Wow.

Did you know that book_icons is huge?

I sure didn't.

Hey, maybe I'll get more crissie pressies, then! *hums*

I've been thinking. What I *really really want* for christmas is crissie pressies for the babies. You'll note that they're all on the same wishlist. Or you can get something else, just run it by me or Jenn or Liz first, no worries. But think about them before thinking about me, if you're going the "tangible" route, 'k?

_{Incidentally, all kids books count as "for the babies", even if they're written for much older kids. They'll grow into them. Eventually.}

Wow, I'm greedy.

People, quick, post your favorite charities, I need to do something to cleanse my soul.

I will NOT appreciate: primarily religious charities, anything "pro-life", anything CANish. All else is acceptable.

Hey, I need help.

I need a thesis statement for a paper that's due a long way in the future. The thesis statement is due today, though, and I still haven't gotten anything. It needs to be on either language and gender (ick) or language: standard and dialect.

I did promise to post about democratic schools, didn't I?

First things first, there's one in Brooklyn. I feel so proud.

Basically, the idea of a democratic or free school is that students are treated like people. So students and staff have an equal voice in the running of the school, and (usually) students don't have to go to class (the idea is that they can take responsibility for their actions and will learn at their own pace. This seems to work).

Of course, this leads to the worry that your kid won't learn at such a school, they won't be interested in learning whatever it is you want them to learn. It happens. The FAQ for Sudbury has an example where a kid had graduated and really knew very little math, but he wanted to take the SATs. So he went to somebody for help and learned enough to do well on the SATs in six weeks, because he wanted to and could focus on it.

What really attracts me to this sort of school is that you don't treat a kid like a kid until they're 18 and then say "okay, now go out and be an adult and take responsibility for yourself". They're expected to take responsibility the whole time, it's not so sudden, they know how to do it.

I can't keep on talking about this, I have to go to class soon. Summerhill is another famous one, this is the link to their FAQ. Both the last two links have links to essays, go read.

*grins*

New York could benefit from this scheme. Especially the part where all the tourists pay to leave the city.

Weirdness...

I was replying to a post in customers_suck where somebody complained about people spelling simple names like "Bob" and "Smith".

They could have just been burned by running into people who actually DID ask them to spell it, so they've learned "never assume."

Exactly. The number of people I meet who ask me how I spell "Baker" or, worse yet, misspell "Connie" (Coney and Conie are popular variations, apparently) is astonishing.

And after I posted that I sat and stared at the comment.

Connie?

I mean, that's my name. I grew up always getting "Connie" and "Mommy" confused, and nowadays it's "Connie" and the Lizziey/Chris nickname "Honey". For years, I corrected teachers, every year. "Don't call me Constance, my name is Connie."

For some reason, nobody would understand me the first time. Or the second. Or the third. Finally they'd go "Oh, Connie!"

And then... I don't know. I got tired of correcting people. In high school, I started letting teachers call me Constance. Same thing in college. Online, I expect to be called Uly or Conuly - the only people who call me Connie online are Lizziey and Jenn. Some of my friends call me Concon, but....

So when I posted this, I looked at the name, and it didn't even feel connected to me anymore. It's like seeing somebody else's face in the mirror. I almost went and asked Jenn if that WAS my name! *laughs*

Maybe this is what happened to Jenn when she stopped being called Ginger. For years, she'd get mad at me if I called her Jen, and then one day I refered to her as Ginger and the person I was talking to didn't even know who I meant. And now we don't even call her Ginger in the family anymore, the only people who still do that are old family friends.

Ana was over here today.

She's so cute. *grins*

For a while now we've been working on a small set of animal sounds. I'll read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" to her, and every page I'll say "the bear says rarr" or "the duck says quack" before continuing (the goldfish kisses her, that's fun!), and she'll repeat me. With the bear I go "rarrr!" and claw out at her, which she thinks is just oh-so-cool, so she's been mimicking that. Today, I realized she can do something cooler.

_{She can whisper}

So if I whisper "rarr!" she'll whisper it too, with the handmotion. And if I just mouth it, she'll do the same. Because she's Ana!