It was report card day today at Sport’s school. I think it took me longer to decipher his 4 page report card than it did for him to do reach his “outcomes”.

He got mostly “P”s, if that means anything to you. It sure didn’t to me. There are also some “C”s which are good! Who knew? And a couple of “A”s, which are not as good. (Who knew?)

Could we please just revert to alphabetical order? I know I sound like an old fogey here, but seriously, what was wrong with letter grades? Ah well, at least he didn’t get any “T”s, since as any Hogwarts student can tell you, that stands for Troll.

O vídeo, foi composto por 130 alunos do curso de direito da Universidade de Montreal e é feito a partir da música “Pretty Fly“, do Offspring. O interessante, é que ambos os vídeos são feitos com tomadas únicas, ou seja, apertou o REC da câmera e só parou de gravar quando a música acabou, não tem cortes!

What is a Jew?  The oldest document known to Man, written on that subject, is still with us today.  It is called the Old Testament of the Bible!  It explains the only criteria for being a Jew.

The Bible states, a Jew is a human being that believes in the One God, the same God that Abraham believed; and that person, if he is a male of the species, will have to have the foreskin of his penis circumcised on the eighth day after he is born.

Whether he is a foreigner or born of Jewish parents makes no difference in the covenant God made with Abraham.  He must use judgment and justice as a life style and teach his family likewise.  The last part of the criteria is to teach his family judgment and justice.  Let me put them into a list for easy reference:

1.  Believe in one God who created all things.
2.  All male children must be circumcised on the eighth day after birth.
3.  Husbands must teach their family judgment and justice.
4.  Foreigners must be allowed to join the nation.

Let me clear up two important points here:

One:  The Bible goes on to state that anyone born into the nation of Jews, or a stranger joining the nation of Jews, who does not keep the rules, is automatically rejected by God from being a member of the nation and God will kill that person.

Two:  Today’s nation of Israel has laws on their books concerning, Who is a Jew!

The law of Israel totally bypasses the laws outlined in the Jewish Bible and circumnavigates the rules of God.  The nation of Israel will only accept a person as a Jew, if his or her mother was born a Jew.  Therefore, a Gentile mother married to a Jewish father does not spawn a Jewish offspring.  Only two Jews or a Jewish mother and a Gentile father can give birth to a Jewish child.

This is not only absurd, but also contrary to the rules of the Bible.  Their reasoning is, a child adheres to the teachings of its mother and not its father.  Therefore, a Jewish mother will instill Jewish belief into the child.  Whereas a Gentile mother will instill non-Jewish beliefs into her child, which makes the child a Gentile.

The Bible is clear on this point.  It states both parents can be foreigners and become Jewish.  Therefore, their offspring will be Jewish.  So, the Jewishness of a child is solely dependent upon the decision of the parents to become Jews and live as Jews, and the child’s decision when it reaches adulthood to continue believing in the one God of creation.  In this light, even a Jewish mother, born of two Jewish parents, could have decided to reject her Jewishness and live as a Gentile; which would render her children Gentile and not Jews.

The fact is, the covenant was given to Abraham and not Sarah; and it was Abraham’s virtues the Lord cited, which rewarded Abraham’s children by allowing them to be God’s children; and not because of Isaac’s mother, or her being Jewish; because Sarah was also a Gentile like Abraham!

To be continued…

The promise for the future spiritual blessings of our children does not depend on whether or not they have been baptized or dedicated as babies. God has made a special covenant with the par-ents who earnestly seek the Lord and turn from all transgression.

Isaiah 59: 20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” says the LORD.

21 “As for Me,” says the LORD, “this is my covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descend­ants, nor from the mouth of your descendant’s descendants,“ says the LORD, “from this time and forevermore.”

No matter what may be happening now in the lives of your descendants, seek the Lord and turn from every transgression and God will work mightily in their lives. In time to come, sooner or later, they will speak His words and sing His praise in the Spirit. Even to your descendant’s descendants! Do not be discouraged

Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; they will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.

Isaiah 54:13 All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. (John 6:45)

Psalms 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to ever­lasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children,

18 to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.

Acts 2:39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

Psalms 37:26; Isaiah 66:22;65:23; Psalms 112:2; Proverbs 20:7; Joel 1:3; Malachi.4:6

And I include all who belong to me by marriage or adoption!

Sport walked in just now while I was on the computer and delivered the following punch to the gut:

“Mom. In Ethiopia, I fit in. In Canada, I don’t  fit in.”

“Do you think so?  What do you mean by “fit in’?”

“In Ethiopia everyone has brown skin. In Canada almost everyone has white skin.”

“Well, there are people in Canada with all different colours of skin, because people here are from all over the world. Like S and J at daycare, or B and F in your swimming class.”

“Some people have brown skin, but most people have white skin.”

“That’s true. Would you rather live somewhere where there were more people with brown skin?”

“Yeah. Except the bad thing is then I would have to make new friends.”

Not unexpected or anything, but still a reminder that challenges are going to be completely outside my experience.

O LipDub parece mesm oque virou moda, antes foram os 172 estudantse da UQAM ‘interpretando’ num lipdub bem legal da música I Gotta Feeling. Desta vez foram os estudantes do comitê de artes da Droit, em Montreal, que produziram seu lipdub com a musica Pretty Fly do Offspring.

Pra quem ainda nao viu o LipDub da galera da UQAM segue o video abaixo;

Oh, it went just fine, of course. No 11 pm come-get-me phone call, no 5 am come-get-your-kid-he’s-making-us-mental call, and I got to sleep in until 8:30. I’ll tell you, there is not much sadder than realizing that 8:30 now qualifies as “sleeping in”.

The only drawback to the sleepover, according to Sport, was this shocker: “Mom. Did you know that some people don’t eat breakfast on Saturday until EIGHT O’CLOCK?? That is way too late. I have been up for hours by then.”

Thankfully, he did not wake everyone up at 5 am, which I was a bit afraid of. Although he had been told it was fine to get up and play or read, apparently he just stayed in bed until his friend woke up too. Now if I could just get him to do that at home…

So, sleeping away from home without Mom, check. Since sometime in the next two years I may have to leave him for a week to go and get Little Brother, my intention is to work on some gradually lengthening trial runs, and this was a start. (I say “may” have to leave him because it is possible Sport might come too. It’ll depend on when it happens, how he feels about going back to Ethiopia for a visit, and whether or not I have another adult to travel with me. I’m not too sure how Sport will react when re-immersed in the sights, smells, and sounds of his old home. Handling the transition for a new child along with a possible total meltdown on the other child’s part might be a bit much for me if I was flying solo.)

This fall has been one of the most beautiful falls that I can remember.  The days have been warm and sunny, with just enough rainy days to be satisfactory.  November has been warmer than June was.  Pumpkin carving day was fun, and not just because everyone cleaned out their own pumpkins.  We can never remember to carve pumpkins at night, or at the very least, late afternoon; so we can light them as soon as we are done.

I dropped Sport off at a friend’s house tonight for his first sleepover. Sure, he’s slept over at other people’s houses or cabins before, but I’ve always been there. This will be the first time since the day we met that I won’t be there overnight.

I hadn’t really thought about how I would feel about this, being more concerned with how Sport would handle it. Turns out that “mildly nauseous” is the best descriptor of my current state. Sport, on the other hand, seemed fine. This is a family who was in our travel group to Ethiopia after all, and they are practically a second family for him. I think it will be fine, but I won’t be totally shocked if I get an 11 pm “come get me” phone call.

Video ad firm NeoEdge merges with online game developer Offspring.

Articles by:

VentureBeat

Crispy Gamer

PaidContent.org

GamesIndustry.biz

Gamasutra

Most consumers are already consuming the meat & byproducts of cloned animals or from offspring of cloned animals without knowing it.

Pollard Farms looks much like any cattle ranch. Similar looking cows are huddled in similar looking pens. But some of the cattle don’t just resemble each other. They are literally identical – clear down to their genes

Source:
http://www.mnn.com/food/farms-gardens/stories/welcome-to-the-clone-farm-do-you-know-what-youre-eating

Offspring

Outro dia um amigo meu me disse que heu vejo muitos filmes esquisitos. É verdade, confesso que gosto de filmes esquisitos. Este “Offspring” é um desses.

Uma pacata família é atacada por um grupo de canibais selvagens que vive em cavernas ao longo da costa, na Nova Inglaterra, perto da fronteira entre EUA e Canadá.

Dirigido pelo desconhecido Andrew van den Houten, o filme é baseado no livro homônimo de Jack Ketchum. Confesso que nunca tinha ouvido falar de Ketchum. Pesquisei na internet, e descobri existem outros três filmes recentes adaptados dos trabalhos de Ketchum: “The Lost”, “The Girl Next Door” e “Red”. Pelo que li, estes filmes são ainda mais perturbadores que “Offspring”!

A produção do filme é meio vagaba, e não tem nenhum ator conhecido. E os figurinos dos canibais estão tão caricatos que parecem piada. Me lembrou minha época de locadora, quando existiam os “filmes de apoio”, produções modestas (e baratas) que eram lançadas em pacotes junto com os “filmes de ponta”.

Muita violência, muito sangue, muito gore. Aqueles que curtem não vão se decepcionar.

Admito que o filme é corajoso ao colocar crianças no meio das cenas de gore. Mas heu, particularmente, não curto muito isso…

No, I’m not talking about the lack of sleep this time. Actually this morning wasn’t bad, Sport didn’t wake up until almost 6 am. Miraculous! But between then and when I got up, he was working on a project. And when I finally stumbled downstairs, he announced, “Guess what! I am writing a book. A book about how to solve problems.” Well, excellent. I would like to read such a book. “It’s not done yet. It will be long when it’s done, but it’s not done.” Ok then.

While he was having breakfast I took some clean laundry into his room and sure enough, there was page 1 on his desk, titled “How to Solv Probolems”.

The first problem he is choosing to tackle?

“What to do when you wear your favorit shirt to school and then your frend says it dosnt match your pants.”

Seriously, this kid kills me.

Finally some photos of the nursery!

It was fun sewing and designing everything from scratch, a true labor of love that can’t be matched by a store bought purchase.  I took bits and pieces from different patterns, books and websites to satisfy my vision and create flexibility (the bumper is reversible).  All the fabrics came from Amy Butler’s Lotus Collection.  They were a true dream to work with, solidifying my belief that good fabric is worth it’s weight in gold.

The stuffed bugs were also a fun project.  They are filled with jingle bells and are very attractive to Charlie, so for now they are staying put in the crib.

In addition to doing all the crummy work (painting, trim work, light installation) Royce even helped a bit with the valance.  He did a great job nailing some wood together to form a box so that I could staple the finished valance on.  And of course he helped mount the final product since a pregnant woman yielding a power drill precariously from a step stool isn’t the best of ideas.

I’ll have to admit the contrasting box pleat on the valance turned out rather fresh and fancy.

To protect the dresser top, which for now will be used as a changing table, I experimented a bit with quilting and made a reversible runner.

All and all not a bad outcome (although my binding gets a D).  Probably would have made my life easier for myself if I would have just done a standard mitered quilt binding, but alas I just had to have a 1 + inch border.  And of course I was too lazy to slip stitch one side by hand so the top stitching doesn’t really hit up well on one side like it does the other.

Royce thinks it’s the best room in the house and I can’t deny that.  The cozy fabrics, whimsical art work, carpet and lighting all come together for a very relaxing nursery.  I sure hope she enjoys it as much as we do.

SHORT Notice if you’re reading this right now.

ELM PIZZARO, creator and founder of BOOGIEZONE.com, as well as Creative Director and Founder of Team Boogiezone BREED OC/LA, Offspring (junior professional team), and ENTITY (contemporary fusion exhibition team), will BE IN NJ/NYC today BEFORE HEADING up to Judge BU FUSION’s ELEMENTS X (as well as teach DAY 2 of the AFTER COMPETITION WORKSHOPS the NEXT DAY.) If you missed him the last time he was here, then this is your chance to make up for missing that class!

However, special announcement about tonight’s class from BOOGIEZONE NJ:

“Due to a scheduling conflict with the venue, class will be starting EARLY this FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13th, 2009. REGISTRATION will start at 5:30PM with class commencing at 6:00PM and ending at 7:30PM. Sorry for the inconvenience to all! Come out and support your local dance community!”

For all you Jersey heads, you might want to plan ahead knowing that TURNPIKE and PARKWAY (as well as 1&9, if you take that) can get pretty busy around 5PM especially on a FRIDAY. Just some things to note from the grapevine:

• apparently if you’re coming from West Side & rt 440, the traffic lights are non functional? so thats a traffic prone route if not navigated carefully
• taking rt-22 as a shortcut to parkway south works as along as that underpass doesn’t have construction–merging a two lane into a one lane AT the underpass (if anyone remembers this)

BESIDES that….HAPPY FRIDAY, DANCE COMMUNITY.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171866911515

Once again, The  Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its  yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to  supply alternative meanings for common words…

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted  (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.  

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having  a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an  explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.),  impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition  in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your  nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.  

8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavored mouthwash.  

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you  up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10.  Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11.  Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12.  Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by  proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian  proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who  sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15.  Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief  that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and  gets stuck there..

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening  in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.     

MEN ARE HAPPIER THAN WOMEN

NICKNAMES

If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.
If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.

EATING OUT

When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it’s only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back. 

When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY

A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t need but it’s on sale.

BATHROOMS

A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel .
The average number of items in the typical woman’s bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS

A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

FUTURE

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

SUCCESS

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

MARRIAGE

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.                                                                                                                                            A man marries a woman expect ing that she won’t change, but she does.

DRESSING UP

A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL

Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING

Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house..

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY   

1.  A married man should forget his mistakes. There’s no use in two people remembering the  same thing!  

2. Transvestite: A guy who likes to eat, drink and be Mary   

3. The difference between the Pope and your boss. The Pope only expects you to kiss his ring.   4. My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and it is gone.     

5. The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you’re in the bathroom. 

6. It used to be only death and taxes were inevitable. Now, of course, there’s shipping and handling, too. 

7.  My next house will have no kitchen – just vending machines and a large trash can.  8. A blonde said, “I was worried that my mechanic might try to rip me off. I was relieved when he told me all I needed was turn signal fluid.”  

9. Definition of a teenager? God’s punishment…for enjoying sex.      

10. The economy is so bad that…the bluebook value of your truck goes up and down, depending on how much gas is in it.  

11. The economy is so bad that..McDonald’s is selling the “Quarter-Ouncer.   

12. The economy is so bad that… 

   …CEOs are now playing miniature golf.

  …I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

  …McDonald’s is selling the “Quarter-Ouncer.”

   …parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.

  …a truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .

  …Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

No, really, is it? I have lost all frame of reference and I have no idea if this is a usual grade 1 reading/writing/spelling level. My friends’ kids are either much older, much younger, or ESL. So is Sport of course, and I realize his literacy level seems to be higher than his Ethiopian adoptee buddies at the moment, but I do not have a good grasp on where it is compared to the average first grader.

This is what Sport was busy with this morning before school. (And before I was awake, so he came up with the spelling on his own.) The photo is a bit hard to read, but it says: “We remember that day of November. we thank the army becaus the army try to keep peace. it is not esy to keep peace it is hard to keep peace. Some of the army dos not make it. The popy is to remember. Have a happy remeberence day.”

Parent teacher conferences are in a few weeks, so I guess I’ll get some idea of where he’s at then. For all I know, he’s right on target. Which would be fantastic, since I was expecting him to struggle with written language more than he has with oral. I think it might be time to stop worrying about literacy, and start working on numeracy, which has not really progressed at all.

Holy crap, people. Apparently I could have just been posting picture of Sport’s lunch all along, and not bothering with this pesky writing thing. That post has generated four times more traffic than any post in the last year, and that includes the days in July when the media were frantically trolling everyone’s blogs for details on the Imagine fiasco.

(Apparently the only person not interested in Sport’s lunch was the one who found me by googling “announce pregnancy with cake pops”. Here’s my advice, oh unknown pregnant lady: DON’T DO IT. I almost cried over those things and I’m not even hormonal.)

I actually thought those lunches were a little lame, so I’m happy that y’all thought they were good. Or at least that you humoured me, I’m not too proud for that. If you had a look at the original site that I linked to, you will see that her lunches are more creative than mine. I am a bit limited by Sport’s odd food rules which dictate that meat must be hot, and vegetables must be cooked. The only veggies he will eat raw are red peppers and occasionally carrots. Spinach & lettuce are ok too. And cold meat is totally unacceptable, with the exception of ham. I have no idea where this comes from, but I just go with it,  considering that those are really his only food quirks. I mean, the child eats just about anything, and regularly professes his love for things like beets and spinach. But it means that sandwich choices are a bit limited, and since there is no microwave at his school, most veggies are out too. I do have a good little Thermos for him, so he does get the occasional hot lunch of soup, stew, or his favourites doro wat  or mesir wat.

I feel like I should be throwing in a picture here, but his lunch tomorrow is not all that photogenic – mac & cheese in a thermos, an orange, and pumpkin seeds, and – you’ll never guess – yes! a yogurt tube! I should buy stock in Yoplait.

No podía faltar en este blog la banda, también californiana, The Offspring.  Actualmente está integrada por Dexter Holland (cantante y guitarra),  Noodles (guitarra principal y guitarra rítmica) ,  Greg K (bajo),  Pete Parada (batería)  y Josh Freese (batería pero en el estudio).

Son conocidos por su música punk rock, aunque no se han mantenido siempre en el mismo registro, puesto que han pasado por el pop-rock, rock alternativo y hardcore melódico, éste último en los albores de la banda.
Cómo muchos sabréis, junto a otros grupos como Green Day, Rancid o Blink 182, han logrado  resurgir el punk-rock de los noventa tras unos años de decadencia. Y es que las mejores bandas no mueren, tal y como dijo un día Dexter Holland en una de sus entrevistas “Las grandes bandas no mueren…”

A lo largo de toda su discografía han logrado vender más de 45 millones de discos, colocándose en muchos países en el TOP-ten. Y es que a pesar de los años, Offspring sigue metiéndose en el bolsillo a un público tanto joven como adulto.
Con un total de ocho discos, The Offspring se prepara para lanzar en breves su último disco. Se estima que será para primeros del 2010 pero más adelante os confirmaremos con más detalles y ofreceremos algún adelanto sobre ese nuevo lanzamiento con novedades sólo alcanzables para los seguidores de este blog.

A lo largo de estos años, la banda ha tenido dos personas como cabeza de grupo, dos vocalistas. El primero de ellos se llamaba Doug Thompson. Sólo estuvo en el primer disco en el año 1984. La banda para entonces estaba consagrada bajo el nombre de Manic Subsidal. Y ya fue Dexter Holland quien cogió el relevo hasta ahora, y con un montón de éxitos y premios a su espalda. Si quieres saber qué premios ha logrado a lo largo de su carrera musical, no os perdáis la próxima entrada. Aquí, os dejo un vídeo de su videoclip “Can’t repeat” incluido en el Greatest Hits publicado en el año 2005. ¡¡Disfrutarlo!!

For your posterity you are their future ancestor. What story of you will you leave them?

Sometimes, I think, our impulses come not from the past, but from the future. ~ Martha Stewart

Months ago, I read a great blog post about school lunches and was quite taken by the lunchboxes shown. Over the summer I finally got around to buying the same set. I ordered two of the boxes and one insulated case – which works well for me because I can put the containers in the dishwasher at night and always have a clean set the next night for packing Sport’s lunch. (I pack his lunch the night before, since getting us both out the door on time in the morning is a serious challenge for me, and there is no way I would have time to make lunches.)

As hoped, I have found it easier to pack his lunches when I have these specific little boxes to fill. (Don’t ask me why, but it’s true.)  I also like that they are mostly trash-free, especially after reading some scary statistics about how much garbage is generated in a year from just one kid’s lunches.  So here, inspired by the Party of 5 blog, is a week’s worth of lunches in the Laptop Lunchbox.

Chicken & spinach pitas, strawberries & grapes, kiwi, fig newtons, yogurt tube.

Cheese & lettuce sandwich on whole wheat bun, apple slices with caramel dip, homemade trail mix, pumpkin loaf, yogurt tube.

Cheese & spinach pitas, red peppers & dip, kiwi, pumpkin muffin, yogurt tube, and ticket for the milk store. (Usually he just gets water with lunch.)

Ham & spinach sandwich, carrots, strawberries & grapes, fig newtons. There should have been a yogurt tube in there too… I took the picture too soon.

Ham & lettuce pita, peppers & lettuce pita, strawberries, orange slices, granola chunks, and – you guessed it – a yogurt tube.

I feel like I am doing a better job this year at packing healthy lunches with a minimum of processed food. (But I really wish I had more than one brand of yogurt tube to choose from. Why on earth haven’t other companies jumped into this market?) Maybe the advantages of the laptop lunchbox in that regard are all in my head – but whatever, it seems to be working, so I’m happy.