The Holt Blog

I found this clip from a British comedy series called “Yes, Prime Minister”. I had never heard of the show, but like much English comedy I instantly appreciated the more intelligent jokes and funny wit. This clip stuck out to me because it indirectly teaches us to beware of every statistic or poll you hear about!

The new Petco just opened in Hudson – it is pretty fantastic! I set out to find some fishies and was excited that there are some called “feeding fish” which are for animals to eat! Thirteen cents each! So, we bought 6. And then they met Sarah, the fish hunter!

(Ben) This was indeed the original intention of buying the fish Ubu was scared of the water, but Sarah was like, “I was born for this!” and just started fishing. She ate all six little fishies for lunch. They kinda went “crunch” when sarah ate them raw. As soon as she finished one she went right for the next one, it was cute!

And also a movie or two:

Ubu Being Scared to Fish

Sarah Fishing

Just saw this great movie about the credit crisis:

In honor of school vacation the kids and Julie and I planned a trip taking the train. We caught the commuter rail at the Littleton/495 exit which is real close to us and took it to West Concord just 2 stops away. It was really fun! We spent most of our time at the Concord 5 & 10 and spent our dollars on treasures. Here’s what everyone went away with. Matt: pirate pistol, Faith: diamond ring, Nate: rubber chicken, Luke: 2 bouncy balls, Jill: tiny dragon, horse, and elephant and tiny chicklett gum packs. Something for everyone – gotta love the 5 & 10!

Today I got a certified package in the mail. My dad sent me a folder containing my school records from way back. I spent some time looking at what kind of student I was and trying in vain to remember scenes from my childhood. My memory is so bad I can’t even remember what most of my teachers looked like. We also moved a lot, so I didn’t have any friends worth mentioning until high school.

Apparently my parents had me tested for a “gifted” program when I was in 6th grade. You had to have an IQ of 130 to get in. I scored a 116 and didn’t make it. The letter my parents got contained this sentence:

“This score is below the mandated cut-off and therefore Benjamin is not exceptional and not eligible for the program at this time.”

I thought that was kind of funny. I am NOT exceptional!

Another paper I found was this (click for the large version):

So I was small and nerdy back then, and one day these two bullies sat on either side of me on the bus and picked on me the ENTIRE ride. I was close to tears the whole way trying to ignore them. At the end of the ride, I stood up and decked the guy still in the seat. His head hit the window and his nose started to bleed. That felt good, but standing right outside the window was the principal, who only saw this part of it. So of course I got in trouble and got this slip of paper which I read as, “Dear parent, please kill your son and dance on his grave.”

As I remember my parents were mostly understanding and talked with me to the principal about the incident, and it was taken care of. I must have just cried a lot, and I do remember feeling horrible about it. I didn’t make a habit of slugging kids, and I think the adults must have realized that I was the bullied, not a bully.

I just finished this book last night at 3 AM:

This is the true story of the Bataan Death March and the few survivors who made it out of a POW camp. These few were saved from massacre by a special mission of marines, who braved impossible odds to rescue men who could barely walk after three years of brutal torture and starvation. It was very touching to me and well told. Like many good war stories, it arouses many feelings:

I feel an almost reverent appreciation for the soldiers who put their lives at risk and suffered so greatly for our country.

I also feel astonished at the human race – what men are capable of is sometimes beyond me. Many of us think we are above torture, barbaric acts, brutal murder, genocide, and rape. But these stories always remind me that the people who commit these acts were NORMAL men, not a special breed of evil people or something. Americans, Japanese, Germans – we all did these things in the war. War brings things out of men that are horrible and wonderful.

Finally, I feel inspired by heroes such as Lt. Colonel Mucci, Chaplain Taylor, Dr. Fisher, and many, many others. These men put their lives at risk for each other, suffered greatly for it, and experienced things I can’t even imagine.

We had a super fun STUFF SWAP last night at our place. Everyone brought stuff from home that they didn’t need or want anymore and other folks traded up for them! There were about 9 of us, and together we filled up the bedroom to look like a rummage sale! Faith helped me make signs beforehand for the areas (clothes, kids, household, electronics, books, craft related, jewelry). I made up a little Price is Right game and everyone had a guess how much each item cost. The winner got to go a shoppin’! The Price is Right theme song made it just fantastic So, it was a hit! I ended the night with some sweet superhero comics that I’m gonna bring to school for my boys who love superheros. And I love my new mini photo frames