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yeah I know you did not ask!
I was doing yoga style stretches before launching into more vigorous, traditional exercises in our basement gymnasium area. As I was doing so my various joints were snapping,cracking and popping so loudly and so often that I thought I was consuming a bowl of Rice Krispies.
For a nation concerned with being competitive with the rest of the world we are doing all we can do to gut that competitiveness by gutting education. We refuse to tax those who could afford it, instead we want to gut, gut, and gut a little more in all pursuit of of some idealogical fantansy.
Having dated a school teacher for the last 3 years, I am not sure why anyone stays in the professional. I understand the burn out rate early in the career is high. I’m sure folks get into teaching for many reasons, and I know for many that reason is a need for a socially significant profession. We should reward folks for these occupation.
From what I hear teaching has turned into a bureaucratic nightmare. Plus teaching has become an exercise in teaching to standardized tests.
Below is a link to an excellent article and retro video about this issue.
Have You Hugged A Teacher Lately?
If you do a Google search on Teacher Burnout, I came up with close to 200,000 hits.
A couple of interesting quotes from the article:
“Nearly half of all teachers quit during their first five years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, but the numbers alone don’t convey the full severity of the problem.”
“It is often the best qualified teachers who leave first because they have the easiest time finding employment in other fields.”
Yet there is a group of politicians (and citizens) trying to make them the scapegoat for our financial problems. Shame on them.
OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide by Steve O’Hearn available at Amazon.com
I have not real gripes with book. It is not great; it is not bad. There are not a lot of resources out there to use to study for the OCP Developer exam. This seems to be one of the few resources out there outside of one of the exam prep companies.
I’ve been in this business more than a few years, and I am used to reading technical manuals and books. This one is especially dry. I really had to crack my internal whip to get after it.
My real gripe is the CD packaged with it. Continue reading “OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide”
A regular golf course is generally 6000 to 6500 yards long. That is 3.4 to 3.7 miles. If you are like me when you play golf, it is never a straight line. I am guessing that in a round of golf I probably walk 4 to 4 ½ miles. A reasonably healthy individual should be able to do that in an hour of brisk walking.
A round of golf usually takes approximately 4 hours. Theoretically you are walking at the blistering pace of 1 mile per hour. In reality there is a fair amount of standing around, and then brisk walking to your ball. I carry my bag, throw in some elevation changes, and you have a reasonable amount of exercise. The figures I have seen say about 7 calories per minute playing golf if you are walking and carrying your bag. That means you are burning up around 1700 calories as long as you stay away from the beer concession.
This is not the first time I’ve been asked, “Are you really going to walk all 18 holes?” This time it was by 4 young men in their late teens or very early 20s. These young men all looked in good health, and were not carrying the excess weight of many of their peers. We conversed a little, and they just could not imagine walking the course.
I walk because a) I enjoy the game more when I am walking. Buzzing around in a cart brings in a rushed dimension to the game I do not like. b) I love the exercise. I am in reasonable shape compared to many of my peers. Walking the golf course is one the things that helps maintain my fitness. c) I’m cheap and I like to play a lot of golf. Paying for a cart adds $10 to $15 to the price of a round of golf.
I knew one young man whose reason for not walking was he did not want anyone to think he could not afford a cart!!! What a load of baloney.
Some golf courses will not let you play during certain hours unless you rent a cart. I do know some walkers slow things down a little. I’m not so sure that is a bad thing. I’ve golfed with far too many folks early in day that acted like playing 18 holes was just another chore to finish. That strikes me a missing one of the key joys of golf.
I have frequently played with folks in carts while I walked. Unless they are extremely good golfers with the ball in the fairway all the time I keep up with them. Frequently I am waiting on them.
I will acknowledge that for many folks if they did not have a cart there would be no place to carry the cooler of beer. Golf in this case just becomes an activity to do while drinking. Oh well.
I just see so many folks that would benefit from the mild exercise golfing provides, yet they feel they must ride or they cannot play. Given the current obesity epidemic how wonderful it would be if a few of these folks jumped off their carts and walked.
Or at least they could at least quit acting like I was nuts for doing so.
I’ve voted in every national election, as well as most local elections, since 1972s Nixon vs. McGovern. I am seriously considering not voting this time. Why? Because I have been disfranchised. Never mind the various amendments guaranteeing voting privileges; the current system negates individual votes.