Fitness, what a concept

Parenting doesn't always lend itself to athletic pursuits (aside from carrying your toddler through airport security). Well, tonight, after dinner, the gang is going to take a tour through the the new OSU rec center. There's even a daycare center!! Also, a family pool. I think the upcoming winter months could be a bit more athletic than sprinting around the COSI toddler area.

columbus toddler parenting

South Campus Gateway Update

This in from an email update on the South Campus Gateway Project:

Residential, retail and office tenants are moving into their spaces at South Campus Gateway throughout the late summer and fall. Here is a brief overview of the activity so far:

-Law and graduate students began moving into the apartments at South Campus Gateway on Aug. 1. The students are occupying 1595 N. High St. (Building A) and 1620 N. High St. (Building B). The 26 one-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments along East 11th and East Ninth avenues (adjacent to the parking garage) are still under construction with a completion date of Sept. 1.

-Ohio State’s Office of Human Resources opened in its new Gateway space on the third and fourth floors of 1590 N. High St. (Building C) on Aug. 8. Campus Partners is seeking other office tenants for 38,000 square feet of office space on the fourth and fifth floors.

-Barnes & Noble-The Ohio State University Bookstore opened Aug. 15 at 1598 N. High St. with greatly expanded inventory and extended hours. The Long’s Bookstore sign was removed for renovation on July 21 and will be re-hung along High Street on the new bookstore building by the end of August.

-Potbelly Sandwich Works, 10 E. 11th Ave., will be the first restaurant at Gateway with a projected opening date of Aug. 22.

-The Gateway garage is open for patrons with ample, convenient, low-cost parking. The cost is $1 for three hours.

I didn't see any open areas where toddlers can run crazily around like they have at the fancy malls but maybe we'll take a look this weekend anyway.

No Papa

Frankie's most popular phrase these days is "no Papa". Mom gets stuck with a lot of stuff because she won't let me do much (diapers, reading to her, etc.). I've never been a distant Papa in anyway so this is kind of surprising.

Anyway, in an attempt to break this "habit", tonight is the first in a series of Thursday night Frankie and Papa outings. Dinner at Wendy's and a little frolicking at the "Big Park". That's the park behind Whetstone library. Wish me luck.

Update: A wildly successful night was had by the Frankster and myself. A luxurious half hour dinner at Wendy's followed by an assault on Big Park. After a bath, she went to sleep in about 5 minutes, although she still wanted Mom to read to her at bedtime. That's fine.

parenting toddler

Conspicuous Absence

My pet obsession is website traffic. Not here at Dave's Beer because this is a personal site for fun and unsubstantiated rambling. I appreciate my 12 daily readers but it's just a place to muck around. I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. It's essentially about social epidemics and what makes phenomena popular (or when phenomena "tip"). In the book is a great case study of Sesame Street and Blues Clues and why they're so popular with the kids. Pretty helpful when you're parenting a toddler (even though Frankie doesn't watch much tv). But, absent from the book was: what makes a website "tip" in terms of popularity as indicated by the traffic they get?

When you consider sites like Dooce (ca. 20K visitors/day), GroupHug (20K), Wonkette (50-60K/day) and Drudge (~12 million/day), etc. you can't help wonder how these sites got so popular. Dooce is great and written from the heart. I can understand its popularity. Grouphug is a creative venture; it's a confessional site and salacious. I can understand its popularity too. I actually asked the creator of Grouphug recently when it tipped. He wrote back and told me it took off on the second week! I'm not political enough to appreciate Wonkette and think it's basically a substrate for advertising but why the popularity? I believe Drudge tipped on the Monica Lewinsky scandal and ever since, he's been riding high. Drudge isn't just a site, it's an inside-the-beltway institution.

I'd like to see Malcolm Gladwell do another book on the tipping point for site traffic/popularity. I wrote him from his site Gladwell.com. We'll see if he bites.

tipping point site traffic marketing

Blah

It's hit me lately. Via me3dia.

Like seeing an old friend

Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is we did wrong, but we think you're crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours,
The Breakfast Club.
Brian Johnson

Last week we were in Memphis and I got to hang out and be lazy during Frankie's naps and do something I love - watch movies. My favorite movies are like close friends. As I get older and reacquaint myself with them, I see something I never saw before and learn something new about them. One afternoon, I got to watch The Breakfast Club. Can you believe it was released in 1985! Yikes, I'm old.

When I first watched this movie, I related to certain aspects of the athlete, the brain, the criminal and the basket case. I was pretty mischievous, fairly intelligent, a mediocre athlete and often in trouble. I loved it when I first saw it and I've probably seen it 20 times since. However, most of the time the television version has been edited and the cursing removed; this ruined the movie as I was reminded in the uncut version I just saw. High School kids curse. Alot.

At this point in my life, I'm afraid I relate more with Carl the Janitor than any of the kids or Mr. Vernon, but it wasn't about relating to a character during this screening that was significant. All I could think about were the problems these kids had and the parenting decisions that may have caused those problems. Parenting is tough and every decision can have profound ramifications. If I could pick one of the kids in detention for my daughter to turn out like, I'd pick the brain, Brian Johnson. His quote above closed the movie with him reading it aloud. I'll have to watch it and see who she resembles in about 13 years.

[ps, other movies I watch any chance I get: Clerks, Godfather (I-III), 25th Hour, Scarface, Zoolander (yes Zoolander), all the Airplane movies, ...]

Back

This is the plate I saw in the parking lot of the airport on our way to Memphis. Fortunately, it did not foreshadow a bad toddler flying experience. We had a great time but we're happy to be back.