The Sad Sailor

Published with the kiddo's permission.

The Sad Sailor

I once met a sailor that sailed to sea,

He looked happy in his rich family,

"And how was the voyage, may I ask?"

"My expression is just a mask."

The kiddo wrote this a few days ago. When I asked him what inspired him, he said he just felt like it. He is usually a reluctant writer but when the mood hits him, he'd write something with perfect spelling and punctuation (but not always perfect grammar/ syntax but I won't be picky) and I'd just want to squeeze the breath out of him with hugs :) He has this ongoing Just So Stories-style fables project...gosh you should read those!!

It's days like these that make me feel a lot less worried about not doing any formal writing with him (other days, I'm fretfully eyeing something like Brave Writer or Write With The Best and wondering if I should take the plunge).

He gave me his permission to publish only this piece. He must like it a lot :) Perhaps one day, he'll finish those fables and we could bind them into a book and he'd let me share them here too.

Well, a homeschooling Mom can hope can't she?

Settling Down

This has probably been the longest hiatus I've taken from blogging since I began this blog. My days have been so full and I've missed reading what my other blogging friends have been up to. So if you haven't heard from me I hope you'll at least know you've been in my thoughts :)

So...since our move on the July 18 weekend, about 75% of the boxes are still unpacked and I honestly can't remember what has taken me so long to get to them (sheepish grin). I know that I am waking up a lot earlier than I used to in our old apartment and hitting the sack a little before midnight so that I can get my minimum 6+ hours of sleep. And what do I have to show for it? Scores of unpacked boxes still lying in the garage.

The garage. Oh let me tell you how wonderful it is to have one! It's absolute bliss for an old lazy bones like yours truly :) Can't find a place for something? That's what we have the garage for! Can't find time to unpack? Put it in the garage! Out of sight, out of mind. Wonderful stuff garages. They should let you have more of them LOL.

The kiddo has been happily devouring more of the Horrible Books and we've had a steady stream of unbridled (and often uncalled for) narration (with the frequent gory details thrown in) about this disease or that unhappy British royalty. But happiest (for me) of all is that the kiddo is at last getting to experience stuff I had really wanted him to...like mowing the lawn (or rather literally following Dad about like a puppy while Dad mows the lawn) and watering the very thirsty garlic we have growing in every corner of the yard. He's helped his Dad fix the outdoor grill (mainly cos Mom needs to cook outdoors now to save our off white carpets from the rather heady mix of curry powders and spices Malaysian Indians tend to favor in their cooking, but Mom's not complaining, not now anyway, since she gets such a cool view of the pool while doing it but ask me again come winter time).

Other simple pleasures we're enjoying are sun-dried clothes (one of the few advantages of living in an area where 100+ degrees weather is a norm) and of course the lovely pool the previous owners put in.

And with that I'll leave you to peek at the photos.

Top Left: Helping his Dad to fix the grill. Top Right: Horrible giggling fits.
Mid Left: Kiddo's been having a sudden obsession with crossword puzzles.
Mid Right: Preparing his own yogurt parfait cos Mom was too busy.
Bottom Left: "Mom, I'm bored." "Go teach yourself chess." LOL. But seriously, he actually prefers the computer version now. Bottom Right: Helping Dad smooth out kinks in the extension cord.

Come first week of August, I'll have to get my act together and unpack (all our books are in those unopened boxes!) and devise some sort of a rough plan in time for school. For now, I'm just so glad it's the weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to cajole the hubby into considering an investment in more bookshelves.

We've Moved!

We finally made it and I must say it was a pretty smooth move all things considered (like the 55-mile distance and 100+ degree weather).

At least stuff-wise, I've achieved some semblance of order. The books are still in the boxes since we don't have the shelf space for them yet but most of the kitchen stuff, clothes and things you would normally put in the garage, have been unpacked.

Kiddo-wise, I feel like he's learnt a lot more being left to his own devices these past 2 weeks than with the usual structured sort of way that I try to approach our lessons. He got pretty immersed in the Horrible Science series during the move (yes, I bribed him in return for some peace and quiet, I readily admit) that his addiction to the books got rather scary so to wean him off, I gave him the pile of newspapers our sellers subscribed to. He's having fun right now filling up a crossword puzzle (and asking me 9 times out of 10 if we can google for the answers LOL). But it's heartwarming to see how much he already knows that I cannot take credit for.

Schedule-wise, we have many changes coming our way. One good thing is that most places are within 5-8 miles of each other in our new home town so it doesn't take me a whole day to get outdoorsy stuff done. The possibly inconvenient thing is that we've decided to put off getting a second car for now. The hubby has a long commute to San Jose for work so I'll need to get resourceful with using public transport again. But I don't think that'll be too bad (unless we have too many heatwaves like the one we did on moving week).

Taking the bus has lots of benefits. When we first moved to San Jose from Singapore, I still wasn't driving so the kiddo and I would take buses everywhere and that helped us quickly familiarize ourselves with the streets and important places. All that time together waiting for the bus--without the computer in front of me--also usually results in long discussions with the kiddo about all the stuff he likes or wants to find out. And the kiddo gets to practice his social skills a lot on the bus too :) AND, we save money. LOL. Yes, I need all the advantages I can think of to stop myself from complaining about waiting for a bus under the migraine-inducing weather here.

I hope to blog more once I find the time. It feels lovely having our own home at last but at the same time I'm filled with apprehension that I won't do a good job keeping it clean (we have off-white carpets and cream-colored fabric blinds that came with the house!) and well-maintained. I'll probably grow out of this worry soon but for now it's an overwhelming feeling especially considering how much more space we have now and how much further I have to walk and climb to reach and clean the space. And how often the neighbors are reminding me that the previous owners took impeccable care of the house. Aaaah me poor back!

But I think it's all worth it. We are fortunate indeed to have a great house and neighborhood to call home. I am so grateful and humbled that we have this opportunity. And I want to warmly thank everyone who showered me with good wishes. You guys are the greatest :)

We're Moving!

When I left Kuala Lumpur in 1993 to pursue my undergrad studies in Penang (about 4 hrs up north by car if you ignore speed limits), I didn't realize that I'd be living in rented rooms and apartments the size of shoe boxes for the next 16 years.

Apart from the 6 years we lived in Singapore, most of the places we rented were very much on the small side and that always left me clamoring for space. But there were positives too: less cleaning time and heightened intuition on how to make the most of nooks and crannies LOL.

Now, it's confirmed. We're moving. To Tracy. Not exactly a very popular choice with Bay Area folks due to the 1hr-1.5hr commute to the Silicon Valley. But very much kinder on our wallets with a lot more space to indulge book collecting habits. And a yard! Yippee!

We had a longer escrow to deal with and there were some bumps along the way so I didn't allow myself to get too happy just in case we needed to drop out of the deal again. But it now seems that the way is clear and if all continues to go well, we should be moving sometime around the coming weekend. :)

I can't believe that packing boxes cost what they do over here. We used to be able to get them free very easily from grocery stores back in Malaysia and Singapore. If you are planning to get boxes, I found that U-Haul offers them a lot cheaper than many other places we looked. Or, just save all the old boxes you can; Our bookshelves looking the barest they have been for many years; Everything that can't be put in boxes finds a place at our dining table.

If you know me from the several lists I frequent or as a follower of your blog and have been wondering why I haven't had a chance to say hi for a while, it's because I've been packing. It feels odd to look at bare bookshelves. And the boxes are gradually robbing my already dark apartment of the little light we get. But it's all good.

The house we're moving to already feels like a home thanks to the great job the previous owners have done keeping it well maintained. I can't wait to begin unpacking and settling in. Perhaps I'll even be efficient enough to set up a little school room or school corner so that there will be a little less insanity each time we have company.

I'll share photos when I'm done :)

An Unschooled Summer

Last year, we began DS's Year 1 school year in June. The reason was mainly due to a loooong break we'd taken from about March till May. The previous January and February--after a nice long Christmas break with my sister here--hadn't been what I would call very productive either. So I got all gung-ho and prepared and excited about doing school "properly" in June.

This year, we've just decided to have a quiet, unschooly summer. It wasn't meant that way really. I had prepared a sort of a plan to get some stuff (read: our Ancient Egypt studies) wrapped up. And I had one or two online subscriptions that I had wanted DS to spend more time on (read: to assuage my guilt for paying for these programs). But it just so happened that DH had a shutdown and that of course means no "school" school gets done. Add to the fact that DS and I both succumbed to a very mind and body-numbing flu (hence, the lack of posts lately) and of course, preparing for our move (more in post to follow).

So we've just been having a nice, lazy summer filled with many unexpected learning opportunities and constant reminding of how much I'm learning with and from my rapidly growing young son. He's been filling his head on his own with lots of books as usual...everything from Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes to a Chess manual and the math workbooks he adores. There's been lots of voluntary writing and doodling and journaling going on too and to keep it voluntary I've promised not to examine too much of what he's been writing and recording. He's also managed to complete two weeks of Schmahl Science camps where he obviously had a blast despite missing almost half the camp due to the flu.

Before the both of us fell ill, DS and I had an exciting week of Classic Science (Life), learning about recycling and why we do it. We recycled paper from our shredder, which turned out a lot prettier than what I expected and a little uglier than what he wanted LOL:

Clockwise from top left: Soaking paper in a mixture of water and cornstarch; Spreading blended pulp on a screen; Squeezing water from pulp with waxpaper; Dried and recycled paper sample gets a quality check.

After we got our breath and health back, we returned to one of our favorite regional parks, Coyote Hills, for a rejuvenating walk. I just love this place. You know how some places just can't help bringing a smile to your face? Well Coyote Hills really knows how to tug on my lips and make my heart sing. It's such a pretty, peaceful place to enjoy nature!

Clockwise from top left: We had to constantly keep one hand on our hats, it was just so windy; A beautiful mosaic of colors and textures; The boys bid farewell to tired ol' Mom and take a hike; Fluid perspectives at the marsh.

We've been having fun. And I am very excitedly looking forward to new beginnings coming very soon into our lives.

Hope you have a joyous summer dear reader!

Thinking & Tinkering

My friend Kerrie posted about this great blog for great fun ideas about building stuff and how to be a kid engineer. Thanks Kerrie!

Kids Who Think

Mathematician Cracks 200-year-old Presidential Code

36-year-old Princeton, NJ mathematician, Lawren Smithline, cracked a 200-year-old code given to Thomas Jefferson by his coding enthusiast buddy, Robert Patterson.

DS was intrigued by this and I thought I'd bookmark it here for further reading. We were particularly happy that the article mentioned the Center for Communication Research.

The Wall Street Journal article by Rachel Emma Silverman here:

Two Centuries On, a Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code
Unlocking This Cipher Wasn't Self-Evident; Algorithms
and Educated Guesses

For more than 200 years, buried deep within Thomas Jefferson's correspondence and papers, there lay a mysterious cipher -- a coded message that appears to have remained unsolved. Until now.

The cryptic message was sent to President Jefferson in December 1801 by his friend and frequent correspondent, Robert Patterson, a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. President Jefferson and Mr. Patterson were both officials at the American Philosophical Society -- a group that promoted scholarly research in the sciences and humanities -- and were enthusiasts of ciphers and other codes, regularly exchanging letters about them.

In this message, Mr. Patterson set out to show the president and primary author of the Declaration of Independence what he deemed to be a nearly flawless cipher. "The art of secret writing," or writing in cipher, has "engaged the attention both of the states-man & philosopher for many ages," Mr. Patterson wrote. But, he added, most ciphers fall "far short of perfection."

To Mr. Patterson's view, a perfect code had four properties: It should be adaptable to all languages; it should be simple to learn and memorize; it should be easy to write and to read; and most important of all, "it should be absolutely inscrutable to all unacquainted with the particular key or secret for decyphering."

Mr. Patterson then included in the letter an example of a message in his cipher, one that would be so difficult to decode that it would "defy the united ingenuity of the whole human race," he wrote.

There is no evidence that Jefferson, or anyone else for that matter, ever solved the code. But Jefferson did believe the cipher was so inscrutable that he considered having the State Department use it, and passed it on to the ambassador to France, Robert Livingston.

The cipher finally met its match in Lawren Smithline, a 36-year-old mathematician. Dr. Smithline has a Ph.D. in mathematics and now works professionally with cryptology, or code-breaking, at the Center for Communications Research in Princeton, N.J., a division of the Institute for Defense Analyses. (link mine)

Read more here. And be sure to check out the Interactive Graphics tab for an intriguing look on how one brilliant man coded it and another other solved it.

Another Jefferson-related coding link here.