Week 18 – Meet the Robinsons Results

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Pegasus didn’t remember the movie from before. And the day after, he quoted part of the movie (on purpose) in English. But we watched it in French. Which means he translated it in his head and remembered the translation.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book. He also created his own drum kit in the living room.

Crochet

We haven’t started this yet.

Basic Information

We kept up with these throughout the break, so he was still able to repeat these quite well. We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

I taught him about the seasons today. He was excited that he knew the names of some of them.

Printing words

These worksheets have 2 more words than last semester’s. I’m thinking of no longer printing the tracing words, as he seems to be doing just fine with his printing.

Counting objects/math-type activities

He still has no problems with counting these, and I feel like his numbers have improved. Again, I’m thinking of not doing the tracing ones.

Then there was the new math worksheet. It was definitely too easy for him. I explained what he should do for the first one, asking about how many objects he was holding (pencil and eraser), and then he zipped through the rest. I’m hoping the worksheets are more challenging in the future; I haven’t looked ahead, and I’m reusing the ones from Dragon. The suite at the bottom was really easy for him too.

Storytime

We read the 4 French library books.

Activity

Draw an invention – He struggled to come up with a concept for his invention, but he eventually came up with something that he was having trouble with; he’s had a lot of colds recently, and he doesn’t like having a runny nose or ear infections. Thus, the Ear, Nose, Lip Dryer was born! The air goes through the device (from the blank bubble toward the lined bubble) and into the body via the affected area with a push of a button (buttons not depicted).

Make a lava lamp – I feel like this was a little more dramatic than the one that I did with Dragon. Pegasus was very excited about the bubbles, and was also excited to show his sister.

Make book of shapes – this was an activity that one of Dragon’s due date group kids did before the holidays back in 2020. I really liked the idea, so I wanted to do it again with Pegasus. We started by making a list of shapes (formes) and figuring out their names and what colour they should be. He was very decisive that the order should be what we had written down. He printed every word and drew every shape in the book itself, using my template as reference. He loved making a checkmark on the list after completing each page. The progression of his interest in this activity was… interesting, for the lack of a better word. He was invested while we made the list, he didn’t want to start the book, he groaned and complained through the first two pages, he zoomed through the rest, constantly begging to work on his book, and then at the end, he didn’t want to show it off to anyone. I don’t know. It was strange. He was fine with me posting about it though.

Help! I think I’ve been wearing snow pants wrong for 40 years

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans,

Here is a picture of snow pants:

At the bottom of the legs of snow pants is something called an Internal Boot Gaiter. It has a texture like splash pants and an elastic on the bottom. There’s also the Boot Zipper or External Leg.

Now, for my whole life, I’ve been putting the Internal Boot Gaiter inside my boots, tightening my boots, and rolling down the Boot Zipper outside. I thought this created a sort of airlock.

On Saturday, my wife told me she stretched the gaiter over the boot to create a seal over the boot.

I was so shocked that I immediately googled it. It seems like all the sources I can find agree with Jen or seem to be agreeing.

So please tell me what do you do?

Do you put the Inner Gaiter inside the boot or outside?

View Results

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Be kind and stay safe,

Éric

Black Friday (2021) – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2021 film Black Friday.

Story

A very standard zombie movie with a dash of alien invasion. The progression is so predictable I was almost bored. Thankfully there were a lot of shopping jokes.

Score: 0

Characters

The usual rag-tag group of misfits fighting zombies and barely (or not) surviving. Some of the actors were pretty good and some not great. There’s some impressive character moments where they rush through their trauma (from before the events) but it feels forced and is played for laughs.

Score: 0

Dialogue

The jokes about feral customers, retail hell, and consumerism sent me back to my days working in a convenience store. The writers had definitely experienced the existential horror of retail work.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The visuals were creepy and well done. Lots of flash and violence.

The music was better than the movie deserved. The original Christmas song was well done.

Score: 1

Fun

There were parts that bored me, but overall I had fun. It was exactly what it said it was and didn’t try to be anything more.

Score: 0.5

Overall

This is a horror movie that wouldn’t stand up without it’s gimmick, but the gimmick is so well done that you don’t care. It’s violent, gory, and will give you flashbacks to working retail.

Final Score: 2.5 Stars out of 5

First week at work

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Hello,

I was worried about going back to work. I’m not sure why, I think it was just because I was feeling fatigued and low energy. I had nothing to worry about, my manager is super understanding and I still remember what I’m doing. Two things that made this much less stressful then it could have been.

It also helps that everyone else took some vacation over December so my projects were slowed down.

I took my last dose of the heart pills Wednesday morning and spent yesterday compulsively checking my heart rate on my phone. It was a little elevated (maybe from me stressing about it?) but still within the norm.

Overall, it’s been a good week. Let’s hope today continues the trend.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Week 19 – Kung Fu Panda

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This is such a fun movie to watch. I don’t think Pegasus has seen it, or at least not in a while, so I look forward to his reactions.

Here is the link for the downloadable materials. (I hope this works…please let me know if you have any problems so I can fix it!)

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
zhezhiWatch movienoodle soupFlexshrinky dinks

Summary of the week

Daily details:

Dance

Ballet and martial arts on alternate days

Music

Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar

Crochet

On break

Basic Information

We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.

Printing words

Download material

Counting objects/math-type activities

Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –(in download material)

Addition and pattern – worksheet

Storytime

Activity

Zhezhi – link to beginner’s origami (zhezhi is Chinese, origami is Japanese)
Make noodle soup – link to recipe
Make shrinky dinks – link to instructions (needs #6 plastic and permanent markers)

Next week: Over the Moon

I’m scared but I have hope

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans,

I’m back at work today, Dragon goes back to school, and life restarts after an extended break.

As I write this, I just finished reading the comments section on a Facebook post from Ottawa Public Health. I see in the comments a combination of anger and fear that is extremely familiar. Those that aren’t fake are people trying to come to terms with a world that seems to be falling apart. I understand the anger, I understand the frustration, and I understand the helplessness.

Unfortunately, we are in the golden age of cults. Yes, cults. From Dictionary.com, “An instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers”.

Cults used to need to isolate and cut people off from their support systems in order to take advantage of them. In our curated digital world, it’s easy to find oneself isolated into specific communities with extreme ideas. My tik-tok is heavily queer, neurodivergent, writerly, and ttrpg based with a smattering of food and nutrition. I doubt that’s others’ experiences.

What this means is that we’re seeing more polarization and more us-vs-them and a lot more confusion. When everyone around you says the same thing and suddenly others are saying differently, it’s jarring and a little scary.

It’s a form of Cognitive Dissonance. That gut instinct of “am I wrong?” followed by either doubling down on your beliefs or challenging them. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more doubling down, especially when you are scared.

Basically, what I’m saying is that social media is a grade school rumour mill taken to the extreme. What that means for humanity is still to be decided.

No matter how hard it is to see, there is hope. Change is slow, social change doubly so. But every generation pushes it further. For every cult leader out there, there are people working to debunk their lies. For every 10-50 hate-filled comment, there are real people sharing their truths.

Hope in and of itself is powerful, with hope we can find the good. Without it we are lost.

What we can do is hard and doesn’t always work, but we can be kind. We can help those in need. We can tell the stories that need to be told. We can defend those who need it. And most of all, we can question everything.

That’s enough rambling from me.

Be kind and stay safe,

Éric

2023 JenEric Movie Reviews

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Hello Movie Lovers,

This year I seem to have watched, and reviewed, 48 films. Not bad considering I was too sick to watch movies for most of December. Below is a list of them in descending star order. Within each catergory, they are in alphabetical order.

5 out of 5 Stars

4.5 out of 5 Stars

4 out of 5 Stars

3.5 out of 5 Stars

3 out of 5 Stars

2.5 out of 5 Stars

2 out of 5 Stars

1.5 out of 5 Stars

2024 Reviews will start next Saturday.