The importance of being earnest

It is vital to always check your credit card transactions regularly. I have online access to all my accounts and every few days confirm what is going through them. The other day I noticed a transaction I didn't recognise. The company name was there with a 1800 number so I called and discovered someone had used my credit card details - and had my correct address and phone number, but had used a temporary email address. The company quickly cancelled the transaction. I then cancelled the card and had it re-issued.
Many times credit card thieves will try a small transaction to see if it goes through. If it does, then they can keep using the card often as a free credit source.
They could have gotten my credit card details from many places - restaurants, gas/petrol stations, small shops. Then with the name and card details, they look up the internet for address details and they have enough information to get the charge through.
The only way to guard against this is vigilance. Make sure you have internet access to all of your accounts and check the transactions often. Not just when the statement arrives but regularly during the month. Compare it to your records - either matching the receipts or your Quicken or accounts records.
I just suffered the inconvenience of a replacement credit card. If I had waited for my statement, I may have missed the transaction and had a lot more charges put through before I caught on.
I just thought I would pass on the warning.

Farmer in the Sky

I read a lot of science fiction when I was younger. A lot! It has been interesting reading/listening to some of these stories again. Farmer in the Sky is another Robert A Heinlein story written in the 1950's. Bill is an only child living with his father, still grieving over his mother's death a few years earlier. They live in California in an overpopulated world where food is rationed based on calorie counts. People must keep receipts to match their calorie allotment each month.
Bill and his father emigrate to Ganymede to take up farming and Bill grows up and becomes more mature as the book develops.
I have always remembered one scene where Bill is given an envelope containing 8 apple seeds as if it was worth a fortune. On a planet where trees were extremely rare and tree fruit rarer still it struck me what we take for granted.
Once more Heinlein's view of the future includes slide rules and advanced atomic power and space flight. His worries about overpopultaion were incorrect. Since the 1950's, the calories per person in every country has actually increased. The current threat facing us is actually under population with the majority of countries - even third world countries - having children below replacement level. It just goes to show that one can never tell what the future may bring.
This is another fine tale enjoyed by all our family. It leads to interesting discussions about the world around us and personal relationships. This version was also well read.

Lego Star Wars game with real Lego

Yesterday afternoon we played the Lego Star Wars game and so did Mum. She played Episode Three, Chapter Four "Defence of Kashyyk". In this game the Clones have turned into bad guys so Mum has to kill Droids and Clones. They both have Commanders which take two shots to kill and the Clones have Walkers which take about five shots to kill, which makes it tricky. Mum was in free play mode and she was Obi-Wan Kenobi, trying to get some coins but she kept on getting attacked and dying because she kept getting shot. In the end she had to run away. James made a Walker out of Lego and showed Mum and Dad. Dad said to make a scene with Obi-Wan in bits with coins everywere (blue=1,000 gold=100 silver=10 - Mum lost two blue coins, 2,000) and a Walker standing over her.
Written by Eric

Eric's reading

The reason we weren't overly concerned with James' reading is the way Eric started reading. He also avoided reading like the plague and it wasn't because he couldn't read - he just didn't want to.
Through judicious use of audio books, bribery and compulsion Eric started to read more and found he actually like it! Having to read the rules for Lord of the Rings wargaming helped too. Boys seem to need more of a reason before they get into something.
Here he is reading Christ the King Lord of history (as part of schoolwork) in the middle of the loungeroom. So long as he found this a comfortable position in which to read, we weren't going to stop him!

Glasses are cool

For some time we have been concerned with James' reading level. It wasn't where it should be, but it appeared as though the reason was more of James' wilfulness and avoidance. I was working from home and heard Lana discussing it with James and called James into my office and asked him to read to me.
James tended to guess a word after reading the first letter or two and then had a quite irrelevant guess at others. I stopped him on one word and asked, "Are the letters moving around?". He admitted they did and the letters weren't always clear. Aha! We finally worked out why he wasn't up to par. He couldn't focus on the words. We organised an appointment with a local Optometrist for yesterday.
We discussed with James why he hadn't mentioned anything. He told us he didn't want glasses and didn't want to be different. Once we started going over the situation more and pointed out other children we knew that had glasses, and I told him what it was like once I could really see when I had glasses he started noticing LOTS of people with glasses. Then he became more interested in getting glasses and not so much "being different" as "being special".
The Optometrist discovered that James sight is actually OK (20/20 vision) but his focussing is not as good as it could be. This meant all he needed was some reading glasses and he may well grow out of it. Special eye drops were placed in James' eyes as part of the tests. This made James eyes very sensitive to light and made everything blurry. But the doctor was supposed to help his sight - not make it worse! He was quite upset.
The optometrist office gave James some plastic sunglasses to wear whilst he was outside for the next day until his eyes returned to normal. James didn't mind the cool sunglasses. Next week we will be getting his reading glasses.

The Rolling Stones

On our last trip we listened the "The Rolling Stones" by Robert A. Heinlein. This tale covers the adventures of the Stone family - Roger Stone ex Mayor of Luna town and currently author of soap opera episodes, Dr Edith Stone a retired doctor who cares for the children and occasionally goes to medical conferences, Mead the 17 year old daughter, 15 year old Pollux and Castor (the "unheavenly twins"), Lowell the 4 year old baby that beats his Grandma at Chess and Hazel the wily and tough grandma. They all live together in Luna City on the moon and decide to go on an adventure. This is a great tale of family values and accurate science.
We found one fascinating aspect was Heilein's vision of the future. This was written in 1952, well before computers could be made the size of a thumb. He envisages large computers with limited capabilities. The Stones often have to calculate and recalculate trajectories and vectors and velocities manually. This is then cross checked with planet based larger computers for clarification, but manual adjustments are still required. Education materials were via books or spools - like microfilm. As we heard this on our iPod and tracked our progress via the satellite tracking GPS we realised that the computing power in these two devices combined was a smaller size than the novel when it was published.
However technology has changed, Heinlein recognised that the core human values wouldn't change. Although many may experiment with human relationships, the core values persevere.
We all enjoyed the book so much that when we arrived home and it wasn't finished, we rushed inside, plugged in the iPod and listened until the end. I suppose that tells you our evaluation - Excellent!

The Australian Diaspora

Did you know that 5% of Australia's population is living overseas at the moment? That is over 1 million Australians that live in other countries out of a total population of 20 million.

The Australian government has realised that 5% of their voters should be recognised and so are doing more to treat them as part of the general population. No one really knows the reasons why so many Australians live away from home, but the majority are only away temporarily and intend to return home one day. The massive displacement of a population away from their home country is called a "diaspora" - such as Israel's diaspora after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and from that time the Jewish people lived all over the world.

Normally a diaspora is caused by war, or tyranny at home, or poverty, starvation and so on. But the Australian diaspora is different. This is primarily a voluntary and temporary departure from home for opportunities and experience overseas with the intent of returning later. In the process many millions of people around the world are able to know Australians resulting in a much higher recognition of Australia than similar sized countries. Considering that Australia is many thousands of miles away from the majority of the world, a lot of people have met Australians in their travels.

Passports - part 3

Success! Despite our mistakes filling out the form and the photo which didn't exactly match official requirements, we received Rose's passport. It's good to see common sense in the public service. The consulate obviously realized that getting a one year old to sit still, with a closed mouth and no shadows is a challenge.

On a mission

Lana wants to complete her collection of DMC needlework threads so she can then complete all her unfinished cross stitch patterns. First, I created a spreadsheet which listed all the colours with the relevant DMC numbers and then Lana entered what each pattern required from the relevant patterns obtained from the appropriate web site. Then I loaded this into my organiser for when we were next at the store.
As the threads are only 24 cents per skein at Walmart that was the best place to buy them, but they are scanned through the checkout ONE at a time. I was at the checkout for about 30 minutes, with some useful assistance from some boys from the family next in line, getting 362 skeins of thread scanned. The receipt was 50" (127 cm) long!

Update: Added the photo of all the DMC skeins piled up in the middle of the long receipt. The pile of threads caused interesting looks on the face of the checkout lady, and the customers behind me in the line. After all, my trolley/buggy/cart looked pretty empty, then I unloaded the stash!

Basement baseball

After dinner, the children like to play a new game they have invented, "Basement Baseball". The have this red plastic baseball bat and some balloons. The balloons get thrown ("pitched") and they play a game of baseball using the bed, lounge chair and bench as bases. All the children are invoved and encouraged to do their part, with Rose (1) playing interference, running around occasionally intercepting the balloon with a high pitched squeal of laughter.
Although Lana and I are upstairs we can hear them laughing, yelling, singing (!) and generally playing together. When we call them up for prayers, they will be all sweaty and tired from running around.
The children play together very well.

Our quick trip is over

We had planned on visiting the Huntsville Rocket and Space Center but it was just too hot. So we went home after EWTN. It must have been hot as the GPS started being silly again. It thought we were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and travelling 1,933mph. We turned it off and let it rest for a while.
After a spot of rain it was a little cooler and this time the GPS and I agreed on our location and speed.
For only a short trip we were pleasantly surprised at the number of compliments we received about the children. The consulate, customers and owner of the bakery, visitors at the hotel, a customer at the restaurant and a few people at EWTN all made a point of complimenting us on our family and how the children were so well behaved. It's gratifying to know that something seems to be working.
It was really nice sleeping in our own beds in the cool and quiet house.

EWTN Live

After the McWane Center we visited EWTN. EWTN stands for Eternal Word Television Network and has a huge operation spreading Catholic programming via Satellite television, radio and the Internet. You can watch EWTN TV via the internet for free and the children like watching the children's programming on weeknights at 4:00pm (in Sydney it would be at 6:00pm) and on Saturday mornings from 9:00am to 11:30am (Sydney it is only 6:00pm to 7:00pm). The children do not always get to watch the shows, but they do learn a lot of faith related material in an entertaining format when they do.
They enjoy "Adventures in Odyssey" and lots of special shows and segments including one called "Hey Brother Leo!". Brother Leo points out how ordinary things demonstrate the existence of God and order in the universe. Today he had a box containing all the pieces of a car and tipped them all out. He said all these pieces are combined to make the car. The Church is the same - needing all it's parts to make the whole. He referred to St Paul's teaching of us all being members in Christ's body. These segments may be short and sweet but the children often surprise us repeating the contents and showing us their understanding of the concepts.
Brother Leo led us on the daily tour which begins at 2:30pm each weekday and we were able to see the production rooms, computer and editing areas and the satellite control rooms. The transmissions are beamed up to the Satellite 24 hours a day in multiple languages simultaneously. (Ironically they share the same satellite as MTV.) After the tour the children took the opportunity to say "Hey Brother Leo" and ask for a photo.
If you get the chance to visit Birmingham Alabama, it is worth your time to see how a little nun (Mother Angelica) with a big faith in God was able to grow a 24 hour a day television and radio network broadcasting around the world from a converted garage and a $400 stake. "The faith of a mustard seed ..."

McWane Science Center

The McWane Center is part of the Association of Science Technology Centers, which has reciprocal visitation rights with the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. This meant FREE entry! All we had to do was pay $3 for the parking. There are a lot of different exhibits demonstrating lasers, weight, light, mirrors, electricity and lots more.
This photo is Eric lying on a bed of nails. It demonstrates how lots of nails close together spread the center of gravity enough so no nail pierces the skin. I suggested to the children that we may get some of these for their new beds. Perhaps a new line of products?

The next few posts are further examples of some of the exhibits.

McWane Science Center 2

Another exhibit at the McWane center is a digitised game. Visitors stand in front of a blue sceen and point to one of four games available to play. In this game Lana and Ariel played as soccer goalies and had to move around knocking back all the soccer balls thrown at them. It was all virtual reality.

This first picture shows the girls moving around swatting Virtual soccer balls.


The second shot shows the large screen which onlookers were able to see. Note how Lana and Ariel are reversed? Ariel is reaching out to swat away a soccer ball. The girls did well and received the Top score.

McWane Science Center 3

We attended the "Combustion show" at the McWane center which explained about combustion - fire and what it takes for combustion to occur.
The examples and demonstrations were very effective, showing how a US $1 note wouldn't burn after a short wave over the flame (it is cloth not paper), so the demonstrator soaked it in an alcohol solution. As it wasn't the demonstrator's money (he had borrowed it from an audience member) he wasn't concerned.
He then placed the note above the flame and it was surrounded by fire. The fire went out and the note was unharmed. Why? The alcohol solution was 70% alcohol and 30% water. The alcohol burned, and the water soaked into the note.
There were four floating balloons attached to weights. The first was filled with helium. As an audience member placed a flame near the balloon, it popped but there was no flame or explosion. The next was filled with Hydrogen. Remember the Hindenberg? The same happened here - flame and explosion. The last two balloons had gasses which when combined would also explode. James volunteered to assist and had quite a surprise at the loud explosion.
The photo is of Peter playing with the electricity ball that was on as we came in. Peter's shoes have lights in them, but they only flash when he walks or jumps. When he placed his hands on the ball and the electricity connected to his hands, his shoes lit up. Feel the power!

McWane Science Center 4

This display demonstrated how an arch is constructed using gravity to put enough pressure on each block. No mortar or glue is required. Each block is numbered and the starting spot is marked.
But it takes a team to hold the partly constructed sides and gather the correct blocks in sequence until the capstone is put in at the top. Here everyone is doing their bit.

Hot Hot Hot again

The Suburban's air conditioning failed again. :-( Obviously something is lurking in the complicated airconditioning system which is stopping the flow of the cool air and building up pressure to blow the compressor, or the seals. At least we are learning lots about how air conditioning systems work. (or should work, anyway)

We had to go to Atlanta and were glad to get out after a two and a half hour drive. Then it was only a short 10 minute drive to the bakery. But now we were taking some time off to visit Birmingham, Alabama to visit the EWTN television station.
You may recall last time when the system first failed and stranded us in Chatanooga, and how the children were very hot. So if it didn't work, we weren't turning it on. So all we had was 4WD air conditioning (4 Windows Down).

Perhaps they are more used to travelling in the heat this time but the children handled it very well. They had plenty of water and nibblies like grapes and some lollies (candy). This photo is Rose after some lollies (therefore sticky) with grapes stuck to the outside of her nose. We will have to show this at her 21st birthday party one day.

We stopped at the Alabama visitor's center and found out about a science museum with lots of hand on exhibits for the children. The Vistor's Centers are normally staioned just across each State's border on the main interstate highways - roads that start with and I such as I24, I75, I20 and so on. The staff are always helpful and some have special activities for the children to do in the car. Ariel has learned to just go right up and ask them, as the activities are rarely on display.

We ended up the day at the McWane Center and we were all very happy to get into somewhere cool and airconditioned.

I had left the GPS in the car whilst we visited the Science Center and when we returned it must have been too hot. Once it found some satellites, it kept telling us we were about 30 miles North or just below Atlanta or anywhere but where we actually were. Luckily we knew where we had to go but it was interesting seeing my GPS calculated speed - over 400mph. Even the GPS didn't like the heat!

Australian Bakery Cafe

As we were in Atlanta anyway, we made sure we popped in to the Australian Bakery Cafe. We had visited their other store in Marietta but this time we were able to meet the other business partner, John McLaughlin - and eat some yummy meat pies, sausage rolls and some cakes and desserts.

Our chap from the Australian Consulate told us to tell John to give us a 15% discount because he goes there all the time. John did give us a good deal and we had a great time.
Lana spent some time explaining ALL of the Australian chocolates sitting on the shelf to an American visitor. He looked at Lana in amazement at her knowledge - and obvious enjoyment - of the chocolates and said, "You should go into selling Aussie candy on the side! You know all about them"
The store is adjacent to a driveway leading to rear parking. Faced with a long blank wall, he thought of doing a mural. An aboriginal artist was visiting and John asked if she would like to design the mural. She did and the mural has lots of Australian themes including over five hundred hand prints - all from local children, visitors and even a dog or two.

Passports - part 2

We have been away for the last couple of days.
Now that Rose is an Australian, she needs an Australian passport. This means filling in a long form, gathering lots of original documentation together and visiting the closest consulate - in our case in Atlanta.

We experienced the difference between Australian vs most US bureaucracy. On arriving at the Consulate and being let in our interviewer stepped out and immediately said with a smile, "Is that all? Or are there more of you?" I answered, "That's it for the moment." He said that he had been going to use the interview room but it was too small so we did the interview in the lobby.

He was very personable and typically Australian. The children, who have not really heard any Australian accents for some time other than ours, listened carefully. Our paperwork was mostly correct, but the interviewer had his white correction pen ready to sort out most of the errors. I suspect he had no doubt about the authenticity of the claim considering we were all there and had enough original documents to sink a ship. (At least it seemed that many.)

This photo is the one we finally settled on as it had the correct face size as required. But we forgot that the mouth cannot be open! They may end up using the earlier photo (shown here). We'll see.

At the end of the interview, he asked Lana whether "the children were allowed these", and showed Lana a pack of Arnott's Butternut Snaps. (These are based on a crunchy ANZAC/oatmeal biscuit (cookie) recipe). Lana mentioned, "They like chocolate too!" and he smiled and answered he had to save them.

The children enjoyed the biscuits (cookies) and we enjoyed the friendliness and professional of the Australian Consulate staff. Hopefully in due course Rose will be properly accredited!

Prayer Time

Each night we gather to pray as a family and thank God for His blessings and ask for His help for friends, family and those for whom we wish to ask Him to help.

We all kneel down, except for Rose. It is her time to have an audience that is not allowed to notice her. She is very distracting. She runs around between each of us, jumps into nearby cupboards, stands on her head, puts her hands in the air and spins around and tries to push some of the children over. The rule is for the children to pretend Rose isn't there - we don't want to give her the attention she wants at this time.

But it doesn't work. She is too funny. It is hard to describe what she does so we had our camera ready tonight. In this photo Rose fell down trying to push Clare over. I did the "Dad pointing thing" and she grabbed my finger - obviously very concerned at the scolding! (Not really)

Lana asked me why we bother with nightly prayers when it is such a hassle and we can't possibly concentrate - even if Rose was asleep. My answer was simple. When we get "too busy" for prayers, niggling and frustration increases and family harmony decreases. So something must be working.

I figure that our laughter at Rose and other things that happen during prayer time are just part of our prayers. After all, one of the reasons to have children is because they are funny. It's a bit hard to stay serious when your youngest child suddenly puts her head on the floor, her bottom in the air and looks at you through her legs in the midst of trying to concentrate.