Muse
Lifer
This boy turns 13 end of this month. His bar mitzvah is happening on leap day! I will attend (500 mile flight, etc.).
I got an email a few days ago from my sister asking me if I wanted to chip in to buy the kid a Macbook of some kind, they figured it in the neighborhood of $2000, and a few other family members were onboard. Sister said she was in for $400, wondered if I wanted to get onboard.
I'd been thinking for weeks about my gift.... When I was his age I had a small almost toy-like microscope. It probably weighed 14 ounces or less, had 3 objectives and IIRC, the maximum was around 120x. I used to culture yard waste + water and look at one celled animals squirm on a slide+cover... parameciums, amoebas, whatever. Very easy to do. I didn't go much beyond that but that was a lot of fun. Don't know where I got it, it may have well been a gift for my bar mitzvah by someone!
I've given a few bar mitzvah gifts in recent years. One I got when I was 13 was a deluxe big world atlas. So, I gave two kids a similar gift. This time, I figure go beyond that.
For a few years I have been thinking of buying myself a microscope. I have a few uses for one, didn't know what to get. Just before Thanksgiving I bought myself a big step up from what I had as a kid, this:
Amscope B120-E5. Also got a box of slides+covers, a slide storage box and a set of 25 sample slides that are highly regarded by customer reviewers at Amazon and Amscope's site.
This year, our Thanksgiving family party was thrown at this bar mitzvah boy's house in San Diego. His folks put me up in the kid's room (he shared his younger brother's room those 2 days). I spotted a reflecting telescope in his room (maybe 4 inches?) and wondered if he'd like a microscope. Conversations mentioned that the invitations for the bar mitzvah were in the mail! I guess the wheels in my brain started turning then...
So, I thought to myself ... "would this kid like something similar to what I got...maybe the same setup?"
A bit of background: His folks have 2 boys. The other is maybe 2 years younger at most. His dad is my older brother's youngest son. That brother died 10 years ago. He was a vascular & general surgeon. Our father was an anesthesiologist. I steered clear of medicine. My brother was almost 6 years older than me, he was always miles ahead of me, so to speak, already well on his path before I had a chance to much think about mine. I had to do something different.
However, my nephew, this bar mitzvah boy's father, was my brother's youngest son, eventually became an M.D. and specialized like his father in vascular & general surgery, and they were partners in practice until my brother died. My father was partners in practice with his brother! So, it's a bit of a family tradition there.
Well, I don't know what this kid's predilections are, but he and his younger brother are bright, well behaved kids and I figure they're doing very well in school, have bright futures. Nice kids.
So, I answer my sister's email yesterday saying, I'll let the cat out of the bag and I explain my contemplating giving the kid a gift of similar cost, provide the links to the scope at Amscope and Amazon. I cc'd the other people in on the Mac buy, and also cc'd the kid's parents, figuring I should give them a chance to influence my decision.
I finish the mail by saying I figured why not at the same time gift the younger brother (now probably 11 1/2 year old) the same scope & extras so each has his own. IOW, give the younger brother his bar mitzvah gift early.
Well, what do you think? For one thing, I don't know microscopy particularly. Maybe something else would be better for these kids. I figure the setup I got would serve a kid approaching middle school, high school, university... I mean, everybody in our extended family has gone on to university educations! Myself, I majored in physics, and ultimately graduated in math. I don't remember taking any biology at all in school! But times are different, I wish I had taken some biology classes. I'm not sure they were even offered in my junior and high schools! My chemistry class had no biological chemistry involved, either in high school or freshman chemistry at the U.
My sister emailed me back, not uncharacteristically tersely: "That's great." That's all she said! My sister and her partner are Apple folks, I've never bought an Apple product in my life. However, I don't want to be tech political here. The kids' uncle's wife was more effusive, praising my ideas as thoughtful and that it was great to give something I would like myself. I responded that with gratitude and explained that I wasn't certain it was the right microscope for them.
Edit: I would have included the link to the scope I bought for myself and am contemplating for these kids above, but the AT forums software screwed that up (when will they fix this site???), so I'm putting it here, where it won't screw up the above!
Amscope B120-E5
I got an email a few days ago from my sister asking me if I wanted to chip in to buy the kid a Macbook of some kind, they figured it in the neighborhood of $2000, and a few other family members were onboard. Sister said she was in for $400, wondered if I wanted to get onboard.
I'd been thinking for weeks about my gift.... When I was his age I had a small almost toy-like microscope. It probably weighed 14 ounces or less, had 3 objectives and IIRC, the maximum was around 120x. I used to culture yard waste + water and look at one celled animals squirm on a slide+cover... parameciums, amoebas, whatever. Very easy to do. I didn't go much beyond that but that was a lot of fun. Don't know where I got it, it may have well been a gift for my bar mitzvah by someone!
I've given a few bar mitzvah gifts in recent years. One I got when I was 13 was a deluxe big world atlas. So, I gave two kids a similar gift. This time, I figure go beyond that.
For a few years I have been thinking of buying myself a microscope. I have a few uses for one, didn't know what to get. Just before Thanksgiving I bought myself a big step up from what I had as a kid, this:
Amscope B120-E5. Also got a box of slides+covers, a slide storage box and a set of 25 sample slides that are highly regarded by customer reviewers at Amazon and Amscope's site.
This year, our Thanksgiving family party was thrown at this bar mitzvah boy's house in San Diego. His folks put me up in the kid's room (he shared his younger brother's room those 2 days). I spotted a reflecting telescope in his room (maybe 4 inches?) and wondered if he'd like a microscope. Conversations mentioned that the invitations for the bar mitzvah were in the mail! I guess the wheels in my brain started turning then...
So, I thought to myself ... "would this kid like something similar to what I got...maybe the same setup?"
A bit of background: His folks have 2 boys. The other is maybe 2 years younger at most. His dad is my older brother's youngest son. That brother died 10 years ago. He was a vascular & general surgeon. Our father was an anesthesiologist. I steered clear of medicine. My brother was almost 6 years older than me, he was always miles ahead of me, so to speak, already well on his path before I had a chance to much think about mine. I had to do something different.
However, my nephew, this bar mitzvah boy's father, was my brother's youngest son, eventually became an M.D. and specialized like his father in vascular & general surgery, and they were partners in practice until my brother died. My father was partners in practice with his brother! So, it's a bit of a family tradition there.
Well, I don't know what this kid's predilections are, but he and his younger brother are bright, well behaved kids and I figure they're doing very well in school, have bright futures. Nice kids.
So, I answer my sister's email yesterday saying, I'll let the cat out of the bag and I explain my contemplating giving the kid a gift of similar cost, provide the links to the scope at Amscope and Amazon. I cc'd the other people in on the Mac buy, and also cc'd the kid's parents, figuring I should give them a chance to influence my decision.
I finish the mail by saying I figured why not at the same time gift the younger brother (now probably 11 1/2 year old) the same scope & extras so each has his own. IOW, give the younger brother his bar mitzvah gift early.
Well, what do you think? For one thing, I don't know microscopy particularly. Maybe something else would be better for these kids. I figure the setup I got would serve a kid approaching middle school, high school, university... I mean, everybody in our extended family has gone on to university educations! Myself, I majored in physics, and ultimately graduated in math. I don't remember taking any biology at all in school! But times are different, I wish I had taken some biology classes. I'm not sure they were even offered in my junior and high schools! My chemistry class had no biological chemistry involved, either in high school or freshman chemistry at the U.
My sister emailed me back, not uncharacteristically tersely: "That's great." That's all she said! My sister and her partner are Apple folks, I've never bought an Apple product in my life. However, I don't want to be tech political here. The kids' uncle's wife was more effusive, praising my ideas as thoughtful and that it was great to give something I would like myself. I responded that with gratitude and explained that I wasn't certain it was the right microscope for them.
Edit: I would have included the link to the scope I bought for myself and am contemplating for these kids above, but the AT forums software screwed that up (when will they fix this site???), so I'm putting it here, where it won't screw up the above!
Amscope B120-E5
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