1 Family Photo: Liking "This is the wrong Trader Joe's.""How do you know?""The one we like has mini-shopping carts," Calvin explains. "This one only has regular shopping carts and baskets." Oh. "This yogurt is my favorite.""How do you know?""Because this one is my favorite." Lawrence swipes four apricot-mango yogurts into his basket. Oh. I don't think we ever bought that flavor before. -- Why do you like what you like? I know why Calvin and Lawrence like yogurt—sugar. I know why they like...
7 days ago • 2 min read
1 Family Photo: Follow The Leader Dinosaur and Friends Bathtub Parade This week, Calvin and Lawrence met the neighbor kids who moved in next door. The neighbor kids are 5 & 8, so they're a step ahead of Calvin and Lawrence on the growth chart. Calvin saw the eight-year-old riding her (geared) bicycle in front of the house and he rushed inside find his helmet (and socks, and shoes) so he could show her how he rides his (training-wheeled) bicycle. Reemerging, he was disappointed to find she had...
15 days ago • 4 min read
1 Family Photo: Sharing We had a brief introduction to game theory. At the deli last week, after we ate our sandwiches, Calvin and Lawrence wanted a dessert from the ice cream freezer. I told them they could get a dessert if they could agree on one item and were willing to share it with each other. Improv actors often play a game called "Yes, and–". They accept and build on each other's suggestions, crafting imaginary worlds together. The dessert choosing rules lead Calvin and Lawrence to...
22 days ago • 3 min read
1 Family Photo: Hot "Look Dad — A Bee van!" Calvin and Lawrence laughed in the parking lot. It's been a hot week here in SLO. Though I recognize it's hotter in other places. “Summers like the one we are experiencing now and the summer we had last year – which was the hottest on record – are going to become par for the course in the years ahead,” said Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. No comment as of yet from the Union of Alarmed Scientists. It's been...
29 days ago • 2 min read
1 Family Photo: Color Prompt I used to use Google image search to find and print coloring pages for Calvin. Then I realized I could generate more personalized images with ChatGPT. Then I realized generating images with ChatGPT is so easy Calvin could do it himself. So now we have 15-minute blocks of "computer time". Calvin tells me what he wants: "Make a freight train...actually make it a Union Pacific train hauling tank cars." I type it in the chatbox: "Generate a coloring book image of a...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
1 Family Photo: Rhythms of Life Lawrence on drums at Exploration Discovery Center Life is full of rhythms. Daily rhythms: we wake up, eat breakfast, brush teeth. Weekly rhythms: workdays and weekends. Yearly and lifetime rhythms as the seasons change, as we change. One joy of these last two years, of bouncing between Brazil and America, is getting to try on different rhythms in different countries. Deciding how we shape our days and weeks. Alternating cadences of shopping trips and social...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
1 Family Photo: Lego Building As children grow, there's a progression of age-appropriate building materials: Mega Bloks -> Duplos -> Legos. The kids get bigger. The pieces get smaller, easier to lose, step on, and swallow. Calvin's wanted Legos for a while. YouTube has endless playlists of Lego trains built in all shapes and sizes. We put him off with the lesser building blocks for as long as we could. Is Calvin old enough to play with Legos? Is Lawrence old enough to not eat them? Last week,...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
1 Family Photo: Social Milieu Henrik Karlsson is one of my favorite dad-bloggers. Thinking about childhood education, he surveyed early biographies of 42 exceptional people, trying to distill common childhood themes that unlocked their exceptionality. He found the childhoods of most exceptional people included dedicated tutors, opportunities for apprenticeship, and an outstanding social milieu—people who became exceptional were surrounded by and interacted with exceptional adults. How do I...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
1 Family Photo: Generative Pre-Trained Transformers Lawrence at the San Diego Railroad Museum, more on that next week. My dad asked, "How do I use the AI?" Seems like a good prompt for the week. What is AI? Artificial Intelligence is a general phrase we use for computers doing things that historically require human intelligence. Deciphering handwritten letters or recognizing speech are classic AI examples. Decision making is another. Netflix uses AI to recommend new shows. Google uses AI to...
2 months ago • 5 min read