TechyDad, Author at TechyDad

What I Learned While My Wife Was At TypeACon

September 30, 2013 TechyDad Life, Parenting

Since Thursday, it has been just me and the boys (and – when they were in school – just me). While I’m sure that B will be coming back today with plenty of new lessons to put into action, I’ve learned a few lessons as well.

Yes I Can

All too often , I sell myself short. I’m always my biggest critic. Sometimes it’s that the websites I make aren’t good enough (no matter how much people rave about them). Sometimes it’s that I can’t learn a new skill and – all too often – it’s that I couldn’t manage at all without B.

Now, mind you, I wouldn’t be able to do this every single day. I’m glad that I have B as a partner to share the parenting load. Still, if need be, I can remember things like medication or which clothes the boys need to wear given the days’ weather without B looking over my shoulder. I’m perfectly capable of doing the household chores while taking care of the boys. I’ve got to stop doubting parenting abilities (as was well as doubting myself in other areas).

Learn To Pick My Battles

That being said, I did have a parenting fail moment. We had arrived early to school Friday morning and I suggested a walk around the block to kill time. Everyone was for it until we just got underway. That’s when NHL began to protest about how he hated walks, had gym that morning, and WASN’T walking any more.

What I *should* have done was given in and waited inside with the boys as they usually did. Instead, the planned walk became fixed in my mind as "the plan" and, as often happens with me, I stubbornly persisted. As the walk wore on, NHL got more and more agitated. By the time we walked into school, he was completely wound up. As I walked out of the building, it suddenly hit me. I just put "the plan" ahead of my son’s well being. Thanks to me, he was now starting the day on edge instead of calm. His day would likely spiral out of control from this point and it was all my fault.

The guilt ate away at me for the rest of the day. Out of necessity, I’ve learned to be able to put these kinds of worries out of my head lest I obsess over them. (A topic for another day.) This time, though, I couldn’t. No matter what I did, I just kept picturing NHL having a horrible day all because of me.

When I picked him up, NHL said that he had a wonderful day. Thankfully, his teachers and him were able to turn it around. Still, I apologized to him for my behavior. I’ve got to learn to spot when I’m obsessing on something and figure out how to pull myself out of the obsession. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s something I need to do. Not for me as much as for my boys.

Sometimes Simple Activities Are The Most Fun

As much as I loved going with the boys to the Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady on Sunday, my favorite day of the long weekend was on Saturday. The boys and I had eaten breakfast (homemade French Toast) and watched two episodes of Doctor Who (Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead). The boys had a blast seeing the Vasta Nerada and meeting River Song for the first time. It started them talking about counting shadows and "Spoilers!" for the rest of the weekend. After watching some TV, got tired and took it upon himself to take a nap. While he napped, JSL played and I made some slow cooker apple sauce. After NHL woke up, we went to lunch, had some play time in a local park, and then went for frozen yogurt. It wasn’t anything grand and elaborate, but it was a lot of fun just spending time with my boys.

Carve Out Some Time By Yourself

Second to my time with my boys was the time by myself. On Thursday, after dropping the boys off at school and B off at the airport, I came home to an empty house. After just enjoying the peace and quiet for a bit, I set to work sewing a fez. Without any distractions, I was able to focus entirely on it and the work went quickly. Pretty soon, I was done. As the final glued pieces dried, I was amazed by how much I enjoyed being by myself. I don’t get much "just me" time. If I do, I tend to feel guilty that I’m not spending the time with B or the boys. With both of them elsewhere and unable to be with me, I had nothing to feel guilty over and was able to just enjoy the "me time." By the time I picked up the boys, I was feeling very relaxed and happy.

Fezes Are Cool

Yes, I know that the Doctor loves saying this, but they are. I keep finding myself coming up with odd reasons to put on the fez I made. I just can’t help myself. Yes, I’m wearing it right now.

The fez project hasn’t quite itched the crafting bug, though. Instead, I can’t wait to start my next crafting project: Bow ties. I’ve already purchased the materials and might start this week. After all, bow ties are also cool!

Just Me And The Boys

September 27, 2013 TechyDad Parenting

This weekend, B is off to Type A Con in Atlanta. While she learns, socializes, and perhaps even parties, the boys and I will be spending some quality time together. I plan on finding some fun activities for us to do, but I’m sure there will be many episodes of Doctor Who watched. Of course, while the boys are in school, I’ll likely be enjoying the quiet time and sewing a fez for my Doctor Who costume. (Quick follow-up from my quandary post: I bought suspenders, will try making a fez and possibly a bow tie as well.) Yes, we’ll miss B a lot and will be happy when she returns, but I’m sure we’ll also have a lot of fun together by ourselves.

What’s the longest that you and your kids were together without your spouse?

Apple Picking And Animal Petting Adventure

September 25, 2013 TechyDad Animals, Fall, Outside, Photos

This past weekend was a perfect fall day. It was sunny, but not too hot. A breeze was blowing but it wasn’t too cold. Ideal weather for apple picking. We went to a nearby farm – Indian Ladder Farms, got our bags, and began to pick.

There were so many big apples that, before long, our bags were filled beyond capacity. A couple of apples rolled out as we tried to pick them up. The boys scooped these up and helpfully carried them to the car. Later that day, I’d weigh the apples to determine that we had picked 44.5 pounds of apples!

We weren’t done yet, though. After driving across the road, we went to the farm itself. Indian Ladder Farms is at the foot of the Helderbergs. It’s beautiful and there was a lot to look at there. Specifically, the boys enjoyed seeing, petting, and feeding all of the animals.

After washing our hands, we stopped by their shop where we bought apple cider, honey, and apple cider donuts – all made at Indian Ladder Farms!

Though we were only there around two hours, we got a lot packed in. We left (munching on the delicious donuts in the car) vowing to come back some time soon. We might skip the apple picking, though, until we can work through all 44.5 pounds of apples. (If you know of any good apple recipes, please post them in the comments!)

And thus ended our adventure.

(Yes, I am easily amused!)

The Importance Of I Don’t Know

September 23, 2013 TechyDad Life

I ate ham.

Let me back up a bit. Those that know me know that I keep kosher. For me, this means, among other things, not eating foods containing pig products. So no bacon, no pork sausage, and no ham. To keep things simple, I usually eat vegetarian out. If a dish is vegetarian (or even vegan), I know it will meet my dietary restrictions. (Besides, it’s simpler to say "I’m a vegetarian" than it is to explain my complex kosher rules.) Within this restriction, however, I can be quite adventurous when it comes to food.

Last week, B and I got to eat lunch out without the boys. We went to a local branch of a popular restaurant chain. (I’m keeping the chain nameless… You’ll see why later.) This chain has a lunch special where there is unlimited self-serve soup and an entrée for a reasonable price. When we go, we usually order our food, fill up on soup, and then bring the entrée home to have for another meal. This way, we make the deal twice as good.

Anyway, I had just had my first bowl and went for a second. I saw two soups that I knew were fine for me, a third that I knew wasn’t, and a fourth that I had never seen before. The name should have been my first clue: Cuban Black Bean and Lentil. A hostess was setting out more bowls and I asked her whether this soup was vegetarian. Without hesitating, she said that is was. Specifically, she said it had no meat in it.

I got myself a big bowl of it and went back to my seat. The soup was thick, almost like chili, and had a great taste. I was a quarter of the way through the bowl when I noticed something tiny in it. A cube about a quarter of an inch wide. I asked B what she thought that it was and she agreed that it looked like meat. But the hostess had said there wasn’t any meat.

Luckily, the restaurant has a computer system with the ingredients of all of their dishes. I went to that and – sure enough – the second ingredient in the soup was ham. Needless to say, I was disgusted. We told our server who brought over the manager. The manager apologized, took my meal off the bill (something I didn’t ask for), and said she would speak with the staff about this.

In my case, the infraction was bad, but could have been worse. Apart from some lingering feelings of disgust, I was fine. Had this been a situation with an allergen, it could have been much more dire. (Imagine if I had a peanut allergy and they said there were no peanut products in a soup when there were.)

This (in a very roundabout fashion) gets me to my point: The importance of "I Don’t Know."

All too often, people feel the need to fake knowledge. They feel that admitting to not knowing something is a sign of weakness and it is better to feign knowledge than to reveal ignorance. In fact, it is a sign of great strength to admit when you don’t know something – especially if that admission comes with a quest to learn the answer.

Other servers in that restaurant, during previous visits, have told me they didn’t know and would check on the meat content of various dishes. When NHL or JSL asks me a question that I don’t know the answer to, I don’t make up an answer to seem all-knowing. Instead, I’ll say "I don’t know", will pull out my computer or smartphone, and will look up the answer with him.

The next time you encounter an inquiry that you don’t know the answer to, don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know. If we never admitted to our ignorance and sought out the answer, we would never learn anything at all.

Making Tablet Music

September 18, 2013 TechyDad Music, Smartphone/Tablet Apps

When we got the boys their tablets, we knew that our boys would love using them as gaming devices. At the same time, we knew it would be used for far more than just games. With the Kindle Reader, they boys can read books on their tablets. There are also plenty of educational apps that they can use to learn. What I didn’t expect, though, was for NHL to use his tablet to make music.

A couple of years ago, NHL began playing the drums and bells (xylophone). He quickly displayed an aptitude for it. Not only did he pick up how to play quickly, but he demonstrated the ability to translate his skills to other instruments. Playing also is a point of pride to NHL. Once he gets over the initial fear of not being able to play a piece, NHL becomes very happy when he masters a song and can’t wait to show someone (other than me who stands by his side all the time).

I began to wonder whether NHL would be able to compose his own music pieces. To this end, I immediately thought of his tablet. First of all, the boys have taken to the touch screen interface as if they had always been using it. Secondly, the tablet tends to be always on while our laptops need to boot up and are much bulkier. A quick search on the Google Play store turned up a few promising candidates.

Music Composition

Music Composition was the first app I tried. I found the interface nice, if a bit clunky. The features, however seemed really nice. Not only could you position the notes to make a song, but you could have the song play as you composed it. (Very handy to see if the note you just placed improves the flow of the song or hinders it.) In addition, your creation can be exported to an image that could be printed. In other words, your tablet creation can become sheet music. (Useful since I wouldn’t recommend positioning the tablet near bells mallets which keep swinging at keys.) Of course, the price was great: free.

Ensemble Composer

Ensemble Composer was the second app, I experimented with. I actually liked this one more. It seemed to have all of the features of Music Composition, but the interface was much slicker. The only drawback was that many major features, such as exporting to a sheet music image, were locked away unless you bought the Pro version for $12.99. Luckily, the musical creation can be saved in MusicXML format. I can then send that file to Google Drive, open it on my laptop within a free, open source program called MuseScore and export the song to PDF for printing.

Right now, NHL is just occasionally playing with the apps. His song creations seem to be less music and more "throw every note in and see how it sounds." With some practice, though, it should be interesting to see what he can create.

Have you or your children ever used a music creation app?

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