Month: December 2012

What Hope Wants for Christmas

One of Hope’s favorite books is Don’t Get a Gink, a story starring The Cat in the Hat as he tries to convince some kids looking for a pet to not pick the titular creature. The book never says why one shouldn’t get a Gink. Additionally, judging by his actions from his first book, I don’t trust the Cat in the Hat. So each time we finish the book, I tell her that I want a Gink. Lately, I’ve been telling Hope I want a Gink for Christmas, something she always protests.

Recently, we were getting Luke and Hope’s picture taken with Santa. Hope went up, sat in his lap and shouted out “My daddy wants a Gink for Christmas,” to which Santa politely asked her to repeat. But she continued her argument, saying “No! No Gink!”

I don’t know if she ever got to tell him what she wanted for herself. But in between laughing at the situation it felt nice that when she had the chance to speak with the big guy, she thought about me.

Have a great Christmas.

Hope and Luke with Santa

King Tom1 Comment

Thumbs vs. Stars

I’ve been into digital music for a long time.

Back in the days before Napster, I remember getting songs from shifty FTP sites and spending a week ripping my CDs to my computer. I’ve also listened to a lot of streaming music, starting when one of the earliest versions of Windows Media Player featured a directory of radio stations with online feeds.

From the early days, my player of choice was WinAmp. I still use it to listen to my music on my computer and phone. Lately, though, I’ve been branching out- to Google Music (to store my music elsewhere and to buy new music) and services like Spotify and Pandora (to discover new music, or to listen to something I may not own). Each service/player has its own peculiarities, but there’s one thing the three streaming programs have in common that sets them apart from WinAmp how users rate songs.

Years back, WinAmp added a feature allowing users to give star ratings to songs. You give five stars to the songs you really like, zero to the ones you hate. Works great, especially if you have a large collection.

Spotify and Pandora opt for the simple thumbs up, thumbs down approach. For the most part, it makes sense if you’re adding new music to a playlist. Give a song or artist enough thumbs down and you’ll never hear it again. But for songs that are already on the playlist, it’s useless. Google Music also uses this approach, which doesn’t make sense. With Google Music, you’re listening to songs you already own. Why would you give a bunch of songs you own (for non-ironic purposes) thumbs down?

I’d much rather (for songs I’ve already said I wanted to listen to) rate a song with the more specific system. If I give a bunch of songs a thumbs up, that means I like them. But I don’t like them all equally.

If I had it my way, every way I listen to music would allow me to rate songs on a 1-100 scale. But that’s why I don’t write software.

King Tom

Hope’s Law

It’s taken more than a year, but a bill inspired by Hope is now part of Ohio Law.

This evening, Governor John Kasich signed Senate Bill 135, designating September as Craniofacial Acceptance Month. The Civee, Hope, Luke, The Civee’s parents and myself attended the signing with the bill’s sponsor, Senator Eric Kearney and some of the staff from the Cleft Lip and Palate Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. It was an incredible event to be a part of.

After waiting with sponsors and people involved with other bills getting signed, we got our own session with the governor. Luke had fallen asleep in my arms while we were waiting. We were ushered into the governor’s office, introduced and he started to talking to us. We thanked him and right off the bat, The Civee mentioned several of the state agencies and programs that helped us with Hope’s surgeries and therapy. The Governor invited Hope to come sit in his lap, which she did. He was explaining the signing process to her, but I think she really wanted to steal one of his pens.

He looked at me and said “tell me about her.” Even thought I was on the spot, I threw out everything I could think of-I mentioned she was born with a cleft lip and palate, has had two surgeries (but left out that she’ll need more) and has received therapy both at Nationwide and from a county school. He said it looked like she was doing great, which I agreed with.

The Governor then asked me about Luke (who had made it up to my shoulder, still asleep) and said “he’s perfect, isn’t he.” I instinctively replied “yes, they both are,” not trying to correct him, but more proud of both of my children.

Governor Kasich was really nice with us and took a bunch of pictures while signing the bill. He asked Hope to sit in his lap again at the end and pointed out the desk was used once by Abraham Lincoln. Hope seemed to like listening as he told her a bit about the 16th President. I really wanted to say “Hope, we met him at the fair,” but this time I kept my mouth shut.

And just like that it was over. We got one of the 50 pens used during the signing, which I’m going to put away somewhere for Hope. I’m happy we did this for many reasons, but the biggest is to raise awareness and get appreciation for those affected by craniofacial issues and those who help them. I’m also happy we did this for Hope. She’s too young to appreciate it now, but maybe she can use the experience for a civics class or something in the future.

King Tom3 Comments