ABA @ Home @ Last

This past Monday the new therapist that I hired started working with Zach at home, doing ABA therapy in an effort teach Zach life skills and bring his school program home, in order to help him generalize what he learns. The best outcomes for children like Zach have been attained when a child receives 40 hours per week of individual behavioral treatment. Intervention should always be customized as to content, but 40 hours per week remains the standard from which to deviate.

Individual ABA therapy, which was first developed in the 1960s by psychologist Ivar Lovaas, PhD, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), remains the only intervention that has been scientifically proven to be effective. In a landmark 1987 study, Lovaas found that nearly half the children who received 40 hours per week of ABA therapy were eventually able to complete normal first-grade classes, while none of children who received the therapy only 10 hours per week were able to do the same. Other researchers have replicated Lovaas's success--among them psychologist James Mulick, PhD, of Ohio State University, who finds an association between a form of ABA therapy he calls Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention and improvement in children's IQ scores.

While it is long overdue for Zach, it is certainly good news for him! I'll keep everybody posted on our bumble-bee's progress:)

Burmese Doofus Traps

Yesterday at the UN, Bush said "Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma." Not for nothing, but I wonder how many Americans actually even know what Burma is, or how many could find it on a map if their lives depended on it? Here's a little tip: it ain't called Burma anymore, it's called Myanmar these days.

A Little Breathing Room

Well last night was a big night for those of us in Red Sox Nation, because the hated Yankees lost to Tampa Bay and our beloved Sox won against Oakland. So with only 5 games left to play the Sox have a 3 game lead over the evil empire - which should just about do it. Of course we are also tied with Cleveland for the best record in baseball. Everyone seems healthy and it should be a hell of a post-season. Go Sox!

White Weddings

I spent the weekend in Boston, and it was very good to be back there - it's been too long. Of all the places that I have lived, Boston is by far my favorite. I love the European feel to it and the wonderful green spaces, especially in the fall. While it was not peak foliage this early in the season, the colors were magnificent and the weather could not have been better. I didn't have time to launch out into the River Charles in my kayak like old times, nor stroll along the esplanade - but perhaps next time.

However, I was not just there to sight-see, I was there for a purpose - the wedding of two of my best friends: Jon Burns and Allison Flintoff. In fact, I was a big part of their wedding - I was the officiant. I arrived at South Station Friday evening and was whisked away by Jon and Scotty (who was pulling "best man" duty) to complete the last of several pre-wedding errands. We dropped Scott at his place north of the city, where I met the smallest and newest member of the Yaffe clan - baby Camille - for the first time. VERY cute! After that we went back to Jon and Allie's place to talk through the ceremony one more time, at which time I signed their marriage license, making them technically married. We celebrated with a pizza and several episodes of Survivorman, since none of us could sleep.

The following day (wedding day) was beautiful and, after seeing Allison off to go do whatever it is that brides do before weddings, we menfolk did... well... manstuff. Mostly we just drank coffee and reminisced about old times - pretty wild huh? The wedding was at a golf resort in Wakefield, so we went up and checked into the hotel early with Bucklee (dog and ringbearer) in tow. We had instructions to tire Bucklee out as much as possible, so that he wouldn't be too hyper at the ceremony - so all dog play was official wedding business.

Eventually it was time to say the "I do's" and... we did. Allison made a very beautiful bride and everyone looked great. Jared and Corey (Allison's brother) provided the acoustic guitar accompaniment for the ceremony, and Allison walked down the aisle to her favorite Pearl Jam song, though I doubt many people recognized it without the head-banging overtones. Thankfully, Bucklee did not eat the rings and yours truly did not fumble any lines of the ceremony. In all, it was a smashing success!

The only comment I'll make about the reception (which was truly elegant, fun and low-key), is that I have never had better food at a wedding. Allison is a vegisaur like me, so most everything (except the prime rib) was vegetarian. It was all tres-yummy and I certainly ate too much, but danced some of it off. We ended up hanging out back at the hotel until about midnight. Afterwards, since Jared and I were bunking together, we decided to rent a movie - NO, Not that kind! Actually we watched the Fantastic Four movie with the Silver Surfer. I fell asleep half way through, but had nice dreams about Jessica Alba.

We slept late Sunday and I ended up hanging out with Jared, Corey and Katie. We returned the PA system to Daddy's Junky then it was time for me to return to the big apple. I made Jared stop at Faneuil Hall on the way back to South Station, so that I could pick up a couple of new RedSox hats - mine has been biodegrading for a while and was in sore need of replacement. That done, I jumped on a bus for the ride back to NYC. I arrived home to find Mr. Squeaky the Mouse unharmed and happy to see me - and here I am at the start of another work week.

Congratulations to Jon and Allison - many happy returns!

Monkeyshines Ltd.

I find myself quite pressed for time this fine Friday morning, so even though I'd love to write more I'll have to settle for just captioning these yummy photos as best I can. Perhaps I'll get some time next week to flesh it out a bit - we'll see. So here goes:

Miranda shows off a lovely airplane that she created out of PlayDo - Zach gets comfy on the couch, nestled in a pile of pillows.




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Miranda takes a turn on the really big slide at the Fort Hamilton High School park - Zach swings into action right behind her.




Both children pose at the big park on Shore Road on this windy and crisp September day.





Miranda and a new friend take time out from collecting acorns to investigate the Monarch butterfly that they found. The hapless creature was eventually released back into the "wild."

Zach shows his climbing prowess.














Zach playing in the yard in front of Daddy's house.

Miranda poses in her kitty-cat shirt - Daddy neglected to brush her hair on this morning.

Calls, Puts, Straddles, Spreads and Combinations

First, let me apologize for being so delinquent with this week's Monkeyshines installment - I've been a tad busy (gross understatement). I will hopefully have some time Friday morning to put something together and post the images for this and the previous visit, before I jump on a bus and head up to Boston for the nuptials between Jon and Allison, over which I will be officiating.

I had the day "off" yesterday due to a canceled (adjourned) court date, so I took advantage of the time and got some things done. I was asked to speak at the King's Knight Worker's Group, then I went into Manhattan after that. I met with my lawyer (Pat) to go over some miscellany and then spent some time in one of my new favorite places to sit and think - Battery Park. It was really nice sitting on a bench in the Sun, listening to the birds and the water lapping at the wall, looking across the harbor at Lady Liberty, Jersey and Brooklyn, and smelling the sycamore trees. I watched the Staten Island Ferry come and go, watched the tourists filing on and off the Circle Line ships, and watched people haggle with the vendors.

After getting some Zen back in my carcass, I headed across the park to Battery Place where I have been taking the Series 7 classes. Last night we began learning about options. Options are not stocks, they are contracts to buy and sell stocks at set prices and times. The weird thing is that people are buying, selling and trading things (the options) that they don't own and most often never own. In this way you can make money on a stock if you think it is going to go down (buying a "put") or up (buying a call), and by buying (or selling) various combinations of calls and puts you can bet on volatility, stability, just get paid a premium for doing nothing or even protect yourself from significant losses.

It seemed from last night's class like the selling of these options was the shitty end of the stick, because even though you get a premium over the current stock price for locking into a contract, you can get killed if the stock moves into the money (i.e. in the direction you didn't want it to go). In other words, you are risking relatively unlimited losses for a modest set gain. We were told that only the most senior traders were ever allowed to do such things by the firms they work for - to me it just sounded unnecessarily stressful. It was cool though to learn about it all and do the math - my financial kung-fu is getting stronger!

I have the kids tonight for a brief visit, will make a meeting afterwards, then will try to get some sleep - tomorrow I go back to court for more of that joy - hopefully the grounds stuff will get resolved (but probably not) - then off to class again tomorrow evening for the rest of the options stuff. Next week will be my last week of classes, then I'm on my own to take a million practice tests in preparation for the exam on October 13th - more on that as the day approaches.

Hello Mr. Blue Sky

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Reflections on Monkeyshines

An amusing part of being a parent is finding yourself saying things that you never thought would come out of your mouth. As a child, I told myself that when it was my turn I would never say things like, "because I'm your father and I said so!" But here I am, years later, finding that I have become my parents (not a bad thing really). There is also the lighter side, however, that comes when you listen to the words you have spoken and hear them independent of the context in which they were spoken. It is hard not to laugh when you hear yourself say, "Miranda take the porcupine out of your mouth please," or "Zach, please stop painting your sister," or "Who put the mouse in the refrigerator?" These are precious moments indeed!

Enough metacognition - I had a great weekend with the kids and I remembered to pick up a camera and snap some photos. I used half of them this past weekend and will take the other half this coming weekend, then do the photo updates - make sure to check back!

We kind of did our usual thing - parks and such, and even made some new friends in Jack and Brianna, whom I suspect we will see again. The kids were even more affectionate than usual (that's pretty darn affectionate) and we did a lot of nice cuddling. On Sunday we did some heavy-duty finger-painting, which was great fun for us, and we got good and messy. Daddy also benefited by having some priceless works of art to hang in his hallway. There will be an encore performance of Monkeyshines in only 3 more days - I can't wait!

Twitter

Well my good friend Nathan has struck again in his facilitation of my steady slide downhill to the dark side of the force (well actually only the internet) - all kidding aside, his suggestions have all been good ones thus far, so I have every reason to believe that this too will enhance my web-life. The new addition comes in the form of Twitter, which on the surface might make one wonder where we draw the line on our craving for minutiae. But be that as it may, I have signed up for a Twitter account and have linked it to this page's sidebar so that I can text in updates (in the sidebar only) on what is going on in Mark's world, from the safety and comfort of my cellphone. That alone is pretty cool - follow along and we'll see where it leads!

Everything is Miscellaneous

I thought that y'all would dig this - it's a really interesting take on knowing and how we create meaning. I've been pondering one comment in particular - that you can really learn a lot about a person by looking at their tag cloud and, as a result, I've added my tag cloud to the sidebar of this page. The video runs just under an hour - enjoy!

Bulls & Bears

So I had my first Series 7 class last night and jeeeez! - my head is still spinning. Here's the short version of what was covered: the rights of shareholders, the liquidation hierarchy, common stock voting rights, preemptive rights, the difference between warrants and rights, stock splits (whole and fractional), types of preferred stock, American Depository Receipts (and GDR's), how the primary market is structured, types of underwriting and spreads, the Securities Act of 1933, the timeline for full registration, new issue regulations, NASD rule 2790 and equity IPO's, which securities and transactions are exempt from rule 2790, Regulation D, Rule 144 and 144A, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, insider regulation, and the regulations regarding fair disclosure.

Oooooo-Kaaay? So anyway, it was a lot to take in and I find that I'm still digesting it. Most everybody looked kind of shell-shocked walking out, so I fit right in, and perhaps that was the point - to get it through to us that this exam is no joke. I'm sitting for my exam on October 13th, which was as early as I could schedule it (it's a 6 hour, two part exam). I have 4 chapters to read for Thursday covering the exchange market, the over-the-counter market and customer accounts - good subway reading.

Not much else to report - I had a nice quiet holiday weekend. I got together with friends a couple of times and got a lot of sleep. Fortunately, I am not teaching this week, and even more fortunately, I have the kids tonight - more on that tomorrow.