A JJ Heller Style birthday

Today is Puppy's birthday. A few months ago Puppy heard a song on the radio by J.J. Heller. She calls it Love me for me which are the main lyrics in the chorus. The actual song is called What Love Really Means. Puppy instantly fell in love with that song and with J.J. Heller herself. She wrote her a letter and even got a response from her.

Since then I found out that J.J. Heller and I have a lot in common . . .

1. Her daughter has the same real name as Puppy.

2. She has a husband named Dave. I am a husband named Dave.

3. She blogs. I blog.

4. She made her daughter rainbow cupcakes for her recent birthday. We made Puppy rainbow cupcakes for her birthday.

5. She has a lovely singing voice. I have a lovely singing voice blog.

So for Puppy's birthday we got her the J.J.Heller C.D.. that has What Love Really Means on it. When Puppy found out that J.J Heller's daughter got rainbow cupcakes on her birthday she said I'm having a J.J. Heller style birthday. Puppy you bring your own style to every birthday and everything you do and as pal J.J might say we love you for you. Happy Birthday!

Ron Santo (HOF) One Down Two To Go

Say what you want about the late Ron Santo. He wore his heart on his sleeve.  It did not take much time to figure out the 3 things he was most passionate about:  1.  He loved the Cubs and wanted nothing more for them to break their century long World Series Championship drought.

2) He wanted to cure Juvenile Diabetes.  Not only did Santo, a diabetic, raise awareness of the disease through his playing career and subsequent broadcast career, he also raised over 60 million dollars for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund)

3) He wanted to be enshrined in Cooperstown, New York in Baseball's Hall of Fame.

It was obvious that he wanted to achieve all of those goals in his lifetime and the consummate competitor would not be satisfied until those missions were accomplished.  On December 3, 2010 Santo passed away without achieving any of those lofty goals.

The most frustrating thing for me personally was the HOF snub. The other 2 goals will take much serendipity to accomplish, the HOF was a no-brainer.  He definitely had a HOF career as a third baseman for the northsiders.      I think 3 things shied voters away from voting for him when he was on the ballot as a player. 

1) He never got to the post season and did not have a chance to wow the casual fan and generate enthusiasm beyond Chicago and the National League.  There was no inter league play this time, so American League fans did not have much opportunity to see his body of work.

2) There were 3 more HOF worthy players on his own team.  These men Ferguson Jenkins, Billy Williams and Ernie Banks were so worthy of the Hall of Fame that they have all been enshrined there.  Many voters didn't seem to want to put a 4th player there when the Cubs had little or nothing to show for such an honor. 


3) He was no Brooks Robinson.  While Santo, in my opinion,  was definitely the best third baseman in the NL in his career, Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles was the best in the Majors.

I don't think that any of these reasons were valid enough to keep him out of the HOF in the original voting or when he appeared  on the Veteran's committee ballot.  For the above  mentioned reasons or others the voters decided he was not HOF material.

Until now. Almost a year to the day after his death Cooperstown has come calling.  The Ron Santo legacy is now 1/3 complete.  Now we need to find a way to beat Diabetes and a team in the World Series.

 


I wonder what team team they will enshrine him for?



What happens at an FLL scrimmage?

Last Saturday the First Lego League (FLL) team that Spider Droid is on (TheFanatix) hosted a scrimmage in advance of the December 17th regional. It was quite a bit of fun.

The scrimmage was held at the Elgin Tower, the tallest building in Elgin. It's a cool building with a fully dunctional old time elevator manned by an elevator operator. The kids loved that elevator almost as much as the robots they created and programmed. Almost. Thanks again to the Elgin Technology Center (ETC) who let the host team use the facility.

I recently caught up with the coach of the Fanatix and asked her for a little more info on ETC.

While at the scrimmage armed with a camera, an ipod touch and no official capacity, I decided to interview participants, coaches, mentors and parents and give you an idea of what happens at a robotics scrimmage.

I talked to one of the hosts of the event ...

I spoke with a mentor of the fanatix who had participated in a scrimmage before. She told me of some of the personal benefits of a scrimmage.

Team spirit is a big part of FLL it is not uncommon for the team to dress alike. Many teams have custom t-shirts made.

Some can only afford milk jugs

Two of the 5 teams at the scrimmage were rookie teams. Both teams were from the same school. I spoke with one of the parents about what FLL has meant to him so far.

I talked to two members of last years state champion I-Lego Team.

One of the main reasons for the scrimmage is to practice table runs and technical judging in an atmosphere that is as close to competition as possible. At the onset of the scrimmage the coach for the Fanatix explained and demonstrated a bit about how the runs are scored.

The table challenges are based on the theme for the year. This year the theme is Food Factor. What makes FLL unique is that the robots are only part of the competition. Each year every team has to research to a theme related problem and then create a solution and then present that solution in several ways. I will be talking about this in a little more detail in a post later this week when I talk about Ask magazine's December Robotics Issue. In the radio biz, that is what we call a tease. I'm not in the radio biz, but some say I have the perfect face for it. Enough about me, lets get back to the scrimmage.

Here is a clip from one of I-lego's runs. I added the music with the help of youtube. It does have a food related theme.

I talked to members of the HCA Roarbots along with their coach about their experience so far as a rookie team.

Here they are demonstrating some of their program . . .

G2 is another one of the teams that was at the scrimmage. I spoke with their coach.

and his son, a member of G2.

Watching A Practice Run

The Fanatix discuss their technical judging component.

Fll means differen things to different people here is what one of the Fanatix had to say.

I hope you have enjoyed this behind the scenes look at an FLL scrimmage. Hopefully you have discovered like I did that FLL robotics packs in everything . . .

Plus the Kitchen Sink

100 Books





Reading opens many doors.

I can't believe I read the whole thing.





My son is not only an action hero, but he is also a super genius.  Granted a super genius who doesn't yet read at grade level.  He has the mind of an inventor and a magnificent memory.  Yet he is having difficulty inputting knowledge in his mind through reading.  This has been a concern of ours as parents for a number of years.  We had tried many things tutoring, summer school, Lamaze (which did not help with his reading but you should see the kid breathe!); we tried it all.

When Amy and I attended the local home school convention this past June I went to a seminar about helping your under performing readers.  It was really encouraging and had many good take-a-ways.  One thing I decided to try was a 100 book chart.  You have the child read 100 picture books and write them on a chart in their room.  When the chart is full you give a GREAT reward. 

From June to October 31st we only put 23 books on the chart. Spider Droid probably read more than that but I didn't always get to writing them down.  In short my inconsistency didn't help him take ownership of the project.

In the meantime Spider Droid was taking vision therapy that was beginning to show some signs of progress with his reading ability.  On November 1st, his birthday.  I took him to the chart and added something to the top.  It showed how many books were left and how many days were left in the year.  He had 77 books remaining and 61 days before the end of the year.  We set two goals: 1) To get to a point where there were  more days reaming  in the years than books remaining to be read.  2) to finish the chart before the end of 2011.

He read 3 books that day and 17 by the 7th.  23 from June to October and 17 in a week!   He reached his first goal on 11/16.  40 books remained with 45 days left to read them in.  That's when SD upped his game and decided he wanted to finish the 100 by the end of November.  At about that time life began to get very busy with our home school co-op, robotics, Thanksgiving and the like.  Yet he was driven and diligent.  We went to the local library on Saturday and he checked out as many books as he had left to read.  Tuesday morning he had 10 left.  This morning he had 5 left.  In between lessons he finished the last 5 before lunch time. 

Here are 2 pictures worth 100 books. 

My Son the Reader



Our Story So Far



Here is some live footage .  . .

 Not only has SD's reading quantity increased, the quality piece has improved substantially.  In a few months time he has gone up one full grade in his reading level.

We still have a way to go but we are very pleased with his progress.  Too bad he isn't a little more excited about his achievement, as the picture below attests.





Liebster Blog Award

Cristina the author  of Home Spun Juggling, has bestowed upon me  a Liebster Award. 

Liebster  is a German word. 

According to an online translation tool Liebster can be defined as

 - n. sweetheart, beloved person, darling   

adj. dear, darling; beloved, liked very much; affectionate, loving   

adj. favorite, preferred above others; liked or loved above others

 

 

The purpose of this award is to showcase the hidden gems of the blogging world.  Blogs with 300 or less followers can be given the Liebster by a previous winner.    The new winner then finds 3-5 deserving blogs to bestow the award on. 

In a sense it seems like a high honor and I know that Cristina meant my Liebster that way and I receive it in that way.  But in another sense it seems like a blog version of a chain letter.

  Since I like to fill this space with praise of others in the blog-o-sphere.  I don't mind awarding some Liebsters to deserving blogs.  I would like to say that my no means do I expect  my Liebster winners to feel like they need to pay this award forward.  If they feel they know blogs that are deserving of this award.  I say go ahead let the world know.  If they choose not to continue the tradition that's fine too.

Here is the criteria I used for  doling out my Liebsters.

1) 300 or less followers.  In researching the award, I found that most references to it said 200 or more followers.  But Christina said 300 in her post and since she is my sponsor I am going to follow her lead.  Two of the blogs I have given the award to don't broadcast their follower stats.  I am giving those two the benefit of the doubt.

2) Blogs I love. Each of the recipients below are blogs I have mentioned in these pages before.  Many I have dedicated 1 or more post to.  I did not scramble to come up with names, the quality of these blogs scream out to me for recognition

The 5 blogs I have chosen are all written or co written by men.  This is somewhat coincidental.  However, since the blogosphere (at least the corner I live in) is generally filled predominately with blogs written by women.  I thought it might be nice to have a testosterone filled wing in the Liebster Hall of Fame.  Again, the quality of these blogs not the gender of the writers was my main criteria in bestowing the award. 

Here are my 5 Liebster winners in no particular order.

Read-a-loud Dad. 

 I became familiar with this blog by reading his work in the Carnival of Homeschooling.  I felt an instant affinity since we both have the same last name, Dad. We also share an affinity to reading aloud as I have been reading to my children since they were in their mother's womb.  I continue to read to them now, even now that they all love to read to themselves. 

I like his book reviews and his passion for reading a out loud.  Even though he is preaching to the choir, when it comes to me.  I still find much of what he says inspirational.

Allen Levi's Blog

Allen Levi is a hero of mine.  I have written about turned singer here from time to time. He sang at my 40th birthday party.  I love his blog and even wrote a song about how I wished he would blog more. 

On July 23rd Allen's brother was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Allen continues to produce great posts with updates on his brother's progress.  The last installment where he compared his brother's sickness to a trip he took to Afghanistan was especially poignant.

While his writing is deeply personal it is  also very accessible.  I encourage you to go pay him a visit.  It just sometimes takes him a while to come to the door. 

Why Homeschool

I absolutely love this blog.  I have been a frequent follower there, since I became a revolving host of the Carnival of Homeschooling.  The carnival is the brainchild of the Cates.  I could write a whole post about how fantastic the COH is.  Im fact, I have.

Why Homeschool goes well beyond the scope of the Carnival of Homeschooling.  It has some of the best variety in the entire Internet.  It is well written, and thought provoking. I love this blog so much, I was pleasantly surprised to find it does not yet have 300 followers and thus qualifies for the award. 

Out Walking 

Out Walking is the first blog I ever remember reading.  I found it as part of a google search.  Like Allen Levi's blog there is much more quality to this blog then quantity.  He has posted only six times since September 1st of this year, but each one was well worth waiting for.

Today's post, Oh Melancholia really struck a chord with me.  The teasing he gets from his son is very similar to the beating I take because I cry a lot.

Families Again

The author of  Families again is an HSBA rival of mine.  He and I have been nominated in the best Dad category for each of the last 3 years.  The main difference being, is that he has won it two of those years (including this year)  and I am still in Susan Lucci mode.

I am a big fan of Families Again.  The author does a great job of balancing between product reviews, Compassion updates, and other interesting topics.  He used to host A fine meme called Men's Monday Meme.  As a former host of a failed  an erstwhile meme, I know the pain of spending time to prepare a weekly meme and then only having 1 or less blog link on to it.  If you don't find his blog at the link above, he has probably completed his switch to the blogger platform.  I gladly became his first follower at the new location earlier today. 

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I hope you enjoyed my Liebster Awards.  Thanks again to Cristina for giving me mine.  Just so you know, Cristina.  That if anyone else gave me my Liebster, you would have been the first to receive one from me.