Autism Awareness Month
Just like I do every April I rant about Autism acceptance and neurodiversity. This year I’ll spare you a new rant and give you the link to a new Cafe Press store with some neurodiversity clothing for yourself and your kiddo! Quirky Kids. Why am I linking to this? Yours truly designed the logo and set up the store. I just thought it would be a fun idea!
Miss my rant? Check out last year’s Autism Awareness post on the WSM blog.
I talked about the book by John Robinson called Look Me in the Eye and posted the top misconceptions about Neurodiversity.
Zagg iPad Products Review
I’ve had my iPad since September and use it daily. First of all, I have a nasty habit of scratching screens on my iPhones so I knew right away that I had to protect my iPad. I opted for the Zagg screen protector to be installed by the BestBuy staff. First of all, this 10 minute installation took an hour and they went through several screen protectors while trying to get it on right. When I left I was only half satisfied with their claim that the bubbles would be gone within a few hours. 24 hours later they were still there and I was dying to try out my new gadget! Painfully, I waited. I took my iPad to another BestBuy and had them inspect it to get their opinion on the installation. Right away they agreed that it was not put on properly and replaced it for me. This time it was a much quicker installation that went much smoother with great results. I now only have one tiny problem area that I can mostly ignore. Really, my issues here are with the BestBuy staff and not Zagg… but if they had such a hard time installing it when they do it every day I can only assume that the average consumer may struggle as well. How well does it work? Awesomely! I have yet to get a scratch and even with my kids constant marring of the surface it still looks great and has held up. The feel is more rubbery than the iPad screen naked is, but after a week you don’t even notice it anymore.
I tried many cases and found most of them bulky. I then decided I really wanted to be able to type with a keyboard instead of the on screen touch pad. For awhile I hauled around my extra wireless Apple keyboard but soon found it just impractical. The wireless is bulky and I was afraid I was going to pluck keys off when I stuck it in my purse or backpack. Since I use this item every day I wanted to find a great solution.
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The Night Sky, Nature by Design
We all need something that inspires us, the universe inspires me! Its hard to believe that there is so much beauty around us and we often don’t take the time to stop and see it!
Late in the evening on March 1st I got a call from my husband, he was excitedly telling me to check the sky watch maps at Space Weather to see the Aurora intensity. When I pulled up the web site I mirrored his excitement and said “Heck yeah, we are so going sky watching tonight!” Since we live in Northern Minnesota we have the opportunity to see Aurora’s when they dip low enough, its not often though.
What does this mean? Well, first of all the sun has to be active and when it is it sends out solar flares that can interfere with our atmosphere and cause geomagnetic storms. OK, this is the really simplified explanation, there are a lot of factors and more scientific stuff but I’m sure you don’t really want to hear all that. If you are interested check out SpaceWeather.com for more info. Our atmosphere is always slightly active but when its more active we get a nice light show of green and sometimes purple ribbons to the north. Because of the light pollution from cities most people that live in the northern areas still don’t see them. In order to catch them in Northern Minnesota we still have to go out to remote areas and use long exposure photography. On the night of March 1st we were hitting K5 to K6 for intensity, which means it was dipping low into the upper United States and perfect for sky viewing.
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Winter Fun!
You can’t be serious and work every day! I recently took the kids out to enjoy the sun, although it was extremely cold! Living in Northern Minnesota you do learn to acclimate a bit and even at -10 we were out playing. I should also add that hand warmers are your friend. Normally I shy away from taking photo graphs outdoors in the winter because all the white scares me. It can be tricky to get your camera settings right so that the pictures aren’t all over exposed, or blue. We took a chance and had a blast in the snow.
So I’ll leave you with a few pictures and the reminder that you shouldn’t work too hard, you have to take time to go out and play as well! Want to see more Northern Minnesota Photography? Check out Nate Paul Images for more photos taken by myself and my husband.
Something for the Little Ones
I know, I know, I’ve been slacking lately! Busy busy with all the holiday rush, finishing up finals in school and then of course all the kids’ music programs! With three school aged children we keep extremely busy this time of year. Its nice when we can sit back and enjoy the festive music.
Our oldest traded in her violin for the clarinet this year and we were treated to an awesome band performance yesterday. This evening two of our children had the school carol-a-long program which proved to be a night of loud, enthusiastic singing from the kids in grades 4-6. Of course we can’t forget our 2nd grader’s performance in “The Littlest Christmas Tree”. Who cares if it was our third time seeing this music program, its always cute and lots of laughs! As you can guess, our house if always filled with music! (PS, did I mention that our Christmas tree is synced to flash along with an iPod?) So when I visited the site for Lunch Money Music I just had to share!
First of all I should explain how I came across this site. J.P. over at Lumos Photography (amazing work guys!) recommended that I take a listen, and I did. Love it! Its indie kids’ music that even parents could dig. Having been a preschool teacher for 10 years I’ve heard and owned a LOT of kids’ music. I can tell you from first hand experience that listening to Elmo a 100 times gets old pretty fast. I always wanted something I could sing along to and made me want to get up and dance silly with the kids. Lunch Money definitely fits the bill here. It hits me like an indie version of Laurie Berkner. (As someone who has 4 Laurie Berkner albums loaded to her iPod… even though I no longer have preschoolers… that’s my way of complimenting them.)
So if you are looking for some fun music to liven up your day with the kids, check this music out! I adore it and I’m sure your kids would love it too! Even if you don’t have kids, just check out the site because of its totally cute graphics, I love the whimsy!
Do You Care About Your Eye Health? Read This!
**Warning, pictures of my eye are shown further down**
As some already know, I suffered eye damage this past week that has basically had me sitting in a dark room studying the insides of my eyelids. As I write this my eyes are still recovering and I am only able to keep them open for brief periods of time. But, this message is far too important to wait though, so I must apologize in advance if it seems a bit discombobulated as you read it.
It all started last Wednesday (the 7th) I was coaching a little league game when I noticed everything was a bit hazy. It felt as though I had stepped into a fog bank and I was looking at the world through a white film. A bit concerning to say the least. I brushed it off to something being on my contact lenses and that as soon as the game was over I’d rush home and take them out. Soon enough, the game ended we all high-fived, said our “good games” and enjoyed the customary Popsicle. We drove home and I rushed to take out my contacts, sure that this would take care of my vision issues. I was mistaken. After taking out my contacts I still could see the white haze but also realized that all light sources also had halos around them.
We had company over and talking to my friends they assured me it was nothing to worry about, probably sinus pressure or tired. I did agree that being tired probably was the case and I took my leave to bed early. The next morning my vision was still blurry, I went in to work but also called my eye Dr to set up an appointment. By 8:30 I was at the clinic and having my eyes checked out something definitely was not right.
During the examination the Dr put stain in my eyes that would show any scratched or damage to my eyes, the entire surface of my right cornea lit up and about a third of the left cornea. I was told that my corneas were covered in serrations, the same size as my contacts. It looked like a chemical burn on my corneas, but how? Well, I have been using Clear Care overnight contact cleaner for the past few months. Its a hydrogen peroxide type cleaner that uses a special case. When used in the case the cleaner does its job and then deactivates within 6 hours and the contacts are safe to use again. I hadn’t had an issue until now. As far as we can tell, the cleaner did not deactivate fully the last time I used it. It was deactivated enough that it didn’t burn when I put them in but instead damaged my eye over the course of the day.
I was sent home from the Dr’s office with prednisone eye drops and directions to rest my eyes. By late afternoon I was in so much pain that it took all my will not to scream out. I had also lost all of my vision by this time. My husband rushed me to the Emergency Room where I was given 2 shots of a pain killer that did nothing to ease the pain. They told me it was seven times stronger than morphine, I was seriously doubting that claim at the time. They instilled numbing drops into my eyes so that they could pry them open and get a basic vision test done. No surprise, I couldn’t see anything. They stained my eyes again and confirmed that they were, of course, covered in serrations. Not much could be done. The worst of my eyes was patched and I was sent home with more pain killers to knock me out until morning.
Actual pictures of my eye after the jump.
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