Smart Phones and Dumb People

Ok, kids, change of pace.

 

A friend of mine posted this story about smart technology on Facebook a couple weeks ago. 

 

It's interesting reading, and I think the author makes a good distinction between technologies that enable you to overcome problems/be informed vs. those that try to force you to behave a certain way or share all your information with others. One size fits all, doesn't. Anything that tries to conform people to the same mold and limit individual liberty--including the liberty to make mistakes and do stupid things--worries me. We don't really have a paradigm for dealing with these types of problems yet and deciding how far is too far. 

 

However, from the headline of the piece ("Are Smart Gadgets Making Us Dumb?"), I thought the article was going to be about something somewhat different, as did my friend, so we ended up discussing what we thought the article was about rather than what it actually discussed.

My friend said, "I think there are 'smart' things that are making us dumb, or less able to think on our own, but the article doesn't cover that much. Math teachers having been arguing for years that calculators are encouraging students to never learn basic math."

 

Yes, yes they have. But that leads me to one of my pet rants. I thought I would post it here and see what you guys think. ^_^

 

Smart gadgets are not necessarily making us less smart so much as changing our intelligence. 

 

The same thing happened when we switched from being an oral culture to a literate one. Smart stopped meaning memorizing lots of things and started meaning knowing how to read well. We no longer memorize and recite The Odyssey, we read it in a book.

 

Now being smart means knowing how to use machines to help you get answers that were once found in books, and which before that had to be memorized.

So it's not necessarily less smart, but differently smart. In all cases it matters not so much what you know or know how to do, it's what you do with that knowledge. 

Lots of people can remember things in an oral culture, but only a few create that which is worth remembering. Lots of people read in a literate culture, but only a a few write what's worth reading or read what others have written about discoveries and use it to make new discoveries. Lots of people use calculators and smart phones and computers, but only some use them to expand mathematics or create art or cure diseases.

So, yes, relying on a calculator makes you less able to do basic math in your head, but that only matters if you think doing math in your head is of some intrinsic importance and that being able to do it makes you smart. Because a calculator also makes it possible for you to perform longer and more complicated equations. Remember in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, one of the characters in the nineteenth-century timeline discovered some important mathematical concept, but it couldn't be proved until computers were invented. The character filled page after page with hand calculations, but an entire lifetime was not long enough to make all the calculations necessary, calculations that a computer could do in a few minutes.

Many great mathematicians and scientists are terrible at doing basic math in their heads, but that doesn't make them stupid. In a way it's intelligent to not allocate brain space to remembering basics if it means you then have brain space available for advanced thought.

Machines are, or historically have been, tools. You still have to know how to use them. The problem is, we're starting to enter territory where we no longer have to know even that, because the tools tell you how to use them and what to do. 

This loops back to the actual topic of the article and the importance of being allowed space to make mistakes. It's one thing to ask a calculator to calculate twenty divided by five for you and learn it's four, and another for the calculator to tell you that the number you want is four because that's the number all your friends wanted you to know.

I don't necessarily disagree that technology often atrophies brain functions that I, at least, consider important. But I don't think the changes it makes to our brains are always and only a bad thing any more than they are always and only a good thing.

 

After all, you can use smart phones to say "omg c u l8r" and watch Jersey Shore, and you can use them to read The Wall Street Journal and discuss the impact of technological changes on human intelligence (I tapped out the entirety of my side of this conversation on my smart phone while nursing T-Rex). The phone you use doesn't make you more or less smart. It's a tool you can use to exercise your brain as well as one that can let your brain be lazy.

My friend then pointed out, "I just see kids learning ways to 'cheat' and not understand what division is by relying on their calculator so much, instead of just using it as a tool to not have memorized all the division tables.

"Most common example is the need for parenthesis in using the calculator where they were 'understood' when written on paper. For the students who never understood exactly what was written, they were using their machine incorrectly for the problem and getting the wrong answer. It frustrated me to explain it over and over when they just wanted a quick fix 'so just tell me when I need them, ok mrs friend's name?'"

I agree that you still need to learn those basics in your head when you're young. That's part of understanding how to use the machines for other purposes once you're older. So I'm actually in favor of forbidding calculators until maybe high school or late middle school math classes (my younger self would NOT have agreed; I'm terrible at math! Also, it's only now that I'm older that I understand why my dad (who's a physicist) would check my math homework with a calculator but wouldn't let me use one to do it in the first place).

Then, there's also the fact that a lot of technologies change and affect our brains in ways we don't yet understand. Staring at screens has been shown to make itharder for you to sleep because the artificial lights stimulate the brain, and I do think the screens have given us rather shorter attention spans, which is a problem. So I mean. I'm pretty ambivalent about a lot of it, personally. But I suppose change always comes with costs as well as benefits, and we need to learn how to manage those costs, not stop the changes.

I'm definitely addicted to my smartphone, and am making a conscious effort to distance myself from it a bit. I can tell it's shortening my attention span, and I'm trying to negate that effect by making sure to read non-fiction in book form. But I don't think I would argue it's making me or anyone else less smart. 

What do you think? Are smart gadgets making us dumber, smarter, neither, both? 

What do you think about the actual topic of the article?

More importantly, what are you supposed to do with kids in this gadget-saturated world?

What I am into this month (September).

This is the view from the other side of my building than I
usually post. The smoke comes not from that tall building
but from the other side, as the Tulsa School of
Arts & Sciences burned down.

September has been a rough month. It's been busy, and most of the busyness has been good. But it's been sort of an emotional roller coaster, and a very rough time at work.

Anyway, here's the monthly roundup:

On My Nightstand: I devoured a long chain of novels this month. The most notable is After the Golden Age, by Carrie Vaughn. It's about the daughter of superhero parents who has no powers herself, but really it's about family and self-acceptance and power and all of that. Highly recommend.

Want to Read: I am getting closer to the end of the Luther biography. The problem is that I take it with me places to read and then lose it. Still. Oops.

TV Show Worth Watching: They're slowly coming back! Castle and Bones and Grimm and all the rest--and Once Upon a Time premiered last night. Squee! (Except the DDH has a meeting and I don't know if we'll be able to watch it tonight on Hulu. *cries*)

Movies I've Seen (in or out of a theater): We rented a new Jason Statham movie, Safe, last week. Basically, this movie was designed to show off Jason Statham doing stuff. He gets to drive cars crazily, shoot people, have Epic Fight Scenes, all the fun stuff, and the movie people just didn't worry too much about if the plot tying it together made any sense.

In My Ears: I'm miffed at Amazon. I pre-ordered the new Mumford & Sons album, Babel, expecting to get it, you know, right away, and it didn't get here until Saturday. So all week I had to listen to people going on about how good it is. But. You know, they were right. The weird thing about Mumford & Sons is that I often don't even like their songs the first time I listen to them. But then I hear them again, and then listen again, and suddenly those songs have wormed their way into the very core of my heart. So good.

Links

Apparently I'm not the only one who has noticed that intArwebz are full of outgoing introverts chattering away at each other. Tanya Marlow shares her theory.

While I find myself grumbling at stuff on Patheos more frequently than not, this piece speaks to my irritation with doom-and-gloomers of all sides of the political aisle. Dear Christian, if the Thought of Either Romney or Obama Getting Elected Makes You Fearful, Angry, or Depressed, You Have What We Call a Theological Problem.



I seem to have lost my list of other interesting tidbits I collected around the internets this month. I'll be back to edit if I find it.

What I'm looking forward to next month: It was foolish to look forward to fall weather cool enough for sweaters in September, and I failed to drink even one pumpkin spice latte (or pumpkin anything, actually). Perhaps October shall do better. So many things to look forward to this month: two weddings, the baby shower, finishing things up. The last full month before T-Rex arrives (assuming he doesn't arrive pretty early). Halloween! I need to think of something clever for my costume this year. HALP.

Goal Progress: I posted some goals for the new year, and I figured these monthly wrap-up posts would be a good chance to check my progress throughout 2012.

The Budget: We have one, and it's doing okay, even with spending extra on baby things and renovation supplies. Yay.

The Garden: I may or may not contemplate planting more garlic this month or next.

Food: I failed to make dinner even once this week. We had fast food Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and a volunteer appreciation dinner to attend on Thursday, and honestly I don't even remember eating on Friday. I don't know. I'm having issues with hating food again.

The Craft Room: Is still not quite done and labeled, but it's being used for crafts, so what more can you ask for? And the office will need to be at least mostly done in the next couple weeks, since we have four or five people staying at our house for the baby shower, and the office is turning into our second guest room (with the bunk beds). And the nursery! The floors are done. It's looking so good.

The leaves are hinting at change.

How was your September? What are you looking forward to in October?

Tidbits

We hired my replacement/substitute/additional person at work on Wednesday. That is a relief. She starts in two weeks, which should give me plenty of time to train her and get her settled before my maternity leave.

***

We're going to the doctor every two weeks now. Heard T-Rex's heartbeat last week again. He's going strong and measuring right on track, and we confirmed that the glucose test looked good and I am not anemic. Yay!

***

I'm trying to come up with a good Halloween costume for me and T-Rex. Halloween is just a couple weeks before my due date, so I'll be huge. Obviously I need to capitalize on this possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Help me, internets!

***

If any of you are also SortaCrunchy readers, you know that Megan (who, in OKC, is basically local to me in Tulsa) is pregnant with IDENTICAL TWINS. Her friends and readers are posting pictures of twin birds for her as a reminder that we're all praying for them (twin pregnancies being riskier than normal ones). Our stuffed T-Rex has been joined by a pair of chicks in the twinsies' honor:

T-Rex and twinsies!

***

Nursery progress! We've done the first layer of stain. And due to the aforementioned Picasa Picture Problems, I don't have pictures for you. -_-

***

Man, okay, I need to think of something to talk about other than babies. I'm getting really boring.

What I am Into This Month: July

I apparently never took a beginning of July/end of June
picture. This is from early June, when life was green and not
one million degrees and in an emergency drought state.

I'm having a hard time believing July is over. Where on earth did this month go? It's been ridiculous--running around frantically at work, at home, and everywhere in between.

Here's what I've been up to in July, other than working, renovating, registering for baby things, etc., etc., etc.:

On My Nightstand: I'm still working very slowly through the non-fiction books that I've been reading the past few months. Summer interferes; it's simply not non-fiction book weather.

I did read Mockingjay, concluding the Hunger Games trilogy. I'm toying with writing a full review of this, though it's probably redundant. Suffice it to say, I thought it ended exactly as it should.
I also read the first book of Jane Lindskold's Firekeeper series, Through Wolf's Eyes. It's been a long time since I've read such straight, traditional fantasy. I find that I'm a little tired of some of the tropes at this point, but Lindskold treats them well, with interesting variations. I'm working on the second one now and enjoying it.

And I don't know who recommended A Discovery of Witches; it was someone in the blogosphere. Let me just say that this book, the first in a trilogy, is what Twilight should have been. Do you know what I mean by that? The books are, in some ways, eerily similar (vampire becomes obsessed with girl, girl falls in love with vampire, vampire for some unarticulated reason refuses to have sex with girl, etc.), but this heroine--the last in a long line of witches with some pretty kick-ass powers of her own--is much more likeable, relateable, and role-modelly heroine than whiny old Bella. I have the second one on hold and think a more detailed review (and a post on urban fantasy and kick-ass heroines) might be in order.

I've also been reading books on cooking: Forgotten Skills, Ratio, and a few others (most of which I checked out of the library based on Anne's recommendations in this post, which I heartily recommend). Theoretically I'd like to do more with my little ol' food blog, but if nothing else I'm enjoying learning the science behind cooking. I also made fresh linguine the other night for the first time in a long time because Ratio wants me to make all of the doughs forever.

Want to Read: Finishing the Introverts and Luther books would be pretty good right now. I also have the sequel to A Discovery of Witches on hold.

I've been collecting other recommendations all summer, but need to organize and prioritize them. Anyone have any for me?

TV Show Worth Watching: I'm half-heartedly following Hell's Kitchen (we're many many episodes behind). Gordon Ramsey would hate my food, I think. I pop in and out for other things the DDH watches: Royal Pains, Eureka, White Collar.

Of course, for the next two weeks, I'm glued to the Olympics. Much to the DDH's chagrin.

Movies I've Seen (in or out of a theater): Yes, we saw The Dark Knight Rises. The Saturday it came out, so the day after the Aurora, Colorado shooting. The theater was only half-full, and I wonder if that can be attributed to fear, the fact that we picked the less popular, cheaper theater, or just that the movie's not as popular as it should be. Because. My word. Yes. There's a lot of there there, for an action movie, if you know what I mean.
In My Ears: Even my faithful "Like a G6" station irritates me now. Somebody toss me a musical lifeline. I can't listen to anything without getting a headache and wanting to scream.

What I'm looking forward to next month: Progress on all things baby. I don't actually have any plans for August at all. I have to hire someone at work to fill in for me. And I'm sure there's a lot of work to do, at home and at work, to prep for T-Rex's arrival. But I won't complain if the world would take it quietly for a bit. I need to soak in the last of my pre-baby days.

This is the second time ever the DDH and I have faced August without it meaning back to school for someone. I freely admit I miss my own elementary and high school days. And even college. But I'm glad he's done with law school.

Goal Progress: I posted some goals for the new year, and I figured these monthly wrap-up posts would be a good chance to check my progress throughout 2012.

The Budget: Our savings got a nice boost because we switched home insurance companies but apparently had already paid for this year's coverage or something, so the old insurance company mailed us a $3,000 rebate check. Which I guess means it's money we had already paid (and eep! that's a lot of money), but hey, bonus! So that's good. I'm still on track to pay off my car, and my boss even said that, though I shouldn't plan on or expect anything, the firm might actually pay me for part of my maternity leave. God does provide, one way or the other.

The Garden: I've even managed to kill off most of my herbs, though the sunflowers are still growing. Sigh. This year's weather required me to be way more on top of the poor garden than I was. I'm hoping to do a fall planting, though if it doesn't stop being one million degrees out every day, that's not going to happen.

Food: I'm finally back onto a routine and cooking regularly after all the vacationing and visitors. Check out Reality Chef for some of what I've been cooking. I'm experimenting with fresh pastas right now in the hopes of doing a nice comprehensive series over there. Delicious, but perhaps not as healthy it could be.

The Craft Room: I have little left to do in the craft room. Some labels, some shifting around of things. Clearing off my desk. It's beautiful. But I really do need to work in the office now. And of course I've been keeping you posted on the nursery!

How was your July? What are you looking forward to in August?

Oh! Also I got a new phone. See how much nicer the pictures
are? And also how the grounds crew can't keep the grass
green? Hot time, summer in the city....

I am opening a can of worms.

The internets have gotten me thinking.

So if you're having a lazy layabout weekend, I thought I'd get you thinking, too.

First, read this. It discusses a study by a couple of psychologists researching a psychological phenomenon they term the "stereotype threat."

It's an NPR fluff piece with an angle, not the actual scientific study itself. NPR's angle is that this stereotype threat is one of (perhaps the major) factor behind the dearth of women in mathematics/science careers.

I know several women in precisely those fields (including one working in the National Security Administration's cybercrimes division), but they're roughly my age, so I can't exactly speak to whether or not they'll stick it out in those careers. That's one of the article's points--women start out in those fields, doing well, with lots of academic credentials, but end up quitting sooner and advancing less than their male colleagues.

Keep in mind, too, that one of those women specifically credits attending an all-girl high school for her own success in mathematics, reinforcing the stereotype threat theory.

So in other words, for stereotypes to stop being true, we need to stop talking about them all the time. If you never know there's a stereotype that girls are bad at math, you'll never unconsciously self-fulfill that prophecy. Maybe?

Something to think about, since current feminist methods promote pointing out every little disparity all the time until you can't even enjoy a movie without worrying if it passes the Bechdel test or read a book without worrying about its conflicting feminist messages.

Yet complaining about these stereotypes may in some way perpetuate them, exactly the opposite of what we're trying to accomplish (not that I think we should sit down and shut up like good little housewives, either; it's just that the situation is a lot more complex and multi-faceted--and harder to fix--than we'd like to think).

Got all that?

Ok then. Now read this thoughtful post by Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy.

What do you think?

I think that the stereotype threat is the most compelling theory I've heard for discrepancies of that kind. But. It's certainly not the whole story (it never is, is it?).

Women (and men) of a certain generation worked very hard to ensure that the women of our generation had the opportunity to work in scientific fields (and business ones, and political ones, etc. etc.).

And it must be excruciatingly frustrating to see women of my generation (and the one between, to which Anne belongs) not fulfilling their dreams of total parity (in terms of numbers, prestige, pay, usw.) in the workplace.

So they look for an outside explanation. If laboratories and Senate floors are not fifty/fifty men/women, there must be some outside force preventing women from holding those positions. After all, in their day, an outside force was to blame. That's what the women of that generation know how to fight--entrenched societal norms and stereotypes. Nothing but those sorts of outside forces could keep them from fulfilling their own dreams, and they assume that younger women have the same dreams and thus the same impediments to those dreams.

That's not necessarily the case. I'm not saying a certain amount of stereotyping and pressure don't exist. Like I said, I think it's likely that the stereotype threat, as a psychological phenomenon, is real.

But. I also think that women of my and Anne's generation have different dreams, on the whole (see, there I am stereotyping, of course), than did the women of the previous generation. It's not that outside forces are keeping us from jobs as scientists or politicians or whatever. It's that we don't necessarily dream of being scientists and politicians, or we dream of being them differently than did our predecessors.

Because, as I pointed out in my comment to Anne's post, this is not just a women's issue. It's a generational one. The men of our generations don't really want to be scientists and politicians in the old mold, either. Both men and women want more flexibility, more freedom. They're more concerned with happiness and personal fulfillment than getting ahead. They want to be successful in their careers, but on their own terms, in ways that mean that their successful careers don't define them.

The DDH doesn't just want to be an awesome lawyer, or to claw his way to a partnership at a prestigious firm. He wants to be a good husband and a good father and a man who pursues other interests, from video games to church leadership. And he's willing to work at a less prestigious (and, sadly for me, a less financially renumerative) lawyering job in order to have the time to be those other things.

Which is what Anne is doing.

Which is what my friend at the NSA plans to do, to stay home with her children once she and her husband have them, at least for a time, and pursue other interests (and her husband also works for the NSA, so it's going to look, on paper, exactly as if a man and a woman, same age, began working at the same workplace in roughly positions, and the woman "couldn't stick it out" and quit while the man keeps going).

Which is what I want to do.

Which is what thousands of other women and men in their twenties and thirties are doing because it's what they want to do.

It's not what every woman wants, of our generations or any other, and it's very important that women have the opportunity to be just as successful as men in any career they choose.

But when we choose not to stick with a career or to take a slower route to the top, it's not necessarily because of the insidious pressure of entrenched societal stereotypes. It's not a problem that can be rectified with more shows like Bones or movies like Brave, though I think we could use more of those, too.

Because it's not necessarily a problem at all.

So what do you think? Am I crazy?

What is your experience with and relationship to these issues?

What I Am Into This Month: June

Gray June morning.

The calendar turned over while I was on vacation, but here's what I was into in June:

On My Nightstand: I'm still working through Introverts in the Church and Here I Stand: A Biography of Martin Luther, both of which the DDH got me for Easter. This is still true. I did of course read and review Spirit-Led Parenting.

The DDH bought me a Kindle as a very early birthday present. So far I have only loaded free books onto it, because I have a hard time convincing myself to pony up ten or fifteen dollars for an e-book, which is what all the best-seller-type books I have on hold from the Library cost. If I'm going to shell out that kind of money, I want physical evidence to place on my shelf, y'know? However, I've been enjoying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, which was free.

I'm also almost done with a re-read of A Wrinkle In Time, read and returned Catching Fire and am anxiously awaiting Mockingjay, and read the entirety of the last book in the Sisters Grimm series, The Council of Mirrors, on the first day of my vacation.

So I guess I've been reading a lot. I just haven't been reading the books I'm supposed to be reading.

Want to Read: Finishing the Introverts and Luther books would be pretty good right now.

TV Show Worth Watching: Still trucking along with Mad Men, but overall not watching much television, which is a-okay by me!

Movies I've Seen (in or out of a theater): The DDH and I quite enjoyed Men In Black III, which we even saw in 3-D. That was the DDH's First Father's Day wish.

In My Ears: I am weirdly sensitive to sounds lately. The radio does not play anything good, and even my faithful talk radio gets on my ears' nerves (there was a primary election while I was out of town, the first I haven't voted in, and perhaps election season repetitiveness has something to do with that). About the only thing I can stand is my failsafe Like A G6 Pandora station--something about an unapologetic dance beat soothes me when nothing else will.

On that note (ha), do yourself a favor and check out this parody if you or anyone you have ever known plays role-playing games. I freely admit that thinking of this version may be one of the reasons why I love the original so much. Please note the comments arguing about what kind of wizard the chick in the video is, and be thankful you have Real Lives.

What I'm looking forward to next month: My birthday, obviously. Though I already got my big present (the Kindle), there should be ice cream and fun times at my mother-in-law's. The step-grandfather-in-law, Bob, shares my birthday. If I must share birthday celebrations, I will admit that I do not mind sharing them with an entertaining old person.

And Independence Day. No plans, but I shall not look a gift-day-off-work in the mouth.

You will be unsurprised to hear that I am still not looking forward to telling my boss I'm pregnant. Let me just say that my one-week absence permanently scarred the psyche of my poor assistant, and no one will like me when I tell them I'll be gone for a minimum of eight weeks. Sigh.

Goal Progress: I posted some goals for the new year, and I figured these monthly wrap-up posts would be a good chance to check my progress throughout 2012.

The Budget: We impressively paid cash for the entirety of our vacation. Yes, it helped that every time we turned around parents or grandparents were paying for food, gas, lodging, and entertainment...but we bought so much fudge. And wine. But no scary credit card bills looming! Amazing.

The Garden: My herbs survived a week of no watering, as did the sunflowers out front. I still have potato bushes that may or may not harbor potatoes, but everything else...dead dead dead. I fail.

Food: I ate so much this last week. So much food everywhere. I gained ten pounds. Now it's back to having to cook for myself, which really is all for the best.

The Craft Room: I know I keep promising a post on this, but truly. I startled myself with how clean it was when I walked in yesterday. Now to tackle the office....

How was your June? What are you looking forward to in July?

Zombies all around me; I be hacking them all up.

I am letting go of the ideal.

I'm over at Every Breath I Take today posting about my iffy, ever-changing, miles-away-from-ideal yoga practice.

The stillness of the early morning. A refreshing hour spent in a roomy, calm space. Flowing smoothly through an intricate and varied series of poses as grey dawn brightens the world outside my big bay window. Beginning my day strong, centered, and at peace, ready to face whatever the day may bring.

Well, that’s the theory, anyway....

If you've ever struggled with keeping a resolution because your reality looks so far from the ideal (or even if you haven't), hop over here to read the rest. I think you can relate even if you aren't a yoga fan.

Either way, go check out the cute bonus pic of the dogs in "Begging For Breakfast" pose!

While you're there, I encourage you to poke around Jennifer's beautiful blog. She categorizes her posts into four Intentions: Yoga, Parenthood, Relationships, and Faith. And if you do enjoy yoga, be sure to check out her Virtual Yoga Studio. Jen's son Max is due any day now, and she kindly responded multiple times to my lengthy emails with lots of useful advice for practicing yoga while pregnant.

In what areas do you struggle because reality never matches the ideal?

How do you let go and be good enough be good enough?

I am crafty: Altoids tin repurposing.

Perhaps you can blame my mother for my love of Altoids mints. She gave us a tin in our stockings each Christmas. I savored those mints, striving to stretch my supply until the following Christmas. When I was old enough and had spending money of my own, I invariably bought Altoids. I've tried just about all the flavors and varieties (my standard favorite is Wintergreen).

However. I am also a packrat, and have thrown away few of the containers I have collected over the years. Okay, I've thrown away plenty, but I've also saved plenty. They're just such useful little things!

One of my favorite uses for old Altoid tins is the mini kit. Sometimes I just toss supplies into an empty tin and call it good; a few I've labeled with Sharpie. But I'm an adult now, so I really ought to make nicer looking kits.

Here are two uses for an Altoid tin: a mini first aid kit and a business card holder.

I have a separate container for my most commonly-needed OTC meds (namely sudafed and ibprofen or, while pregnant, tylenol), but I do also carry in my purse a stash of bandaids (mostly for shoe blisters) and, ah, gas relief medication.

I used to carry these items in a plastic baggie, but recently the bag ripped and I ended up with smooshed and torn bandaids all over the bottom of my purse. The solution? This nifty Altoid-tin-turned-first-aid-kit.

Since I also have some business cards for my Real Job but don't have a paycheck that would fund the purchase of a thirty-dollar Fancy Business Card Holder, I decided to use an Altoid tin for that purpose, too.

First, the materials:

The white paper is just spare scrapbook paper; for the red
cross I actually used an envelope from Target rather than
any fancy sort of paper.

• an Altoid or similar tin for each use
• paper for decorating the outside of your tin
• Mod-Podge (or thin out some white glue with water)
• brush for applying Mod-Podge

Wipe out the inside of your tin(s) with a damp cloth. It may still smell minty fresh, but you probably don't want suspicious white powder all over your business cards (or bandaids, for that matter).

Trace the top of the tin onto paper.

Make sure to trace onto the "back" side of your paper, if
it has sides.

Traced.

Cut the paper to size.

Repeat steps 2. and 3. if you want to cover the bottom of your tin as well.

Apply a layer of Mod-Podge to the top (bottom) of your tin. Be generous, but not so generous that excess will ooze down the sides and glue your tin shut when you press the paper on.

Press your paper to the Mod-Podged top (bottom) of the tin.

It should line up pretty evenly; if not, trim with scissors or
an exacto knife.

If you want any other decorations, draw and cut them out. First trace an outline of your tin onto the paper you plan to use so you can ensure that your decoration will fit.

Outline.

To do a red cross for a first aid kit, draw a cross onto the back of some red paper. Each line of my cross is 1/2" long, if that makes sense. Use a ruler to keep it straight!

Remember again to draw on the back side of your paper.
You can see how many times I messed up the poor cross.

Cut out the cross/other design.

Cut out and flipped over.

Apply a layer of Mod-Podge to the top of the paper on your tin. Feel free to do this as thick or thin as you like--a thick layer will provide a more textured finished product, while a thin layer will be sleek.

You do want your paper to get pretty well soaked.

Apply your cross or other decoration.

Position it how you want it now.

Apply more Mod-Podge on top. Don't worry--it will dry clear, I promise! You want to make sure the entire papered surface is coated in at least a thin layer. Once hardened, it will protect your paper from tearing or light water damage (use outdoor, waterproof Mod-Podge if this is something you intend to get wet).

White now, clear later. Promise.

Allow to dry. Depending on climate and how thick you layered the Mod-Podge, this will take 30 minutes to several hours.

Still not quite dry, but almost.

Fill your finished tin with your supplies!

Secret bandaid tin!

For the business card version, I simply trimmed the corners of the business card since the tin has rounded edges,

Chic?

then applied with Mod-Podge as described above. After I did this, I discovered that I would have to trim the corners off all my cards if I wanted them to fit inside the thing. So I did. Hopefully people I give them to will think it's spiffy rather than odd.

If you got Mod-Podge around the edge of your tin,
you may want to leave them open to dry so you don't glue them
closed on accident.

Ta-da! Now I'm not exactly the first person to do this sort of thing to an Altoid tin; I'm not even the cleverest. But I do love them for storing things that would otherwise get beat up in my purse, and now everyone knows more-or-less what's inside--in a nicer way than if I had just labeled them with Sharpie. ;-)

For more tin repurposing ideas, check out The Art of Manliness's Twenty-Two Manly Uses for an Altoids Tin, Tested's fancy techie uses for Altoids tins, and Artists Helping Children's 15 Cool Crafts using Altoids tins.

I am looking back and forward (and have pictures of puppies).

I caught Jayne trying to dig a hole right next to the one we filled with the bag of cement sand yesterday. That said, they haven't successfully escaped in about a week now (knock on wood).

Also yesterday, Kaylee had another seizure. She'll go for months without one and I sort of forget she gets them, and then bam. Poor thing.

Also our neighbors got a new puppy.

So the dogs are keeping me busy.

***

There was a dog show in town over Memorial Day weekend, and this year's Tibetan Spaniel specialty was held here as well (a specialty is a show just for one breed of dog. For popular breeds, it can be a real prestige event; for less popular breeds like Tibbies, it's a great way to pick up majors toward a dog's championship).

Trail of Tibbies.

We primarily showed Rhodesian Ridgebacks in our dog-showing days, but my sister wanted a little fluffy dog and we ended up getting and showing a Tibbie. As with many things ostensibly purchased for my sister (such as the fish tank), I think Howard the Fluffrat* was really my mom's dog. He has since passed on, and she has replaced him with two girl fluffrats, Ruffles* and Apple*.

*Not their real names. I took an adolescent dislike to the small dogs, being a big-dog kind of gal and loyal to my Ridgies, and renamed Ch. Royal D's Kokopelli "Howard." Though they've grown on me, I insist on carrying on the tradition. Ruffles I think is really Ch. Royal D's Diamond in the Ruff and Apple is something something Queen Mab (different breeder, so not Royal D, and she's a pet so was never shown and is not "finished," so no Champion). There's a peculiar logic as to how I got Apple out of that (Ruffles is obvious and Howard just looked like a Howard), but I won't bother you with it here.

I think her name is Bailey.

ANYWAY, all this to say that Howard's breeder was in town for the specialty with Apple's littermate Bo and some bitch (above) that I'm sure is related to Howard or Ruffles in some way but I don't really know. Anyway, we stopped by to watch Sunday's Tibbie classes and say hi to Ruth and the Tiblets. The bitch is a pretty one (see above; adorable, right?) but didn't win anything that day; however she did pick up a major on Friday, which was the last one she needs for her Grand Champion title. She only needs one more point now to finish that and anyway this dog show talk is probably boring.

The point is: cute fluffies and a chat with a friend of the family.

***

This upcoming weekend we have a surprise sixtieth birthday party for a friend at church (when I was younger, I thought sixty was ancient. And it still sounds old, but it doesn't look old. I never guess that my friends who are sixtyish are that old, because in my mind sixty is still a doddering old lady) and my step-sister-in-law's wedding. Party party.

The story of my life at this moment is celebrations: birthdays, weddings, wins.

Or perhaps the better term is connections. The connections that bind me to the DDH's family and his step-father's family to his and my step-sister-in-law to her almost-husband's family. Ties that bind.

The connections we're finally forging at church, making friends as slowly as only a pair of shy introverts can.

The connections between my mom and her friend who is my old dog's breeder and between all the dogs and all the people that own and breed and love on the dogs.

The connections that are forming order out of chaos as I organize the craft room and clean and purge the rest of the house--connections made and connections severed.

The connections broken and reformed when the dogs leave and return. (And a seizure is a kind of leaving, as she becomes completely unaware of her surroundings during it, supposedly.)

Celebrating the connections. That's what I'm up to these days.

***

Some weekend reading for you:

Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy recommended this post last week, and I'm still pondering it: Legos, Spaceships, Breasts by Kate Bachus. My thoughts might eventually be worthy of their own post, but in the meantime, I leave it for your consideration. Where are you on the boy/girl toy divide?

Speaking of marketing to children, Kathleen Quiring's post today on Children as Consumers and the Invention of the Toddler is interesting reading, as well.

And to go along with the marketing theme, the foodies among you might be interested in this book excerpt posted at The Atlantic, How Vegetable Oils Replaced Animal Fats in the American Diet, by Drew Ramsey and Tyler Graham.

***

What are your weekend plans? What connections are you celebrating right now?

Have you ever been to a dog show?

What I Am Into This Month: May

Lush and green.

On My Nightstand: I'm still working through Introverts in the Church and Here I Stand: A Biography of Martin Luther, both of which the DDH got me for Easter.

Umm, What to Expect When You're Expecting? Yeah, my reading list isn't that interesting lately. Since finishing Changer I haven't read any fiction. I need to do a re-read of A Wrinkle In Time and its sequels though, I think.

Want to Read: Oh I just said that already, oops.

TV Show Worth Watching: All of our shows are over for the season! *cries* I have a few suggestions to look up on Netflix, and we've started back up with Mad Men now that season finale season is over. So far season two is a bit faster paced than the first.

Movies I've Seen (in or out of a theater): I think I've seen other movies this month (this month has been so long that I have no idea what I've done because I simply can't remember that far back).

But. Obviously, the important one: The Avengers. Oh, be still my happy action-adventure-superhero-loving heart. The internet has many interesting and insightful things to say about it; my pleasure is much simpler.

I just like watching hot guys run around blowing stuff up.

What can I say? I'm shallow.

If you like to speculate on the plot and the Marvelverse, try this. Author Carrie Vaughn has an interesting take (scientists as heroes) here. If you're of a feminist-critique bent, try this or this or any of the millions of other bickerings on the internet about Joss Whedon and anything he touches.

In My Ears: I still sort of hate music. Our "Like a G6" Pandora station gets me through housecleaning, and Mumford & Sons rescues me from the misery that is Tulsa radio stations, and that's about it.

What I'm looking forward to next month: A vacation! My parents and brother (and maybe sister) are coming in to town. Then my parents (and sister if she's there) are heading up to Michigan while my brother stays with us. Then the DDH, little bro, and I are trekking up to Michigan to meet up with our parents and my dad's family for a big ol' happy reunion at my uncle's cabin on the Lake Michigan shore.

I haven't seen my immediate family in more than a year, my grandparents and one aunt/uncle/cousin since my wedding, and the rest since way before that. High school, I think. It should be good. And my brother's a riot, so I'm looking forward to the car trip with him (he and the DDH may not be looking forward to a trip with a 20-weeks-pregnant chick, though...).

Also, my step-sister-in-law (the DDH's stepsister, though it feels weird to call his stepfamily that because his mom married C nine months after the DDH and I married, so it's not like he grew up with them or anything) gets married Saturday. Huzzah for weddings! I guess.

A sixtieth birthday party for a friend from church, my brother's 24th birthday (wait. that can't be right. Misha is almost twenty-four????), the DDH's first Father's Day, finding out what pronouns we should use with Critter (!!!!!!!!!!)...June has all sorts of good things in store.

Note that I still haven't told my work I'm pregnant...they'll have to find out soon, but I'm hoping to put it off until after my vacation (I don't want my boss to rescind my permission to go, because I'm going anyway and I'd rather have the next several months' worth of income than be looking for a new job).

Goal Progress: I posted some goals for the new year, and I figured these monthly wrap-up posts would be a good chance to check my progress throughout 2012.

The Budget: Hi, did I mention the part where SEWAGE KEEPS BACKING UP INTO MY SHOWER? Why do I even bother having a budget? We hope to get it fixed before everyone comes to visit at the end of June, but that will wipe out our savings. Again (thanks, State of Oklahoma and your bs taxes). Unless it takes more than that, which means we'll just be adding debt to the pile. Sigh.

On the plus side, I think (depending on this sewage situation) that I'll be able to have Subie the Subaru paid off by October (aka before Critter's arrival and my non-paid maternity leave), which is almost a year early. Yay!

The Garden: We ate all the snap peas and then the heat killed those plants. I have potato bushes that I hope indicate thriving potatoes underground. It's almost time to harvest all the garlic. We'll see how anything else does, though, with it being so hot so early.

Food: I can finally mostly stomach food again! Thankfully the DDH has been stepping up and playing chef a bit more often lately, because I still overheat awfully easy when stationed near the stove, and some food just puts me off. But he grilled the most delicious steak (even well done it somehow still actually tasted good, and people, I like my steaks mooing) for Memorial day and tasty pork chops last night.

The Craft Room: Oh there's a post coming on this, my friends. Just you wait. You will be astounded. Kind of. I mean, it's not actually done yet (*hastily works to lower your expectations*), but progress has been made.

Beginning to yellow in the heat.

How was your May? What are you looking forward to in June?