I was terrified when I looked at the call display and saw it was his school. I considered not answering it, knowing that no one else probably would either as the secretary had stepped out for lunch for a couple of minutes. (She almost always answers the phone and is great as anyone who’s phoned me at work can atest too!) Of course the call had to come the moment she left. With my heart pounding, I answered the phone. They, of course, asked for me and I assured them that I was indeed myself. She asked how my day was and I said that depended on what she had to tell me. She introduced herself and I quickly realized it was not Kris’ teacher. It was worse than I thought! Maybe this was the new principal! I’ve been a little sick lately and wouldn’t recognize someone’s name unless it was completely obvious. She told me that we had met several times last year to discuss Kris. If you’ll remember last year, Kris got into a tiny, tiny bit of trouble every now and then. Or every other week or so! This did not ease my fears at all! She wanted to schedule a meeting with me for next week to discuss Kris’ progress in grade 8. At least he hasn’t killed anyone, I thought to myself.

Men really are smarter than women – but they’re also more stupid
By Stephanie Mackenzie-Smith
Since the beginning of time the battle of the sexes has raged: Who’s really smarter, men or women?

Once and for all men can finally claim victory as the brainiest of the genders; unfortunately, they also have to take the blame for being more stupid as well.

A recent study measured the intelligence of more than 2,500 brothers and sisters and found a disproportionate number of men in both the top and the bottom two percentiles of intelligence. So, while there are twice as many clever men as women, there are also twice as many dummies.

The subjects were tested on science, math, English and mechanical abilities and the average of both men and women proved to be virtually identical.

The study was conducted by the University of Edinburgh and one of the authors, Prof. Timothy Bates, believes that the surprising results may be rooted in societal expectations of the genders. While the bar has traditionally been set higher for men, women have been expected to build their lives around the home.

Professor Bates said: “The female developmental programme may be tilted more towards ensuring survival and the safety of the middle ground.”

Previous studies have shown that men were more likely to take risks academically, where women were more likely to be steady in their learning.

So, who’s really the winner here? While men may laud the fact that they are twice as clever as their counterparts, their cheers may turn to jeers when faced with the fact that they are also twice as stupid.

http://lifestyle.sympatico.msn.ca/Men+really+are+smarter+than+women++but+theyre+also+more+stupid/Freelance/articles/MenSmarterthanWomen.htm?isfa=1

It seems like we never see any of our family anymore! I want to start a new tradition of Sunday dinners every week at our house. Whoever can come, comes. Let me know if you’re coming by Saturday noon and everyone is invited, every week (unless you’ve been exposed to the mumps and are worried about spreading it to the kids — Uncle Honey especially!). That will give me enough time to plan dinner for Sunday evening. I expect everyone to arrive between 4 and 5. Hope to see you then!
This invitation includes everyone who would be reading it–our moms, dads, brothers, cousins, whoever!

I’ve been trying to get back into yoga after falling out of the practice when I started back to work. This morning as I was doing it to a tape, I put Emma in her high chair to have a snack. When I looked over a couple of minutes later, she was standing on the tray! I paused the tape and took her down and let her run around. I started the tape again only to have Emmy steal the yoga brick. I got it back and started the tape again. I was doing downward dog when she came and started tickling my tummy. The lady on the tape is saying “Breathe, relax, let go” and Emmy is saying “tickle, tickle!”. A little tough. I was doing a bridge pose when she lifted my shirt and started trying to breastfeed. The girl is relentless! Maybe I should do the tapes when she’s asleep. Now that I’m done and typing this she of course wants nothing to do with me! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Whenever we head to Fernie, Kris and Mark love exploring old coal mines. I found this amazing island in Japan, Gunkanjima’s Ghost Island that I’m sure they’d love to visit, if it was legal. It’s a coal mine, as well as all the supporting structures that used to go with it. There are over 500 uninhabitated islands in this region of Japan near Nagasaki. It was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island features many abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surround them. Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 to retrieve coal from the bottom of the sea. Japan’s first large concrete structure, a block of apartments for the coal workers in 1916, was built here to accomodate the workers and protect them from typhoons. In 1959, its population density was 835 people per hectare for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare for the residential district, one of the highest population density ever recorded worldwide. As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine in 1974, and today it is empty and bare, which is why it’s called the Ghost Island. Travel to Hashima is currently prohibited, I’ll keep my eye open for changes to this prohibition. Looks like a really interesting place for a visit! Maybe even creepier than the Michelle Hotel we visited last time we were through Crow’s Nest.
www.oddee.com

Here’s the newest family member… Sooo cute! This is my first cousin’s first baby due the beginning of December. Congratulations and best of luck Denny and Carole! Can’t wait to see pics of the baby (I won’t give away the gender for those who don’t want to know) on the outside. Can’t believe how clear these pics are. We had the same kind of ultrasound done when I was pregnant with Emma except she never turned her face towards us…still really exciting though!

Mark’s Mum came home from New York yesterday. She was there all summer spending time and caregiving with her mum and sisters. It is soooo nice to have her home again! Also nice that her flight arrived early, for a change. She usually has such problems with flights back and forth always being delayed/rerouted, etc. Mark, his dad, Emma and I all met her at the airport and had a quick coffee with her yesterday. We’re looking forward to spending time visiting with her soon! Welcome home!!!

Creative advertising…

Kris had two humanities assignments today on scene development. Here’s what he wrote:

“Deep in the Amazon rainforest, the Amazon river’s murky depths are continually flowing. The river is crashing continuously forward between the emerald leaves. At the bend in the river, the water has turned crimson from a predator’s newest kill. The frothing, muddy beach is a dirty brown from the muck. In the icy darkness of night, the pearly moon barely forces through the break in the leaves into the sapphire waves. During tropical storms, the rain just patters down through the leaves but with brutal force. At sunset, the water is a bloody red. To the north, the ruins of a temple just barely peek through the leaves.”

“At Stonehenge, England the towering stones stand erect, unmoving, a testment to the ancient people. In the rolling farmland all around it, as the sun sets, everything is tinted crimson, like looking through a ruby. It often threatens to storm, and the sky turns dark and sullen as if thousands of years have just flown away. In the mystery there is beauty created by these monumental pillars and you have to wonder why it was built. Then an Englishman drives by on the A344 and mutters “bloody tourists”.”

His writting has moved from good to astounding! I am so very proud of him. Good job K!

Click this link for some very, very cool pics from artist Peter Callesen. His main medium is paper… just ordinary printer paper that we all have sitting around. One talented, creative guy… My favourite is probably “closet” or “Looking Back” or maybe “traces in the snow”. Hard to pick only one. He also does live performances (maybe a little eccentric?) as well as works with snow, ice and water. Here’s what he has to say about his work:

“About my paper works

My paper works have lately been based around an exploration of the relationship between two and three dimensionality. I find this materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form almost as a magic process – or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts. Some of the small paper cuts relate to a universe of fairy tales and romanticism, as for instance “Impenetrable Castle” inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, in which a tin soldier falls in love with a paper ballerina, living in a paper castle. Other paper cuts are small dramas in which small figures are lost within and threatened by the huge powerful nature. Others again are turning the inside out, or letting the front and the back of the paper meet – dealing with impossibility, illusions, and reflections.