“When kids are praised for everything and told they are ‘special’ it does two things: It reduces their desire to put in effort, and it reduces their ability to self-regulate because they don’t get to challenge themselves.”
– psychology today article by David Rock

Here I am in the Armatage theatre waiting for Lily to be honored as one of about 100 “students of the month”.
Even at a Montessori school, an MPS student cannot avoid artificial praise. But how can I protest the event when my kindergartener is so excited about it!? She picked out her outfit a week ago and was up at 6 wanting me to curl her hair! It’s a painful event – ugh.

Yay! The realization that there’s more than car camping.

I’m trying to create some focus in the new year.  One of the things that’s not worked is the comingling of serious topics and hobbies on this site.  So, I’m re-booting my other site as the “serious stuff” site, and leaving this one for “fun stuff” like tinkering with bikes, travel, backcountry nerd-outs, etc.

So, DisorderStudio, Twitter, and LinkedIn will be for serious stuff.  Facebook and here will be for friends, family, and fun.  So, if you want Bryant in his serious, professional “work voice” (as my daughter calls it), follow me over there someplace.  Here, you’ll get bikes, camping, occasional RPG nerding, and fart jokes.  Your call.

And her favorite perch.

While Hillary and Bryant were exploring BWCA, Lily and I went with grandpa to the landscape arboretum. The fall colors were beautiful. There are so many new exhibits for kids now.

I thought I might do a little pocket dump of some of some gadgets in current rotation.

Spyderco Techno
Karas Retrakt
iPhone 4s
Custom keyman and a 4Sevens Quark Mini on the key chain
Citizen Pilot on a NATO strap
Home made wallet

I funded the Retrakt Kickstarter and got a brass one. I really like it. The heft is awesome and the Pilot G2 is the standard gel insert. My only beef was that the clip was weirdly overbuilt. So, I swapped out the clip for the one off my Embassy Pen. It’s magic. Check it out.