Pinpoint Redux
About a week or so ago Owen asked Ernie to pick up a trifold for him---the kind of cardboard display that people use for presentations, etc. Ernie asked if it was for a school project, and hearing that it was not, warned me that we were in for something. If you recall, last time Owen did one of his patented pinpoint presentation, he totally swayed us into allowing him to get a video game.
So over the course of the week, Leo and Owen would close themselves in upstairs working on this. Eventually, last Sunday, the time was nigh.... Owen carefully brought the pinpoint downstairs and set it up.
Ernie and I took our places in the living room and Leo even came down for the presentation. Owen pulled off the first piece of paper with a flourish, only to reveal the title of the presentation: Reasons to Get a Computer, by Leo and Owen Blackwelder. I settled back into my seat.
I gotta say, the boy is a master at presentations. We got Leo a computer when he was 14 and we have planned to get Owen one when he turns 14. Fourteen is NINE long months away however. He started out with the positive reasons---things like the fact that it would even easier for him to check homework assignments and his grades, he could get reminders to do his homework and clean the catbox....and less arm writing so it wouldn't ruin "this flawless skin" which he showed with a flourish.
I thought the pièce de résistance was his presentation on the so called negatives. As he pointed to "unfair because of age" he said, "Now Mom, your sister, my Aunt Debbie, had to wait until she was 18 to get her ears pierced, correct?" I nodded. "But then, Grandma, your mother, let Aunt Judi get her ears pierced at 16, and you got yours done at 14. And Aunt Debbie was mad, right?" I nodded mutely. "But see, Leo," and here he pulled the sheet covering the next statement off dramatically, "Leo believes it's totally Fair & Fine for me to have a computer." All I could do was nod my head.
He went on, at some length (I kinda liked the "Mother shall Officially Control the Home Computer" and "With the uninstalled programs it will run faster and easier."). We solemnly told him we would discuss it and give him an answer later that day. He nervously sat upstairs in his room. Ernie and I watched a little tv and halfway through Ernie said desultorily, "We should just go ahead and get it for him now, shouldn't we?" I said, "mm-hmm" and then we kept watching to let him stew awhile longer.
He eventually crept downstairs and looked in at us anxiously and we gave him the news. And I gotta say, that catbox was cleaned in no time flat...barely had to mention it.
here are his presentation notes....