Transplanting a Seattleite

It is Memorial Day, which is, variously, a Monday where one may not have to go to school and/or work, a day where one has to figure out how to juggle child care responsibilities while still having to go to work, a day to remember those who have died in the service of our country and, for me, this year, a moment to remember how much I enjoyed Over My Dead Body by Greg Melville, because the author did such a lovely job of placing Decoration Day in historical and cultural context.

At the moment, I’m catching up on blogging, because I’ve been attending Balticon and hanging out with my sister and niblings who joined me at the con. It was a much shorter train ride for them than it was for me, and we left all the menfolk at home. It’s been fun and I’ve learned a ton. I’ll probably come back. Ironically, my sister wasn’t that enthused about this con, until I unilaterally decided to go with A. and invited them to come with me. Once here, it is being compared very favorably to RavenCon. Certainly, it is bigger, and both cons are very reader/writer focused, so the programming at both is what we love, but the quality of the moderation and the qualifications and competencies of the panel participants is wildly better. Some overlap, tho! Balticon is still running as a hybrid con which is nice to see.

ETA: I bought a tiara, a print, and a bottle of whisky over the last few days. The tiara wrapped up nicely and didn’t take up much space. The print is going to have to be handcarried. The whisky, it turns out, fits into a side pocket on the fjallraven kanken 17” laptop bag. It’s in a plastic bag within the pocket, in an effort to encourage people to not see what’s in my backpack. I’ll report back whether I have to ditch it on the way home. In theory, I think I can bring it on the train. Obviously this would not work on a plane.

ETAYA: I got a 30 minute reprieve on checking out, which was handy because A. wasn’t quite ready. We left our bags with the front desk, and walked over to the science museum where we looked around and saw the planetarium spring skies show. A. could not have dippin dots (sad face) because we were out of lactaid. Our next stop was a CVS where we bought offbrand lactase and branded Pepcid, both of which I intend to leave packed for future trips. Because of all this. CVS was a few doors down from a Shake Shack, so that’s where we had lunch including a frozen custard for A. She got the chicken sandwich, which looked really good.

We walked across the street to the con hotel to use the bathrooms, and then back to the Residence Inn to pick up our bags. We got an uber from there to the train station. My sister had gotten her train changed to an earlier one, still in the quiet car, so she was already home. I initially went to the wrong track, realized it was the wrong direction, asked for help, switched sides of the island (no need to go back up the stairs, yay!) and waited a couple more minutes and boarded. So far, have not had any damage to the print or the whisky. Presumably the tiara and so forth are fine in the bags.

We had a really nice time! I panicked a little, because time was getting tight, but we got to the train station about 30 minutes before boarding, so I even got to use the bathroom. The con floor was totally dead when we stopped at that hotel, so we had a bathroom to ourselves there. I know it’s stupid, but getting to have clean, quiet bathrooms is amazing.

Also! While waiting to board, there was someone with a paper Analog bungied on top of his roller so we chit-chatted. He’s got a novel coming out in the Eric Flint Ring of Fire universe involving Venice getting a radio (maybe 1633?). Apparently that’s where Charles Gannon is editing, keeping that massive multiverse going post death of Eric Flint. I couldn’t remember as we were chatting which panel I saw Gannon on; it was The Stakes are High and They’re Well Done, which was mostly about pacing. That’s the panel where I finally realized that all the “getting the beats right” comments were references to Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, and thus more examples of Novel / Story as screenplay.

It was a really good day.

I’m behind again on blogging. We are not traveling, but there was a Medical Event. I will catch up on blogging shortly.

Good news: the pain is much less while laying down, altho still bad when up and about.

Unrelated news: I pointed a flashlight into the laundry machine to figure out why the lint filter wasn’t going back in and found a large wad of lint. Efforts to retrieve it with a metal clothes hangar accidentally dropped it back down a hole. After vacuuming the area out thoroughly and rerunning the dryer (empty) twice, the lint ball came back and came out with the lint filter. Yay us! Also, future redesigns of this machine might be a lot better.

In further unrelated news, when I was getting off Ratatouille at WDW in Epcot recently, I spotted an attractive, black pair of cargo pants, plus sized and asked the wearer where she got them. We discussed. I found them on Amazon, but they did not have that pair in any flavor of wine-colored, so I went further afield on Amazon and found a promising option. The first size I ordered was ever so slightly too small (it looked cartoonishly too small when I took them out of the package, but were only slightly too small once on), so I returned them and reordered in the next size up. Which arrived today. And which is perfect in every single way. One zip cargo pocket, one velcro cargo pocket, two slash pockets for hands, and two velcro pockets on the back. Color is great. Length is perfect. Quality looks good and they are very lightweight. Large enough so I could where a baselayer underneath if it’s cold. I am ecstatic.

I’ll be back later, but I just realized that I’ve had a ton of interactions with people over the last couple of days on this topic and I haven’t left any evidence of it here for me to revisit later.

So: as a little reminder for me. Mulct.

Ok! Let’s see what we can do here.

A friend sent me a reddit post by a teacher in NJ and the comments thread associated with it. https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1av4y2y/comment/krcjeve/

The poster has a significant cluster of posts, all recent, all very much the same, and the account is comparatively new. The mention of Charlotte’s Web and Bridge to Terabithia was striking to me. I am Old, but when I was a youngster in school Charlotte’s Web was old. Bridge to Terabithia is about as old as the Original Star Wars. Which is Old. I made some remarks to my friend along these lines, and advocating for picking books for the kiddos to read that are Not So Old — more like the kind of Old Charlotte’s Web and Bridge to Terabithia were when we were kids, vs. 40-50 years further down the path. I specifically name checked Jason Reynolds’ Long Way Down and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, which would bear roughly (very roughly) the same relationship in time to Kids These Days as Charlotte’s Web and Bridge to Terabithia would have to us.

In the ensuing discussion, my friend asked, “ But how exactly does not getting the cultural references keep kids from learning how to read? As opposed to enjoying or understanding a given book?“

I don’t know that I gave a great answer to that question, because it’s one of those questions that strikes so completely to the heart of the matter. I mean, how can you read, if you don’t understand? You _can_ read what you don’t enjoy — it’s hard, and it’s marginally easier if you at least have some emotional energy. Like, it’s easier to hate read than it is to words-on-a-page-read. I didn’t really fully grasp that until the whole thing happened with Reflections on the Revolution in France (recap: the only book that reliably put me to sleep until one night it didn’t and I’ve been mad at Edmund Burke — like, _hot_ mad, heart rate speeds up, voice gets loud, shaky finger, red in the face want to hurt people who argue with me about it mad — ever since. When it was boring, it was unreadable; when I was mad at it, it went fast.).

But if you don’t understand what is being referred to, you can decode, you can read aloud, but you won’t understand it, even if you memorize it and can recall and repeat phrases in response to triggers. I’m not sure what the point of education is if you are having kids read what they don’t understand and then not devoting adequate instructional time to explain all of it to them in a way that they _can_ understand. It _seems_ like it would be easier to just pick a book that is material they _can understand_.

[Kid homework interruptions have peaked; I’ll be back.

They’re making the kids pick between Sherman Alexie part time indian, Coelho’s alchemist, and John Knowles A Separate Peace. *sigh*]

After trying (and probably failing) to explain the importance of relatability / comprehensibility to readers who are still learning to read and advancing in their development as readers (as opposed to most of us adults who are coasting), I then pointed to a reddit thread about using audiobooks to help kids with reading. I had noticed that at least at some points, the school provided access to audiobooks for the kids through Sora (sp?), and it really seemed to help my daughter a lot. I know plenty of adults — many through my book group — who primarily engage with books through audiobooks for a variety of reasons, and they get different things from the experience than many who read the words on the page and do not listen to it out loud. The sound qualities of written language are important.

https://www.reddit.com/r/teaching/comments/140e8x/english_teachers_what_do_you_think_about_students/

“In my honors class, I realized that some of my students had been looking for audiobook version of their books. I do not read to them because I expect them to read outside of class so we can discuss during class. I never really minded but I'm starting to think whether it's a good idea. I mean, eventually, they should read on their own because they won't have read aloud in tests/real life, etc. However, since they're reading outside of class...I can't really enforce the no audiobooks rule...”

This is clearly a good english teacher, meeting the students where they are. But despite that, this is an english teacher lacking an organized way of thinking about the sonic qualities of written language, and instead defaulting to some super fucked up Must Consume Without Subvocalizing perspective on written language.

I mean, just fucking think about _that_ for a minute.

There’s a comment in the thread:

“I started my school year with Huck Finn, which my juniors found impossible at first. Eventually one confessed that she was listening to audiobooks on YouTube to pass quizzes. At first I was upset then I realized that the the essentials of the lessons were still there. I do discussion questions that require them to cite quotations from the text so they still have to read the actual novel in class or at home.” (And a reply to this comment that made me go, and this is why you shouldn’t be assigning Huck Finn any more, but never mind that now.)

Huck Finn is _really_ astonishing to want to suppress listening to, given that the typical way to consume Huck Finn when it first came out would have been in a family read aloud circle. You know, the way all 19th century novels were meant to be consumed.

All right. Next.

Back to that original reddit. Comments about military recruitment and the ASVAB / PiCAT. I went looking to find out what was currently on the ASVAB, since I haven’t engaged with that test since I took it in the mid-1980s. There is a word knowledge component. There are quizlets to help people study for the word knowledge component. And there are just crazy words in there — veracious (not voracious, veracious), limpid, dulcet, inamorata, mulct.

Yes, mulct.

I’m a descriptivist, not a prescriptivist. Mulct is in the dictionary with a primary definition (fine or tax or some weird hybrid of the two if you are in Iowa) and a secondary definition (swindle or defraud). However, outside of Chapter 99 of Iowa’s legal code, and a few weirdo jurists in Ohio and similar, nobody uses this word. I have _one_ friend who knew the word, and she _only_ knew the “secondary” definition. The “secondary” definition is not in my copy of the 2 vol plus supplement of the OED (yes, both definitions are in the current OED). To me, this says this isn’t a word anyone is using, and google ngrams agrees. Is fleshment a word? No, no it is not. Same reasons. It’s in Shakespeare, but no one is using it any more, and no one really has for over a hundred years.

So, why would you put mulct on a word knowledge test for military recruits? I get that part of what you are sorting for in the military is someone who will put up with your arbitrary bullshit, but shouldn’t it be _the arbitrary bullshit you want them to put up with_? Isn’t this a waste of everyone’s time and energy? In the meantime, the economy is booming, and a lot of the people who have the choice of memorizing a word list that includes dulcet, limpid and inamorata or getting a job at Amazon are going to choose door number two.

I used to just be mad about still teaching cursive (and when I was a kid, not letting me type my homework), and not letting kids use calculators. This round of listening to a friend worrying about whether Kids These Days are Learning Enough, combined with the teachers pissing and moaning about how everyone is on their phone all the time, and the military recruiters saying nobody knows any words any more is just making me feel total despair. Not at the kids. The kids are fine.

But the current crop of adults — you know, my peers, plus or minus — I’m kinda worried about us. We are terrible.

In the end tho, the correct target is standardized curricula and testing. If you standardize, it’s a fucking PITA to do updates. So you don’t. Because it’s easier not to. And the next thing you know, you’ve got tenth graders that can’t make any sense out of Charlotte’s Web, and their teachers who haven’t stopped to ask themselves the most basic questions like,

Why is the Arable family setting the table for breakfast?
How does the Arable family have time to start to kill a runty pig, decide not to, find a bottle and a nipple and feed the pig, in the half hour between breakfast and the arrival of the school bus? How is there a _half hour_ between breakfast and the school bus_?
Why are there so many weapons before breakfast (ax, air rifle, wooden dagger, at a minimum, in the first three pages)?
How come I never noticed the pun in the family’s last name?

I’ve been asking around, and remember, I’m Old. No one I know knows anyone who ever set any table ever for breakfast, even on those rare occasions when more than one person was eating the same breakfast at the same time. Whatever is going on in this book might as well be happening on Mars, with a bunch of visitors from Venus, because it’s completely unrelatable.

TL;DR If a teacher posting on reddit won’t shut up about how her husband is homeschooling their kid, and whining about how awful their school district is, they are probably Doing It Wrong, whatever Doing, It and Wrong might mean.

Also, read whatever you want, and don’t make other people read stuff they don’t want to. Life is short, and learning is too important to waste valuable curiosity and cognitive energy on useless garbage.

ETA: For reference purposes, that chat I was having with a friend about the standardized tests and so forth? That was a _chat between two national merit scholars_. Not fucking honorable mentions. _Scholars_. It’s not like we’re bad at the standardized test taking.

ETAYA: The friend who knew a definition of mulct reads 19th century novels by preference — that’s actually how we originally got to know each other, was reviews of obscure 19th century novelists and their work. I was not especially surprised that she knew the word.

Guess what we did over the holidays.

I’ll catch up on blogging over the next few days. I’ve been doing laundry and while I loved a lot of how I packed over this trip, as always, I have some Refinements to Make.

Also, the Jettle arrived, a small electric kettle disguised cleverly as a portable beverage container. It’s pretty awesome, altho thermopen says that when you program it for 158 you get 150; I’ll do some more checking later so I know what I’m getting based on what it is programmed for. If this thing doesn’t die on me, I may be able to have truly excellent pour over coffee and/or black tea while traveling, even if I’m staying in a room that does not supply me with anything genuinely helpful in accomplishing that goal. I’m a little unclear on whether this thing is TSA compliant. I assume it is? But I should probably check.

ETA: According to this, it should be fine:

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/tea-kettle

ETAYA:

I spent a ludicrous amount of time today shopping for various things for the next / future trips to WDW and elsewhere. I really liked the Universal Studios 10x10 mini messenger bag as a theme park bag, especially along with the packable backpack which helped with clothing overflow. The messenger bag is big enough for umbrellas and water bottles and has various padded sections. I am really pretty upset about how badly my ancient DVC backpack performed on this trip. The zippers opened up on me and dumped stuff out while in the airport. The water bottles I use now are smaller than the mesh side water bottle holders (which are generously sized for Nalgene type bottles, which I no longer use), so those got dumped out, too. On the good side, there’s no stray metal in the DVC backpack to set off alarms. But dumping the contents of the things in the side compartments AND the main compartment is a bit much. I can adapt to the zipper problem (by leaving the zippers parked all the way to one side) but I don’t particularly want to because I like opening a pack at the top. So I looked at a bunch of options online and then impulsively purchased something Ahsoka themed at Heroes and Villains. We’ll see how that goes. I’m going to aggressively track it this time and complain early if it is slow to arrive. There is no reward for patience when it comes to e-commerce from specialty websites.

Then I spent a ridiculous amount of time Once Again shopping for a main bag. I used an ancient small rolling duffel that I bought probably a decade ago to bring souvenirs home in from WDW. The wheels are not bad, and the bag itself is very light, but the handle is too short; it is uncomfortable to use. I love the bag I bought for A. (travelpro compact carryon hardside I think it’s the Lite or something like that) and I was tempted to buy a duplicate for myself, but in the end, I have ordered a different Travelpro (in imperial purple, instead of orchid purple pink) that is softsided and somewhat lighter. If the specifications are to be believed, it is lighter than A.’s American Tourister underseater, that I have occasionally used and might have used this trip except I found that rolling duffel in basement and decided to try it out. A. is able to manage her own spinner and luggage-sleeve-attached-bag-on-top part of the time; if she’s overwhelmed, she can’t. ETA: If I have a nearly-identical height/behavior luggage setup, I am hoping I can manage both without stress (other than on escalators, but if A. is having a meltdown, I could just do elevators with her). The rolling duffel plus A.’s stack have a big enough height difference that it is a problem.

If the Imperial Purple does not come back into stock, I will probably buy the same bag in a different color; the style I picked has the magnatrac wheels and I kinda want to try those out and see if they are actually different.

ETA:

In addition to backpack / main bag shopping, I also ordered a couple of knock-off bandolier style phone holders. This is really -specifically- for UO, because they really want all your crap in the locker and then not having your phone while in line is a problem, and A. worries (correctly) about phone in shorts pocket falling out on the ride. I have a travel vest with zip pockets that fixes this mostly, but I fucking hate the vest, because I bought the lightest scottevest, it has too many of the wrong type of pockets, I don’t like the color (because it shows dirt very quickly), I tend to put it on inside out and then not understand why the pockets are in the wrong spot, and it is the wrong size, because while scottevest makes many of their vests in a really wide range, this particular one they do not. Obviously, the entire shopping day started with trying to fix _this_ problem, but I will not know if I succeeded until the vest I ordered arrives (far fewer pockets, a much prettier color, probably slightly too big if anything, _which is good_ in a layering piece) and if that vest does not work I am very uncertain what my second choice vest would be (I do not really want to pay scottevest prices for the men’s version of the lightweight vest because that won’t fix any of the myriad problems I have with it other than size and honestly might not fix the size problem either).

I also ran across some bonne maman single serve squeezers in a reasonable quantity, so I ordered those. I did the GG order for the next trip. I ordered some replacement slides for ones that are quite worn, and a new pair of Propets for A.

Finally, and honestly, I’m still not sure entirely why, I decided that as long as I am fixing every other problem associated with packing for complicated travel, I might as well fix the Purse for Going Out to Dinner Problem. I checked Nordstrom’s for what the current Look is, and learned a new word: Minaudiere. I am not packing a Minaudiere. Come on. So I gave up on any current Look, and went for, floppy and soft for maximum packability, with extra consideration given to any solution that is supposed to wrinkle on the theory that will camouflage packing related wrinkles. And that’s how I learned about Japanese Knot Bags. I got a really pretty one that had a color name of “Brown”, but it looks lustrously bronze to me; we’ll see what it’s like in real life when it arrives.

We were in Seattle for a visit, first time since 2017. So. Much. Fun. However, now I have to catch up on blogging. And other stuff (laundry mostly done).

Completely unrelated to anything, other than that I was catching up on email and saw that CSPI had a campaign out involving Culver’s, which I had never heard of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culver%27s

Midwestern chain, around since 1984, in 26 states mostly in the Midwest (which is why I am ignorant). Very. Very. Very. Dairy.

ETA: OK, I think I am caught up! If you feel slighted because I failed to include something that you want Documented Forever, let me know!

We met up with over 30 different friends and family. The biggest group was the Tuesday Din Tai Fung outing; the second biggest was the birthday at Din Tai Fung. I was lucky enough to see several people 2 or 3 different times. Words are what I have, but they feel somehow inadequate to express my gratitude for the many, many, many wonderful people I have in my life who are not only willing to see me when I’ve been absent so long, but who always pick up the conversation as if the gap had been hours or days instead of months. I will do my very best to come back next summer.

Also, so grateful and happy because of all those wonderful hugs. Thank you!

No, I have not been traveling. We all have covid. I’ll catch up soon.

I cooked the mushrooms today. I also made mushroom stock. And I took some nearly overripe bananas and combined them with melted chocolate and put that in the freezer. With temps like these, frozen dessert is definitely called for.

I cubed and airfryered the skinny eggplants today, because they are already getting wiggly. I had another heat-and-eat for dinner. We made the tamarind pollock with green beans and pickled jalapeno with rice from sunbasket for lunch. That was pretty good.

I cooked the chicken tenders from Lilac Hedge in the countertop oven. I moved it to the broiler for the last 10 degrees; I should have done that for the last 20 degrees. Boy, A. really loved them tho.
She did her summer day camp today. She’s also continuing to listen to audiobooks.

Walden arrived today. R. is far enough along that he is allowed to go to the store as long as he wears a mask, so he replenished yogurt, juice, american cheese, bread and english muffins, spread — Roche Bros. stuff.

Another order of necklace extenders and clasps arrived, so I got the lizard link anklet repaired and wearable, another beaded necklace wearable, and the leaf link necklace wearable. I’m eying those necklace layering devices. I found a hilarious review online that complained about how that does not prevent tangling when you wear the three necklaces overnight. !!! No one mentioned not to wear them to bed, so she figures this is fair. I’m like, plausible, also, risible. It’s super easy to take off; why would you wear it while sleeping.

I haven’t ordered one, but I am thinking about it.

ETA: Yeah, no. Never mind.

Anyway. Fever came down around midnight (early morning this day). It has not returned and as long as nothing weird happens, I’m allowed to go out starting the 23rd, according to current CDC guidelines.

Also, I had A. take a covid test. It took 45 seconds for the T line to pop and another 45 for the C line to pop. That is most definitely a positive (it was exactly the same at 15 minutes).

Canceled phone calls with J. and I. because limited voice.

For February vacation week, we and two other families met in Orlando and had a very, very enjoyable vacation! I will be doing backdated blog entries for the trip hopefully Very Soon Now (altho I’m currently getting a play by play on a text exchange my daughter is having with a friend who was also on the trip, so who knows whether I can even focus).

It’s a beautiful day and the snow is melting. I walked with M. I have been ordering Things. I will update soon.

At the end of 2019, I was coming off some glorious celebrations of turning 50, and my retirement being officially Old Enough to Drink. I had spent a lot of the year trying to distract people from things they couldn’t really do anything about.

In some ways, 2020 was more of the same. Still a whole lot of awful out there (some of the same awful, and some new awful). Still only a limited amount we can do about it. But there were some real changes in 2020.

During the summer of 2020, white people finally had that moment where they went, oh, hey, this is real. Police brutality is real. Racism is real. Structural racism is a real thing. It has been an awful year, and this moment may still be forgotten, but the moment happened, and it was pretty amazing. My particular set of actions as a direct result of the moment was to go: okay, can’t really directly participate in the protests, so who can I give money to? And I found really incredible organizations, doing incredibly fantastic work, to give money to.

If, as part of the end of the year, you give money, here are some of the organizations I found:

NAACP LDF
WeTheProtesters
Center for Policing Equity
UFW Foundation

There are a lot more out there; it is not hard to find ones that align with your personal philanthropic values / mission.

If, like me, you have spent the year enjoying a lot of great food, whether cooked at home or takeout, but have come to realize that a lot of people have not been so lucky, you may also want to direct charitable donations to your local food bank. If you are not sure what to give as a gift on some occasion, you might give in the name of your loved one; many food banks will send a card to the person in whose name you have donated, and you can do all of it, safely, online.

For many years, I have sustained distant friendships via regularly scheduled phone conversations. This year, my book group (which I still attended in Mayberry (not its real name) in person through February) moved online. I started a weekly cocktail party. I participate in a weekly Family Zoom for my MIL. I participate in an irregular Mom’s Zoom. For me, the end of most in-person socializing has enriched my connections with distant loved ones. But after 9 months, I can still vividly remember the last person I hugged outside my immediate family, and the two people who are regular visitors in our home. I tell my loved ones _that I love them_, and I do it often. It can be a little weird, if this is not already your habit, but I urge you to start that habit. Today. Tonight. And every day.

Every year gives, and every year takes away. This particular year has insisted that we acknowledge the cost of every year. Let us fully experience reverence for the opportunity to experience another New Year.

I am going to be doing a fair amount of posting about Education / Planning for the Fall. I apologize! First, this is going to be an unholy amount of words. Second, it is all going to be wrong and, probably, irrelevant, possibly within days.

I will attempt to label every post on this top EPftF. Hopefully, that will make you giggle. Also, you can more easily avoid those posts.

ETAYA: I want to be super clear here. This is all very rough draft. The reason I have not linked to articles I mention in the posts is because I was too busy dumping what was frothing around in my brain out to be bothered to go track down the links. I may or may not go back and fix that later. Along with what I am sure are other boneheaded lapses of thought, argument, factual errors, etc.

ETA: The Posts So Far

Behavior Kids Conundrum. Or Synecdoche.

Testing Characteristics

Testing Purposes

Interpreting Testing

Despair

Acceptance of Reality and Flexible Commitment

In Person Schooling

Putting It All Together

I took T. to the trail for the last track for fall. I would normally have walked it with B., however, both B. and I have colds and were not feeling it. So we said hi in the parking lot and that was that — no point risking swapping different viruses by sharing a car and chatting.

I ordered a sunbasket. We had the seed crusted halibut (salmon in the original recipe). I really like the whisky spice walnuts I got as a snack. And the roasted red pepper hummus is tasty. I was spared an outing to the grocery store because it arrived before dinner. Yay! Maybe I will go tomorrow.

I put away the laundry from the trip this morning (T. helped some).

A. finally got a shower.

ETA: I will be doing catch up blogging for the next day or so for the trip