Happy birthday Wendi. You're older than me until Thursday. I wish I knew where you were.

I had a parent/teacher conference with Zoe's teachers on Wednesday. The good news is that she's reading above her level. Finally! She's reading. I'm so happy about this. Bad news is that she NEVER does her home work. We can work on this. Even worse is that she won't read or write ANYTHING in French. She's had a new teacher for 3 weeks and she won't ( Read more... )

Hey guys, I wanted to ask you for a quick and easy favor concerning a scientific study I'm working on here at UC San Diego. Some colleagues and I are trying to build a statistical model for the words that people use to describe music. As part of our experiment we have devised a website that plays music for you and asks you to fill out a form based ( Read more... )

This year Zoe's school changed her bus schedule so that I have to drop her off and pick her up from an elementary school in the neighborhood. It's been hell because it's not like there aren't already a million other parents dropping and picking up kids from the school. They have to add a bunch more schools to the mix ( Read more... )

Gods, it's been a long time since I learned these. I don't know how much help I'm going to be for Zoe when she gets much farther in math. I keep forgetting which one is which on these. I figured if I write them down somewhere, maybe I'll remember.

Mean
The average of a group of numbers is called the mean.

MedianThe middle number of the group is ( Read more... )

Sometimes horoscopes are so dead on that you have to wonder if they're onto something.

The biggest conflicts you experience today are centered around getting from point A to point B. There's a lot of negative energy around transportation right now, so be prepared for delays or detours. If you're driving, give yourself some extra time to make any ( Read more... )

Zoe wrote a letter in school yesterday. She brought it home last night and made me sign it. It said she's working on a 4 page report and she needs to get a good night sleep and eat breakfast. Hallelujah! These are things she fights me on constantly. It was a promise to herself, her teacher and me. Kinda like a contract. We both signed it ( Read more... )

Zoe asks me to blow-dry her hair this morning with about 10 minutes before the bus comes. Sure, no problem. As I'm drying, she starts asking me for ideas on the science fair. She has to do a presentation TODAY! I hate when she does that. She always asks me for something as we're walking out the door ( Read more... )

I leave tomorrow for Chicago. Zoe's first day of school is tomorrow. Poor timing for both. I wish I could bring her along with me ( Read more... )