I guessed it might be the emergency phone? No?

bandit wrote:

"Here little timmy, instead of that weird looking alien bratz doll thing, wouldnt you rather have fun with mr. trebuchet? You can launch Tina with it, and then try to skeet shoot her with the nail gun!"

Eerily reminiscent of my childhood. I shall go and brood, now.

Hey Tad, I just heard that you might be coming to the fantasy fair? Have you heard anything about that yet? (The site of the fair claims it's not certain yet, but that the Dutch publisher Luitingh might lure you.)

*ears perk up*

Yalahii.

You can launch Tina with it, and then try to skeet shoot her with the nail gun!" 

Do you know that Ducks on a pond get really pissed when you shoot them with a nailgun???
Don't ask how I know, but I do make this observation. How come some of the best and worst of human nature come out in kids??? I did things as a kid I wouldn't even THINK of doing as an adult. Is it lack of experence??  Is morality only something you can learn for yourself and not something that's handed down from those that raise you?

I think it's pretty well known that empathy comes late in childhood development.  Certainly I can see my daughter struggling with it now, whereas her brother, three years older, has developed a fairly automatic concern for the suffering of others.

It's one of the things that makes this phase so interesting with Devon.  She's cute as a button, and very kind and loving, then every now and then she'll do something so mean or thoughtless it will take your breath away (sometimes literally if she decides to kick you in the stomach when you're wrestling.)

A beautiful little girl in a fairy princess costume, with a soul like a feral wolf cub.  That's what it seems like sometimes.  Then it's "Daddy, Daddy, I love you so much, and I love my mommy and my brother and everyone in my family!" and hugs and cuddles and you say, "Maybe it'll be okay after all."

Interestingly enough, I use my own childhood for my insight, not my sons. It could be that I was just a really rotten kid. I think Tads right, it's empathy we have to learn, an understanding of pain outside ourselves. Maybe that's what's missing in violent criminals, what was left out or never learned.
   Here's a quick, from the hip, theroy. It seems to me, starting around age say 2-3, kids start learning a sense of "self". They become self aware, start seeing themselves as a person. This is the start of the selfish stage. Everything is really about them, and what they feel and think. At some point they become able to put themselves into other peoples shoes, to feel empathy, and they control their own selfish desires. The point when this happens is different with every child, and in some cases is never learned at all (violent or harmfully selfish adults).
   That makes me feel better about some of the things I was capable of doing as a kid, and also makes me feel better about how kids can seem so mean, to both animals and humans. I'm not saying ALL kids are like that, some learn empathy at a very early age, before their human nature can turn ugly. But some don't. It is a little distrubing that before learning empathy, they are just acting out raw human nature. But it's also encouraging that we can set aside that nature and become something better then our base genitic code.  Hmmmm...

(Oops, sorry, I think I hijacked your thread Tad) *Hands the thread back to Tad with a blush on his face*

If he was talking to himself in here I think he'd just spend all day chasing his tale!

That is good news, I'm an active father and boy do I like ice cream, winner all round.

Lily enjoyed her underwater swimming lesson today (I'l try and remeber to put some picture link up somewhere.

Jaime wrote:

Fear not, Sorrow; we all have a longstanding habit of derailing topics, particularly Tad's.  :)

Isn't there a bylaw somewhere? A minimum requirement of two topic hijackings per three page run of a topic.

you know i always thought hijack was a strange word.  does anyone know the etymology of the word hijack?

hmm... if i had to guess I'd say it has something to do with highway robbery... maybe the robbers were called jack?  highjack?

probably ought to stop now before being smited.

Foo got hi 'en JACKED some ish!

I thought it was because most roadside outlaws used the pseudonym "Jack" and were very convivial.

"Oh, hi, Jack!"

"Jack!  Hi!  Nice to see you.  And look -- there's Jack!"

"Hi, Jack!  Howzit going?"

"Oh, you know.  Hi, Jack, didn't see YOU there behind Jack..." and so on.