In the market for artwork for kids' rooms?

I am lucky to know two talented artists who make artwork for children's rooms. My friend Allyson has been selling her whimsical children's artwork and hand-painted children's clothing on ebay and at mygiggleart.com for quite a while.

My friend Christy has just started selling original and custom art for children at Doodles and Delights and on ebay.

I highly recommend both of them! How to choose? I have no idea-- better order from them both!

Experimenting with economics

Until very recently, I was certain that economics had something to do with money. I didn't know what, because it was never clear to me why business schools needed to cover money in so many different ways-- finance, accounting, economics, marketing..., but I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that economics had something to do with money.
Then I read Freakonomics (it's a good, quick read, even if I don't agree with all his conclusions), and realized that I had no clue what economics is.

Here's a definition from Wikipedia's entry on Economics:

Economics, as a social science, studies human choice behavior and how it affects the production, distribution, and consumption of scarce resources. Economics studies how individuals and societies seek to satisfy needs and wants through incentives, choices, and allocation of scarce resources. Alfred Marshall in the late 19th century informally described economics as "the study of man in the ordinary business of life".

So, economics can be about how people spend their money, but it can also be about how they make other choices (Freakonomics discusses how parents name their children, among other things).

Lately, we've started watching the tv show "Deal or No Deal". It's a very simple game-- there are set dollar amounts hidden in each of 26 cases, ranging from $0.01 to $1,000,000. The contestant eliminates cases one by one, and is periodically offered cash by "the banker" in exchange for stopping. Theoretically, if a contestant eliminates all but one case, he or she gets the value in that case. It is an ideal case for studying economics, so much so that (also from Wikipedia):

A team of economists - Post, Van den Assem, Baltussen & Thaler (report) - have analyzed the decisions of people appearing in Deal or No Deal and found, among other things, that contestants are less risk averse when they have seen their expected winnings tumble. "Losers" tend to continue playing the game even if this means rejecting bank offers in excess of the average of the remaining prizes. A separate experimental study (report) with student-subjects playing the game with scaled down prizes reveals a similar pattern. The findings provide support for behavioral economists, who claim that the classical expected utility theory falls short in explaining human behavior by not accounting for the context of decisions. The study of the four economists is unique, for the underlying "experiment" Deal or No Deal is characterized by high stakes, a transparent probability distribution and only simple stop-go decisions that require minimal skill or strategy.

Here is how we like to watch it: we tivo it, so we can skip commercials and chit chat. Then we track the expected value (the average value) of the remaining cases in excel and compare that to the banker's offer. Pearsonified says that a contestant should accept any offer over the expected value. I disagree, I believe that the opportunity to play is so valuable, stopping while there are lots of cases (including at least 2 high value cases) still in play, is a mistake. I want to calculate the offer value you're likely to get meet or exceed in all but the worst case scenario (eliminating, say, the worst 10%). I'll update the post when I have made the calculation.

Learning new things is fun!

Dr. Phil and homeschooling...

For quite a while, I've been seeing solicitations for homeschoolers to appear on the Dr. Phil show on various homeschooling message boards. I rarely watch Dr. Phil because too often his topics are inappropriate for young kids. Actually, I'm not sure his show is really appropriate for anyone, take Monday's show, for example--I didn't watch it, but here's the blurb from DrPhil.com:

The Dr. Phil House: House of Hatred

Dr. Phil starts a groundbreaking social experiment. Six individuals from different walks of life, with different judgments and prejudices will live under the same roof, in an attempt to break down the walls of hatred and intolerance. Gary, 26, is a white supremacist who hates all people of other races. B., 58, is an African-American woman who thinks all white people are "ignorant sociopaths." Staci, 22, is a thin woman who thinks obese people are "disgusting blobs" and not people at all. John, 24, is over 600 pounds and hates skinny people. Christina, 22, believes all homosexuals are sinners. Tessa, 19, is a lesbian who hates straight people. Dr. Phil puts them to the test with assignments that force them to work together with their adversary. It doesn’t take long for hostility to break out, sending Dr. Phil over to the house, saying, “This has got to stop.” Will these guests learn acceptance, or turn on each other?

Why on earth would this be worth an hour of my time?

But for reasons that are beyond me, Dr. Phil has a large audience. He's a best-selling author and seems to be using his fame to make his wife a celebrity. Apparently she's speaking at a Women of Faith Conference beginning October 27-- the same day that the Dr. Phil Show was originally set to show what is reported to be an attack show on homeschooling. Considering that conservative Christianity and homeschooling are often related, I can't help but wonder if the show was rescheduled to avoid putting his wife in an awkward position.

Here's the thing it took me far too long to understand: television networks DO NOT sell commercial time so they can afford to put on TV shows, television networks put on TV shows so they can sell ad time. What this means is that Dr. Phil makes his money by luring viewers, to sell access to their eyeballs during the commercial breaks. He doesn't need to maintain a good reputation among his professional peers, or behave ethically, or even offer good advice, he just needs to put together a show people like to watch, and avoid offending any large groups. Apparently the easiest way to do that is to appeal people's baser tastes while attacking unpopular minorities.

Once I had my lightbulb moment about advertising and the media, it suddenly became clear why most mainstream parenting magazines are pointless. They offer just enough content to entice subscribers, while carefully avoiding taking a stand on, well, anything. Circumcision, breast-feeding, sleep-training, discipline, you can count on one thing, they will cheerfully tell you that whatever you do is just fine. Because they've got a barrel, the advertisers have a shotgun, and we're the fish.

Finding my spot...

I'm a new homeschooler in a new town. I don't know many people, and I'm trying to figure out where I fit in. I am a relaxed homeschooler who is otherwise fairly mainstream (except in the ways I'm not, LOL!). Because my oldest is just kindergarten age, I can still sign up for some preschooler activities (like Moms' groups), but often get to deal with some pretty ignorant attitudes about homeschooling. Most homeschooling groups are (understandably) geared toward children who are more solidly school-aged. We are Christian, but I'm not making Christianity the central focus of our homeschooling, so I don't seem to fit into Christian homeschooling groups. I have found an inclusive group I like a lot, but there are very few kids the same age as mine. We're going to keep going to that group as long as my kids like it, hoping that more families with young kids will eventually start coming.

What I'd really like is a monthly support group that meets in the evening, but I can't find one that's right for me. I know that I should just start the group I'm looking for, but at the moment I'm not feeling that brave.