Indian Day Pow Wow 9/26/08
For all the PDX-Area Parents…
Tomorrow, Friday 9/26, at the Pioneer Courhouse Square, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NHAIHB) will celebrate American Indian Day by holding a powwow. This is from their announcement:
Portland, OR — The Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) and other local area American Indian organizations will be hosting an American Indian Day Celebration at the Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland on Friday, September 26, 2008. The event will be a celebration of American Indian cultures and is intended to raise the level of awareness concerning the challenges that American Indian people continue to face in this country. The event is free and open to the public. The event will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and will include Northwest Tribal leaders, Indian advocates, drum groups, dancers, and arts and crafts vendors who will share their talents and experiences with the Portland community.
Looks like it should be fun and informational, and there will be booths and a press conference for those of us who are politically active.
Homeschool Science – Fives Senses – Portland Style
Fae and I took part of the school day today to explore downtown. We spent the morning on her Math unit assessment, and playing with her Phonics materials that just arrived today (only 3 weeks late). After, we set out for downtown to do our Science class on the “five senses.”
With camera in hand, and adventure in our hearts, we took to the streets of Portland. Our mission was to photojournal different things to represent the five senses. I created a scavenger hunt of sorts, a rather simple one. Fae seemed to enjoy herself, and was really into getting down and taking pictures.
All of the picture ideas are hers. Most of the actual holding of the camera was done by me, but the final composition of the pictures was Fae’s. Below the cut is the assignment, and the photos we took.
Finnish School Tragedy, Questioning School Safety in America.
Yet another college student goes on a rampage, killing 10 people then himself. This time, the shooting is in Kauhajoki, Finland. Sadly, local police had already picked up the student, Matti Juhani Saari, for suspicious activity when he posted a rather violent video on YouTube of his target practice. I won’t post Saari’s video, but here’s a video of the BBC reporting the tragedy:
One of our biggest worries about Fae in public schools is the safety. We keep hearing about school shootings, first-graders with knives, third-grade gang-bangers, etc. Granted, statistically, there’s a greater change of being hurt within five miles of home in a car accident, but still, the seemingly nightly news reports of our “schools in crisis” cast a pall on the prospect of our little five-year-old being safe.
Kiki and I still greatly worry about Fae being exposed to all kinds of elements at such an early age. However, I’m not too concerned with school shootings.
It’s Fall. Or, Send in the Browns.
Today is the Fall Equinox, which means the first day of Autumn, which means Kiki is about to go insane.
It helps that the temperature is currently 51F, with a high of 61F, mostly cloudy with some raining this morning. Both Kiki and I much prefer fall over the summer. We’re just not warm-weather people, and Fae acts like she’ll melt in the sunshine. It’ll be interesting to see how Yuki handles her first Fall and Winter.
Fae at the pumpkin patch 2007.
Changing weather means changing decor in the house. (Supposedly, anyway. We still have some winter items up from last year.) Leaves, pumpkins, wicker stuff, with the colors pretty much stuck on oranges and reds and blacks and browns. Charlie Brown meets the Cleveland Browns.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I like it when Kiki redoes the decor. It’s just that every once in a while, I get these flashes of what it’ll be like 10-20-30 years down the road, when we own our own home, and the house is brimming with holiday stuff because Ms-Geeks-Out-At-Every-Holiday won’t get rid of “sentimental” decorations from decades past.
Still, it keeps her happy, makes the house look different (and better) when she changes things out, and it forces me to clean out the stairway closet.
Follow The Shipping Box
Before becoming a stay-at-home-dad, I spent the last decade in the supply chain and logistics industry. I’ve worked as an export coordinator for a major supply chain solutions company, a freight forwarder for hazardous air cargo, and as an inbound logistics analyst for a global footwear company. Globalization, foreign affairs, politics, and all things international interest me.
BBC's "The Box"
That’s why I’m totally stoked about this project from the BBC. Quick synopsis: BBC is running a news series on globalization. They’ve commissioned an export container to be painted red with their logo and website, and to be used in the general container pool. They give updates about where it’s at via GPS on the website, and ask for readers and viewers to take pictures / videos of the container if they see it. An interactive map shows its current location, and its previous path.
“And I – I took the food less eaten…”
Our five-year-old, Fae, is either a really picky eater, or a contrarian (or, she might just be both). I mean, really, have you ever met a kid that didn’t like mashed potatoes?
“This is too spicy” for barbeque sauce.
“I don’t like rice” for any kind of rice, although not so much with cheesy rice.
“It’s too brown” when I serve roasted broccoli.
“I’m not eating burnt meat” when she sees the grill marks on chicken.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Almost every night ends up being a battle with Fae to eat a good portion of her dinner. Often she’ll comply, or she’ll talk us into taking 2-3 “no thank you bites.” Sometimes she just flat out refuses. My hope is that Fae will learn to like different foods as she gets older and continues to be “forced” to try new things.
Random thought of the day
If babies smelled like bacon, I guarantee fathers would be all about taking care of the kids.
Bacon Baby! (No, not mine...)
Just a Thursday Morning
Typical Thursday at the PDX Dad residence:
Fae is flipping, twirling, dancing, running, hopping, banging, and otherwise just is burning some great energy while listening to different world music. She seems to especially like mariachi, sitar, and drums. Not so much the Americana, although she likes Dylan and Guthrie (you go alterna-girl!). I still don’t understand how she can flip around, retain the music, play with her doodlepad, and have a conversation with Imaginary Tod and Copper from watching Fox and the Hound last night.
“Oh, Fae, let’s not do the howling inside the house, Ok?”
Chinese Infant Formula – One reason why we think “breast is best.”
I think it’s pretty horrible, what’s going on in China right now with infants becoming sick (and dying) from tainted formula.
More than 6,200 babies have been sickened by milk powder now found to be tainted with the chemical melamine, said Li Changjiang, China’s director of quarantine and inspection, up from about 1,200 on Tuesday.
More than 1,300 infants are hospitalized. The illnesses include malnutrition, kidney stones and acute renal failure.
Just a note: Don’t let the jingoist list of “tainted products from China” bias you. This has nothing to do with China, and everything to do with quality control standards by two individual company owners. Even Gerber had to recall its organic rice and oatmeal cereals last year.
Plus, the tainted formula isn’t even shipped to the U.S.
Photo phun – Aspirators
Speaking of nostril suckers, here’s a pic for you all. Kiki likes to take artistic shots of every day objects – after all, who else is tired of seeing bland portrait shots of their family?
Art? Or snot sucker? You decide
