Have a listen:
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Have a listen: Without making any general announcement, my partner decided to put a couple of presents aside as “Christmas Eve” presents. Given the thorough inspection that every package put out for Christmas gets from the kids, of course it only took them .04 microseconds to realize that a couple of packages were marked “Christmas Eve Present”, and even less time to figure out that meant they would get to open a present Christmas Eve. So, of course, the door to our room flew open at 5 minutes to six this morning, the lights went on, and there stood my step-daughter in all her expectant glory. “Come on, it’s Christmas Eve morning!” “So?” I muttered. “Time to open presents!” she declared. “Mmmph…” She did not leave at this point. “You don’t open presents on Christmas Eve morning,” I tried to explain. She wasn’t buying it. I mean, today is clearly Christmas Eve, and those packages are clearly marked “Christmas Eve presents”. “No, we open those tonight,” I insisted. “Christmas Eve, get it? Eve as in evening. See?” The door closed, slowly, piteously. Maybe even a little menacingly? Her saddened footsteps slowly faded into the distance. The dreams of Christmas Eve morn faded from the world, and the Long Wait began. I admire the ingenuity — she believed she had discovered the loophole that generations of children have sought, the technicality that would make Christmas come just a little bit earlier. Alas, it wasn’t so, but I do hope she keeps trying. Maybe she’ll figure it out — and in any case, it’s great preparation for law school! Happy Holidays! I’ve scheduled a great week of posts at lifehack.org, including my podcast debut with a new project I’m calling Lifehack Live (because that’s it’s name). Check it out this week, in between eggnogs and rum balls. This semester is officially finished for me! This has been my craziest semester ever — I had my book to proofread and index, my partner and step-kids came down with mumps (the kids were on isolation for 9 days, my partner was home three weeks), I took part in a pilot co-teaching program, the kids’ dad abandoned them, I had a nasty cold/flu, I ramped up my activities at lifehack.org, I’m doing research for an academic article due early next year, my brother was hopitalized twice, my partner’s brother moved in with us while he divorces, we had a plumbing leak that required a whole section of the upstairs floor and downstairs ceiling to be torn out and a giant tent to be erected in our living room during construction (the floor and toilet upstairs still aren’t back in), and I launched a new blog at StepDadding.com to talk about the step-dad life. Most of that stuff won’t go away now that the break is here, but at least I’ll have time to get everything in order, maybe even get a little ahead of the curve! Huzzah!
Here’s what I look like in
Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War isn’t out yet (coming next month, I hope!) but already it’s gotten some nice press coverage! Joshua Glenn, a blogger at the Boston Globe, writes of the problems faced by anthropologists struggling to outline our position in relation to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:
I’m not sure I or any of the other contributors featured in the book offer a solid answer to the issues raised by anthropologists involved in military and intelligence work, but I do think we offer a significant contribution to the debate. I appreciate Glenn’s comments — maybe he (or some other Globe writer) will think about writing a review when the book comes out? (hint, hint) While searching for some other files, I came across copies of two posts I made at the very beginning of my blogging career, back in November of 2000. The first post I ever did has been lost to the vagaries of history, but the second and third posts are now up here in the November, 2000 archives. I started blogging because I was upset at the way the 2000 elections were going, and these posts reflect that. The funny thing is that there wasn’t really any blogging software back then, so the pages were hand-coded. I can’t imagine what I would have done once I had dozens of posts to keep up with, but I wort of fell out of blogging for a while and didn’t come back until 2002, and by then there was Blogger. While I was working on the site, I also added a a disclaimer to protect myself from legal woes. Have a look, and don’t say you weren’t warned about this site! (Note: reading this will be more fun than it sounds.) Finally, I noticed that all the comments here are being posted anonymously, and when I did some snooping I realized that’s because I hadn’t set up the comments right. I always look at the site being logged in as the administrator; I just found out why it’s helpful to logout now and again and see how your site looks from a visitor’s perspective. I wish I could steal John Hodgman’s line and sign off my posts: THAT IS ALL. With the kids finally off quarantine (only one got sick, but the other two were excluded from school just in case) we can get back to the business of daily life, which this time of year means Christmas. Which means shopping. We don’t give the kids much of an allowance, and usually they haven’t worried too much about Christmas and birthday gifts, especially for each other. Mom or I might get something made at school, or whipped together at home when we weren’t around, but brother or sister hasn’t gotten anything. With the older ones pushing into their teen years (12 and 11; I’m sorry, I mean 12 1/2 and 11 1/3!) I thought it would be a good idea for them to get each other something for Christmas, and something for their 5-year old brother, too. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a little nervous about starting them in on the consumerist aspects of Christmas. But we don’t take them shopping much, and both of the older kids are pretty good about keeping their “wants” in line with their “haves” (that is, they dream about PlayStation 3’s and shark aquariums, but they’re pretty happy with what they already have, which is surprisingly little for kids in a family that isn’t rich, but certainly isn’t poor). So birthdays and Christmas are really the only times of the year when they get new stuff, and that doesn’t seem too overbalanced towards consumption. Anyway, here’s the plan: take them to the mall or something, give them each $40, one goes with me, the other with mom, and let them pick out gifts for a) mom, b) me, c) the brother/sister with the other parent, d) little brother, and e) their uncle who’s staying with us as he goes through a divorce. So hopefully they’ll be learning to think within a budget while also learning some generosity and giving-ness. And meanwhile my partner and I can be on the lookout for gifts for the last of our gift lists. I’m not crazy, of course –I ordered handmade gifts from etsy for as many people as I could manage, but for the hard cases — my brother and sister-in-law, and my dad — I’m pretty well stuck, and running out of time to order anything and have it here for Christmas. Well, technically, “Chrismukkah” — my family is Jewish, my partner’s is nothing particularly but of Christian stock (outcast Mormon, to be precise), we’ve got Catholics and Christians and observant Jews and non-observant Jews and even atheist Jews (that’s me!). But whatever our faith (or lack thereof) we all have Christmas Day off from work. Since I was a kid, Christmas-time was the only time when everyone in my family could get together, give gifts, have family togetherness funtime. Stick that in your First Amendment and burn it! I’m testing Windows Live Writer for a post I’m writing for lifehack.org. Check it out tomorrow at lifehack.org. I very much want to like the Kindle, Amazon’s new e-book reader. I am a fan of e-books — or I would be, if it weren’t such a dreary experience to read them on most devices. I used to hang off a subway strap in NYC reading e-books on my Palm IIIe (believe it or not, I used to write papers that way, too — with my Palm-holding arm wrapped around a pole or through a hangstrap, scribbling furiously with the stylus). Kindle, with its leather cover and e-paper screen, seems like a vast improvement over reading on my Palm, but it has to be really good to make me want to sit down on the sofa (or lie down in bed) with it and read a book. I read on the Palm because it was well-suited to the necessities of subway travel; now that I’m not on the subway ever (because I no longer live in NYC) I am far pickier about the reading experience. I want Kindle to be the answer — lugging around a bag full of books is a pain! I’ll be watching closely to see what happens… |
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