Hamster Birthday and other random things

I was just reading my post from last year, and apparently Charlie's hamster Ludo was born one year ago. Which I guess means he may be approaching the end of his life cycle, but I had a gerbil who lived for close to 4 years, so I won't get too worried yet.

I find it amusing that the wankiest community I read tends to be the Buddhist community. Weird, no?

In cute Charlie news, he's been 'learning' Chinese. We like to go to this Chinese/Japanese resturant in town - excellent food, not expensive, and fabulous service, and one day Charlie asked the server how to say 'hello' in Chinese. She told him, and he repeated it, and he has such a good ear that apparently he said it without a trace of accent, because she was impressed. Every time we go there Charlie will ask how to say something, and she is happy to oblige. I think she finds it cute.

We went last night and Charlie said 'hello' to her when we came in as well as 'thank you' when she brought our food. It was very cute. And asked how to say 'you're welcome.'

And that's all I got for now.

Hamster Birthday and other random things

I was just reading my post from last year, and apparently Charlie's hamster Ludo was born one year ago. Which I guess means he may be approaching the end of his life cycle, but I had a gerbil who lived for close to 4 years, so I won't get too worried yet.

I find it amusing that the wankiest community I read tends to be the Buddhist community. Weird, no?

In cute Charlie news, he's been 'learning' Chinese. We like to go to this Chinese/Japanese resturant in town - excellent food, not expensive, and fabulous service, and one day Charlie asked the server how to say 'hello' in Chinese. She told him, and he repeated it, and he has such a good ear that apparently he said it without a trace of accent, because she was impressed. Every time we go there Charlie will ask how to say something, and she is happy to oblige. I think she finds it cute.

We went last night and Charlie said 'hello' to her when we came in as well as 'thank you' when she brought our food. It was very cute. And asked how to say 'you're welcome.'

And that's all I got for now.

For the parents of Autistic Children

I've just gotten a new friend who's son just got the PDD diagnosis, and she is, naturally, dealing with quite a bit of emotion right now. It made me think back to when Charlie got his diagnosis, and I thought I'd share it here, and am asking those of you with Autistic children (or family members) to share your stories as well. It might make her feel a little better.

( my story )

For the parents of Autistic Children

I've just gotten a new friend who's son just got the PDD diagnosis, and she is, naturally, dealing with quite a bit of emotion right now. It made me think back to when Charlie got his diagnosis, and I thought I'd share it here, and am asking those of you with Autistic children (or family members) to share your stories as well. It might make her feel a little better.

( my story )

I'm a white male aged 18-35. Everyone listens to me. - Homer Simpso

It's blog against racism week, according to slammerkinbabe and october31st, and both of them wrote really fantastic entries on this already, so I'm going to keep mine simple, and just tell a story.

My father was born in 1940, and had grown up in a working class neighborhood right outside of Philadelphia. my mother, born in 1944, grew up in the more upper-middle class neighborhoods of Haddonfield and Cherry Hill. I mention this only to point out that they came from a time and place where racism was more likely to be expected, yet neither of them ever exhibited that overt racism that some of our neighbors, their contemporaries did.

Oh, there was some prejudice; you know, of the 'some of my best friends are black' variety, but they did the best they could, and certainly made it plain to us that hating someone because of the way they look was not on.

While I was growing up the television was full of people pointing out how we should all clasp hands in brotherhood and friendship. Heck, Pa Ingalls probably did it once a week. My parents, as I said, didn't raise us to judge a person by his race. My mother marched for civil rights, even. It was The Age of Aquarius, for heaven's sake. People didn't do that sort of thing anymore, I thought. I grew up believing that.

And now I'd like to believe that in this internet age we really stop worrying about what people look like as we build these online friendships where the only black and white involved is the page color and fonts.

Mostly what I'd like to believe is that, despite the prejudice that was lurking on the edges of my childhood, I have grown up 100% free of any prejudice, but I doubt it.

When I was around 6 years old, I remember going to the mall with some of the neighborhood kids. I think we might have been going to see a movie or something, I can't remember. We were in a department store arguing over who got to sit in the bean bag chair that was on display. I lost, and wandered away, feeling sorry for myself. A few minutes later my friend came back and told me I could sit in the chair because she didn't want to any more, because some black kid sat in it.

I honestly couldn't understand what she was talking about, but I remember feeling hurt because she implied it was okay that I was exposed to whatever it was she was afraid she would be exposed to. I had no idea why it was bad that a black kid sat on the chair, but I understood that it was bad, and it worried me.

I didn't sit on the chair.

I'm a white male aged 18-35. Everyone listens to me. - Homer Simpso

It's blog against racism week, according to slammerkinbabe and october31st, and both of them wrote really fantastic entries on this already, so I'm going to keep mine simple, and just tell a story.

My father was born in 1940, and had grown up in a working class neighborhood right outside of Philadelphia. my mother, born in 1944, grew up in the more upper-middle class neighborhoods of Haddonfield and Cherry Hill. I mention this only to point out that they came from a time and place where racism was more likely to be expected, yet neither of them ever exhibited that overt racism that some of our neighbors, their contemporaries did.

Oh, there was some prejudice; you know, of the 'some of my best friends are black' variety, but they did the best they could, and certainly made it plain to us that hating someone because of the way they look was not on.

While I was growing up the television was full of people pointing out how we should all clasp hands in brotherhood and friendship. Heck, Pa Ingalls probably did it once a week. My parents, as I said, didn't raise us to judge a person by his race. My mother marched for civil rights, even. It was The Age of Aquarius, for heaven's sake. People didn't do that sort of thing anymore, I thought. I grew up believing that.

And now I'd like to believe that in this internet age we really stop worrying about what people look like as we build these online friendships where the only black and white involved is the page color and fonts.

Mostly what I'd like to believe is that, despite the prejudice that was lurking on the edges of my childhood, I have grown up 100% free of any prejudice, but I doubt it.

When I was around 6 years old, I remember going to the mall with some of the neighborhood kids. I think we might have been going to see a movie or something, I can't remember. We were in a department store arguing over who got to sit in the bean bag chair that was on display. I lost, and wandered away, feeling sorry for myself. A few minutes later my friend came back and told me I could sit in the chair because she didn't want to any more, because some black kid sat in it.

I honestly couldn't understand what she was talking about, but I remember feeling hurt because she implied it was okay that I was exposed to whatever it was she was afraid she would be exposed to. I had no idea why it was bad that a black kid sat on the chair, but I understood that it was bad, and it worried me.

I didn't sit on the chair.

Thanks for doing your part, you sure are smart.

Charlie is going through a thing. Not quite sure what it is. He's been watching some kids shows 'on demand' on COmcast, and one of the shows they currently have is the last episode of Blue's Clues with Steve.

Charlie loved Blue's Clues as toddler - it was his generation's show, after all. My friend and I would often discuss the merits of Steve as a host, and agreed he was made of awesome because he was goofy without being a moron and never talked down to the children. He was obviously the kind of guy who 'got' kids. I like any show that a parent can actually sit through and mildly enjoy without wantin to tear out one's eyes by the end of it.

Anyway, Steve left the show in 2001, and by then Charlie'd moved on to The Wiggles. We still watched the many videos we had of Blue's Clues but we'd moved on. Besides I didn't like Joe nearly as much.

So now Charlie is watching this last episode and it makes him cry. Every time he watches it. And he's not faking it, either. He cries. We haven't had any major losses in our family recently, so I'm not sure why he's feeling this pretend one so keenly, but he is. Thank goodness for videos.

Meanwhile, I looked Steve up on the good ol' interweb to see what he's been up to. I listened to some of his songs. They're pretty good.

I also had Charlie send him an email because I thought it might make him feel better to say 'hi' to Steve.

So. Childhood TV show. What was it? What show, if you saw it again, would transport you back to your happy place?

Thanks for doing your part, you sure are smart.

Charlie is going through a thing. Not quite sure what it is. He's been watching some kids shows 'on demand' on COmcast, and one of the shows they currently have is the last episode of Blue's Clues with Steve.

Charlie loved Blue's Clues as toddler - it was his generation's show, after all. My friend and I would often discuss the merits of Steve as a host, and agreed he was made of awesome because he was goofy without being a moron and never talked down to the children. He was obviously the kind of guy who 'got' kids. I like any show that a parent can actually sit through and mildly enjoy without wantin to tear out one's eyes by the end of it.

Anyway, Steve left the show in 2001, and by then Charlie'd moved on to The Wiggles. We still watched the many videos we had of Blue's Clues but we'd moved on. Besides I didn't like Joe nearly as much.

So now Charlie is watching this last episode and it makes him cry. Every time he watches it. And he's not faking it, either. He cries. We haven't had any major losses in our family recently, so I'm not sure why he's feeling this pretend one so keenly, but he is. Thank goodness for videos.

Meanwhile, I looked Steve up on the good ol' interweb to see what he's been up to. I listened to some of his songs. They're pretty good.

I also had Charlie send him an email because I thought it might make him feel better to say 'hi' to Steve.

So. Childhood TV show. What was it? What show, if you saw it again, would transport you back to your happy place?