Best story of the week: Betsy was in Eliza’s room with her, reading books. Our two cats, Cola and Hootie, came in to see what was going on, but we don’t usually let them in Ellie’s room. So Betsy says “Get out, cats!” and chases them out.
Eliza takes a beat, stands up, walks over to her stuffed animals. Picks up her stuffed animal cat, walks to the door, and throws it into the hall.
She’s far too smart for her own good.
This week, ebooks were all over the tech news, and there were at least two huge announcements. Well, one announcement, and one not-so-secret launch coming Monday.
The announcement was the Google Book mobile service, which gives users access to 1.5 million books from the Google Book scanning project OCR’d and formatted for mobile screens, like those of the G1 and the iPhone. In one fell swoop, Google has made these platforms the home of the largest electronic book library in the world…the Amazon Kindle store currently has 230,000 books, while Project Gutenberg has just over 100,000.
The upcoming announcement is that almost certainly on Monday, Amazon will announce the Kindle version 2. Leaked photos make the v2 look sleeker, more updated, and with much better physical form-factor. What I’m most excited about is the possibility of v.2 of the software, which better UI and possibly more features. As long, of course, as the software is ported back to the original hardware.
Are these the things that will finally push ebooks firmly into the public consciousness? Time will tell, but I can hope.
For posterity’s sake, and because I love lists, and because I’m procrastinating my work…here is a list of Eliza’s current vocabulary. I think we’re up to around 40 or 50 “words.” And these are just the ones she uses consistently and with real meaning. There are other words she has said a couple of times, but I didn’t count them because they’re not in the regular rotation (yet).
People: Mommy, Daddy, Pop, Nana, Ally (friend at daycare)
Animals: cat, duck, fish, bat, bee, mouse, “Tiggy” (her fave stuffed tiger)
Objects: ball, bowl, box, hat, seat, baby (for dolls), keys
Body parts: Nose, knee
Meal time: eat, más (“more” in Spanish), cracker, cookie, cheese, juice, water (wa-wa)
Social words: Hi, bye-bye, night-night, please (“peese”), no, uh-oh, tickle, ow (for ouch)
Verbs: eat (already listed above), write, cook
Other: bath, socks, shoes, “e” (what she calls all letters)
She can also do lots of animal sounds: meow, moo, hoo hoo (owl), ssss (snake), growing for tiger/lion/monster, quack, tweet (for bird), etc.
I’ve heard her say a couple of times: bubble, Addy (another friend from daycare), jacket, tick tock (for clock), cup. Jason swears he has heard her say “music.” I think we’re heading to explosion territory where we’re going to start losing count.
Just watch this!
Oh, wait a minute:
Maybe not.
I must admit, I didn’t necessarily want to fall into the “daddy” stereotypes, but one where I fall firmly is in the sort of play that Eliza and I enjoy. Lots more physical, more rolling around, flipping, hanging upside down than Bets would ever try.
The good news for me is, of course, she loves it. And is very clear when she’s reached her limit of excitement, and wants to just lay down for a minute.
Robert Heinlein famously said:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
In the spirit of the myriad “25 random facts” and such, I’m going to suggest that we see how close some of us are to Heinlein’s ideal. Here’s the quote again, with things I’ve actually done in bold, things I think I could do in italics, and things I can’t do in regular type:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
I must admit, I’ve never actually butchered a hog, but I’ve seen it done, and I’ve butchered both deer and squirrel, and I’ve dissected everything from a small pig to rats and mice. So I think I could handle that. I’m helping to design a library right now, so I think that counts. And yes, I’ve shoveled manure in my time…cleaning out barn stalls.
So I still need to figure out how to conn a ship, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. I’m pretty sure I could plan an invasion, but don’t really want to find out. I’ve never built a wall, but I understand basic physics, so I think I’m good there. I’ve taken umpteen first aid classes, and had extensive physiology/anatomy classes, so setting a bone could be done, I’m pretty sure. Fighting and dying are both not really something I want to try out. But that’s not too bad a reckoning, right?
This is just awesome. I love the details in the reporting, like the fact that it takes 2 hours for the newspaper to download! Shows how far we’ve come.
Also, I <3 acoustic couplers.
The proposal that I put forward for a 1 hour class for incoming freshman at UTC was accepted! Here’s the title and description:
COURSE TITLE: Digital Revolution: Everything is different than everything before
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The rise of the Internet and the conversion of popular media to digital forms (TV becomes YouTube, CD’s become iTunes) does far more than just make information portable. It effects the way we interact with it, create it, share it, and use it in our daily lives. This class will help you understand the ways that digital information changes the world you live in, and how the future might look given these changes. The class itself will be driven largely by student interests, but topics will include why the Internet is different than everything before it, what social information does to traditional publication models, and how the world is changing (or not) to meet the new information revolution.
Awesome! Can’t wait to get back into the classroom, even just a little.
I have so much hope for the country on this day…Obama, in his inaugural address, spoke to both the need for Science to be put back in place as a good and positive thing for the country and the world AND spoke to the fact that there are non-believers in the US, contrary to the beliefs of many. Am so, so, so happy right now.
Since starting daycare on August 1, Eliza has had: 3 ear infections, 1 sinus infection, a cold, and a stomach virus that led to horrible diaper rash. When will this winter from hell be over?
Everyone keeps telling us she’ll get stronger, that this is some sort of rite of passage that all little ones go through. But I just feel so sorry for her. She has had more fevers in the last month than I can count on both hands. I think she has forgotten what feeling “normal” is even like.
And by the way, she’s 13 months old now. But the 12th month was a rough one. So we’re going to just move on and hope for better days ahead.
