More videos

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Another slew of videos – have fun!

Joseph takes off his shoes just like Bappe.

He loves to read such classics as Go Dog, Go and the Bible – when he’s not counting quickly, or past 21, or naming letters, or counting with signs, or naming letters again.  And then there’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, his Dots book, the Scrambled States of America, Hop on Pop, the Dots book again, Hop on Pop again, or Hop on Pop with special emphasis on Mr. & Mrs. Brown.

He also likes to play with pacifiers and with Vivienne.  His name has taken on more prominence, both for spelling and speaking – though a recent change from “Jisi” to “Jephe” stumps Mommy in this video.  He’s taken on signing what Mommy’s taught him: we have the alphabet and a few adjectives for your viewing pleasure.  Joseph still likes his owls, and has been inspired by Pyrex pitchers to count his hundreds – in English and in German.

At Grossvater and Grossmutti’s he learned to say “Goht nit yyne, gäll,” Swiss German for “Won’t fit in there, eh?”  He’s since applied that to some rather odd fitting in experiments, and frequently enough that we caught one incident while taping Vivienne’s crowing prowess.

Vivienne will also smile, smile, smile, and occasionally laugh for the camera – but it’s always a challenge to capture.

She also plays more actively with toys, but her limited mobility makes it hard and sometimes frustrating when she bats something out of reach.  That is probably why she enjoys the keyboard book, which was actually a gift for her older brother.

May also included Mother’s Day – Thank you, Mommies, we love you!

What’s left are a few windows into what’s going on here: construction right outside our kitchen, watering tomato plants, and a toy with a dying battery.

Amazing computer speed and efficiency booster

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I have written a short batch file that can make your time on the computer much more efficient.  Here’s the code: copy it into an empty text file, rename the extension .bat, place the file in your autostart folder, and you’re ready to go.

@echo off
%SystemRoot%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 900 -c “Better get cracking!”
pause

This will give you 15 minutes to get your work done before the computer shuts down.  (Or, alternately, 15 minutes to remove the file from your autostart folder.)
Now, to be honest, I don’t use it quite like that.  I use the following version (and it’s not in the autostart folder):

@echo off
%SystemRoot%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 10 -c “Shutting down, no questions asked!”
pause

I do this because, as mentioned a year ago on David July’s blog, I have a program (SAMPLE.EXE) that won’t close properly.  It’s related to the Intel PROSet Network adapter, I’m certain, but it’s annoying because I need to wait around at shutdown to tell the computer that yes, SAMPLE.EXE should be terminated.  My little batch file takes care of all that (and any other programs that might be running), plus it saves the extra click on “Turn off.”  It’s all in the -f parameter.

I think the original idea of shutdown.exe was to be able to shut down another computer on the network remotely, not your own – anyone can shut down his own computer, right? – but it suits my problem perfectly.  I’m not sure what it says about me, though, that it took me a year to come up with the simple brute force solution to this problem.

Allow me to credit the http://www.computerhilfen.de forums for batch help.

More videos

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Here we are again with videos of our little ones.  First we have videos of Vivienne lying on Bappe’s knee.  (Two videos of an unhappy Vivienne were censored, despite arguably being more action-packed.)

On we go to a few toys Joseph enjoys: his alphabet stamps, his Pimsleur DVDs, and his memory game.  When it comes to cleaning them up, counting is often a good way to make the chore enjoyable for Joseph.  (It also seems that videos with “counting” and “kids” generate Duggar video links in the sidebar.)

Joseph still really likes books, and has begun reading them to himself.  Grossmutti’s gift, “Ten out of bed,” is a favorite, as is “Roxaboxen” (Grandma?) and “Moo, Baa, La La La” (Aunt S.).

Vivienne is only just starting to enjoy toys.  Her focus is clearly still on getting to know her abilities, such as grabbing things or making sounds.

Joseph, when he’s not into action sports, still has a penchant for counting, be it in German or English.  Of course, he often gets distracted by other games.  It doesn’t really matter whether it’s a one or two twos, any number can go missing.  But it’s not just numbers; he also really enjoys Grandma’s word cards.

He often helps Mommy, be it with gardening or with preparing salad.  And he’s as thorough with that as he is when spinning trivets.  He’s expanded his repertoire to include a synchrospin (difficulty 3.2).  If he keeps going on like that, he’ll be ready for the 2028 Olympics.  But we’re proudest of him when he looks out for his little sister, which he does with purpose and dedication.  (In that video, he says “Chopf,” Swiss German for head, as “Fopp,” which Janet first takes to mean “forehead.”  It illustrates a difficulty we often face when he says something: which language is he approximating?)

We started with videos of Vivienne, and end with videos of Vivienne, where we try with moderate success to get her to laugh her adorable little laugh.

Let me know what you think of the amount of videos I’m posting.  Too many?  Too few?  Just right?