First Dance, First Soccer Game, Troop Shakeup

First Dance

I took both boys to their first grade school dance. It was a fun event but really loud. The kids didn’t dance really, they just played and yelled. Next dance I’ll bring some earplugs to help with the volume. It was fun to watch the boys to play with their friends and interact with others. Ben seems to be popular with the girls and was getting chased by a few. Ted has a few friends that played with too. There were games and snacks also. The PTA did a great job with it and I am glad they took this on. It is my understanding this is the first dance since the COVID lockdowns. I am glad Ted went, he wasn’t game at first, he was nervous about slow dancing with girls, or not having someone to slow dance with.

I will admit I don’t have much experience with school dances at this age. I went to a tiny, rural, Catholic school. Dances didn’t happen, and boyfriend/girlfriend relationships were strictly forbidden, in as much as parents were called if it was discovered. The first dance I went to I was a freshman in high school and it was as awkward as can be, but I went, and I did ultimately have fun.

First Soccer Game

It was great to see Ben take the field and play soccer again. I am still curious if we should’ve done spring baseball and fall soccer but maybe we’ll try that next year. Ben kind of waited to late to change his mind on what he wanted to do so we ended up here, plus his baseball team wanted another year in tee ball and he found that really boring. Next spring he’ll be doing coach pitch, which means we need to work on some skills before then. I do appreciate Ben’s coach though, he is doing a great job and the players are definitely improving.

Troop Shakeup

We’ve been crossed over to the Troop for about five weeks and there’s been a major shakeup in leadership. I won’t go into details, but the dust is settling and I think we’ll come out OK. I will most likely need to move up my training window for what I was planning on doing in the Troop by about six months. My original plan was to take it easy for a year and learn things, I just don’t want to get thrust into a role not knowing what is going on and having to deal with it and some major problems in the group. That is what happened when I was in the Pack, it was just too much too quick with too little help. Luckily that did improve, some wonderful leaders stepped up and took over for me and they are doing great. However, I’m just not wanting to go down that path again.

Updates

I have a new snack I love to eat – Greek Yogurt with Chia Seeds, Mixed Nuts, and Honey. It is a hearty snack so careful with the serving size but full of fiber, protein, and is quite tasty!

I’ve been on a binging in terms of software skills recently. I spent time watching GitHub how-to videos and learning more about it. I’ve learned about Markdown files and what those README.MD files are therefore referencing. I fired Postgres and created a database that stores information about the apes at the Cincinnati Zoo (don’t ask me why I chose that as my subject, it just popped into my head).

Evidently the day when Quantum Computers becomes reality will be known as “Q-Day“. Nobody knows when Q-Day will happen, but when it does it will upend the world as we know it. Encryption will become obsolete. New scientific discoveries hampered by an inability to calculate will wither away.

I heard an interesting insight, one I agree with in terms of artistry. To be a great artist you need to be prolific, meaning you create work, lots of it. I know many creative people but they are not prolific. Most seemed to have honed their skills to be remarkable to other people, then stop there. Perhaps it was about providing value, or receiving recognition, or praise, from parents or peers. To think you are creative, an artist, means your work is work. It also means you do the hard things. Not to disparage the “creatives” I knew, but many were lazy. I also like the idea of process as it relates to art. Take for example Jackson Pollock. Everyone who looks at his work is like “I can do that, it’s just paint splattered.” But truthfully, you could paint the Mona Lisa with some practice too. What is to say about Pollock’s work is that it was endemic of a process that he honed over a lifetime of work. His paintings are hard to copy in reality once you start understanding his use of colors, thickness of paint etc. There is more to it than meets the eye.