Parenthood

  • Parenthood

    Clinton joke – as told by Marleigh while in Preanesthesia

    This was after the Versed, but before the sedation (she was in a great mood). For some reason we were looking at portraits of US presidents and deciding which one was the strangest looking (Martin van Buren) – Marleigh, for no knowable reason came up with this Clinton Joke

    Why did Bill Clinton go down into the mine?

    So he could hear the sound “Clint, Clint, Clint”!

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  • Adages,  Parenthood

    Proud parenting moment – Halloween edition

    When we were wrapping up trick or treating we were talking about the prevalence of 15 foot skeletons. Either me or the wife mentioned that people left them up year round, and the Halloween skeletons became Thanksgiving skeletons, then Christmas skeletons, and so forth, and how this angered neighbors and neighborhood associations. After clarifying that the neighbors did not in fact buy the skeletons somehow, Marleigh had the memorable line

    That’s ridiculous – just because they have opinions doesn’t mean they have rights!

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  • Parenthood

    Marleigh on Trump

    While listening to the radio on the way to school:

    Marleigh: Daddy – how much longer is Trump going to be president?

    Me: About two and a half year at least

    Marleigh:  Two and a half years!?  We’ll all be dead by then, the trees will die first, and they make our air, then we’ll die, then the werewolves will die, and then the regular wolves will come and eat everything else.

    Me: Everything will be fine – have a good time in school.

    I guess today’s bedtime conversation will be about

    • resilient systems,
    • Adam Smith’s line about “There’s a lot of ruin in a nation”
    • Checks and balances
    • Keeping people occupied with projects (and out of the way)

    The existence of werewolves will be a separate day though, don’t want to mix the topics.

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  • Parenthood,  Ten Commandments

    Commandment #1 – Be Positive At All Times

    My commandments begin!

    And by positive I mean no “Venting”, whining, or complaining about things where you have no influence.  force yourself to be upbeat if you have to.   People have a limited brain capacity and naturally occurring bad thoughts crowd out anything else.  After a while you get talented at being negative, which is a road that leads nowhere good.  Go ahead and evict bad thoughts and negativity from your head as much as possible.  By and large a forced positivity is better than a natural negativity, and will crowd out negativity.

    This is very difficult to and I do not always follow through on it, but nonetheless, that’s what you must do.

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  • Having a Daughter,  One Hundred Rules,  One Thousand Suggestions,  Parenthood,  Ten Commandments

    Ten Commandments, 100 Rules, and 1000 Suggestions

    As I mostly keep this blog around to bore my daughter in the future, I guess I should start moralizing early.  Towards that end I’m going to start my top ten commandments, one hundred rules, and one thousand suggestion.  It will serve as the definitive source for whatever wisdom I believe in at the time, ordered by importance and severity.

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