Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Holly Dibble

When my daughter was starting to learn to read, there were some pronunciations that were truly hilarious: "Meed-Duh-Lee-Feld" (our local street named Middlefield), "Pah-Gay" (Page), "Meh-Ah-Dah-Woo" (Meadow).  All the words were proceeded by "Umma, what's ...." which meant I had to do some serious on-the-spot decoding.  Fortunately, most of the words were signs around where I drove to/from their schools so it did not take much brain cycles.  However, one Thursday evening question had me stumped for days.  After I had picked her up from the after-school daycare, she asked, "Umma, what's a Holly Dibble?  Do we have one in our house?"  Huh?

Karmic Balance

Ever have one of those days where you are fired up to "do good"? 
That was me this morning.

I worked out at the Y (+1) after dropping off the kids at their various schools this morning (without yelling at them: +1) and kept the speed on the highway right around the limit (+1).  It helped that I was driving behind a big truck and therefore I was drafting (inside its slipstream and getting great mileage on my SUV - 53 mpg for 3.5 out of my 5 mile commute baby! Woot! +1). 

All good so far, yes?

Unfortunately, as I was going back home after the workout to get something I had forgotten, I was behind an old blue Nissan truck ... a really old truck ... so old that it should have been compassionately put down about a decade ago based on the way it was belching out gobs of Ozone destroyer (-1) and clearly needed a new muffler (-0.5).  Then I noticed that the driver was wearing a rather dirty A-shirt (must. scrub. horrid. image. : -0.2 at least since this process may take me many many drooling over viewings of my current favorite male eye-candy actor to erase this morning's eeewwwww effect), flicked the cigarette ash out his window then tossed the used cigarette (-0.2?), put his cell phone on his right ear with his right hand - wait, no hands on the wheel?!? - then held the said cell phone between his right ear and shoulder (not safe, driving near an elementary school, yeah: -2?).   What was he thinking? I was silently screaming inside my head.  Here I am trying be good and he's tipping the balance way off on the other direction!!!

Ties that bind us together

Hello. 
My name is J.  

I am a recovering news/information junkie.  

It's been  12 hours, and 11 minutes since I've read, heard, surfed, or watched news.  

I hope to get through today without being bombarded with more bad news whether they be how much the average housing prices have slid, what the unemployment numbers are, the name of the next bank that's failed, or how many more houses are predicted to move into the foreclosure category.  

I was doing well today, hopeful of reaching the 13th hour intact ... when my colleague came into my office, sat down heavily, and sighed that one of her former co-worker (and a close friend) had called her sobbing this morning.  Seems that her friend was having hard time coming to terms with the fact that one of her co-worker committed suicide 9 days after being let go.  She was his manager.  He left behind a wife and two young daughters.  With all the other more shocking and violent crimes catching the headlines, there are many many more of these stories that don't get played in the media but still affect those around us.

The Missouri Response

With all the layoff news coming left and right, I've been inundated with resumes and request to connect from writers, service providers, and engineers.  Of course, most, if not all, are not what I or my company need at the moment but it's an indication of how desperate it's getting out there.  While my compassionate voice says I should give more than a cursory glance at all the resumes, I can't help but shake my head at some of the resumes that are blatantly untrue... and it seems to be happening more and more recently.  

Is this something I should be expecting because of the economic downturn?  

Are people more likely to "glossy up" their resume because of the perceived stiffer competition? 
Do you? 

My philosophy is to "stick with the truth" because ... well, that way you don't have to keep track of all the (insert the color of) lies.  Besides, you can't avoid the truth in the long run anyway so why bother spending the energy.

Not that I'm paranoid or anything but ....

My experience with computers go back to the days of being one of the first people to program on the Apple Lisa when our school district finally scrounged enough bake sale coins to get one for our jr. high school.  Even after I figured out that I could use a computer "dictionary" I manually built to display each letter on the outside display of the local bank (and thereby change only the "words" for that week, compile, and execute - 5 minute tops), I would stay in the bank's computer vault where it was nice, quiet, and cool for 90 minutes (per contract) to "finish changing the message programming" for that week.  It was really nice place to finish my homework, I found.  That's when I discovered "the network."  Back then, it was only for use by Universities and Military personnel but they wanted to link the financial systems so they were doing trial runs.  By the time I got to college, I was rn, trn, and nethack expert.  Also turned me into a paranoid control freak strong proponent of online privacy.  Fast forward 20+ years to present day where I have just begun to relax about the potential misuse of electronic information, I read this little dandy of an article about Sequoia's Voting System.    Alarm bells, Kloxons, Sirens, ....

The Association Argument

I was stunned, surprised, mildly amused, and thinking either way this turns out, America will have someone my age leading her.  That's where the emotional impact of Sarah Palin ended for me.  Although I share some of her (rather confused blathering, I admit) financial views, everything else she stands for makes me cringe/want to curl up in fetal position with my kids' blankies.

Her performance (and it was just that, a performance, as satirized so well by Tina Fey) at the one and only vice presidential "debate" was so scripted and rehearsed, it could have been a theatrical show for all that I could tell.  All in all, it's been an interesting and entertaining political year ... until last week when McCain camp went negative and used the "Association Argument" to try and tarnish the other team.

I felt compelled to write this blog post, not because I felt strongly for one or the other candidate (although I'm leaning slightly toward the cool, intelligent, and classy gentleman instead of the angry, crusty curmudgeon) but because of the pitfalls that the McCain camp seems to be running enthusiastically toward.

I laughed ... and then ....

Past weekend, I had an occasion or two to laugh, which is always a good thing.  One occasion was on account of our three kids being so excited that they (all of them) had gotten me birthday cards and made a big production of presenting them to me.  I had to laugh at their suppressed excitement while giggling at mommy in her pajamas with her hair all ... weeell, let's move on.  My wonderful husband made waffles for breakfast from scratch (have you ever been woken up by a snuggly, warm little girl who squirmed her way into your bed full of little kisses all over your face while the smell of "just made" waffles from the kitchen caressed your olfactory senses?).  Yes, it was that good.  Heaven.  Then, while opening the older son's card, he rather proudly declared, "Hey, Umma, you are $)%^& ^@* years old today!"  Brick wall.  Splatt.
The aforementioned sweet husband from the kitchen was trying to stifle something as he took the two steps it takes to go from our tiny kitchen into our dining area.  Seeing the humor and "oh, son, you've got SO much to learn about women" clearly etched in his face, I couldn't help laughing.  It was a great start to a day.

The next day, however ...

What would I do if I were ...

What would I do if I was a political adviser to Cheney the current political regime who want to keep power because it's been so good to me and my friends?

That was the question I was pondering as I was falling asleep after the conventions.  Why?  Because someone (sleeping next to me) was wondering how badly the Democrats could f--owl up the incredible head of steam they generated during their convention ... just as I was feeling drowsy.  I told him that I really did not care since I was not in either camp and it really did not make that much difference who heads the country given the entrenched Washington Lobby interests.  See?  Jaded.
However... that got me thinking ... and not sleeping!

Given that I am looking at the current political process with an outsider's perspective with the knowledge gained (by force, at times) via surviving the totalitarian regime, this is what I would advice.

It was a Lazy Saturday Afternoon when ...

... we found out that our oldest has mastered the concept called "trade negotiation."

Usually, it involves an apology, a hug, or something in that neighborhood when one of them does something that "hurt my feelings!" or "s/he took my (insert anything here)!" 

So, on a hot Saturday afternoon, after coming back from A G Ferrari, little M left his half-drunk, Strawberry-Lemonade bottle on top of the kitchen table while he went outside to race play with his sister on their scooters, while the oldest was in his room, reading.  Oh, blessed silence!

For about 45 minutes, it was rather surreal, having this un-natural comforting silence to chat with husband and watch a bit of telly.

Couldn't last?  Right you are.

What kind of a teacher would do this to a 5 yr. old child?!!

I had to take some time to calm down before I could write about this subject as my first reaction (rage) was so volatile I found that the language part of my brain went into a coma ... instantly. 

In the US, primary educational facility until high school is dictated on where you live.  If you find that you child does not "fit the norm" and do not have the means to send your kids to a private school, you have limited choice.

When I read this story and saw this video yesterday morning, I had to sit on my initial shock until my more rational part of the brain came online.  Having had 24 hours to think about this with lowered blood pressure, my thoughts are going in a different direction than I expected, which is: While I can understand the unfairness of having one challenging and/or disruptive child affecting the overall learning environment for the whole class, there had to have been other ways to deal with this situation than the way it played out - a teacher making each and every Kindergarten kids in her class to say what they did NOT like about this one boy, then having a vote to kick him out of the class.