As someone who sucks at math and much prefers the visual method of learning, I can’t help but proclaim to everyone else who are as mathematically challenged that this animated GIF makes it sooooo much easier to understand pi!
Reminds me of the Visual Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.
Via I Love Charts.
Yesterday, our daughter Claire Emmanuelle was baptized. 🙂
I know that many babies usually get baptized a lot earlier than our daughter’s 9 months. And the main reason for the delay was due to our church’s serious stance on baptism — we, as parents, had to take several classes to prepare, to decide whether we wanted her to be baptized or not, and to finally become eligible.
According to our faith (our denomination is Presbyterian, more specifically PCA), baptism actually does not automatically save, and there are two reasons for this. The first is that there is biblical evidence that at least one man went to heaven without being baptized: the thief who was crucified next to Jesus. The second, and more central reason, is because we believe that acts alone do not bring salvation — it is only by the grace of Jesus Christ that we are saved, and so the notion that additional work is required to be saved is incorrect.
So why baptize at all? The answer is simple — because Jesus commands it: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt 28:19). Peter took up this message in his very first sermon, at Pentecost, when he said, “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38). And Paul links baptism with “putting on Christ” in his letter to the Galatians (Gal 3:27).
Baptism signifies a union with Christ, and acts as a sign and seal of the membership in the church.
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| While our church takes the concept of baptism seriously, the ceremony itself is quite casual and quick — so quick that we didn’t get any pictures of the ceremony! So here are a couple of pictures of Claire in her baptism outfit (headband, dress, and shoes all from Baby Gap). |
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Infant Baptism is quite different from Believer’s Baptism in that while a Believer’s Baptism focuses on the conversion and decision to follow Christ, Infant Baptism centers around God’s promise of salvation and the covenant that He has made with His people. And in return, the parent(s) make a promise to raise the child in the faith, and the church congregation joins in promising to assist the family in doing so.
I know that there is a growing trend in the modern world for parents not to baptize their children, or even to “choose” a religion for them. “If your religion is that great, don’t you trust that your child will choose to follow it as he/she gets older and is able to make informed decisions themselves?”
To them, I answer: if something is so important and central in your life, if something brings you more comfort and happiness than anything else, why wouldn’t you share it with your child? Don’t we all want the best for our children?
I have written in the past that my only fear of dying is that I will not be able to see all of my loved ones in eternity. And I couldn’t imagine being in heaven without my children. Yes, I know that there is a possibility that our children may one day rebuke God and Christianity, but I pray that this will not happen…and this is the reason we chose to baptize our children. So that they will be raised in the faith, and that they will grow to love Christ just as we have.
Our pastor told us that he believes his #1 job as a Christian parent is to make sure that his children will never know a day when they did not feel loved by God. And that is precisely what J and I hope to do.
This is the cutest thing I’ve seen in quite some time. Click on the image, or go to http://juliewillyoumarry.me/ for the full proposal.
I heart creative men! (J is about as creative as a cardboard box. The upside to this is that it makes it that much cuter when he does try. 😉 )
Thank you to all those who entered my Amazon Gift Card Giveaway. Due to my dead laptop, I had to start the spreadsheet of entries all over again, but I had promised to reveal the winners by the end of the week and by golly I was gonna get it done.
So without further ado…
The winner of the $100 Amazon Gift Card is Susan, who tweeted the giveaway!
The winner of the $50 Amazon Gift Card is Amanda, who “Liked” the Geek in Heels Page on Facebook!
And the winner of the $25 Amazon Gift Card is Armando, who also “Liked” the Geek in Heels Page on Facebook!
Congratulations to all three winners! I will be contacting you shortly with the details on how you can redeem your gift cards.
Once again, thank you to all who entered, and thank you all even more for your continued support. 🙂
I have been blogging for over a decade now, and in that time I have certainly received hurtful and/or hateful comments. I have had my share of trolls, personal messages from particularly irate readers, as well as (empty) threats.
At first they used to bother me. A lot.
But now, I find them quite amusing.
Does something that a complete stranger writes on their personal blog bother you so much that you feel the need to continually argue your point?
To refresh the page over 90 times in an hour to see if you had gotten a response? (Yes, someone actually did this to me quite a few times.)
To link to the offending post in an online forum or social media site to ask for reinforcements? (A militant atheist used to link to my blog whenever I wrote anything regarding my religious beliefs.)
I personally find that it is completely useless to argue with someone over the internet, let alone with someone whom you’ve never met. So you know my stance on the issue. 🙂
(via xkcd)
My favorites are, by far, the comments and emails that tell me that they will stop reading my blog. These are almost always from readers who have never interacted with me before — those who I never knew were reading in the first place — so I find it a bit comical that they expect me to get upset.
Perhaps these people think that by no longer reading this blog, they are no longer supporting me financially?
The truth of the matter is that although I have recently started to monetize my blog, I probably made in the last month what I used to make in one day when I worked full-time. So no, I can do without the money and I have done without the money all this time.
Do they stop reading other blogs over differences in opinions too? Because personally, there are many, many blogs and websites I frequent that often publishes content I disagree with politically, religiously, and even sometimes morally. But I continue to visit them because I find the majority of their content interesting and/or relevant to my needs. So I find it a bit difficult to understand why others can’t do the same.
My friend Maya did a very thought-provoking post last month about Socially Conscious Shopping which sorta treads on this issue. How much do you really know about the inner workings of a company? How much do you really know about the blogger behind the blog?
I tend to share more about my life than the average person, but it is still only a slice of my life. So how do you know that I do not run a sex trafficking ring in my spare time? How do you know that I am not actually a 42-year-old man who has painstakingly created the “Geek in Heels” persona?
The answer is, you don’t.
Look, I do not expect to change the world with this blog. I am well aware that I am just one lone voice amongst millions, and that this blogs holds very negligible to no power when it comes to influencing society, laws, popular opinion, and so forth.
What I share here are my personal thoughts, tidbits from my boring life, and amusing findings I discover online.
And as far as I can tell, I am quite within my rights to continue doing exactly what I’ve been doing. 
This post is not meant to dissuade people from posting disagreeable comments. I am perfectly fine with healthy debates where all parties stay respectful. Rather, this post is directed at those who insist that their opinions are right, no matter what, and will continually harrass and/or insult me or another commenter.
Why would they get so upset over the opinions of a perfect stranger?
How could they be so convinced that they have a blogger “figured out” when what they read is solely based on what the said blogger chose to share?
Do they react similarly when they find out that a friend or acquaintance holds differing opinions too, ie confront them and argue their point?
The California Milk Processor Board along with ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners have launched a new “Got Milk?” ad campaign touting the benefits of the white stuff in reducing the symptoms of PMS.
The problem? Many women — as well as men! — are finding the ads humorless and offensive. Take a look:
As someone who suffers from severe PMS (and pregnancy is like 10 straight months of PMS!), I’m not quite sure what to think about these ads. I can see the humor in them, but I can also understand how they can rub you the wrong way.
What do you think of these ads? Are you rolling your eyes and assuming that the campaign team consists of all men? Or do you think that they purposely chose to go a slightly controversial route for the extra publicity?
Via Neatorama.
Update, 7.21.2011:
I have just learned that the campaign has come to an abrupt end due to widespread outrage.
Remember how I said that we were working on transitioning Claire from 3 naps down to 2?
She continued to hover back and forth between 2 and 3 naps for over a month. But in the end, it took a traumatic visit to the pediatrician’s office to officially push her over to the 2 nap schedule.
The lengths of her naps are still inconsistent, lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Her nighttime sleep has still yet to return to her pre-teething days and so she will wake up at least once per night more often than sleep all the way through. But now that she is able to stay awake for up to 3 and a half hours without going batsh*t crazy on us…our little girl is starting to become quite fun!
Since my laptop is still dead AND my phone is on the fritz,
uploading new pictures has become quite a chore. You’ll have to
make do with this cute picture of a ticklish koala for now.
We are now able to take her on short excursions without worrying too much about whether her sleep schedule will get ruined. And if she is in a good mood, she will wave “hi” and “bye” to even strangers, as evidenced by a trip to the store this week where she charmed everyone on the checkout line by waving to them.
(Her waving has become quite good now — before, she would only do it if one of us waved first. Now, she understands the words “hi” and “bye” and will wave when she hears those words.)
Don’t get me wrong. She still has her bad moments where she will just push me over the edge and reduce me to a blubbering pile of tears. But it’s like I have always suspected — I’m just not the type of person to like the early infant months that much. Having a learning, responding, interactive child is sooooo much more fun. And while J admits that even he misses her tiny baby months sometimes, I don’t miss them at all…and look forward to the upcoming years with great anticipation.
I am not looking forward to going through this all over again when BebeDeux arrives. But I remind myself that just as I am loving Claire more with each day, it will be so with BebeDeux too. And that a couple of years of hardship isn’t that long compared to the scheme of things.
Speaking of BebeDeux…
I have hit a milestone this week by reaching 24 weeks. This means that if something were to go wrong, or if I were to go into premature labor, hospitals are required by law to try to do everything in their power to keep BebeDeux alive. And while a baby born this early will most likely have complications, he/she has a good chance of survival.
Before reaching 24 weeks (in some states it is 23 weeks), hospitals have the right to refuse treatment.
I would show you a current belly picture, but my technical issues are thwarting my plans. J tells me that my stomach looks exactly the same as it did when I was pregnant with Claire, so here is the picture of my “24 weeks pregnant” picture from last year:
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
J and I grew up in a culture and generation that was all for physical discipline. In fact, it was rare to find a household that did not spank/cane their children.
Our homes were not the only places for punishments either — I still remember how, having attending up to the 2nd grade in Korea, all the teachers kept a separate cane for punishments (the unspoken rules stated that we would “only” get hit on the palms of our hands or our calves)…from not doing your homework to straying from the dress code. One time, the entire class was hit three times on the palms of our hands because someone whistled during a lesson and no one would confess to it!
I have read that corporal punishment in the schools back in my native country has lessened up some, but still exists. Additionally, with the widespread penetration of the internet and video/photo technology, the instances of teachers abusing their power has significantly decreased, as illustrated in this funny GIF from haha.nu:
My sister and I were generally well-behaved kids. So while our parents did hit us on a few occasions, it was only when we were really really bad, and these times were far and few between.
J, on the other hand, was a very rebellious and unruly child. My MIL tells us that he and his brother used to make her cry almost every day with their uncontrollable behavior, and that they were hit quite often with canes of varying sizes. (She jokes that this is the reason she is happy we are having two girls — raising two disorderly boys has traumatized her! 😉 )
With our personalities being so dissimilar, J and I have talked at length regarding the disciplining of our children. The short answer? We are both for physical discipline. This is not to say that we will be hitting our children for every offense. Rather, we will only do so when they are very very bad. We will take care never to take it too far, and only do it in the privacy of our home. (Hopefully our children will grow up to be relatively well-behaved, like my sister and I were!)
We also know that I will act as the every day disciplinarian and that J will only step in for the large wrongdoings. We also believe that after a certain age, physical punishment will not be as effective and so we will need to stop.
We both are fully aware that there are many families who would never lay a hand on their children. And we do not believe that one style of parenting is better than the other — like almost all parenting decisions, we all have to make the best decision for our unique family. And for us, we feel that large offenses deserve physical punishment (of course, our views may change depending on the personalities of our children, underlying circumstances, etc).
I still remember the very last time that my sister and I were about to get hit. Our father had rounded us up after dinner, and we knew that we were most likely in for some hits on our palms due to our recent behavior. However, our father calmly told us that he was disappointed in us…but that he was more disappointed in himself because he had failed as a father. He then went on to hit himself on the palms of his hands with the stick that we thought was meant for us.
That, to us, hurt more than anything else.
We continued to have our rebellious moments (especially during our teenage years), but we were never hit again.
(Seriously. Isn’t my dad the best or what?)
Were you hit as a child? Are you for or against corporal punishment?
I like books, gadgets, spicy food, and art. I dislike shopping, hot weather, and the laws of entropy. Although I am a self-proclaimed computer nerd, I still have a love for handbags and makeup... and I am always teetering on high heels. To learn more about me, visit the "About" page.
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