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Computer Scientist, Data Munger, Doctor (PhD), Math Geek, Bargain Hunter, Baker, Budding Photographer, Crafter, Domestic Diva Wannabe and 
Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
September 16, 2020
Did you miss me?
I missed you little journal.
It’s been almost two years since my last post. So much has changed since then. Dana started daycare part time. Alexis started transitional kindergarten. It’s like a pre-kindergarten for kids whose birthdays fall just past the cutoff for kindergarten. Transitional kindergarten is not offered at our assigned elementary, so she had to be taken to a sister school. I spent my days shuttling three kids between three different schools, with three different drop off times. Dana switched to full time. I volunteered twice a week at Nicole’s school, and once a week at Alexis’ school. We signed the kids up for gymnastics on the weekends. Nicole went one day, Alexis and Dana the other. I couldn’t imagine life being any busier.
Then March 13th happened. Schools closed and I instantly regretted ever complaining about the three kid/three different school drop off daily routine. I traded my three times a week volunteering gig for a full time teacher role. With a emerging reader getting online assignments with written instructions as well as a two year old at home I had one kid who needed constant help and another who needed constant supervision.
I’ve been in survival mode since March.
I’ve been operating at such a hurried pace the year has kind of felt like a blur.
I want to post more so I can remember more. My current blog structure is creating an artificial barrier. Writing a post with multiple paragraphs feels daunting. Micro blogging is much easier. I’m spending more time on Facebook for that reason, but I can feel it influencing me in negative ways. Especially during this time of high stress I seem unusually vulnerable to their algorithms.
I decided to redo my blog to allow for a mix of full length posts and micro-posts. That will also let me import any cute memories from facebook or my phone’s notepad that don’t match my current post format. I also want to move away from a incremental numeric id for each post identification system, and towards a date id.
I don’t know how long it will take to make this change. My days are spent teaching and looking after the kids, while the few hours I have after they go to bed are usually dedicated with household chores and whatever I can squeeze in for my business. Here’s hoping for October.
Posted in Life
November 21, 2018
Already Ahead Before Turkey Day
Between this Thanksgiving occurring as early as possible, and our plan to abandon Black Friday shopping in favor of decorating, I’m on track to cross off a substantial portion of my Christmas To Do list before the start of December. Here is all that I’ve accomplished already, ahead of Thanksgiving.
Christmas Cards, (✔)
We took our Christmas Card photo on Sunday, and finished our cards yesterday. I misread a coupon from Shutterfly and was rushing to get it done by Thanksgiving. Turns out I have no shortage of 40% off coupons that don’t expire until the end of December, so I’m sitting on our card until Black Friday/Cyber Monday to see if there’s a better deal coming.
Incidentally, rushing to get a family photo ended up being a good thing as not 24 hours later a cold started to make it’s way through our family bringing with it crusty noses, tired eyes and pale faces.
Black Friday, (✔)
BestBuy’s deal on the iPhone went live somewhere around 10 o’clock my time. Around the same time CamelCamelCamel alerted me to a good deal on the previous Kindle Paperwhite. Neither deal was spectacular, but can’t beat the convenience of shopping in my PJs while sipping my hot chocolate – especially since I’ve been hit by that cold!
While I am content to be finished with Black Friday shopping this year, I am a little disappointed. There didn’t appear to be a deal on the leap pad, either in person or online, and the phone ended up being not as discounted as I previously believed. I miss the spectacular deals.
“Santa’s” Shopping, (Mostly ✔)
Stockings
I’m ridiculously proud of how well Nicole’s and Alexis’ stockings came together. I started planning them back in September as Santa was getting the girls custom name necklaces. I got the idea when Alexis’ started writing her own name. Wouldn’t you know one of the four things Nicole wanted (along with headbands, and nail polish) was a new necklace? Way ahead of you, girlie!
Alexis wants a real life unicorn, so Santa is stuck there, but I think she’ll be happy with what Santa came up with.
That just leaves Dana’s stockings. Her’s was always going to be the most difficult as I like the stockings to be somewhat practical and we have so many hand me downs she is not of want for anything. I’m thinking maybe teethes and bath toys.
Presents
Handled across the board. Domingo and I happened to be in Target the day of the 20% off toys sale, which worked out perfectly.
Posted in Family Life | Tags: Black Friday, Christmas
November 16, 2018
Hazardous
Haze from the Smoke
Last year it was a big deal when the air quality index (AQI) reached 150. Today it topped out around 300, shattering records.
And I still don’t have the air purifiers I talked about getting. [Insert Expletives].
And the air is going to stay this way until Saturday next Tuesday. [Insert More Expletives].
The fire that first got me thinking about purchasing air purifiers was just a little brush fire, easily handled by the fire department and out the same day. No need to rush into a purchase, I told myself, I had time to do research first. Not all purifiers are equally good at handling all particulate matter in all spaces, and if I could fine one that worked well with wild fire smoke and pollen all the better.
When the Camp Fire started last week, the original prediction was the air would start to improve by this past Tuesday, so I didn’t feel pressured to act quickly. AQI was bad, but the standard bad that we’ve grown used to the past couple of years. Instead of improving, however, the air quality worsened. Schools closed in anticipation that the AQI reaching Hazardous levels.
I wasn’t surprised to discover the local big box stores were sold out of purifiers. The air quality had been teetering between “Unhealthy” and “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” for a week. I was shocked that even online giants are completely sold out. With wild fires burning across the state, however, even Amazon is struggling to keep inventory.
I am so mad at myself, and so worried about our little lungs. I waited to buy and we are all paying the price for it now.
We are doing what we can to lessen the impact of the smoke. Being inside helps, but the particulate matter still works its way inside over time. The smoke is blocking out the sun, keeping the temperature a good ten degrees colder than it would otherwise be. With the lows in the thirties we have no choice but to run the HVAC and I have yet to figure out if or how to use recycled air. We’re running it as little as possible.
Four more days.
Last night I couldn’t sleep. My eyes and throat burned, my head ached. The kids were getting up nearly constantly with similar complaints. I was lying in bed, browsing social media at 2:40am when someone posted that Amazon was selling the Coway air purifier again, one of the most consistently highly rated purifiers. I didn’t wait. I didn’t price check. It won’t ship for another two days, and won’t make it here until after the smoke is supposed to abate. I’m not taking any more chances. Good thing too, by the morning it was sold out again.
Posted in Family Life | Tags: California
November 12, 2018
Dana at Ten Months
Dear Dana,
Shortly after my last letter to you, Daddy took off on travel and you just took off crawling! I texted Daddy as he was in the Taxi on his way to the airport to inform him that you had crawled six steps, the most yet. By the time Daddy was back home, just a few days later, there was no denying it – you were a crawler! You’re still mastering your crawling technique. You crawl on two hands and a flat foot and a knee with your leg turned in wards. It’s surprisingly effective. Sometimes you try crawling on two flat feet. So far you haven’t tried two knees yet, but when you do you’ll really start to take off.
You’re hair is getting so long, I’m going to have to start using barrettes or hair ties.
While Daddy was gone I broke out your play pen. We’ve been affectionately referring to the it as the “baby jail.” So far, you’re a fan. I thought you wouldn’t like being contained now that you can crawl, but you don’t seem to mind. You love when your big sisters make faces at you through the mesh sidings of your play pen. I think you also feel safer in it than on the floor when sisters come home all wound up after school. As much as you love their attention and hugs, the after-school hugs can sometimes be a little intimidating.
Just this week you started pulling up to a stand by your table. You’re still not cruising yet, I think we still have another month to go before we reach that milestone. Instead of going around your activity table when there’s something you want on the other side, you attempt to go over it.
We’re starting to transition away from purees to table food. Spaghetti was a huge hit, chicken was not. You enjoyed beef crumbles one day, but not another. You seem to prefer solid fruit to the mushed variety. You have eaten banana, water mellon and strawberries consistently well.
We’re also starting to hear words from you now. Aside from Mama and Dada, “yeah” and “no” are the words we hear most often. I have video where I’m trying to coax you to crawl for mommy. You’re on all fours, looking like you’re giving crawling some serious consideration before you say “no”, pushing back into a sitting position. Daddy and I both heard you say “more” in reference to cheerios, along with the sign. The girls are convinced you’re saying even more words, but I’m pretty confident that’s just wishful thinking. Truth be told, ‘yeah’ and ‘no’ may be wishful thinking on our part. ‘Yeah’ seems to be the sound you naturally make when excited and smiling, which may be why it seems right in context. As excited as I am to hear you start to talk for real, I’ll miss you’re happy little baby squeals.
Love Always,
Mommy and Daddy
Posted in Family Life | Tags: Dana
November 5, 2018
Better Bedtimes
Bedtime for us was a mess. We had three different kids in need of three different bedtimes, with only two adults and two of the kids sharing a bed room. It seemed unlikely.
Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and try anyway.
Our initial routine had Nicole and Alexis on the same schedule, both going to bed between 7:30 and 8pm. Alexis was always over tired by the time 7:30 rolled around. She’d have a hard time sitting still at the homework table, or playing quietly, and would often inadvertently distract Nicole. The more Nicole lost focus, the longer it took for her to finish her work. The more over tired the girls got, the less cooperative they were getting dressed into PJs or brushing teeth. As a result, we often weren’t going to bed on the best note. While I can’t say for certain, I believe the rocky bedtime was effecting the quality of their sleep, and by transitivity, our sleep.
The first change we made was to move teeth brushing and pajamas to immediately after dinner, before homework. While Domingo helps the girls get ready for bed, I’m giving Dana her bath and putting her down to sleep. Usually Nicole and Alexis finish before I come down stairs, and start homework while waiting for me.
Once I put Dana to bed at 7, it’s Mommy & Alexis time until 7:30. Alexis picks out a chapter book for me to read as a bed time story. The nice thing about our new routine is it lends itself well to natural consequences. If she hasn’t cooperated with Daddy and isn’t in her pajamas with her teeth brushed, we have less reading time. Thus far we have only had to skip bed time story once for the lesson to sink in.
When Nicole finishes her homework she either works on her math game for school, or practices her reading with Domingo until I put Alexis to bed at 7:30. Then it’s Nicole’s turn for individual Mommy time. She goes to bed at 8. By then, Alexis is almost always asleep.
The down side to our new routine is Alexis is getting less “homework” time to practice her letters and numbers. What we’re gaining is the reintroduction of bed time stories, 20-30 minutes of individual mommy time for each girl, additional reading and math practice for Nicole, and a more peaceful bedtime. I’ll call that a win.
Now I need to figure out a way to have better mornings so we’re not always rushing to get out the door on time.
Posted in Family Life
November 1, 2018
October 2018 Progress and Income Report
October was a month of tepid gains.
Income wise, I earned $1,022.07, down just $72 from September. The difference appears to be that October’s revenue remained consistent at the lower, post second-week-in-September rate, whereas September had one good week before income dropped. I’m still disappointed that revenue dropped in the first place, but the good news is that revenue isn’t dropping further.
In terms of engagement, users were up 8.6% in October. October’s gains, combined with September’s and August’s were enough to finally overcome the loss of audience size that started back in May. Comparing comparable time periods (both starting the same day of the week, and counting the same number of days), Audience size in October is just four tenths of a percent down from April, which is within the noise.
It’s not all good news when looking at audience size, however. While October and April’s overall audience sizes were comparable, per day rates were not. On average there were fewer users per day in October than per day in April, which could indicate a lower retention rate in October. Diving in with Google analytics it appears April users were more likely to return quickly, within 0-4 days. I’d really like to investigate this further, and get a sense of why users might not be coming back as frequently as they once were. It looks like a different breakdown in app popularity could explain the difference, but I’d like to be sure there isn’t some larger issue lurking.
This month I’ve been working on bug fixes, interface design and user experience.
At the end of September I was alerted that mobile-first indexing was now enabled for datayze. I knew it was coming, and was already pretty pleased with my current approach to mobile. One area of concern still is browser resizing. Each app interface is great if you’re on a mobile screen, or a desktop screen, but if you grow from the former to the later, or shrink from the later to the former, sometimes things can get a little wonky. It’s not a common case, but one that should be addressed just the same.
October 17, 2018
An Unnatural Hue
I didn’t think much of it when I noticed a strange orange color casting taking photos of the kids outside.
I didn’t think much of it when I saw the wild turkeys, and, rather than appear indifferent to my presence like they always do, they scrambled to get away.
I didn’t think much of it when I smelled the smell of barbecue. Or maybe that was a fire in a fireplace I was smelling?
It wasn’t until Domingo pointed the sky line that I realized a wild fire was burning nearby.
It’s subtle, but the dried grass is a little more orange and a little less yellow in the above photograph than on a typical day.
I’ve lived in California now for nearly a decade and a half. Domingo longer. We plan for earthquakes. I never thought when I moved here I’d have to have an emergency wild fire plan as well. Four of the last three years there’s been a wild fire burning close enough to us to severely hamper the air quality. I’ve lost count of the actual fires.
It’s time to rethink our emergency plans.
Air purifiers – Last year I was pregnant during a time the air quality was unhealthy. I’d feel winded simply driving from our home to daycare. We joked that I was the family’s canary in the coal mine: I’d wake up in the middle of the night with a terrible headache. Domingo would whip out the phone and – yup – AQI just spiked to 150+.
Being pregnant during a wildfire is something I’ll never have to experience again, but it made me acutely aware of how miserable reduce long capacity and poor air quality can be. I also worry about the long term effects on the little lungs in our family.
Our plan is a small room air purifier for each bedroom. If nothing else, may the smoke not interrupt the kids’ sleep!
Escape plan – I’m the kind of person who wants to have an idea of what to grab in case the evacuation order comes. The sad reality is that the fires in recent years were moving too fast to allow for that. We could find ourselves in a situation where I’m crouched in the back row of the minivan trying to buckle the kids in their seats while Domingo drives us away from the flames.
Time permitting, I’ll grab the local copy of my photos and other data backup since that’s just unplugging a single USB cable and grabbing a single hard drive. Possessions can be purchased again. Even birth certificates can be reordered.
As terrifying as a forced evacuation can be for adults, it’s scarier for kids. The second item on my grab list is the kids’ lovey.
As much as I’d love to save keepsakes, I don’t think that’s a practical expectation. The kids’ footprints, travel souvenirs, wedding mementoes. It’s all too scattered around the house. I tried to scan anything flat into the computer, and photograph anything not so I at least have a digital back up of sorts.
The overall theme – Whether it’s sheltering in place during earthquakes, or running from wild fires, our plans have us co-locating the kids so one parent can keep them from panicking while the other assess the situation.
May we never have to test our plans.
Posted in Life | Tags: California
October 12, 2018
Dana at Nine Months
Dear Dana,
And here we are, nine months. Wasn’t it just a few days ago that I was writing your eighth month entry? At least I’m finally starting to think of you more as a baby and less of a newborn. See, mommies can learn too!
This month we decided to work on teaching you to fall asleep on your own, sans rocking and sans nursing. I mentioned previously how good you were at learning to falling back to sleep by yourself after waking up in the middle of the night. You’d also occasionally put yourself to sleep in the rock n’ play for daddy. (What amazes me about that is that you started doing this months after we moved you out of the rock n play for sleeping!) So we felt pretty confident you were ready and just needed a little more encouragement. By October you were doing it consistently. Now you even settle yourself back to sleep after every middle of the night nursing.
You had your second cold this month. You were such a trooper during the day that no one would have ever suspected you were under the whether. It wasn’t until night time that the congestion would become apparent. To help with the congestion we introduced you to your first shower, which is now most definitely one of your favorite things. You squealed with delight when I’d move you through the jet stream, alternately turning your face to the water and away. Oh how you loved to get your face wet! You even put out your tongue to catch the droplets.
Finger food is no longer just for gravity experiments, now it’s an acceptable form of nourishment. You like Cheerios and Puffs, but aren’t really a fan of much else yet. We’re teaching you the sign language for “more” and “done,” although you preferred way to signal the meal is over is by dumping the rest on the floor. Remind me to thank your sisters for encouraging that one.
The big news, though, is that someone is starting to crawl! At the start of October you’d get on your hands and knees, staring longingly at objects in front of you, before diving on your tummy and reaching for them. Then, you’d crawl move forward on your hands, your knees still stationary until you pancaked on your belly. Now your managing to move both your arms and legs, getting some forward propulsion. You don’t seem fully aware of how you’re making yourself move, so you aren’t making it very far yet, but I’m sure you will in no time!
Love Always,
Mommy and Daddy
Posted in Family Life | Tags: Dana
October 4, 2018
What a Difference a Year Makes
Last year around this time I was feeling completely overwhelmed keeping up with my kindergartener’s school work. I felt like I was perpetually behind, often letting reading and site words fall by the wayside. This year? Total opposite.
We’ve hit our groove early. Nicole’s sight words list has been divided into four lists, one she should know already, and one for each trimester. We’re already mastered the first two lists and we’re just over a month in. Even better, many of the words from the final two lists she can sound out, even if she doesn’t instantly recognize them. She’s been working really hard and it shows!
What’s really making me feel like a rock star is not having one little homework champion, but two.
Alexis is all about getting to do everything big sister Nicole gets to do, and that includes homework. We signed her up for the same extra classes, dubbed Learning Adventures, we signed Nicole up for when she was in pre-kindergarten. Two years ago I signed Nicole up mostly because I felt pressured to keep up with other parents. I knew we were supposed to continue the lessens at home, but I never prioritized them. Since I wasn’t continuing the lessons, we weren’t getting everything out of them.
One of my favorite parts about my three year olds doing “homework”? The way she writes her name. Alexis writes her e’s and x’s a little crooked sometimes so sometimes it looks like ‘Alptis.’ When Nicole was not quite four she used to spell her name ‘Nicon.’ I know I’m done having kids, but if I wasn’t, potential for an adorable misspelling would be a factor in name selection.
Of course we still don’t take pre-k homework too seriously. For Alexis “homework” is tracing letters and identifying sounds in words. Her worksheet will include tracing five p’s, then circling the image of a pickle, pig and pumpkin. One time she insisted on circling the Koala because she loves Koala, even though she acknowledged it doesn’t have a p-sound. I didn’t fight it. She has always had a very strong independent streak. It will serve her well as CEO one day.
Posted in Family Life | Tags: School
October 1, 2018
September 2018 Progress and Income Report
September looked like it was going to be another explosive month. One week in and revenue was up high enough to put my business on track for the $2,000 per month milestone I was aiming for. But just as suddenly (and unexpectedly) as the increased revenue came, it vanished. Despite users being up 4% for the month, revenue dropped to only $1,128.36. Publisher coverage was down 20%, and adclicks were down nearly in half.
Despite spending most of the month trying to root out the cause of the revenue drop, I couldn’t identify the source. The drop occurred around the time I pushed an update, but it really doesn’t make sense for that particular change to effect revenue. It didn’t change either page content or user interface in a meaningful way – just replaced one text link with a button. If anything, users appeared more engaged afterwards. Time on site was up 19%, and the bounce rate down 63%. As far as I could tell, everything should be good on my end.
That’s not to say Datayze was error free in September. There was a nasty time zone bug effecting my time management apps for some users. I was finally able to identify the root cause after some user feedback. It appears the bug was introduce at the end of August. Since the bug was effecting my most popular apps I had some hope that it might have been effecting revenue in some round about way, but revenue remained largely unchanged after the fix.
Aside from interface improvements and bug fixes, I also launched a new app, Days Until/Since. Days Until gives you a total count, as well as the number of each type of weekday. It also precomputes the date of many popular holidays a user might not know of off the top of their head, like Thanksgiving.
While it’s hard not to be disappointed in the revenue drop, I’m trying to remain focused on the positive: $1,128 is still twice the revenue from June and May. Users are up, and we are heading into the most lucrative part of the year.