Category: Unrelated News

Fluffy’s near death experience

Yesterday our daughter was playing with Fluffy the hamster. She won’t actually touch him, but she does like carrying him around when he is in his exercise ball. She sets him down gently and in general is very gentle with him. Well, with the exception of the time she got excited and started jumping up and down. Poor Fluffy.Fluffy the hamster

Yesterday she brought the ball to my wife and me as we were in the kitchen getting breakfast ready. She kept saying “Fluffy’s OK. Fluffy’s OK.” My wife took the ball with Fluffy from our 3 year old. She looked and said “Fluffy does not look OK. Fluffy looks dead.”

While I quizzed our daughter on the events leading up to Fluffy’s demise, my wife was poking on Fluffy to see if there was any life left in him.

Apparently Fluffy was on the couch in the ball and walked off. Not a long fall, but when you are a pygmy rodent and fall onto a tile floor, I guess it is kinda traumatic.

My wife finally proclaimed that Fluffy was still breathing. She pulled him out of the ball and was just caressing him. He opened his eyes and started moving his head around. But moved nothing else. Finally his front legs. Then a little bit later one of his back legs. He started walking, but dragging the other leg. He never acted stressed but was not walking well.

My wife put him back in his cage and after a while he was walking fine. I guess he got some temporary paralysis.

So yes, “Fluffy’s OK.” For now anyway.

Ever hear of Vedic Math?

I have always been a lover of math. But, I have never enjoyed memorizing stuff just for the sake of memorization. Therefore, I am not very fast at math. Most who know me and know my fascination with playing with numbers and finding new ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide will probably be surprised to know that I don’t have the times table memorized. I know a few numbers by memory. I just work out the rest.

Recently I have been on a quest to renew my algebra skills. Though I used to be very good with algebra (I am quite skilled with thinking through things logically), I have forgotten many of the rules for how to work with algebraic notation.

ProBlogger is running a contest where people write a blog posting using a “top 5” list. It can be about anything. I was reading some of the entries so far.

One of the ones that caught my eye was about the benefits of “Mental Math.” Interestingly the article had nothing to do with the benefits of it, but did give 6* methods of learning and working out math. The blogger’s list included:

Learning by Heart–rote memorization
The Abacus
The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art–a Chinese method
Trachtenberg Speed System of Mathematics
Kumon Math Method
High Speed Vedic Mathematics

Hmm, makes me wonder. There are 6* methods listed. So does the blog poster’s method work when this is supposed to be a top 5 list? Their favorite is the Vedic system. Interestingly enough, it is a whole blog about that system. So, it seems a little skewed and understandable why they would say disparaging things about the other systems.

Nonetheless, it is the first time I have seen anything about it and I think I will pursue it a bit.

*Update: According to the original poster’s comments, he lumps the abacus and the other Chinese method together as 1 system.

Is it hot, or is it just you?

Our daughter came over to me today and wanted me to hold her. She is not normally the cuddly type who just wants to be held. But, it was hot and she was probably just tired (I thought). We ate lunch at church and she asked to be allowed to lay down for a nap. She is 3 years old and actually does ask for a nap sometimes voluntarily.

Since it was 102 degrees outside today, that did not seem too odd. We don’t have air conditioning at the church.

We finished church and came home this afternoon. I was lounging (napping) in my hammock pretending to watch Tiger beat the rest of the field for his 57th career win. While sleeping through the last couple of holes, my wife came in and said that the day was not just hot, but the baby was hot. She had just deposited her lunch on the furniture downstairs. My wife was bringing her up to the bathroom to hose her down.

Fortunately it took me too long to figure out what was going on to be able to help much with the clean up. I got the duty of making sure the water got turned off in the bathtub while my wife got the messy job downstairs.

Good thing I can fake being asleep real well.

It is a red letter day indeed

Today is bloggable. My wife found Diet Dr Pepper Capsomething in the grocery store that I thought we would never see. And, furthermore, we may not ever see it again. It could be a shipment got mis-directed. But, until then, I am going to enjoy it.

We have 12 cans of Diet Dr Pepper in our house! As soon as one chills and the kids are in bed, I am going to crack one open and relax and enjoy it.

I wonder what it tastes like? I have not had a Diet Dr Pepper since last summer. I hope it tastes like it does in the US. I remember my first regular Dr Pepper I had here in Mexico. It was NASTY! It was a 20 oz. bottle. I had one a few weeks after that and it was horrible too. I thought maybe it was just a bad batch. Unfortunately, no. But, since then the quality has improved and I have never had a bad can of Dr Pepper here. I think it just had something to do with the bottles. Consequently, I have not seen a bottle of Dr Pepper here in the country since we moved here 2 1/2 years ago.