I Suck as a Scribe
Posted by Zoe's Dad at Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:15 AM and is filed under organize my stuff,santa,sharing thrusday,Photos 
Zane is studying the life cycle of the caterpillar this week. They even have a few caterpillars in the classroom and a couple have already formed a chrysalis. I asked him what was the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon. He said, "it's the same--isn't it?" "I don't know, Dude. Weren't you paying attention in class when they went over that? You tell me. Why are we paying all this money to send you to school if your aren't going to pay attention in class?" I replied. (I didn't know the answer but I felt with some crafty blaming and guilting I could avoid having to expose my inadequacies in the insect world.) I've come to find out that the real difference is that moths form cocoons by wrapping themselves up in their silk prior to making their pupa. Butterflies don't. They have silk they just don't wrap up like the moths do. It's all very complicated stuff and better suited for discussion involving the minute differences between the butterfly and the moth and their respective chrysalis as opposed to cocoon formation as they enter the pupa stage of complete metamorphosis. And this is not a discussion about the chrysalis so let's forget I mentioned it and move on, shall we?
It's Sharing Thursday. Essentially, it's the kindergarten equivalent of show and tell but with a twist. Each week Zane is informed on Monday the topic for the upcoming Sharing Thursday. It's usually pretty simple stuff: write a word with a long vowel and silent e and draw a picture, bring your favorite stuffed animal, draw a picture that shows under, bring in something that can be recycled.....you get the picture. This week would have been just as easy---for a normal parent.
Our assignment for this week was to bring in a time line of the life of Zane--using no more than five or six pictures. Like I said, an easy task for a normal parent. I've been called many things in my lifetime, normal does not spring to mind as being one of them. In the brief span of seven years as self appointed scribe of the family I have no fewer than 9 (NINE) different forms of storage media containing our family photos. I've got pictures on floppy discs, on zip drives, on cds, on mini dvds, on vhs, on mini dvs, on compact flash drives, on memory sticks and yes, even on hard copy photographs. Some of these I am completely unable to access as the computer technology used for them is now obsolete. My problem is that the photos are scattered all over the house with no specific order or pattern. Most of the discs aren't labeled. It is a nightmare!
I should have been able to go to a drawer or shelf and pull off in succession the five specific years without a hint of trouble. In my mind I had envisioned our pictures each Christmas with Santa. We've been using the same Santa at the same mall since Zoë had her first Santa pic. I thought it would be a pretty cool way to show Zane on a yearly time line and figured it would be pretty simple to organize six years of Santa. Instead I spent the evening running from the basement to the attic and all points in between to try and locate a suitable set for a representative time line. It took me nearly four hours--long after the kids were in bed. I couldn't find all of the Santa pictures. Still can't. I've quit looking. But not perseverating.
I suppose I should add *organize photographs* to my list of things that need to get done around here.
It's Sharing Thursday. Essentially, it's the kindergarten equivalent of show and tell but with a twist. Each week Zane is informed on Monday the topic for the upcoming Sharing Thursday. It's usually pretty simple stuff: write a word with a long vowel and silent e and draw a picture, bring your favorite stuffed animal, draw a picture that shows under, bring in something that can be recycled.....you get the picture. This week would have been just as easy---for a normal parent.
Our assignment for this week was to bring in a time line of the life of Zane--using no more than five or six pictures. Like I said, an easy task for a normal parent. I've been called many things in my lifetime, normal does not spring to mind as being one of them. In the brief span of seven years as self appointed scribe of the family I have no fewer than 9 (NINE) different forms of storage media containing our family photos. I've got pictures on floppy discs, on zip drives, on cds, on mini dvds, on vhs, on mini dvs, on compact flash drives, on memory sticks and yes, even on hard copy photographs. Some of these I am completely unable to access as the computer technology used for them is now obsolete. My problem is that the photos are scattered all over the house with no specific order or pattern. Most of the discs aren't labeled. It is a nightmare!
I should have been able to go to a drawer or shelf and pull off in succession the five specific years without a hint of trouble. In my mind I had envisioned our pictures each Christmas with Santa. We've been using the same Santa at the same mall since Zoë had her first Santa pic. I thought it would be a pretty cool way to show Zane on a yearly time line and figured it would be pretty simple to organize six years of Santa. Instead I spent the evening running from the basement to the attic and all points in between to try and locate a suitable set for a representative time line. It took me nearly four hours--long after the kids were in bed. I couldn't find all of the Santa pictures. Still can't. I've quit looking. But not perseverating.
I suppose I should add *organize photographs* to my list of things that need to get done around here.
I feel stressed after reading that. I almost want to come over and help you sort your photos.
I didn't know that I was so anal about photo organization. Thanks for enlightening me about myself.
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I'll pay you. What do you want? Money, beer, a kid---you name it.
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could you add coming over to my house and sorting out my photos to the list too?
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Trust me---Ed and organizational skills are two words (that's really three words isn't it?) that have never been introduced. You don't want me anywhere near your photos.
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Oy! This post stresses me out, too! I have actually been spending hours and hours at this endeavor recently. My husband thinks that if they are in a computer directory, that's sorted enough. Never mind the piles of random unsorted hard copies or stacks of video cassettes, some that have been stored on the hard drive, some that haven't. Some that have made it into DVD form, some that haven't. Totally, and hopelessly random! My scrapbooks in hard copy form at least give me the illusion of having some of it in order.
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My wife tried to scrapbook. Got through the first six months of Zoe and it has since gone by the wayside. (The supplies have come in very handy for school projects though.)
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I guess because our Zane is only two, I'm still an organized mode. We have everything from pre-birth to yesterday on CDs, the computer's hard drive and on a backup drive. I also post a lot on the blog, which provides easy access.
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Dude, you suck!! And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
I've got pictures from Christmas--2006 still on my camera that I haven't downloaded. When looking for the pictures last night I came across at least 40 undeveloped rolls of film.
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You've just reminded me that my photo site is totally busted.
The gallery installation is corrupt.
Help me with that after you've sorted Dan out.
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See, that's what scares me about uploading photos to some of these photo sites. Which also reminds me I've uploaded to at least 4 different sites and none of those are sorted.
It's gonna be a while before I can get to you.
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This would've been easy for my parents...since there were only five or six pictures taken of my entire childhood. Sucks being 4th in line.
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Not too many pictures from my childhood either. I was second but I think cameras must have been a luxury item because there's not a lot by way of photographic record of my formative years.
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I have 4 kids and could not do a timeline of ANY of their lives in pictures if my life depended on it. I have a couple of boxes of pictures around someplace that someone could dig through if they wanted. Eleventy seven of them are of our first child. After that, it all goes downhill.Our fourth child has been convinced by her siblings that she was adopted, as there are probably, oh say, three pictures of her.Total. Somewhere. In a box. And she's 13. I suck at remembering to bring a camera. And organizing ANYTHING. You are organized, compared to me. Who on earth has time to organize pictures of 4 or 5 kids? I'm too busy trying to feed them, washing their clothes, making sure their hw gets done, making sure they aren't going places they shouldn't or being bad people. Oh, and I like to shower daily. Photographs? Timelines? Organization? Draw the darn pictures - make use of his six year old artistic talents and make him feel good about his unique and creative approach to the assignment!
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Oh, man where to begin. First--is Momo your daughter? I try to organize but like I said--fail miserably. And your description of a typical day sounds so much like mine it's unreal. You're right--I should have made him draw the pictures. Hell, I did the whole thing for him!
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At least you TOOK and HAVE the pics!! My hubby (and thus I) have the same problem. Ugh.
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I'm starting to feel a bit better as I realize this problem may not be singularly mine.
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I never thought about what a challenge such an issue would pose to a parent of children that age. In your kids lifetime there have been many new forms of storing pictures. I remember when I was a kid I knew exactly where the cupboard was that stored the family albums as well as the loose misc. pictures. I kind of miss the good old days when you can lug out a shoe box of memories and spend hours looking through them.
Maybe this recent assignment will inspire you to figure out a way to organize all your pictures, though it seems like a MAJOR MAJOR project at this point.
I also wanted to remind you we're playing Rockin' With Frigga, we'll go on through the end of tomorrow - come by if you have time (and haven't been burried in a stack of discs and pictures and tapes and CDs, oh my!) :-0
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If I ever get a spare week or two I may be able to get a hold on things.
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I'm the same way. I have stuff saved on memory cards, super VHS, an old TiVo box, external hard-drives, you name it, and none of it is in order.
They say that's a sign of genius.
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I must be a frickin mensa, then!
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Thanks Ed! Now I have another thing added to my to-do list! I'm horrible about this too, but....no time like the present to start, right?
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Or we could just have a beer and leave it for our kids to sort out.
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I am so with you on the photo thing! I think I have finally at least got them all in the same room now, but there is absolutely no organization to them. Which isn't really good when your kids look alike as babies and you need to send in a baby picture and you really don't know which kid's pic you sent in. But then again, neither does the teacher.
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I almost did that! I would have been so busted.
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Dontcha love it when kids bring home homework for YOU? I swear, sometimes it took me longer to "help" than it did my daughter to actually do her assignments. I feel your pain.
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The sad reality is that I've only got two doing homework. What is going to happen when all FIVE start bringing it home? I'm going to get really good at elementary school---again!
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This hard copy you speak of... what is that? It sounds intriguing... secret technique passed down from scribes of yesteryear?
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It is a lost art. I hear tell that these days photographs actually contain color.
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