A friend from my college years, Kwon Cho, who went to same church at the time, now hosts and works for a very needed Korean-American Christian media company, KAC Media, and started his very first show! 😀 So here’s a shameless push for his show… it’s very good and insightful! His first guest, is a Korean-American Internet entrepreneur who participated in “The Apprentice 6” and became a finalist!
Anna’s Piano Lessons
So with Anna’s diminishing interest in ballet/dancing, she drew interest in piano.
This past Wednesday marked her first tutoring lesson. She was very excited to learn. And the teacher was very good and got along great with Anna. Our take on Anna’s learning to play piano isn’t so much that she would become a professional at it. Far from it. Actually, I hope she doesn’t.
We wanted her to learn music so that it would help her in getting through life. I believe that music, among many other things, can give the person the ability to pull through tough times. I wanted Anna to have that when things got tough and she needed a way to release her emotions and frustrations.
This also meant that I have to oversee her practicing it 15 minutes a day! Yikes! :O But in the end, I hope she will be able to use it to help herself and others get through tough times of life. Is that weird of me?
Engineering Basics – Linux
Lately, I have had to train people. And I am realizing that of the 4, 3 don’t know much about Linux. And as a somewhat of a veteran engineer now, if you are going to enter the engineering job field, please please please learn some basics of the Linux OS!!
Myth Busters on Moon Landing: Is it a Hoax or Real?
If you are a sci-fi fan and fellow nerd, you know that we really landed on the moon. 😛 But people have been arguing that it was a conspiracy all along. Well, Myth Busters, a show on cable network somewhere (I think it’s on Discovery) proved that it’s real! Now go and weep! 😀
Gizmodo, my favorite gadget blog site, reports and shows some video clips.
- They proved boots can leave footprints on dust in vacuum surrounding.
- Momentum alone will keep the flag waving in a vacuum (no wind needed)
- Retroreflectors were left on the moon and they shot a laser at it to get signal back
So read and weep you conspiracy losers!! 😛 I guess those same people will move onto work on how to make Mars landings a hoax!
Stanford’s Brave New Move
NPR reported on February 21st, that Stanford would waive tuition for students from middle class (parents’ income is less than $100,000 combined)! And for those that are poorer still (less than $60,000 combined), even the room and board would be waived!! :O
Wow. That is an awesome news!! If my kids want to go to college, they will either attend state school or Stanford! 😛 Assuming that they can get in of course! In these times when college tuition alone soars well above $30,000 annually, this is a great news indeed! I don’t know if Stanford will offer this when my kids are at that age, but I sure hope so!
A friend from yonder years, Mark Roh, said that he’d quit job if his kid(s) got into Stanford so that even the room and board would be paid for!! LOL… that sounds like an awesome idea!! Seriously, with the rise of inflation and things not going well, these are the kinds of brave new moves the educational institutions need to make!
Cheers to Stanford!
Funny helping Anna with school work
So since past few weeks ago, our Kindergarten Anna has finally brought… work home!! 😮
She started having quizzes in spelling!! I didn’t realize that K’s also have to learn to spell already!! As I read out the words to her, it feels … weird finding myself helping her with studying.
It’s just odd… is all. I just pray that I won’t become those “typical Asian parents” in lording education over their heads. I want them to love studying and learning, and growing up. Hope I don’t mess that up…
Increasing Responsibilities of Parenthood
Anna’s first year in public school system has been great. She loves going to school and is always excited about learning… However, there has been a bit of… concern.
There’s this girl in her class that has been saying negative things to Anna. It all started with “You are not my friend” type of simple (but common, unfortunately) negative comments whenever Anna didn’t play with this girl or wanted to control her. Anna is mostly a very sweet girl who gets along with everyone else and tries to be kind. Unfortunately, that’s her weakness as well and so even such statement makes her cry. 🙁
I remember the first time Anna mentioned it. It kind of came out of the blue and she started to cry. So both of us have been telling her to try her best to ignore what she tells her. Well, unfortunately, things have been getting worse. Last week, that girl told Anna that she’s stupid! 😡 Erg… This girl is currently the only child and so tends to try to be controlling and authoritative. Both of us were so mad.
It’s hard to advise a 5-year-old on how to handle such situation. While being a Christian, we want to tell her to just love that girl unconditionally, I told myself that Ann’s 5 years old. She has no concept on what all that means, let alone being able to process how to not let such negative things not affect her. So until I believe she’s old enough to ignore those negative comments and still be able to befriend her, I told her (as calmly and nicely as possible) to avoid her and ignore what she says.
In her first year in school system, all I wanted for Anna to learn is adapt well into the system. I could care less about how smart she becomes or capable or such things. I want her to enjoy the school life. After all, she will be in it for 12 more years! So on Tuesday, we had our 2nd teacher-parent conference. Anna’s teacher is great. She loves her. And the teacher is great for most part. But she’s a teacher nonetheless and with all her responsibilities, this kind of situation was oblivious to her. So after the teacher spoke about her academic progress (and she’s doing just fine even if others are doing superior), I brought this issue with this particular girl.
Now that she’s aware of it, I hope the teacher does a bit more. And I do pray that Anna grows up to be a very understanding and accepting kind of person. But until I think she’s ready to even understand what that means, I am advising her to avoid her. Man, it’s tough being a parent… 🙁