Quaap
New Math Worksheet Generators
I just finished up a few new math worksheet generators:
Printable greater than, less than, equal to worksheets
Printable "plus what?" worksheets
Printable place value / unit blocks worksheets.
Printable "complete the pattern" worksheets.
And of course: All games and worksheets
Secret code worksheets
Hi. I made a generator for secret code worksheets, ie letter substitution. Enjoy!
Objective morality
Just for a minute, imagine a world where there is no objective morality. No God or gods, no Great Spirit, no reincarnation, no cosmic consciousness, no universal oneness, no karma, no angels, no demons, no supernatural elements at all. Imagine a world where, because those entities don't exist, they can't be the source of morality, and therefore there is no objective basis for our morality. What would this imaginary world look like?
Homeschooling stereotypes flowchart: 3 attempts
Lately I made the mistake of commenting on a few negative articles about homeschooling. It's always a mistake. I'm not going to change anyone's mind; I'm just going to raise my blood pressure after beating my head against the same tired and refuted arguments. The commenters asserting negative ideas about homeschooling are not interested in counter opinions from people who actually know more than one homeschooling family. They have an anecdote about "this one kid in college" who blah blah blah.
"Skeptic" is not an insult
I've noticed some people seem to have an odd definition of "skeptic". "Oh, he won't believe that, he's a skeptic." Or "I showed him the news article, but he won't believe it: he's a skeptic." They seem to use "skepticism" and "skeptic" as an insult, and it seems to mean a person is close-minded.
Chemistry
One of the cool homeschooling parents in our group puts on a chemistry class for young kids. I'm the first to admit that teaching chemistry to 5- and 7-year-olds is probably not really "teaching them chemistry" as most people think about it. You can explain atoms, electron shells, covalent bonds, and chemical reactions all you want, but it will not really "stick". But that's not really the point.
Money and denominations
Just a quick little note. The young one and I were playing Dino Store for a bit this morning and I could see it was winding down. So I came up with what I thought might be a quick little one-off activity/game involving coins. I laid out pairs of groups of coins side by side, and the goal was for her to figure out which group had more money. …
School philosophy
There are many divergent beliefs on the methods of homeschooling out there. Many who homeschool, and most who do not homeschool, are in favor of formalized lessons and schoolwork: i.e. every day you "have school" and do worksheets, lessons, and exercises. There's explicit explanations of concepts and explicit learning sessions.
Sledgercising
A few months back I stumbled across The Slovelglove workout. It seemed like an interesting idea, but I didn't like the name. So I call it "Sledgercising". I had a few notes/thoughts on it, thus, this article.
Sneaky school for young kids
How do I school a kid who doesn't want to be schooled (ie 90% of kids ever)? Trickery and deceit, of course. It's kind of like adding chopped cauliflower to rice for the picky eaters who don't want to eat vegetables. I've seen others talk about things like this, but it's often a one-off field trip that doesn't address "core subjects".
Non-conventional diets
Many of my friends and acquaintances fall into the "non-conventional diet" bucket (by "diet" I mean way of eating, not necessarily a weight loss diet). I'm generally OK with that. I don't see much evidence for most of it, but mostly I don't worry about what other people eat or don't eat. I myself have tread down the non-conventional path a few times.
Congressional pay raises
This is disgusting!
President's executive order gives Congress and the Vice President a raise?!
Salaries for members of the House and Senate will rise to $169,300 from $165,200. Cabinet secretaries will make $191,300, up from $186,600. The vice president's salary will be $221,100, up from $215,700.
Call me unimpressed
Every few weeks I'll see someone mention/promote some new documentary which promises to solve America's health and/or weight problems. These "documentaries" are all quite similar and follow a simple format:
Step one: Find several fat and unhealthy people who eat the "Standard American Diet".
Step two: Get them to eat a different diet and to exercise.
Step three: Incredibly, they lose weight and improve their overall health!
Step four: Profit.
Rules I (try to) follow
This is list of rules I try to follow when interacting with kids. These are not peer-reviewed child-raising techniques, just little odds and ends I've read, heard, observed, or thought. Some are undoubtedly pseudo-psychology. Some are probably hippie-talk nonsense. Some of them might be helpful, some useless, and maybe some are actually harmful. Maybe they're all meaningless, I don't know. I'm mostly talking out of my ass here, but I think they could be important, so I'm sharing.
Homeschool Approaches
Approach 1: "Hey, do you want to do this worksheet about denominations of money?"
The magic socialization of public school
It's odd. In the past few weeks I've received several strange real-life comments from real-life people. Some worried about all the "socialization" my homschooled daughter could miss. Others said something like "homeschooling is OK as long as you ensure the children are properly socialized". And "I knew this one person who was homeschooled and he was so shy and had no idea how to act in social situations!"
Craft engineering
I put together an event for our local homeschool group. The general idea is that kids can try their hand at building stuff. I called it "Craft Engineering". The original idea was to build bridges or towers, but because the ages ranged from 3 up to 12, and because I didn't want to prescribe how to build the things, the kids built pretty much what they wanted. Oh, and it wasn't a competition, just a fun time.
Chimp Math
I whipped up a quick math game for my daughter. Not very flashy at the moment, but it has chimpanzees. Chimp math
One holiday decoration to rule them all
Making Halloween decorations with daughter. Thought I'd cover a few more…
Debate #1 summary
I spent all evening not watching the debate. I went grocery shopping, read some more of my book, made popcorn, and played a board game with my daughter and her friend. However, merely not watching the debate shouldn't keep me from summarizing it:
Participation trophies
[Scene opens: a middle-aged coach paces slowly in front of gathered children, shout-talking in General Patton style.]
OK, children! Listen up! I understand that most of you are here not because you want to be, but because your parents or teachers told you you had to be. But regardless, you're here, and we are having a race: a competition. This is where 7-year-old strives against 7-year-old, and abilities are tested. This is where heroes are born.
Health studies and you
The way many health studies are done makes them not very useful. The way they are reported on is even worse. You see this nearly every day, then you never hear about it again. Ok, you will hear about those studies again on the Dr Oz show because he blows, but generally the study behind the news headline "It's official: Bacon is good for you!" will not hold up for long. That's partially because a lot of these studies depend on self-reported data.
"It works for me"... doesn't
Here, I fight the power of anecdotes with… an anecdote? Ok, it sounds silly, but bear with me…
Live and let live?
I hope this is my last word on the Chick-fil-A issue, but I doubt it will be (see the previous article). I want to let it drop, but I keep seeing people who misrepresent the issue pretty badly. Many claim to want to find "the middle ground", and who basically say "let everyone be". That isn't really possible.
Chick-fil-A
Just so I'm not misunderstood or misrepresented on this issue, I thought I'd write it out in a full-length article rather than be limited to a "pithy" Facebook status.
Night of keeping up with the kids
Back when I had cable, about once every few weeks I'd put it on MTV2 or Fuse and watch the top video countdown. It was one way I tried not losing complete touch with "kids today". Since I ditched cable, I am left with listening to the local alternative radio station. So I'm not at a complete loss, but there are many pop songs people talk about which I have never heard. So, in an attempt to keep with the times, I decided that I'd start watching the top music videos on Youtube. I grabbed a few double-shots of bourbon (neat, just how the kids like to do it) and got to watching…
Reverse gambling
After quitting my job to stay at home with my daughter, we lost our medical benefits. The insurance plan we had through work was OK, I guess, but it still cost hundreds a month just for having the plan, and there were still plenty of small and large payments we had to make after doctors visits and the few ER/hospital trips we had to make over the years. So it was never great, and now that I don't have the company's group rate helping out, it's much worse.
I'm with you! Oh wait, not that far.
I often find myself in an awkward situation. Awkward to me anyway. Ok, I find myself in many awkward situations: it's kind of my thing. But this specific kind of awkward situation happens when I find out the person I have been agreeing with for the past hour/month/year has gone way too far down the rabbit hole. I don't mean they are crazy, just that they have some ideas or theories which they hold dear and which I find completely unsupportable. Though it can and does happen in many area of life, I'll pick an example from the world of medical beliefs, because I run into those quite frequently, and I find them the most frustrating.
Graph Diagram of Information and Data Chart
From now on, I will assert anything I want. When asked for evidence, I can point to this graph. It clearly illustrates my point, whatever my point may be…
It's a mom's world
I've noticed this ever since our daughter was born. Many times when I try to do a little research on any parenting topic or visit any parenting forum, it's assumed the reader is the mom. This became even more apparent with my recent decisions. In doing (secular) homeschool research, there's a pattern I see many times: It's simply assumed that the stay-at-home parent is the mom. It's assumed that the mom does the homeschooling. It's assumed that the dad doesn't clean, cook, or do laundry, etc. It's assumed that the mom cares and the dad dismisses. It's assumed that the dad doesn't help out with the kids, or if he does, it's in some trivial way or it's some sort of minor aberration to a universal rule.
My "diet"
Over the past 3 years, I've slowly reduced my weight by about 50 pounds. About 20 of it was in the first year, and after that my weight gradually shifted down to my current (still a ways over-) weight. What's that? Oh thanks, I do look awesome! How'd I do it, you ask?
"Mainstream" knowledge
Two things:
- Just because something is "mainstream" doesn't mean it's correct.
- Just because something is not "mainstream" doesn't mean it's correct.
Often, people who understand the first have problems with the second…
Sandra’s seen a leprechaun
Sandra’s seen a leprechaun,
Eddie touched a troll,
Laurie danced with witches once,
Charlie found some goblin's gold.
Donald heard a mermaid sing,
Susy spied an elf,
But all the magic I have known
I've had to make myself.
-Shel Silverstein
I was a homeschooled kid
I was a homeschooled child. I am shy, socially awkward, somewhat self-centered and have a very hard time making friends and fitting into groups. These are hallmarks of the homeschooled. Ask anyone, they'll tell you. Sometimes you don't even need to ask: they'll tell you anyway. There's only one problem: I lied. I wasn't homeschooled. I went to private grade school (Catholic) and public high school.
Carrot Hummus Dip
Basically, this is just hummus but with carrots (and water) in place of the chickpeas. The hard part is getting the right amount of fluid to make it work. I didn't measure anything, so all amounts are very approximate.
My favorite homemade cleaner
I'm a fan of making my own cleaners: I hate the way most store-bought cleaners smell, and to be honest, I am a little scared of what's in them. But before I get into my newest (and, I think, best) homemade cleaner, a quick rundown of the older ones:
My advice to new parents
Several people I know have recently given birth, so I thought I'd put down some things I have been thinking about for a while. Namely, the topic of advice. As a newish parent myself, I know there is a fine line between "giving helpful and timely advice", and "annoying the crap out of a new parent with useless scaremongering". My usual advice is "do not give or receive parenting advice", but I thought I'd take a minor detour around that for a bit. So now, because I know you care what I think, here is my advice:
Children's religious stories
My daughter is somewhat interested in the Greek myths. She loves hearing about the gods and goddesses and their exploits from some of the more famous stories. It's easy to find books written for kids on the subject too: simpler story structure, illustrations, and the more gruesome bits ever-so-slightly glossed over. I saw three or four suitable books in a single trip to Half Price Books. These books present just the stories as stories and do not try to editorialize or moralize. Also, the stories are pulled out of the source material and re-written to be religiously-neutral, and they do not necessarily follow the rhyme and meter of, say, Homer's texts.
Garage sales
Many people love garage sales: You can drive around and find great deals on baby clothes or that potato slicer you've been wanting for so long. Many times, the things offered at a garage sale are items that once served a purpose, but life changed for the owner and now the item is no longer needed. However, there's a darker side to garage sales. Garage sales can also showcase all the misguided purchases a person has made. It is for this latter case that I present this chart…
A life-changing event, 5 years later
Two weeks after the birth of our daughter, my life changed. OK, my life changed at the birth of my daughter, too, but every parent has that story. This story is different. Other people may share it, but fewer. It is less common and, therefore, maybe of some interest to a few people out there. Or maybe nobody. Maybe it's just me. Who knows. Maybe I'm not actually interested either? I'm digressing: the topic of this article is television.
Why didn't I think of this craft before?
A few days ago I was refereeing/entertaining/being-entertained-by my daughter and the neighbor boy at the craft table in our garage. They were doing their usual thing of telling each other little kid things, drawing pictures with silly captions, and messing with some stickers. The neighbor boy suddenly stopped and asked me: "How do you make stickers?"
Childhood safety
I'm always trying to walk the line between being completely laissez-faire and being a helicopter parent. I love being laissez-faire and letting kids explore and figure things out by themselves, but I also have a very vivid imagination, and can always visualize what would happen if things went slightly wrong. That visualization usually ends up with a child screaming and a trip to the hospital. I try to remind myself those scenarios are unlikely, and continually repeat to myself "it'll be OK". However, serious childhood injuries do happen, and certain acts and situations do increase their likelihood. So, I came up with a few mental guidelines to keep me focused on the important things:
Doctors are just in it for the money
Pffff! Doctors. Am I right? All in it for the money. Making up diseases and "disorders" so they and their pharma-buddies can sell you the "treatments". Half the time the they sell you something that makes you sick so they can sell you something else to make you feel better. Not a single doctor ever considers nutrition and fitness as a cause for worry. Oh, they may publicly "recommend" eating fruits and vegetables and getting daily exercise, but they don't really mean it.
Why we're homeschooling.
Though it's still very early in the game (our daughter will be merely kindergarten age), I feel it's important to document our rationale early, both for our benefit and the potential benefit of others, and so we don't have to answer the same questions multiple times. Also, since this is "different", many people will want some sort of justification, and while I don't feel one is absolutely required, we're not completely blind to social norms… so: this article.
Cut the psychoanalysis, Freud
One of the more annoying things about parenting is that if anything about a family's situation is "different" in any way, suddenly that is the "cause" of everything about the children. And by "different", I mean "different than the observer's situation".
It's craziness, but it's our kind of craziness.
I have a secret to tell: [Deep breath]… I'm transgendered…
Marriage is like a garden
In many ways, having a successful marriage is much like having a successful garden.
Crunchy mom (with a penis)
Over the years I've slowly become acquainted with the term "crunchy" mom, AKA "granola" mom (AKA "hippie"). You probably know a few, even if you aren't aware of the name "crunchy".
Ritalin / Ritalout
Recently I had discussion about Ritalin. This is not just about that discussion, but about the topic in general. I am not a doctor (but neither are most of the people making the objections), just some bloke with a computer science degree who tries to take a skeptical and science-based approach to everything. Oh, and I read a lot of sciencey stuff. And health stuff. Definitely a lot of sciencey health stuff. So take this for what it's worth.
Rules to live by
When I entered college, I was a Rush-Limbaugh-listening, homophobic, conservative, Republican Catholic. When I left, I, er, wasn't. This was an engineering/science-based college with limited "Humanities" requirements, so very few of my professors every really tried to inject any "liberal bias" into things. It was just that over my college years, I saw that many other people thought, believed, and acted very differently than I did, but they weren't the horrible creatures I imagined them to be. They were just people who thought different things than me. This was very eye-opening and caused me to constantly re-evaluate what I thought, but more importantly, why I thought it.
Two theories of morality
While there are certainly more than two, these are the two theories of morality which concern me most. If I lived in India, "Theory 1" might be about reincarnation or seeking Nirvana, but living in this part of the United States at this time, it has to be the whole God/Jesus/Heaven/Hell thing.
Lazy unemployed occupiers
I have a steady job with great benefits and a good paycheck because I am not lazy like those unemployed people…
Border crossing dumbassery
Seen on Facebook:
Interesting…If you cross the North Korean border illegally, you get 12 yrs. hard labor. If you cross the Afghanistan border illegally, you get shot. If you cross the U.S. border illegally you get, a job, a driver's license, food stamps, a place to live, health care, housing, childcare benefits, education, & a tax free business for 7 yrs. No wonder we are a country in debt. Re-post if you agree
This seems wrong in a few ways…
Dear Google
Please stop helpfully ignoring my search terms. If I take the time to type 5 words into the box, the pages listed should contain all 5 of those words. Not 4, not 3: 5. Why are you deciding that I didn't really mean those things I typed? Or, at least tell me when you do it. You've changed, Google. You've changed.
Reminder about American Atheists
Just a reminder to everyone: Although the organization called American Atheists has the word "atheists" in its name, it is not an all-inclusive group. In fact, American Atheists only has a few thousand members, and, depending on how the survey questions are worded, there are anywhere from several million to several tens of millions of atheists in the United States. So, when the group named "American Atheists" does something ridiculous, keep in mind that literally 99% of atheists (myself included) in the USA are not in that group, and are not necessarily represented by its actions and views. That is all.
Chopracubra
Chopracubra (noun, also spelled chopracabra): a semi-mythical beast which haunts the science world with its meaningless sayings and misuse of science terms. It is said to be most active in the late afternoons where it can be found on daytime TV talk shows pretending to know stuff it could not possibly know. It is said to have a distinctive call, which consists of vocalizations like "quantum", "spiritual", and "awareness".
Literally, "chopracubra" (chopra-cubra) means "woo blower". Scientists debate whether the Chopracubra actually exists, or is simply a manifestation of desires in the quantum-entangled chi of universal Karma Dharma woodely doo.
Half whole wheat focaccia
Very light and soft focaccia bread. I synthesized this from a few different recipes I found on-line.
Coconut milk ice cream
It tastes great, you can serve it to your lactose intolerant and/or vegan friends, it's easier to make than ice cream because it requires fewer ingredients, and the ingredients will last a long time before you decide to make it. This last one is my primary motivator. I like to make stuff. Food is one of those things, but the mood may strike at any time and I don't want to leave the house to go to the store when it does. Heavy cream or raw eggs will last a week or three in the fridge, but a can of coconut milk will last years, so it is easy to keep on hand.
Oversimplifications of medical conditions
I recently watched an older episode of South Park which dealt with Alcoholics Anonymous. Knowing what I know about AA, I fully support the mocking of this organization and its "treatment" methods, and South Park did many things right in said mocking:
The Musical Stylings of August Samson
I pulled this off of a CD that was pulled from an old home cassette recording of my grandfather August Samson playing various old-timey country/bluegrass-y tunes on the fiddle. It's really nothing more than a few practice/jam sessions, and the quality is pretty poor, but it's still fun.
Censored Cartoons
I remember when I discovered that the cartoons I had watched as a child where censored for content on modern networks. I thought "What's wrong with people? I watched those as a kid and suffered no ill effects." The censored parts are not really that bad. Here's some of the more egregious examples of cartoon censorship:
Giggly man commands
In the Unix/Linux/gnu world, there's a command called "man". You use it to get the help page (manual) of other commands. For example, if you wanted to know all the options for the directory listing command "ls", you'd type "man ls".
OnlineNewspaper Gazette
The OnlineNewspaper Gazette was a satirical newspaper in the same vein as The Onion or The Daily Show. It had a short run from May 2001 to Oct 2002, which is actually pretty long in internet-years. It featured articles created by me and several of my talented friends and family. The original webhost was Thamus.org, then Craptaculus.com, and now finally Quaap.com.
Rating system expansion
Ratings on the content of movies, TV programs and video games are generally a useful thing: they give parents a little bit of information about whether the content is appropriate for their children. Notification about the violence content of a movie is useful to parents. Knowing ahead of time that a movie contains graphic depictions of sex with donkeys, likewise.
Evaluating movies by M Night Shyamalan
Pseudo-code for evaluating movies by M Night Shyamalan
The Wikipedia experiment
Though I use it all the time, I often make fun of Wikipedia and its supporters for several obvious reasons, including terrible writing and a "patchwork" feel to the articles that arises from too many editors. But the main problem is that, as a source of reliable information, it, well, blows. When confronted with these negative opinions, the defenders of Wikipedia always tell me that incorrect information, lies, and vandalism are "corrected within minutes" and that it's just as accurate as other encyclopedias.
Factcheck.org and the Clinton Surplus
I am a huge supporter of Factcheck.org. They provide a great service which roughly corresponds to the efforts of Snopes.com, but instead of random urban legends, they look into the words and writings of the political world.
Hey, Big Spender!
While I've seen much hoo-ha recently about Obama's "record breaking" budget and deficit, and much bemoaning about it from those of the Republican persuasion, I don't recall any of them complaining about the previous 8 years when the budget increased massively and the debt doubled.
GoDaddy, you stupid whore
GoDaddy and the American Healthcare System share at least one quality: People think it's great, until they need to actually use it.
Prescription Drug Name Generator
Find out important information about America's (soon to be) most popular drugs.
Computer aging program
Using the latest and greatest formula and algorithms, I've spent some time and put together this computer image-aging program. It's surprisingly accurate, and should age nearly anything (not just people). Just use the form to select the image to age, set the subject's current age and the number of years to age, and click go.
Skeptic's toolbox
Just a few sources to check out before believing or repeating (especially repeating) an "amazing" claim
Arguments that don't make it
I recently had a conversation with a friend about religious beliefs. This friend brought up some of the reasons why he believed his religion was true. I didn't think they were good enough reasons to justify belief in a god, and since I had asked for reasons before, I thought I'd list some of the more common arguments and why I don't buy them. Note that this friend did not make all of these arguments, and I did not make all these responses.
Why I am an Infidel
I often use the label "atheist" to describe myself, and even though some tend to add meanings at will, most people have a general idea what that means.
Rebuilding New Orleans
When I heard of the plans to rebuild the destroyed parts of New Orleans, I was overcome with the warm fuzzies. Here were people determined to rebuild their lives and houses no matter what the current and future costs to you and me. God bless them.
Evolution in Kansas
Dear Scientific Illiterates,
This is not the first time this has been said, and it won't be the last, but the more times this is repeated the better:
Supersize yourself
I finally watched Supersize Me. It taught me so many things, I can see why people love it so much.
Fat people vs Skinny people
I decided to come up with a list of "dumb arguments". It is not that they are unimportant or are unwinnable, but arguments that people on both sides make unwarranted assumptions or come to some extreme conclusion.
Is that a toe on your head?
For someone who tries to live as myth-free as possible, it can be fairly rough going sometimes. As an exercise, pretend someone told you he believed that all humans have a toe growing out of the tops of their heads. If you don't immediately vacate the area, I can see the line of conversation going something like this:
Old stuff
- ~ 2000-2002 OnlineNewspaper Gazette
- ~ 2003 Organic food store
- ~ 2003Gravy Diet
- ~ 2000 Intelligent Design
- ~ 2002Apologist Guide
- ~ 2000The Antidrug