Friday Four

1. Life for a parent of a young toddler is filled with moments like the following.

I had just picked up Pumpkin from daycare. While I was fishing for my keys in the parking lot outside, she kept pointing back to "school". She likes me to point out some figures of animals (a snail, a frog, two turtles, and a salamander) in the garden near the entrance when we arrive or leave. Thinking she wanted me to do that again, I obliged, then went back towards the car. Then I heard a train coming before I could open the car. Pumpkin loves trains, so I told her and pointed to the nearby MetroLink crossing. Afterwards, she tapped my chest. "Yes. I'm your Daddy," I said. Then she pointed to school. "Yes, honey, that's your school. We're going to go pick up Momma now and head home. It's time to go home." Then she tapped on my chest again, and then she pointed at the daycare again. She likes being told about things a lot, but this seemed a little excessive.

Then, out of the blue, I realized I'd forgotten her sleeping blanket and went back to retrieve it.

It was only at some time later that I realized she was probably trying to get me to go back and get her blanket. I'm glad she stalled me long enough for me to bumble into doing what she wanted!

2. One of my favorite aggregation sites is Hacker News. This parody is spot on.

3. Some time back, John Cook posted a profound observation about the need to achieve closure in order to focus over the long term, and do truly interesting things. After a couple of relevant quotes, Cook observes that, "It's taken me a long time to understand that deliberately closing off some options can open more interesting options." [bold added]

4. Be sure to watch the video clip:

Dutch engineer Theo Jansen builds complex walking sculptures from PVC pipe and turns them loose on the beaches of the Netherlands, where they have been evolving (with his help) for 20 years.

He calls them "Strandbeests".

-- CAV