April 5th, 2008
Weekend, thus far
It’s raining. Kevin’s taking a nap.
The boys are eating strawberries. They just consumed a pound of strawberries between them. That’s not bad, is it? Maybe I shouldn’t have skimmed so much when I read those parenting books. But see, I was pregnant and tired and hormonal and just wanted the basics… carseat, something about bumper pads, baby-proof your home which is a terrible misnomer — the truth is that plastic plug covers do nothing to prevent babies from coming into your home. Anyway, I stopped reading and fell asleep and lost the book and now I’m sort of winging it.
Last night we read more about the Roman Empire, and I learned that Ceasar has an annoying e in his name. Oops. See? I told you! I seriously did not learn a single thing in school from 1980 – 1990, other than whatever nonfiction I decided to read while the teachers were talking about other things. My fault, entirely. So I what I know a lot about is:
* Animals
* Inventors, esp Edison
* Outer space, the planets, esp. Jupiter + moons
* Iceland
* Anything covered by Encyclopedia Brown
Which, from the teachers I did learn some awesome songs about Texas, and some sweet jokes about the human heart as told to me by Richard Simmons on channel 2.
So we found a book about the Romans that’s the right amount easy and hard for us both to understand. It’s very strange to read and realize how much of western society is based on Roman society. And we run into weird moral discussions with Nicolaus where the good guys are especially good at taking land away from other people. Oh and selling those people as slaves. And sometimes pitting slaves and innocent animals against each other for the pure fun of it.
But he really wants them to be the good guys. Look how great their uniforms are! And how clever they were at crushing bad guys. I mean, not BAD guys but… yeah. The justification gets a little sketchy at times.
There was something else. What was it? Hm. Oh! I think I need to try putting an ad or two on this site. They shut me down because of another bandwidth overage charge — SEVEN dollars. Man. So I’m thinking with project wonderful or somesuch this place can make $7 or $8 a month. Right?
But more importantly, I’ve been cleaning up my artpants web site to reflect a more clear focus. Focusing sucks, but really most of my work does fall into a couple of categories: Science. Nature. Silly stuff.
I’m always running around telling artists to focus and articulate what they do and take control of their brand and etc, and it occurred to me recently that if I ever want to make a full living doing this, maybe I should start doing the same thing.
One more business note. Free goodies are coming your way! I’m going to be adding free PDFs and downloads for you guys. Greeting cards with curse words that you can print at home and give to your loved ones? Check. Worksheets and articles about marketing and art and whatever else? Almost definitely. So yay! Stuff!
Kevin just got up. It’s still raining, and now Nicolaus is finished with the strawberries and is singing a song with the most wonderful lyrics. Daddy’s real name is you know what? You know what? Tinkle Poop Throw up. Tinkle Poop ThrowUP. Tinkle Poop Throwwwww up. Is. His. Name.
I’m going to take a nap now.
April 5th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I. love. Nicolaus. How can you not love a child that comes up with songs like that?
Looking forward to swearing cards. I already have a list of people I’d like to send them too :)
April 5th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
What if that really was his real name? God, that would totally suck to have that name.
April 5th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Oh man, no kidding. Although whenever other kids called you mean names you wouldn’t be phased, would you?
April 6th, 2008 at 12:32 am
snort, ok that was a really good wine that just came out through my nose at “the truth is that plastic plug covers do nothing to prevent babies from coming into your home”. A REALLY good wine Tiffany!
Cannot wait for the swearing cards. As Toni says I already have a list.
By the way The Breast Care Center loves your artwork. We’re going to get it framed before we include it in the auction. We’ll be taking info from esty unless you want it to come from artpants.
xxoo
April 6th, 2008 at 5:43 am
If my site can make $7 a month, yours DEFINITELY can.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Seems like other people have the same problem I do. I always have plenty of comments throughout a post until I come to the end of one like this with Nicolaus singing a silly song.
You really should put ads on here. It would be great if you could make all of your money from your artypants and your blog.
April 6th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
So true about the baby proofing misnomer!
We learned songs about Texas too in elementary school – and I grew up in California! California is to awkward to rhyme, I guess, so we looked to other states for leadership.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
How ’bout instead of ads you do “website art of the month” or something? Some kind of technology-focused, low-effort, highly-reproducible stuff (printed cards?) for $2 each, tech themed, and people know that the proceeds from that month’s stuff go directly to hosting fees?
Or how ’bout we all just kick $5 your way via PayPal, instead of just mooching off the hysterical wonder that is you, your life, your kids :)
April 6th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Oh Lynz, I really like the monthly art prostitution idea. Hmmm need to think about this. And no, you’re not all going to randomly send me money for the heck of it. Thank you though. :-)
I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea of kids all over the nation singing “The stars at night! Are big and bright!”
April 6th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Nicholaus is amazing. I think I first heard about the Romans in sixth grade? And he’s what, four? That’s amazing.
April 6th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
You will remember me asking “What did you learn today?” every day when I picked you up at school. Your response was always the same …”Nuthin”. Hmmm Pope? Nope. Hmmm.
April 7th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Tiffany,
I thought you might be interested in this for Nicholaus. It is a charity art auction. Kids donate a piece of art and people can bid on it. All the proceeds benefit wecansolveit.org
http://www.greeblemonkey.com/2008/04/kid-art-auction-for-earth-day-2008.html
April 7th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Deep in the heart of Texas. I think I learned that from a TV show, though.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I just stumbled onto this site http://www.lejo.nu/ and thought that mitten hand might enjoy it.
Love your blog.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Woah Cat, that site is awesome!
April 7th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Did you know that the graffiti found on the walls of Pompeii is eerily similar to what you’d see on highway underpasses and other such places? Just substitute in Latin names. Maybe not stuff you want Nicholas reading but a great indicator at just how much like modern people the Romans were– complete with some good guys and some bad guys. :-)
July 1st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Bob & I went to Rome & Pompeii in May 2008. Wish I knew of your blog then – I would have looked for something to send to the kids.
Expanding on Chrysoula’s post:
People back then were very superstitious, so one way that building owners in (pre-Vesuvius) Pompeii discouraged people from peeing on the walls was to paint snakes at the appropriate level because it would have been EXTREMELY bad luck to deface them!
Speaking of TV series via Netflix: HBO’s “Rome” was amazing, although I did have to cover my eyes and ask Bob to skip past the many scenes of torture and “man’s inhumanity to man”. (Much too gruesome for kids – definite nightmare material!) I learned a lot more about the history/culture from that series (especially with the little “pop-up historical facts” feature engaged) than I ever did in school.