Interesting new diversion: #Quora and gathering knowledge

I read an interesting article in my latest Wired magazine about a new web site called Quora. The article helps spell out what the site is in more detail. A quick summary is that it is a way to gather knowledge in a more coherent, crowd sourced question & answer format.

I have only really been on there for a week or so, and I haven't done a lot of answers yet. And so far none of my answers has been voted up or down. I don't think it is all that popular yet, so I wanted to spread the word. I do think this has a lot of potential, as it has the ability to merge the crowd sourcing of a Web Forum, with the Q & A format of Google, and a Yahoo Answers.

I have set it up so that when I respond to a question the question will be posted as a link on Twitter, and I have the ability to also link on my Tumblr, although I will probably only do so for threads where the question and answers are more developed.

Celebrating the best decision of my life, Happy Anniversary Kim!

13 years ago today I got up, went for a short swim, tgot showered, shaved and cleaned up. Grabbed my tuxedo, and headed to the church where the most wonderful thing happened.

I got to marry the most wonderful woman I know!

And 13 years later I celebrate that day with even more fervor than the actual day.

Here's to you Kimmy, my Goofygirl, and looking forward to many, many more years.



Getting a handle on what to teach James

Yesterday I came across this great little blog post: The future of the library

It really made me think, while I really want James to just be happy, and excel in areas where he enjoys what he is doing, what tools can I provide him to help with that? The biggest worry I have over him is his reading, but I sometimes think that is because he just hasn't found something he wants to read yet.

But this article made me think about some new tools I can teach him over the summer (or he can teach himself) that will help him, and get him to read at the same time. The thing is he loves to work on the computer, albeit mostly playing games, but he also likes to browse around YouTube etc. for Lego stuff and Star Wars stuff. This article has inspired me to try to find some time to sit down with James and start teaching him some things about researching the web. That way he can get to places where he really find what he is interested in, and the by product will be reading, lots of it. I know that an awful lot of my reading when I was his age was history books because I wanted to learn more about all the little army men I was playing with.

In addition I will get a good kids typing program that he can work with, one that will make a game out of it, to teach him to type. Because if he is going to spend as much time on the computer going forward as I expect he will, typing will become an essential skill.

That's my latest plan for the summer for James: turn him into an internet research hound, and learn to type.

Wheel of TIme gradually spinning to a close

So I have been slogging my way through this series (which I first started reading when I was still living in Boulder about 20 some years ago). And it looks like the end is in sight. I have 1 more book from my bookshelf, then the most recent release from the library. And about the time I come close to finishing those the newest, and last, book will be almost available. This has sure been a long haul.

But I am glad I put myself through the ringer of re-reading the entire series again as a run up to the finish. I am finding so many clues and little things that I glossed over or failed to notice the first time I read the books. It truly is an epic series and a fabulous story. And when it is all said and done I will be glad to own the series to maybe read through at least 1 more time in lifetime.

I am not sure I could say that about many of the other series I have read. Which makes me glad that I kicked the book purchasing habit a while back. It is just too expensive to start a series and then decide not to finish it, when you buy all of the books.

How come no politician ever runs for office to help the poor any more?

Every candidate these days talks about helping the Middle Class, and business, bringing business to create jobs (and of course the joke that is Cutting Taxes). What happened to politicians standing up for the 'little man'? No one even pretends to do so any more. As a member of the Middle Class (but on the lower end of that scale) I don't mind having a politician looking out for my interests.

But what happened to people who ran for office to help out the poor, the unrepresented? The people who ran for office with the goal to save the people from Big Business? At a time when both big political parties are in thrall to big money I understand it would be hard. But we still ostensibly live in a democracy, and while it does take some amount of money to get noticed I wonder where are the candidates of the poor, using the power of the New Media?

Because like it or not, with the reality being that our economic class structure looking more and more like a V and less like the old bell curve, there are more and more people on the lower end of the ladder. And with the dissolution of the old ways for them to gain political voice they are in danger of getting unrepresented. And while the Tea Partiers love to wave the old 'no taxation without representation' flag, it isn't the rich, and the corporations that are lacking representation, it's the people who work for a living that are losing their political voice.

I say that the time is coming soon, if things don't reverse course, when that large group of people will find their voice. And the people in power today have two options: make sure that when that voice is found that it has something good to say, or ignore those people and prepare for that voice to become very angry.

I am not preaching revolution, I think that the best, luckiest thing for this country has been it's ability to wake up at opportune moments and incorporate the right changes that keep us from needing that revolution. But when the leading 'thinkers' of one major political party are doing their best to unravel the very safety net that has kept us from that revolution you have to wonder if they really know what they are doing.

Accepting loss, with the proper detachment #LALakers #NBAplayoffs

I can say with a straight face today that I am completely content with the fact that the Lakers lost yesterday, got swept, and we have most likely seen the end of this era of Laker championships. There are a couple of reasons I can say that. First, I haven't watched a complete game of NBA basketball this entire season and playoffs, and have pretty much intentionally avoided getting caught up in watching my beloved Lakers on TV. Second, while the way they lost (swept, totally losing their cool in the final game blowout) may have sucked the bottom line is they were back to back defending champions and like death & taxes the only certainty of sports is that everyone loses eventually. Third, with as exciting as the playoffs have supposedly been won't it be better to usher in a new champion than to have it all end with a third straight?

I stated after the football seasons ended that I wasn't going to let basketball take over my life, and I succeeded in that goal. I haven't watched a game of the NBA this season, and unless there is a truly unique and interesting matchup in the Finals I probably won't watch any then. This was part of my overall goal of trying to break my emotional attachments to sports. And basketball is such a roller coaster that it is easy to get caught up and get riled up. So I can pronounce this phase of this process successfully complete.

One of my favorite Bill Simmon's lines is that once your team wins a championship you as a fan should give them a 5 year grace period from getting so upset when they lose or do dumb things etc. And defending back to back championships puts the Lakers well into that honeymoon territory. Plus, look at the 'mileage' the teams best players have logged over the past couple of seasons: Kobe, Gasol, Odom, Bynum, Fisher all played in 3 straight Finals series. Kobe, Gasol, Odom also played for their national teams during the Olympics and World Championships. Thats a lot of playing time in a relatively short time, and in the case of Kobe and Fisher that's on top of a long career with 4 other Finals appearances. And when it is all said and done if Kobe gets to say he has 5 rings, plus 2 other Finals appearances on top of everything else that's an astounding Top 5 career. And every great team ends it's string eventually, players age, other teams get better, etc. it's inevitable, like I said about death & taxes.

Last, one of the great things about sports is that when one great champion ends another can appear, or (often even better) a string of competitive new teams competes every year. That is what makes football so great, there are almost no repeat championships any more, and to be honest that is what the NBA lacks. It has been nice for my team to have all of those rings. But it's not as good for the league overall to have a couple of teams dominate, new blood is essential to keep fans interested.

For all of the above reasons I am not the sad man I would have been in past years after the Lakers got stomped like a Narc at a biker rally.

A thoroughly well rounded weekend: soccer, computer games & miniatures

I had my role playing game Friday night, as my beginning to the weekend. It went well, actually played instead of sat around chatting for once. Not that I mind the social interaction, but I prefer to play the game when that is what I was there for. But this is not about me, it's about the kids, specifically James. Some times I worry that he is getting too wrapped up in his computer games, too focused. So I try to find chances to break him out of that, and I think this last weekend was pretty successful.

Saturday was a relaxed day at home in the morning, and I kind of monopolized the computer, which is my right as the dad. So James was forced to do other things, and he spent most of his time watching cartoons and playing with his Lego's. Then it was off to soccer. James enjoys soccer, but I think it is as much because he enjoys being with other kids, not as much because he loves the sport itself per se. I don't see him just going out and dribbling the ball, or practicing kicking it into the net, or setting up pick up games with his friends. And that's okay, he's good, but that's as much because he is smart and has been playing a long time. So he knows where he is supposed to be and will go there.

The rest of the day, after returning from shopping, James got to pretty much do computer games and other games to his heart's content. Sunday was a different story, Sunday I pulled out and set up the Heroscape set one of my friends gave me.

Heroscape is a kind of miniature table top war gaming entry drug. The figures are decent quality, pre-painted. The basic game play is quite easy to understand and pick up, we even taught Daniel the basics so he could join in. But it has an advanced level of play that I look forward to teaching James, and the collector kind of interest, so someone can really go hog wild if they want. Here are a couple of pictures:

This is a basic game board set up. The board is a kind of free form hex set that can be modified and moved around to create all kinds of combinations. And you can create levels and a 3-D type of feel to the terrain by stacking the terrain. So it's pretty cool for those effects.

Here are James and Daniel playing. As I said the basic game play is simple enough for Daniel to play with a little help. And the joy he got when his dice rolls succeeded were worth more for me than the downside of his tearing up when one of his guys got killed. James took the basics really quick, and seemed to really enjoy it. So I can see us playing again, him possibly playing with Daniel, and maybe even teaching his friends when they come over.

In the midst of all this I also have become a little concerned that James is not reading as much, or at least up to his level. So I sat down with him and talked about it. Then told him to have at the library in his room, pick a book and read it. And I implemented a mandatory 30 minute reading time prior to bed every night as a new general rule. I gave him one of my Shadowrun books as a test, but while he seems interested I don' think he's quite there yet. That, plus he is more interested in the non-fiction books right now.

Overall a pretty successful weekend as far as enhancing the all around development of James. And he did tell me yesterday on the way to school that he was ready to go back to the summer hours: TV & computer get shut off at 10:00AM, and cannot be turned back on until 6:00PM. So that's a bonus there.