Word!

Oh, the power of simplicity. Simple words. Simple two-minute digital bites, just like this piece of awesomeness.

 

TED Ed is a great place to look around for stuff you can share with your kids. It makes smart sexy and cool but it’s not dumbed-down. Imagine, a lesson on brevity plus I get to introduce the kiddos to one of the best rock and rap collaborations ever. Ambulate this direction, or…

Rock on, nerds! 

Love,

Meet My Astrophysicist Friend

Conversations with astrophysicists... More fun when they are Filipina!

March is Women's month, I am a woman, I have a daughter, we are Filipinas, so please excuse me if I cross-post to this Pinay-power profile I did for Rappler.

Reinabelle Reyes was the first scientist to prove Einstein's Theory of General Relativity beyond our solar system. She did that when she was 26. Her research was published in Nature, the world's premiere and most discriminating science journal. That is The Journal that published Einstein's very own theories and now look, this Filipina astrophysicist is published there too—decades later, showing proof of concept for one of Einstein's master works.

Someone actually paid me to have a conversation with Reina Reyes and write about her groundbreaking research. Thank you, Universe. On top of that, we are set to collaborate on "something digital" which is all I can say for now. Sweet.

So this is Reina in a nutshell: Kavli Cosmological Institute Fellow. In the process of figuring out the exact recipe for making a galaxy. In the forefront of figuring out Dark Energy, which is oh, the next great leap for Science. Could win a Nobel. Graduated summa cum laude BS Physics Ateneo. Astrophysics PhD obtained from Princeton. Won the Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Award for discovering a hidden quasar. She was just a student when she found the quasar. And oh, it's the kind of discovery that requires altering and updating science books. 

A little take away for us parents… Her mother and father never pressured her to get high grades. They just encouraged her to do her best, got her books and let her use the computer for fun and to learn stuff. No Tiger Mom behind this achiever.

I love that she wants to help change K12 education in the Philippines. She believes most of our schools need major reforms. We could have gone on and on talking about this issue alone. She herself went to Philippine Science School. She loved it there, because "they emphasized analytical thinking over memorizing cold facts." The thing is, more Filipino children need to be getting that kind of hands on, experiential education… not just Pisay scholars and kids who go to expensive private schools.

Anyway!

Reina will soon be launching an infographics blog on Rappler. Have us on your news feed yet? Rappler is about "inspiring smart conversations" according to our tagline. I'd like to add, controversial conversations. TanginaThis hot topic: Reina claiming she is an atheist. Interesting.

Top of the World

MacDaddy, at one crazy point in time, dreamed of climbing Everest. We read every book, every account, watched every documentary we could get our hands on.  We soon realized we didn't have the money,  the commitment, the time, the endurance.  Standing on the world's highest mountain was relegated  to his 'twas-worth-wishing-about-but-no-chance-in-hell-it's-happening list.

Last week we celebrated Our Thirteenth well above the clouds on a ride across the Himalayan ranges of Nepal.  Our fifty-minute mountain flight gave us the chance to stare in awe at eight of the world's highest peaks.

Best of all, with matching goosebumps, we took that one good, solid look at  Everest. 

It's the closest we will probably ever get to being on top of the world. 

Good Job, Social Media

I have written about the perils of praise a few times, notably for Working Mom. My latest Rappler article is actually a reprise of Are you raising a praise junkie? published in WM's June 2010 issue.

Revised for rappler.com it's now called Stop saying good job to your kids! On the social news network, it got 147 Facebook likes, 89 Tweets and 182 shares, in less than 24 hours. This volume of response to my own work is new to me. It's pretty cool though to experience how quickly your thoughts and research can reach X amount of people in such a short span of time. That's social media for you. 

All that attention caught me by surprise, and piqued my curiosity, so I checked out what some of those Tweets were saying. 

My favorite tweet-reaction is below. Tweet-er Katie Davis: "Stop saying good job to your kids. Just don't say, You stink!" 

However, not everyone read the entire article like the funny Ms. Katie Davis. I want to note something off and... slightly annoying, actually. Some people do still judge an article by its title alone. Stop saying good job to your kids! is quite the hyperbole I admit, which is probably why some people thought this meant—

a] do not be affectionate 

b] be ambivalent 

c] be hyper-critical

d] and never, EVER praise children.

It does not.

You will see that, if you read the entire thing. If you don't feel like reading a 900-word article, that's fine. Just don't make conclusions based on the title alone. 

That's Putting Things Out Of Context. Now that's a social media problem for you. It is probably the oldest media issue ever since the invention of the printing press. The world is changing real fast, but some things remain the same. 

Thirteen

3.9.99

Thirteen.  We're off on a little adventure to celebrate "us" moving into the teens.  Be back shortly.

When We Were Six

About to blow her birthday candles while having afternoon tea with her neighborhood fairy friends. My little girls says that's what fairies like to do. So that's how she wanted to celebrate turning another year older. 

Here's a poem by A.A. Milne dedicated to the our resident six year old.

When I was one I had just begun

When I was two I was nearly new

When I was three I was hardly me

When I was four I was not much more

When I was five I was just alive

But now I am six, I'm as clever as clever;

So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

She's so much fun to have around, I do wish she would be six forever. I know it's not going to happen, but mamas imagine things like that occasionally.

When girls that age live with you, you'll have fairy wings fluttering all over the place.

Then a certain big brother and his cohorts will attempt to attack the fairies fluttering around with those wings!

But they are no match. February Birthday Girl told the rest of her winged friends: "Those are just guns. We are fairies! We have fairy powers!" 

Kaaaboooom! The fairies prevail. Oh, to be six years old. These days are so precious. They are to be relished, my dearest little girl. 

Peanuts and Philosophies

If you haven't already made plans to catch 9 Works Theatrical's production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown over at the RCBC Auditorium, I suggest you take the kiddoes along and do so.

I didn't know what to expect, only that it would be a welcome diversion for the boys. Call it a small window of opportunity or a desperate attempt on my part to expand their horizons.  Our one year anniversary from the time they firmly decided football would be king in our homes and in our lives is coming up.  They still wear jerseys at every chance they can get.  When they're not catching the games at the oddest times of times of the day on TV, or talking about who's being traded to what team or who's wearing the latest Mercurials,  they're on the field playing it.  They trained five out of seven days a few weeks ago.  I told you: crazy-obsessed.

Now back to the play. Surprise. Surprise. They loved it. They both sat at the edge of their seats laughing out loud at some point, I would have otherwise guessed they were watching Real Madrid clash with FC Barcelona. Ok, maybe not completely but it was good enough for all of us.

Mak and Tato were still talking about it days after.  Mak says the show is  not just funny it is really, really funny.  He's been asking when I'd be taking him to the next "episode".  He's also decided Happiness is the musical's best song.  Good choice.  Good times.  

Tato: Mama, Sally was so funny she kept changing her mind about her philosophy.  What's a philosophy anyway?

Me: It's asking questions and trying to find answers about things you don't know.  

Tato: Like what is good for me?

Me:  That's a  good one.  And if you don't know the answer to that right away, that's cool.  Many grownups don't even have the answer to that one. 

Tato: But I already know.  FOOTBALL. That's my philosophy: Football is good for us.  

Hmmm....

Human

Sorry, Brandon Flowers, you have nothing on us.  Tato covers Human and kills it.  Minus the trademark feathered shoulders of course. With special participation of musical director stage brother at the 24th second mark cueing "psst...cut the cord..." 

Human from Nana on Vimeo.

I kid.  I kid.  Giving the actual floor to the Killers.  Current favorite song over here.

We know what we'll be jamming to this weekend.  Thank God it's Friday.