Backward and inside out

Hard to impress

[This post was written by Simon's uncle David]

When I loaded up the inventive Arcade Fire video to show my eight-year-old nephew, I wasn't sure what to expect. Aside from being a coming out party for HTML5 and a vehicle for Google Chrome (since it runs correctly only in that browser), the video is both innovative and the logical next step for music videos given the evolution of the social Web.

But is the video ground-breaking in the eyes of a third-grader who probably assumes all devices should have the ability to video chat and play Angry Bird? Not really.

It went something like this:

David: [clicks play]
Simon: Oh, I know this song.
David: Okay, but just watch.
Simon: It's just a guy running.
David: But look how he's standing outside your house. And when he spins around, the perspective of your whole block spins with him.
Simon: It's okay, I guess.

January sledding

Simon laughs at Jay The Hack Master

3G network

The scene: We are playing games in the basement after dinner. Simon asks a question that neither Aunt Marnie nor Uncle David can answer.

David: I don't know, sorry.

Simon: Can you look it up on your iPhone?

David [feeling lazy]: I could. But I'm not getting any wifi down here in the basement.

Simon: But aren't you on the 3G network?

Simon the pianist

Location: The dinner table. Uncle David is describing the scene at El Pinto, the 1,000-seat Albuquerque restaurant that has become a community institution.

David: Every politician who stops through New Mexico goes there. And every rock star and movie star. They have photos of the wall of every famous musician in the world hanging out there.

Simon: Was Beethoven there?

Following this conversation, Simon delivered a magnificent piano performance.

Tempting Teal is not dull and boring

If Simon could paint his bedroom any color, it would be Tempting Teal, which, as he explains, is a "bright and lively" color made by Glidden.

I'll take four kinds of Parmesan cheese, please

For his 7th birthday, Simon wanted a dinner party. There was pasta, homemade sauce, four kinds of Parmesan cheese and Bébé Prosecco for the adults.

Nanosecond vs. millisecond

Location: The Silver Spring Regal Majestic 20. We arrived early and secured seats (Simon prefers the last row) and then realized we had to go back to the hallway to get a booster chair.

Simon: C'mon.
David: We've got time. We won't miss a second of the movie.
Simon: Okay.
David: Actually, we might not actually notice if we miss only one second.
Simon: Well, we could miss a nanosecond. But I don't want to miss a millisecond. Or a second.

Cherry Blossoms...and shapes

Here, Simon explains the contents of his paper he's been carrying around during the Cherry Blossom viewing, it seems to be about topology, or shapes, or polyhedrons, or something of that nature.

Two TVs instead of one

Recently, Uncle David asked Simon how he could improve his basement. To be fair, the question came after a long discussion about what TV program to watch.

A Gem of a story

Simon is into gems at the moment. He's very interested in what gems are used in what ways (and very disappointed at the relatively gem-free nature of my jewelry collection. He's not even sure it should be called "jewelry," it being rather free of what we might call "jewels.").

This morning, he was reading a story about King Solomon's crown and cross-checking the mentioned gems in his gem encyclopedia, just to read up on their various properties.

He looked up at one point, quite perturbed.

Simon: "what words are capitalized?"
Me: "names, places, important things like that."
Simon: "Well. Not all important things."
Me: ?
Simon: "I think names of gems should be capitalized. Gems are very important."

Pre-reading

Simon and I are reading Little House in the Big Woods together. The other night, he read a chapter to himself during his "flash[light] reading" time.

The next night, I set out to start reading the next chapter.

Simon: I read ahead last night to be sure that you would like it.

Me: oh?
Simon: Well, it was about guns, so I thought you wouldn't want to read it, but don't worry, it's not about war. Just hunting. Is hunting ok?

Me: Yes.

Simon: Ok, you can read it, then.

Musings on Olden Times

We spent the weekend at "America's Historic Triangle" (Williamsburg-Jamestown-Yorktown, Virginia). Simon was quite taken with the experience. He kept asking if the items & buildings we were seeing were "old," "new," or "ancient re-polished." He is, for example, bringing an ancient re-polished newspaper to class today to show his teacher. Don't ask.

some of my favorite moments from the weekend:

• There is a bridge at Colonial Williamsburg that connects the Visitor Center with the Historic Area. On said bridge there are metal plaques that take you through time as you walk. On the way back Simon ran forward in time across the bridge shouting with glee: "we're back! we're back to our own time! woo hoo! 2009 HERE WE COME!!!"
• After walking through the village at Jamestown (where you get to see/walk through a Powhatan village, an English village, and climb onto the ships), we walked through the exhibition hall, where they have actual real things from the actual real 18th century (i.e. not new, but old). Simon approached every case (as if he'd never been to a museum!) with delight--"These are the REAL things! Not the re-polished things!"
• In one of the houses in Jamestown, we sat on the beds, sat at the table, swept the floor, etc. Simon pronounced "This is a Green house! There is no electricity! brooms instead of vacuums! They just use the light coming in the windows! they were so smart then."
• Simon likes salt on his foods--he likes to, for example, dip carrots in salt. You can imagine, then, his delight in learning that in olden times (i.e. in this case, in 18th century Yorktown) people salted their meat to keep it for the winter. They had vats of salt in which they displayed huge cuts of meat. Simon decided that we should take up this practice and start keeping salted meat in the freezer. "And maybe salted other things, too, just to keep them nice and fresh."
• We went to a candlelight concert at the Governor's Palace at Colonial Williamsburg on Sunday night, it was beautiful, the concert was held in the parlor, with the beautiful chandeliers, the beautiful paint, the reproduction Chippendale chairs, etc. They played actual 18th century instruments by candlelight, it really was remarkable. To prepare Simon, we had told him on the way in that this was the fanciest home in 18th century Williamsburg, that the most important person in town lived there, that they had the most beautiful things, etc. On the way out, Simon mused that the building wasn't really all that fancy. "I thought they would have more gems and things around," he said. "Like, I thought there would be amythests in the wallpaper and maybe some more gold. And diamonds."

and then there was light

This week, Simon had to do a project for school in which he had to construct a building. He got to choose the type of building and the materials.

He chose something he named the "eco center" because he'd been reading about "green" buildings in a magazine. His building has a green roof with a rain garden and a compost pile, a water barrel, and no air conditioning. 

Simon: The building also has no electricity.

Me: Really? No lights, or anything?

Simon: No, it has lights.

Me: How are they powered? Don't they need electricity?

Simon: No, they don't need electricity. They use solar power.

The TI-83

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN GREENBELT AND COLLEGE PARK — Simon loves his graphing calculator. Unfortunately, no one in the family knows how to use it.

That left Simon alone to read the thick instruction book and figure it out.

By dinner time, he was graphing circles!

Letter to a penpal

In Simon's class, the kids were asked to write a letter to "Lilly," a character in a book they had read. Here is Simon's letter:

Dear Lilly,
I love math! I am in first grade. You can come to my house if you want. I have one computer. There are a lot of bookmarks on the computer. I live on S--- Road. I know a lot about math! Do you like math? Maybe some day you will.
From, Simon

Sasha Obama, age 7

Me: [much excitement, crying, jumping, singing, carrying on, & etc.] ...so, all the Obamas will move here: Barack, Michelle, and the kids, Malia & Sasha, who is about your age.

Simon: Do you think she likes math?

Hedging Bets

Yesterday on the way home, Simon announced that his tooth was loose. 

Me: How exciting! Do you know about the Tooth Fairy?
Simon: I don't think she's real. I think it's your parents who put the money under your pillow.

Me: Well, we'll have to wait and see!

Simon: I know. The first night, I'll put my tooth under my pillow and we'll wait to see if she comes. If she comes, great. If there's no treasure under my pillow the next morning, I'll put the tooth under my pillow again, and the second night, you and Daddy can put the treasure under my pillow.

Should I still read the book?

I am reading an 800-page book. It's called The Mitfords  and is a collection of letters sent between the 6 infamous sisters over many, many decades. 

Simon loves 800-page books, just as a general rule.

Recently, he picked up my book and flipped through it.

He hands it back to me: "Just so you know, A few of the sisters die at the end, and the whole family falls apart."