Theledge.net

Boulder Fire

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:31:15 -0600

The fire in Boulder seems pretty serious, having destroyed a number of structures and rapidly outpaced local efforts to control it. My thoughts are with anyone who lives in the affected area.

Continue reading "Boulder Fire"

Are you sure it is a new part?

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:10:42 -0600

This was sent to me at work as a replacement part from a vendor. Still sealed in the bag...

Mom is way cool

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:06:00 -0600

You are adored, Angie. Bettie adores you, Alphie adores you, and I adore you.

(Buddy adores you too, but the way he shows it is to come and lie on the floor next to you when he doesn’t feel well. This is why some days you feel like he is chasing you around just to fart next to you.)

There is a saying that tells us you can learn a lot about a person from the enemies they have. When applied to you, I think it shows that you are the kind of person who has never left anyone a reason to hate you. You are fair, and honest, you are kind and compassionate.

You are extremely special to those who know you.

And to me, you are one of the reasons I get up every morning.

I love you.

Rain storm

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Mon, 17 May 2010 10:16:00 -0600

Alphie is sometimes pretty dramatic. For instance, there was significant drama about having to stand in the rain (under the umbrella). Which is pretty funny, considering...

Continue reading "Rain storm"

Let sleeping rhinos lie?

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Sat, 15 May 2010 23:57:00 -0600

Sometimes all you need is a new perspective.

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:36:00 -0600

Kicking it old school

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:28:00 -0600

I promise she is making that face because of something I said, not because of the toy... That movie player has Cinderella, which cannot disappoint her in any form of media.

(She even loves the weird Cinderella storybook we have in which her father is still alive. Apparently he is “just” enthralled by her step-mother and forgets she is his daughter or something. He kinda seems like a moron.)

Bunny is found!

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:00:00 -0600

Bunny spent the night in Alphie’s cubby at school, safe and warm from the storm (though perhaps lonely).

Sadness

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:16:00 -0600

Bunny is missing.

Bunny is missing on a dark and stormy might.

Alphie’s last memory of bunny is that she put him under her coat to keep him dry as we walked to the car after school today.

Bunny is not in the house, and is not in the car.

Bunny was not identified as missing until bedtime, when Alphie realized she was alone in a big, scary, dark and stormy world.

Dad has been beseeched to find bunny, but despite Dad’s best effort, bunny cannot be found.

Although it has stopped raining, the evening is darker and stormier than it was earlier.

Only you are this excited for a picture.

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:20:00 -0600

Hi Bettie,

I just wanted to let you know that, these days, you are the only one in the family who gets this excited when I point the camera at them. And I appreciate that a lot.

By the way...

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:13:53 -0600

My posse still rolls with me...

They are thick as thieves, though sometimes they don’t understand one another...

Bettie, you are you.

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:41:00 -0600

Hi, Bettie. I know I haven’t written much, and I’m sorry about that. Unfortunately, this post isn’t going to change (or explain) that.

I did want to tell you that you are remarkably different from your sister. I know that I’m not really going to do a great job of expressing this idea, but I wanted to try.

The main thing I see at this stage is that you have a slightly different sense of humor from your sister. While your sister sought humor like a big game hunter looking to find the biggest animal she could find, you have a quiet way of expressing humor that you see in the world. For example, you’ve previously seemed to put things on your head just to see how people reacted to you.

And just the other day, shortly after figuring out your exersaucer had a mirror, you did this:

I am sure you were experimenting with how the mirror changed your perspective, but it also seemed like you were interested in how we reacted to you looking at us in the mirror.

And you sure were smiling as you did it...

Lifting Up a Dreamer...

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:26:49 -0600

Or, disparaging a dog.

Angie and I are not twitter users. It isn’t that we don’t like twitter... It’s that we don’t understand twitter.

Ok, not really. It is more that we have the belief that saying something meaningful takes time, if only to develop the idea, and that neither of us has the time to type out meaningless messages, nor the time to dedicate to carefully crafting meaningful messages.

Having said that, we do use the internet, and are therefore exposed to a variety of internet themes, including some of the various ideas that percolate out of the twitter community.

Alphie, without a twitter account and with very little internet access, shouldn’t be particularly familiar with the memes that float from that region of the internet.

Somehow, she is aware of this, though:

That is a piece of art titled “Lifting Up a Dreamer” by Yiying Lu. Ever since Twitter used it as an icon to indicate problems with their site, it has been known as as the “Fail Whale”.

And today Alphie referenced it to express some problems she was having with Buddy. While she and Bettie sat on the bathroom floor within a few feet of Angie, Buddy wandered over, lured by the fact that clustered distributions of people increase the probability of food or attention.

Unfortunately, his tail is now at the level where it is a big problem for Alphie when she is sitting on the floor. And Buddy’s enthusiasm for the family meant his tail was swinging pretty hard.

And thus spoketh Alphie, summoning the strategies of the internet:
“Buddy, you are a Fail Whale, with a Fail Whale tail!”

Earnest exploration of complex concepts...

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:46:56 -0600

Recently you have started to try to express concepts of time and space, even though you don’t always quite have the words... It is quite fun to see how you mind works during these little moments.

For instance, the other evening you had a little trouble with lining up the buttons on your pajamas, so you asked me for some help. As I re-buttoned your shirt I suggested that you start with the bottom button, because I find that it makes it easier. I also mentioned that I used to get my buttons wrong when I was a child.

After that admission you looked me in the face very carefully, as if seeing me for the first time, and said “I bet you had a lot of problems as a child.”

I did, kiddo, I did. And I still do, on most days. But you and your sister sure make most of those problems fun.

What's taking all our time?

nospam@example.com (Matthew Groeninger) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:08:46 -0700

There have been a few questions about why updates are so infrequent. I offer a pictorial explanation, since that apparently equals some large number of words and takes significantly less time.