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  1. <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391</id><updated>2024-03-13T11:13:42.505-04:00</updated><category term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category term="Quality Fathering"/><category term="Crafts with Dad"/><category term="Technology Tips"/><category term="Parenting Tips"/><category term="Home Improvement Tips"/><category term="Home Organization Tips"/><category term="Free software applications"/><category term="Children&#39;s Health Issues"/><category term="Organizing with Technology"/><category term="Down time for Dad"/><category term="Identity Theft Prevention Tips"/><category term="Google Tips"/><category term="Marriage Tips"/><category term="Crime Prevention Tips"/><category term="Healthy Living Tips"/><category term="Sport"/><category term="Home Repair Tips"/><category term="Steeple Chase"/><category term="Tour De France"/><title type='text'>sillyDaddy</title><subtitle type='html'>A blog for DIY dads.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>62</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-5621603526417411556</id><published>2010-06-03T05:00:00.002-04:00</published><updated>2011-03-23T17:04:30.966-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Healthy Living Tips"/><title type='text'>Red Wine Shields Your Brain!</title><content type='html'>More proof that you MUST.DRINK.MORE.WINE!&lt;br /&gt;
  2. &lt;br /&gt;
  3. According to the Hopkins study, resveratrol protects your brain from damage in the case of stroke.  So soak your neurons in wine for the sake of your children...&lt;br /&gt;
  4. &lt;br /&gt;
  5. Find the story link in the column to the right and consider me your favorite enabler.&lt;br /&gt;
  6. &lt;br /&gt;
  7. Cheers!&lt;br /&gt;
  8. &lt;br /&gt;
  9. &lt;br /&gt;
  10. &lt;div style=&quot;color: blue; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/5621603526417411556/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/06/red-wine-shields-your-brain.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5621603526417411556'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5621603526417411556'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/06/red-wine-shields-your-brain.html' title='Red Wine Shields Your Brain!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-8673073995355405972</id><published>2010-05-24T05:00:00.003-04:00</published><updated>2011-03-23T17:07:57.193-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Home Organization Tips"/><title type='text'>Organize Big Tape Rolls With Twine and a Carabiner</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqgC8PwBizZcvYiO36wOpHewpBIMWA9gsCKJKj1m_ZoWSv8V7sRvpMrU-L-7_8kDIqPjRUXC5Jx0j8ksLICacm21Xsx_bLsSg69YRaJ8PBHzA1Y80I5DCxv_K-UWeF8U-LRbFOKa8cvHZ/s1600-h/bubbleWrap+and+Tape+009.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Home workshop organization&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqgC8PwBizZcvYiO36wOpHewpBIMWA9gsCKJKj1m_ZoWSv8V7sRvpMrU-L-7_8kDIqPjRUXC5Jx0j8ksLICacm21Xsx_bLsSg69YRaJ8PBHzA1Y80I5DCxv_K-UWeF8U-LRbFOKa8cvHZ/s200/bubbleWrap+and+Tape+009.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Home workshop organization&quot; width=&quot;150&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  11. &lt;br /&gt;
  12. &lt;br /&gt;
  13. &lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;QUICK TIP: &lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;Use a carabiner and some twine to keep your big tape rolls organized.&lt;br /&gt;
  14. &lt;br /&gt;
  15. &lt;br /&gt;
  16. &lt;br /&gt;
  17. &lt;br /&gt;
  18. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/8673073995355405972/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/05/organize-big-tape-rolls-with-carabiner.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/8673073995355405972'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/8673073995355405972'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/05/organize-big-tape-rolls-with-carabiner.html' title='Organize Big Tape Rolls With Twine and a Carabiner'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqgC8PwBizZcvYiO36wOpHewpBIMWA9gsCKJKj1m_ZoWSv8V7sRvpMrU-L-7_8kDIqPjRUXC5Jx0j8ksLICacm21Xsx_bLsSg69YRaJ8PBHzA1Y80I5DCxv_K-UWeF8U-LRbFOKa8cvHZ/s72-c/bubbleWrap+and+Tape+009.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-531398551977420999</id><published>2010-05-17T05:00:00.002-04:00</published><updated>2010-05-17T07:00:16.697-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Children&#39;s Health Issues"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Parenting Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>Dad: YOU Can Keep Your Teen From Smoking</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Quality fathering kept teens from smoking&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;213&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpzb4mZ1CwKySqQahug-O2mc8g7HrmhQ4ttUKqbluOUjPhFjc_3U2ASVYRJDdoRCptEKelHpkyNsKATYTZEoAY29UG6ENWeWd0MeyxzUl7yJvEnKToLpZp-1d8-E3NZBX88aNg1tm7rAI/s320/DSC_0448.JPG&quot; title=&quot;Communication with Dad key factor that kept teens from smoking&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  19. Everyone says establish your relationship with the kids when they&#39;re little if you want to have an easier time managing them when they&#39;re older, right?&lt;br /&gt;
  20. &lt;br /&gt;
  21. Well here&#39;s a new study from England&#39;s Cardiff University School of Medicine that documents an example.&lt;br /&gt;
  22. &lt;br /&gt;
  23. According to this three year study, it was their father&#39;s influence (or lack thereof), more than any other factor, that tipped the scales toward smoking or non-smoking for teenagers.&lt;br /&gt;
  24. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;h1 class=&quot;story&quot; id=&quot;b58e&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;Communicative Fathers Help Reduce Teenage Smoking...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  25. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;div id=&quot;tn_f&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;date&quot;&gt;ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2010)&lt;/span&gt; — Dr James White from Cardiff University&#39;s School of Medicine undertook a three-year-study, involving some 3,500 11 to 15 year-olds, as part of the British Youth Panel Survey -- a self report survey of children in the British Household Panel survey.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  26. Results indicated that one of the strongest protective factors for reducing the risk of experimenting with smoking in early adolescence was how often fathers talked with their children, both boys and girls, about &#39;things that mattered&#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
  27. &lt;br /&gt;
  28. Dr White, who presented his findings to the British Psychological Society&#39;s Annual Conference on April 15 said: &quot;This study suggests that a greater awareness of parents&#39; and especially fathers&#39; potential impact upon their teenagers&#39; choices about whether to smoke is needed. Fathers should be encouraged and supported to improve the quality and frequency of communication with their children during adolescence.&lt;br /&gt;
  29. &lt;br /&gt;
  30. &quot;The impact of teenager parenting is relatively un-researched and further research is very much needed.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  31. &lt;br /&gt;
  32. Only children who had never smoked at the time the study began took part. As well as their smoking, the children were also asked about the frequency of parental communication, arguments with family members and the frequency of family meals.&lt;br /&gt;
  33. The frequency of family arguments and family meals did not have a significant effect.&lt;br /&gt;
  34. &lt;br /&gt;
  35. After three years, the responses of children who had remained non smokers were compared to those who said they had experimented with smoking at some point.&lt;br /&gt;
  36. &lt;br /&gt;
  37. Recognised risk factors for smoking, such as age, participant sex, household income, parental monitoring and parental smoking, were all taken into account during analysis of the study&#39;s findings.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  38. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/531398551977420999/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/05/dad-you-can-keep-your-teen-from-smoking.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/531398551977420999'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/531398551977420999'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/05/dad-you-can-keep-your-teen-from-smoking.html' title='Dad: YOU Can Keep Your Teen From Smoking'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpzb4mZ1CwKySqQahug-O2mc8g7HrmhQ4ttUKqbluOUjPhFjc_3U2ASVYRJDdoRCptEKelHpkyNsKATYTZEoAY29UG6ENWeWd0MeyxzUl7yJvEnKToLpZp-1d8-E3NZBX88aNg1tm7rAI/s72-c/DSC_0448.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-2375849264179543723</id><published>2010-05-10T05:00:00.004-04:00</published><updated>2010-05-10T07:20:38.758-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crafts with Dad"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>It&#39;s Cinnamon Toast Time!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85-Q-ssaCm8u1VSTFuZpwmDk6Yv5zIhDelaxJiIFwLbhExM-Nyfp5pcxWJbML3z2jTAOawYyaY6sDk1BCJdwASOZe9qdhWQl1Q3aHvDqxXs6_syEpNKfoVdNX2kBwzHDCT5vJjyap1q1-/s1600-h/CinnamonSugar+001.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Cinnamon sugar recipe&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85-Q-ssaCm8u1VSTFuZpwmDk6Yv5zIhDelaxJiIFwLbhExM-Nyfp5pcxWJbML3z2jTAOawYyaY6sDk1BCJdwASOZe9qdhWQl1Q3aHvDqxXs6_syEpNKfoVdNX2kBwzHDCT5vJjyap1q1-/s320/CinnamonSugar+001.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Cinnamon sugar recipe&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Cinnamon sugar sprinkled on toast is a fantastic way to sugar-up the kids&#39; morning (yours too)!&lt;br /&gt;
  39. &lt;br /&gt;
  40. All you need is refined sugar and loads of cinnamon.&lt;br /&gt;
  41. &lt;br /&gt;
  42. Place the sugar in your container.&amp;nbsp; Dump in a lot of cinnamon - really - you&#39;ll need quite a bit, but don&#39;t go totally overboard because too much and it&#39;ll taste too &quot;spicy&quot;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
  43. &lt;br /&gt;
  44. Use a small whisk or spoon to stir the b&#39;jesus out of it.&lt;br /&gt;
  45. &lt;br /&gt;
  46. Add the concoction to buttered toast.&amp;nbsp; The cinnamon/sugar will absorb the butter and turn dark.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;
  47. &lt;br /&gt;
  48. The cinnamon/sugar/butter blend will also stiffen the toast a bit and make it easier to use your &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2009/12/use-cookie-cutters-for-toast-pizza.html&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot; title=&quot;Use cookie cutters with morning toast&quot;&gt;cookie cutter&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
  49. &lt;br /&gt;
  50. Yum!&lt;br /&gt;
  51. &lt;br /&gt;
  52. &lt;br /&gt;
  53. &lt;br /&gt;
  54. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/2375849264179543723/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-cinnamon-toast-time.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/2375849264179543723'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/2375849264179543723'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-cinnamon-toast-time.html' title='It&#39;s Cinnamon Toast Time!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85-Q-ssaCm8u1VSTFuZpwmDk6Yv5zIhDelaxJiIFwLbhExM-Nyfp5pcxWJbML3z2jTAOawYyaY6sDk1BCJdwASOZe9qdhWQl1Q3aHvDqxXs6_syEpNKfoVdNX2kBwzHDCT5vJjyap1q1-/s72-c/CinnamonSugar+001.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-7943400844991900018</id><published>2010-05-03T05:00:00.005-04:00</published><updated>2010-05-03T08:03:24.202-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Children&#39;s Health Issues"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Parenting Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>Dad Is Primarily Responsible For Child&#39;s Confidence Building Exploratory Behavior</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmccxbNiRBYjoXazB1EV8sO32ex7hlZ1DgSmhZL9ctBdjrZnqFFtrVdXq5Ve8d5aIYsYbiT8S-c3ohCz-ZNQMmEpqY4PpZwtbeXitckWf9Sx0ihvxwrRRXoHpFd92V2j7AsUGJCDHjSrpI/s200/KathleenLeaves2.png&quot; width=&quot;166&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  55. Here&#39;s a new study from the University of Montreal that examines &#39;activation theory&#39; as a complement to the well known &#39;attachment theory&#39;.&lt;br /&gt;
  56. &lt;br /&gt;
  57. Activation theory examines parental influence on a child&#39;s exploratory behavior and defines an optimally stimulated child as one that is exploratory yet respective of rules.&amp;nbsp; According to the theory, optimally stimulated children are more self confident.&lt;br /&gt;
  58. &lt;br /&gt;
  59. The author of the study suggests that fathers are largely responsible for activating a child&#39;s exploratory behavior while mothers are usually greater contributors to a child&#39;s feeling of attachment and that both of these phenomenon complement one another in a well developed child.&lt;br /&gt;
  60. &lt;br /&gt;
  61. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;h1 class=&quot;story&quot; id=&quot;uu3f&quot; style=&quot;color: #3d85c6;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;Exploration in Toddlers Activated by Fathers&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;&lt;div id=&quot;gx7t&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;date&quot;&gt;ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2010)&lt;/span&gt; — A new study has found that fathers give toddlers more leeway and that allows them to actively explore their environments, according to a new study on parent-child attachment published in Early Child Development and Care.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  62. Daniel Paquette, a professor at the Université de Montréal School of Psychoeducation, says the &#39;activation theory&#39; is just as important as the &#39;attachment theory.&#39; The latter was the prevailing 20th-Century notion that children usually connect with their primary caregiver since they fulfill their emotional needs and guarantee their survival.&lt;br /&gt;
  63. &lt;br /&gt;
  64. &quot;In attachment theory, a child seeks comfort from a parent when he or she is insecure. This theory underestimates the importance of exploratory behavior in children,&quot; says Dr. Paquette, who completed his study with Marc Bigras of the Université du Québec à Montréal.&lt;br /&gt;
  65. &lt;br /&gt;
  66. As part of the investigations, kids aged 12 to 18 months (accompanied by a parent) were placed in three different risky situations: social risk (a strange adult entered his or her environment), physical risk (toys were placed at the top of a stairway), and a forbidden activity (parents were forbidden to climb the stairs after the child succeeded the first time).&lt;br /&gt;
  67. &lt;br /&gt;
  68. &quot;We found fathers are more inclined than mothers to activate exploratory behavior by being less protective,&quot; says Paquette. &quot;The less the parent is protective, the more activated is the exploratory behavior in the child. Children who were optimally stimulated, meaning they were exploratory yet respective of the rules, were 71 percent boys. Meanwhile, 70 percent of children who were risk averse were girls.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  69. &lt;br /&gt;
  70. The parent&#39;s behavior was measured by the distance they kept from their child as he or she climbed the stairs. &quot;For a child to become self-confident, the parent mustn&#39;t be too far or too close,&quot; says Paquette. &quot;The ideal distance seems to be an arm&#39;s length. This distance was statistically significant with fathers yet not with mothers.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  71. &lt;br /&gt;
  72. According to Paquette, classical attachment theory doesn&#39;t highlight these differences between boys and girls. This is why he feels his theory is better adapted to evaluate the role of the father while factoring in the temperament of the child and the level of protective parenting, both of which trigger the activation relationship.&lt;br /&gt;
  73. &lt;br /&gt;
  74. Paquette is convinced that mothers and fathers intervene differently in the education of a child and these complementaries benefit a child. &quot;Even if both parents change diapers and give the bottle, they don&#39;t do it the same way,&quot; says Paquette. &quot;By stimulating exploration, controlled risk-taking and competition, fathers provide something different to the child who will benefit greatly from this singular contribution.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  75. &lt;br /&gt;
  76. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue; font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;*** &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/7943400844991900018/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/05/dad-is-primarily-responsible-for-childs.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/7943400844991900018'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/7943400844991900018'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/05/dad-is-primarily-responsible-for-childs.html' title='Dad Is Primarily Responsible For Child&#39;s Confidence Building Exploratory Behavior'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmccxbNiRBYjoXazB1EV8sO32ex7hlZ1DgSmhZL9ctBdjrZnqFFtrVdXq5Ve8d5aIYsYbiT8S-c3ohCz-ZNQMmEpqY4PpZwtbeXitckWf9Sx0ihvxwrRRXoHpFd92V2j7AsUGJCDHjSrpI/s72-c/KathleenLeaves2.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-7982005233030002788</id><published>2010-04-26T05:00:00.002-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-26T05:00:06.014-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Home Improvement Tips"/><title type='text'>$796 Saved On Energy Cost In One Year!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnjjoi1Nbe_MOU6JavBDmp_Iekfs94pN3N0Xpt3P_X_SkHWwuLOm69fSRgEfaOyE__aYJhOtkcXOJIPBxmjj_zrMQHbnfTXrasbG-o-ScnVz9j5CBuHUCyJjnsfhMvY9yRmw19TQWIvXb/s1600-h/utilityScreenShot.png&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Plan to lower your home utility costs&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnjjoi1Nbe_MOU6JavBDmp_Iekfs94pN3N0Xpt3P_X_SkHWwuLOm69fSRgEfaOyE__aYJhOtkcXOJIPBxmjj_zrMQHbnfTXrasbG-o-ScnVz9j5CBuHUCyJjnsfhMvY9yRmw19TQWIvXb/s320/utilityScreenShot.png&quot; title=&quot;Plan to lower your home utility costs&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Do you remember when I posted way back in September that it was possible to &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2009/09/save-over-800-in-next-12-months-on-your.html&quot; title=&quot;Create a plan to save on utility bills&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;save 800 bucks off your energy bill&lt;/a&gt; in one year WITHOUT replacing your windows?&lt;br /&gt;
  77. &lt;br /&gt;
  78. Well I&#39;ve got an update for you!&lt;br /&gt;
  79. &lt;br /&gt;
  80. Our final savings tally for the year was $796.08!&amp;nbsp; There is no doubt in my mind that we would have broken the $800 barrier if this past December hadn&#39;t been 6% colder than last year&#39;s December.&lt;br /&gt;
  81. &lt;br /&gt;
  82. I&#39;ll have another post out next fall with several new additional low budget techniques that I&#39;ve implemented since the original September post.&lt;br /&gt;
  83. &lt;br /&gt;
  84. &lt;br /&gt;
  85. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;*** &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/7982005233030002788/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/04/796-saved-on-energy-cost-in-one-year.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/7982005233030002788'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/7982005233030002788'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/04/796-saved-on-energy-cost-in-one-year.html' title='$796 Saved On Energy Cost In One Year!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnjjoi1Nbe_MOU6JavBDmp_Iekfs94pN3N0Xpt3P_X_SkHWwuLOm69fSRgEfaOyE__aYJhOtkcXOJIPBxmjj_zrMQHbnfTXrasbG-o-ScnVz9j5CBuHUCyJjnsfhMvY9yRmw19TQWIvXb/s72-c/utilityScreenShot.png" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-2561502817405915081</id><published>2010-04-19T05:00:00.007-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-23T11:18:14.395-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Free software applications"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Google Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Home Organization Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Organizing with Technology"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology Tips"/><title type='text'>Avoid Horrible Gift Giving With Free Google Docs</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuTZPJgesn93SBkhyeMlguhHWFwpigBe9j9SfN9rgwR2setJeAJkCBZdrOU-j8UN8xi_yTZ__U3v3LaS7B7f5z0Hqxhs7ZPNWFMj5bfI8ZX5s-suXHp-xdJPwvHc3-rzqKOVGFFOgAzcjz/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+216.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuTZPJgesn93SBkhyeMlguhHWFwpigBe9j9SfN9rgwR2setJeAJkCBZdrOU-j8UN8xi_yTZ__U3v3LaS7B7f5z0Hqxhs7ZPNWFMj5bfI8ZX5s-suXHp-xdJPwvHc3-rzqKOVGFFOgAzcjz/s320/SafeDepositContents+216.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Do you sometimes have a problem coming up with the perfect gift for your wife?&lt;br /&gt;
  86. &lt;br /&gt;
  87. Oh SURE, during the &quot;courting period&quot; it was easy to come up with stuff.&amp;nbsp; But now, finding something she won&#39;t immediately want to return is a bit tougher.&lt;br /&gt;
  88. &lt;br /&gt;
  89. Well I&#39;ve solved this problem, and many others, with Google&#39;s free Google Docs collaboration tool.&lt;br /&gt;
  90. &lt;br /&gt;
  91. I created a shared &#39;Wish List&#39; spreadsheet for eM, myself and the kids.&amp;nbsp; Now when eM thinks of something she might like to have as a future gift she opens up our shared document and adds it to her list.&lt;br /&gt;
  92. &lt;br /&gt;
  93. Now I always know I&#39;m&amp;nbsp; getting her something she really wants, and as long as there are enough items on the list, we still retain some element of surprise because she doesn&#39;t know which gift is coming.&amp;nbsp; Some of our immediate family members have also asked to see the list so we&#39;ve given them permission to view it as well.&lt;br /&gt;
  94. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  95. It&#39;s hard to even count all the ways we use this feature now and I literally have hundreds of documents stored this way. &lt;br /&gt;
  96. &lt;br /&gt;
  97. Every science article that leaves an impression is copied and pasted into a Google Doc.&amp;nbsp; We use it to keep track of our financial data.&amp;nbsp; I used it to analyze my grandmother&#39;s available Medicare Pharmacy plans in collaboration with my mother and grandmother.&amp;nbsp; And most recently, I created a Google Doc to log what&#39;s in our safe deposit box and what&#39;s in queue to place in the box.&lt;br /&gt;
  98. If you have a Gmail account then you&#39;re already set up to use this free feature!&lt;br /&gt;
  99. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA5Oe6ns3PcwINMgyWc_MjX3aphKBWHD8dPxwDOfK_NqmDXoh7sZ7-F88NKWQI3efLRZwuPbGsGE5fO18GOiT5Hx9xApGMtApBoI13XbREFgkI4tDgqkBVaHAc6DNHbJDRa-dqRua9tYes/s1600-h/screenShot1.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;96&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA5Oe6ns3PcwINMgyWc_MjX3aphKBWHD8dPxwDOfK_NqmDXoh7sZ7-F88NKWQI3efLRZwuPbGsGE5fO18GOiT5Hx9xApGMtApBoI13XbREFgkI4tDgqkBVaHAc6DNHbJDRa-dqRua9tYes/s200/screenShot1.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  100. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;Here&#39;s how to use it:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  101. &lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Go to your Gmail main page and select &#39;Documents&#39;.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s important to go through Gmail to get this first page &lt;/li&gt;
  102. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zptlMb7oDD65K3DRuWyrWcOk_xlMf_LKRcAcd-KywsvJEdQlY833GLZx5ImwWPUCtXfgNKFgMIecunszOtoNsm3KZTbT6-uschM2UhTNH3R87qOtptMqE5HducVjNLauEly6SfztVc2p/s1600-h/screenShot2.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;100&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zptlMb7oDD65K3DRuWyrWcOk_xlMf_LKRcAcd-KywsvJEdQlY833GLZx5ImwWPUCtXfgNKFgMIecunszOtoNsm3KZTbT6-uschM2UhTNH3R87qOtptMqE5HducVjNLauEly6SfztVc2p/s200/screenShot2.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  103. &lt;li&gt;You&#39;re in!&amp;nbsp; Click on the &#39;Create new&#39; drop down menu at the top right and go to town!&amp;nbsp; A Google &#39;Document&#39; is like a Word-lite document and &#39;Spreadsheet&#39; is Excel-lite.&amp;nbsp; They don&#39;t have nearly the same functionality as Word or Excel but for most uses they&#39;re perfect.&lt;/li&gt;
  104. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN7NObL9GrDyOYvkfeSrcoqOWpps8jMGgm4aMzwfNtxvQXweMwrCyHWSMxOUJKBpyHgdwUXW3BqkxTOPc6Nn7ySXYd6r4XSyXDQkBpBy_7XV2dldf39e5wWn2SvCYkdQZWmkc8PKe_txfs/s1600-h/screenShot2a.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;179&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN7NObL9GrDyOYvkfeSrcoqOWpps8jMGgm4aMzwfNtxvQXweMwrCyHWSMxOUJKBpyHgdwUXW3BqkxTOPc6Nn7ySXYd6r4XSyXDQkBpBy_7XV2dldf39e5wWn2SvCYkdQZWmkc8PKe_txfs/s200/screenShot2a.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  105. &lt;li&gt;From that same menu you can also create a &#39;Folder&#39; to manage your docs (I&#39;ll get into the &#39;Form&#39; menu option in a future post because it&#39;s also terrific).&lt;/li&gt;
  106. &lt;li&gt;Before you&#39;ve closed your new document, you can click on the &#39;Share&#39; button at the top right and &#39;Invite people&#39; to view and/or edit.&lt;/li&gt;
  107. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2dttQzHL5beue7M86FbMrU3DBeb_3E3tDMso3lFP3DTZusehEU5MmDKwb-q4Jyag7Xe6XIwUTZYdwPT-_3G8zMTZDT4ShgGcE_7CTIqRQFXwjQBk5RG4ctyeXoFpd8Axn7OL0WSJKCvRC/s1600-h/screenShot3.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;90&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2dttQzHL5beue7M86FbMrU3DBeb_3E3tDMso3lFP3DTZusehEU5MmDKwb-q4Jyag7Xe6XIwUTZYdwPT-_3G8zMTZDT4ShgGcE_7CTIqRQFXwjQBk5RG4ctyeXoFpd8Axn7OL0WSJKCvRC/s200/screenShot3.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Use Google Docs to organize family projects, lists&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  108. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  109. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;TIP:&lt;/b&gt; Always enter Google Docs through the Gmail link.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s important so that you&#39;re riding Gmail&#39;s https secure socket layer (&lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/protecting-your-personal-information-on.html&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot; title=&quot;DIY Identity theft prevention tips&quot;&gt;which just means it&#39;s encrypted and no one else can easily see what you&#39;re seeing&lt;/a&gt;).&amp;nbsp; If you come in through iGoogle or any other Google menu you&#39;ll be transported on an unsecured connection.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  110. Previously featured Google favorites include &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-google-calendar-makes-it-easy-to.html&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot; title=&quot;How to set up Google Calendar&quot;&gt;Google Calendar&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-google-reader-to-manage-your.html&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot; title=&quot;How to manage subscriptions with Google Reader&quot;&gt;Google Reader&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-filters-and-labels-to-manage-your.html&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot; title=&quot;How to organize your mail with Gmail filters&quot;&gt;Gmail Filter&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;
  111. &lt;br /&gt;
  112. &lt;br /&gt;
  113. &lt;div style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  114. &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/2561502817405915081/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/04/free-google-docs-helps-you-avoid-poor.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/2561502817405915081'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/2561502817405915081'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/04/free-google-docs-helps-you-avoid-poor.html' title='Avoid Horrible Gift Giving With Free Google Docs'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuTZPJgesn93SBkhyeMlguhHWFwpigBe9j9SfN9rgwR2setJeAJkCBZdrOU-j8UN8xi_yTZ__U3v3LaS7B7f5z0Hqxhs7ZPNWFMj5bfI8ZX5s-suXHp-xdJPwvHc3-rzqKOVGFFOgAzcjz/s72-c/SafeDepositContents+216.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-5052552729249187265</id><published>2010-04-12T05:00:00.005-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T19:54:26.805-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Children&#39;s Health Issues"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Parenting Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology Tips"/><title type='text'>New Study: Negative Short Term Video Game Effect on Children</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-sTRe3nPdHsKL4j112ax7zFMIKqFdv0ZI2TQngoebUJKyNsbtx_6GduyEuUyI9Vp6Q4p48R8RSOL_7bjPJkhzcWLiwWgZMHKsHjFQiuarLOjaG9EFOTRVlkMzyn48-OWnkYkAuKDuekO/s1600-h/MuseumOfNaturalHistory+082.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Video games have negative effect, says study&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-sTRe3nPdHsKL4j112ax7zFMIKqFdv0ZI2TQngoebUJKyNsbtx_6GduyEuUyI9Vp6Q4p48R8RSOL_7bjPJkhzcWLiwWgZMHKsHjFQiuarLOjaG9EFOTRVlkMzyn48-OWnkYkAuKDuekO/s320/MuseumOfNaturalHistory+082.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Video games have negative effect, says study&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;New study out last month about the short term effects of video games on children&#39;s writing, reading and learning skills.&lt;br /&gt;
  115. &lt;br /&gt;
  116. The study examined a group of 6-9 year-olds both before, and then 4-months after, receiving a video game device and three age appropriate games.&lt;br /&gt;
  117. &lt;br /&gt;
  118. According to the author of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100310162835.htm?utm_source=feedburner&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&quot; title=&quot;Video games negatively effect children&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;the study&lt;/a&gt; which appeared in a journal of the Association for Psychological Science,&lt;br /&gt;
  119. &lt;br /&gt;
  120. &lt;blockquote&gt;&quot;boys who received the video-game system at the beginning of the study had significantly lower reading and writing scores four months later compared with the boys [who did not]. Although there were no differences in parent-reported behavioral problems between the two groups of kids, the boys who received the video-game system immediately had greater teacher-reported learning problems.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  121. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;There are lots of studies out there right now about gaming and many deliver conflicting messages.&lt;br /&gt;
  122. &lt;br /&gt;
  123. Some point out the physical problems associated with kids sitting for hours and the effects of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081113101424.htm&quot; title=&quot;Video game violence negatively effects children&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;video game violence&lt;/a&gt; on children.&lt;br /&gt;
  124. &lt;br /&gt;
  125. Other studies indicate that gaming &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217183448.htm&quot; title=&quot;Video games improve children&#39;s reflexes&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;improves both the speed and accuracy&lt;/a&gt; with which kids process information, can help kids to be &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617171819.htm&quot; title=&quot;Video games teach children to be kinder&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;kinder and more helpful&lt;/a&gt;, and that &#39;active&#39; video games can even be an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090716123318.htm&quot; title=&quot;Active video games an alternate to exercise&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;alternative to moderate exercise&lt;/a&gt; for kids.&lt;br /&gt;
  126. &lt;br /&gt;
  127. I absolutely loved asteroids and space invaders growing up.&amp;nbsp; I hate the thought of denying my children the pleasure of spending hours interacting with a lifeless, cold, intelligence sucking machine that may eventually become their best friend &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;(as it did for me :..( &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  128. &lt;br /&gt;
  129. &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: small;&quot;&gt;I&#39;ve encouraged J to play some Sesame Street related games through the public television web site.&amp;nbsp; I am proud to report that she&#39;s become dexterous with the mouse and is able to do some fundamental navigation.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  130. &lt;br /&gt;
  131. &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: small;&quot;&gt;With that said, we&#39;ve not faced the true decision point yet in the sillyDaddy household (i.e. to buy a gaming console or not).&amp;nbsp; I expect that we will most likely bring one into the house and roll with a policy of age-appropriate games played in moderation.&amp;nbsp; Perhaps we&#39;ll provide our kids with a choice during their alloted TV time: (i.e. during the next 1/2 hour you may either watch a show or play a video game).&amp;nbsp; That way they don&#39;t log any extra screen time and they end up feeling like they had a choice.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  132. &lt;br /&gt;
  133. Parenting: ain&#39;t it fun!&lt;br /&gt;
  134. &lt;br /&gt;
  135. &lt;div style=&quot;color: blue; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  136. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;color: blue; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/5052552729249187265/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-study-negative-short-term-video.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5052552729249187265'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5052552729249187265'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-study-negative-short-term-video.html' title='New Study: Negative Short Term Video Game Effect on Children'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-sTRe3nPdHsKL4j112ax7zFMIKqFdv0ZI2TQngoebUJKyNsbtx_6GduyEuUyI9Vp6Q4p48R8RSOL_7bjPJkhzcWLiwWgZMHKsHjFQiuarLOjaG9EFOTRVlkMzyn48-OWnkYkAuKDuekO/s72-c/MuseumOfNaturalHistory+082.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-578733617512507353</id><published>2010-04-09T05:00:00.005-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-23T11:20:56.435-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Home Repair Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology Tips"/><title type='text'>DIY Fix For Your Wobbly Keyboard</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqZvZmLOwwyVo1FZrXZSd9BWP5dBvRbhlWbDfz_k-ZWKbRrqLaOreaUJiegqKLtiC3kWtKXgpKdtvksWeaHBw6HtpBzxhY2Pi7omljC6CRwfCrXsf4LdIE-znEy9itLrAjcKYbsIsFJD7/s1600-h/KeyboardFix+001.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;DIY keyboard repair&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqZvZmLOwwyVo1FZrXZSd9BWP5dBvRbhlWbDfz_k-ZWKbRrqLaOreaUJiegqKLtiC3kWtKXgpKdtvksWeaHBw6HtpBzxhY2Pi7omljC6CRwfCrXsf4LdIE-znEy9itLrAjcKYbsIsFJD7/s200/KeyboardFix+001.jpg&quot; title=&quot;DIY keyboard repair&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  137. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9nOUGrR4sCXv-8OMARlUY7I9ViTmPpOuzBreNao8FJyyaWe6wRpGXpburGc6FgSgyxbDQkaiE77fRmKSE9OkWj8-N-qwk1Yd7FKrLE3q4t3tXgCMneMVMOK7KyCR_ocNMRzTvinhDdXQN/s1600-h/KeyboardFix+004.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;DIY keyboard repair&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9nOUGrR4sCXv-8OMARlUY7I9ViTmPpOuzBreNao8FJyyaWe6wRpGXpburGc6FgSgyxbDQkaiE77fRmKSE9OkWj8-N-qwk1Yd7FKrLE3q4t3tXgCMneMVMOK7KyCR_ocNMRzTvinhDdXQN/s200/KeyboardFix+004.jpg&quot; title=&quot;DIY keyboard repair&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;Tip:&lt;/b&gt; Is your keyboard wobbling because you snapped off one of its little legs?&amp;nbsp; Use the &quot;spring&quot; from a large binder clip to replace it.&amp;nbsp; Good as new!&lt;span id=&quot;goog_1265982423036&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  138. &lt;br /&gt;
  139. (and yes, that is a delicious glass of scotch in the background)&lt;br /&gt;
  140. &lt;br /&gt;
  141. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span id=&quot;goog_1265982423037&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  142. &lt;br /&gt;
  143. &lt;br /&gt;
  144. &lt;div style=&quot;color: blue; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/578733617512507353/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/04/fix-your-wobbly-keyboard.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/578733617512507353'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/578733617512507353'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/04/fix-your-wobbly-keyboard.html' title='DIY Fix For Your Wobbly Keyboard'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqZvZmLOwwyVo1FZrXZSd9BWP5dBvRbhlWbDfz_k-ZWKbRrqLaOreaUJiegqKLtiC3kWtKXgpKdtvksWeaHBw6HtpBzxhY2Pi7omljC6CRwfCrXsf4LdIE-znEy9itLrAjcKYbsIsFJD7/s72-c/KeyboardFix+001.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-5143026252772533410</id><published>2010-03-29T05:00:00.006-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T19:57:31.540-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Children&#39;s Health Issues"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Parenting Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>Balance Important For Your Child&#39;s Mental Health</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;balancing skill important for your child&#39;s mental health&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5NjXGyZxXW4rwaQPTRnLsM5JFYlzCr8iFJdxTZFeoJ3trY_kEYU7dLa8Fj4sf7FrJwinr7lW3VgwgDVDBXp1VFPhyphenhyphenGJ5nieHEeya9qFAwCEsZWy_E6e7MgINWAmwR5xBFPa5dARn6wgXR/s200/april-may09+016.jpg&quot; title=&quot;balancing skill important for your child&#39;s mental health&quot; width=&quot;150&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Yes it&#39;s true....  sillyDaddy fractured his toe recently while running from the children on top of the couches in the family room....&lt;br /&gt;
  145. &lt;br /&gt;
  146. While my balance may be in question, eM and I have encouraged the kids&#39; balancing skills to build their coordination, strength and esteem &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;- and all our friends just thought we were careless parents&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
  147. &lt;br /&gt;
  148. We&#39;ve let them climb and move through their home, let them problem solve about how to get around or over obstacles and even allowed them to stumble occasionally in our safe, child proofed environment. &lt;br /&gt;
  149. &lt;br /&gt;
  150. So far they&#39;ve come through in much better shape than I have.&lt;br /&gt;
  151. &lt;br /&gt;
  152. I reached back into my sillyDaddy archive to find this article that made an impression on me from early last year.&amp;nbsp; Published in Research and Developmental Disabilities journal, the study found that &quot;all [children] with balance problems do exhibit symptoms of anxiety, pointing to a link between the two conditions.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  153. &lt;br /&gt;
  154. According to the research, children in the study, five to seven year olds with an anxiety diagnosis, went through a 12-week sensory-motor intervention in which, &quot;the children use equipment to experience their environment and move in space.&quot;&amp;nbsp; Their balance improved, anxiety was reduced to normal levels and their self-esteem increased.&lt;br /&gt;
  155. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Improve Balance, Relieve Childhood Anxiety&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  156. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;div id=&quot;top_review&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;By &lt;span class=&quot;authorb&quot;&gt;Rick Nauert, Ph.D.&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Senior News Editor&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;reviewer&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  157. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Saturday, Jan 24 (Psych Central) -- Many of the 40 million American adults who suffer from anxiety disorders also have problems with balance.&lt;br /&gt;
  158. &lt;br /&gt;
  159. As increasing numbers of children are diagnosed with anxiety, researchers have discovered that the link between balance and anxiety can be assessed at an early age and that something can be done about it before it becomes a problem.&lt;br /&gt;
  160. &lt;br /&gt;
  161. Dr. Orit Bart at Tel Aviv University’s School of Health Professions, and her colleagues, have found that a simple course of physical treatment for balance problems can also resolve anxiety issues in children. Her work offers new hope for normal social and emotional development for children with both disorders.&lt;br /&gt;
  162. &lt;br /&gt;
  163. Anxiety has a significant impact on children’s personal and academic well-being. &lt;b&gt;While not all kids with anxiety have balance problems, all those with balance problems do exhibit symptoms of anxiety, pointing to a link between the two conditions.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  164. &lt;br /&gt;
  165. “This is a breakthrough in the field of occupational therapy,” says Dr. Bart.&lt;br /&gt;
  166. &lt;br /&gt;
  167. Her study — done in collaboration with TAU researchers Yair Bar-Haim, Einat Weizman, Moran Levin, Avi Sadeh, and Matti Mintz, and to be published in &lt;i&gt;Research in Developmental Disabilities &lt;/i&gt;— investigated the anxiety-balance connection in young children for the first time.&lt;br /&gt;
  168. &lt;br /&gt;
  169. Dr. Bart tracked children between the ages of five and seven who had been diagnosed with both problems to see how treatment would affect each disorder.&lt;br /&gt;
  170. &lt;br /&gt;
  171. After a 12-week intervention of sensory-motor intervention, the children in Dr. Bart’s study improved their balance skills.&lt;br /&gt;
  172. &lt;br /&gt;
  173. &lt;b&gt;The therapy also reduced the children’s anxiety to normal levels, she reports. As their balance and anxiety issues improved, the children’s self-esteem also increased.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  174. &lt;br /&gt;
  175. &lt;b&gt;Treating the Mind Through the Body&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  176. &lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  177. &lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  178. “You can’t treat children with anxiety in a cognitive way because of their immaturity and lack of operational thinking. Working with the body may be the answer,” Dr. Bart explains.&lt;br /&gt;
  179. &lt;br /&gt;
  180. The treatment therefore focused on &lt;b&gt;letting the children use equipment to experience their environment and move in space.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  181. &lt;br /&gt;
  182. Dr. Bart found that by working with their bodies, children could work through their emotional problems, including anxiety.&lt;br /&gt;
  183. &lt;br /&gt;
  184. Dr. Bart is now working on expanding the initial results through a larger study with more control groups. The goal is to explore the exact nature of the relationship between balance and anxiety in children, and to focus the results on more specific treatment types.&lt;br /&gt;
  185. &lt;br /&gt;
  186. “Young children who have anxiety should first be assessed for balance issues to see if that is the source of the problem,” says Dr. Bart.&lt;br /&gt;
  187. &lt;br /&gt;
  188. “We can now treat these children because we have a better understanding of the relation between these disorders.”&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  189. &lt;br /&gt;
  190. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;*** &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/5143026252772533410/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/balance-important-for-your-childs.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5143026252772533410'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5143026252772533410'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/balance-important-for-your-childs.html' title='Balance Important For Your Child&#39;s Mental Health'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5NjXGyZxXW4rwaQPTRnLsM5JFYlzCr8iFJdxTZFeoJ3trY_kEYU7dLa8Fj4sf7FrJwinr7lW3VgwgDVDBXp1VFPhyphenhyphenGJ5nieHEeya9qFAwCEsZWy_E6e7MgINWAmwR5xBFPa5dARn6wgXR/s72-c/april-may09+016.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-4357235036707777518</id><published>2010-03-25T05:00:00.004-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T11:59:41.276-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Free software applications"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Google Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Home Organization Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Marriage Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Organizing with Technology"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology Tips"/><title type='text'>Free Google Calendar Makes It Easy To Organize The Family</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrcdQvB-WNhxyh1ed5Uw3Bfq5DaQmhiLQg9S-M2QN1eAh-JpCcICBnhWysbvwEI3JHAWzEIQkbiRNHRCr5mSPv9F4vzKxmi025bJ3t36Fc-0EKykTAB8A_IvqtIV8CHJvuSzFOCgD_igD/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+213.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrcdQvB-WNhxyh1ed5Uw3Bfq5DaQmhiLQg9S-M2QN1eAh-JpCcICBnhWysbvwEI3JHAWzEIQkbiRNHRCr5mSPv9F4vzKxmi025bJ3t36Fc-0EKykTAB8A_IvqtIV8CHJvuSzFOCgD_igD/s320/SafeDepositContents+213.jpg&quot; title=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  191. Do you wish you had a more organized and reliable way to coordinate schedules with your wife?  Would you like to be able to share your schedule with friends and family?  Wouldn’t it be cool to have an up to the minute weather report right on your calendar?&lt;br /&gt;
  192. &lt;br /&gt;
  193. You can have all this and more with Google’s free shared calendar application!&lt;br /&gt;
  194. &lt;br /&gt;
  195. If you have a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gmail.com/&quot; title=&quot;Set up a free Gmail account&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;free Gmail account&lt;/a&gt; you have access to Google’s free calendar application.  There’s absolutely nothing to download because it’s all web based.&lt;br /&gt;
  196. &lt;br /&gt;
  197. You will be able to create specialized calendars, share them with friends and family or keep them private, overlay multiple calendars on top of each other so you can easily see conflicts, send appointment alerts to your phone or email, and add free extras like a calendar for all US Holidays and a Weather overlay!&lt;br /&gt;
  198. &lt;br /&gt;
  199. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;eM is able to manage a calendar in her mind.  I am not.  It used to drive me crazy when she would try to talk to me about scheduling things without a calendar in front of me (i.e. like while we’re driving) because I find it difficult to visualize our occasionally complex schedule.  And I used to drive her crazy by constantly asking for updates about event details that she had already reviewed with me days or weeks before.&lt;br /&gt;
  200. &lt;br /&gt;
  201. This shared calendar has eliminated the issue.  Now, if eM wants me to think about an event, she places it in the calendar and gives me the heads up.  And if I want to know detail about an u&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;pcoming event, all I have to do is pull it up on the calendar.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  202. &lt;br /&gt;
  203. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc; font-family: inherit;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;TIP: &lt;/b&gt;Remember, you can create as many calendars as you’d like so make sure each calendar has a single purpose.&amp;nbsp; That way you can overlay multiple calendars when you want more information or eliminate overlays when you don&#39;t need as much information.&amp;nbsp; For instance, we have a calendar just for park events.&amp;nbsp; We don&#39;t always want to see this on our regular appointment calendar so we only overlay the park events calendar when we&#39;re planning on doing something at the park. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  204. eM and I both have separate appointment calendars that show up in different colors.  That way when we overlay our calendars it’s easy to tell at a glance which appointments were made by eM and which were made by me.&lt;br /&gt;
  205. &lt;br /&gt;
  206. We&#39;ve set up calendars for just about everything including:&lt;br /&gt;
  207. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj617qDIoMN5FUf1yiRwzJUMJdfGXkJwKyV2f9z_WzP2WIDvnByNeQ9J340ZbL32AfAsN2wo1RfeXUy9OQqv94v1FzEtp4InXGrXwQKXKLuuo4j8XntL8V5fnuOUj4CZ6D490HfOL9COa5T/s1600-h/screenshot1.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;165&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj617qDIoMN5FUf1yiRwzJUMJdfGXkJwKyV2f9z_WzP2WIDvnByNeQ9J340ZbL32AfAsN2wo1RfeXUy9OQqv94v1FzEtp4InXGrXwQKXKLuuo4j8XntL8V5fnuOUj4CZ6D490HfOL9COa5T/s200/screenshot1.jpg&quot; title=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  208. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;My company’s holidays and my scheduled time off&lt;/li&gt;
  209. &lt;li&gt;Birthdays/Anniversaries&lt;/li&gt;
  210. &lt;li&gt;Household chore schedule&lt;/li&gt;
  211. &lt;li&gt;J’s preschool schedule&lt;/li&gt;
  212. &lt;li&gt;My blog post schedule&lt;/li&gt;
  213. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHgWfaSjAI0t5Y-ZmZ8JJij6wDm_kbw3FQkRYXWchbAUmuQS0GD0mGuD9ro0Ed-fq9CxVid5Xi4LJwgRrhUXoy4eYnPCRRO5davFLqoI_U1fEyiiqZtiLgeovXnCibsRyPALYZgJrAhGLr/s1600/screenshot2.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHgWfaSjAI0t5Y-ZmZ8JJij6wDm_kbw3FQkRYXWchbAUmuQS0GD0mGuD9ro0Ed-fq9CxVid5Xi4LJwgRrhUXoy4eYnPCRRO5davFLqoI_U1fEyiiqZtiLgeovXnCibsRyPALYZgJrAhGLr/s200/screenshot2.jpg&quot; title=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; width=&quot;106&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifiOJgwZMZGlNZlQbIEddKZQqAsUpJUXTIKJQ-CusQHnTNQGXldW53g7Kzq1zsD1WzqHj2BM9lWljxo38-EIaFJcHFQ_rKHSPNE-o1w7T-Plws-yA6SBZdJMrqM_roZpHmxC5t-QwYGT5d/s1600-h/screenshot3.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;138&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifiOJgwZMZGlNZlQbIEddKZQqAsUpJUXTIKJQ-CusQHnTNQGXldW53g7Kzq1zsD1WzqHj2BM9lWljxo38-EIaFJcHFQ_rKHSPNE-o1w7T-Plws-yA6SBZdJMrqM_roZpHmxC5t-QwYGT5d/s200/screenshot3.jpg&quot; title=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;You can add all kinds of detail to each event including recurring appointments, Google Maps and appointment reminders.&lt;br /&gt;
  214. &lt;br /&gt;
  215. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;Here’s how to do it:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  216. &lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;To set up a new calendar from Gmail click on Calendar on the top menu.&lt;/li&gt;
  217. &lt;li&gt;Click &#39;Create&#39; under the &#39;My calendar&#39; section (see the screen shot to the above right).  Set up your calendar; choose with whom you’d like to share and what power they should have; and click &#39;Create Calendar&#39; at the bottom.&lt;/li&gt;
  218. &lt;li&gt;If you’d like to add local weather, go back to the main screen and click &#39;Add&#39; under the &#39;Other calendars&#39; section.&lt;/li&gt;
  219. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibAjx1lMqLIZ42O5G4TyxcS_WUE0GaulnFAk0rOX5GIcU4-WeCoo7PXt_FylPFfaSsWxfdhb4jEMN32F5k5YYw-AqqC2xBLZ0nzZTvwuSKLwJLgqvkVh-axNtihsvAmbo0VGn9kJk6sMJM/s1600-h/screenshot4.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibAjx1lMqLIZ42O5G4TyxcS_WUE0GaulnFAk0rOX5GIcU4-WeCoo7PXt_FylPFfaSsWxfdhb4jEMN32F5k5YYw-AqqC2xBLZ0nzZTvwuSKLwJLgqvkVh-axNtihsvAmbo0VGn9kJk6sMJM/s200/screenshot4.jpg&quot; title=&quot;keep the whole family organized with Google Calendar&quot; width=&quot;187&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  220. &lt;li&gt;Once you have several calendars set up you can click the arrow to the right of the calendar name to display just that one, or you can click directly on the calendar name to add it to the display.&lt;/li&gt;
  221. &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  222. Once you get comfortable with the basic features, have fun with the settings which allow you to add icons to your events, change the calendar&#39;s background image and more!&lt;br /&gt;
  223. &lt;br /&gt;
  224. Other favorite Google features already reviewed here include &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-google-reader-to-manage-your.html&quot; title=&quot;Use Google Reader to manage your blog subscriptions&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Google Reader&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-filters-and-labels-to-manage-your.html&quot; title=&quot;Use filters to organize your email&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot; &gt;Gmail Filters&lt;/a&gt; and Google Docs.&lt;br /&gt;
  225. &lt;br /&gt;
  226. &lt;br /&gt;
  227. &lt;div style=&quot;color: blue; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/4357235036707777518/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-google-calendar-makes-it-easy-to.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/4357235036707777518'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/4357235036707777518'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-google-calendar-makes-it-easy-to.html' title='Free Google Calendar Makes It Easy To Organize The Family'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrcdQvB-WNhxyh1ed5Uw3Bfq5DaQmhiLQg9S-M2QN1eAh-JpCcICBnhWysbvwEI3JHAWzEIQkbiRNHRCr5mSPv9F4vzKxmi025bJ3t36Fc-0EKykTAB8A_IvqtIV8CHJvuSzFOCgD_igD/s72-c/SafeDepositContents+213.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-2573130971386043637</id><published>2010-03-22T05:00:00.011-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T12:04:11.799-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime Prevention Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Identity Theft Prevention Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology Tips"/><title type='text'>Internet Crime Up 22%!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; font-size: smaller; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;protect your family from internet crime&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ0SjBneWeol-BgM1KjLi02WoJfE9l1a8xA7angFtK-fiYxo7rwVOVdrUgGyYXeHoLrdRAH9VtOGeHgSFvJa3hfqwkHC1-0CfPZWUMSAywFNnz0ObqtiSTPodal2iMK_3Rl1hg-EfREGym/s320/MuseumOfNaturalHistory+041.jpg&quot; title=&quot;protect your family from internet crime&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  228. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;you are the water buffalo in this scenario (J took this pic.  Nice, right?)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;A scary report out this month from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)&amp;nbsp; regarding cyber crime.&lt;br /&gt;
  229. &lt;br /&gt;
  230. Especially scary because it details a&amp;nbsp; high rate of cyber-crime in the Washington DC Metro Area.&lt;br /&gt;
  231. &lt;br /&gt;
  232. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx&quot; title=&quot;Internet Crime Complaint Center official site&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;IC3&lt;/a&gt; is an organization put together by the FBI in conjunction with the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.&amp;nbsp; I mentioned their list of 17 identity theft prevention tips in my &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/harden-your-passwords.html&quot; title=&quot;Make passwords strong to prevent identity theft&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;hardening your passwords&lt;/a&gt; post.&lt;br /&gt;
  233. &lt;br /&gt;
  234. According to the report, Maryland ranks 19th and Virginia 28th in the number of perps per capita!&lt;br /&gt;
  235. &lt;br /&gt;
  236. Complaints to the IC3 increased 22% last year and the average amount of money lost per complaint jumped from $265K in 2008 to $560K.&lt;br /&gt;
  237. &lt;br /&gt;
  238. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  239. &lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;The Top Three Crimes:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  240. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;20% non-delivery of goods or services.&lt;/li&gt;
  241. &lt;li&gt;14% identity theft.&lt;/li&gt;
  242. &lt;li&gt;10% credit card fraud.&lt;/li&gt;
  243. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  244. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  245. If you haven&#39;t done so already, please plan on carving out some time to protect yourself.&lt;br /&gt;
  246. &lt;br /&gt;
  247. Review the four post series:&lt;br /&gt;
  248. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/protecting-your-personal-information-on.html&quot; title=&quot;DIY Identity protection tips&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Protecting Your Identity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  249. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/stop-credit-solicitations-from-coming.html&quot; title=&quot;Stop credit solicitations to prevent identity theft and internet crime&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Stop Credit Solicitations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  250. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/freeze-your-credit-so-bad-people-cant.html&quot; title=&quot;Freeze credit to prevent internet crime and protect your on-line identity&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Freezing Your Credit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  251. &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/harden-your-passwords.html&quot; title=&quot;Make your passwords stronger to prevent identity theft&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Hardening Your Passwords&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  252. &lt;br /&gt;
  253. &lt;div style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  254. &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue; font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/2573130971386043637/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/internet-crime-up-22.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/2573130971386043637'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/2573130971386043637'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/internet-crime-up-22.html' title='Internet Crime Up 22%!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ0SjBneWeol-BgM1KjLi02WoJfE9l1a8xA7angFtK-fiYxo7rwVOVdrUgGyYXeHoLrdRAH9VtOGeHgSFvJa3hfqwkHC1-0CfPZWUMSAywFNnz0ObqtiSTPodal2iMK_3Rl1hg-EfREGym/s72-c/MuseumOfNaturalHistory+041.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-1979123197107672672</id><published>2010-03-18T05:00:00.004-04:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T10:46:34.186-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crafts with Dad"/><title type='text'>Spring Equinox - Not Just For Druids Anymore!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRgCFKeUcOL7JbqF5fQtMskakYKOahU_7_kfX03gZwqu3Rd1jWbBTy9hrpDvTMfEe2H-oxFwHLsIxxHazLoguOQwj6tnCbZ5me5PcsVCnXqwIFygQ7vulPpC2w8FWXfcXu19de5vhyphenhyphenQTa/s1600-h/dec08+043.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRgCFKeUcOL7JbqF5fQtMskakYKOahU_7_kfX03gZwqu3Rd1jWbBTy9hrpDvTMfEe2H-oxFwHLsIxxHazLoguOQwj6tnCbZ5me5PcsVCnXqwIFygQ7vulPpC2w8FWXfcXu19de5vhyphenhyphenQTa/s320/dec08+043.jpg&quot; title=&quot;She&#39;s takin&#39; back the equinox!&quot; alt=&quot;She&#39;s takin&#39; back the equinox!&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Have you always wanted to celebrate the spring equinox but were too intimidated by druids and wickens?&lt;br /&gt;
  255. &lt;br /&gt;
  256. Spring equinox isn&#39;t some bizarre, candle lighting, virgin sacrificing, robe wearing ritual.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s a meteorological event.&lt;br /&gt;
  257. &lt;br /&gt;
  258. And we&#39;re takin&#39; it back baby! &lt;br /&gt;
  259. &lt;br /&gt;
  260. The spring equinox is one of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth&#39;s equator and day and night are of equal length.&amp;nbsp; This year&#39;s spring equinox will occur on March 20th at 1:32pm.&lt;br /&gt;
  261. &lt;br /&gt;
  262. You know what that means???&amp;nbsp; From here on out we&#39;ll have more day than night and summer isn&#39;t far behind!!!&lt;br /&gt;
  263. &lt;br /&gt;
  264. Now, lets go kick some druid ass. &lt;br /&gt;
  265. &lt;br /&gt;
  266. &lt;br /&gt;
  267. &lt;br /&gt;
  268. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;*** &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/1979123197107672672/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/spring-equinox-not-just-for-druids.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/1979123197107672672'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/1979123197107672672'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/spring-equinox-not-just-for-druids.html' title='Spring Equinox - Not Just For Druids Anymore!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRgCFKeUcOL7JbqF5fQtMskakYKOahU_7_kfX03gZwqu3Rd1jWbBTy9hrpDvTMfEe2H-oxFwHLsIxxHazLoguOQwj6tnCbZ5me5PcsVCnXqwIFygQ7vulPpC2w8FWXfcXu19de5vhyphenhyphenQTa/s72-c/dec08+043.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-5841048572038131111</id><published>2010-03-11T05:00:00.010-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T09:10:08.135-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crafts with Dad"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Home Improvement Tips"/><title type='text'>Build A DIY Secret Bookshelf Compartment!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzjo1GnZb4Fv4VDOtSmMmyRpSRa2ymkk0V4SmoVyGZJdDKhsvb9g3R_EtXQ_jA3Y1ML7ezQ9nV7EC6s3I12m3kl6bRyVYVAk3X0HwQgbSfcc75q9xjwl-hah1_hC-CJ6YnrYwiOtJPA1-Q/s1600-h/SecretCompartment+001.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzjo1GnZb4Fv4VDOtSmMmyRpSRa2ymkk0V4SmoVyGZJdDKhsvb9g3R_EtXQ_jA3Y1ML7ezQ9nV7EC6s3I12m3kl6bRyVYVAk3X0HwQgbSfcc75q9xjwl-hah1_hC-CJ6YnrYwiOtJPA1-Q/s320/SecretCompartment+001.jpg&quot; title=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; alt=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Regardless of whether or not you actually have anything secret to store in your home, every Daddy, silly or not, wants a secret compartment.&lt;br /&gt;
  269. &lt;br /&gt;
  270. &lt;br /&gt;
  271. I&#39;ve read lots of interesting ideas for creating secret spots but they always looked like they&#39;d take years to complete and cost thousands of lives.&lt;br /&gt;
  272. &lt;br /&gt;
  273. This is a quick and easy secret compartment that, so far, has fooled everyone who&#39;s looked for it.&lt;br /&gt;
  274. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  275. &lt;br /&gt;
  276. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9o44aeolV2l160LeXqeAl2HQup7_pzHUUGv7zo7r_qT_ISqx1Z7Vx1O7Tf8ZKtJCOKIGg4zFzzJ6cwgZOH4vEwUc9fTxA-mQN01_qjVFcju_cTDN5X7Q_wQ4l3ze2Ry1AEB-WILneptw/s1600-h/SecretCompartment+006.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9o44aeolV2l160LeXqeAl2HQup7_pzHUUGv7zo7r_qT_ISqx1Z7Vx1O7Tf8ZKtJCOKIGg4zFzzJ6cwgZOH4vEwUc9fTxA-mQN01_qjVFcju_cTDN5X7Q_wQ4l3ze2Ry1AEB-WILneptw/s200/SecretCompartment+006.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; alt=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9p6r25hHx6U7M771Eoq1hexzzaEL8SRbpa9VdiVdUfgGNtyZr32WOfwCVbJDv-A9NOrbX35_o7_caoXYMGNUdl2MNZtySBeoD6YNOErgron6c-oVqRtYZZLo4-tOL2YJFvlZrLUg0Rzms/s1600-h/SecretCompartment+004.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9p6r25hHx6U7M771Eoq1hexzzaEL8SRbpa9VdiVdUfgGNtyZr32WOfwCVbJDv-A9NOrbX35_o7_caoXYMGNUdl2MNZtySBeoD6YNOErgron6c-oVqRtYZZLo4-tOL2YJFvlZrLUg0Rzms/s200/SecretCompartment+004.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; alt=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  277. &lt;br /&gt;
  278. &lt;br /&gt;
  279. &lt;br /&gt;
  280. &lt;br /&gt;
  281. &lt;br /&gt;
  282. &lt;br /&gt;
  283. &lt;br /&gt;
  284. &lt;br /&gt;
  285. &lt;br /&gt;
  286. &lt;br /&gt;
  287. A couple of points I should make right off the bat:&lt;br /&gt;
  288. &lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;I have been reminded by eM and others of what a particularly pointless project this was given that we have nothing either secret or valuable to hide.&lt;/li&gt;
  289. &lt;li&gt;I have been reminded by eM and others that &lt;strike&gt;forcing everyone who enters the house to view&lt;/strike&gt; showing off the secret compartment entirely defeats the purpose of having said secret compartment.&lt;/li&gt;
  290. &lt;li&gt;My single malt scotch levels are very low. &lt;/li&gt;
  291. &lt;/ol&gt;Well, to all these sayers of nay I say, &quot;Nay&quot; right back at thee!&lt;br /&gt;
  292. &lt;br /&gt;
  293. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4obcEm-p5JYtA-bMl9NBpGSOsYDtnMO_Lh5_XUVv3dvqRNxdWdhfZAMu_4NY__eXiqxlB-BPR48P9s43T6JdlegruFpEgDAK0aic3g_bq40QtaEkdG2ywjEuj3O7sHgXi5TDOzmQ-3fz/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+162.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4obcEm-p5JYtA-bMl9NBpGSOsYDtnMO_Lh5_XUVv3dvqRNxdWdhfZAMu_4NY__eXiqxlB-BPR48P9s43T6JdlegruFpEgDAK0aic3g_bq40QtaEkdG2ywjEuj3O7sHgXi5TDOzmQ-3fz/s200/SafeDepositContents+162.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; alt=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  294. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Here&#39;s what you&#39;ll need:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIqD8LM1UacMUoZ4PX_dlq7aTeuQFI4IxulVuWxR71seOxV5P0IcQGN3cw2xWuTgMbfkFZ-dP69uVyXwmg5qB_YSyPKCRO6NSAoDSgkqQfMEgp3SDfkiS3kfUfIt-biie480M5lCorTefq/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+164.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIqD8LM1UacMUoZ4PX_dlq7aTeuQFI4IxulVuWxR71seOxV5P0IcQGN3cw2xWuTgMbfkFZ-dP69uVyXwmg5qB_YSyPKCRO6NSAoDSgkqQfMEgp3SDfkiS3kfUfIt-biie480M5lCorTefq/s200/SafeDepositContents+164.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; alt=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  295. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Three, 3-ring binders.&amp;nbsp; Bigger the better (as long as they&#39;re not too tall to fit on your intended bookshelf).&lt;/li&gt;
  296. &lt;li&gt;Staples - not the kind that fit into your stapler - the heavy duty kind from the hardware store.&lt;/li&gt;
  297. &lt;li&gt;Strong glue.&lt;/li&gt;
  298. &lt;li&gt;Utility knife.&lt;/li&gt;
  299. &lt;li&gt;Small wood screws with a head.&amp;nbsp; I used screws designed to be used with picture frames.&lt;/li&gt;
  300. &lt;li&gt;Drill to make pilot holes for the staples and wood screws.&lt;/li&gt;
  301. &lt;li&gt;Secrets to hide (although this component is completely unnecessary).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  302. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  303. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  304. Line up your 3 notebooks to make sure they look good together.&amp;nbsp; Apply your glue.&amp;nbsp; Not too close to the edge!&amp;nbsp; You don&#39;t want any glue to be visible when you&#39;re all done.&lt;br /&gt;
  305. &lt;br /&gt;
  306. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxd014ahfnivWjmupApca3NS20DzDOpmDxaEM6eTBRYTjBEoovBTMdoWyK0-Cd8Rs_m_mPhUmJp4nLDyX2OpxchiAaNxY_z52z0roo0Aqxgtk0yM_pu_KLKk0IcZ_XLJGHOiKE6sZSAZul/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+170.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxd014ahfnivWjmupApca3NS20DzDOpmDxaEM6eTBRYTjBEoovBTMdoWyK0-Cd8Rs_m_mPhUmJp4nLDyX2OpxchiAaNxY_z52z0roo0Aqxgtk0yM_pu_KLKk0IcZ_XLJGHOiKE6sZSAZul/s200/SafeDepositContents+170.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; alt=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Once the glue has dried, throw in two staples to each inside cover.&lt;br /&gt;
  307. &lt;br /&gt;
  308. Use your utility knife to cut out the inside covers just past the staple and glue line.&lt;br /&gt;
  309. &lt;br /&gt;
  310. Line up the joined notebooks on your shelf and figure out where to fasten them.&amp;nbsp; This part isn&#39;t entirely necessary but it makes it much easier to open and close your secret compartment.&lt;br /&gt;
  311. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_OCq6Nb4yyy827Lhs2h4LzgJWRDKkFfB4bk-DqBDNaGTY57CLP1vfuHRf7Y9m3mx4eAKeU4uJTqUfJKLJ85Sx2bGFdkUE9JdopNpTaCQ5IjCPZ1VDXJjviPgz1oXRVij0sCgM1lzzuNT/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+171.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv_OCq6Nb4yyy827Lhs2h4LzgJWRDKkFfB4bk-DqBDNaGTY57CLP1vfuHRf7Y9m3mx4eAKeU4uJTqUfJKLJ85Sx2bGFdkUE9JdopNpTaCQ5IjCPZ1VDXJjviPgz1oXRVij0sCgM1lzzuNT/s200/SafeDepositContents+171.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; alt=&quot;DIY secret bookshelf compartment&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  312. I used very small wood screws with a large enough head so that they wouldn&#39;t pass right through the notebook&#39;s plastic and cardboard cover.&lt;br /&gt;
  313. &lt;br /&gt;
  314. Place other notebooks and books close by to complete the deception.&lt;br /&gt;
  315. &lt;br /&gt;
  316. Now, tell all your friends to come on over and see your secret compartment &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: xx-small;&quot;&gt;(that&#39;s what she said...badabing).&lt;/span&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
  317. &lt;br /&gt;
  318. &lt;br /&gt;
  319. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue; font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/5841048572038131111/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/build-secret-compartment.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5841048572038131111'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5841048572038131111'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/build-secret-compartment.html' title='Build A DIY Secret Bookshelf Compartment!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzjo1GnZb4Fv4VDOtSmMmyRpSRa2ymkk0V4SmoVyGZJdDKhsvb9g3R_EtXQ_jA3Y1ML7ezQ9nV7EC6s3I12m3kl6bRyVYVAk3X0HwQgbSfcc75q9xjwl-hah1_hC-CJ6YnrYwiOtJPA1-Q/s72-c/SecretCompartment+001.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-954275827051351843</id><published>2010-03-08T05:00:00.009-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T12:05:56.108-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Sport"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Steeple Chase"/><title type='text'>Steeple Chase Time!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzNGS8EOQaX16mXHaeFTQ08iY81uw-NMsYGdBbSfderuIYSDAVKp6HA3NUVZ1kFnH_UwjnXdLVWvc9kVfdUEnpP_4ukIkAp0GgP54Yf8fi8lf4XJAkC3XzHlSHfingZpzhFovbABcZAe56/s1600-h/steeplechase,+easter,+egg+roll+001.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;My Lady&#39;s Manor steeple chase race&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzNGS8EOQaX16mXHaeFTQ08iY81uw-NMsYGdBbSfderuIYSDAVKp6HA3NUVZ1kFnH_UwjnXdLVWvc9kVfdUEnpP_4ukIkAp0GgP54Yf8fi8lf4XJAkC3XzHlSHfingZpzhFovbABcZAe56/s320/steeplechase,+easter,+egg+roll+001.jpg&quot; title=&quot;My Lady&#39;s Manor steeplechase race&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Steeple chase season arrives in Maryland on April 10th with the 108th running &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;(that&#39;s just over a century to you and me)&lt;/span&gt; of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.marylandsteeplechasing.com/main/mlm/datetime.htm&quot; title=&quot;My Lady&#39;s Manor steeplechase official site&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;My Lady&#39;s Manor Steeple Chase&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;
  320. &lt;br /&gt;
  321. J &amp;amp; D have attended each year of their lives; eM and I have attended almost every year since we&#39;ve been together and I attended with friends many years before that.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s a fun event, great for people with or without families.&amp;nbsp; This is one of the few remaining vestiges of my pre-fatherhood days when I still had disposable income.&amp;nbsp; In fact, it might be the only surviving vestige. &lt;br /&gt;
  322. &lt;br /&gt;
  323. Now the vibe at this race is a little different than the Virginia or International Gold Cups that DC folks are used to.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s more ancient country manor &amp;amp; LLBean vs. nouveau riche &amp;amp; fancy hats.&amp;nbsp; Oh you can still find plenty of pompous but most folks are very friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
  324. &lt;br /&gt;
  325. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  326. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKx0ElGCFHai5QDhBzT2FSMp2Gt3yKRBkd-8DTsDNIXiqotYoCEYAQCCoA6TbxLOw2Sh49cMEu4isIR8P_zyHMavhgzMiW60JHuQdQdjL0oNfsatjX5A7Mggm8UqaapEg4LDJms503C_JK/s1600-h/haddix.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;My Lady&#39;s Manor steeple chase race&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;131&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKx0ElGCFHai5QDhBzT2FSMp2Gt3yKRBkd-8DTsDNIXiqotYoCEYAQCCoA6TbxLOw2Sh49cMEu4isIR8P_zyHMavhgzMiW60JHuQdQdjL0oNfsatjX5A7Mggm8UqaapEg4LDJms503C_JK/s200/haddix.jpg&quot; title=&quot;My Lady&#39;s Manor steeplechase race&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;The weather can be a real wild card which is part of the adventure.&amp;nbsp; It might be really warm or you might get a cold and damp day as we did last year.&amp;nbsp; Either way, with our little group, the scotch and wine flow, the provisions are abundant and there&#39;s even a little friendly wagering among the group.&lt;br /&gt;
  327. &lt;br /&gt;
  328. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsF6RD_AUtaqt-OA1dAFQaDWN3pPFZTIv9cUk9fx7-uBYsbjdmb11gpyfP4bycccsegpDDVdtZA9DBZlnX2ky6zF6tokdh4-pAYZ_7EwZON3dMGTnGAn5bRpKeyvkbA39KuEIvr1_m09AB/s1600-h/dl_shapiro.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;My Lady&#39;s Manor steeple chase race&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;181&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsF6RD_AUtaqt-OA1dAFQaDWN3pPFZTIv9cUk9fx7-uBYsbjdmb11gpyfP4bycccsegpDDVdtZA9DBZlnX2ky6zF6tokdh4-pAYZ_7EwZON3dMGTnGAn5bRpKeyvkbA39KuEIvr1_m09AB/s200/dl_shapiro.jpg&quot; title=&quot;My Lady&#39;s Manor steeplechase race&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;The location of the race adds to its charm.&amp;nbsp; In 1713, Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore made a gift of this land (10,000 acres) to his fourth wife, Lady Margaret, christening the estate &quot;My Lady&#39;s Manor.&quot;&amp;nbsp; The races, which are over wooden fences, or &#39;timber&#39; began in 1902.&amp;nbsp; The horses are known as timber horses and/or jumpers.&lt;br /&gt;
  329. &lt;br /&gt;
  330. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;Tips: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  331. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;There are no food or drink vendors so be sure to pack sustenance.&lt;/li&gt;
  332. &lt;li&gt;Bring folding chairs.&lt;/li&gt;
  333. &lt;li&gt;Keep a close eye on the weather.&lt;/li&gt;
  334. &lt;li&gt;If it was wet leading up to race day wear good mud boots.  Wear comfortable walking shoes regardless - you will be walking through actual fields with actual divots and actual horse droppings.&lt;/li&gt;
  335. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  336. If you&#39;re going to go it&#39;s best to fit as many in one car as you can because general parking is $50 and parking prices go up from there.&amp;nbsp; Once you park you can walk just about anywhere along the course to see the races.&amp;nbsp; We normally park in a homeowner&#39;s yard across from the race entrance.&amp;nbsp; The price for one of his yard spots has steadily gone up but it&#39;s still just under $50.&lt;br /&gt;
  337. &lt;br /&gt;
  338. If you really want to splurge you can buy a parking spot on the rail.&amp;nbsp; If you do, don&#39;t forget to invite your favorite sillyDaddy for a visit (seriously...don&#39;t forget...i promise to bring extra scotch)!&lt;br /&gt;
  339. &lt;br /&gt;
  340. &lt;br /&gt;
  341. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;*** &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/954275827051351843/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/steeple-chase-time.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/954275827051351843'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/954275827051351843'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/steeple-chase-time.html' title='Steeple Chase Time!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzNGS8EOQaX16mXHaeFTQ08iY81uw-NMsYGdBbSfderuIYSDAVKp6HA3NUVZ1kFnH_UwjnXdLVWvc9kVfdUEnpP_4ukIkAp0GgP54Yf8fi8lf4XJAkC3XzHlSHfingZpzhFovbABcZAe56/s72-c/steeplechase,+easter,+egg+roll+001.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-3932133142201933895</id><published>2010-03-04T05:00:00.005-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T19:54:26.808-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Parenting Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>Quality Fathering Boosts Your Child&#39;s IQ</title><content type='html'>While I was posting about the research released last week concerning &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/stop-female-teacher-effect.html&quot; title=&quot;Counteracting the female-teacher-effect to encourage girls&#39; math ability&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;girls and math ability&lt;/a&gt;, I was reminded of another article in the sillyDaddy archive.&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpEXew-JeWMJWv0qIl0HAYlJGCUR_h1dvyeHWiz9PfR0-sKTsU9ZM7kXi6E-q_1y5mJT8oDVOLJ9XgazMps84z_LCXHyPBFbiMlAtFph9qLiAs5augQCCplxQFX3mTfcj-CjI0ZpjFtIIg/s1600-h/oct09+085.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpEXew-JeWMJWv0qIl0HAYlJGCUR_h1dvyeHWiz9PfR0-sKTsU9ZM7kXi6E-q_1y5mJT8oDVOLJ9XgazMps84z_LCXHyPBFbiMlAtFph9qLiAs5augQCCplxQFX3mTfcj-CjI0ZpjFtIIg/s320/oct09+085.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Boost your child&#39;s IQ simply by doing your fatherly duty&quot; alt=&quot;Boost your child&#39;s IQ simply by doing your fatherly duty&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  342. &lt;br /&gt;
  343. The research (pasted below) released at the end of 2008 found that an involved dad boosts a child&#39;s IQ in a significant way!&lt;br /&gt;
  344. &lt;br /&gt;
  345. The author, a psychologist at the University of Newcastle &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;(where they also happen to make a lovely brown ale....bada bing)&lt;/span&gt; writes, &quot;This is not half a point, this is a few points of IQ, on average.&quot; &lt;br /&gt;
  346. &lt;br /&gt;
  347. The research was based on surveys of more than 10,000 children completed over more than 50 years and was published in the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior. &lt;br /&gt;
  348. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  349. &lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;Time with dad is time well spent&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  350. &amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; by Ewen Callaway&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  351. &lt;br /&gt;
  352. When picking out that perfect Father&#39;s Day gift next year, sons and daughters might want to look to their own accomplishments before deciding between a gaudy polyester tie or splurging on a new set of golf clubs.&lt;br /&gt;
  353. &lt;br /&gt;
  354. &lt;b&gt;The more effort a father invests in his children, the smarter they are as kids and more successful as adults, new research shows.&lt;/b&gt; And highly educated fathers make even more of a difference than less educated dads, all things being equal.&lt;br /&gt;
  355. &lt;br /&gt;
  356. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  357. &lt;br /&gt;
  358. &lt;b&gt;&quot;It&#39;s not [just] about having dad around, it&#39;s about what kind of dad he is,&quot;&lt;/b&gt; says Daniel Nettle, a psychologist at the University of Newcastle, UK, who led the new analysis, based on surveys of more than 10,000 children over half a century.&lt;br /&gt;
  359. &lt;br /&gt;
  360. Nettle used the National Child Development Study, which traces the lives of every Briton born between 3 and 9 March, 1958. Surveys taken in the 1960s and 70s asked mothers to rate the father&#39;s involvement in his child, from &quot;inapplicable&quot; to &quot;equal to the mother&quot;. These and later surveys through 2005 tracked intelligence, income, and education of the participants.&lt;br /&gt;
  361. &lt;br /&gt;
  362. Nettle has previously used the same data set to show that wealthy men father more children than paupers.&lt;br /&gt;
  363. &lt;br /&gt;
  364. &lt;b&gt;With paternal investment, however, time seemed to be the most important currency. At age 11, children of highly involved fathers boasted markedly higher IQs than children with less present dads. &quot;This is not half a point, this is a few points of IQ, on average,&quot; he says.&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;Nettle also found that highly educated and successful fathers get more bang for their buck, compared with uneducated and working class men. All things being equal, fathers of high socioeconomic status gave children a small extra boost with their attention than less affluent fathers.&lt;br /&gt;
  365. &lt;br /&gt;
  366. However, this effect did not last through middle age. At 42, the children of super-dads were no more socially mobile than other children - regardless of the father&#39;s education level or profession.&lt;br /&gt;
  367. &lt;br /&gt;
  368. Robert Quinlan, a biocultural anthropologist at Washington State University in Pullman, says the study breaks new ground in showing the benefits of having a father around - especially an affluent one.&lt;br /&gt;
  369. &lt;br /&gt;
  370. Quinlan wonders, though, whether discrepancies in a father&#39;s socioeconomic status make a real-world difference, rather than a statistical one, detectable only in large-scale surveys. &quot;How much would you pay to get a half a point of IQ,&quot; he asks.&lt;br /&gt;
  371. &lt;br /&gt;
  372. Journal reference: Evolution and Human Behavior(DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.06.002)&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  373. &lt;br /&gt;
  374. &lt;br /&gt;
  375. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;*** &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/3932133142201933895/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/quality-fathering-boosts-your-childs-iq.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/3932133142201933895'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/3932133142201933895'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/quality-fathering-boosts-your-childs-iq.html' title='Quality Fathering Boosts Your Child&#39;s IQ'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpEXew-JeWMJWv0qIl0HAYlJGCUR_h1dvyeHWiz9PfR0-sKTsU9ZM7kXi6E-q_1y5mJT8oDVOLJ9XgazMps84z_LCXHyPBFbiMlAtFph9qLiAs5augQCCplxQFX3mTfcj-CjI0ZpjFtIIg/s72-c/oct09+085.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-5228534469220220700</id><published>2010-03-01T05:00:00.006-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T12:11:51.657-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Free software applications"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Google Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Home Organization Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Organizing with Technology"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology Tips"/><title type='text'>Use Filters and Labels To Manage Your Gmail</title><content type='html'>Does your swamped Gmail Inbox have you down?  Wish there was an easy way to sort through and organize all your mail?&lt;br /&gt;
  376. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWOajgJjhO-1I2NKm48QkprTGY11R2XhyHqxRD8VNH82-lJ5E9IgXU9HNv1Hf6Hck9rWK0QY17DxSJgRWwd14hNAra_LE8_zznWD4CUQNHBPlxmNYIhSXjRfI6TU4Eg2UOAaUZp3XXtxFC/s1600-h/Folder.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;270&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWOajgJjhO-1I2NKm48QkprTGY11R2XhyHqxRD8VNH82-lJ5E9IgXU9HNv1Hf6Hck9rWK0QY17DxSJgRWwd14hNAra_LE8_zznWD4CUQNHBPlxmNYIhSXjRfI6TU4Eg2UOAaUZp3XXtxFC/s320/Folder.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; title=&quot;Organize your email with Gmail filters&quot; alt=&quot;Organize your email with Gmail filters&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  377. &lt;br /&gt;
  378. Well there is!&lt;br /&gt;
  379. &lt;br /&gt;
  380. Gmail has  easy to use filter and labeling options that allow you to handle and organize your mail BEFORE it ever hits your inbox.&lt;br /&gt;
  381. &lt;br /&gt;
  382. As an example, I have a filter set up to capture mail from my favorite retailers.  And while these are retailers that I want to hear from, I still don’t want their email choking my inbox.&lt;br /&gt;
  383. &lt;br /&gt;
  384. Each time one of my filtered retailers sends me an email, Gmail captures it, labels it, and diverts it to a special folder I’ve labeled “Retailer”.&lt;br /&gt;
  385. &lt;br /&gt;
  386. The &quot;Retailer&quot; folder keeps an unread email count in my side bar so I always know if a retailer has sent me something new.   Now, instead of these emails hitting my inbox, they wait patiently in the folder until I want to read them.&lt;br /&gt;
  387. &lt;br /&gt;
  388. Here’s how to do it:&lt;br /&gt;
  389. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  390. &lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Click the &quot;create a filter&quot; link (click photo at the right to see larger image).&lt;/li&gt;
  391. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNS9JftKQC0q5OKgWBNfBufBEHCoKFmJFAIO8-zKAkKHcc_Kzj_Gemy0xheRz5Jcv0gINy9O179BIBGl7RojA1Ok5PNGcmzTT9k6nPtgbWKzhWyH5V1xSAYt4fmwVPNWmhyphenhyphenDQISPNHJCYf/s1600-h/CreateAFilter.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;62&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNS9JftKQC0q5OKgWBNfBufBEHCoKFmJFAIO8-zKAkKHcc_Kzj_Gemy0xheRz5Jcv0gINy9O179BIBGl7RojA1Ok5PNGcmzTT9k6nPtgbWKzhWyH5V1xSAYt4fmwVPNWmhyphenhyphenDQISPNHJCYf/s200/CreateAFilter.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Organize your email with Gmail filters&quot; alt=&quot;Organize your email with Gmail filters&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  392. &lt;li&gt;Fill in fields for anything you&#39;d like to filter against.&amp;nbsp; In this example, I type &quot;@acmoore.com&quot; in the &quot;From&quot; field to catch any email from acmoore.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  393. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQHn8otnmlqejESxjCN07mvmX5gsBeUIfxKdps5kqqbFRlmWeUoDXFQ4N9FD6xUI5bheAEuB7Qf-jzqX-IVQKZVonDrBt0IyiKW8pawFUtP3ND1jaf5Jx8wule67BvpJ5_0lnNma3ayyA/s1600-h/From.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;81&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQHn8otnmlqejESxjCN07mvmX5gsBeUIfxKdps5kqqbFRlmWeUoDXFQ4N9FD6xUI5bheAEuB7Qf-jzqX-IVQKZVonDrBt0IyiKW8pawFUtP3ND1jaf5Jx8wule67BvpJ5_0lnNma3ayyA/s200/From.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Organize your email with Gmail filters&quot; alt=&quot;Organize your email with Gmail filters&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  394. &lt;li&gt;Use the check boxes to tell the filter what to do.&amp;nbsp; In this example I want the acmoore filtered email to 1) skip the inbox 2) have a label applied and 3) make sure it&#39;s never sent to spam.&lt;/li&gt;
  395. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxewhWCW8l3sckCo30bB9USWIUXTAVWrv87NRFpu1hMDJw-ypTU9wOQn2k8JshjC4hcGctKl0tcdpc_CGjRU5KpyZIT4ZmypBLSDECLx1IrL_P1XwGzKhaL1NbhfW2TRYJ0qDblveWmuTU/s1600-h/NewLabel.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;135&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxewhWCW8l3sckCo30bB9USWIUXTAVWrv87NRFpu1hMDJw-ypTU9wOQn2k8JshjC4hcGctKl0tcdpc_CGjRU5KpyZIT4ZmypBLSDECLx1IrL_P1XwGzKhaL1NbhfW2TRYJ0qDblveWmuTU/s200/NewLabel.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Organize your email with Gmail filters&quot; alt=&quot;Organize your email with Gmail filters&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  396. &lt;li&gt;Since you don&#39;t already have a label named &quot;retailer&quot;, select the &quot;new label&quot; option from the &quot;choose label drop down menu.&lt;/li&gt;
  397. &lt;li&gt;Finally, click the &quot;Create Filter&quot; button and you&#39;re done!&lt;/li&gt;
  398. &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  399. Now, when you return to your main gmail screen you&#39;ll see your folder named &quot;retailer&quot;.&amp;nbsp; Click on that folder and you&#39;ll see all of the email captured by the filter.&lt;br /&gt;
  400. &lt;br /&gt;
  401. Set folders/labels for everything else you&#39;d like to organize.&amp;nbsp; For instance, I have a filter that just applies a special label to any email eM sends me.&amp;nbsp; That way I can just click my &quot;eM&quot; folder and instantly see all email from her grouped together on one screen.&lt;br /&gt;
  402. &lt;br /&gt;
  403. Other Google favorites reviewed include &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-google-calendar-makes-it-easy-to.html&quot; title=&quot;Use Google Calendar to organize your family&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Google Calendar&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-google-reader-to-manage-your.html&quot; title=&quot;Use Google Reader to manage your blog subscriptions&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Google Reader&lt;/a&gt; and Google Docs.&lt;br /&gt;
  404. &lt;br /&gt;
  405. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/5228534469220220700/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-filters-and-labels-to-manage-your.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5228534469220220700'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5228534469220220700'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-filters-and-labels-to-manage-your.html' title='Use Filters and Labels To Manage Your Gmail'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWOajgJjhO-1I2NKm48QkprTGY11R2XhyHqxRD8VNH82-lJ5E9IgXU9HNv1Hf6Hck9rWK0QY17DxSJgRWwd14hNAra_LE8_zznWD4CUQNHBPlxmNYIhSXjRfI6TU4Eg2UOAaUZp3XXtxFC/s72-c/Folder.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-611562183736463528</id><published>2010-02-25T05:00:00.014-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T19:54:26.809-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Parenting Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>You Are The Main Factor That Influence&#39;s Your Child&#39;s Pursuit Of A Tech Career!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKWoggu__WvuC771gSVUvofTrVLT8pxMKn0HUs4B8rg-Ora-F0BE5LSKwPdAjBpC9KoTmT2Gtusv7jFzCP8mcvsm1-z8IQhNmIgtn2HLO4NDM5UxjfOOVEGqcV7VZWL8Y2WeCxukqADrB-/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+009.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKWoggu__WvuC771gSVUvofTrVLT8pxMKn0HUs4B8rg-Ora-F0BE5LSKwPdAjBpC9KoTmT2Gtusv7jFzCP8mcvsm1-z8IQhNmIgtn2HLO4NDM5UxjfOOVEGqcV7VZWL8Y2WeCxukqADrB-/s200/SafeDepositContents+009.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Encourage your girl geek&quot; alt=&quot;Encourage your girl geek&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Interesting study results out of Michigan State earlier this week about factors that lead children to pursue science or technology careers.&lt;br /&gt;
  406. &lt;br /&gt;
  407. Key findings from this study, which followed 6000 students from middle school to college, include:&lt;br /&gt;
  408. &lt;ol style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;li&gt;The main contributor to a child&#39;s decision to pursue science/tech is parental influence.&lt;/li&gt;
  409. &lt;li&gt;Success in math classes turns out to be more significant a factor than success in science classes. &lt;/li&gt;
  410. &lt;li&gt;Sons are encouraged to pursue math classes more than daughters, which reinforces my previous call for all dad&#39;s to encourage their &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/stop-female-teacher-effect.html&quot; title=&quot;Counteract the female-teacher-effect to encourage your daughter&#39;s math and science ability&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;girl geeks&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt; &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  411. &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Parents Still Major Influence on Child’s Decision to Pursue Science Careers &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  412. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  413. ScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2010) — Parental influence and access to mathematics courses are likely to guide students to careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics or medicine (STEMM), according to research from Michigan State University.&lt;br /&gt;
  414. &lt;br /&gt;
  415. The findings of Jon Miller, MSU Hannah Professor of Integrative Studies, and colleagues were presented at a symposium titled &quot;Tomorrow&#39;s Scientists and Engineers.&quot; at this year&#39;s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.&lt;br /&gt;
  416. &lt;br /&gt;
  417. The education of more researchers, engineers and others in the field of science is critical, said Miller.&lt;br /&gt;
  418. &lt;br /&gt;
  419. &quot;Failure to build and maintain a competitive scientific workforce in the decades ahead,&quot; Miller said, &quot;will inevitably lead to a decline in the American standard of living.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  420. &lt;br /&gt;
  421. Miller used data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, which kept track of nearly 6,000 students from middle school through college, attempting to determine what led them to or guided them away from STEMM careers.&lt;br /&gt;
  422. &lt;br /&gt;
  423. &lt;b&gt;According to Miller, &quot;The pathway to a STEMM career begins at home.&quot; He said this is especially true in families in which children were strongly encouraged to go to college.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  424. &lt;br /&gt;
  425. &quot;Only four percent of students who experienced low parent encouragement to attend college planned to enter a post-secondary program and major in a STEMM field,&quot; he said. &quot;This compares to 41 percent of students whose parents strongly encouraged college attendance.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  426. &lt;br /&gt;
  427. &lt;b&gt;The research also found that sons were slightly more encouraged than daughters to do well in science and math.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  428. &lt;br /&gt;
  429. Also influential, although not on the same level as parental encouragement, is the parents&#39; education level. The research found that approximately 27 percent of the children of college graduates planned to major in a STEMM field, compared to 18 percent of parents with a high school diploma.&lt;br /&gt;
  430. &lt;br /&gt;
  431. The research also reinforced the role mathematics plays in the pursuit of a STEMM career.&lt;br /&gt;
  432. &lt;br /&gt;
  433. &lt;b&gt;&quot;Mathematics is a primary gateway to a STEMM career,&quot; Miller said, &quot;beginning with algebra track placement in grades seven and eight, and continuing through high school and college calculus courses.&quot;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  434. &lt;br /&gt;
  435. The researchers said high school and college science courses have &quot;small, positive effects&quot; on a student&#39;s decision to pursue a STEMM career, but is not at the level of mathematics.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  436. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue; font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;*** &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/611562183736463528/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/you-are-main-factor-that-influences.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/611562183736463528'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/611562183736463528'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/you-are-main-factor-that-influences.html' title='You Are The Main Factor That Influence&#39;s Your Child&#39;s Pursuit Of A Tech Career!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKWoggu__WvuC771gSVUvofTrVLT8pxMKn0HUs4B8rg-Ora-F0BE5LSKwPdAjBpC9KoTmT2Gtusv7jFzCP8mcvsm1-z8IQhNmIgtn2HLO4NDM5UxjfOOVEGqcV7VZWL8Y2WeCxukqADrB-/s72-c/SafeDepositContents+009.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-5840045318303483952</id><published>2010-02-22T05:00:00.013-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T19:54:26.810-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crafts with Dad"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>DIY Teddy Bear and Deranged Kitty Birthday Cakes</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi95BLnxA0NzZhYkJxVR3avVgF8u0359Xvin8stMaVqN0KsiteKgc-_9aw8cHmvavTTTCajXhSc4VdXOoWtw1gpXFbrs3ZhVxIfGuOXRGcF7j0K55IuHXE2QaPJTz907VDX7SfWUKfQ28PL/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+195.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi95BLnxA0NzZhYkJxVR3avVgF8u0359Xvin8stMaVqN0KsiteKgc-_9aw8cHmvavTTTCajXhSc4VdXOoWtw1gpXFbrs3ZhVxIfGuOXRGcF7j0K55IuHXE2QaPJTz907VDX7SfWUKfQ28PL/s320/SafeDepositContents+195.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; title=&quot;DIY teddy bear birthday cake&quot; alt=&quot;DIY teddy bear birthday cake&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;sillyDaddy loves to build interesting cakes.  I don&#39;t so much like the baking of them but I surely do like the building of them.&lt;br /&gt;
  437. &lt;br /&gt;
  438. eM and I teamed up to make teddy bear cakes for a combined bday party for J and D.&amp;nbsp; She did the baking and I did the building.&lt;br /&gt;
  439. &lt;br /&gt;
  440. This one was, well, a piece of cake compared to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.blogger.com/%20http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2009/09/make-batch-of-bugs.html&quot; title=&quot;DIY bug cupcakes&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;bug cupcakes&lt;/a&gt; I wrote about earlier and a cool dragon cake I made but haven&#39;t posted yet.&lt;br /&gt;
  441. &lt;br /&gt;
  442. One major lesson learned from those past experiences is that applying icing to a cut cake is really tough.  This time around I picked up a mini cupcake pan and small round cake pans at the local craft store to avoid icing over cut cake as much as possible.&lt;br /&gt;
  443. &lt;br /&gt;
  444. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  445. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj12z8ndURofyMkWUArW8gOLJxGe0P6ptJyOwUQsJzHaGAXLmQquvIvdE6-btYdw9sybooWS-NQ7wUtIhkFo8Py2hdMmb5zYCoRwPexbMH0YXrIm0rg3ICihaxXYBUIUvZrRGJ_p3N-HJNX/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+191.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj12z8ndURofyMkWUArW8gOLJxGe0P6ptJyOwUQsJzHaGAXLmQquvIvdE6-btYdw9sybooWS-NQ7wUtIhkFo8Py2hdMmb5zYCoRwPexbMH0YXrIm0rg3ICihaxXYBUIUvZrRGJ_p3N-HJNX/s200/SafeDepositContents+191.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY teddy bear birthday cake&quot; alt=&quot;DIY teddy bear birthday cake&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqdZwTwShAIUODNbCXqF8_dfC4H4aqimK_8M-dI8X9RocajpFdI1HH3NkdePc6I-PpRXhLQSk_EYhY7F30GS78O6Q0McC4fBwGTDP5AfBy2wFbg0ki94Y8uNHvAk6h8gMnsuyvOltqcqSp/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+194.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqdZwTwShAIUODNbCXqF8_dfC4H4aqimK_8M-dI8X9RocajpFdI1HH3NkdePc6I-PpRXhLQSk_EYhY7F30GS78O6Q0McC4fBwGTDP5AfBy2wFbg0ki94Y8uNHvAk6h8gMnsuyvOltqcqSp/s200/SafeDepositContents+194.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY teddy bear birthday cake&quot; alt=&quot;DIY teddy bear birthday cake&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  446. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Here&#39;s what you&#39;ll need:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  447. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mini cupcake and round baking pans.&lt;/li&gt;
  448. &lt;li&gt;One box of cake mix.&lt;/li&gt;
  449. &lt;li&gt;One can of icing.&lt;/li&gt;
  450. &lt;li&gt;Food coloring.&lt;/li&gt;
  451. &lt;li&gt;Decorative icing in a can for ears, eyes, etc.&lt;/li&gt;
  452. &lt;li&gt;Chocolate chips for nose, eyes.&lt;/li&gt;
  453. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;I kind of whipped this one together so if I had more time I might have looked for more interesting candies for the eyes, nose, etc.&lt;br /&gt;
  454. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis0bapssLr3e5n1VgSRnO-anM7M4oN4mY-pxT8ddikn48gJTWHwZ5vOYgs_O0-zyHHNZjmK9-YncSb8dU-V4ipWyh3W096Hhv_8Ya6L65bpjKqYE177hxbOzqVowfiKFRM6O1CRL4cOs8v/s1600-h/SafeDepositContents+185.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis0bapssLr3e5n1VgSRnO-anM7M4oN4mY-pxT8ddikn48gJTWHwZ5vOYgs_O0-zyHHNZjmK9-YncSb8dU-V4ipWyh3W096Hhv_8Ya6L65bpjKqYE177hxbOzqVowfiKFRM6O1CRL4cOs8v/s200/SafeDepositContents+185.jpg&quot; title=&quot;DIY teddy bear birthday cake&quot; alt=&quot;DIY teddy bear birthday cake&quot; width=&quot;150&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;The arms and legs consist of one full mini cupcake attached to half a mini cupcake cut into a semicircle. &lt;br /&gt;
  455. &lt;br /&gt;
  456. The ears are semicircle mini cupcakes attached to the head.&lt;br /&gt;
  457. &lt;br /&gt;
  458. I made a larger one for J (using two rounds for the body) but I&#39;m afraid it kind of looked more like a mutant, freakish cat then a teddy bear.  When she saw it she started to cry and begged her mommy to take away the &quot;scary kitty&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
  459. &lt;br /&gt;
  460. Happy Birthday!&lt;br /&gt;
  461. &lt;br /&gt;
  462. &lt;br /&gt;
  463. &lt;br /&gt;
  464. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/5840045318303483952/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/teddy-bear-and-deranged-kitty-birthday.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5840045318303483952'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/5840045318303483952'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/teddy-bear-and-deranged-kitty-birthday.html' title='DIY Teddy Bear and Deranged Kitty Birthday Cakes'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi95BLnxA0NzZhYkJxVR3avVgF8u0359Xvin8stMaVqN0KsiteKgc-_9aw8cHmvavTTTCajXhSc4VdXOoWtw1gpXFbrs3ZhVxIfGuOXRGcF7j0K55IuHXE2QaPJTz907VDX7SfWUKfQ28PL/s72-c/SafeDepositContents+195.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-8617761802876923223</id><published>2010-02-18T05:00:00.017-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T12:21:08.382-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crime Prevention Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Identity Theft Prevention Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology Tips"/><title type='text'>Harden Your Passwords</title><content type='html'>Today&#39;s post is all about passwords and it&#39;s my fourth in a series of four about DIY identity protection.&lt;br /&gt;
  465. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb43tKpohlrhZGNDdKt7TLtsBzt7krmdqTDX0Ru-f_FCR1r_MI8g08mE9MrXuxRMYl3nsu-cq7i5xsY5dRZ7s1Pn6c-pPXD44zkM-p7fKyUZrsb3FAZ7KQUuqMVwZL9BZTZnIz-hVLc9cI/s1600-h/internet_security.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;make your passwords stronger to prevent internet crime&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb43tKpohlrhZGNDdKt7TLtsBzt7krmdqTDX0Ru-f_FCR1r_MI8g08mE9MrXuxRMYl3nsu-cq7i5xsY5dRZ7s1Pn6c-pPXD44zkM-p7fKyUZrsb3FAZ7KQUuqMVwZL9BZTZnIz-hVLc9cI/s200/internet_security.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Make your passwords stronger to prevent internet crime&quot; width=&quot;198&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  466. In the first post of the series, &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/protecting-your-personal-information-on.html&quot; title=&quot;DIY identity theft prevention techniques&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Protecting Your Personal Information on the Internet&lt;/a&gt;, research revealed that most peoples&#39; passwords were extremely easy to hack.&lt;br /&gt;
  467. &lt;br /&gt;
  468. Well, last December, 32 million passwords belonging to a company called Rockyou were breached by a benevolent hacker who turned the passwords over for study.&lt;br /&gt;
  469. &lt;br /&gt;
  470. A firm named Imperva&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imperva.com/docs/WP_Consumer_Password_Worst_Practices.pdf&quot; title=&quot;Imperva study of hacked passwords&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;conducted research&lt;/a&gt; on the stolen passwords and found, &quot;Nearly 50% of users used names, slang words, dictionary words or trivial passwords (consecutive digits, adjacent keyboard keys, and so on). The most common password among Rockyou.com account owners is &#39;123456&#39;.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
  471. &lt;br /&gt;
  472. According to that same study, a hacker with a decent DSL connection and a list of the top 5000 passwords (the top 20 of which are pictured below) could &quot;gain access to one new account every second&quot; and &lt;b&gt;take &quot;less than 17 minutes to compromise 1000 accounts.&quot;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  473. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  474. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3NSHTcz9ASa6wAYj_fLl5Y2Vc6Sxuq2KJf3miFDNal9hVAqe1iYz9LMful0Xc9GVvT5PH04egPUSWjhKcke5aeUrapF2UTGTRkChLDTgjRbQcjy5sZX36wt4jrATBvfYx9Ed4Ht9qJq5/s1600-h/Top20Passwords.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;make your passwords stronger to prevent internet crime&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;177&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3NSHTcz9ASa6wAYj_fLl5Y2Vc6Sxuq2KJf3miFDNal9hVAqe1iYz9LMful0Xc9GVvT5PH04egPUSWjhKcke5aeUrapF2UTGTRkChLDTgjRbQcjy5sZX36wt4jrATBvfYx9Ed4Ht9qJq5/s400/Top20Passwords.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Make your passwords stronger to prevent internet crime&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Believe it or not, NASA actually publishes recommendations regarding password security and they say your passwords:&lt;br /&gt;
  475. &lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Should contain at least eight characters.&lt;/li&gt;
  476. &lt;li&gt;Should contain a mix of four different types of characters.&amp;nbsp; If there is only one letter or special character, it should not be either the first or last character in the password.&lt;/li&gt;
  477. &lt;li&gt;Should not be a name, slang word, or any word in the dictionary and should not include any part of your name or your email address. &lt;br /&gt;
  478. &lt;/li&gt;
  479. &lt;/ol&gt;I recently hardened 104 of eM and my passwords.&amp;nbsp; I&#39;ll lay out how I did it and invite comments on any flaws that I may have overlooked.&lt;br /&gt;
  480. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;I divided our passwords into two groups; those that hold personal information that could lead to identity or other resource theft (like bank accounts) and those that I&#39;ve &quot;scrubbed&quot; and hold absolutely no personal information (like an account with a news site).&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For the purposes of this example I&#39;ll call the first group critical and the second group non-critical. &lt;br /&gt;
  481. &lt;/li&gt;
  482. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;I created an easy to remember short password to be used with all of the non-critical sites.&amp;nbsp; I use the same password for all of these sites.&amp;nbsp; If this password were to be hacked, there wouldn&#39;t be any information the hacker could gain from these sites that could be used to crack our critical accounts.&lt;/li&gt;
  483. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;I used a site that &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm&quot; title=&quot;Random password generating site&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;generates random 63 and 64 digit passwords&lt;/a&gt; for each of my critical sites.&amp;nbsp; Each of our critical sites has its own unique, randomly generated password. &lt;br /&gt;
  484. &lt;/li&gt;
  485. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;I created an Excel spreadsheet as my main repository for all of our passwords and I store that file on the desktop of our home PC.&amp;nbsp; This file is never moved from the PC with the exception of backed up files stored in another secure location (i.e. it&#39;s never placed on a thumb drive or CD, it&#39;s never moved to a lap top, it&#39;s never placed in a shared network file).&lt;br /&gt;
  486. &lt;/li&gt;
  487. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Security questions used for password recovery are only found in this file. &lt;/li&gt;
  488. &lt;li&gt;The file itself is somewhat hardened and I used, among other things, a password to protect the workbook from being viewed (that&#39;s a feature that comes with Excel).&amp;nbsp; If someone were to get ahold of the file they would need to crack the file&#39;s password before they could view our information. &lt;/li&gt;
  489. &lt;li&gt;The PC where the file is stored is also password protected.&amp;nbsp; If the PC were to be stolen, the hacker would first have to crack the PC&#39;s password before they could see the Excel file. &lt;/li&gt;
  490. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;I like the idea of a master password and a password vault service like &lt;a href=&quot;http://lifehacker.com/038223/keepass-password-manager&quot; title=&quot;KeePass password manager site&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;KeePass&lt;/a&gt; but what I don&#39;t like is the idea of a third party controlling the information.&amp;nbsp; In place of a KeePass-like service I use several web based components but no one party has access to all of our credential information (all components run on https connections).&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
  491. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;One entity holds user names, one entity holds passwords, another entity holds a list of the sites we use and eM and I hold a key for piecing them all together.&amp;nbsp; I know it seems like a pain in the ass, but eM and I have gotten use to viewing all three entities and using a key I developed to figure out which password goes with which user name.&lt;/li&gt;
  492. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;So that&#39;s how we roll.&amp;nbsp; It took me about a day to execute the plan but we feel much more secure.&lt;br /&gt;
  493. &lt;br /&gt;
  494. For some additional reading I recommend you visit a site put together by the FBI and a partner organizations the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistancer.&amp;nbsp; There you&#39;ll find a comprehensive list of 17 current internet and identity crimes and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ic3.gov/preventiontips.aspx&quot; title=&quot;IC3 official site&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;ways to prevent them&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
  495. &lt;br /&gt;
  496. The other three postings in the DIY identity protection series:&lt;br /&gt;
  497. &lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/protecting-your-personal-information-on.html&quot; title=&quot;DIY identity theft prevention techniques&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Protecting Your Personal Information on the Internet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  498. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/stop-credit-solicitations-from-coming.html&quot; title=&quot;Stop credit solicitations to prevent identity theft and internet crime&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Stop Credit Solicitations From Coming In The Mail&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  499. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/freeze-your-credit-so-bad-people-cant.html&quot; title=&quot;Freeze your credit to prevent identity theft and internet crime&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Freeze Your Credit So The Bad People Can&#39;t Get It&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  500. &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  501. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;*** &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/8617761802876923223/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/harden-your-passwords.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/8617761802876923223'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/8617761802876923223'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/harden-your-passwords.html' title='Harden Your Passwords'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb43tKpohlrhZGNDdKt7TLtsBzt7krmdqTDX0Ru-f_FCR1r_MI8g08mE9MrXuxRMYl3nsu-cq7i5xsY5dRZ7s1Pn6c-pPXD44zkM-p7fKyUZrsb3FAZ7KQUuqMVwZL9BZTZnIz-hVLc9cI/s72-c/internet_security.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-2010964973107912395</id><published>2010-02-12T12:13:00.007-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T19:54:26.812-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Children&#39;s Health Issues"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crafts with Dad"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Parenting Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>Snow Carvings</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4qR0Ib4DjujJ7w9fJ1k4dl4QTM_4xrnKBPUWn8yE-KG8jt_6ZszCQhQcGTOvaAlcjrf1-xwsa4Fyqz6yWNL2SFlkld4NzfcjLlp3ySBiteUxmAodL3MhXwn_G03Y9PV5MbIhRuPE-NFi/s1600-h/SnowCarving_10_02_11+011A.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4qR0Ib4DjujJ7w9fJ1k4dl4QTM_4xrnKBPUWn8yE-KG8jt_6ZszCQhQcGTOvaAlcjrf1-xwsa4Fyqz6yWNL2SFlkld4NzfcjLlp3ySBiteUxmAodL3MhXwn_G03Y9PV5MbIhRuPE-NFi/s400/SnowCarving_10_02_11+011A.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; title=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; alt=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Before we lose all of this glorious snow, be sure to carve a few runs for the kids!&lt;br /&gt;
  502. &lt;br /&gt;
  503. And while you&#39;re designing your fortress, keep vitamin D production in mind.&lt;br /&gt;
  504. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  505. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Our bodies produce a tremendous amount of vitamin D when exposed to the sun.&amp;nbsp; Sun exposure is important for everyone but especially for the little ones and it&#39;s tougher to come by in the winter.&amp;nbsp; Sure, you can supplement their bodies&#39; production with added vitamin D in milk and oj, but, with brief exposure to the sun, their bodies produce way more than they can get through diet alone.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  506. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;a 1em;=&quot;&quot; href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGc37SAqOVqICx4IzvuClkriINvffRfGwcIi8uJi5uqUH8f3wuLoK89olCrtd_5oyhPKInL5d2lHnzev3PrQ5gbMZINt4uQiTGtkyl2olpmlJEx_DaKwmgh0_PfUn5w6G9xxNSOtjcWrbN/s1600-h/SnowCarving_10_02_11+007A.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGc37SAqOVqICx4IzvuClkriINvffRfGwcIi8uJi5uqUH8f3wuLoK89olCrtd_5oyhPKInL5d2lHnzev3PrQ5gbMZINt4uQiTGtkyl2olpmlJEx_DaKwmgh0_PfUn5w6G9xxNSOtjcWrbN/s200/SnowCarving_10_02_11+007A.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; alt=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHxVIAgrLxpbbvAjGqxPr-7wkijw_RIACf2ADeLljuPlWy0TFMv8mVXcLS4HPdkwfvxUD6BmdCmFoqJ9-eX8xd8tTBuADEf_PyYcatvPg6Lz3OS5LEtkhzH0ZyFqB-yOyEsXeMACsYhnx-/s1600-h/SnowCarving_10_02_11+009A.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHxVIAgrLxpbbvAjGqxPr-7wkijw_RIACf2ADeLljuPlWy0TFMv8mVXcLS4HPdkwfvxUD6BmdCmFoqJ9-eX8xd8tTBuADEf_PyYcatvPg6Lz3OS5LEtkhzH0ZyFqB-yOyEsXeMACsYhnx-/s200/SnowCarving_10_02_11+009A.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; alt=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPWfdNwk5DGKBTjB7mbYzaw1urY9nvTKGJXV2igrpRfVr2WbNq_w7XPBWSvqoa3N9HtUtj6tz-7FHDxmzgKyqRkUnrFAg9htrPXS6KzOfhGYPIHgI9irVn8ikICEsvAPK7l6W4lDxxecG/s1600-h/SnowCarving_10_02_11+013A.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPWfdNwk5DGKBTjB7mbYzaw1urY9nvTKGJXV2igrpRfVr2WbNq_w7XPBWSvqoa3N9HtUtj6tz-7FHDxmzgKyqRkUnrFAg9htrPXS6KzOfhGYPIHgI9irVn8ikICEsvAPK7l6W4lDxxecG/s200/SnowCarving_10_02_11+013A.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; alt=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZDia1e7bduuMdkQJh4kazDSvlqN6L64cff35RROCdEPC-qHdvTnBvF4jf1KAONYbajij22n2X0I7uFUAyPngeIVaZTRNMZ9_PW5kLm6SCay0rFyFiWug2n6E5oA3Zo9OA1N6i0k4eH5x-/s1600-h/SnowCarving_10_02_11+010A.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZDia1e7bduuMdkQJh4kazDSvlqN6L64cff35RROCdEPC-qHdvTnBvF4jf1KAONYbajij22n2X0I7uFUAyPngeIVaZTRNMZ9_PW5kLm6SCay0rFyFiWug2n6E5oA3Zo9OA1N6i0k4eH5x-/s200/SnowCarving_10_02_11+010A.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; alt=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  507. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;When I dig runs for the kids, I design them for maximum sun exposure.&amp;nbsp; I also like to throw in one or two straight runs so they can really get some exercise.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  508. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Naturally, keeping the kids in the sun helps them stay much warmer and makes it a more comfortable experience for them.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  509. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Two additional snow excavating tips:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;I cut a couple feet wide path around my house foundation so that all that melt won&#39;t be running straight down the foundation wall.&lt;/li&gt;
  510. &lt;li&gt;I also dig out the downspouts and the splash area to make sure they&#39;re opened for business during the melt.&amp;nbsp; You&#39;ll most likely find a solid chunk of ice in the mouth of the downspout.&amp;nbsp; Pull this straight out and it should come right out.&lt;/li&gt;
  511. &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzXEI2V9KFWB9l5HG9dVa1d0sHi8YYOMUAfkhK6I8AtyszE9DCR5E1fbv-rOD2RoZE8eTivedjOEFjdQymRpfecC2-69zEMtEaVL7hS0G2fj-z1Friup7E23cbu8wgrWpDXHB2fNAG_bi/s1600-h/SnowCarving_10_02_11+004A.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;300&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzXEI2V9KFWB9l5HG9dVa1d0sHi8YYOMUAfkhK6I8AtyszE9DCR5E1fbv-rOD2RoZE8eTivedjOEFjdQymRpfecC2-69zEMtEaVL7hS0G2fj-z1Friup7E23cbu8wgrWpDXHB2fNAG_bi/s400/SnowCarving_10_02_11+004A.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; title=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; alt=&quot;Vitamin D production extremely important to your child&#39;s health&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/2010964973107912395/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/snow-carvings.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/2010964973107912395'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/2010964973107912395'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/snow-carvings.html' title='Snow Carvings'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4qR0Ib4DjujJ7w9fJ1k4dl4QTM_4xrnKBPUWn8yE-KG8jt_6ZszCQhQcGTOvaAlcjrf1-xwsa4Fyqz6yWNL2SFlkld4NzfcjLlp3ySBiteUxmAodL3MhXwn_G03Y9PV5MbIhRuPE-NFi/s72-c/SnowCarving_10_02_11+011A.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-7950191920603878532</id><published>2010-02-11T05:00:00.004-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T19:54:26.813-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Children&#39;s Health Issues"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Parenting Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>An Approach To Managing Behavior</title><content type='html'>This piece from the sillyDaddy archive was written by a pediatrician and published in the opinion pages of the NY Times last year.&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjasN1qQ-nBT7yzvgIewg86XEK0K5blBUtjbM7XxydqD9S42vCp60hRdvWnuPtfgVBTgXtLMh4QhRxQTdJhVkrkTI3xueHjOebcRbSMqOx7q4qqS09P49ggnkZNFXBji1_cBGRrkwcPcczS/s1600-h/discipline2.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;134&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjasN1qQ-nBT7yzvgIewg86XEK0K5blBUtjbM7XxydqD9S42vCp60hRdvWnuPtfgVBTgXtLMh4QhRxQTdJhVkrkTI3xueHjOebcRbSMqOx7q4qqS09P49ggnkZNFXBji1_cBGRrkwcPcczS/s200/discipline2.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;Children, and those who interact with them, suffer if they&#39;re not given social skills&quot; alt=&quot;Children, and those who interact with them, suffer if they&#39;re not taught social skills&quot;/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  512. &lt;br /&gt;
  513. The author describes the approach as respectful of a child&#39;s &quot;intellectual and emotional privacy&quot; and writes,&amp;nbsp; &quot;I’m not telling you to like your teacher; I’m telling you to treat her with courtesy. I’m not telling you that you can’t hate Tommy; I’m telling you that you can’t hit Tommy. Your feelings are your own private business; your behavior is public.&quot; &lt;br /&gt;
  514. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  515. &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;Making Room for Miss Manners Is a Parenting Basic&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  516. &lt;br /&gt;
  517. &lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-small;&quot;&gt;By PERRI KLASS, M.D.&lt;br /&gt;
  518. Published: January 12, 2009&lt;br /&gt;
  519. NY Times&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  520. &lt;br /&gt;
  521. For years, I took care of a very rude child. When he was 3, I called him rambunctious — and I talked to his mother about “setting limits.” At 4, I called him “demanding.” At 5, he was still screaming at his mother if she didn’t do what he wanted, he still swatted me whenever I tried to examine him, and his mother asked me worriedly if I thought he was ready for kindergarten.&lt;br /&gt;
  522. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  523. I could go on (he didn’t have an easy time in school), but it would sound like a Victorian tale: The Rude Boy. I never used the word “rude” or even “manners” when I spoke to his mother. I don’t describe my patients as rude or polite in the medical record. But I do pass judgment, and so does every pediatrician I know.&lt;br /&gt;
  524. &lt;br /&gt;
  525. It’s always popular — and easy — to bewail the deterioration of manners; there is an often quoted (and often disputed) story about Socrates’ complaining that the young Athenians have “bad manners, contempt for authority.” Sure, certain social rubrics have broken down or blurred, and sure, electronic communication seems to have given adults as well as children new ways to be rude.&lt;br /&gt;
  526. &lt;br /&gt;
  527. &lt;b&gt;But the age-old parental job remains.&amp;nbsp; And that job is to start with a being who has no thought for the feelings of others, no code of behavior beyond its own needs and comforts — and, guided by love and duty, to do your best to transform that being into what your grandmother (or Socrates) might call a mensch. To use a term that has fallen out of favor, your assignment is to “civilize” the object of your affections.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  528. &lt;br /&gt;
  529. My favorite child-rearing book is “Miss Manners’ Guide to Rearing Perfect Children,” by Judith Martin, who takes the view that manners are at the heart of the whole parental enterprise. I called her to ask why.&lt;br /&gt;
  530. &lt;br /&gt;
  531. &lt;b&gt;“Every infant is born adorable but selfish and the center of the universe,” she replied. It’s a parent’s job to teach that “there are other people, and other people have feelings.”&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  532. &lt;br /&gt;
  533. The conversations that every pediatrician has, over and over, about “limit setting” and “consistently praising good behavior” are conversations about manners. And when you are in the exam room with a child who seems to have none, you begin to wonder what is going on at home and at school, and questions of family dysfunction or neurodevelopmental problems begin to cross your mind.&lt;br /&gt;
  534. &lt;br /&gt;
  535. Dr. Barbara Howard, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an expert on behavior and development, told me that a child’s manners were a perfectly appropriate topic to raise at a pediatric visit.&lt;br /&gt;
  536. &lt;br /&gt;
  537. “It has a huge impact on people’s lives — why wouldn’t you bring it up?” she said. “Do they look you in the eye? If you stick your hand out do they shake it? How do they interact with the parents; do they interrupt, do they ask for things, do they open Mommy’s purse and take things out?”&lt;br /&gt;
  538. &lt;br /&gt;
  539. Dr. Howard suggested that the whole “manners” concept might seem a little out of date — until you recast it as “social skills,” a very hot term these days. Social skills are necessary for school success, she pointed out; they affect how you do on the playground, in the classroom, in the workplace.&lt;br /&gt;
  540. &lt;br /&gt;
  541. We also think of social skills as a profound set of challenges that complicate the lives of children — and adults — on what is now called the autism spectrum. Children with autism, whether mild or severe, have great difficulty learning social codes, deciphering subtle body language or tone of voice, and catching on to the rules of the game.&lt;br /&gt;
  542. &lt;br /&gt;
  543. Therapy for these children can include systematic training in social skills, sometimes using scripts for common human interactions. And one lesson, Dr. Howard said, “is that you can teach this stuff, and we maybe aren’t teaching it as well as we should be to children who are developing normally.”&lt;br /&gt;
  544. &lt;br /&gt;
  545. And of course, one of the long-term consequences of being a rude child is being a rude adult — even a rude doctor. There are bullies on the playground and bullies in the workplace; it can be quite disconcerting to encounter a mature adult with 20 or so years of education under his belt who still sees the world only in terms of his own wants, needs and emotions: I want that so give it to me; I am angry so I need to hit; I am wounded so I must howl.&lt;br /&gt;
  546. &lt;br /&gt;
  547. &lt;b&gt;I like Miss Manners’ approach because it lets a parent respect a child’s intellectual and emotional privacy: I’m not telling you to like your teacher; I’m telling you to treat her with courtesy. I’m not telling you that you can’t hate Tommy; I’m telling you that you can’t hit Tommy. Your feelings are your own private business; your behavior is public.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  548. &lt;br /&gt;
  549. &lt;b&gt;But that first big counterintuitive lesson — that there are other people out there whose feelings must be considered — affects a child’s most basic moral development. &lt;/b&gt;For a child, as for an adult, manners represent a strategy for getting along in life, but also a successful intellectual engagement with the business of being human.&lt;br /&gt;
  550. &lt;br /&gt;
  551. I did not enjoy visits with my rude patient. Despite his generally good health and his normal developmental milestones, I couldn’t help feeling that the adult world had failed to guide and protect him. He was loud and demanding and insistent, but one of his basic needs had not been met: no one had taught him manners.&lt;br /&gt;
  552. &lt;br /&gt;
  553. As a pediatrician, I worry about the trajectories of children’s growth and development: measuring a baby’s head size, weighing a toddler, asking about the language skills of a preschooler. Manners are another side of the journey every child makes from helplessness to autonomy. And a child who learns to manage a little courtesy, even under the pressure of a visit to the doctor, is a child who is operating well in the world, a child with a positive prognosis.&lt;br /&gt;
  554. &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  555. &lt;br /&gt;
  556. &lt;div style=&quot;color: blue; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  557. &lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/7950191920603878532/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/approach-to-managing-behavior.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/7950191920603878532'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/7950191920603878532'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/approach-to-managing-behavior.html' title='An Approach To Managing Behavior'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjasN1qQ-nBT7yzvgIewg86XEK0K5blBUtjbM7XxydqD9S42vCp60hRdvWnuPtfgVBTgXtLMh4QhRxQTdJhVkrkTI3xueHjOebcRbSMqOx7q4qqS09P49ggnkZNFXBji1_cBGRrkwcPcczS/s72-c/discipline2.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-1178706927680559133</id><published>2010-02-09T09:26:00.008-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T12:24:33.455-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crafts with Dad"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Home Improvement Tips"/><title type='text'>Prep for Round Two With Mother Nature</title><content type='html'>As of this writing, they&#39;re calling for another 10 to 20 inches of snow for the Washington DC metro area.  &lt;br /&gt;
  558. &lt;br /&gt;
  559. Here are a few quick tips for round two:&lt;br /&gt;
  560. &lt;br /&gt;
  561. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  562. &lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Prep for loss of power:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0O2EAH7yuD9dgYec8E5_FIvSC6JvlgGdSgEWBjOvFo8CaWq8lgKdlN4sEwYaYGolb4WiweJSPjTGDxCbzD2fTxLbcPQpNgqEIk0_7rKCgq4yikFJB5f-tZNntJoC0DajbrIREnlylDiso/s1600-h/tauntaun.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;154&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0O2EAH7yuD9dgYec8E5_FIvSC6JvlgGdSgEWBjOvFo8CaWq8lgKdlN4sEwYaYGolb4WiweJSPjTGDxCbzD2fTxLbcPQpNgqEIk0_7rKCgq4yikFJB5f-tZNntJoC0DajbrIREnlylDiso/s200/tauntaun.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  563. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charge your cell phones, especially if you&#39;re like us and did away with your land line years ago.&lt;/li&gt;
  564. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDl05uA3sqzAV3lpOvErsywOgs_6E6j3hhF1yXXkEXNPFoZBHJU24G77iVpFqkfgE58-oJJhJtQczUfi1AAdMOXoQ_y5qdlPMgrz7WMr_4DMC4kQ9PfQJ8g3gdjZVWaNiEEKQQVwJf_MW3/s1600-h/tauntaun1.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;187&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDl05uA3sqzAV3lpOvErsywOgs_6E6j3hhF1yXXkEXNPFoZBHJU24G77iVpFqkfgE58-oJJhJtQczUfi1AAdMOXoQ_y5qdlPMgrz7WMr_4DMC4kQ9PfQJ8g3gdjZVWaNiEEKQQVwJf_MW3/s200/tauntaun1.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  565. &lt;li&gt;Crank up the cold in your freezer and fridge.&amp;nbsp; Set them to the coldest setting to buy yourself a little time if you lose power.&lt;/li&gt;
  566. &lt;li&gt;Gather your flashlights and make sure they all work.&amp;nbsp; I put ours in two central locations.&lt;/li&gt;
  567. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlVYObuAYOtm3kBKGlFt8cNhcxfcRm-Wf4GG0YUzcH5X_92HI0ax3LVzI8qkLw65VOKu9SkRWn4NH8joSMBNOoyIWRDt1IKw_2kMkpIMinrEtLXUlUrdhv2sDFOy2B6J9u9OceWWriBb/s1600-h/tauntaun3.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlVYObuAYOtm3kBKGlFt8cNhcxfcRm-Wf4GG0YUzcH5X_92HI0ax3LVzI8qkLw65VOKu9SkRWn4NH8joSMBNOoyIWRDt1IKw_2kMkpIMinrEtLXUlUrdhv2sDFOy2B6J9u9OceWWriBb/s200/tauntaun3.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  568. &lt;li&gt;Keep your gas meter clear of snow.&amp;nbsp; If it freezes you could loose your gas supply.&lt;/li&gt;
  569. &lt;li&gt;Make sure your cars are filled with gasoline. &lt;/li&gt;
  570. &lt;li&gt; Spend time regretting that you don&#39;t have a back up generator. &lt;/li&gt;
  571. &lt;li&gt;Watch Star Wars &lt;i&gt;The Empire Strikes Back&lt;/i&gt; again for tips on how to slice open your family pets and stuff your children inside to keep them alive, just like Han did for Luke with a tauntaun.&lt;/li&gt;
  572. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Snow shoveling:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  573. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Let others stock up on milk for the kids.&amp;nbsp; Remember to stock up on &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2009/12/use-wd40-to-keep-snow-from-sticking-to.html&quot; title=&quot;Use WD40 to prevent snow from sticking to your shovel&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;WD40 for your snow shovel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
  574. &lt;li&gt;If you have a deck, get some snow off of it before the next round hits.&lt;/li&gt;
  575. &lt;li&gt;Examine your roof.&amp;nbsp; Ours is slanted so I haven&#39;t yet decided if I&#39;m going to try to move snow off before the next wave.&lt;/li&gt;
  576. &lt;li&gt;Spend time regretting that you don&#39;t have a snow blower.&amp;nbsp; Spend time feeling foolish for mocking the old man who lives down the street who brings out his monster snow blower for every dusting.&lt;/li&gt;
  577. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;background-color: #cccccc;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Have a slate of activities prepared for the kids.&amp;nbsp; My current list includes:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  578. &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;More &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/pine-cone-bird-feeders.html&quot; title=&quot;DIY pine cone bird feeders&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;DIY pine cone bird feeders&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
  579. &lt;li&gt;DIY toast bird feeders - Use a large cookie cutter on a toasted piece of bread.&amp;nbsp; Make a hole for your twine.&amp;nbsp; Apply peanut butter and birdseed.&lt;/li&gt;
  580. &lt;li&gt;Painting with brushes.&lt;/li&gt;
  581. &lt;li&gt;Painting with spaghetti - use al dente spaghetti.&amp;nbsp; Keep it to two colors.&lt;/li&gt;
  582. &lt;li&gt;Chalkboard drawing.&lt;/li&gt;
  583. &lt;li&gt;Soccer game - set up &quot;goals&quot; at either end of a room.&lt;/li&gt;
  584. &lt;li&gt;Build a snowman.&lt;/li&gt;
  585. &lt;li&gt;Build an igloo and/or snow tunnel.&lt;/li&gt;
  586. &lt;li&gt;Make snow cream - my grandmother&#39;s recipe: Fill large pot with snow, 1 quart milk, 1 cup sugar, about a half a bottle of vanilla.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;ll seem like too much vanilla at first but the snow will melt and dilute it.&amp;nbsp; Save any extra in the freezer for a milkshake.&lt;/li&gt;
  587. &lt;li&gt;Set up tape for Heel And Toe - run masking tape all over the floor and have the kids walk heel to toe.&amp;nbsp; If you fall off the line you have to start over.&amp;nbsp; I set a line up that goes under tables and over the side of a couch.&amp;nbsp; This is big fun and it&#39;s a nice little work out believe it or not.&lt;/li&gt;
  588. &lt;li&gt;Make more &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2009/09/make-jewel-encrusted-ring-for-your-3.html&quot; title=&quot;DIY pipe cleaner rings&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;DIY pipe cleaner rings&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
  589. &lt;li&gt;Make cinnamon almonds. &lt;/li&gt;
  590. &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  591. Be sure to keep the kids involved with cleaning up their toys.&amp;nbsp; Nothing brings on the cabin fever quicker than a cluttered house.&lt;br /&gt;
  592. &lt;br /&gt;
  593. Have an idea that I didn&#39;t list?&amp;nbsp; Please include it in &quot;comments&quot;. &lt;br /&gt;
  594. &lt;br /&gt;
  595. &lt;br /&gt;
  596. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue; font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;*** &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/1178706927680559133/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/prep-for-round-two-with-mother-nature.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/1178706927680559133'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/1178706927680559133'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/prep-for-round-two-with-mother-nature.html' title='Prep for Round Two With Mother Nature'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0O2EAH7yuD9dgYec8E5_FIvSC6JvlgGdSgEWBjOvFo8CaWq8lgKdlN4sEwYaYGolb4WiweJSPjTGDxCbzD2fTxLbcPQpNgqEIk0_7rKCgq4yikFJB5f-tZNntJoC0DajbrIREnlylDiso/s72-c/tauntaun.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-8897397875119623561</id><published>2010-02-08T05:00:00.011-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-09T12:26:59.571-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Identity Theft Prevention Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Technology Tips"/><title type='text'>Freeze Your Credit So Bad People Can&#39;t Get It (rhymes)!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ZPh7NmAnosQOXUWwQgs3hUYAxSCKIP-vK6KF1aKoXBMikS1oCLbxaPenl0x1sG9IW1TnW9MqtObxPFfwlSDeIg0vkVBQLmQ0xL9_sUX8ZUS_Cs8SRNg3c5B9P-fWT_hoMHRMpEY8GcyK/s1600-h/internet_security.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Freeze your credit to prevent identity theft&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ZPh7NmAnosQOXUWwQgs3hUYAxSCKIP-vK6KF1aKoXBMikS1oCLbxaPenl0x1sG9IW1TnW9MqtObxPFfwlSDeIg0vkVBQLmQ0xL9_sUX8ZUS_Cs8SRNg3c5B9P-fWT_hoMHRMpEY8GcyK/s320/internet_security.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Freeze your credit to prevent identity theft&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Did you know that, as of January 2008, if you&#39;re a Maryland resident, you can freeze your credit report with each agency for 5 bucks a pop and as of January 2010 you can do this on-line?&lt;br /&gt;
  597. &lt;br /&gt;
  598. Freezing your credit report means that no one can open up a new line of credit in your name.&amp;nbsp; So even if someone were to steal your identity they wouldn’t be able to use the information to get lots of shiny new credit cards.&lt;br /&gt;
  599. &lt;br /&gt;
  600. &lt;a name=&#39;more&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  601. Each state has its own version of this law and you can check out &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html&quot; title=&quot;Consumer Union&#39;s official site&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;Consumer Union’s web site&lt;/a&gt; to get the latest info for your state.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In Maryland it costs $5 to either place a freeze, lift it temporarily or remove it (there’s no fee if you are the victim of identity fraud).&lt;br /&gt;
  602. &lt;br /&gt;
  603. You can still order your free credit report each year, even if your file is frozen.&amp;nbsp; If you need to remove a freeze, the companies must comply within 3 days after receiving your request.&lt;br /&gt;
  604. &lt;br /&gt;
  605. I’ve recently frozen my credit reports with all three agencies.&amp;nbsp; Experian and Equifax were both a breeze and requests with these companies took less than 3 minutes each to complete on-line.&amp;nbsp; Trans Union made me set up a user account so my request with them took a few minutes longer.&lt;br /&gt;
  606. &lt;br /&gt;
  607. BTW, you are entitled to a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.annualcreditreport.com/&quot; title=&quot;Official free credit report site&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;free credit report&lt;/a&gt; from each of the three agencies each year.&amp;nbsp; eM and I stagger our requests so that we&#39;re getting a look at our credit histories throughout the year.&lt;br /&gt;
  608. &lt;br /&gt;
  609. Hope you&#39;ve found this latest post in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/01/protecting-your-personal-information-on.html&quot; title=&quot;DIY identity theft prevention techniques&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;DIY identity protection series&lt;/a&gt; useful!&amp;nbsp; I&#39;m planning one more post in the series focused on passwords.&lt;br /&gt;
  610. &lt;br /&gt;
  611. &lt;br /&gt;
  612. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue; font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/8897397875119623561/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/freeze-your-credit-so-bad-people-cant.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/8897397875119623561'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/8897397875119623561'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/freeze-your-credit-so-bad-people-cant.html' title='Freeze Your Credit So Bad People Can&#39;t Get It (rhymes)!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ZPh7NmAnosQOXUWwQgs3hUYAxSCKIP-vK6KF1aKoXBMikS1oCLbxaPenl0x1sG9IW1TnW9MqtObxPFfwlSDeIg0vkVBQLmQ0xL9_sUX8ZUS_Cs8SRNg3c5B9P-fWT_hoMHRMpEY8GcyK/s72-c/internet_security.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7646716070357906391.post-3104755155866605600</id><published>2010-02-04T05:00:00.011-05:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T19:54:26.814-04:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Crafts with Dad"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Fatherhood Tips"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Quality Fathering"/><title type='text'>DIY Pine Cone Bird Feeders!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5eUrQbEXYBl-m1fh49ptnz7eyLIAQnNwwwBZxK-z8CD7yOhAFoIH6RmL29lj6HZd1Je8pOMYgAxbjfZvFNEzZ7ruHGpU1LEkR03N78eukaGBxatER4Vh3gXC9G5bvdti1qQQybDj4GsS/s1600-h/JanuarySnow+001.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5eUrQbEXYBl-m1fh49ptnz7eyLIAQnNwwwBZxK-z8CD7yOhAFoIH6RmL29lj6HZd1Je8pOMYgAxbjfZvFNEzZ7ruHGpU1LEkR03N78eukaGBxatER4Vh3gXC9G5bvdti1qQQybDj4GsS/s320/JanuarySnow+001.jpg&quot; title=&quot;DIY Pine cone bird feeders&quot; alt=&quot;DIY Pine cone bird feeders&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Ahhhh the classic pine cone bird feeder.&lt;br /&gt;
  613. &lt;br /&gt;
  614. Four simple ingredients, pine cones, peanut butter, bird seed and twine.&lt;br /&gt;
  615. &lt;br /&gt;
  616. This one&#39;s messy so have the paper towels ready.&lt;br /&gt;
  617. &lt;br /&gt;
  618. First, tie the twine good and tight around the pine cone.&lt;br /&gt;
  619. &lt;br /&gt;
  620. Next, slather peanut butter all over.&lt;br /&gt;
  621. &lt;br /&gt;
  622. Finally, hand off the buttered pine cones to your helpers so they can roll them in birdseed.&lt;br /&gt;
  623. &lt;br /&gt;
  624. &lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLPaipwAa4hOFOuki96fOTI-FoWipbykRmG1N0FFBKFhQnk8WFyKpStbzZ1x8KNx9924oaYK9UxzGua_WfQ3QkaLVsmYg3I_7rTlkk7ytZMa4hrXpIIYFR580q4AgxQamlk6bSEFrKk5i/s1600-h/JanuarySnow+009.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLPaipwAa4hOFOuki96fOTI-FoWipbykRmG1N0FFBKFhQnk8WFyKpStbzZ1x8KNx9924oaYK9UxzGua_WfQ3QkaLVsmYg3I_7rTlkk7ytZMa4hrXpIIYFR580q4AgxQamlk6bSEFrKk5i/s200/JanuarySnow+009.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY Pine cone bird feeders&quot; alt=&quot;DIY Pine cone bird feeders&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1nn8B1kU4pPuv23odg7adg11XM9n3Lucx4vSSzvtv9m9az1hVNJozHqPQPNbMMZdmayr-tTCWFGhTxM4BQB_Ziep7xOdl8mrrRkRoiNotD6bGfbgIPWXZdou5ZBu5Dklv_ye6rJP7a_eA/s1600-h/JanuarySnow+008.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;150&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1nn8B1kU4pPuv23odg7adg11XM9n3Lucx4vSSzvtv9m9az1hVNJozHqPQPNbMMZdmayr-tTCWFGhTxM4BQB_Ziep7xOdl8mrrRkRoiNotD6bGfbgIPWXZdou5ZBu5Dklv_ye6rJP7a_eA/s200/JanuarySnow+008.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; title=&quot;DIY Pine cone bird feeders&quot; alt=&quot;DIY Pine cone bird feeders&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  625. &lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  626. Interestingly, our smaller birds didn&#39;t seem to know what to do with these but our neighborhood woodpeckers showed up right away (click on either image to see a female downy woodpecker)&lt;br /&gt;
  627. &lt;br /&gt;
  628. And as expected, the squirrels took several of them right away -&lt;br /&gt;
  629. &lt;br /&gt;
  630. &lt;br /&gt;
  631. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;SQUIIIIIIIIIRRELS!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  632. &lt;br /&gt;
  633. &lt;br /&gt;
  634. &lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: x-large;&quot;&gt;&lt;b style=&quot;color: blue;&quot;&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/feeds/3104755155866605600/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/pine-cone-bird-feeders.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/3104755155866605600'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7646716070357906391/posts/default/3104755155866605600'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sillygeekycraftdaddy.blogspot.com/2010/02/pine-cone-bird-feeders.html' title='DIY Pine Cone Bird Feeders!'/><author><name>sillyDaddy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/00050793925706643457</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5eUrQbEXYBl-m1fh49ptnz7eyLIAQnNwwwBZxK-z8CD7yOhAFoIH6RmL29lj6HZd1Je8pOMYgAxbjfZvFNEzZ7ruHGpU1LEkR03N78eukaGBxatER4Vh3gXC9G5bvdti1qQQybDj4GsS/s72-c/JanuarySnow+001.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>

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