The way they found out is that over dinner my SIL told them that they had to put up the house on a short sale to avoid a foreclosure. My parents had no idea that they were in this sort of trouble, so they were trying to wrap their heads around it. My mom said, "where will you go?"

And my nephew piped in with, "we're gonna live with you, Grammy!"

So she figures that they were discussing it in front of the kids.

My goodness, Allyson- that is a lot to take!

In Rochester the 99% protest, across from the Bank of America, is from 4 pm - 5 pm each day. This just happens to be at the central bus stop.

What is weird is none of the protesters (all white) are interacting with the bus people (at least 75% minority). I think they should try to get all the bus people protesting, too! Cause we (the bus people) are like, the 33%, and as services are cut, so will the bus routes. In fact, already they have cut the runs of my bus line so that only every other one goes all the way to my house, which means if I leave work at 4:35, I get home at 6:30. (I used to get home at 5:30) because I have to wait at the central bus stop for around and hour, or stay at work longer, or go to the grocery store half way, which I did tonight.)

Holy shit Allyson.

You and brenda need to get together and drink sidecars or something.

re: kids learning things.

It's very sad when they realize saying The Magic Word won't get them what they want. "May I have the deadly item that will kill me in .5 seconds, please?" "No, you can't have it." Pause while the mental computer visibly says "Does not compute, we used The Magic Word. Retry Y/N?" "May I please have it? Please?" "No, I'm sorry, you can't."

Such betrayed bafflement as the universe changes the rules again.

I don’t know about all of you, but learning that IQ isn’t fixed was a revelatory (and humbling) discovery for me when I first read about it.

Maybe that's why I feel so stupid at this new job!

I thought the big deal about IQ was that it wasn't a useful measure of much...

Allyson, FUCK. That's a whole lot of shit to pile onto one family. I'm so sorry.

Good god, I'm still in the office. What's wrong with me these days?

Oh, fucking hell, Allyson. I'm so sorry.

About to head off to an all-hands meeting for CJ's Search and Rescue team. Apparently fundraising hasn't brought in what is needed to keep the team afloat and we need to figure out what to do. He loves this SO MUCH, I'm heart broken at the thought that the team is in jeapardy.

Again, I need a zillion dollars so I can fund the team and travel to all the buffistas (cause, why wouldn't I travel if I had the funds?).

The article about how to talk to kids (the praise thing) is really fascinating. I can absolutely see how that would make a big difference in what kids will attempt and what they won't.

The article about how to talk to kids (the praise thing) is really fascinating. I can absolutely see how that would make a big difference in what kids will attempt and what they won't.

Yeah, I've seen that stuff before, and I make a point of introducing new concepts to my students with something like, "This is a new concept. You're not supposed to understand it immediately. It's something new, and not just a new way of doing old things, but a new way of thinking about how numbers work. You CAN understand it, but it's not the sort of thing that you just immediately understand -- you have to sit down with it for a while and try it out and practice it and frown at it for a few hours before you'll be able to really wrap your brain around it. It is something you can understand, but you have to work for it." I developed that bit after working a few summers with gifted kids -- there were always a few who just didn't know how to deal when they didn't understand something immediately.