Tag: NYTimes

  • After Effects of a Vacation

    I read an article yesterday that most people are happier leading up to their vacation, than actually on their vacation. I took a second to think about that, and I knew that this was true. Yes, the best part of a vacation is counting down the days. Once you get where you are going, then everything goes sideways.

    This year, we talked to kid about this. How, the one of the best parts of being on vacation is when things do go wrong, because that is when you make new discoveries. I know that isn’t 100% true, but I wanted to plant the idea in her head that when things go wrong, it becomes an opportunity to try new and different things. I think it sort of worked. There wasn’t too much complaining, but the trade-off was that she wanted to spend a large amount of time on the family iPad.

    Oh well…

    But we did experience something new with the kid this year when we came home from vacation; she was a little depressed. The kid is seven now, and not little anymore, both physically and emotionally. We all have known that feeling of coming home from a vacation; if you had a good time, then there is that feeling of letdown; a little sadness of having to come home and go back to the old routine. That’s normal.

    This year was the first time that the kid experienced that. And she didn’t know what to do with these feelings. She was sad, sullen, and even had a little bit of a breakdown, and cried in her room for a bit. The wife and I talked, and made sure that we were on the same page on how to deal with this. The most important thing was not to make her feel ashamed for feeling sad. We let her tell us in her own way what was wrong, and let her just experience feeling bad. Then when she calmed down, we started talking about the fun we had, the memories we created, and what we should do with the rest of our summer.

    I know we can’t stop her from feeling bad, or sad, or experiencing emotions that are hard to put your finger on. But we can help her understand that having strong feelings is normal, and can be a good thing. And that there are constructive ways of dealing with them.

  • ODDS and Ends: NYTimes Killed WORDLE, War, and Crypto Value

    (Say it ain’t so…)

    Yup, @nytimes killed WORDLE. They took something fun, monkied with it, and now it’s not fun. WORDLE has become more difficult, not hard or impossible, just a little more difficult, to the point where now sometimes you lose. There is a good chance that you might not get the word in six tries. Just like how you might not be able to fully fill out the Times’ crossword puzzle, or become a Queen Bee on their Spelling Bee game. (I play both semi regularly, and I keep struggling for perfection, but may never attain it at those games.) WORDLE was the opposite of that. It was challenging enough to make you think, but not so hard that you couldn’t succeed. WORDLE was easy, and for most of us out there, it gave us an easy win at the start of the day. And the sociability of it, to share your box of colors, but not the letters, kind’a gave an insight on your thought process without divulging that you use the same words over and over and over again. Now, seeing everyone get it on the fifth or sixth try isn’t encouraging, or even envy creating, it just shows that we are frustrated. Read the room @nytimes, we liked our easy win.

    I have been avoiding talking about Ukraine and Russia and all of that going on. Sadly, I don’t feel good about it. I am not an expert, clearly, but it just feels like everything is leading to a war. Maybe it won’t turn into a world war, but it just feels like a war will happen. The reason I feel this way is sadly because it feels like a pattern humans keep repeating; Disease, Limited Resources, War. That and it’s been over eighty years since a world war, and well, most of the people who lived through that are gone, so no one remembers how bad this stuff can be. Just makes me nervous.

    My crypto currency has lost 37.45% of its value since I purchased it in October 2021. That means I have lost $12.92.