Friday Four

Friday, November 30, 2012

1. My daughter has just learned the word "no", and it seems to be her current favorite. Sometimes, context makes her use of the word so adorable and funny that it's impossible not to smile and nearly so not to break out laughing. "Yes" will come later: In the meantime, she makes do with a nod of her whole upper torso. I get the former most often when, in answer to her demand that I sing (a conductor-like wave of the hand), I start a song she isn't in the mood for. I most often get the latter when, on those rare occasions outdoors that I am first to spot a flying airplane, I point to it and ask her if she can see it.

2. Polish architect Jakub Szczesny has built the world's narrowest house.

The House is located on the plot measuring 92 centimeters in its narrowest point and 152 centimeters in its widest point. "That is why at first it seems that the construction of living space within such premise is impossible. Keret House is to contradict that false image, simultaneously broadening the concept of impossible architecture", says the architect Jakub Szczesny. The house itself is 72 centimeters in the narrowest and 122 centimeters in the widest point.
I don't know about that: Szczesny himself jokingly admits that, "It requires a sense of humour, as you cannot stay long in a place like this." The house was originally built as a temporary "art" "installation" and is purported to serve as a temporary home for writers. However, its rapid rise as a tourist attraction may see it remain in place permanently.

3. Being able to reply only to selected text in GMail is a great feature. It's interesting that I am just one of a huge army of long-time users not to have known about it until recently.

4. Yikes! The holidays are headed straight for us and I have to cough up a list of possible gifts for the part of my family that doesn't do Yankee Swap. That part includes my wife, from whom my "big gift" will either be a Turkish Van kitten or a Nexus 7 tablet. Although that's close to nailed down, I took a look at "The 10 Best Linux-Based Gifts Under $500" for ideas and found a few interesting possibilities.

Such a list may be of more general interest since several items are embedded systems, and, as the introduction points out:
Most consumers won't know or care if these devices run Linux. Yet, Linux often quietly makes itself known in lower prices, smarter features, quicker updates and greater customization.
I've also gotten a few cooking-related ideas for "smaller gifts" from product reviews in my subscription to America Test Kitchen's Cook's Country.

-- CAV

Updates

Today: (1) Reworded last sentence for clarity. (2) Changed "for whom" to "from whom" Item 4 for clarity. My wife asks me for gift suggestions each year.

6 comments:

Jenn Casey said...

Your little one sounds adorable! I'm enjoying reading your baby updates. :)

Gus Van Horn said...

Thanks!

She is quite adorable, and seems to be very intelligent. She's fun and very easy to take care of, although a bad (but improving) sleeper. (The wife and I haven't on the same page about what to do about this for so long that it seems to be working itself out.)

Unknown said...

Gus! Don't muse on what presents to give your wife! Doesn't she read this blog? :-P

Gus Van Horn said...

Sometimes, she does. But that's okay: I muse for myself. She always ends up asking me for suggestions.

Steve D said...

‘My daughter has just learned the word "no", and it seems to be her current favorite.’

And it might be for a while. 'No' is a powerful word which seldom fails to get a reaction from adults. (I’ll bet you stopped singing when you heard her say it). She uses it because it works. It was my son's favorite word for several years until it was replaced by 'why’, which is an equally powerful but more flexible word.

I can’t commensurate with you on the bad sleeper part, though. Within a month of birth, my son would sleep longer than I would at night and not wake up even if we tried to wake him. (although the first week when he had day and night mixed up was tough)

Gus Van Horn said...

Ugh. At least she never went nocturnal on us. Basically, she fights sleep and took forever to learn how to associate going to sleep with being tired. (It is amazing what we humans have to learn!)

She CAN fall asleep on her own and has slept through the night on several occasions. The main problem is that she has tended to have a succession of naps (from which she has to be put down again) at night rather than continuous sleep. This seems to be easing, finally.