seven quick takes - ed. 24

1. Last week my Facebook feed was full of news stories about Gaza and ISIS. This week, it's full of articles about Robin Williams.  This one, by Fr. Dwight Longenecker, is probably my favorite: Robin Williams, C.S. Lewis and the Demons that Drove Him.

And for what it's worth, it's okay to feel sad about Robin Williams being so depressed he felt suicide was the only option, AND feel sad about the atrocities in Iraq, AND feel sad about the fighting in Gaza. One doesn't negate the others. And we SHOULD be sad about Robin Williams, even if we don't have a tearful emotional response to it, just as we should be sad when anyone commits suicide-- or honestly, when anything bad happens to anyone. All humans are connected in ways we can't understand, and a tragedy that affects one person has ripple effects that touch all of us. It hurts everyone when something bad happens, even if it doesn't happen to us directly.

2. We had an earthquake the other day! It was 5.4, but only lasted a couple of seconds. It was actually over before I even realized what was happening. Not nearly as impressive as the one a few years ago in the DC area-- which I was also there for. Fun stuff!

3. As we sat down to dinner the other day, Faith said, "Daddy, you want a beer?" And then she went and got him one. We've trained her well.

4. This is seriously one of the funniest things I've ever read.

5. Look what we spotted on our way to my workout group yesterday! He (or she?) was actually pretty big-- a good six inches across, I'd say.

6. This is pretty funny: Should you be worried about Ebola? A helpful chart. (Language warning.)

Ha! But, for serious, here's some good info: Ten Things You Really Should Know About Ebola.

7. And finally, I saw this at the hospital (no worries, it was just a checkup for the baby):

At first I was super confused, like, um, is this a common mistake? I feel like if people are drinking from toilets, the lack of water filtration is the least of their problems...

But then an architect friend of mine gave this helpful response: "You are required to post these signs if you have a gray water system. Even as we buy them we think it's ridiculous!!" 

THE MORE YOU KNOW!

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random on a weekend

Here, have a Doctor Who Pac-Man Game.

You're welcome.

And that's the end of 7 Posts in 7 Days! Whew!

seven quick takes - ed. 14

1. How crazy and cool is this? Scientists discover children's cells living in mothers' brains.

Chimerism is when two lines of genetically distinct cells coexist in a single being (the most common example in humans is after organ transplantation). This article talks about an example of microchimerism, which is where one organism contains only a very small amount of genetically distinct cells. They don't really know the medical implications yet, but I think the philosophical/theological implications are just as interesting when you put it this way: the children you carry are literally part of your body for the rest of your life-- whether they are carried to term or not. (Of course, the article doesn't specify exactly at what point in the pregnancy the cell transfer happens, if they even know. It would clearly have to be after implantation, and probably after the placenta is a bit more well-developed, which happens over the course of the first 5-8 weeks or so.)

2. Why you should never, ever put two spaces after a period. My self-professed inner grammar-geek is horrified that I've been typing incorrectly for the past 18 years. I blame my 6th-grade typing teacher. MRS. BESCHTA, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME? (And yes, I keep typing two spaces by accident and then going back and deleting one of them. It's very time consuming.)

3. Speaking of grammar, here's an article on a personal pet peeve of mine: Woah! Why are you spelling it that way?

(Hint: it's "whoa.")

4. The Real Reason Pediatricians Want You to Vaccinate Your Kids. Here are a couple of quotes from the article that give the gist (though I highly recommend reading the whole thing):

"I often wonder why a parent who believes vaccines are harmful would want to bring their children to a medical doctor at all. After all, for immunizations to be as malign as their detractors claim, my colleagues and I would have to be staggeringly incompetent, negligent or malicious to keep administering them."

"What breaks the deal is that I would never truly believe that these parents trust me. Giving kids vaccines is the absolute, unambiguous standard of care, as easy an answer as I will ever be able to offer. If they don't trust me about that, how can I hope they would if the questions ever got harder?" 

5. Okay, time to lighten the mood. This made me laugh:

Source

SCIENCE PENGUIN!

6. Catholicism + Doctor Who? YES, PLEASE!

7. Random discovery via a Facebook friend's link: a haunting series of surreal photos by Martin Vlach.  See more here.

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seven quick takes friday - ed. 8

1. Wow. Iceland was never on my Top List of Places to Visit until I saw this video.  Now it is.  (Can't embed the video, sorry.)

2. Unless you've been living under an internet rock for the past couple of weeks, you know that this video is all the rage, with everyone talking about how motivational and innovative and inspirational it is:

Don't get me wrong - I actually love the ad.  The song is catchy (Faith watched it about fifty times in a row), the premise is clever, and I'm ALL in favor of getting girls more interested in S.T.E.M. (that's science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects.  And I do think starting early is the way to go.

Credit: SMBC Comics

But I'm kind of ambivalent about the GoldieBlox product.  It's an engineering toy... but pinkified.  Now, I don't have anything against pink.  But why can't girls play with plain old Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets and Legos and Tinker Toys?  It seems like this is saying, "Engineering can be for girls too... if it's PINK and has PRINCESSES!"

But on the other hand, if this encourages parents to buy engineering toys for girls when they otherwise wouldn't, or encourages girls to play with engineering toys when they otherwise wouldn't... well, that's good.  And I certainly think that girls can like princesses AND building things.  Liking math and science doesn't make you un-feminine, and doesn't mean you can't like Pretty Things too (and I would argue that math and science are also beautiful in their own ways).  So, like I said... ambivalent.

3.  Excuse the language, but this is hilarious:

Cranberry sauce is SO EASY TO MAKE.  And SO MUCH BETTER THAN CANNED.  (I make the first of the three recipes on this page.)

4. Speaking of which, we did the Thanksgiving thing yesterday. It was just the four of us, which was fine.  We had signed up to host displaced sailors for the holiday, but apparently more people signed up to host than be hosted. I can understand that -- it might be kind of awkward to spend Thanksgiving with a stranger's family, and maybe you'd rather just get together with your friends and celebrate with them.

It was fun anyway. I roasted a turkey for the first time:

Made this centerpiece (Pinterest for the win!):

And this dinner:

Note the dog lurking under the table, waiting for us to turn our backs.

And it was yummy.

5. How awesome was the Day of the Doctor??! Pretty darn awesome, that's what. We got our Doctor Who car decals in time to celebrate:

(We bought them from the Epic Family Decals Etsy shop. Highly recomend)

6. So this video of a little girl walking on ice for the first time is ridiculously adorable:

7. There will be no walking on ice for us this year, here in the Land of Endless Summer. It's really disconcerting to have almost no seasonal changes.  I didn't realize until now how much I subconsciously rely on the changing of the seasons to internally mark the passing of time. I've started playing Christmas music now that Thanksgiving is over, but it just feels weird.

(I know the arguments for NOT playing Christmas music throughout Advent. But we tried it last year, and honestly, it just made us kind of depressed rather than reverent and preparatory... not the intended effect, I imagine.)

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seven quick takes friday - ed. 3

1.  One of our cars arrived!  No more rental, though we are still struggling to live as a one-car family until our other one arrives.

2. This is especially tricky when Jack is "on duty" as he is now.  At any moment this week, he could be called to come to the hospital for an emergency delivery (to care for the baby in the delivery room), for an ER consult, or by a parent with a question.  This means that I can't, for instance, run to the store and leave him at home with the babies, because what if he got called in?  We can't even really go to a restaurant, because if he got called in, we'd have to quick ask for the bill, get our food boxed up (if it had even arrived yet), drop me and the girls at home, then drive to the hospital - no way he'd make it in time.  At least he doesn't have to spend the night IN the hospital like in residency.  (This is a point of some confusion for family members and friends of medical residents.  When an attending physician is "on call," generally he or she is at home but can be reached by phone or pager.  When residents are "on call," it just means they're at the hospital working, but it's overnight or on a weekend.)  Though in some ways it feels almost more disruptive/nerve-wracking to be able to be called in from home.

3. This little guy was hanging out by our front door yesterday.  (This picture was taken outside.)  A teeny one got into our house, but I managed to get him out unharmed.

4. I'll be super bummed when Faith corrects her pronunciation of certain words.  For now, "choochie" = cookie, "dot-tow" = doctor, "panpape" = pancake, etc.  Oh, and her name is "Faif."  Or "Faity."  So cute.

5. Still unpacking boxes.  Never-ending piles of boxes, seemingly.  Isn't it funny that you don't realize how much junk you have until you move it?  "EIGHT boxes from the linen closet?  How did our linen closet even hold that much?  Is it, like, bigger on the inside or something?"

6.  I love Doctor Who.

7.  Speaking of, we just watched the Snowmen episode for the first time last night.  We missed that one the first time around, which made the season finale extremely confusing.  Makes more sense now.

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