Here's a conversation I had last night with Ryan. I was trying to explain how everything on our refrigerator serves a purpose and it's not clutter.
Me: Look. Here's the picture of Jesus. Here's the calendar that shows the basketball games so we know when we can't leave our apartment. Here's my menu. Here's my weekly routine that I . . . um . . . never use. And here's my daily routine that I . . . um . . . don't really use. Okay, fine. But I have used that poison control sticker!
Ryan: Okay, let me get this straight. Here's the calendar from Sister Cole that's still on January (whoops, I didn't even look at that one). Here's the picture of Jesus. Here's the basketball calendar that we never look at until after we come home after waiting in a lot of traffic and check to see that there was, in fact, a basketball game. Here's the menu that we've used about 50% of the time this month. (Hey, I've been sick--and a lot of those meals yielded leftovers!) Here's the weekly routine you never use. Here's the daily routine you never use. And here are some other magnets that for some reason are on the fridge too.
And I prided myself on my uncluttered fridge.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
thoughts about outsourcing
I'm not writing this to express an opinion. Mainly I'm writing it to get out some thoughts that have been in my head.
For my history class, we are reading India Express by Daniel Lak. One of the chapters explains how India used business process outsourcing to boost its economy. Thousands of Indians work for call centers that are located in India but that belong to American companies. They started off with IT, and they have also moved into things like customer service and tutoring. A lot of companies realized that they could outsource their customer service to India and save a lot of money because Indians are willing to do the same job for one third of the wages.
I was aware of this before, but since reading this book and getting more of the story it's been on my mind for a couple of days. A lot of people say that India is stealing American jobs, or other similar thoughts. I tend to disagree with that statement. I don't think it is stealing. But at the same time it seems wrong. I've heard many stories of competent American workers who lost their job because the company decided to outsource their job to someone in India in order to save a bundle of money. It bothers me.
The book says that Indians at the call centers do just as good a job as the American workers, or even better. To be honest, that hasn't been my experience, although my experience isn't that extensive. For example, several years ago I was having problems with my laptop, which was less than a year old. So I called HP, and ended up talking to various people, all with Indian accents, some with Indian accents so thick I could barely understand them. In the end the person who was helping me "fix" my computer didn't know what he was doing and almost got me to go through the process of wiping my hard drive and setting the computer back to how it was when I got it--without telling me this was what he was going to do. Fortunately, I realized in time what was happening, and, also fortunately, my computer randomly started working again without having to wipe my hard drive. He also suckered me into paying to extend my warranty for another year, in case something like this happened again. Let's just say, it didn't leave me with a very good impression. I have nothing against Indians, it's just that it was really irritating to call customer service and not get quality help.
I believe in capitalism. I think that in general a free and competitive market is what is needed to keep prices low and quality high. But now that economies are connected throughout the globe this is becoming a problem. Another example is Walmart. Sometimes when a Walmart is built in a city, a lot of businesses close down because they can't compete with Walmart's low prices. Again, I don't know what to think. It's not like Walmart came and bashed their windows in or stole money from them. They just started up a store.
In know there are a lot of local stores that have good-quality, unique products. I feel like I would love to support them. I admire them for working so hard to start something from scratch and make something that is a good product. I do like to buy food from the farmer's market in Raleigh, and I also buy some things from the baby boutique at the birth center here, like our diaper covers (which are completely manufactured in the United States, and also a good price). But the fact of the matter is, local is more expensive than Walmart. I can buy a shirt for Heidi at Walmart for $4, or I can buy a shirt at a local store for $15 or even more. On the one hand, I like the idea of supporting local businesses, but I am still attracted to the low prices of the Made in China stuff. I want American companies to hire Americans, but I can also understand that it's cheaper to hire thousands of people in India to do the same thing, and while it bugs me, I can't say I blame them.
So what do we do? Regulate? Just let it happen? I don't know. But if small local businesses are to survive, a new balance is going to have to be achieved.
For my history class, we are reading India Express by Daniel Lak. One of the chapters explains how India used business process outsourcing to boost its economy. Thousands of Indians work for call centers that are located in India but that belong to American companies. They started off with IT, and they have also moved into things like customer service and tutoring. A lot of companies realized that they could outsource their customer service to India and save a lot of money because Indians are willing to do the same job for one third of the wages.
I was aware of this before, but since reading this book and getting more of the story it's been on my mind for a couple of days. A lot of people say that India is stealing American jobs, or other similar thoughts. I tend to disagree with that statement. I don't think it is stealing. But at the same time it seems wrong. I've heard many stories of competent American workers who lost their job because the company decided to outsource their job to someone in India in order to save a bundle of money. It bothers me.
The book says that Indians at the call centers do just as good a job as the American workers, or even better. To be honest, that hasn't been my experience, although my experience isn't that extensive. For example, several years ago I was having problems with my laptop, which was less than a year old. So I called HP, and ended up talking to various people, all with Indian accents, some with Indian accents so thick I could barely understand them. In the end the person who was helping me "fix" my computer didn't know what he was doing and almost got me to go through the process of wiping my hard drive and setting the computer back to how it was when I got it--without telling me this was what he was going to do. Fortunately, I realized in time what was happening, and, also fortunately, my computer randomly started working again without having to wipe my hard drive. He also suckered me into paying to extend my warranty for another year, in case something like this happened again. Let's just say, it didn't leave me with a very good impression. I have nothing against Indians, it's just that it was really irritating to call customer service and not get quality help.
I believe in capitalism. I think that in general a free and competitive market is what is needed to keep prices low and quality high. But now that economies are connected throughout the globe this is becoming a problem. Another example is Walmart. Sometimes when a Walmart is built in a city, a lot of businesses close down because they can't compete with Walmart's low prices. Again, I don't know what to think. It's not like Walmart came and bashed their windows in or stole money from them. They just started up a store.
In know there are a lot of local stores that have good-quality, unique products. I feel like I would love to support them. I admire them for working so hard to start something from scratch and make something that is a good product. I do like to buy food from the farmer's market in Raleigh, and I also buy some things from the baby boutique at the birth center here, like our diaper covers (which are completely manufactured in the United States, and also a good price). But the fact of the matter is, local is more expensive than Walmart. I can buy a shirt for Heidi at Walmart for $4, or I can buy a shirt at a local store for $15 or even more. On the one hand, I like the idea of supporting local businesses, but I am still attracted to the low prices of the Made in China stuff. I want American companies to hire Americans, but I can also understand that it's cheaper to hire thousands of people in India to do the same thing, and while it bugs me, I can't say I blame them.
So what do we do? Regulate? Just let it happen? I don't know. But if small local businesses are to survive, a new balance is going to have to be achieved.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
My blog policy
Lately I've been second-guessing myself a lot with this blog. If I post a video, I worry that people will be annoyed that I posted 30 seconds of Heidi making cute babbling sounds. If I post thoughts or opinions about something, I worry that people will think it was dumb or that I didn't write it very well. If I post too often I worry that people will be annoyed that I write too many blog posts, or that they'll think all I do is eat popcorn and candy bars and write on my blog.
And that's silly. This is my blog. I use it for an outlet to express my feelings. I need it because sometimes there are things that I want to say to other people but I don't happen to have someone to talk to at the moment. And it's a convenient and fun way to help my family see my children grow up even though we don't get to see them in person very often.
So I'm going to try not to worry about it anymore. Nobody's being forced to read my blog. If you don't like it you can unsubscribe or skip the posts that don't interest you. I hope those people already do that.
And if you enjoyed a post or if you have some thoughts, please don't hesitate to comment (if it's positive and if it's not spam), because I love comments.
And that's silly. This is my blog. I use it for an outlet to express my feelings. I need it because sometimes there are things that I want to say to other people but I don't happen to have someone to talk to at the moment. And it's a convenient and fun way to help my family see my children grow up even though we don't get to see them in person very often.
So I'm going to try not to worry about it anymore. Nobody's being forced to read my blog. If you don't like it you can unsubscribe or skip the posts that don't interest you. I hope those people already do that.
And if you enjoyed a post or if you have some thoughts, please don't hesitate to comment (if it's positive and if it's not spam), because I love comments.
pictures and videos
 |
| Sometimes Kevin gets out of bed and ends up sleeping on the floor. |
And here are some videos:
busy bag swap
A couple of weeks ago I participated in a busy bag swap. If you haven't heard of busy bags, this post will give you a good idea of what they are. We had a group of twenty mothers of 2-3 year-olds, and we all made small activities that would fit in a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Each mom made twenty versions of one activity and then we had a girls' night to exchange them, so we all came home with twenty different activities for our kids to do. I think it was very successful! I had to laugh though, because every mom said she had just chosen the easiest activity to put together, and every mom thought everyone else's busy bags were so incredible! So what it comes down to is, we're all pretty awesome!
I made lacing card shapes with craft foam. Each bag had a rectangle, circle, and triangle with holes punched around the edges, and three laces (I found a 72-lace pack from the Oriental Trading Company). It was kind of nice to be able to sit and watch movies while putting the busy bags together, but my hands did get sore from punching all those holes!
Kevin has enjoyed having some fun new things to play with. He figured out pretty quickly that the new box on my shelf has fun games in it. I try to introduce one new busy bag at a time in order to avoid over-stimulation--which is never, ever a good thing with Kevin. I also try not to be too disappointed when he only stays interested in a bag for five minutes--after all, that's about as good as it gets with most toys for him.
Kevin is struggling to learn his colors. It just doesn't stick for him. I don't know if it's just a difficult concept or if he actually can't see some colors--which is a possibility because I think I have a family history of color-blindness. At this point I'm not too concerned because he's only two and a half, but a lot of the busy bag activities have color-identifying components, so hopefully they will help him learn.
I think one of the things I appreciated about participating in the swap is that I realized that there are a lot of different ideas for activities to do with my kids on the internet. There are thousands of busy bag ideas online, and a lot of them can be done with things that are inexpensive or that I already have. So if I want to help Kevin learn colors or numbers or letters or fine-motor skills, I can get on the internet and find lots of different little activities to do with him (many thanks to Pinterest for helping me keep track of it all!). Or I could think of my own. Imagine that.
Here's a list of the busy bags I came home with. Some are linked to explanations of similar activities online.
Matching Color Shades
Fishing pole/fish game--the fish were painted clothespins, and the fishing pole was a wooden stick/dowel with a string tied to it and a magnet at the end of the string
Paper dolls (ours was a bear)--a laminated bear with several changes of clothes, attachable by velcro
sorting colored pasta in cupcake liners
Picture popsicle stick puzzles (a picture of Joseph Smith)
Lacing cards
Memory cards (like the game called Memory--Teresa even customized the bags by including pictures of our own kids!)
Floor sorting with felt shapes--foam rectangles of various colors, and an assortment of objects to sort onto the rectangles by their color
I spy bottles
Button snake
Pom pom stuffing
Playdough and cookie cutters
Worm pick up
Pringle can/pipe cleaners
Button counting and slotting--baby food containers with slots for putting buttons through
Felt marble mazes
Geoboards
Egg colors fun--plastic eggs and cards with pictures of eggs with mixed colors--the object is to match the eggs to the picture
Foam tangrams
Pipe cleaners and beads
Felt faces--a small felt board and various pieces of felt to make into faces
I made lacing card shapes with craft foam. Each bag had a rectangle, circle, and triangle with holes punched around the edges, and three laces (I found a 72-lace pack from the Oriental Trading Company). It was kind of nice to be able to sit and watch movies while putting the busy bags together, but my hands did get sore from punching all those holes!
Kevin has enjoyed having some fun new things to play with. He figured out pretty quickly that the new box on my shelf has fun games in it. I try to introduce one new busy bag at a time in order to avoid over-stimulation--which is never, ever a good thing with Kevin. I also try not to be too disappointed when he only stays interested in a bag for five minutes--after all, that's about as good as it gets with most toys for him.
Kevin is struggling to learn his colors. It just doesn't stick for him. I don't know if it's just a difficult concept or if he actually can't see some colors--which is a possibility because I think I have a family history of color-blindness. At this point I'm not too concerned because he's only two and a half, but a lot of the busy bag activities have color-identifying components, so hopefully they will help him learn.
I think one of the things I appreciated about participating in the swap is that I realized that there are a lot of different ideas for activities to do with my kids on the internet. There are thousands of busy bag ideas online, and a lot of them can be done with things that are inexpensive or that I already have. So if I want to help Kevin learn colors or numbers or letters or fine-motor skills, I can get on the internet and find lots of different little activities to do with him (many thanks to Pinterest for helping me keep track of it all!). Or I could think of my own. Imagine that.
Here's a list of the busy bags I came home with. Some are linked to explanations of similar activities online.
Matching Color Shades
Fishing pole/fish game--the fish were painted clothespins, and the fishing pole was a wooden stick/dowel with a string tied to it and a magnet at the end of the string
Paper dolls (ours was a bear)--a laminated bear with several changes of clothes, attachable by velcro
sorting colored pasta in cupcake liners
Picture popsicle stick puzzles (a picture of Joseph Smith)
Lacing cards
Memory cards (like the game called Memory--Teresa even customized the bags by including pictures of our own kids!)
Floor sorting with felt shapes--foam rectangles of various colors, and an assortment of objects to sort onto the rectangles by their color
I spy bottles
Button snake
Pom pom stuffing
Playdough and cookie cutters
Worm pick up
Pringle can/pipe cleaners
Button counting and slotting--baby food containers with slots for putting buttons through
Felt marble mazes
Geoboards
Egg colors fun--plastic eggs and cards with pictures of eggs with mixed colors--the object is to match the eggs to the picture
Foam tangrams
Pipe cleaners and beads
Felt faces--a small felt board and various pieces of felt to make into faces
new blog
I have been thinking for several months about starting to get involved in my family history work. It appears that the temple work has been done for the most part for many generations back, but I want to learn who those people are. I don't even recognize a lot of the names. Today I got on New Family Search and looked at my pedigree chart, and I realized that for most of the people on my mom's side of the family, the only sources seem to be from entries into the IGI and Ancestral File, which didn't have a way of entering primary sources. So there is more work to do than I realized. I can start looking for primary records like censuses, birth certificates, and such, and then I can enter the sources on Family Search.
I've started a new blog to share what I learn. I don't have a lot of experience with genealogy right now, and it will be slow going since I have school and my family to take care of, but I think it's time to make a start. You're welcome to read about my discoveries and experiences there. I plan to share pictures, family stories, memories, and other things as I find them.
http://margletan-familyhistory.blogspot.com/
I've started a new blog to share what I learn. I don't have a lot of experience with genealogy right now, and it will be slow going since I have school and my family to take care of, but I think it's time to make a start. You're welcome to read about my discoveries and experiences there. I plan to share pictures, family stories, memories, and other things as I find them.
http://margletan-familyhistory.blogspot.com/
Friday, February 17, 2012
some of Kevin's recent antics
Kevin's favorite song is I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. Recently he has started singing the first two lines himself. He also likes I Am a Child of God. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right. They say the first three years are really critical and that whatever you put in their minds during that time is probably there to stay. It's not always an encouraging thing to hear when their spiritual development doesn't manifest itself outwardly very much, even though it's still happening. But he recognizes a couple of primary songs, notices scripture study, likes to go to church, and tries to say prayers, so I think we're making some progress.
I know I've mentioned in a previous blog post the set-up we had for the phone. We have a voip phone system through ViaTalk where we get our phone through the internet. There are three ports for ethernet cords in our apartment: one in the living room, and one in each bedroom. The one in our bedroom was being used by a computer that doesn't do so well with wireless internet, and the one in the living room didn't work out because Kevin kept climbing up to get to it. So we put a small shelf backwards against the wall in Kevin's room with the phone and all the cords stuck inside, and then we trapped the shelf against the wall using Kevin's dresser. Somehow Kevin figured out the phone was back there, but the system has worked pretty well for quite a while and he hasn't been able to get to the phone . . . until this week, that is. One day during nap time he finally found a way to get to the phone:
I found out about it because he pressed the intercom button to call the other phone in the kitchen. He had ripped the back of the shelf off and reached inside. Before I had decided what to do about the shelf, he ended up ripping off the rest of the panel. Now he has a fun little cave for himself. I think I'm okay with that. The shelf was already broken anyway and we don't need it right now.
This afternoon during nap time muffled sobs started coming from Kevin's room, and after a minute it occurred to Ryan that it sounded like Kevin was saying, "I'm stuck! I'm stuck!" So I went in Kevin's room and he was nowhere to be found. My first instinct was that he had somehow managed to jump out the window, but the window was shut. Moving closer to the source of the sound, I realized where he was. He had managed to climb into the one of the suitcases that we keep between his crib-turned-bed and the wall and couldn't get himself out again.
I know I've mentioned in a previous blog post the set-up we had for the phone. We have a voip phone system through ViaTalk where we get our phone through the internet. There are three ports for ethernet cords in our apartment: one in the living room, and one in each bedroom. The one in our bedroom was being used by a computer that doesn't do so well with wireless internet, and the one in the living room didn't work out because Kevin kept climbing up to get to it. So we put a small shelf backwards against the wall in Kevin's room with the phone and all the cords stuck inside, and then we trapped the shelf against the wall using Kevin's dresser. Somehow Kevin figured out the phone was back there, but the system has worked pretty well for quite a while and he hasn't been able to get to the phone . . . until this week, that is. One day during nap time he finally found a way to get to the phone:
I found out about it because he pressed the intercom button to call the other phone in the kitchen. He had ripped the back of the shelf off and reached inside. Before I had decided what to do about the shelf, he ended up ripping off the rest of the panel. Now he has a fun little cave for himself. I think I'm okay with that. The shelf was already broken anyway and we don't need it right now.
This afternoon during nap time muffled sobs started coming from Kevin's room, and after a minute it occurred to Ryan that it sounded like Kevin was saying, "I'm stuck! I'm stuck!" So I went in Kevin's room and he was nowhere to be found. My first instinct was that he had somehow managed to jump out the window, but the window was shut. Moving closer to the source of the sound, I realized where he was. He had managed to climb into the one of the suitcases that we keep between his crib-turned-bed and the wall and couldn't get himself out again.
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