Life of Pi: it’s a good book. It’s not a book that I would normally spend time reading but I don’t think I’m going to want my time back. I started it this evening and am currently at chapter 15. Assuming the book continues as it started, I think Jaeger would greatly enjoy reading it.

I’m also currently listening to Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders, by Neil Gaiman. If I ever finish it, this will count as one of my “short story” categories. Neil Gaiman is one of the very few authors who does a fantastic job narrating his own books. I enjoy many of Gaiman’s books3. However, I’m not sure I’m going to make it through this one. I’ve finished listening to the introduction, which was fascinating, and the first story, “A Study in Emerald”. I’ve enjoyed Sherlock Holmes ever since finding copies of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories on a CD full of public domain books in the mid-90s. “A Study in Emerald” offered a very amusing twist on the typical Sherlock Holmes story. However, I’m having trouble moving on to the next story.

I only listen to audio books when I’m doing something else at the same time such as making supper, exercising, etc. Usually, when I’m listening to an audio book, I’ll start out by listening to the book intermittently. The book will eventually grab me and I’ll start listening to it every reasonable chance I get. Then, at the end, I will go out of my way to extend whatever task I’m doing in order to finish the book. To a certain extent, my reading usually follows the same pattern, minus the multitasking, usually. The problem is with short stories I can’t go through the progression. Just as I get into the story, it ends, and I’m left feeling . . . unsatisfied, I guess. Jaeger keeps trying to get me to listen to various Podcastle or Escape Pod stories. I have the same problem with them. It’s frustrating.

My next book, after I finish Life of Pi is going to be a mystery: What Darkness Brings, by C.S. Harris. Unfortunately, this is a mystery series that I have already found and enjoyed so I don’t think it’s eligible for my mystery category.

Current Goal Counts:

Category Goal Number Read
Best Sellers 2 0
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir 2 0
Fiction Books Jaeger Recommends 2 0
Christian Fiction 2 1
Graphic Novels 2 0
Historical Fiction 2 0
Informational 2 0
Juvenile Books 12 0
Literature 2 1 in progress
Mystery 2 0
Poetry Anthologies 2 0
Realistic Fiction 2 0
Short Story Anthologies 2 1 in progress
  1. I have had a unjustified dislike of Starship Troopers ever since the movie came out. This is because our local theater decided to carry it instead of Gattaca, which I had been looking forward to. Several years later, I watched the Starship Troopers movie, or at least fast forwarded through it, and remember shaking my head in stunned disbelief at what had upstaged Gattaca. I had been assured that the book was nothing like the movie but still was prejudiced against it. However, Jaeger owned the book so one night I picked it up and read it. I enjoyed it a fair amount though I was bemused by the level of proselytizing that went on in it. ↩
  2. Conventional wisdom, which I believe is backed by research but don’t have the time to hunt down, claims that boys don’t read books about girls. However, girls allegedly don’t mind reading books about boys. This has never been true for me. In a pinch, if the books are good, I will read books with male protagonists. However, I always strongly prefer female protagonists. ↩
  3. Listening to The Graveyard Book got me through some supremely hellish breastfeeding attempts after Calvin was born. Gaiman is one of several authors that I owe a huge debt for keeping me sane that first year after Calvin was born. ↩

Making Lego Candy

Calvin is turning four this March. It seems both an eternity and an instant since he was born. When I asked Calvin what kind of birthday party he wanted, he said that he wanted a Lego party. Several years ago I had stumbled across a blog which had detailed instructions on how to make a Lego mold. Calvin’s birthday party seemed like an excellent excuse to try it out for myself.

My first hurdle was figuring out what type of silicone to use. Crafty Girl said she used Smooth-Sil 940 because she found some locally but liked the idea of Copy Flex better because it didn’t require as much math. Math doesn’t scare me but I couldn’t find any Smooth-Sil 940 in my area, or I was looking in the wrong places, and Copy Flex seemed easier to order in small batches.

I wanted to use the Legos to spell out “Happy Birthday Calvin” on his cake. I counted up the pieces and, using two 10×10 base plates, laid out the Legos I’d need. Then I did the math and discovered that using two base plates would require at least 4 lbs of silicone. Let me tell you, silicone is not cheap. 4 lbs was completely out of the question. After some changes, I decided I could get all the pieces I wanted from one base plate if I filled it up twice. I ended up with 40 2×4 pieces and 10 2×2 pieces and a couple spares to fill out the small amount of empty space left. This still required 2 lbs of silicone though.

I hunted around on Amazon and ebay and found some pre-made Lego-like mold options. However, the comments for all the molds I could find invariably said they weren’t standard Lego brick size. This was a problem because as it was, my Lego letters were barely going to fit on the cake. I went back to the Copy Flex website and asked myself if it was really worth the $50 plus $12.93 for shipping. If I had found the perfect Lego mold and saw the price tag was $62.93, I would never have bought it. However, somehow I managed to convince myself that this was a good investment because it was educational. We’d get to see chemistry at work! I ordered the silicone and waited with baited breath for it to arrive.

We had a couple of false starts. I had made the Lego base but Jaeger, correctly, suggested that washing the Legos would be a good idea. So, we ran the Legos with the base plate through on the top rack of the dishwasher with heated dry turned off (this is how we routinely wash Legos/Duplos ordered on eBay). The next day we got ready to pour only to notice that the Legos had collected water inside and so weren’t truly dry. *sigh* We took all the Legos apart and laid them out to dry on cooling racks. Finally, everything was ready.

Copy Flex comes in two containers: a catalyst and a base. The Copy Flex instructions suggested that refrigerating the two liquids would help slow down the reaction and provide more time to get the mold right. Other than being a little larger, I had constructed the positive Lego mold similar to how Crafty Girl had. I had tested it out with water and noticed the water leaked out so I worried that the silicone would also. To prevent an unexpected mess, I put the Lego mold on a cookie sheet. Then I took the two parts of Copy Flex out of the fridge and carefully stirred them together, trying to minimize the bubbles. As instructed, I poured the liquid from a height of about 12″ and let it spread naturally across the Legos. 2 lbs was exactly the right amount, it was perfect. I thumped it on the counter a couple of times because it seems like there were still bubbles in it. I wasn’t sure if thumping was helpful but I didn’t end up with any problematic bubbles.

Copy Flex cures within 4 hours but it was evening so this morning I woke up to take the Legos off. The silicone had leaked in a couple of small places but overall it wasn’t too bad. Interestingly, it seemed to be the places where I had made the border with Legos larger than the standard 2x4s. As Crafty Girl had promised, they peeled right off. I washed the mold with soap and water because Amazon reviews of the pre-made molds had mentioned that the dishwasher could leave a residue that would end up on the candy. The silicone is safe up to 400 degrees F so I stuck it in the oven for a couple of minutes to dry.

This afternoon, Calvin and I tried making our first Legos candies. I used Wilton Candy Melts and had bought several different colors. Walmart carries Candy Melts in their “wedding” aisle. Unfortunately, the candy melts are more pastel colored. I had tried adding gel fooding coloring to intensify the the colors but I didn’t have any oil-based coloring easily available so the melted candy kept seizing. Jaeger assured me it would still be ok and I’m trying to pretend the pastels are on purpose, maybe they’re the Friends Legos.

In any case, I melted the candy melts over a double boiler. You can microwave them but I felt the double boiler gave me more control and made sure they stayed melted. I used a small spatula to carefully fill each Lego slot with the melted candy. Wilton says the candy should be pudding-texture, because if you get it too hot, the candy is ruined. However, my later Lego bricks were made with a little more liquid candy and they turned out better. I would fill four 2×4 bricks and one 2×2 brick and then tap the mold against the counter, hopefully to get the air bubbles out. I wasn’t sure how fast the candy would set. I repeated the process until the entire mold was filled. Conveniently my mold holds exactly one bag of melted candy melts.

Here's how the mold looked right after I finished filling it. You can see the small spatula I used.

Here’s how the mold looked right after I finished filling it. You can see the small spatula I used.

I was unsatisfied with how some of the earlier Legos had overflowed so I tried to smooth them out but I think that was a mistake. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to have the candy set so I looked it up online. Common consensus was that 20 minutes in the refrigerator should work. I thought you weren’t suppose to refrigerate melted chocolate but maybe candy melts are different. In any case, after 20 minutes I took it out and the Legos popped right out.

The finished product.

The finished product.

The detail is so fine you can even see the Lego logo on them.
Lego Candy 4

The first candies I filled tended to have air bubbles in spite of all the tapping I did. I think it’s because the candy wasn’t quite as liquid as it was at the end. Below is how it looks with the bubbles.
Lego Candy 5

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. They’re definitely recognizable and I think they’ll work well on Calvin’s cake. Calvin’s birthday isn’t for a couple of weeks still but I’ll post pictures of the cake when it’s finished.

Calvin’s Tofu Loaf

Calvin is always very eager to “help” me in the kitchen. Usually I’m hurrying to try to get supper on the table and would rather not dance around him. However, I do try to set time aside to let him help me a couple of times a week. I view baking time with a preschooler as the mathematical equivalent of story time for literacy. I’m convinced that cooking or baking is a great way for kids to learn mathematical concepts.

Up to this point, I usually find the recipe we’re going to make, do any necessary prep, and then allow Calvin to dump the ingredients into the mixing bowl or pan. Calvin does enjoy dumping things in. However, he really would prefer that I give him more autonomy. For the last couple of weeks Calvin will dutifully dump ingredients in but then sneak off to the side and start making his own “recipes.” These are usually charming but inedible as he’s making due with whatever odds and ends are left on our counter1. This last week, I decided I should try to create a structure where Calvin could make the majority of the recipe decisions but we would hopefully end up with an edible product.

A couple of years ago I ran across The Magical Loaf Studio. Jennifer McCann is the author of two awe-inspiring cookbooks with recipes for vegan lunches. Her stuff is amazing. I’m completely intimidated by her adorable menus. Anyway, many years ago now she went to a vegetarian cooking class put on by an Adventist church. One of the things they handed out was instructions on how to create your own vegetarian loaf. One day when bored, Jennifer automated it and the Magical Loaf Studio was born. To be honest, I’m not that much into vegetarian loafs (and Jaeger believes they are evil). However, the setup seemed ideal to give Calvin a lot of options while still creating something that was edible-like.

Today Calvin and I tried the vegetarian loaf experiment. I pulled up the page and started out with the “protein” box. I pulled out every protein option that was listed in the box and that we had in the house and let Calvin choose which one he liked best. Predictably, he chose tofu. Then we moved on section by section until we got to the end. Calvin tried to get away without choosing any vegetable or seasonings but I insisted he select at least one. At last, we had a recipe:

Here’s Your Very Own Adventist-Style Vegan Dinner Loaf!

program created by Jennifer McCann for the Vegan Lunch Box Blog

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pecans
2 TB margarine
One large carrot, peeled and grated
2 cups mashed firm tofu
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/4 to 1/2 cup tomato juice, as needed
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
2 TB nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp. salt
Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a loaf pan or 8×8 square baking pan
with nonstick spray and set aside (an 8×8 pan makes a crisper loaf).

Grind the pecans into a coarse meal using a food processor or
spice/coffee grinder. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Sauté any vegetables you’ve chosen in the margarine until soft. Add to
the large mixing bowl along with all the remaining ingredients. Mix
and mash together well, adding only as much liquid as needed to create
a soft, moist loaf that holds together and is not runny (you may not
need to add any liquid if the grains and protein are very moist). Add
more binder/carbohydrate as needed if the loaf seems too wet.

Press mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour,
or until cooked through.

Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn out onto
a plate or platter and slice. Serve with potatoes, vegetables, and
vegetarian gravy, if desired.

Cold leftover slices of make a great sandwich filling.

I had told Jaeger yesterday that for dinner tonight we were going to have a recipe that Calvin created. However, I believe he hoped I was kidding. Jaeger was not amused to come home and discover that we really were having a Calvin concoction. To be honest, it wasn’t particularly good. Calvin only took a couple bites of it though Jaeger and I both ate reasonable servings. The recipe could have used a lot more seasoning and potentially more baking (I’m not entirely sure what the texture was suppose to be like). However, it was certainly edible.

I’m not sure I want to try the loaf generator again with Calvin. I’m certain good recipes can be made from it but it probably takes a lot more cooking intuition than Calvin has at the moment. So, I wouldn’t call this experiment a disaster but neither was it a success.

Maybe Calvin would feel more in control if he got to choose the recipe. He does own a cookbook specifically for children that I caught him looking through one night when he was allegedly going to bed.

We’ll figure out something, eventually.

  1. Calvin is always very careful not to add eggs to his recipes, and tell me he’s not adding eggs, as he likes to taste them and knows you “can’t” taste raw food once eggs have been added ↩

Robots

Calvin is very into robots at the moment. Every night we’ve been reading the same robot books over and over again.

In addition, Calvin has been industriously building various robots out of legos.

A robot that builds other robots.

A robot that builds other robots.

Random Robot

CalvinRobot3

CalvinRobot4

Reading Goal

A couple of days ago I started reading The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller. I saw Miller’s newest book, Reading in the Wild pop up in our “new at the library” email. It looked interesting but was described as a companion to her first book so I put a hold on The Book Whisperer instead. I’m only about half-way through it but I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read so far.

Miller expects each child in her class to read at least 40 books during the school year. She allows her students a lot of latitude in what they read but does request a certain number from specific genres. Her requirements are as follows:

Poetry anthologies 5
Traditional literature 5
Realistic fiction 5
Historical fiction 2
Fantasy 4
Science Fiction 2
Mystery 2
Informational 4
Biography, autobiography, memoir 2
Chapter-book choice 9

As I was reading this list, I realized my personal reading would profit from a wider selection. I mainly read for comfort at night and it’s easy to get in a rut. As a result, I’ve decided to create my own reading goal for the next year. I’m still mulling this over but I’m leaning toward the following:

Best Sellers 2
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir 2
Fiction Books Jaeger Recommends 2
Christian Fiction 2
Graphic Novels 2
Historical Fiction 2
Informational 2
Juvenile Books 12
Literature 2
Mystery 2
Poetry Anthologies 2
Realistic Fiction 2
Short Story Anthologies 2

Best Sellers
I have a tendency to avoid obvious best sellers. It’s not that I automatically think they’re going to be bad. After all, most best sellers are best sellers for a reason. However, I think I get author fatigue when I see an author consistently in the best seller list. I see the titles and names so much I feel like I’ve already read the books, even when I haven’t, and don’t want to take my time to do so again.

Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
I have a had time reading non-fiction that isn’t immediately useful to me. I have no doubt that biographies, and memoirs have value but I find it hard to care.

Fiction Books Jaeger Recommends
When it comes to fiction, Jaeger and I read the same genres but read different sub-genres. I’ll let Jaeger come up with a list of books he thinks I should try and I’ll pick a couple of them. Note: I have specified fiction books. I have no desire to try to wade through The Generalissimo.

Christian, Graphic Novels, Historical, and Mystery Fiction
These are all genres that are hugely popular within our library district. As a result, I feel like I should have a bit more familiarity with them than I do. I did read a lot of Christian fiction back when I was a teenager but I’m not very familiar with the recent trends. I’m also going to exclude the few mystery authors that I already read regularly from qualifying for this list since the idea is to expand my horizons.

Informational
I’m somewhat ambivalent about this one. I do read a fair amount of non-fiction but it’s all very specifically targeted to whatever is currently relevant in my life. I read a subject obsessively and then stop when the books start repeating each other. I wonder if I should pick specific informational subjects to read. I’ll have to think about this one a bit more.

Juvenile Books
My main purpose for reading in this category is to become more familiar with books Calvin is likely to enjoy in the coming years. Of course, I remember (and usually still own) all my favorites from when I was young. However, I’m sure there are many wonderful books that have been published since I was a child. At the moment, I don’t have a good feel for what types of books are available for the juvenile audience these days.

Literature
Growing up, I read a lot of classic literature. However, I haven’t read much recently and should probably get back into the habit. Contemporary literature might be a good place to start.

Poetry Anthologies
I don’t like poetry. I really don’t. It’ll be good for me to see if I can find poetry I do enjoy. If nothing else, it’ll be a good experience for me. Maybe. My main reason for caring about poetry is I want Calvin to have an appreciation for it. I doubt it’s something he’ll acquire unless I, or someone around him, can get excited about it.

Realistic Fiction
I’ve always been a genre reader. I think it’ll be good for me to try reading whatever it is that gets shelved in the regular fiction section.

Short Story Anthologies
Like poetry, I don’t like short stories. I think it’s because by the time I get into the story, it ends. It’s very annoying. Maybe I can consider short stories little trailers for the type of stuff different authors write.

Caveats

  • Donalyn Miller had a rule for her students that if a book was over 350 pages, it could count as two books. I think that bar is a bit low for me. However, if a book is particularly large, I might consider counting it as two books. Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, is on our bookshelf and is staring me in the face. It might be interesting but it looks awfully thick.
  • I reserve the right to cross two categories off at once if a book falls into both.

Migrating Blog Platforms

After ignoring the back-end of my blog for way too long I finally decided to migrate off Serendipity. I installed Serendipity back in 2005 when there were many interesting choices for blogging platforms. However, I didn’t keep up with the updates and the comment spam was out of control.

Long story short, I’m now on WordPress. At this point, I don’t have any URL redirection for links to old entries. I manually updated the ones within my own posts and I think the only other person who ever links to me is Jaeger. So, Jaeger may end up writing something for his own convenience.

Anyway, I’m still not convinced WordPress is the best option but it’s working well enough now that I think I can ignore it for another couple of years.

Now, if you want the longer story . . .

My initial plan was to migrate my blog to a hosted option where updates were nicely taken care of for me. I started researching blog hosting options and was surprised by the lack of options. I was leaning toward using Blogger since it would fit most of my needs. However, I was stumped over how to import my entries from Serendipity into Blogger. Serendipity provided me with a nice RSS feed of all my entries but there didn’t appear to be an obvious way to take those entries and import them into Blogger.

I spent several hours poking and grumbling out loud at which point Jaeger started suggesting that I should try out wordpress.org 1. I was resistant because I really wanted a hosted option. However, after several more hours, I decided I didn’t care that much and was willing to give WordPress a try. At the very least, it’s such a popular platform that presumably there are many anti-spam widget options available.

Jaeger started the famous 5-minute install which turned out to be more than 5 minutes but, all things considered, wasn’t too bad. Importing my entries was fairly trivial. Importing the comments was a lot trickier since there didn’t appear to be an easy tool to do that.

Eventually, I dumped all my comments out of Serendipity, importanted them into gnumeric, ordered them by date and, using the date, attempted to match them up to the new IDs in WordPress. This worked reasonably well but wasn’t perfect since the dates seemed to be subtly different, even when adjusting for timezones. However, I only had a couple hundred entries so it wasn’t too painful to sanity check the date ordering.

Once I got the IDs matched up, I figured out what columns were equivalent between Serendipity and WordPress and then put fake values in the new columns. Then I exported the data with a | as the field separator.

My next task was to try to bulk import these values into the WordPress database. After some fumbling, I discovered that I had to be root to do this (why?). After some fiddling with the mysqlimport options, everything finally seemed to import into the database correctly. “Approving” the comments on the database side didn’t seem to make them show on the web side so I went through and bulk unapproved and then reapproved the comments through WordPress’ web interface.

The last bit was figuring out what template to use and which widgets to install. I stuck with the default template. However, I felt the header image was a bit too large 2 and in an odd place so I made it smaller and moved it between the blog title and menu sections.

For plugins, I installed a spam plugin 3, a URL checker, footnotes, and then one that let me add javascript to my sidebare so I could add my LibraryThing widget.

  1. I’m still not sure why he was pushing WordPress. It uses MySQL and PHP, both of which Jaeger considers evil. ↩
  2. Possibly this is because my laptop’s screen is fairly small by modern standards. ↩
  3. I have seen suggestions that installing multiple spam plugins is best but I’m going to stick with one to start with and see how that goes. ↩

A Computer for Calvin

A couple of weeks ago I was on Craigslist and stumbled across a listing for a preschool desk with two chairs. It looked adorable and I knew, given research I had done previously, that it was at a pretty good price. I’ve been thinking about getting Calvin a desk for a while but just haven’t. I seriously considered the desk on Craigslist but I’m trying to avoid buying any bulky items that we have to sell or will be difficult to store when we move in a couple of years. So, I passed on the desk and wondered if that was a good choice.

Yesterday, I was practicing the piano when it suddenly occurred to me that we already had the top of a desk, we just needed legs for it. I ventured down into the basement and pulled out one of the desk tops that belong to the cubicles Jaeger inherited. It’s about 2’x4′ and fit perfectly in a corner of the family room. However, the cubicle legs it’s suppose to attach to are obviously too tall for Calvin. I did some research and found a website that said the desk should be between 18-20″ high. I briefly contemplated whether I could take some of the unpacked boxes and stick them under as table legs. However, the idea wasn’t appealing to me. I continued thinking of low-cost solutions and then hit upon the idea of trying out concrete blocks.

I went to pick Calvin up at preschool and told him we were going on an expedition to look for a table for him. Calvin insisted that he didn’t want a table and I briefly considered abandoning the idea but I had a bee in my bonnet. I told him that I wanted to try it out and if he didn’t like it, we’d take the table down. Off to home depot we (crankily) went and I picked up four 8x8x16 concrete blocks. Including tax, they cost a little less than $8. We went back home and I arranged the concrete blocks and then placed the table on top. Next, I dragged down my old 8″ mini-exercise step that has recently been a step-stool for Calvin and set it as a seat in front of the table. It turned out to be the perfect size for Calvin. I then setup Calvin’s old computer, Illyria, and Calvin got a chance to try out the new setup. After seeing it all together, he decided it was an improvement and wanted to keep the table.

About a year ago I had setup Illyria to be more toddler/preschool friendly. My parents had given us a kids keyboard that had some special games with it which Calvin enjoys. However, I wanted to setup the rest of the computer specifically for him too. I found a couple of websites that I thought he’d like to play and then found a Firefox add-on to whitelist websites so he could only go to the ones I allowed (and, more importantly, he doesn’t accidentally get to other random websites due to accidentally clicking on ads). I setup the desktop with shortcuts to the website and then changed the default to have shortcuts open with a single click rather than a double click. Calvin tried it out and the theory seemed to work fine but the mouse was really hard for him to use and he kept asking for help. We didn’t have a spot for his computer to be and it was a pain to get in and out so we mostly ignored it for a year.

Yesterday, when I got the computer out again, Calvin seemed to remember the games he had played before. The mouse is still a little tricky for him to use but at this point he has enough coordination that he can eventually get it to move the way he wants and click on things. The main site Calvin has been playing with so far is Sesame Street.

Illyria is pretty old at this point. You can see her specs here. She has no wireless card so I have her hooked to one of the handy nearby ethernet jacks Jaeger installed when we moved into this house. Getting decent software for Calvin that can run on Windows 2000 may be a bit of a challenge. The library actually does check out some software but we’re straining to meet even their minimum requirements. After Calvin went to bed, I contemplated various children-friendly Linux options. I did some research and came across a couple of decent looking possibilities.

  • Edubuntu – From what I’ve read, it looks pretty full-featured but seems to be mostly aimed for classroom use. Also, Illyria is not beefy enough to run it.

  • Sugar – Apparently it was developed as part of the One Laptop per Child project. However, while Linux based, I understand the interface is radically different than adults are use to dealing with. I was still curious but some browsing made it appear that, once again, Illyria would have trouble handling it.

  • Qimo is yet another distribution but this one looked more promising as one website reported, “Qimo uses a customized Xfce interface thus allowing it to be used even on computers with the lowest of specs.”

  • DoudouLinux received high marks from a number of sources and looked like Illyria might be able to handle it.

I started with Qimo. I downloaded it and burnt it to a CD and then had Illyria boot to CD. Qimo has a handy feature where you can either choose to install it or run it as a Live CD so you can evaluate it without making irreparable changes to your existing OS. It booted very slowly and the programs took a while to load but it did work. The slowness would drive me nuts but I really need to stick Calvin in front of it and see what he thinks. Qimo, like most of the other kid-focused Linux distros comes with a suite of Linux-based edutainment options.

Next, I dried Doudoulinux. Doudoulinux also runs as a Live CD. However, it turns out that Illyria wasn’t quite beefy enough to run it. It would mostly load and then randomly stop before we got to the desktop. However, I was successfully able to pull it up on Adara and see how it works. Tentatively, I think I might like the interface a bit more than Qimo.

At this point, I’m not willing to commit Calvin to an exclusive relationship with Linux. I still need to tinker a bit more and also see how much Calvin is really using his computer before I decide what the best long-term option is. I haven’t run out of kid-friendly Linux distros to try so there might be an even better option available but Illyria is old enough that nothing runs perfectly on her.

Calvin, Math, and Allowances

Every so often Calvin and I bake together. Usually it’s something unhealthy like cookies or brownies. For some reason, they’re usually more fun. Plus, they don’t tend to require as many sharp objects in preparation as entrees do. The more I cook, the more I’m convinced it is one of the best practical forms of math for children. I remember fractions being a really hard concept for most of the people in my elementary school. Yet, fractions are all over the place when cooking.

When Calvin “helps” me cook, I usually measure things out but then let him pour whatever the ingredient is into the mixing bowl. A couple of days ago we were making a dessert and I was doling out the cocoa powder. He put the first tablespoon of cocoa powder in. Then, I told him that we needed a total of 3 tablespoons and asked if we already put one in, how many more did we need? To my mild surprise, he correctly answered 2. Yes, a very simple problem but I hadn’t seen him do anything more complicated than basic counting before. A little later on in the process, we needed to add a 1/4 cup of something. I told him we were adding “a fourth cup” and asked him, if we wanted 1 cup, how many fourth cups should we do. He responded with “four.” I can’t guarantee this answer wasn’t a fluke but I still thought it was interesting.

Several months ago I contemplated an allowance for Calvin but, after a bit of research, decided he probably wasn’t ready for it. Most of the books I read recommended starting at school age because it’s hard to understand money without understanding quantities. At that time, Calvin wasn’t exhibiting much numeracy other than some very basic counting so I abandoned the idea. However, my recent cooking experience with Calvin made me think it was perhaps a good time to reconsider the allowance concept.

A rule of thumb I’ve seen several places is to give a child $1 per week per year of age. Since Calvin would be turning four in March, I decided to start with $4/week because it’s an easier number to deal with than $3. My tentative plan is to pay him on Fridays and give him $2 with no strings each week with $1 to go into a “giving” and $1 into a “savings” categories. With giving, I’m hoping to find some child-friendly charities he might be interested in and give him a choice. Then for savings, I’m going to give him an interest rate of 5% compounded monthly. My reading suggested that interest rates have to be fairly high for children to understand the value of savings. I’m not sure if he’s young enough to really understand interest yet but I figure it can’t hurt to start out with it and than backpedal if it confuses him too much.

I picked Calvin up from preschool and as he was getting in the car, I asked him what he’d like to do that afternoon. I suggested reading, playing with legos, or an art project. Calvin informed me that he wasn’t interested in an art project because he was out of glue. Then he asked me if we could go buy some more glue. I figured this was as good a time as any to discuss the concept of an allowance with him. I told him that we couldn’t go buy glue today but we were going to start giving him an allowance on Fridays of $4, two of which he could spend immediately. I also told him that if, once he had the $2, he wanted to go buy glue, we could go do that. Calvin seemed very excited by the idea of allowance and mentioned that when Jaeger got home he wanted to “tell daddy the good news.”

We got home and Calvin immediately wanted to find something he could use to put his allowance in on Friday. I had actually been hoping I could stick to virtual money. I don’t remember when my parents started an allowance with me, probably around school age. However, until I was a teenager, it consisted of a ledger where mom would enter our regular allowance and then subtract anything we bought. I was hoping the same system would work with Calvin but from what he was saying, it was obvious he wanted tangible money he could touch. I gave in mainly because it made sense that at this age he would better understand the concept of money if he could hold it.

Having resigned myself to giving allowance with physical money, which also means I need to make sure to have physical money on hand, we needed to figure out what he was going to store it in. Calvin suggested a piggy bank which I thought was a little odd because I don’t remember talking about piggy banks with him before. Though, maybe there has been some mention in some of his story time books. However, I didn’t want to spend the money to buy a piggy bank, didn’t want to deplete his allowance before he even got it for the cost of one, and didn’t have a convenient container that could be retrofitted as a piggy bank. We searched the house for some sort of minimalistic zippered wallet but came up empty. Finally I settled on the idea of using duck tape to make a duck tape wallet. They’re pretty popular so it was fairly easy to come up with instructions for making one. Calvin started out “helping” me make the wallet but wandered off before it was completely finished. That may have been for the best. It turned out reasonably well. It has a place for dollar bills, a tiny ziplock-like bag that I duck taped in for his change, as well as one credit card slot to hold his library card.

Since Calvin hasn’t had his first allowance yet, all it has at the moment is his library card, which I had been carrying around in my wallet. I showed the wallet to Calvin and he seemed excited by it. I wrote his first name and my phone number on the inside and then he “decorated” the outside with a black sharpie. I told him that to make sure he didn’t lose the wallet, he needed to pick a safe place in his bedroom to store the wallet anytime he wasn’t taking it to the store to buy something.

Tonight, as Calvin went to bed, he sung to himself to sleep with, “money, money, money.” I’m not entirely sure why he’s so excited by the idea of an allowance but he definitely is very excited. Jaeger is dubious but I think I’ve more or less convinced him, at least for the moment. Truthfully, I’m a little dubious too but it should be interesting to see how Calvin handles the concept of an allowance.