Max has been on fire at school. The Media Project he and his 3rd grade class did last year won its division at the international level. Meaning, it went to the regional competition, then state, then US, then Int'l and won them all. This year, as a big 4th grader, each student worked with a partner to create a project, instead of doing one project as a class. He and his partner created a story about a guy who falls into another dimension where he has to fight through various video games to get out. It was funny and fun to watch. :)
Earlier in the year he tried out for the Science Olympiad team. There are only 4 kids from his grade selected, and he was one of them. Twice a week he's been going in early to work with a partner on Simple Machines. At the district competition a couple of weeks ago, he and his partner took first place and his school won first place overall! They get to go to the state competition in Atlanta, for an overnight trip! Kevin is taking the day off, and we are pulling Brian from school so we can all go.
He continues to be active with chorus and the Art and Philosophy Club. I'm still on a high from his participation in the Spelling Bee, where he did well. He's earned straight A's on his last two report cards and he also received the "Flying Hawk" award. What are the odds that both of my kids received it?? Outside of school, he was recently promoted in karate, continues to write for ficly.com, creates comics in his spare time, and he and Kevin gave a joint presentation at the Telfair Museum last month.
:)
]]>He talks quite a bit about "moral heroes" and celebrating them. My moral heroes are pretty simple: Mister Rogers, Elwood P. Dowd and Jesus Christ. All three men (fictional or not) contain the attributes I aspire to. They're kind, empathetic and gentle.
I've been thinking a lot about what I want my kids to learn from me, and here's the (very short) list I've come up with:
I think that if I can live those two things, everything else that I could do that would be considered good or worthwhile will follow naturally. As Jesus said, "And the second [great commandment] is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 22:39). Elwood P. Dowd, the protagonist in Harvey said it like this, "Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
I don't know about choosing between being smart or pleasant. I hope it's possible to be both.
And, I obviously stole the second item in the list from the Hippocratic Oath, but I think it applies to everyone, not just doctors. To me, that means not just avoiding physical harm but emotional. If you're kind and empathetic, you're not going to intentionally cause any kind of harm to anyone else - and you're much less likely to cause it unintentionally.
The world is full of well-meaning people who forget about empathy. We hear it every day: "I can't imagine anyone living like that / doing that / feeling that way / loving that person / doing that to themselves / etc." That shows a problem with their imagination, not with the other people. The things one person can't imagine are held deeply by others. The things one person thinks are disgusting are the deepest feelings of another's heart. We try to legislate away everything that makes us uncomfortable. We try to push deep down inside us those feelings that we can't express because we lack the imagination to invent the words for them.
I refuse to believe that there is too little imagination in the world for us to accept each other. Being "tolerant" isn't good enough.
If the second great commandment is to "love thy neighbor as thyself", then nothing else can trump that, not the Old Testament, not Paul's epistles, nothing else in Christian scripture beats Jesus Christ telling us to love each other (if you're a Christian that is - if you're not, that's fine, the golden rule is a fairly universal concept - see the Charter for Compassion).
If my kids learn that from me, then I think I've done my job. It doesn't matter what else they learn from me. If they grow up to be gentlemen, in the truest simplest definition of the word, then I'll be happy.
How are you supposed to end a manifesto? I think I'll end it with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr, who is on my "expanded" list of moral heroes:
]]>Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, or retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
I guess this is what happens when you're nice to your spouse everyday. Since there isn't any bad behavior from which to refrain, Val Day seems a lot like every other day!
Max received all A's in the Core Subjects (Math, English, etc), yay! Better yet, all of his grades improved, except for the subjects he got a 99 in last quarter. His actual scores were: Language Arts- 99; Reading- 99; Social Studies- 99; Health- 98; Science- 97; and Math- 95. Max was like, "No 100s?" Kevin said, "That is just to give you something to work for this quarter." Ha! His grades for the Specials (Art, PE, Music, Spanish) were all "Exceeds Expectations."
I should treat my kids for a job well done. What should it be?
]]>Here's how we came up with the presentation:
I didn't want to put a huge burden on him, since this was his first time in front of what could have been a large crowd. But, he was very involved in writing the presentation and walked me through all the demos.
He had so much fun that he wants to present again, maybe at this year's Geekend.
Here are the slides if you're interested:
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The lack of worry about baby-related deaths and illness has been such a relief. It's like going on vacation, all of the time, in my brain!
My kids can use the bathroom and dress, feed, and entertain themselves. We can go out and have fun as a family and go on vacations together. Right this very minute, Brian is reading a book to Kevin. BRIAN IS READING. \0/
So yea. Just had to share.
Max won his class spelling bee, so he got to participate in the school bee. The winner will be sent to the regional bee to compete in the 4th-8th grade group. I went to the school bee today and cheered Max on. It lasted an hour. The coordinator said this was one of the longest bee's they've had. Kids kept getting the answers right! The bee started out with 14 students. Half of the kids were eliminated in the second and third rounds. Max, and everyone else except the winner and the alternate, were eliminated in the 5th round. He misspelled "enormous." He told me he was glad he didn't win. The PTA provided donuts for afterward, so at least the kids got to sugar-up for their effort.
The Coriolis Effect from Kevin Lawver on Vimeo.
Max and I made this little movie yesterday as his visual aid for his report on the Coriolis Effect. I figured out that it took us about an hour of work for every ten seconds of end product. I hope the boy gets an A.
]]>The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.
You really should go watch it in full screen just to bask in the detail in everything. I watched very closely and couldn't find any of the normal cheats you find in CG that break the illusion. Yes, there are things towards the end that aren't actually possible, but they're totally convincing. Unbelievably gorgeous and melancholy.
Melancholy fits my mood this week. I found out on Monday that one of my favorite people and one of the first people I met at SxSW, Brad Graham, died over the weekend. Brad is (I still refuse to say "was") one of those people totally filled with light. He makes everyone feel welcome, included and loved. He's an infamous flirt, raconteur and wit and I loved cracking vulgar with him, usually in our now-infamous Kevin Smokler hosted dinners at SxSW.
For someone I only see once a year, and talk to only a couple of times a year, Brad's death at 41 is hitting me hard. He's such a life - the life of the party, conversation, etc. He's such a fixture on both the web and at SxSW that I thought he was an immovable object - and for my own selfish reasons, I hoped he'd always be there. I love hanging out with him. He's one of those rare comic minds that can make anything both vulgar and hilarious at the same time, being so offensive and outrageous that no one gets offended. For years at those dinners, we had people afraid they would pee their pants with laughter and afraid to take a bite at dinner. Every time I ran into Brad was an experience never to be forgotten...
And I keep playing them over and over again in my head because those chance meetings outside the convention center, lunches and dinners with friends won't happen again... because Brad's gone.
I miss him.
]]>Did I forget anything?
We went from living in a two-bedroom apartment with a colicky newborn and my FIL (heee) to a four-bedroom rental house near the ocean, where everyone can feed, dress, entertain, and go to the bathroom by themselves. This decade, for all of its hardships and horrors, has been great for us. We left behind the 'just started out in the world so I am damn broke' club and joined the 'got a mortgage and kids to send to college so I am damn broke' club. Kevin rose to be the cream of the crop in his profession. He traveled to India, China, and Europe many times and all across the US. He is successful and continues to be challenged and invested at work and lovable and supportive at home. What more could I have asked for?
Happy New Year!!
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