Here is a great article

Usually I just link to articles, but I thought that this warranted actual publication. I try to read Bob Welch's column every time it published, and I always enjoy what he has to say. If you want to read the actual article, go here.


Bob Welch: The best things in a kid's life are free

By Bob Welch
Columnist, The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, January 23, 2007


I saw it Friday night in a Salem neighborhood: a snowman that, based on its oversized stocking cap and muffler, had, before temperatures rose, once been much taller, bulkier and nobler.
A little girl, with a sense of quiet compassion, was transferring the scant remains of snow from other parts of the yard to shore up what looked to be the Snow Lump Formerly Known as Frosty.
If the scene might have discouraged some, it encouraged me: Imagine, I thought, a child acting like a child. That's a rare thing these days.

The trend is quite the opposite - fast-tracking kids to be, in essence, what parents want them to be: scholars, athletes, entertainers. Young adults. Movers and shakers with mouths full of braces. And not allowing them to be what they really want to be at this point in their lives: kids.

Monday's front-page Register-Guard story about simplifying children's birthday parties also was encouraging. Imagine: Parents waking up and realizing that bringing the entire Broadway cast of "Beauty and the Beast" to the house for Madison's 10th birthday might be a bit much.
Kids aren't nearly as impressed with big-ticket items as their parents are. Kids, unless indoctrinated otherwise, just wanna have fun. And the best fun isn't bought.

It's free. It's within every kid. It's called imagination.

I'm not going to quote a family social science professor to convince you of that.
Instead, I'm going to tell you about the looks in the eyes of the first-graders at Prairie Mountain School last week as I read them Taback Simms' "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat." Their eyes were laser beams to the picture pages - this despite books being decidedly low-tech, costing relatively little and, with rare exceptions, unable to morph into some high-tech toy.
I'm going to tell you about the 20Below students I once coached who, by the time they were sophomores, were already stressing about getting into the right college.

I'm going to tell you about my nearly 2-year-old grandson who's been given an array of wonderful toys but is still more fascinated by those whirly things that twirl downward from maple trees.
We've force-fed our kids into believing that their success is dependent on structure, programs, camps, schools. Things we pay for. But it often backfires.

The reason kids don't use their imaginations more is that, instead of writing their own play and performing it on the back deck, they're shuffled off to adult-supervised theater camps.
We've convinced kids that unless they make this elite team or get into that elite school, their lives are doomed. You hardly ever see kids, without adults, playing a pickup baseball game anymore. My kids created a four-kid whiffle ball league that came complete with (self-made) uniforms, a (self-made) scoreboard and a (self-made) newspaper.

We've come to believe that boredom in children is the social equivalent of the Bubonic plague. No, boredom invites invention. Boredom invites imagination. Boredom gently challenges a child to tap into his or her creativity.

But we panic. We offer, instead, television, computer or video games where the imagination comes built-in and say: Here, interact with this - instead of handing the child a video camera and saying: here, make your own movie. Or, here's a computer, write your own book. Or, as we did at one birthday party, here's a backyard and two sacks of marshmallows. Pick them up when the mallow-war is over.

An MSN story on the Web says spending for kids' birthday parties "has been rising steadily over the past several years as parents have looked for ways to connect with their kids."

A word of advice for such folks: Wanna connect with your kid? For starters, let that kid be one.

Bob Welch can be reached at 338-2354 or at bwelch@guardnet.com.

Catching up…

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a real substantive blog entry. I’ve been real busy with school and haven’t been able to find the hour or so it takes to add a long update. So here goes…

The Dog:

I have been deluged with emails (OK, “deluged” might be too strong of a word) requesting pictures of our new dog. Being the responsive blogger that I am, I will satisfy those requests. Here are a few pictures of the newest Wilson, Zeke the Alaskan Malamute.






Thoughts on being a dog owner: I think it should be a requirement that all new parents own a puppy for a few months before their baby is born so they can get into the groove. Owning a puppy is very similar to having a baby. Just when I had almost suppressed those difficult memories, back are the nights where I’m waking up multiple times. The only difference is that my slumber is now broken with howls and yips rather than the cries of a newborn.

On the whole, however, Zeke has been a great addition to our family. He’s a pretty mellow dog, which has been nice. The only real challenges we’ve had so far have been (1) sleeping through the night; (2) going to the bathroom outside; and (3) biting/chewing on everything in sight. I think we’ve almost conquered #1, in order to combat #2 we just need to be diligent in letting him outside every 30 minutes or so, and we’re still working on #3.


The Fam:

Everybody is doing pretty well. When we went over to Bend to pick up Zeke we spent the night at an awesome bread and breakfast that was about and hour outside Eugene. Here is a family picture (sans Samantha who was being shy).



I think I’ll try to focus an entire post on each family member at some point in the future, ala the Zimels. Drew and I finished reading Roald Dahl’s Danny, the Champion of the World earlier this year and now we just finished Fantastic Mr. Fox by the same author. Drew went to a LazerTag party on Saturday with a bunch of his buddies and he loved it. Of course he dressed in camo fatigues, so while his friends’ white T-shirts were beacons in the black-light-lit room, Drew was creeping around undetected. Here are a few pictures.




Sam is just her normal diva-ish self. She honestly changes clothes at least 4-5 times per day, often trying to discover which dress produces the best “twirl.” In a surprising development, it appears that Beauty and the Beast has overtaken Cinderella as the favorite Disney movie in the Wilson household.



Missi and I went to a fun Polka Dot and Plaid party over the weekend. Here are a few pictures.

Missi and Monica


Me and Jumane

I’ll have more to add re: school, my job, etc..in the future but I think this post is a good start.

I thought this was funny...

First some background: We put away all of our Christmas decorations several weeks ago, but for some reason a small figurine of Joseph from our nativity scene escaped and Samantha has been playing with it from time to time.

Now the "rest of the story:" This morning Drew and I were sitting down having breakfast and he was holding the Joseph figurine in his hand. He turned it over and said: "This says 'Made in China.' That's weird, it should say 'Made in Bethlehem.'"

Happy Birthday to a great friend

I was going to use this post to catch up on a lot of the happenings from the past week or so, but instead I’m devoting it to wishing happy birthday to one of my best friends, Adam. Austin, Texas is lucky to have the Zimel family...

Not THAT feeling again...

Why, oh why, do I already have the "finals-esque" feeling already? It's not easily described, but it is essentially a nervous, almost frenetic energy and the thought that I won't get everything done, coupled with the normal thoughts of procrastination and wondering where to start. I thought this feeling isn't supposed to hit until around April 1, when I begin my exam prep in earnest. I guess the catalyst for such a feeling is the National Appellate Advocacy Competition. I'm going to Las Vegas in March to give oral arguments (in a 9th Circuit courtroom, which will be cool), but before that our team needs to submit a substantial brief on the issues. Therefore, I am almost completely foregoing all of my normal academic responsibilities for this first week of school while I work on the brief. In total, it needs to be around 35 pages long, and I'm basically splitting it with my partner. I'm writing on "shaming conditions," or those type of punishment famously seen imposed upon Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. The brief is due next Wednesday, so hopefully like will return to "normal" after it's finished. It's a good thing I'm getting an academic credit for this effort.

Here's a whimsical, yet thoughtful, quote for the day: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

—Dr. Seuss

P.S. About a week ago I sent out a "Year in Review" newsletter. If you didn't receive this and you'd like too, please email me: johnsamuelwilson AT gmail DOT com

Introducing Zeke

Here are a few photos of Zeke, our new puppy. We're going over to Bend this weekend to meet the breeder. We're all very excited but I will also admit to have some feelings of anxiousness. Will this mean a return to the nights of waking up every 3-4 hours like when Drew/Sam were infants? Will we have difficulty housebreaking him? What if he isn't very friendly with the kids (the breeder said this is highly unlikely)? I suppose all will be answered in due time.

These pics are from about a week ago, when Zeke was 6-1/2 weeks old. We'll get him around 8 weeks of age.

Tidbits o' this 'n that

Where have you been? I’ve been in some mediation training for the past three days. It has been a rough way to end my Christmas break before the semester begins. I think it’s been helpful but it has been long days and I wish I could’ve been with the fam for these last few days of break.

What is the world coming to: We asked Drew what some of his friends got for Christmas and, no joke, he said that his friend Addison got a real cell phone. And yes, that would be a first grader who is carrying a cell phone.

Going to the chapel: Not sure if I mentioned this in earlier posts, but my sister Julie got engaged a few days before Christmas. Congratulations to Brian and Julie!

Ducks hoops: I took Drew to the USC game on Thursday evening and we had a great time. It was even better because my buddy Mike drove down from Portland and watched the game with us. Unfortunately the Ducks couldn’t hit their shots down the stretch and they lost 84-82. Today, however, THE DUCKS BEAT THE #1 TEAM IN THE COUNTRY. I had given tickets to Missi for Christmas and we were so excited to be going, but being the genius that I am, I didn’t check the Ducks’ game schedule. If I had, I would’ve realized that the game was scheduled for 11:00AM rather than 5:30PM, when I thought it was scheduled for. Huge bummer that we couldn’t be there. I don’t think this Ducks team is going to the Final Four or anything (they’re too small), but they are at least exciting and I think they’ll make it the NCAA Tournament.

The silver screen: We’ve seen a couple of decent movies over the past few weeks. If you have time, you should check out any of the following: Murderball, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, We are Marshall, and Little Miss Sunshine. All good flicks.

Back to the grind: Here are the classes I’m taking this spring – Business Associations, Trial Practice, Legal Profession, and Mediation Clinic. With these credits, along with some other ungraded credits, I’ll have 17 credits. On a related note, I got my grades for the fall semester and I was happy with them.

A very gangster New Year's Eve

Missi and I had a blast on New Year's Eve, attending a murder mystery party at some friend's house in Salem. The era was the Roaring 20's and I was a gangster (think Al Capone-ish) and Missi was a socialite. The whole event was really well organized and it was a great way to ring in 2007. Not surprisingly, Missi won the award for being "most in character." I'm sure I was a close second.

It was really good to see this guy...

One of the highlights of the past weekend was the opportunity to hang out with my buddy Dave. He was in town from San Diego, where he moved about 2-1/2 years ago. Dave and I lived together during my brief time in the dorms at GFU and he is really one of my best friends in the entire world. I often think that it was one of my biggest mistakes not to have him in our wedding. Missi and I gave him the pitch to move back to Portland, so hopefully he gets tired of all that San Diego sun one of these days.

Some recent photos

Here are a few Christmas-related pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Nicole, Missi, and Adrienne

Drew, a.ka. Santa's Helper, passing out gifts on Christmas Eve at the Hillier Christmas

Sam and Drew on Christmas morning. Could my kids get any more stereotypical (the little princess daughter and the GI Joe son)?

The ladies at the Foglio Christmas party

Visiting Santa at Bridgeport Village

Drew and Sam with Santa

Drew and Taylor

Jesse, Jeff and me

Breaking my blog silence...

I have been meaning to post something on my blog for several days now but I’ve just been caught up in the hubbub of Christmas and haven’t taken the few minutes required to post something up here. As a result, this will be a slightly longer blog post. It’s been so long (over two weeks!) it’s hard to know where to begin…

FAMILY:
We had a very nice, albeit slightly hectic, Christmas. We were in Portland staying with Missi’s mom and we traveled to Salem on Monday afternoon to have Christmas dinner with her mom’s side of the family. The kids seemed to be excited about the gift of a puppy, and we’re all looking forward (with perhaps a bit of fear and trepidation) to January 12 when Zeke will come join our family. I’ve attached a picture of Zeke below. He is the puppy on the left. I got some great stuff for Christmas, but I think my favorite gift was the “12 Days of Christmas” that Missi gave me. I could write a full blog post on just this gift, but ask me about it some time.

In other family news, my sister Julie got engaged a few days ago. Her fiancée is a great guy named Brian who she met during college. They are thinking about a May wedding in Vancouver, Washington. We’re very excited for both of them. My parents spent Christmas in Chiangmai, Thailand, but I was able to talk to them briefly on Christmas Eve.

SCHOOL/WORK:
I finished up the semester feeling alright about my exams, although it’s tough to say how accurate that feeling was as I haven’t received my grades yet. Taking exams was certainly much less painful this time around than it was last year. I am continuing to work a bit throughout my break, but my hours are pretty limited and my work is extremely flexible with my schedule.

OREGON DUCKS:
The Las Vegas Bowl was extremely disappointing. The Ducks just flat-out didn’t show up to play and nobody (perhaps except Jonathan Stewart) really seemed to care or put any effort into it. Here is a really disheartening article about Belloti’s complacency following the game. At least the basketball team is doing pretty well (12-0, ranked #20 in the country). I’m looking forward to taking Drew to the USC game and going with Missi to the UCLA game, which will potentially be a showdown between two undefeated teams.

EXTRAS:
Here is a good article on the Christmas season.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time this Christmas break learning how to use iMovie. I made a ten minute long DVD for some family members. What a sweet program! Makes me love my Mac even more.
I traded in my Treo 650 for the (allegedly) improved Treo 680 and so far I’m really regretting the decision. My phone keeps freezing up and it won’t hot sync to my computer. I’m getting very frustrated with the situation.
Other miscellaneous highlights from this break (so far):
1.) Seeing my buddy Aaron when he came to Portland. He is a really great guy and it was a treat to hang with him. We had coffee together one day and then dinner with another good friend the next evening. He is preparing to enter the Air Force JAG and if I was a single guy I’d be thinking real hard about following in his footsteps.
2.) Hanging out with my buddy Jeff. We watched the unspectacular Ohio State-Florida basketball game together, and while the game wasn’t too exciting, it’s always great to spend time with him.
3.) Visiting with my grandparents. I had lunch with my grandmother at her nursing home and we spent an evening at The Farm with my other grandparents. Both were really great times and made me appreciate even more the fact that they are all still alive.
4.) Christmas party at the Foglios. Although the power went out for about 90 minutes, we had a great time enjoying a chocolate fountain and being with some of our closest friends. Amazingly Jeff and Mike both sported very festive sweaters like I did (see below). Apparently great minds think alike.
5.) Visiting with Missi’s cousin Jake. Jake is a West Point grad currently serving in the Army. He returned in September from his second tour in Iraq and it was really interesting to hear his take on the situation and catch up with he and his wife, who currently live in Tennessee.

The newest member of the Wilson family is on the left.

That feels good...

Whew! So I’m done with finals. Provided I pass all my classes, I am actually halfway done with law school. It seems like just a few days ago I was sitting in orientation and trying to figure out how to read cases. Now I’m a mere 18 months or so away from being a “real” lawyer. Now there’s a scary thought.

I had three exams and I felt pretty good about all of them. The exam that I took yesterday (American Legal Biography) was probably the most difficult, and the main reason I say that is because he asked one question that I had ABSOLUTELY no idea what the answer was. But other than that question I think did OK (The question, if you care, simply said “Dillon’s Rule.” You were supposed to recognize what the rule was, what case gave us the rule, and what judge applied it. The answer was that Dillon’s Rule holds that municipal ordinances are to construed narrowly and the judge was Matthew Deady).

Now that I’m finished, I’m definitely ready for a break. I haven’t been sleeping enough; I haven’t been exercising enough; I’ve been drinking too much coffee; and most importantly, I haven’t been giving enough attention to my family. Missi’s birthday is tomorrow and so we’re all looking forward to that. I’m going to work a bit during the break, but probably only 20 hours per week or so. I also need to work on writing a brief for the National Appellate Advocacy Competition I’m in, but I’m going to take a few days off before I dive in on that. I’m looking forward to being back up in Portland this weekend to seeing friends and family.

With those formalities out of the way...

Now that I've posted the requisite "Wow, I hit 100 posts" entry, here are a few bits of randomness.

1. I mentioned about a week ago that Missi got my a Treo 650 for my birthday. I was pretty happy with it, but it had a few issues (like freezing up at inopportune moments), and Palm just released the Treo 680, which is supposedly an improvement. Given that, I exchanged my 650 for the 680. I really love the idea of a "smart phone" - a PDA combined with a phone - and I think the Treo 680 is going to be great. Here is a comparison of the two that I found.

2. If you have some spare time (like around 8 - 10 hours probably), I'd recommend reading the official report from the Iraq Study Group. I haven't read it, but I've perused it, and I might try to read the full 160 pages over the Christmas break. I'm hoping that it will provide lawmakers with a roadmap out of the mess that is the situation in Iraq.

3. I'm 2/3 of the way done with exams - Evidence and Con Law II done, just American Legal Biography next Monday. I also have to turn in a big paper, which is very close to being done. Fortunately I have several days to finish the paper and study for the next exam. I'll be glad when next Monday at 11:31 rolls around.

I’ve joined the “century club”

Wow, I actually hit 100 posts. That’s pretty crazy. I think I’ve been blogging for a little over a year so that averages to about 2 posts per week. I’ve enjoyed the experience and it will be fun to look back in a few years to see how I’ve documented this period of my life. I hope that it has been enjoyable for the few people who view my blog to get a “glimpse of me.”

As you may know, I can track who actually views my blog (you can see it too – just click on the little hitcounter box in the right hand column underneath the links), and it’s always interesting for me to see how many people has viewed my blog and where they are logging on from. I can usually guess who is logging on from Rizal, Philippines, but when I get a visitor from, say, Germany, I never have a clue who it is.

I always enjoy the comments I get from blog readers, so don’t be shy about posting those. Thanks for checking it out!

Nice sunrise

I just finished my Con Law II exam so my brain is a bit fried, but I got to school early this morning to study and I snapped this picture of the sunrise. It was a nice way to start off my day...

John Wilson, circa 1993

Ha ha ha...check THIS out! I have no idea where this came from. I just found it on the floor in our house. The kids must've dug it out of something.

Yikes

My first exam is tomorrow (Evidence) so I'll keep this brief...

My parents emailed us to say that a big storm was headed their way, but I had no idea it was this big. At least 109 people dead!? Please pray for the people of the Philippines.

An odd, but pleasant, tradition

At this law school, there is a tradition that at the end of the last class of the semester the professor makes a few closing remarks (i.e. "Thanks for walking with me down this winding path of Constitutional law...") and then all of the students applaud. I don't remember this ever happening at undergrad, but it's a nice recognition of the teacher's efforts. I remember one class last year where the teacher actually got a standing O. I wonder if any other law schools do this?

Birthday recap

I'm breaking my exam-period blog silence to post a few thoughts and to recap my birthday. There is so much more I could write about - Thanksgiving, the Civil War, how I hate studying for finals, etc...but I'll keep this one brief.

- My birthday was yesterday and I had a really nice day. I had class in the morning, followed by Missi and Sam meeting me at my office with lunch. They brought Cafe Yumm, which is always great (sidenote: if you live in Eugene and haven't eaten at Cafe Yumm, you NEED to. If you don't live in Eugene, well, you're missing out). I worked throughout the afternoon and then we had some friends over for a birthday dinner. Missi did a great job of cooking my slightly-obscure choice of birthday dinner - yakisoba and bulgogi beef. For gifts, she and the kids got me some great shoes and a very cool Treo 650. I'm sort of a geek for little electronic gadgets like this so I'm pretty excited. Our friend Monica brought over an ice cream cake from Cold Stone, which was really great. Over all, it was a very good birthday.

- There is a lot that could be said about the Ducks collapse on the football field. To be honest, I don't really have the time or energy to relate all of my thoughts, but in general it was just a really disappointing season. Go here or here to read two of my favorite Duck blogs writting by Oregonian writers.

- If you want to read a really great newspaper column, check out Bob Welch's columns in the R-G. He's a great guy and a great writer. And, after playing against him in a Turkey Bowl, he's a darn good flag football player.

- There's some white stuff on the ground this morning, which is definitely exciting for the kids. Not enough to cancel school, but it's still fun (and CERTAINLY not as much as my sister sees up in Alaska).

- Last note, and this is something of a "teaser." The Wilson family has decided to add a new member to our family. No, this DOES NOT mean we're pregnant (that's for you AZ!). It just means that Christmas morning will be very, very exciting for our kids. Go here for a glimpse.

See you in a few weeks…

I’m heading into my most difficult four week period of the year – those leading up to and including my final exams. Therefore, I’m going to take a break from blogging and I’m sure I’ll add some more in early-mid December once everything settles back down. Have a great Thanksgiving!