While looking at different sites today I stumbled across this game link on a site that is no longer in operation. Its called Spaced Penguin and its another one of those addictively fun, mindless, work-interrupting games that are all over the internet. Have fun!

This new software has a bunch of different themes and I’m goofing around modifying them to my tastes. Let me know what you think.

According to this article in USA Today, those of us who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s got too much praise and now we are whiney babies, ill prepared for the world around us. Now this is an exaggeration of what the article really says but reading it does make one feel somewhat “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.

I agree with some of what this article has to say. I’ve never really understood the value of having kids play sports in an environment where everyone is praised no matter what they do. Competition is a part of society and putting children in a competitive environment (which, if handled correctly, can be quite valuable) and then stripping all the competition out of it has always seemed a bit foolish to me.

On the other hand, I feel there is a role that praise plays in the raising of children and its an important one. I feel that the article misses the actual time line a bit. What they are describing seems to me to be true more for kids who were born in the 80’s on, not so much the 70’s. What I see in my working experience is that alot of young people in the 18-25 year old range do feel entitled, frequently miss work or underperform, and expect a regular paycheck for doing so. I don’t recall a big dose of “self-esteem” building jargon from my parents. I felt very loved and was taught a work ethic that I feel helps me very much today.

So what’s the lesson in this article? Probably the same lesson that is in most conversations of this type: balance. Protect your kids too much and they are ill-equipped to deal with reality. Let them run wild and they become the type of people that I deal with in the behavioral health field every day.

Please bear with any site weirdness….changing over to the newest edition of WordPress.

In light of recent posts about the moon, the heavens, and the telescope I find it quite fitting that on this date in 1564 Galileo Galilei, famed Italian scientist, astromomer, and inventor of the first relable telescope, was born. If you haven’t read Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love then you need to. In this book Dava Sobel puts together a fascinating memoir of the life of Galileo Galilei pieced together from 124 letters from his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. Galileo was persecuted by the church for his “heretical” belief that the earth revolved around the sun and this book not only shows the loving relationship that he has with his daughter but also speaks to the trouble that Galileo had reconciling his devout faith with the scientific facts that he was discovering about the universe. This is one of the best biographies that I have ever read and it not only inspired me because of Galileo’s quest for knowledge of the heavens but also reaffirmed the idea of being grounded in one’s beliefs. A fascinating book through and through with a very satisfying conclusion. Read it.

On a slightly related note, check out the ‘comments’ section of the Valentine Moon post to see Abby’s reference to a fun, cheesy, blast-from-the-past PBS astronomy show.