The Doctor, Craig and Alfie

In the latest episode of Doctor Who, “Closing Time”, the 11th Doctor is on a farewell tour of sorts and pays a call to a friend of his named Craig Owens. As luck would have it, poor Craig is alone with the baby for the first time ever while Mummy’s on holiday and he isn’t handling it well. Luckily for him, the Doctor speaks baby. Of course, Craig ends up caught up in one of the Doctor’s adventures. (As if being left alone with the baby isn’t enough of an adventure, right??)

"You're far too slow when he summons you."

As they’re staking out a shop to track down a Cybermat, the Doctor pulls out a baby carrier (which he handily got on sale for 10% off) and hands it to Craig. “Alfie wants you attached to him. You’re far too slow when he summons you.”

LOL! The Doctor advocates babywearing Whovians, wear your babies!! Even The Doctor agrees!

I love it when geekery and real life interests coincide. And as a bonus, the Doctor holding baby Alfie. Pretty awesome scene if you ask me. The Doctor gets along well with kiddies

The Doctor and Alfie

But wait, there’s more! Here’s a clip from Doctor Who Confidential — a behind the scenes look with Matt Smith (in full costume) singing to one of the babies between takes. ADORABLE! (Dude, seriously, I would totally hire him as a baby sitter. Matt Smith, if you ever read this, I’d pay you in badgers!!)

And the reason why we’re staring at you every other bite is not because we’re acknowledging some sort of mutual understanding that kids will be kids but rather we want to kill you for letting your brat ruin our dinner.

Or our plane ride.

Or trip to the grocery store.

Or the other adult-oriented establishments you’ve unilaterally decided will serve as an extension of your toddler’s playpen because you lack the fortitude to properly discipline them, in public and at home.

And we know you don’t discipline them at home because you don’t possess “the look.” If you had “the look,” you wouldn’t need to say “sit down” a thousand times.

The article made the rounds on my social network circles; interestingly enough, many of the supporters of Granderson’s article do not have children while the more negative reactions came from parents who have children.

Surprise, surprise.

The reason Mr. Granderson’s essay resonated so much is that there are kids whose parents need to step up to the plate. Badly. We’ve all seen them. Hint: they’re the kids who are running around, causing hell for everyone else, with a parent who is may be nearby is too absorbed in their smart phone or gossiping to look up. (I see this all. the. time. Your kid throwing Legos and you’re checking your Droid? FFS, put it down and DEAL with your kid. Seriously, the Facebook status update that you’re at the Lego store can fucking wait.) Better yet, there are those kids whose parent(s) are absolutely nowhere in sight. That’s always fun.

But the essay isn’t talking about the absentia parents — he’s talking about the parents who are there and who have chosen to take their kids out. The essay reads far more like a rant than a discussion and the tone and verbage that he uses to do it makes me want to kick something. Brat, brat, brat. Offspring. It sounds like it was written by someone on childfree_hardcore rather than an award winning journalist.

My reaction to Mr. Granderson’s essay was, um, visceral, to say the least, and included quite a lot of f-bombs. The essay made no distinction between children that are tantruming because they are undisciplined little shits and kids who may be melting down due to other issues, like special needs or developmental issues. Obviously, a small child acting out in public is always the result of poor parenting and couldn’t possibly — EVER — be melting down for reasons beyond that. OBVIOUSLY. And obviously, all children will respond to The Look ™ that Mr. Granderson says that these parents with children that act out do not possess. Because, you know, it’s not like a child with autism or Aspergers can so totally interpret The Look ™. Or a speech delayed child who may not be able to express what they want so they tantrum instead.

Mr. Granderson complains about kids not being put in check. The truth is, not all parents have the same way of putting their kid in check. Some may verbally reprimand their child, others may slap their child, others may remove their child from premises. But some ignore behaviors in an effort to stop them because they understand that their child is seeking attention. Does a casual, judgemental by stander know this? Probably not. OH PERMISSIVE PARENT RUINING A PERFECTLY GOOD DAY OUT FOR OTHER ADULTS.

Feh.

You’ve got a favorite song or songs . Sometimes a whole frickin’ playlist of songs that you absolutely, positively adore and feel the need to share with the world. That’s awesome. We may even share musical tastes which would make it even more awesome.

You know what would make it more awesome? NOT MAKING IT AUTOPLAY ON YOUR BLOG. Just because they make a widget for it DOESN’T mean that you HAVE to include it on your blog.

Please, do your blog readers a favor. Don’t include auto playing music widgets.  Give your readers the option of choosing to play the music on their own. Please?

Love,

Me

* *

This PSA was brought to you by someone who frantically had to search for the mute button before searching, fruitlessly, on a blog’s sidebar for the controls to turn off an aforementioned auto playing music widget. Auto playing music widgets are like the auto playing midis of the late 1990s. It wasn’t a good idea then and it isn’t a good idea now. Just sayin’…

Pray for Japan

While I have no real connection to Japan, save for a few friends that live there (and thank God, they’re safe!) and a deep love and appreciation for the Japanese culture, I have been glued to the Internet this past weekend to find out what is going on in Japan.

The tsunami’s force as it plowed through the coastal areas was as breath taking as it was heartbreaking. As we live our daily lives, it may be easy to forget how powerful nature can truly be.

California is also part of the Pacific Rim of Fire and the activity in New Zealand and now Japan has made us very uneasy. Luckily, we do not live on a major fault line ourselves (living at the edge of the Bay Area does have some advantages) but we do live close enough that damage is always a possibility.

I still remember the Loma Prieta quake in 1989. While we were fairly well away from its epicenter, the house still swayed and rocked for about ten seconds and was a magnitude 6.9 on the Richter scale. I can’t even imagine how horrific the several minutes of the Japanese quake must have been.

The Hubs ™ and I have talked some about our emergency plans. This has been made more urgent by the Japanese quake. Where would we go? What would we do? Our earthquake kit is not prepared — a huge oversight on my part. That will have to be rectified as soon as possible.

Are you prepared for a disaster?

This was just what I needed to hear. I really needed to be reminded to slow down, relax, enjoy and be thankful for what I have rather than rush, rush, rush into whatever comes next.

I’ve noticed that Things Happen ™ when I let go of my normal routine and just let things flow… just a little bit. I think God meant for me to hear this song today; I’m thankful that I stopped to listen.

We’re definitely not the only family to do so. A recent article on CNN talks about a study that shows that 82 percent of kids under 2 have an online presence.

While the Internet makes it easy to share photos of your newest family member with far flung relatives and friends, the fact remains that these innocent photos of your child can also be a privacy risk. Here’s a few ways to keep your little one’s identity safe from the very start.

Use privacy filters. Photo services like Facebook, Flickr, Shutterfly and more have privacy filters that allow you to control who sees your photos.

Do not label photos with sensitive information. Sensitive information can include your child’s full name, birth date, birth place, etc.

Obscure any personal information that may be visible in the photo. New parents may want to rethink sharing the photo of their newborn the hospital isolette as information including the baby’s name, family surname and even delivering doctor may be in full view. Choose to share another photo that does not contain any sensitive information.

Ask friends and family NOT to share photos of your little one without your permission. This is harder to control — especially with excited grandparents — but (gently) explain why you would like to control where your child’s photos are seen.

BONUS TIP: It is popular on some parenting communities to share the names and ages of your children in your signatures. If you do this, use nicknames to identify your children rather than their names.

The Hubs ™ and I have our own love language, spoken thusly. Over IM. Because it’s easier that way.

The Hubs ™: So…

Me: ??

The Hubs ™: Want me to suffer through FFXIV for you?

Final Fantasy XIV Online logo

This, folks, is what passes for romance in our household.  The Hubs ™ being ever willing to slog through (yet another) MMO that he knows I am interested even though he has no interest in it whatsoever. Our love language is him rolling up characters and slogging through what we not-so-affectionately term as  “level stupid” where you’re a newbie in the game, with no skills, armor or money, trying to find the best way to level and build up our characters, all during the release week server crunch.

All this so he can help power level my character so I don’t have to slog through level stupid for nearly as long as he had to <3

I love our crazy gamer geek love. I really do.

The study just confirms what anyone with eyes can see: kids are growing up too fast. Literally. This has always worried me, especially in regards to when The Little Empress will start puberty. I hit puberty around 11 years old and got my period at 12. The idea of a child hitting puberty at 7… I can’t even fathom how a child of that age can even begin to process the changes.

Even though her pre-teen years are still far, far away, they’ll be here before we know it. I just hope that she’ll be able to enjoy being a little girl for as long as possible.

Wow. I mean, effing wow. Not only is this 2 year old a 4 pack a day smoker, he’s over fifty pounds!

From the original article at The Sun (UK)

“He looks pretty healthy to me. I don’t see the problem.”

Aside from the fact that it does look quite tasty — hey, I like pancakes. I like cheesecake. I can admit this — I’m pretty repulsed. I can’t help but wonder if America is so damned gluttonous now that we seek to stuff ourselves unnecessarily for no good reason while folks around the world — hell, people in America – still starve to death.

What a way to set an example.