Andy's Blog

I called the passport information center to check on passports for our family. Applications were submitted on Apr 11th and I know the goverment cashed our checks on Apr. 25th, however we have not received them which is why I called. Actually, I was kinda shocked that they even have a human that you can speak to.

Maggie answered my call and said "what's your last name and birthday?" in a curt manner. So I replied. When I realized she was going to use them to look up the application I quickly stopped her and said, "err, but you probably want the information for my wife and children, because I wish to check on the status of the application". And I told her my wife's birthday. It took her abour 4 tries to get it right because she kept mixing my birthday with my wifes. Finally she got it right and said "it's in New Orleans"... So I started asking more questions like "will I get it in time?", "can I call New Orleans?", "what's the number?"... She got really rude with me and basically said she couldn't tell me because of privacy laws. I was ticked and not thinking clearly so I just hung up when I realized that my one year old wasn't going to be able to call back. She should've at least let me get more information about my kids.

I called back immediately and got a VERY HELPFUL and nice Shirely. She put urgent messages on all of the applications and told me to call back Tues. to check on the status. Thank you Shirley!

Hat tipped in deference for my title

My son got Zelda The Minish Cap for his gameboy for his birthday, and I've been playing with him. We each have our own "file" and while he's really good at the game, I'm still better ;) Anyhow one of the thoughts that I've had watching him play is that how incredibly spatial the game is, and how quickly he grasps it. He'll say things like "remember that castle over on the right" and I'll say "huh?" and he'll say "go left, go up, go up, go right, go right, go right" and we'll be at the castle that he was talking about. So I've been wondering whether you can learn spatial relations, or perhaps more generally, can video games make you smarter. Traditionally, parents treat video games like addictions that suck your brain out, and certainly they do simulate addiction. We learned this year that you NEVER give a gameboy game for a birthday BEFORE you're done requiring your child's attention. Our son was immediately absorbed in Zelda (and Super Mario Bros. 3) and we had to pry him away when we needed him for cake (can you believe it?!?!) or pictures, or saying goodbye to guests. That said, there's an interesting new book out called Everthing Bad Is Good For You. I heard an interview with the author on NPR and he argued (somewhat convincingly) that television programs are more sophisticated today than they were in the 70's and 80's and require more refined intellectual skills to follow and enjoy. I haven't read the book, but you're welcome to buy it for me ;)

Very interesting article about something that I've had an intuition about, but never been able to articulate. Somewhat related to my point about love.