I Learn a Small Lesson in Marketing

I recently requested permission to use an edited version of this map image as part of this RPG adventure.

My request was denied for a very understandable reason I could have realized myself, but I have no intuition or experience in retail sales.  In interesting learning experience, recounted here.

Gallant's Nine Month Checkup

Today was a big day for Gallant.

During the night he got his third tooth: his upper right front central incisor.

This morning he had his nine month checkup.  No shots this time.  He has grown a lot since his six month checkup.  Gallant is 27.5 inches tall (20th percentile) and weighs 19 pounds, 12 ounces (25th percentile).  His head size is 46.4 cm (70th percentile).

(At nine months his big brother was 28 inches tall (45th percentile) and he weighed 17 pounds, 13 ounces (10th percentile), with a head size of 46.5 cm (65th percentile). Again we see that nurses do not read percentile charts consistently.)

This afternoon he rode the little wooden scooter on our wood floor for the first time.  During the past week he only was allowed to have it on the carpeted floor, where it is a bit harder to make roll.  He enjoyed pushing it, and tipping it over to spin its wheels.  Until yesterday he would climb down off it if we put him sitting upon it.  Since he might stay on it sitting, today I wanted to experiment with him riding it forward.  He enjoyed this very much, even though he of course cannot yet steer it.  He would ride down the hall towards Smiley, who was sitting on the floor drumming on empty coffee cans.  When Gallant "caught" his big brother then Smiley would move to the other end of the hallway and I would turn Gallant and the scooter around.

Today he also fell asleep unswaddled for both his naps.  He normally sleeps swaddled, so this is a big deal.  He will sleep through the night better once he learns to self-comfort when he partially wakes up.

How else is Gallant different than at the end of Februrary?  He is crawling much faster.  When "cruising" holding onto furniture he can cross his legs to move sideways much faster.  He can balance for up to five seconds when standing.  He claps objects together as well as banging one object on a surface.  He can climb up stairs, but not down.  He enjoys drumming on coffee cans and sometimes sings when he drums.

All You Ever Wanted to Know About Ramen but Were Afraid to Ask

A couple weeks ago I received a small flood of requests for link-sharing or domain name purchasing, mostly involving my recipes.  I'm not sure what list davidvs.net appeared on to generate that.

One exchange was worth sharing.

Peter: I came across your website while searching for resources around recipes and food and was wondering if this is the correct contact in regards to the content on the site. My team just created a graphic on the topic, would you be interested in taking a look? I'd appreciate any feedback.  Thanks in advance.

Me: Sure, I'll look at a graphic on the topic of food.  But why?  And for the record, I think the web need more limericks and fewer graphics.

He then send me a link to this enormous graphic about ramen.  To see it all you have to scroll down the page quite a ways!

Of course, my household is gluten-free so we are not ramen eaters.  But I do admire the graphic and am happy to share it in this blog.  If I were assigned the task of making a graphic about ramen I would not have done nearly so thorough or attractive a job.

My Entertaining Pathfinder Forum Threads

Even folks who do not play Pathfinder might get some laughs from some of the forum threads I have started.

You Know You are Playing Pathfinder Too Much When...

The Best Pick-Up Lines of Golarion

How Many People of Golarion Does it Take to Change a Continual Flame Coin?

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Pathfinder

Silliness with a Net

Charm Person and Charm Monster Don't Do What We Think

Mr. Ed, the Cosmopolitan Mount

New Magic Item Crafting Feat: Egg Laying

Pop Song and Dance as Spell Verbal/Somatic Components

What Cookie is Your Character Class?

Pathfinder Classes and the WoW Definition of Balance

Villains the GM will be Excited to Role-Play

Brainstorm Uses for the Summon Instrument Cantrip

Making Elementals Interesting

The Golarion Version of Old McDonald

Ketoconazole

I have a funny story I should share about visiting the doctor in January.  But I don't have time to write it now.

But my doctor did recommend Selsun Blue to get rid of those small patches of seborrheic dermatitis that have been on my forehead for years.  That didn't work.  They vanished, but returned when I stopped using that shampoo.

So he prescribed Nizoral 2%.  It's priced strangely.  The over-the-counter 1% version is only $20 on Amazon.  The prescription bottle had a $15 co-pay, and a total cost of about $60.  So it was cheaper for me, but a bit overpriced to my insurance company.  I guess that is how medicines work these days.

Dead Puppies Worship Jesus

One of my favorite worship songs is You are my All in All by Dennis Jernigan, which was apparently written in 1991.

Today I realized that the chord progression and much of the chorus melody are copied from the 1980s song Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun by Ogden Edsl.

The two sings blend really well.  Sort of.

Je...sus Lamb of God Wor...thy is Your na...me

Dead puppies, Dead puppies, Dead puppies aren't Much fu....n

I'm glad I do not sing this song in public.  I might now have an accident.

Parenting Styles and Outcomes

Nathen recently wrote a great post about emotion coaching parenting.