Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Sun, 25 Mar 2007 04:52:00 GMT
So the local hardware store has this little tray near the cash register that has the inscription, “Take a penny, Leave a penny”.
As we were checking out one day, my daughter was staring at the tray. She said, “Dad, that doesn’t make any sense, if you leave a penny, and take a penny, you end up with the same amount.”
True, I said, but the idea is that, if you get pennies in your change, you put them there and the next time you check out, if you need a penny, you can take one.
But Dad, if you leave 4 pennies one time and take only one the next time, you loose three pennies.
The conversation went on for a while, when she said, what if someone walked in a took a whole pocketful of pennies.
She had me. What could I say? It had been a long day.
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Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Sun, 25 Mar 2007 04:26:00 GMT
11 is really a great age. Not yet a teenager. Not a kid any longer. There is something really refreshing about an 11-year old mind. It’s not jaded, it asks real questions.
This morning my daughter told me she hated daylight savings time. Quite surprised, I asked her why? She told me that when her mom tells her to go to bed, it is still light outside. A valid point. I remember when I was her age, I grew up in an area when it didn’t’ get dark until close to 10:00 PM and I felt the same resentment.
She asked me why we had daylight savings time. I told her that it was supposed to save energy, since it is light longer in the evening so we don’t have to turn on the lights.
She said, but don’t we have to turn the lights on when we get up in the morning?
True, we didn’t have to turn on the lights in the morning before; it was light when we got up, so it probably doesn’t save much energy.
Then I asked her if she knew who invented daylight savings time. Of course, she said, everyone knows that Benjamin Franklin invented daylight savings time.
Well, I said, maybe the invented daylight savings time so you can play outside longer in the summer.
Dad, she said, they didn’t play when Benjamin Franklin was alive.
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Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Sun, 11 Mar 2007 03:11:00 GMT
It has been several years since my son (now 15) have had a real bond with music. I mean, I introduced him to music from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. We used to sing Zepplin songs together. I remember him lamenting that his generation would never see the likes of a Jimi Hendrix.
Around 2000, I really didn’t find much interesting in contemporary music. I liked the Darkness and a few other bands, but I got lost when it came to Hip Hop and Rap.
But there is a new group that seems to bridge the generation gap, the Shins. They are really very good, in fact they are great. I am now Shins fan. My wife likes them, my daughter (11) likes them, and my son is a huge Shins fan.
They sound British, but in fact, the originated in Albuquerque, New Mexico and now reside in Portland, Oregon.
Music is cyclical, from great to bad (remember the mid-70s?) to great again. It seems to ebb and flow.
Check the Shins out. I think their music bridges generations.
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Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:00:00 GMT
Ok, it’s been about a month since my family started using Famundo. You see, not only do I work at Famundo, I’m also a customer.
So far I’m delighted. It is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Yeah, my wife gripes about the fact that she can’t sync with her Treo, but I keep reminding her it’s coming very soon.
My son’s scout troop is now using Famundo for Organization and I’ve subscribed to the calendars I need from there. Soon our kid’s schools will be on Famundo and I’ll be in scheduling nirvana!
I certainly have no excuse for forgetting an appointment now, since I’ve set up Famundo to alarm me via instant messenger, e-mail and SMS.
I often wondered about the community calendars, the ones I can create for myself, and thought why would I use those? Then it hit me. We have a small remodeling project going on. I needed to keep track of the schedule, but didn’t want to add it to my calendar or the family’s calendar. So I created a new Remodel Project calendar which I can view, or not view, as needed.
There also always seems to be some question about who is driving carpool today. Do I drive this morning? Do our friends? Who picks up? So I created a separate Community Calendar called Carpool and made it public. Once we decide on the weekly schedule, I’ll put it in this calendar and anyone in the carpool can view it by going to our Famundo public site.
This list center is getting its fair share of use also. We’ve created a separate shopping list for all the stores we frequent, so whenever we need something, we’ll add it to the appropriate list. When my wife or I go shopping, we simply print out the list and take it with us.
I’ve also found that the Family Library is a great place to store our take-out menus. What’s for dinner? We just grab the list from Famundo, instead of trying to find it in the huge stack of papers on the desk.
I’ve started adding information that I frequently need, but never remember, like the date of my kid’s last tetanus shots, but we’ll soon be releasing a Family Vault, where more information like this can be stored.
I’ll report back next month, if not sooner. If you have any stories on how Famundo has helped you manage your world, send me an e-mail at richard.kuhlenschmidt@famundo.com
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