Day: August 10, 2006

The Carrot and The Stick

By / August 10, 2006 / 6 Comments

Tonight I’m thinking of another donkey. This one doesn’t have a story really, not like the other one. This one is just stubborn. There are two ways to get the donkey to move. One is to hang a carrot in front of it, thus enticing it to move forward. The other is to threaten it with a stick so that it moves to avoid pain. These same motivational strategies will work on people too. It’s just that for people you don’t usually employ actual carrots or sticks.

Monday’s confrontation with Gleek did not solve the bedtime problem. We have continued to have nightly struggles with keeping her in bed. Tonight she and I discussed it, she told me she would be good, I said “remember” right as I walked out the door. Within 3 minutes she was out of bed and opening her door. The agreed upon consequence for breaking bedtime rules is that I take her security blanket. I had to do it last night and was then awakened at 2 am by a disoriented and inconsolable Gleek sleepwalking to find her blanket. Not something to which I wanted I want to subject either of us again. But she’d been out of bed. So I took the blanket and told her that if she could lie very still for 10 minutes, I would bring it back. She lay very still. She lay so still that she was asleep before the time was up.

Aha! I think. Finally something that works.

It works because there was a carrot. I’ve been trying to solve this problem with applications of bigger, scarier sticks. Not once have I introduced a reward for good behavior. DOH!

Lying still in a dark room with no people in it, is torture to Gleek. It is so much like torture that the only sticks which might outweigh it are the big ugly ones that I won’t use. All I need to do is find a stick-and-carrot combination that is sufficiently motivating for her. Emphasis on the carrots.

24 the TV series

By / August 10, 2006 / 22 Comments

Last week Howard and I finally rented 24 Season one disc 1 from Blockbuster. We were fascinated and enthralled. It was compelling. We had to wait to get our hands on disc 2. After watching disc 2 both Howard and I have decided that we don’t need to watch any more of it. The concept is fascinating, but the whole show is about tension. Each episode was a cliff hanger and none of them had any resolution to them at all. There was never anything happy to any of the episodes. That is as untrue to life as a happy feel-good show. I much prefer shows that are a mixture of happy and painful. Because life is like that.

Once I decided not to finish the series I went online and read a bunch of spoilers. Apparently Howard and I have already watched the best of the series. Later it devolves into soap operaesque contortions to keep the plots tense. The one plot thread I’d like to know the end to, which I couldn’t find anywhere, is about David Palmer presidential candidate. Does he eventually tell the truth to the public and how does that work out for him and his family? I think that he’s president in season 2, so it can’t have gone too badly. It was the only plotline that didn’t involve gunfire and the only one that no one cared enough to talk about.

Things I crossed off my list

By / August 10, 2006 / 18 Comments

Last night I created a dolist for today which seemed overwhelming. Now all of the things are done and I still have day left. I’m still not sure how that happened. The list follows with a brief description for each item.

Call Link’s school about his teacher assignment:
Link has been very vocal about wanting a male teacher this year. I agree that it would probably be a good thing for him. I put in a request last spring stating I felt he would do better in a class with a male teacher. His class assignment arrived yesterday and his teacher is female. I quickly decided that for Link’s sake I can’t let this slide. He needs to know that I will fight for him when the issue is really important. I do not know that he will end up with his class assignment changed, but I do want to understand the class placement system better. Was there a reason that my request was disregarded or was it simple neglect? I called the school this morning and left a message, then I drove by on the chance that someone might be there. It looks like office hours won’t begin until next week, so this item is on hold until then.

Order a new computer: Thank you all for your kind recommendations about which kind of computer works for you. The desktop computer can do everything I need a computer to do. It is also several hundred dollars cheaper than a laptop. For now I’m just replacing the desktop. Perhaps after we’ve presold the next book I’ll feel like we have enough money to spare for me to spend on convenience rather than necessity. All things considered, I’d rather let my kids have lessons than me have a laptop.

Sign up for kids lessons: I’ve been unable to do this because until class assignments arrived, I was uncertain what Gleek’s kindergarten schedule would be. That information arrived yesterday, so today I trotted over the The Little Gym and registered them all. Link is taking an intro to Karate class there. (It is probably generic martial arts introduction rather than Karate, but that’s what they call it.) The other three kids all wanted gymnastics. They’re all in separate classes according to age, which is good. I love the Little Gym. It is a completely non-competitive gymnastics program. The focus is on physical development rather than competition training. I had Kiki in a competition program when she was 6 and neither of us liked it at all.

Drop off a load at the local thrift store drive: I had a pile of stuff taking up space in my house. I loaded it. Drove there. Unloaded it. Now it is gone. Yay!

Buy cases of canned goods at local Case Lot sale: Every August a local grocery store called Macey’s has a case lot sale. They buy tons of food and offer at discount prices. I buy a carload of canned goods each August. Then over the course of the year we gradually use up the food that I bought. It is a great way to save money as long as you have the space to store cases of food. And as long as you actually use the canned goods that you bought.

Answer phone questions from my credit card company: This wasn’t on my list, but it happened anyway. Apparently spending hundreds of dollars on Little Gym, then hundreds more on groceries, and then even more hundreds on a new computer, all within only a few hours raises red flags in the credit card system. It should. Especially since we tend not to spend that way these days. It’s all sorted out and there are no problems.

Lunch is next. After that I’m sure I’ll find something else to do. Preferrably something that doesn’t cost quite so much money. There’s always laundry if I can’t think of anything else.