2 out of 3 aint that bad... or is it?

There's talk about dropping cursive writing from the elementary curriculum.  Reasons are people don't use it anymore.  It takes too long to learn.  It's difficult to learn.  Adults use block writing so cursive is a waste of time.  Why use cursive when you can type it, change the font and use spell check?

Maybe adults have a hard time learning new tricks but eight year olds have a learning capacity that's off the charts.  At six, a kid will rapidly absorb everything he comes in contact with as a foundation for everything he'll learn for the rest of his life.  Social skills, languages, mathematics, art, reading, communication, coloring within the lines, spacial relationships, and personality.  As anyone that's been around kids can tell you, kids are learning sponges.  There's nothing they can't absorb and they do it faster and easier than the smartest adult.  Why drop a subject that any kid can learn in a few weeks?  


Is it the inability of the student to learn or the inability of the teacher to teach?

Cursive writing isn't simply a subject that becomes less important as we approach adulthood.  It's not a dead art that's been replaced by computer keyboards.  It's much more important than that.  
It's the last crucial step in basic learning that employs a highly complex neurodevelopmental process, which involves multiple brain mechanisms.  A simultaneous integration of memory, language, motor skill and higher cognition employing various degrees of motor coordination that requires balancing, flexing, and contracting movements as well as simultaneously stimulating some muscle groups while inhibiting other muscle groups.
In order to self-monitor writing output, visual, automatic motor memory, and revisualization feedback mechanisms must be engaged.

The idea that a nine year old can learn to do that in a few weeks boggles the mind.  It REALLY blows my mind that the adults in charge of elementary school education would think it's a good idea to drop this from the curriculum in favor of something they feel is more important.

What's more important than developing a signature or reading script from the past?


The people in charge of our present educational system haven't been making the smartest decisions lately.  Ebonics was a joke.  New math was like new Coke.  There, their, and they're are now acceptably interchangeable.  I suppose to some of the dumb asses making the rules, dropping writing from the standard three R's of the educational system makes sense.


It looks like cognitive thinking isn't required anymore.... at least where learning is concerned.
 

your mind is drivng you crazy

buy the ticket, take the ride

When I was younger, everyone I knew loved the scary rides at the amusement parks.  The scariest ride was always the roller coaster.  You could hear the sounds of accelerating steel wheels immediately followed by the death screams of scared shitless passengers echoing through every part of the amusement park, beckoning the fearless and fearless wannabe's to come face to face with their own mortality.

You really like this girl and you want to impress her so double dating with another couple at an amusement park sounded like a good idea.  You could ride some rides, hold hands as you walk around, and comment on all the activity.  Play your cards right and you might get laid after the sun sets.

And then, the couple you're with insists you all ride the roller coaster.  If two out of four people want to do a scary ride, and you don't want to look like a wuss to the girl you desperately want to get to second base with, you have no choice but to grow some gonads and get excited over such a great idea.   

When you pay for the ticket and get in line, there's no turning back.  That's what's running through your head as the four of you inch your way in line, surrounded by the overhead roar of an out of control train full of screaming, terrified passengers on a one way trip to hell.

The engine-less train pulls into the platform and you stare at the disheveled occupants and pray that greasy cheeseburger you just ate stays in your stomach.  Your date picks a car and within seconds the bar comes down and you're locked in place, physically over-riding the fight or flight impulse that sets in when you're about to die, and off you go with an accelerated heart rate pumping adrenalin through your blood vessels.  As the coaster makes it's slow, vertical climb, the conversation takes a serious tone as she says, "I'm really scared and excited at the same time.  What about you?"  With your eyes trained at the tracks ahead, disappearing into oblivion, you are too terrified for rational thought.  As you round the top and experience the anti-gravity of a mile high free-fall, your lizard brain takes over and triggers your adrenal glands to go into overload.  All thoughts of getting laid vanish as you hold on with all your might as you see your life pass before your eyes.

The rest of the ride is a series of ups and downs and twists and turns that pales in excitement compared to the horror of the first initial drop, but massive doses of endorphins kick in and your screams of terror morph into yells of elation and extreme joy.  You're alive and this ride is fun as hell and ya can't wait to do it again.
Double payoff as your girl gives you a different ride after the sun sets.

Ok, it's not bungee jumping off The Golden Gate, or skiing down Everest, but it can be a first near death experience, triggering a biochemical cocktail of adrenalin immediately followed by an endorphin rush so profound, that it makes immortality a reality.  The adrenalin wires you tight and sharpens your instinct for survival.  The endorphin rush is the payoff for cheating death and the feeling is equivalent to an opiate high and just as addictive.

Could your first roller coaster ride be the beginning of a life of addictive, chemically rewarded payoffs from taking big chances and cheating death?

I wonder... does the tycoon, base jumper, and hard drug user have the same goals and outcome in common?

what's the difference?

Last night I listened to our fearless leader recite his carefully crafted state of the union address, in which he tells congress, the media, and the world population how his administration perceives a snapshot of the way things are, right now, in the United States and how it got here and where it's heading and who's steering the ship of state.  It's not just a great photo op.  It gives the prez the media center ring to try and convince everyone he actually does positive things, and it reminds everyone exactly why they put him in office in the first place.  It's like your car dealer calling you every two years to tell you what a great salesman he is.

As I listened to his talk, he said something that got my attention.

"We need to make America the best place to do business."

That's exactly what Dick Cheney said when he was VP in GW's first term.  That's republican talk, isn't it?  I mean, isn't that the mindset that got us all in this economic shit storm in the first place?  And since when are democrats concerned about Wall Street profits?  Democrats have always been for the working guy, unions, and the people who actually make things and republicans were for Wall Street, big business and the guy that hires you.    

The thought came to me that politics and sports are exactly the same.

Both are spectator oriented.
Both require spectator money to operate.
Both play one team against the other.
Both are taught at every level of education.
Both have a tier structure with increasing levels of exclusivity.
Members in the highest levels of both are selected by people we don't know.

Football, baseball, and basketball all had separate but equal major leagues that eventually merged into one entity running the show for that particular sport.  Now, each sport has one major league.

It appears as though the democratic party has been merged into the republican party for many years, with the republican party calling all the shots, including getting a democrat in the white house every now and then just to give the impression we still have a two party system.

And you thought you made a difference on November 2nd.



     

5 worst things to say

Will I get in trouble for lifting this vid?

transition to the 4th dimension

The problem with living in a 3 dimensional universe is an abundance of boundaries designed to keep us contained.  Compared to the rest of the cosmos we're nothing but babies in our individual playpens, aware there's more but unable and unwilling to leave the cage.
The laws of physics are our playpen walls and our baby toys keep us happy and content.

Well, I'm not content with all these hindrances so I looked into what it would be like to live in the 4th dimension.  After all, that's where we're heading so I may as well research it.

Working on the premise that we all create our own realities and this reality of mine would be so much cooler if I didn't have these damn laws messin' up my shit.

A search on the internet got me a number of people trying to describe the 4th dimension by comparing it to the 2nd dimension, which is like explaining an airplane to a caveman by showing him a rock.  A number of semi-smart guys described the 4th dimension by comparing a 3D cube to a hyper-cube, which is nothing more than a regular 3D cube with extended angles.  Another expert figured that someone from the 4th dimension would be like a floating blob of organs, fluid, and vapor in a constant shift of transparencies.  It soon became apparent to me these guys are all irretrievably stuck in 3D land and can't imagine anything outside their carefully crafted playpens.

I figured I could do better so I climbed up my playpen wall and trained my eye to the horizon outside the window and reasoned a 4D world without restraints would have absolutely no boundaries.

Gravity, solid objects, time, space, climate control, growth, decay, and everything else that posed a problem is no longer in your way.  You'll have a physical body, if you want, but it's not necessary.  Earth will still be here, if you want, but there's a whole universe worth checking out.  You'll have time because time is no longer an issue.  You can see the big bang and the end of the universe before breakfast.  The vastness of space?  Go anywhere instantly.  Space suits?  What for?  You can picnic on the sun.  Can't think of any place to go outside of Earth?  You will.  You'll have unlimited information from the cosmic collective.  You'll be an immortal, non-corporeal, timeless being who can morph into anything and be everywhere at the same time.

And this is just 4D... climbing out of the playpen and entering adolescence.  Cosmic adulthood is when we get to 12D.

What do ya think that will be like?

293 ways to make change for a dollar

This is one of those problems you can't work out any other way but just do it.  No computer model or mathematics exist, that I know of, that can work this out.

For what it's worth, 2+9+3= 14  1+4= 5. 

The only reason I bothered looking into this is because I found this information on a slip of paper while cleaning up some detritus.  As far as I know, I wrote this on a company notepad thirteen years ago.  It must have been reasonably important enough to keep all these years and I'm sure there was more to it than simply an obscure bit of useless trivia.

http://tinyurl.com/ye2w8xg

is reality a hologram?

to the moon, alice

There's a belief shared by quantum physicists, eastern mystics, and ancient wise guys that the reality we live in is self created and every detail of our waking reality is as individually crafted as our own sleep dreams.

Sometimes my dreams ignore the laws of physics and I'm able to fly, jump over mountains, walk through walls, breathe under water, and instantly transport myself to a completely different setting.

If reality is self created, why would we include the laws of physics?  If flying is what we want, why would we include gravity and further compound it my making it an unbreakable law?  It's like speed bumps at the Indi 500.

I tend to think we've been programed to accept these carved in stone "laws" to keep us from levitating over the stockyard fence and jumping over the moon.

 

how bout a do over

I firmly believe that we make our own universe from our own subconscious intent. 

The one I live in has an economic system that relies on extreme conflict, resulting in mass death, so that a profiteer that I don't know, can increase their bottom line from interest rates from loans to both sides of any conflict.

I beg your forgiveness for ruining so many lives but I never took an economics class in college.

I'll do better next time. 

it's all just a big joke

I ran into Mike the other day.  The last we worked together was shortly after 9/11 and over the years we'd run into each other and compare notes.  We talked about three times since then and I'd say the time we spent together in the last ten years must be something like maybe an hour.

We spent just enough time together to remember each other but not enough to see any changes.  Mike sees me as I was ten years ago and I see him much the same way. 

After talking and laughing for about a half hour he said something that made me think.

He said, "I always liked the way you looked at things.  Whether it's politics, or the area, or the news, you think it's all just a big joke.  Because of you, I look at the news at night and read the papers and laugh out loud because it's all just a big joke and it makes the news more like a sit-com."

Yep, that was pretty much my attitude back in the pre-9/11 days before everyone got serious about everything.  I was carefree, selling phone cards and poison ivy treatments, searching for the meaning of life, and life was good.  Mike still knows the me of ten years ago and talking with him was like looking through an old photo album of the way my mind worked before we became a police state.

The best part is Mike still thinks it's all a big joke and he credits me for giving him that attitude, and he gave it right back to me ten years later.

What a wonderful gift.

Thank you, Universe.

drug t-shirts

start walking

Humans are ok.  Sure, there are some real bastard pricks out there but, by and large, humans are pretty decent folk.  They invent and celebrate holidays, create beautiful art, sing, dance, make music, and are willing to help just about anyone if asked.

Humans are pretty much the same all over planet Earth but they have a major flaw.  They can't seem to tolerate other humans who aren't just like them and because of this intolerance no one can remember a time when we weren't at war with someone because we can't tolerate what they were doing.  Even the reasons for these wars are vague, at best.

Just today a thought came in my head on the way home.  I can tolerate anything but intolerance.  Then I began yelling at the asshole in front of me because he was breaking for the green light.


I'll make you a deal.  I'll work real hard to tolerate the guy breaking for the green light if you try just as hard to tolerate someone doing something that really bugs you.  If we could only tolerate and get along we might realize all our problems were never there in the first place. 

The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step and realizing the problem is the first step toward solving it.

I think we've got some walking to do.

must be santa

the american astronaut

some things never change

Some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

About a year ago I was talking to a friend who said she ran into an old ex of mine in a bar. 
Tammy told me she had a lengthy conversation with Francesca who told her that I still had her record collection and she'd like to have it back but she doesn't want to ask me for it.

I thought about this for awhile and decided she should have them.  Even though half the records were mine, I thought it would be a nice gesture to give her the whole collection, as well as a brand new turntable.  I mean, what the hell... It's just taking up space and if she wants it, she can have it all and I'll even throw in a couple hundred video tapes.

So, I decided to write her a letter and send it snail mail, since she doesn't have a computer, and a phone call out of the blue would be slightly less shocking than a surprise appearance at her door.  It was a simple letter asking how she's doing and I hope she's doing well and I have all these records, many of which are hers and very rare, and I'd like her to have them.  I can deliver them anywhere she wants.  Just let me know.

About two weeks later I got a response:

Thanks for thinking of me, but I really don't want any of it.
If I haven't missed any of it in ten years I doubt I'll miss it in the next ten,
Throw it away or give it to the Salvation Army, or burn it.
It really doesn't matter.


Francesca


Then I remembered why I broke up with her.



 

blowing humanity

I was listening to the radio the other day about a guy who lost his six figure job five years ago.  During the interview, he said he sent out thousands of resumes to prospective employers and about once every two months he might get an interview.  His major complaint was every potential employer who interviewed him said the same thing.  They don't like to hire people who don't have a job.

On the surface this sounds a bit silly.  Why would you look for a job if you already had one?  If you're looking to fill a slot, why not hire the guy?  He apparently is competent and qualified to do such work.  

Let's back up a little bit.  This guy had a six figure income five years ago.  That's, at the very least, $100,000 a year.  He was unemployed for five years and spent that time tenaciously copying resumes, writing cover letters, licking envelopes, and supporting the USPS with his frequent visits and stamp purchases.  Unemployment insurance, if any, would only cover a scant fraction of his previous salary, so those unemployment checks were basically pocket change.  What was this guy doing to improve his situation?  He considered sending out resumes and going to an interview a few times a year was enough to land him a job at least equal to the one he lost.

Let's do the math.

If a guy can go without an income for five years it's because...
a)  He doesn't need money.
or
b)  He has enough leftover money from his previous job to carry him for at least five years, allowing him to do absolutely nothing to change his present situation other than delude himself into believing flooding the mail system with his loser resumes will land him the jackpot job.

My job requires me to look over applications and resumes all the time and have to determine from that stack of personal information who I can hire that would give me the biggest bang for my company's buck.  The first thing I look for is availability... when they can work, when they can't work.  If they're a potential warm body they're half way there.  The next thing I look for is work history.
This is a deal breaker.  Show me someone who hasn't worked in five years and I'll show you someone who doesn't want to work.  It's that simple.

I can see where this guy's coming from.  He wants to get a job that pays at least as much as he made before.  Any less and he's not advancing in life.  Cost of living goes up so his pay has to go up or he's sliding backwards.  Why accept a job that pays less than he had five years ago?

I'll tell ya why.  Because if he had a job before he went into any of those interviews he'd at least appear as a guy who really wants to work instead of an indolent asshole who wants a six figure job sitting on his butt all day.

If I was this guy who made six figures a year five years ago who can't get a job merely because he doesn't have a job, I'd get a job just to appease my future employer.  Believe it or not, there's lots of jobs out there.  Maybe not the ones this guy wants but there are jobs like distribution centers, supermarkets, retail, banks, coal mines, and tons of other livelihoods less desirable than a six figure income sitting on ass and playing with your laptop.

And when his short stint as blue collar worker or service employee or sanitation worker lands him his ticket to paradise, he might bring to the table something more than his greed and all-for-me attitude and actually know what it's like to walk in the shoes of the people who made this economic empire a reality... The people who actually do things.

The universe throws things at us for a reason.  Maybe the reason this guy lost his job was to learn humanity.

Too bad he blew it.

how to change a light bulb

This made me nervous just watching.  Let the cartoon pass and hold on.

avoiding unpleasantness

where are they now?