03.24.07
Random Notes of Month 8
It is always funny and somewhat amazing when I see my abdomen move on its own. This YouTube video of twin fetuses moving to the music of Jaws isn’t me, but it’s worth watching and what I feel like sometimes!
Another funny thing that started happening during my 8th month of pregnancy is the shape of my abdomen when I try to sit-up after laying down. (Note the word “try.” I’m not always able to do this.) As I contract my abdominal muscles, my entire belly becomes cone shaped. It looks something like a volcano with my belly button as the crater. It is really quite amusing.
That said, I’m going to hang with some girlfriends this afternoon at Harvard Square. Once this baby comes, it will be a long time before I’m able to do this again, so I need to take advantage of the first weekend of spring.
03.14.07
Touring the Maternity Ward
Today my husband and I toured the maternity ward of the hospital at which we plan to have the baby. The primary purpose of the visit was to teach my husband how to get to the hospital. I think it will take a few more trips before he can get there on his own, but today was a good start.
Maternity wards have come a long way since I was born (if I was even born in a hospital). Now there are three different types of rooms that they move you through–pre-labor, labor and delivery, and recovery, each with its own specialized furniture and equipment. TVs and CD players are standard in all the rooms, along with phones that will call pretty much anywhere in the state. (Out of state and international require calling cards.)
They now have full mattress cots for partners to sleep on during the mandatory two-day stay after labor required by MA state law. Not that I expect my husband to actually stay with me for the whole 48 hours. After his 4 month hospital stay in his early 20’s, he’s not so fond of hospitals. I was proud of him for making it a whole 45 minutes today.
My only complaint, no cell phones are allowed and they don’t have Wi-Fi. I don’t get it. They’ll make sure you have a TV to watch, but no YouTube? No IM? No email? For someone like me that is a mandatory 2-day severing of my information and communication umbilical cord. Labor doesn’t scare me, but I’m not sure I’ll survive 2-days without the internet.
03.11.07
Is America Really Getting Dumber?
Tonight on digg, there is a popular article by Patrick Buchanan called “Dumbing-Down of America.” Like the 20/20 video you can find on YouTube “Stupid in America” (be warned, it’s a 40+ min video), the blog relates the travesty of American education. We are spending more per student than we ever have, but academic achievement has been falling. No one can pinpoint why (though many claim to know), but everyone agrees that it is a problem.
Having worked in public education for seven years before moving on to other things, I’d like to propose a possible reason that costs have gone up and actual educational achievement has gone down; there has been a fundamental shift in American values.
As Mr. Buchanan pointed out in his article, the surge in American math and science education of the late 50’s was due to the former Soviet Union’s success in space. They successfully launched the first satellite and had the first man in space. American’s were scared of what would happen if the Soviet Union “won” the space race. Not just the academics, but all Americans were frightened by the prospect of their Cold War enemy being more technologically advanced. So the nation as a whole pushed their children to excel at math and science. The entire nation supported education and expected children to succeed. And they did.
Nowadays, there is no such national push. Sure, we hear about No Child Left Behind (NCLB), but we all know it is a farce because we all know children who are falling behind. Americans have heard to many stories of people who never finished high school or dropped out of college and became multi-millionaires. We have seen to many supposed “reality shows” in which people with very little education lead lives of drama and excess. Gone is the work ethic and the moral education of 50’s TV. It has been replaced by American Idol and the Apprentice where the winner is the one with the most popularity and the most drama, not the one with the most skill or dedication. Is it any wonder that in today’s society, education is valued less than “bling”?
If we are getting dumber, it is not because we are not capable of being smart. It is because we have placed our values elsewhere, and what a mistake that has been.
PS Please forgive me for using the term “American” to refer specifically to citizens of the United States. I know there are many more Americans than just those living in the US, but for the purpose of this post only, I used the term in this way.
The Things I Do for Love
My husband and I are sitting side by side at our computer terminals, like we do about 30% of the time we are home together and awake. He constantly bugs me to turn on ICQ so he can send me links without having to go into his email. (I wish he would just get share2me and send it to my IM, but he’s stubborn. I mean, who uses ICQ anymore?)
Anyway, this morning, he wanted me to take the NerdTest. I did because I love him, and because he wouldn’t give me any peace until I did. I’m happy to say that I’m only slightly nerdy.
My husband’s score was 91, making him a supreme nerd. No surprises there. Probably one of the reasons I love him.
