LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

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Hour Of Code

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Guess what this week is, boys and girls? That’s right. It’s Computer Science Education Week. And the Computer Science Teacher’s Association (did I mention I was the Nebraska chapter president) along with Code.org is sponsoring an Hour of Code.

So far over 6,000,000 people have tried their hand at writing computer programs for an hour. We’re having all of the students at Lincoln Lutheran give it a try (during math class). We’re doing it over a two-day period and it’s been working out okay.

There are about 20 different tutorials that you can choose from. We’re having students start off with the Angry Birds/Plants vs. Zombies tutorial. It uses a programming language called Scratch that you program by dragging different colored blocks around the screen.

The tutorials are mostly game-like. And, while you can’t do anything really Earth-shaking in an hour, you can get an idea of whether you might like to learn more about programming. They say that there will be 1,400,000 new Computer Science jobs in the next 6 year, but we are on pace to produce only 400,000 Computer Science majors.

This concerns big computer companies like Google and Microsoft, so they are sponsoring this sort of thing to encourage more people to study programming (and to encourage more schools to teach it).

You can try the Angry Bird’s  Tutorial and see what you think. No, seriously, give it a try.

No thank you, apocalypse milk.

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So, you might remember that I’m not buying milk in liquid form anymore. The can of powdered milk is serving my coffee needs, and as it turns out, I like to eat the Bob’s Red Mill 5-Grain cereal with just sugar and cranberries- no milk needed.

Lloyd’s breakfast needs are different. He usually grabs a piece of fruit and an oatmeal cookie (if I remember to make some) on his way out the door. On Saturdays I like to make bacon and eggs, but occasionally he just wants to eat cereal. His cereal. His secret stash of cereal.

So Lloyd wanted to buy some milk to ‘keep on hand’ a couple of weeks ago and I nixed it. “What if I want to eat my cereal?” he asked. I responded that since that happens once every two months, that milk would just go bad in the fridge, and we already have a bad jug in there already. (Still haven’t touched Brad’s.) We compromised by buying some shelf-stable milk and keeping it in the fridge so it would be cold when he needed it.

Are you familiar with shelf-stable milk? It’s sold in a box and can be left out on a shelf until the zombies come for you. Once you crack it open you have to refrigerate it, but the actual milk inside has been super-irradiated and is a miracle of modern science.

I just ate mine dry, thank you very much.

Well, on Saturday Lloyd decided to have cereal. He peeled open the carton, poured some on his Special K, took a bite, and…… stopped.

“This is not good. This would have to be a million times colder to be even passable.”

Yet, he choked down the whole bowl.

Great. Another container of milk that’s going to go bad in my fridge. I’m running out of room.

Politics make me crazy

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I realize I am in dangerous waters here, so don’t get your panties in a twist – I’m not going to let you comment on politics anyway. This is my soapbox.

Let me begin by saying that I am a political dunce. I barely know what’s going on in the world, and I realize that it makes me a bad citizen and I have no one to blame but myself.  It is largely due to laziness, but partly due to the way that people with political interests handle themselves.

My platform statements:

  1. Everybody (with strong opinions) in the world thinks they are right, and the other side is wrong. Everybody.
  2. If somebody thinks differently than you do, they think that you are wrong.
  3. Expressing your viewpoint in a kind way is acceptable, yet still annoying to people who aren’t interested.
  4. Sticking to facts on just the issues is acceptable, yet still annoying to people who aren’t interested.
  5. Expressing your viewpoint in a heated/passionate way is not going to change anyone’s mind that has the opposite viewpoint. In fact, it will galvanize them on their own position.
  6. Expressing an opinion of a candidate (or any other person) in a mean, so-called ‘funny’ or derogatory way makes me like that person more, even if I had zero interest in them previously, because I want to passive-aggressively punish you for being so jerky.

That is all.

In preschool we are broaching the idea of voting, but not by voting for people. I explained the presidential process, but told them that in our room, I have $30 to spend on ONE toy. We will go through the catalog to find likely candidates, but then we’ll have to vote on just ONE. I hope for some good campaigning.

So, NO political comments or I’ll delete them. I don’t want anyone’s blood pressure to rise over this. Instead, you must vote for one of the following toy options:

A. Transforming Alphabet/Robot set

B. Human Body (non-zombie version)

C. Playstix

Go Bulldogs!

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One of my absolute joys is to help little kids figure out how to draw stuff. Coming from an artistic family, a certain brother of mine who shall remain nameless (Phil) made fun of my drawing skills when I was but a wee one. (Another story for another time.)

Anyway, in preschool we work on breaking things down into easy shapes, and focus heavily on the idea that we are just practicing this skill. We know that what we draw is not going to look exactly like the real thing and that is OK. (Phil)

We’ve been visiting Concordia for some walking field trips, and since this weekend is Concordia’s Homecoming, I decided we should make some window decorations to cheer them on.

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Nice, eh? Check out those Bulldogs! Lemme show you how to make them:

1. A swoopy capital G

2. A lazy on-its-side S

3. Nose

4. Eyes

5. Angry eyebrows

6. Two fangy teeth

7. Two bent ears (ears are hard)

8. A spiky collar.

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Done and done! After practicing, this is what we can do!

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And…… this is…also what some of us can do.

I groove on its eyeless-zombie vibe, as I do the hallucinating panda in the banner photo.

The Kitten Anniversary

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Sure, some charts say that the 20th gift is china, but I really don’t want to travel so far. We’ll stick with kittens.

Twenty reasons Lloyd and I have stuck together (See if you can guess who wrote what):
20. He’ll eat anything she cooks.
19. He made this website possible.
18. She knows how to wash his clothes.
17. He knows how to scratch her back.
16. He knows all the passwords.
15. He secretly loves kitties.
14. He makes a mean gin and tonic.
13. Less talk, more rock.
12. He whistles with her.
11. Must remain married until the statute of limitations runs out.
10. Zombie attack survival plan requires at least two people.
9. Separating would leave us each with only half a flesh.
8. He’s funny.
7. She’s almost as funny as me.
6. Our favorite colors do not clash.
5. She drives while he reads.
4. No concrete plan to divide kittens in case of separation.
3. Ew – He just said “cut ’em in half”.
2. Those darn vows.
1. It’s too much trouble to find someone else.

Why the dress? Because it's funny.