I'm not an animal lover (I tolerate our cat and would never want a dog), but that was a story worth giving $10 to a good cause. Thanks for sharing, Wil.

Wil: What Chuck said. (And again, I totally don't want to make a thing of this. This is a you-and-Ryan thing. Really - if you don't like what I have to say, totally feel free to censor me! I know I hate parenting advice from random internet trolls!) In my experience, sharing my IQ always led to weirdness. Friends would start visiting online IQ tests, and then either get upset because the BS result they got from an online test was lower, or lord it over me when the BS result was higher. Worse yet was that any time we got into a discussion, I'd have to hear, "oh, mister high-IQ has to be right..." The fact that it's just a number, and that even a good test given by a clinical psychologist has a certain BS-quotient (from race, from affluence, etc.) is impossible to get through to people. And the more you try to explain that IQ is a lousy indicator of achievement (most doctors, lawyers and high earners are around 120) that you have no more control over than shoe size, the more people resent you. I just know that growing up a smart kid was hard enough for me without any extra stress, and as a fellow step-dad I know how much you want to avoid doing anything that would alienate your kid. But you know your relationship with Ryan way better than any of us internet weirdos, so my only real advice is that you talk it over with Ryan. And maybe talk about it in a hypothetical "I haven't already posted this on the internet" sort of way. =-)

Wil: What Chuck said. (And again, I totally don't want to make a thing of this. This is a you-and-Ryan thing. Really - if you don't like what I have to say, totally feel free to censor me! I know I hate parenting advice from random internet trolls!) In my experience, sharing my IQ always led to weirdness. Friends would start visiting online IQ tests, and then either get upset because the BS result they got from an online test was lower, or lord it over me when the BS result was higher. Worse yet was that any time we got into a discussion, I'd have to hear, "oh, mister high-IQ has to be right..." The fact that it's just a number, and that even a good test given by a clinical psychologist has a certain BS-quotient (from race, from affluence, etc.) is impossible to get through to people. And the more you try to explain that IQ is a lousy indicator of achievement (most doctors, lawyers and high earners are around 120) that you have no more control over than shoe size, the more people resent you. I just know that growing up a smart kid was hard enough for me without any extra stress, and as a fellow step-dad I know how much you want to avoid doing anything that would alienate your kid. But you know your relationship with Ryan way better than any of us internet weirdos, so my only real advice is that you talk it over with Ryan. And maybe talk about it in a hypothetical "I haven't already posted this on the internet" sort of way. =-)

Hey Wil, You are ABSOLUTELY a better judge of what your kids' internet boundaries are than I am, but, as proud as you are, I'm not sure that whole Mensa thing is something I would have appreciated my dad sharing at his age. I love the rest of the article, and I'm not trying to bring you down, but that is something I would encourage you to redact. (As a geek with a good IQ, I've found that sharing that info is more trouble that I ever imagined it could be.) Feel free to ignore my advice and delete this comment either way.

Hey Wil, You are ABSOLUTELY a better judge of what your kids' internet boundaries are than I am, but, as proud as you are, I'm not sure that whole Mensa thing is something I would have appreciated my dad sharing at his age. I love the rest of the article, and I'm not trying to bring you down, but that is something I would encourage you to redact. (As a geek with a good IQ, I've found that sharing that info is more trouble that I ever imagined it could be.) Feel free to ignore my advice and delete this comment either way.

I posted a link over on Scalzi's but it's so freakin good that I want to make sure more people see it: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2006/05/12 It's from a radio interview with Sagan's widow where she talks about the way that they fell in love while putting together that famous gold disc and what surprises aliens might find there. Really: go listen - you will not be disappointed.

I posted a link over on Scalzi's but it's so freakin good that I want to make sure more people see it: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2006/05/12 It's from a radio interview with Sagan's widow where she talks about the way that they fell in love while putting together that famous gold disc and what surprises aliens might find there. Really: go listen - you will not be disappointed.

They'll fuck it up. Hiring somebody with a history of fucking things up and then giving it to HBO (ditto Elijah E on Carnivale) doesn't inspire confidence. I think I'm ready to boycott the show now based on the information available. Sigh. =-(

They'll fuck it up. Hiring somebody with a history of fucking things up and then giving it to HBO (ditto Elijah E on Carnivale) doesn't inspire confidence. I think I'm ready to boycott the show now based on the information available. Sigh. =-(

What with BlogAds being invite only, a lot of us don't get to try them.

What with BlogAds being invite only, a lot of us don't get to try them.