Hope you follow me over there. I’ll be back here someday, but it’s too buggy for now and Sean hasn’t got the time to fix it for me this semester.
Recently in geekery Category
Replica clothes pass Everest test (four years ago)
Wearing replica gear made from gabardine, wool, cotton and silk, he wanted to disprove the common myth that the 1920s climbers were ill-equipped to reach the summit.
“This is just another brick in my wall of evidence,” Hoyland said.
I’m getting back into the SCA. That’s the Society for Creative Anachronism,
…an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century.
Those guys.
I used to be in the SCA as a teen. I have thought about it for a few years but decided against it because the kids were too young. They keep growing up, these kids, so I’m going to take the plunge.
The two things that tipped me over the edge were S.M. Stirling’s novels of The Change - most particularly the first three, Dies the Fire, The Protector’s War and A Meeting at Corvallis - and the plan of study for the Gleeschool this year: the Middle Ages.
So I want things like this (hold the rayon, please)
Linen Fabrics at Dharma Trading Co.
and perhaps a pair of these, with decidedly non-period soles, thanks.
Of course we’ll need some outerwear from this
or this
The plan is for me, Faith and Abby to get set up first. Then, we can see whether we like it before going all-in as a family. Bede, while very appropriately named for a historical reenactor, is maybe not so much the fan. We’ll see.
I’m glad that the period I’m interested in has nice, simple clothing. I’m leaning toward ninth century Ireland. And at this point that means everyone gets ninth century Ireland.
This is completely insane.
Abby’s fic, To Be Human, is in the Phineas and Ferb fandom, and answers these burning questions: What if Perry the Platypus was human? Does Ferb own any other clothing? And, most important of all, what are Phineas and Ferb going to do today?
Chapters 1-9 are here.
Faith’s Warriors fic, Stars of Gray, is also at their blog, but not neatly next-chapter-formatted yet. It features Graystripe, Faith’s favorite Warrior cat of that era. Prologue Chapter 1 2 3 4 5
Without further ado, I give you Sean, playing Rhapsody in Blue on the… the muted Gleeson horn*. Yeah, that’s it. With bonus helpless laughter from Sean.
*Gleeson horn built from a fill valve and a steel condiment cup.
Still gently planning the homeschool year. In fact, I nodded to Luke Holtzmann on Twitter about it: I can see why buying a year’s worth of scheduled readings, with open-ended discussion questions included, all for great, REAL books that are a joy to read… is a heck of a lot easier than doing it all yourself, from scratch.
I didn’t go with Sonlight again for several reasons.
Sonlight is Christian but not Catholic. Sonlight’s religious materials are Evangelical Protestant in tone and mission, which can be fine - or intolerable. This year, I am focusing on teaching Roman Catholicism to our kids, and I need the materials to support that. In our last Core I used Sonlight’s books and stressed the commonalities that all Trinitarian Christians share. This year, I need more than that. I could have gotten a Core but not the Bible, but the EP overtones are present in many of the other subjects too, notably History, Literature and Science.
Sonlight doesn’t have a Middle Ages Core. The Middle Ages are covered in Sonlight’s World History Cores, but we wanted more detail. Winter Promise makes a full-year Middle Ages program but they also have the same trouble as reason 1 above.
Sonlight is 36 weeks, and we wanted 45. We’ll be doing four days a week for 45 weeks. Sonlight has a great four-day option that’s included with every Core but it’s still only 36 weeks.
Sonlight is slightly more expensive. Honestly, this isn’t much of a reason. I doubt I’ve saved much money. I’ve been able to buy a few things used, and I don’t have the expense of the Instructor’s Guide. Sonlight isn’t raking in the dough. Their Cores are expensive but you get real value for your money.
That’s about it. We will likely return to Sonlight in the future. Their High School Cores are very intriguing, and having everything just In A Box and DONE is worth a lot, let me tell you.
I’ll publish our schedule and booklist when I finish. I’m doing the first 15 weeks, so if we just hate it I won’t have wasted as much time.
That’s what Faith just misheard me say. The poor child must be addle-pated.
I’ve been reading The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains. It’s not good. I mean, the book is good - quick read, informative, engaging - but the Internet is not good. Reading it has cemented my feelings that we are changing from mostly-unschoolers to mostly-not. I knew we were moving that way but I was filled with self-doubt because I didn’t want to take away any choices from the children as far as how they wished to spend time. Now that I’m convinced that the Internet is rewiring their brains to suit it I’m convinced that I need to give them a better framework. I’d say we’ve moved fully into Charlotte Mason territory where we had heretofore been only dipping our toes, to mix a metaphor.
Just now, Bede said “Look. Mom. Come and See! Tell it to me on your computer!” and dragged me to his computer, where I was to read what he had typed. (it was a SpongeBob script) and then say “Oooh, cool.” The language was Dalek stilted but, some appropriate pronouns! Shared attention! He’s so awesome.
i have a post planned with the full list of medieval books we’re going to use. But now Gloria is crying! Dearie me.
Just read it - it was mentioned by James Sturm in Offline, his column about giving up the Internet. Or maybe it was Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows. I can’t remember.
The ‘feed’ of the title is the internet feed reader everyone has implanted in their brains in the future. This is relevant to my interests of late in this our Digital Age.
I am favorably impressed and recommend it to anyone who likes speculative fiction in general, YA scifi and dystopia fiction specifically.
I’ll post some of my reactions in the comments so as not to spoil the book.
The summer reading program at Half Price Books is underway! Kids 14 and under can get a $3 card for Half Price Books EVERY WEEK from June 1st through July 31! That’s nine weeks, guys, or $27 bucks!
Your kid (or you, if you have a non-writing kid) have to fill out a log showing at least 15 minutes of reading time each day, but it’s not an annoying log like in fourth grade.
We’ll get $162 in free books chez Glee, and since it’s Half Price Books, it’s actually $324. Ohhhhh yeah!
