Cellular grammar

Whenever our kids take on a new discipline, they by necessity must learn a new set of vocabulary in giving language to the new concepts they are learning.

Presently in biology Jadon is learning about endocytosis and exocytosis, and he was assigned to diagram the processes.

"Don't forget to draw the molecules that the cell is trying to endocytose," I exhorted.

"You can 'verb' it like that?"

(We found it funny to discuss later that the words "verb," "adjective," and "adverb" are all in fact nouns!)

New lows (we like!) for our son

Voice Recorder-Voz

Mathematics, Linguistics, and Civics

After Jadon's piano competition today we were talking about whom he saw while there. He mentioned that he saw a longtime competitor who strangely didn't even acknowledge him or say hello even though they had been friendly before at past competitions. Her mother, however, greeted Jadon and briefly answered the question Jadon had asked her daughter about the piece she was playing.

JJ also mentioned that the mother also briefly greeted her, though "Not much, just 'I-su, I-su.' Just to say that she didn't fail to greet us."

We noted the curiosity of the the Taiwanese expression "I-us, I-su" as it literally means "meaning, meaning" even though it can be translated "just for looks or outward appearances," i.e. without much meaning at all.

JJ commented that putting the two words right together was probably a sarcastic way of making the meaning opposite.

Evangelina chimed with her own mathematical analogy, "Oh, kinda like 'negative, negative' makes it positive."

The spirit Is willing but the flesh is weak

Tonight I was feeling exasperated with the kids' not going to bed as quickly as they say they will

D: I just want you to mean what you say!

Jadon: I do! I just lack the willpower to do it in the end!

Sino-Sinister?

We were discussing a sermon in the car about supernatural occurrences in which demonic forces could imitate God's power at times.  

"You have to know that demonic power is always a sham, a very limited copy of the original," JJ explained.

Jadon offered his own explanation: "You mean, like, 'Made in China'?"

A very beautiful proposal

One of the beautiful things we got to see on our recent trip to the Northwest was the unexpected occurrence of marriage proposals, the first of which was during our visit to the Seattle Space Tower, and another the next day at the West Point Lighthouse in Seattle's Discovery Park. Both the kids were amazed and excited by witnessing such events, and they even prompted our little one to ask us about our own engagement. The most heartwarming part of it all for me was the spontaneous and earnest proposal from Jadon himself: that we pray together for the marriage of the people we just saw get engaged. We of course happily obliged!

The Do He Digs

We as a family are partial to the crew cuts that my cousin Reagan says are typical for second-generation Taiwanese American men… which makes me wonder how much of that is simply inculcated by external mainstream expectations. Jadon of course would be third-generation in our immigrant family, and last night he suddenly wanted to capture a photo of the hairstyle he likes, and here it is:

Our Rebel Racers “Taxi Service”

Hard Boiled, Scrambled, or Over Easy?

Conversation on the way north on a road trip:

Mommy: how many kids do you guys want to have in the future?
J: I'm going to have 10 kids, eight biological and two adopted.
Daddy: You're going to have to find a very special woman for that Jadon.
E: yeah, with a lot of eggs.

Celebrity By-Proxy

• Jadon's been getting along quite well with the lifeguards at the Crown Valley Community Pool where he swims (sometimes with me) a few times a week.

  
  

  Recently I was walking in to pay for our swim-time together while Jadon was still at the car getting his gear together when one of the lifeguards hailed me, "Hey, Sid!"

  
  

  I smiled & commented to the young man that apparently, I'm popular because of my son!

  
  

  I learned later from Jadon that the young man's name was Hunter, and that he just got straight A's in his last term at California State University at Fullerton.  He warmly received my congratulations on earning good grades, graduating, and landing a job as Coordinator for the Aquatics program there.

How do you argue with a zombie?

Returning to in-person schooling has been a mixed blessing, especially because it means getting up about an hour earlier than usual.  A few mornings ago, I was driving Jadon to school when we were having a difficult time communicating.  As usual, we were in a rush out the door.  I felt he was being sullen and disrespectful (eg: not answering my questions), so at a stoplight I turned off his cellphone access and threatened to leave it that way for the day.  He felt that I was being rude, & he certainly was not happy at losing access to his phone.  Our angry back-&-forth continued all the way to Santa Ana when I pulled into a parking spot at his school.  We finally came to a respectful detente, gave necessary apologies, and agreed on how we could communicate better.

Happy to get cellphone access back, Jadon checked on a new app that he'd gotten that works with the FitBit he's been wearing at night.  

"That's weird," he said, "FitBit says that I was asleep from 9:40pm to 8:16am."

It was now 8:18am.

THAT EXPLAINED EVERYTHING.

working out one's faith (through one's future kids!)

When I have kids, even if I don't believe for myself I'm going to make sure they read the Bible and go to church.  Just because I don't believe it doesn't mean that they shouldn't have the chance to believe.

Blissfully mistaken or Mistaken Bliss?

Mom: (while explaining some technical aspect of touch at the piano)  That's wrong Jadon!

Jadon: (apparently trying to comply?) But I'm enjoying myself playing it wrong!

Accidental Tinglish

JJ & I were discussing my retirement account from work when Jadon asked, "What's TIAA-CREF?"

I explained that it's a financial services company that handles some of our future money.  

He seemed surprised.  "Oh, I'd seen some things from TIAA-CREF lying around from your stuff, & I thought it was something Chinese, like 'Tee-Ah-Ah.'"

He was referring to the song that Evangelina had learned awhile back:

Thi(n)-O*-O*,          

Boe lo ho*.            

Akong gia ti-thau

Boe kut o*

Kut a-kut, Kut a-kut, Kut-tio chit-boe soan-liu-ko*

Hi(n)-a, He(n)-a, chin-chia(n) chhu-bi!

Akong boe chu kiam

Ama boe chu chia(n)

Nng lang sio-pha long-phoa tia(n), long-phoa tia(n), long-phoa tia(n)! 

Hi(n)-a, He(n)-a, chin-chia(n) chhu-bi!

Darkened Sky

Rain's gonna fly

Grandpa grabs the hoe, goes out to dig taro.

Dig a-dig, hoe a-hoe, out comes an eel, well what do you know!

Hee-haw, haw-hee, well that's sure funny as can be!

Grandpa wants to cook the eel with salt

Grandma wants the eel cooked without

The two of them, they don't talk: they just fight & break the wok!

Hee-haw, haw-hee, well that's sure funny as can be!

Tarsus, Damascus, Tarshish, Outlandish

Earlier today Jadon and I were talking about the regional accents and individual idiosyncrasies of language that people have, including some of the rather prominent ones of Dr. Lee the professor of math at their online Ardent Academy for Gifted Students (he seems to be an immigrant from China). We went on to what I think is a rather funny "Changism" as I've heard it not only from JJ but also at least from one of her sisters as well: apparently they often add an "L" sound to the word "saw," as in "I sawl it with my own two eyes."

I commented that it almost sounded like they were from Texas when Jadon immediately said, "They must be from Damascus."

Not understanding, I asked, "What do you mean?"

"Like in the Bible: 'Saul of Damascus.'"

...........

"Now as [Saul] went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him...." (Acts 9:3)

No first blood on first shave

Jadon came down this morning with oil (coconut?) which seemed to me to be messily applied to his lips, until later he confessed to having tried shaving for the first time. The resulting stubble from Jadon's first shave, no less from a free razor from the Lifetime Gym locker room.

Fw: Megan Schmidtbauer added a private comment on "Favorite Teacher Letter"

---

From: Megan Schmidtbauer (Classroom) <no-reply+703ded38@classroom.google.com>
Sent: Friday, January 1, 2021 12:45 AM
To: Jadon Wu <Jadon.Wu@ocsarts.net>
Subject: Megan Schmidtbauer added a private comment on "Favorite Teacher Letter"

 

Hi Jadon,

Megan Schmidtbauer added a private comment on Favorite Teacher Letter.

Megan Schmidtbauer "Hey Jadon! I love that you wrote your Spanish teacher a letter in Spanish! That's awesome! Thank you for my letter as well! The math humor was something new I tried this semester based solely on your feedback from the Star Trek humor! You seemed to appreciate it and I wanted to help break up the stress and anxiety that comes with finals, so I figured I would expand on the idea of embedding humor in the exam itself. So thanks for appreciating it! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Happy New Year! =)" REPLY

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