Tag: school

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Furries, Litterboxes, Schools

One of the issues I have as a “writer”… well a blogger is that occasionally I have the urge to write a posting that may offend or hurt another person.  Most of the time I let the urge pass as my reasons for blogging do not include embarrassing or hurting folks around me. I am smart enough, after two marriages, to ask for a blessing from Señora on posts that involve her.  The Wee Dog can just suck it up. Besides, it is rumored that she cannot read anyway, but I am not sure I believe it. 

I could not resist the urge this time to share this anecdote as it brings home an important point in the current cultural wars that are dividing my beloved country.

The other night Señora and I were invited Continue reading “Furries, Litterboxes, Schools”

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Teachers’ newest online worry: cyberbaiting

As if teaching in today’s environment is not hard enough!  It seems that any technology humans come up with, someone finds a way to pervert it.  I do know that the school system where my significant other teaches has a policy prohibiting teachers from interacting with students on social sites.  Apparently, it is for some very good reasons.

Below is a link to an article about cyberbaiting (why does that sound so nasty) at eSchool News

Teachers’ newest online worry: cyberbaiting

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Korporations Have Hijacked Our Schools

Here is a link to an article that details how our schools are being taken over by korporations for purpose of creating commodity style workers. It sounds like a conspiratorial type idea, but… I don’t know if we have a bunch of corporate types in a back room planning this, but the effect is the same. And I believe real. Korporations want compliant workers. Besides lower wages, I think part of the rush to H1-B workers and off-shoring was to get a more compliant workforce. My experience, having worked with a multitude of H1-Bs, is that they do not buck the system and accept whatever is dealt out. Korporations 1, workers 0.

The link: Our Public Schools Are Churning Out Drones for the Corporate State

For whatever reason there seems to be a head long rush to divide us into a classed society. A rush to divide us into a society of the educated and the poorly educated. Education does not seem to be valued any more for the sake of knowledge, but only for what it can do for you career-wise. Most of the Meta values I am aware of are not derived from the korporate workplace.

This two class society scares me in another way. For a democracy to really work well, it is better to have an educated population. To have a population that is not influenced by every Glenn Beck that comes along. A population devoted to the NFL and reality shows, is not going worry too much about state of the nation until it is too late.

Most of my adult life I have worked for large korporations that include several Fortune 500 companies. While I do not think I am exceptional or different, I have always chafed in these places. There is something about being stuck in a little gray cube 8 hours a day that is not conducive to the soul’s health. The folks that run these companies know that. So the question becomes how do we keep the work force under control, and with the illusion that this is what life is all about? They obviously think the answer is to hijack the educational system.  With control of the education system the values and skills that benefit the korporations can be instilled early and often. They are well on the way to doing that. Continue reading “Korporations Have Hijacked Our Schools”

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The Tradition Continues

When my kids were in grade school, I would occasionally have them do “book reports” for various reasons. They were never very happy when I assigned them one, but they did do them…grudgingly. My daughter is much older now and she seems to have fond memories of doing the book reports, at least a few of them.

David and his family visited us recently in St. Louis. David and Brandie were determined to not waste a moment of the weekend and we visited many of the sites in town including the Arch. In the gift shop at the Arch they had a place mat with all the presidents on it. I purchased one, I though for me. The grand-kids made such a fuss over the place mat that I gave it to them with the stipulation they give me a book report on a president whenever their report cards came out. The tradition continues.

I am still waiting for Jordon’s report. Below is Teagan’s report. Continue reading “The Tradition Continues”

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Rev. Joe Goes to The Big House.

My folks would never have been in the running for the Ward and June Cleaver Parenting Award.  The reason they had children, let alone 5, is unclear to me.  It seemed then and seems now that they felt as long as we were fed, clothed, and a roof was over our head they had fulfilled their parental duties.  They were more involved with the youngest two.

For reasons I will not go into here, I was estranged from my father since I was 13. What few interactions we had were never pleasant, and occasionally they were violent.   Continue reading “Rev. Joe Goes to The Big House.”

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Sit, God

When I was in high school in the 60s I lived in Rhode Island.  Down the street from us were some older folks, probably early to mid twenties.  They would definitely qualify as hippies.

They had an absolutely gorgeous Siberian Husky.  The dog had the most amazing blue eyes that penetrated right through your soul when he looked at you.

At least one of the couple must have been dyslexia as they named their dog, God.

You would hear them on the porch calling for the dog, “Here, God,  come here, God.”  If you were in their house occasionally would hear, “NO, God,  off the furniture.”  Sometimes it was “Sit, God” or a “Stay, God”.

Funny thing is though with those piercing blue eyes you did wonder…

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Meatballs and Impounds

Fred was skinny, but then it was the early 70s and everyone was still skinny.  He had long, stringy, black hair that he parted on one side.  Add in some black horn rimmed glasses, well worn jeans and omnipresent jean jacket and you have a reasonable facsimile of Fred.  He came from a fairly well-to-do family, but he was definitely in full blown want-a-be hippie mode. We all were, at least in the crowd with which I ran.

I had just spent a year at the University of Rhode Island, mostly to avoid the Vietnam era draft.  Continue reading “Meatballs and Impounds”

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OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide

OCP Developer PL/SQL Program Units Exam Guide by Steve O’Hearn available at Amazon.com

51nhzb2udkl_bo2204203200_pisitb-sticker-arrow-clicktopright35-76_aa240_sh20_ou01_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”

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Skinning Rats

It was the fall of 1978,  my son was five years old and my daughter 8.  They were “knee high to a grasshopper” as they say in Arklahoma.  I was attending Central State University, since renamed to the University of Central Oklahoma.  I was majoring in Biology.

Why Biology?  First I had a real love for the science.  Secondly, I had always done well in this branch of the sciences.  I had basically been forced into a business degree program my first year of college and nearly flunked out.  It was a lack of interest and other factors (partying???).  In retrospect I might have better served myself and my family to have gotten my computer science degree at that time rather than the B.S. in Biology.  The punch cards intimidated me, and at time I had doubts about my intellectual capacity.  Dissecting struck me as easier than flow charts. Plus, I’ve made a real study of coming to the fork in the road and taking the wrong tine.

This particular semester I was taking several courses, but Mammalogy 4263 taught by Dr. Caire is of interest here.  Dr. Caire had his M.S. in rats, and his PhD Continue reading “Skinning Rats”

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Dollars are essentially votes

Folks who know me realize that I like to get good value for my dollar.  Some folks have called me cheap.  I don’t think that is really the case.   I just remember a concept I learned back in high school economics.  Whenever you make a purchase, you are effectively casting a dollar vote for that product.  More to the point you are voting on the pricing of that product.  I just like to be careful with my voting. 

I was in Walgreens to buy a bag ice.  Yes it is a little high in there, but the combined cost of gas to the grocery store and Continue reading “Dollars are essentially votes”