Prove It!

When we were 8-9 year old kids, arguments were punctuated with cries of, "prove it." Marc and his friend Krystian were arguing in the back seat today, when Kristian said, "Prove it. Google it."

Star Wars Concert

We went to a concert of a full orquestra playing music from the Star Wars movies last night. Marc and I went dressed up, me as Count Dooku and Marc as Anakin Skywalker just before he gave in to the dark side of the Force. I think I was the only guy my age, and in fact the only adult, that was in costume. The things we do to keep our kids happy.

Marcos' San Kumi Test

Marc's test for three stripes (san kumi), June 11, 2010.

Hastings (Empire Bowl) Soccer 2010 -- Italia

Welcome to Team Italia of the Hastings (Empire Bowl) Soccer League for 2010. I'm coach Larry and I'm proud to be coaching my great group of Grade 2 and 3 kids.

Check back here often, as I'll post lots of info for the players and their parents.

Today all I have is the league rules. Be sure to read and understand the rules:

1. I will participate because I want to
2. I will play by the rules -- winning is fun, but so are many other things about the sport
3. I will control my temper -- fighting and "mouthing off" can spoil the activity for everyone
4. I will remember that winning isn't everything -- that having fun, improving skills, making friends and doing my best also are
5. I will acknowledge all good plays / performances -- those of my team and of my opponents
6. I will remember that coaches and officials are there to help me. I will accept their decisions and show them respect
7. I will always make sure that my coach knows where I am
8. I will give everyone an equal chance to participate

Marcos' Dance April 30, 2010

Here's Marc participating with his buddy class in a dance presentation.

Kids' Soccer (Football)

My son is playing soccer on a U8 team, which means the kids are six or seven at the start of the year. It's a fun league, which means "we don't keep score." Of course, the kids keep score, and it's highly disheartening for my kids, because we're the team that always loses. (Actually, there's another team in our situation, and games with that team are actually interesting. We even won one.)

I know it really bugs my kids that we lose all the time. I fear some of them are getting turned off soccer. I bet we're not the only league with badly uneven teams. I think part of the solution is to keep score, and for the league organizers to use the information to balance out the teams over the years. Here's how.

Record every game score for the season. Ideally, also record which players actually showed up at each game. That would be pretty easy for the coach or manager to do. When it comes time to make the teams next year, give all the kids who have history in the league one point for each goal their team scored. Put the kids in order by points and assign the kids to teams on a round robin basis. If a coach or parent asks that two kids play on the same team, then the player moved to make room has to have the same number or more points than the requested player (to eliminate incentives to stacking).

Of course this isn't going to be perfect. You don't know about new players who come along. It won't work for the first year the kids play. But it doesn't have to be perfect. Part of sports is to learn to win and lose graciously. But kids have to be doing both. It doesn't do any good to teach some kids that the deck is stacked against them and they'll never win.

Marc's School Pictures

Camping at Goldstream Provincial Park

Marc and I went camping at Goldstream Provincial Park (Google Maps has bad imagery in this area) on Vancouver Island. It's a comment on the population of the Vancouver area that you can't get a campsite in most parks on the mainland on the weekend unless you book two months in advance. But I got a weekend booking two weeks in advance for a campground 20 minutes from Victoria. And what I spent on ferry I almost saved on gas (a bit of an exaggeration, but not much).

To top it off, there were all sorts of interesting things to see within walking distance of the campground: Abandoned mine shafts, a railway bridge over a deep canyon, and a very high waterfall. Marc was the trooper he always is, walking or running six hours on Saturday to all the different sights. We saw and heard owls in the campground on Saturday night, and a garter snake on the trail on Sunday.

The only bummer was the total campfire ban. It's for good reason, it's been dry for months here, but it's strange to go camping and not have a campfire. Trying to make smores over a Coleman stove just doesn't do it.

Here's the slideshow:

That About Sums It Up

Marc said, "Dad, just because no one listens to you doesn't mean they didn't hear you."

(Marc is my seven-year-old son.)

Marcos' Nikumi (2 Stripe) Karate Test

Marcos passed his test yesterday, so he now has two orange stripes on his white belt. Two more tests until he has his orange belt. Way to go, Marcos!

Soccer 2009

Marc's having fun at soccer this year. He plays where the old Empire Bowl was, near our house. Here are some pictures from two different days. The pictures are deliberately framed to show Marc playing soccer in the sun and in the shadow of the north shore mountains.

Science Fiction vs. Science Fact

With a 7 year old boy in the house, we've been on a Star Wars watching binge of late. I've been bombarded with questions about Star Wars, and

1. I can only answer questions about the first three movies (IV, V and VI), because I never saw the last three (I, II, and III)
2. For some reason, I can't remember a lot about the first three movies even though I did see them. It was almost 30 years ago...

While watching the movies, Angela pointed out something quite interesting: No one in science fiction movies has a cell phone. The most ubiquitous piece of technology, and no one saw it coming.

We were at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle a few weeks ago and they had an original Star Trek communicator on display. I whipped out my iPhone to compare: The iPhone is about the same width and height, and about a third the thickness. And it does way more than even Spock can trick out a communicator to do.

The only science fiction that comes close to current technology that I can think of is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Wikipedia serves a very similar role the to HHGTTG, minus the voice interface and the words "Don't Panic" written in large friendly letters on the cover.

Parent Advisory Council Website

Since I'm "between contracts" I've been setting up the infrastructure for Marc's school's Parent Advisory Council website. It's now live at: http://hastingspac.ca/. For those interested in technical details, check out my technology blog posts about the PAC website.

Lego at Science World

There's a new exhibit of Lego at Science World. Marc spent an hour just studying the city. He was much more interested in the intricacies of the city, than in the really big items that, frankly, weren't that impressive except for their size. After we checked out the rest of Science World and saw the Roving Mars Omnimax movie, we came back and looked at the city for another 45 minutes.

Camping in Manning Park

We went camping at Lightning Lakes Campground in Manning Provincial Park. The campground is five km off Highway 3 where the Manning Park Resort is. The campground is probably 1,300 m above sea level, so in late August it's getting really cold at night. I would guess that Saturday morning at 5:00 AM when I got up (thanks to the cat throwing up in the tent), it was probably only a few degrees above zero.

Marc did the learn to fish course. He was great at casting. The province runs learn to fish programs now because they're selling fewer fishing and hunting licenses every year. The argument (at least to people like me) is that someone who uses the outdoors will care for the outdoors. (I think there's lots of people in BC who use the outdoors -- they just don't do the same sports as the people who are currently BC Liberal MLAs.)

On the way home we walked through the Othello Tunnels, a sequence of tunnels in the Coquihalla Canyon. This stretch of railway cost three times as much per kilometre as the typical piece of track at the time. Of course it turned out to be too expensive to maintain the section what with rain storms and avalanches.

We had great weather, probably because we were east of the summit of the Coast Mountains range. As soon as we got down to Hope, the heavens opened. Angela commented that we always seem to drive through a deluge on our way back to Vancouver from the interior.

Science World with Benjamin

Marc and his friend Benjamin went to Science World today. Here are the pictures:

Children's Festival

Marc went to the Children's Festival in Vanier Park with his Mom and Kindergarten. Here are the photos:

Playland

We live a few blocks from the Pacific National Exhibition grounds, which are home to Playland. Playland is an amusement park that's open from Easter until Hallowe'en. I guess I should consider us lucky that Marc made it to six years old before he figured out that he should be able to ask for a trip to Playland whenever he wants. We negotiated once a month as a compromise. The season's pass for a kid Marc's age isn't that expensive, but there's no season's pass for the guardian. That's where it's going to get expensive.