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100 Things Your Kids May Never Know

And for the link phobic:

"There are some things in this world that will never be forgotten, this week’s 40th anniversary of the moon landing for one. But Moore’s Law and our ever-increasing quest for simpler, smaller, faster and better widgets and thingamabobs will always ensure that some of the technology we grew up with will not be passed down the line to the next generation of geeks.

That is, of course, unless we tell them all about the good old days of modems and typewriters, slide rules and encyclopedias …

Audio-Visual Entertainment

1. Inserting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch a movie or to record something.
2. Super-8 movies and cine film of all kinds.
3. Playing music on an audio tape using a personal stereo. See what happens when you give a Walkman to today’s teenager.
4. The number of TV channels being a single digit. I remember it being a massive event when Britain got its fourth channel.
5. Standard-definition, CRT TVs filling up half your living room.
6. Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.
7. High-speed dubbing.
8. 8-track cartridges.
9. Vinyl records. Even today’s DJs are going laptop or CD.
10. Betamax tapes.
11. MiniDisc.
12. Laserdisc: the LP of DVD.
13. Scanning the radio dial and hearing static between stations. (Digital tuners + HD radio b0rk this concept.)
14. Shortwave radio.
15. 3-D movies meaning red-and-green glasses.
16. Watching TV when the networks say you should. Tivo and Sky+ are slowing killing this one.
17. That there was a time before ‘reality TV.’

Computers and Videogaming

18. Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long
19. The scream of a modem connecting.
20. The buzz of a dot-matrix printer
21. 5- and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
22. Using jumpers to set IRQs.
23. DOS.
24. Terminals accessing the mainframe.
25. Screens being just green (or orange) on black.
26. Tweaking the volume setting on your tape deck to get a computer game to load, and waiting ages for it to actually do it.
27. Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they’ve all got a different ID.
28. Counting in kilobytes.
29. Wondering if you can afford to buy a RAM upgrade.
30. Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time.
31. Turning a PlayStation on its end to try and get a game to load.
32. Joysticks.
33. Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.
34. Booting your computer off of a floppy disk.
35. Recording a song in a studio.

The Internet

36. NCSA Mosaic.
37. Finding out information from an encyclopedia.
38. Using a road atlas to get from A to B.
39. Doing bank business only when the bank is open.
40. Shopping only during the day, Monday to Saturday.
41. Phone books and Yellow Pages.
42. Newspapers and magazines made from dead trees.
43. Actually being able to get a domain name consisting of real words.
44. Filling out an order form by hand, putting it in an envelope and posting it.
45. Not knowing exactly what all of your friends are doing and thinking at every moment.
46. Carrying on a correspondence with real letters, especially the handwritten kind.
47. Archie searches.
48. Gopher searches.
49. Concatenating and UUDecoding binaries from Usenet.
50. Privacy.
51. The fact that words generally don’t have num8er5 in them.
52. Correct spelling of phrases, rather than TLAs.
53. Waiting several minutes (or even hours!) to download something.
54. The time before botnets/security vulnerabilities due to always-on and always-connected PCs
55. The time before PC networks.
56. When Spam was just a meat product — or even a Monty Python sketch.

Gadgets

57. Typewriters.
58. Putting film in your camera: 35mm may have some life still, but what about APS or disk?
59. Sending that film away to be processed.
60. Having physical prints of photographs come back to you.
61. CB radios.
62. Getting lost. With GPS coming to more and more phones, your location is only a click away.
63. Rotary-dial telephones.
64. Answering machines.
65. Using a stick to point at information on a wallchart
66. Pay phones.
67. Phones with actual bells in them.
68. Fax machines.
69. Vacuum cleaners with bags in them.

Everything Else

70. Taking turns picking a radio station, or selecting a tape, for everyone to listen to during a long drive.
71. Remembering someone’s phone number.
72. Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.
73. Actually going down to a Blockbuster store to rent a movie.
74. Toys actually being suitable for the under-3s.
75. LEGO just being square blocks of various sizes, with the odd wheel, window or door.
76. Waiting for the television-network premiere to watch a movie after its run at the theater.
77. Relying on the 5-minute sport segment on the nightly news for baseball highlights.
78. Neat handwriting.
79. The days before the nanny state.
80. Starbuck being a man.
81. Han shoots first.
82. “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.” But they’ve already seen episode III, so it’s no big surprise.
83. Kentucky Fried Chicken, as opposed to KFC.
84. Trig tables and log tables.
85. “Don’t know what a slide rule is for …”
86. Finding books in a card catalog at the library.
87. Swimming pools with diving boards.
88. Hershey bars in silver wrappers.
89. Sliding the paper outer wrapper off a Kit-Kat, placing it on the palm of your hand and clapping to make it bang loudly. Then sliding your finger down the silver foil to break off the first finger
90. A Marathon bar (what a Snickers used to be called in Britain).
91. Having to manually unlock a car door.
92. Writing a check.
93. Looking out the window during a long drive.
94. Roller skates, as opposed to blades.
95. Cash.
96. Libraries as a place to get books rather than a place to use the internet.
97. Spending your entire allowance at the arcade in the mall.
98. Omni Magazine
99. A physical dictionary — either for spelling or definitions.
100. When a ‘geek’ and a ‘nerd’ were one and the same.

My thanks go out to all of my fellow GeekDads for their contributions to this list."

Baptism

Lizzy's baptism went great! Family started showing up around noon on Saturday. We had a good time together grilling burgers and hotdogs then going swimming at the pool. Lizzy stayed home from swimming because she was taking a nap. Half the family stayed with her.

Sunday was the big day. We all got to the church a little early to make sure we knew what to do. Once there we learned that there were only going to be 3 baptisms that day including Lizzy's. She was mostly good throughout the ceremony, but I had to keep walking with her in my arms to keep her from fussing. She was very tired, but overstimulated from everything so wouldn't fall asleep. She still smells like the oil that the deacon put on her head, although it's definitely lighter in intensity.

Sunday evening Gigi, Pop Pop, Daddy, Lizzy, and I all went to Blue Mesa for dinner. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jennifer, Sydney, and Parker had to head home to Houston as Sydney had camp the next day. Blue Mesa was wonderful! I love their sweet potato chips.

Tuesday I decided to take the money that Lizzy received for baptism and open up a savings account in her name (and mine since she's a minor). So now she has a savings account I can put any money into that she gets from holidays or for whatever. It'll be good to have for her so young so that when she grows up she can use it later on in life.

This week Lizzy has started to coo a lot more. She will sit for hours with me or Daddy and we will coo back and forth to each other. Monday night she wanted to talk so much that she stayed up later than usual just talking away. She tried to do it last night, but I told her that it was bedtime and that she needed to sleep. She took the hint when I lay with her to nurse her one last time for the night.

She also smiles all the time now. She just has the cutest smile and voice. I love being able to spend my days playing with her. We read books, look in the mirror, watch game shows (she loves all the colors and lights), smile at each other, and talk to each other whenever she's not eating or sleeping. She also loves when she has her diaper off. Whenever she's crying and won't stop, she immediately calms down on her changing table because she knows she will soon be without anything on her bottom. Even when she doesn't have a dirty diaper, she loves being changed. Haha, the things she'll hear about when she's older.

She has rolled over a total of 4 times now. About 2-3 weeks ago she rolled from front to back 2 times in a row. I thought it was a fluke since she should be too young to do it or know that she was doing it. Then last weekend she rolled over 2 times again from front to back. I think she's starting to figure it all out now. When she gets tired of tummy time, but doesn't want to only be on her back I will roll her from front to back and back to front a couple times in a row. She loves it.

She's taking a nap right now, so I should get back to doing chores.

Weddings and Baptisms

I've finally noticed Lizzy's sleep schedule. She sleeps about 8 hours at night, takes a 2 hour nap in the morning, a one hour nap in the afternoon, and a 2 hour nap in the evening. If she doesn't get those naps during the day she ends up being very fussy at night.

We went to our first big event with Lizzy last Saturday night. Steve's co-worker got married and invited us to the reception. She did really well, not getting fussy until right before we left. She was really tired, but the music was really loud therefore overstimulating her. We had to leave early so we could get her home and to bed.

Sunday we went to a nice dinner while Lizzy stayed home with Ramona. It was our first babysitter that wasn't grandma. Steve and I actually got to go shopping and to dinner without having to worry about getting out a stroller or if Lizzy would get fussy while we ate. It was so fun! Don't get me wrong, I love my little girl to pieces, but sometimes I do need a bit of a break. I have a feeling Ramona had as much fun as we did because she said to call her any time to babysit again.

Today we're going to Steve's work to have lunch with him before I go to a doctor's appointment for myself. All of Steve's co-workers love Lizzy, especially Jenn. Jenn and I have become somewhat friendly (probably more so once she has her little boy in October) so we get to sit and gossip when Lizzy and I come to visit.

Sunday Lizzy is getting baptized! Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jennifer, Gigi, Pop Pop, Sydney, and Parker will all be here to celebrate with us. I think Ramona, Scott, Jenny, and Jeffery are going to come as well. Saturday night we'll actually have the celebration dinner since everyone needs to leave Sunday afternoon/night. I plan on baking some cupcakes and decorating them myself for the dessert. Hopefully they'll turn out okay.

Time to finish some chores while Lizzy is taking her morning nap.

Two months old

We've made it two months!

Date: 07/07/09
Weight: 13 lbs (94th percentile)
Length: 23 inches (76th percentile)
Head circumference is in the 81st percentile
Development is right on track

We have a big girl on our hands! The doctor's appointment went great. Breastfeeding seems to have done an awesome job for my little girl. Steve and I think she'll have his height since she's already getting so big so fast, but who knows.

She also received her first set of shots as well. She DID NOT like it AT ALL. She cried so hard during them, but was okay once I got her into her car seat and was moving toward the door. She did well for the rest of the afternoon (her appointment was at 2 PM), but once 6 PM hit she would not stop crying/screaming. She was so distraught that she wouldn't even eat so we got the Moby wrap out and I wrapped her against my chest. Took a while, but she calmed down finally and fell asleep. When dinner was ready I unwrapped her to switch her to Steve (he'd already eaten), but she wouldn't calm down again. We decided to put her back onto me. We figured her smelling me is what got her to calm down in the first place. She was calm for about 30 minutes that second time, but kept crying so we went ahead and started her night time ritual of shower, eat, and bed. I knew she didn't feel good when she cried throughout her shower. I kept taking her temperature yesterday, but she never had a fever. But we finally got her to calm down enough to eat which made her fall right asleep. Got her into her bed around 10 PM.

She's doing a lot better today. She still feels a little warm, but she's not screaming about it. Right now she's in her swing pooping while sleeping. She still grunts a whole lot, mostly in the morning because she doesn't poop during the night. We found a gripe water that worked wonders for her. It's non-Americanized so it's a little stronger than Little Tummy's or other ones you can get at Walgreens. We recently bought a 4 pack off Amazon.com because we don't know of any Indian food stores around here (which is where you can get this stuff). Just waiting for it to come in the mail as we used the last of our other bottle up 2 days ago.

Time for me to get a nap in while she sleeps. She slept okay last night, but still woke up at 4 AM this morning so I am beat.

Fourth of July festivities

We had a lot of fun on the fourth of July. We cleaned the house, did yard work, went to a pool party, and actually went to bed on time instead of staying up to watch fireworks.

Steve did yard work the morning of while I vacuumed and straightened the house. Lizzy slept most of that time, but when she was awake I carried her around while cleaning. We also had some play time and tummy time. She's getting so strong with her tummy time. She can lift her whole upper body up. We say she's doing push ups as she goes up and down a lot.

We went to a friend's house for a pool party around 3 PM that day. When we got there, we had all of the kids sit on the couch to take pictures in their 4th of July outfits. There was a 5 year old, a 2 year old, two 11 month olds, and Lizzy. We had fajitas for lunch with cupcakes for dessert. Lizzy got hers a little later if you know what I mean. Then we decided to get our swimsuits on and go swimming. We got Lizzy's swimsuit on her and realized that this was the first and only time she's going to wear it as it was already almost too small for her. She's now in 3-6 or 6 month clothes. Once I got my swimsuit on, we headed out to the pool. Both Steve and I think she liked it. I think she couldn't decide if it was a bath or not b/c of the water temperature. Reason I say that is she had the same expression on her face as she does when she gets a bath. Relaxed. Afterward we headed home as we ran out of diapers (we had brought 4!) and she was getting tired fussy. When we got home I took a shower with Lizzy, fed her, and got her to bed at 9:45 PM.

Sunday we had a milestone happen with Lizzy. She rolled over from her belly to her back! We were having tummy time when she started bending only one arm instead of both. Next thing Steve and I knew she was on her back. We turned her back over and she did it again! I'm not sure if she'll keep doing it, but it was sure awesome.

Lizzy is now sleeping at least 7 hours every night. It's so great to be able to sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time now. She'll go to bed anywhere between 9 PM-12 AM and be up around 4-7 AM. I try to get to bed soon after she goes down, but a lot of times I need to finish little things around the house so I won't have to worry about them the next day.

Tuesday Lizzy will be 2 months old. It's also the day she's going to get her first set of shots. I'm hoping she does the same as she did when she got her Hep B shot when she was born. Basically sit there and be happy. I know, wishful thinking, but I can hope! At least I don't have to be anywhere or do anything after so we can come home, cuddle, and calm down.

Today we're going to the library so I can get some more books. I've finished all of the books that Gigi got me when Lizzy was born (thanks Karen!), so now we can venture out to see how she does while I pick out some books to read.

She's fallen alseep in her swing so I am going to get in a nap too. Last night she went down at 9 PM and woke up at 4 AM so I am TIRED.