Vian is back from school, wearing a button up shirt and slacks.
Me: Vian, you look dapper today.
Vian: Yeah. Today was picture day.
Me: Oh yeah. Did you guys go out and take a picture?
Vian: No. It was just someone else taking the picture. I didn't take the picture.
Talking to my kids is the best way for me to realize how imprecise my communication is.
Me: Whoa! It's very late, we should have started getting ready for bed 20 mins ago.
Sempi: 20 minutes isn't that much. If you think about it, it is only 4 time 5 minutes.
Sempi: And if you think about it, 5 minutes is just 5 times 1 minute.
Sempi: And if you really think about it, 1 minute isn't that long.
That's the spirit. I should remind him of this conversation when he starts doing planks.
Sempi gets very creative when he's building Lego structures. So I asked him about it.
Me: How did you get so good at building these lego creations, Sempi?
Sempi: I don't know, I just like building things.
Me: Would you say that I should just keep building things and I'll get better over time?
Sempi: It is easy to create something for yourself. You know what you want and you can make a place for a boat or an airplane in your creations. It comes easily when you know what you want.
This sounded vaguely familiar and then I realized this is a paraphrasing of one of Paul Graham's advice about startups.
Build something you yourself want.
Tonight we read Calvin and Hobbes for bedtime. After I read the comic strip above, I tried to explain a little about Michelangelo.
Me: Remember, Michelangelo, we saw the statues he made when we went to Italy?
Sempi: Yeah.
Me: He's a great sculptor. Do you guys remember the David statue?
Vian: I know who Michelangelo is, he's a TURTLE!
o_O
Vian was playing with his stuffed animals.
Vian: Watch my deer. It can do a somersault backwards.
Sempi: (thinks for a bit, turns to me)... if you call a flip a somersault, do you call a backward flip a wintersugar?
Me: What a terribly missed opportunity. They just call it a reverse somersault, those unimaginative linguists.
