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The Most Important Thing I Can Teach My Daughter
Last Thursday night, in the midst of the struggle to get Pop Tart to actually do her homework, we had to stop and ask her what was wrong. Her response was that since we got home from dinner, all we had done was yell at her, and she did not like it. The intent of this statement is obviously to get us to apologize for what is going on. This is not a conscious intent on her part. But in her mind, she is unhappy because she is getting “yelled” at, and since we are the ones doing the yelling, it is obviously our fault. She did not get the…
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Book Review: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
Back when I wrote my review of The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, I said this: Books don’t necessarily have to have happy endings for me to like them. If a book can make me think, if it can leave me in tears, those are good things. But I’ll be honest, I do like my stories with a little bit of hope at the end. I read for enjoyment. I don’t read horror for a reason- I don’t enjoy it. If you are not going to give me a happy ending, or at least a moment of hope (Children of Men is one of my favorite movies ever, though…
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Math is Hard (and that’s ok)
Sixth grade math is hard. I say this as a person who took calculus in high school and started college with plans to be a math teacher. I say this as a person whose husband has a BS in Math. Sixth grade math is hard. But before you tell me I should not say such a thing, that I am perpetuating stereotypes that girls cannot do math, that I need to think of my daughter, let me say that my daughter is exactly who I am thinking about when I say this. The math she is learning is hard. It is algebra without calling it algebra. Tonight, it was basic…
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Inspired by Missing FinCon15
Starting today, a number of awesome people are descending on Charlotte, NC for FinCon15. I attended FinCon in 2012 and 2013, but have not been able to go the last two years. I miss the conference overall, but I really miss the people: Jana of JanaSays, Joe of Stacking Benjamins (and The Free Financial Advisor where he writes as Average Joe), and Kathleen of Frugal Portland (and now also Stacking Benjamins). Those are just three of the awesome people I have connected with, and stayed connected with. I want to make a plan to attend FinCon16. At the same time, I wonder if I can really call myself a financial…
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Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir
The Martian is soon to be a major motion picture starring Matt Damon. I know this not only because the cover the book tells me so, but because I saw commercials for the movie this weekend during football. Not that this matters much to me, I will not see the movie until it is available on HBO or Netflix or something similar, because we pretty much never see movies in the theater. However, this is not a movie review (which would be really hard as the movie is not out yet) but a book review. And the book is out. And the book is good. And I would totally recommend…
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In Defense of “What’s Up?”
You have likely seen this meme before. And you likely agree with it, at least in some fashion. Yes, you think, I want to talk to people about things that “matter”, small talk is for small minds, “what’s up” is nothing you care about. What if I were to tell you that all of your talking about “atoms, death, aliens, faraway galaxies” was in fact, small talk, and small talk for the express purpose of not having the important, deep conversations about “what’s up”? When I care about someone, I do, in fact, want to know, what’s up. I want to know how their job is going. I want to…
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I Am an Extrovert. I Hate Crowds.
Often it seems as if my social media feeds are overtaken by memes about introverts. As a somewhat rare extrovert among my friend group, I feel the need to share some information about extroverts. Let us start with the plain and simple fact that all extroverts are not the same. Most of my friends are familiar with the Myers Briggs personality types. Most of the free MBTI tests just give you your personality results. For example, I am an ENFP – extrovert, intuitive, feeling, and perceiving. What those free tests do not show you, but the more complete tests do, is that you are on a scale, a continuum, so…
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Book Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
I thought the hardest part about writing a review of a book that has been famous as long as The Handmaid’s Tale has been would be the fact that most people who want to read this book already have, or at least, already know they want to read it. That, and anything there really is to be said about the book has already been said, and probably by more talented critics than myself. But that is not true. The hardest part about writing a review of The Handmaid’s Tale, a book first published in 1986, is how relevant it still is, almost 30 years later. And sadly, that comment is…
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An Open Letter to the Blogger on Scary Mommy Who Got Arrested for Disciplining Her Child
This is an open letter to the author of this post on Scary Mommy – The Time I Got Arrested for Disciplining My Child. I do not know when it was written/posted, so it might be a year old. But I saw it for the first time today. Dear Samara, You do not know me, and we will likely never meet. But I want to introduce myself. Like you, I am a mother doing the best I can. I am not perfect, far from it. And honestly most of my mistakes come around discipline. It is certainly the area where C and I are most likely to disagree. I…
