Small Cheerful Things

Found THIS on OpenLibrary:

https://archive.org/stream/pavannesanddivi00poungoog?ref=ol#page/n75/mode/1up

And got my Tarot and Oracle Decks!

Good suggestions there, Maryn. Engineer due in next hour so hopefully crossing fingers. Cheers.

nah. Just inconvenient. We are lucky to have hot water, and heaters to keep warm. 80% chance the main circuit board has gone and 20% chance it's the interface board so service provider is arranging for manufacturer to visit. Seems it's cheaper and less risk that way - avoids them buying the wrong board or both boards and not being able to return one. They cost pretty much the same.

Sounds like an inconvenience and a half!

Not to venture too far afield, but I wish I had been a real car guy. I can't be the only on this site who knows of and loves the Petrolicious series of videos on YouTube. This one got me thinking:


Then it got me writing a comment, as follows.

This is a benchmark video for car guys. I won't live to see the day that is coming.

Before the century is out, the 3-d printer paradigm will mature to enable the man having the means to spec his personal vehicle from the tire tread to the targa top. He will negotiate the design for performance and compliance with a customer-focused expert system. The design will be copyrighted.​

His one-of-a-kind bolide will be completed in a CAD/CAM-driven robotized factory capable of fabricating carbon fiber and titanium, as well as the more mundane materials. His brainchilde will be inspected, finished, tested and run-in by veteran craftsman.​

His car will be delivered by a road-going drone, which will keep it secure until he arrives.​

And his girlfriend will complain forever after, with some justice, that he loves that damned car more than he ever loved her.​

I discovered that the pumpkin chiffon pie I made for Thanksgiving is also excellent for breakfast.

And yes, this is the questionable dog.
<--
He absolutely does know where the car keys are kept, but as he likes to remind me, sticking out that pouty little lower lip, every time I complain that he doesn't pull his weight with the chores around the house: Mom, I got no thumbs. So I think until he gets his act together and evolves a bit more, the car should be safe.

My 10 year old just totally confused me. Maths homework - question about finding the area of an L shape, explained how to break it into two rectangles and work out the area of the rectangles and add it together. Sorted!

Next question, kid reads: "Daia looked after a puppy that she found for two weeks."

Me: wait, what? Read it again.

Kid: Daia looked after a puppy that she found for two weeks.

Me: ***totally confused (what the hell kind of a maths problem is that?)*** wait, let me see the book...

Kiddo had changed from maths homework to English homework and not told me The missing bit of the question was "underline the relative clause."

My kid: do you know what a relative clause is?

Me: no


ETA: my kid confidently explained relative clauses to me

neandermagnon said:

My 10 year old just totally confused me. Maths homework - question about finding the area of an L shape, explained how to break it into two rectangles and work out the area of the rectangles and add it together. Sorted!

Next question, kid reads: "Daia looked after a puppy that she found for two weeks."

Me: wait, what? Read it again.

Kid: Daia looked after a puppy that she found for two weeks.

Me: ***totally confused (what the hell kind of a maths problem is that?)*** wait, let me see the book...

Kiddo had changed from maths homework to English homework and not told me The missing bit of the question was "underline the relative clause."

My kid: do you know what a relative clause is?

Me: no


ETA: my kid confidently explained relative clauses to me

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It could have been a math problem about time (two weeks).

The Second Moon said:

It could have been a math problem about time (two weeks).

Click to expand...

Yeah I think my brain was trying to process it like that and failing, lol.

Maryn said:

I want that sentence rewritten. How can you find a puppy for two whole weeks?

Click to expand...

**standing ovation**

Don't get me started! They (as in the government appointed people who write the exam papers) deliberately write awkward sentences to make the grammar questions harder. Ask any English* parent what we think of year 6 SATS (national end of primary school exams) and the insane amount of grammar kids have to know for it. I know of secondary school teachers and even people who have degrees in English who didn't know all of what year 6 kids get tested on. And the teachers don't like it either but it's on the national curriculum and schools are judged (often very harshly) on exam results so they have to teach it. The schools do their very best to make the exams as un-exam-like as possible and not put the kids under any pressure but year 6 is basically exam prep (in the most fun way teachers can attempt to make it).

*AFAIK Wales refuses to do them. I have no idea what Scotland or Northern Ireland do.

One year the year 6 SATS exam had lots of kids in tears. One journalist who wrote about this said that when she saw the questions that made the kids cry she said she wasn't surprised - the sentences they had to work with would've made her and her editor cry because they were so awkward and badly written.

Ahh, I could rant all day... but this is supposed to be the cheerful things thread.

So something more cheerful - when my older kid was in year 6 as soon as the SATS were over (about May IIRC) the entire rest of year six was entirely non-academic. They did all kids of creative and practical activities for the entire rest of the year. Also the Easter holiday before the exams they gave the kids the loveliest homework ever - a long list of non-school/academic things to do such as trying something new, having fun with friends, helping a neighbour, etc, not compulsory, just "do as many as you can" - a list of stuff to remind kids to be kids and be kind to themselves and others.

ETA: it also contained the instruction to NOT study for the exams, do these things instead.

My small cheerful thing is really small, but happens so rarely. Exactly all the dirty dishes completely filled the dishwasher. Nothing left out for hand washing, no empty spaces.

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I love it when that happens!

Bufty said:

nah. Just inconvenient. We are lucky to have hot water, and heaters to keep warm. 80% chance the main circuit board has gone and 20% chance it's the interface board so service provider is arranging for manufacturer to visit. Seems it's cheaper and less risk that way - avoids them buying the wrong board or both boards and not being able to return one. They cost pretty much the same.

Click to expand...

For what it's worth, my boiler was finally fixed on 17th having been reported on 28th November. Won't bore you with the farce we went through but heating and continuous hot water at last. The first shower was gorgeous and it's amazing to walk from room to room and not shiver.

Bufty, doing cheery boogie from room to room.

Yay for heat! So easy to take for granted, and so disruptive when you don't have it.

I tried a recipe for oven naan bread yesterday. The pictures showed naan cooked in a skillet, so I was waiting for it to look charred like the pictures and kept cooking for longer, and longer, and longer. I ended up with crackers, similar to pita chips. Quite good crackers/pita chips. Worked better than the naan, actually.

Bless you, Maryn.

I suspect the roads up by you will be jammed next because of all the drivers taking detours to get their hands on your goodies.

Hooray for the solstice, the days will no longer get shorter and summer is on the way.

Why can't boilers break in the summer?

Very much yay for the solstice indeed! (And all best wishes to all who celebrate this day as a spiritual event).

On a more selfish note, I live in an apartment 10 stories up and usually charge all of my small electronics with a couple 5-volt solar panels I put on the patio. However, from early November until sometime in February, the building across the street shades the patio, giving me only about two hours of light to do my charging each morning. The rest of the year I get all day. C'mon sun angle! Start climbing! You can do it!

I also have a house plant that puts on new growth this time of year. I know plants have internal clocks that are set by the length of the day to tell them when to flower, set fruit, etc., but I never understood how this tropical plant, which in its native range never sees days this short, would have a timer set to this short a photoperiod.