Radical idea: child abuse and neutering/spaying

As I go to and from the Mother's hospital to visit my wife and the two boys, I occasionally see recently-birthed moms loitering outside the hospital, puffing away.

And my wife also overheard one of the staff contacting Child Protective Services (it's still confidential, as she didn't catch the name) of the birth of a child to a mom whose other kids are already on ''the list'' of CPS as having been abused.

So, here's my (tentative) but radical ideas:

1) If you're convicted of child abuse, you're spayed/neutered (depending on whether you're male or female). It's conceptually equivalent to having your license taken away after too many DUIs/DWIs, or being de-barred for misconduct, etc. Clearly, you've shown that you can't be entrusted with children.

2) Smoking around little kids -- and especially when you're carrying -- shows you're a carp parent. (And I'll stand by that statement.) Either it's because you have no sense; no willpower; or you just dare care about the kid. But whichever reason, you're screwing up the kid's heath -- and in this day and age, who **doesn't** know that, hey, secondhand smoke is bad for kids? And regardless of the reason (stupid, weak, or uncaring), those are signs of a carp parent.

2a) Is smoking around little kids tantamount to child abuse? Arguably -- although I'm not completely sure. And no, it's **not** comparable to feeding the kid too much sugar or saturated fats...

2b) Should parents who smoke around their little kids be spayed/neutered? Should they have their kids takes away from them? Or just get a big spanking, or "I BE STUPID BAD PARENT" tattooed on their forheads? I'm undecided, as of yet.


Makes me want to adopt them all (the kids, not the adults): go up to the parents and say, "Look -- clearly you care more about your nicotine fix than about your child's health. You just go away and spend thirty bucks a day on smokes, and **I'll** raise your little one -- o.k.?"


--GG


Afterthought : OK, I guess people have the capacity to change. Sometimes. Maybe for their first kid, they get a warning; and on their "second strike", they're out?

Two more kids

In addition to The Girl, we now have B1 and B2 (both boys). B1 -- the older, and slightly larger, one -- is on the left.

I love how B2 is doing the "Jedi Mind Trick" gesture.

The Lady is doing well, as is The Girl.

And me, too.


--GG

Dig this city

Station identification, heard this morning on the local radio station "Triple-M":

"Triple-M. We love this city. But the traffic sucks."


--GG

Comic book knowledge

Last night, The Lady was reading to me from a book of baby names (100,000 Baby Names, by Bruce Lansky). I either dismayed or impressed her (I think the former) by getting 23 out of 25 for the "Comic Book Superheroes Alter Egos" list (page 43).


How do you do?

1. Arthur Curry
   
2. Barbara Gordon
3. Ben Grimm [misspelled as "Grim"...]
4. Bruce Wayne
5. Charles Xavier
6. Clark Kent
7. Diana Prince
8. Dick Grayson
9. Emma Frost
10. Frank Castle
11. Hal Jordan [misspelled as "Jordon" in the book!]
12. Henry McCoy
13. Jean Grey [misspelled as "Gray"]
14. Logan Howlett [I guessed it based on the first name; but I thought part of the mystique was that he didn't know his surname...!]
15. Matt Murdock
16. Oliver Queen
17. Peter Parker
18. Reed Richards
19. Scott Summers
20. Selina Kyle
21. Steve Rogers
22. Susan Richards
23. Tony Stark
24. Wally West
    
25. Warren Worthington III (I named him by his "original" name, not his new/current name)

I missed #1 (I got this one wrong, although afterwards the first name did sound familiar; if it had been "Namor", I would've got it), and #24 (Got this one wrong, foolishly saying "Captain Marvel"; but when I was told, I elaborated with, "Ah! I know him more as "Kid Flash")

You can e-mail me to get the answers -- although you'll get a faster response by just Googling it. :)

Just too much time reading comic books, I suppose.


I also scored pretty well on the "Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artists" list (page 61) -- even though it's not my "genre" of music. I'm curious to see how guitar cousin did (and whether DJ Char does well, based on her wide-ranging musical knowledge).

1. Alice Cooper
2. Angus Young
3. Axl Rose
4. Bon Scott
5. Chris Cornell
6. Courtney Love
7. David Lee Roth
8. Eddie Van Halen
9. Gene Simmons
10. James Hetfield
11. Joe Perry
12. Jon Bon Jovi
13. Kurt Cobain
14. Layne Staley
15. Lita Ford
16. Marilyn Manson
17. Maynard James Keenan
18. Ozzy Osbourne
19. Rob Halford
20. Robert Plant
21. Scott Weiland
22. Sebastian Bach
23. Steven Tyler
24. Sully Erna
25. Tommy Lee

For this one -- again, not my main area of music -- I missed #17, #19, #22, and #24. So, 21 out of 25 -- decent enough.


--GG

(Image from: http://www.hillcity-comics.com/poster_misc/green_lantern_kyle.jpg)

Moving heavy things

I got up at 4am this morning -- during the summer (right now!) it's already hot by 8am -- to help my in-laws move an old garden shed from one property down the block, over to my parents-in-laws' place.

My BIL was the brains of the outfit -- he got together all the requisite tools. Five round fenceposts as rollers; a bunch of wooden beams for "tracks" (more consistent than the uneven ground the shed passed over); and a blue hydraulic car jack.

The photo to the left is the shed sitting at the foot of my parents-in-laws' driveway, after we'd moved it down the footpath. You can see the family pushing on it, the roller-logs, and the beams the logs rolled on.

My BIL and I got into an interesting debate as to what was more efficient for lifting the shed (as various points we had to put it up on cinder blocks -- Aussies call them "bessa blocks" ("besser blocks"?). I claimed that using a lever and fulcrum was faster than jacking it up. However, my BIL correctly pointed out that there were more "moving parts" to position when using a lever. Plus, with the car jack, it was a one-person operation: the car jack held it up while the same person placed the blocks -- whereas with a lever, someone **else** has to place the blocks.

Still, the lever was useful for when we had to shift the nose sideways, to "steer" the shed: one person would make sideways sweeping motions with the lever -- much like a gondaleer -- while one other person helped things along by pushing sideways on the shed.

The photo to the left is just a few meters shy to the shed's transitional resting place. We called it quits around 9:30am -- getting too hot, and we wanted to stop before it stopped being fun.

Presumably I'll be called to action in another few weeks, to finish moving it into its permanent location.

Pretty interesting stuff. But tiring.


--GG








--GG

Now I look like Gung Fu Bill

"Biiiill... I broke my arm..."

"Rub-it-out."

(That's an inside joke; those that it's meant for will understand...)


After letting my hair get so long that I couldn't much stand it any more, I performed my half-yearly ritual of shaving it off to nearly nothing.

Although, first I gave myself a bit of a mohawk. A transitional stage; lasted about ten minutes. :)



And, here's what I look like now!



(In hindsight, I should've also taken a "before" picture. But I think you can get a sense of my level of shagginess from the mohawk pic.)


One sign of getting old is when you care less about being ''cool'' or ''hip'', and more about practicality and comfort. Back in the day, I had long hair -- now and again. But now, I just can't be bothered...


--GG

Whups!

Because I keep a timesheet and also write down the date on various notes to myself, I always know what the date is. But today, I abruptly realized that it's only fifteen days to Christmas.

I guess I should really sit down and write up my Christmas cards to all the Americans on my list (takes a week to get there).


--GG

Still here

Nothing in particular to report.

Been busy. The Lady's pregnancy is doing well. Due date late December, probably.

Photo of our porch, with Ralphie in the doorway, The Girl sitting on the green bench my paternal grandfather made a zillion years ago (used to be in his basement), The Girl's soccer ball underneath.

Between the doorway and the bench is the big white bucket that I pour the "waiting for the water to heat up" water from the showers (we collect the water in buckets, then I carry the buckets to the door and pour them in the big white bucket). We're in a drought, and this "free" water keeps our various outdoors plants going.


--GG