Nicholas asked yesterday, half because he's like this and half because I'm not, whether I was on target. We were in the camp kitchen; he was cooking pancakes. It made me think of weekends in the Aberdares. Nicholas was five and I was seven, and where Georgia is the floor-baby now, Matthew was then. We were there for the fishing, mainly--usually it was Cannons and a family of friends. Those mornings, four or five kids would burst out the cabin door into the misty cold in our rubber boots and wool sweaters to kick a soccer ball around in the dirt while the moms made breakfast. I remember stopping to hunch over the place where the previous day's catch had been cleaned, seeing the blackened slime on the coarse grass.
    So: a party of five little Pok�mon on the grassy mountain, variously shaped and charactered, drawn in bright colors, their powers increasing by ones and twos with each move they throw down (Nicholas booted the ball! Eric jumped from the top of the steps! Christopher played the recorder!).

             +2
                +1
              +1
                    +2
                 +3
                       +2

              Am I on target?

    It's neat how the question is kind of aggressive but also allows for me to make the evaluation as I see fit. The way N put it says a lot about his approach (though I think bernards also factor in). His method uses good, creative, qualitative benchmarks, and constant rechecking. In my reality very little is concrete. Targets seem arbitrary. This makes me a very narrowly specific-use Pok�mon.

    I accidentally skipped work yesterday, but I waterskied the day before, so I think that adds up.


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