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Are family stickers on cars dangerous? September 4, 2008 11:23 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Exercise, Health, Mental, Of Interest, Philosophy, Touchy Subjects , 8comments

For an eon, I have wanted to put the decals representing our family on the van. This past Mother’s Day I made a greater effort to find them and came across several people admonishing the stickers as careless parenting and dangerous to our children. I felt compelled to comment:

The DC Internet Caucus panel on kids and predation has determined that the media has misrepresented the way that children are preyed upon. Although we want to protect our children, being realistic about threats is important because overprotecting them can be just as harmful. Just think, if you teach your children to jump from every shadow, they may grow up to believe that stickers on a car might actually make your child more vulnerable to a child predator.

Yesterday, Evie, a child abuse awareness volunteer added commentary stating that those of us thinking people were being overly paranoid or overly protective were wearing rose colored glasses and not living in the real world. I felt compelled to comment further:

Evie, I’m a realist but while you think we are viewing the word through rose colored glasses, I think you are jaded because you work with the problem.

When I worked as a quality assurance engineer my job was to find problems and when I left the office I continued finding problems. I found billboards with misspellings. Newspapers with poor grammar. Stuff in my life that was assembled wrong. And so forth. But the truth of the matter was that although these were “problems” for the common person, and on the grand scheme of things, they were inconsequential.

I think the quality of our life, and the ability for our children to grow up confident rather than afraid, out weights over the top paranoid reactions to events that have a low likelihood of ever happening to most people.

I am a scout leader and have been trained on child safety and protecting our children. I am a father of five. I want no harm to come to my children or anyone else’s. But like the woman who allowed her 9 year old to travel the subway alone, I want my children to live life to its fullest. I want them street smart but trusting because I believe by breeding trust we help make the problems go away. Don’t treat symptoms; treat problems. Ask the adults around you and I think you will find most of us lived as a child safely being away from home all day long and not abiding by any of the safety recommendations of this day and we all turned out okay. Using reasonable safety measures and common sense makes our children very safe today.

Yes, abductions are easy. So is drowning but that didn’t stop me from taking my children to the ocean and letting them have the time of their lives this summer.

I feel bad for the children Evie has had to help. They should have never been in such a predicament. Isn’t it true that most child abductions are by friends or family? or someone otherwise close to the victim? If so, the stickers really don’t make a difference do they? According to Duhaime.org, 75% of abductions are by friends or family with most abductions being by a parent in a custody dispute.

Evie, you do not live in the real world. You live in a microcosm and broadcast it upon the real world. No insult intended.

How children lost the right to roam in four generations is written on a UK website but certainly reflects similarly to how our children in the United States are treated. As a parent, the thought of my children roaming to areas where I cannot locate them is terrifying but that thought is hypocritical. As a child, I was told to be home at a certain time. I might go out and be in the woods for 6 hours. As long as I got home before 5pm, I didn’t get in trouble. And I would play without a watch. I knew the time based upon where the sun hit the tree tops. My mother had no way to contact me other than a loud shout. Today we have cell phones and FRS radios and GPS trackers. With such technology, why do we keep our children closer than ever? Shouldn’t we allow them the opportunity to explore and grow? Instead we keep them close to home. Doesn’t that encourage more indoor play? Or sedentary computer gaming? Perhaps keeping our children on a short leash and teaching them that no one can be trusted is not good for their health, mental stability, or overall development. Kids need the adventure of ‘risky’ play.

See also:How Far Did You Roam As A Child?

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My Sunday - a week at the University August 24, 2008 7:43 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cathy, Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Of Being Dad, Tommy , 1 comment so far

I woke up this morning before everyone else and promptly began programming. As the morning wore on, Tommy’s departure time to return to school neared. His grandparents and Noah were to take him back to the University. Granny has not seen the campus and Noah was under the impression that it looked a lot like Hogwarts. I found a round tuit and decided to look at Tommy’s laptop which I’d been ignoring for work. LMU has 3 websites the students are required to use; a web-based email client (no pop3 or imap enabled on the exchange server which bites so I have been unable to setup GMail to check the Outlook Webmail), a blackboard (basically a portal by which professors can communicate with the students by posting assignments, slides, links, documents, etc), and a webadvisor (effectively a forum for the students to communicate as well as listings of groups, activities, etc on campus). The fourth website is a public calendar announcing events, activity schedule, and so forth. Tommy had looked at none of these. He had administrative e-mail a week old. He an assignment from a professor being ignored. And to top if off, I counted 30 hours of Internet gaming! Basically, if he wasn’t in class, he was playing games on the Internet. Two nights the gaming did not stop until 12:30am. I was beyond angry!

Now, in Tommy’s defense, this was first week of school, first week of not being under mommy and daddy’s thumb, first week of true independence. I am sure that many freshman behave this way. Also, Tommy has to figure out how to take in this new world which is overwhelming to him and a safe haven is his gaming. I simply fear Tommy falling behind and not being able to catch up.

So after a couple of hours of yelling, tears, and lectures, to which I am certain Tommy turned a deaf early early on, I installed some software to track his usage of ALL software, not just the Internet. (Thanks Tim!) I started to do some tricks to redirect certain gaming sites to education sites but really could not afford the time away from work so Tommy and I came to an agreement. At first the agreement was that the laptop would not go back to the University until he showed some seriousness about his studies; however, the laptop is a requirement of the university. We laid out some pretty clear expectations for Tommy and he is being given another chance. If he messes up, I will be severally crippling that laptop. Cathy will be spending this week on the phone with Tommy. I believe we also need to consider some serious NASA level check lists for Tommy. 1) Open eyes 2) Yawn (note: if yawn does not come from mouth, you could still be asleep, return to step 1) 3) Scratch 4) Sit up…

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You mean tomorrow?! Btw, happy birthday Tommy! August 15, 2008 12:43 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Tommy , 1 comment so far

Today Tommy turns 18! Hard to fathom. I blinked and he grew up. Tomorrow he heads off to college. Today I am frantically trying to impart all of life’s knowledge onto him and simultaneously trying to prepare his laptop with coolio tools of success (and teach him to use them).

Thus far, I have set GMail up as his email client (Outlook is forbidden on LMU’s campus because "it is responsible for spreading viruses"…uh…more on that later). GMail is checking his various POP accounts although I haven’t configured it for LMU’s student email yet. I assume that is possible but I could be wrong as it could be crippled to the point of only being able to use their own web client. World of Warcrap has been uninstalled along with several other related things that Tommy installed despite our prohibition. He tried hiding them from me by deleting the shortcuts from the Start Menu. Apparently Tommy thinks I’m a n00bish neophyte. Avast has been updated and is doing a thorough scan. Adaware and SpyBot Search N Destroy have been installed. Firefox has been updated to version 3 with the following Add-ons: Delicious Bookmarks, Forecastbar Enhanced, Adblock Plus, and Adblock Filterset.G Updater. I helped Tommy create a del.icio.us account (did you know del.icio.us is now delicious.com? YaaahoooooO$$$) and a Jott account. He has had some mad crash course style training on GMail, labeling, Inbox Zero, Delicious, and Jott.

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Update: All Windows Vista updates and patches applied. Skype setup. Palm Desktop setup. Added links to important websites. Installed Microsoft Office Professional 2007. Palm Centrino sync’ing with Gmail via IMAP. Flickr account (basic) created.

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Seeking Recommendations - Drum Instructor August 13, 2008 9:12 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Noah , add a comment

My son is doing percussion in the 7th grade. I think this is the year he should have some private instruction. Can you recommend a drum instructor preferably near Rocky Hill or West Town Mall in Knoxville, TN?

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Thank you Twitters! August 13, 2008 4:34 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Amy, Cathy, Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Transportation, Travel , 2comments

We just had an enormous scare. It was expected. Sarah entered Rocky Hill Elementary School in the third grade. On her first day home, she failed to get on her bus and we drove to the school to pick her up. On her second day home, she rode the bus but did not get off at her stop which was no problem; the bus driver drove her back to the school and we picked her up. Amy now shares a similar story.

On Monday, I picked Amy up in the carpool because we had to rush over to the Expo Center to work the School Matters booth. That confused the teachers so on Tuesday they sent her to the carpool instead of putting her on the bus so I picked her up in the office. Today was her first day riding the bus home. I could not find Cathy and assumed she was napping. Tweet! I leashed Dharma for some much needed training, donned by iPod with some Jimmy Buffett playing, and walked calmly to the bus stop where I realized my cell phone (doubles as my timepiece) was still sitting on my desk. Much to my surprise, Cathy walks up to me announcing, "that’s strike 2!" referring to my failure to respond to her text message asking about where the children get dropped off this year. The bus pulls up and 4 neighborhood children bounce out but not our Amy. In our stunned silence, the bus just starts to pull away. We were too far away to converse with the driver. I almost whistled for him but assumed Amy was in the office at the school. A moment later one of the children is explaining that Amy was on the bus! I have transportation’s number on speed dial on my cell phone but the phone is on my desk 1/4 mile away and we are on foot. Cathy calls the school as we make haste toward the house and they explain that they don’t have a way to call the driver. No worries. The bus will just take her back to the school at the end of the run.

I return to the house and decide to get back to work. Cathy is going to run around and fetch Amy, and her older sister and a friend from the high school. Everyone is calm. We part company and a few seconds later my cell rings to tell me the school called and Amy got off at Dunbarton Oaks! Tweet! That’s on the wrong side of the dangerous and busy, dreaded Northshore Drive! With Amy’s hard-headedness I could easily see her crossing Northshore. I direct Cathy, "take a right on Northshore then immediately turn left into Dunbarton Oaks." She calls back, "I’m at Kingsington." I picture her in Farragut (which she’s not) hours away from being able to reach Amy who is obviously playing Frogger on Boothillshores Drive. I race out the door and pretend like I’m still a sprinter in high school track. Tweet! It doesn’t matter if I have a heart attack as long as I reach Amy in time! I reach and cross Northshore. Cathy calls to say she has been in Dunbarton Oaks and one road closer to our neighborhood, which I’d forgotten existed, and there is no sign of Amy. Tweet! By this time, I’m at the same cross road as Cathy and I take the drivers seat in the van along with my wheezing. Tweet! Cathy gets a call to say a mother, who used to be a teacher, has Amy in her yard in Dunbarton Oaks and is waiting for us. Tweet!

Thank you to everyone who Twittered your thoughts as we lived this scare! Thanks to @Critter, @nathanblevins and here, @Digitarius, @knoxgirl75, @MariAdkins, @bobmissy07, @alanstevens, @overtlytrite, @dwneylonsr, @mwoodvols, and @areynolds65! And thanks to all others that were thinking of Amy. Hope I didn’t miss anyone. Thank you all! It would not have surprised me (nor Amy) much if someone pulled up and said, "I’m from Twitter! Stay right here your parents will be here in a moment." Of course, I hope she would not get in the car unless she knew you.

Related: I do blog the kids lives

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Son to preschool - Twitter covers it August 13, 2008 10:22 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Communications, Daily Life, Education, Health, Technology , add a comment

Toddler introduced to preschool. They grow so fast! 1 hour ago from txt

lasthome I remember when he was just an Easter egg ;) 1 hour ago from twhirl in reply to djuggler

bobmissy07 @djuggler The Feral Child? 43 minutes ago from web in reply to djuggler

RussM @bobmissy07 As some commenter said to @cathymccaughan, he’s not feral — he’s free-range. 38 minutes ago from web in reply to bobmissy07

bobmissy07 @russM Sorry, I get those confused sometimes. Guess I should hope that the restaurant selling freerange chicken doesn’t do the same, right? 32 minutes ago from web in reply to RussM

lasthome @RussM I think he’s a LOLkid. 30 minutes ago from twhirl in reply to RussM

RussM I think @lasthome nailed it. 20 minutes ago from web

Note: Don’t mind the time stamps. This was hard to type. I understand why people screenshot their Tweets.Timestamps fixed.

Update: For those wondering about the Easter egg comment, when Cathy was pregnant with Evan, Easter 2005, we painted her belly as an Easter egg (and a couple of other parts as flowers) then published the photo. The resourceful can find the picture on Flickr.

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Rough start to 1st day of 5 kids 5 schools August 11, 2008 7:58 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Amy, Cathy, Daily Life, Education, Evan, Family, Health, Noah, Sarah, Tommy , 1 comment so far

Today we sent the 1st, 7th and 10th graders to school. Evan now has his grandmother’s defunct cell phone as a toy. It still has some juice so the screen lights up and the menus work. Last night when Cathy and I came to bed the crib was doing a flashy Close Encounters number. After silencing that visual alarm I set the phone by my bed. Well, apparently my mother-in-law gets up every day at 5am. At least, that’s when her cell phone alarm went off. I wanted to rise at 6 or 6:15. Never give yourself a choice! The secret to waking is picking a specific time and sticking to it. Also don’t do the easy the numbers; nothing that would be printed on a clock face. Wake at 6:01 not 6:00. Wake at 6:14 not 6:15 etc. I did wake at 6:00 without an alarm. And again at 6:07 when I stirred Cathy and decided today would be 6:15. I totally forgot the french toast and bacon I had wanted to prepare for their first day of school. At 6:54 Cathy kicked me out of bed and cursed me. We rushed Amy to readiness and at the last minute she decides on says she needs the restroom but could hold it until school. No way! We give her the time she needs and miss the bus by seconds. As we drive up the street, the bus is starting its turn onto Northshore Drive. Amy was not phased. She is simply jolly to be going to school.

Noah headed off in time very nonchalant. And Sarah is trying to carry far too much in one trip. Wet artwork, 3 flags, courier bag, and something else I cannot remember.

Good luck children! Have fun at school and learn much.

Oh, what of Tommy and Evan? They don’t start quite yet but to prepare Tommy for rising so early, he has to get himself up by 7am and be bathed and dressed else he loses computer privileges for the day. This morning he woke at 7am but his sister occupied the bathroom so he took advantage of the moment to sleep in his chair. Perhaps his time sound be earlier!

Update: Cathy points out that today went rather swimmingly despite the missed bus and I agree. "Rough" is relative.

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School Starts Tomorrow - Say What?! August 10, 2008 9:58 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Transportation, Travel , 2comments

It is 9:45pm and tomorrow 3 of the 5 children begin school. The other two follow shortly. I just realized we don’t know when their buses arrive or if any changes have been made to the bus stop locations this year! The Knox County bus search shows nothing for our children! To complicate matters, Knox County blundered and approved the ill conceived rezoning and since Sarah opted to stay at Bearden High School rather than rezone to West High School, she is responsible for her own transportation. Getting the high schoolers to understand the concept of carpool has been down right painful. Next year they will probably be driving themselves and that scares me!

Wish us luck! We’ve begun 200 days of 5 children in 5 schools!

Related: 2008-09 Knox County School Calendar.

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Tommy goes to college in 3 weeks - maybe July 17, 2008 12:28 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Tommy, Touchy Subjects , add a comment

Tommy’s financial aid is in jeopardy because the paperwork says Buttle not Tuttle.

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You should be commenting on this right now! July 9, 2008 2:43 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Politics, Touchy Subjects , add a comment

Head over to Knox School Matters and comment on Become The Best In High School Education!

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Be involved with your schools! Act TODAY! June 3, 2008 2:02 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Education, Health, Local Politics, Of Interest, Politics, Touchy Subjects , add a comment

During the rezoning we told the school board that the community wanted to be informed and involved in the choices that were being made. The School Matters forum was created as a result to help facilitate communication on educational issues. School Matters can be used by the community to talk amongst themselves on all issues of education throughout life. Education is not limited to K through 12. Fortunately, the school board listens in on School Matters and often provides commentary and responses.

The Knox County Board of Education will host an overview of school finance and the FY 2009 Budget request at 6:00 p.m. Thursday, June 12 in the West High School auditorium at 3300 Sutherland Ave.

The session is for interested citizens and is designed to provide a primer on school finance and an overview of the FY 2009 budget request and approval process.

[Source, School Matters, Knox County Schools Budget Overview Meeting for General Public]

Your comments to this announcement on School Matters could possibly help keep the budget on track and steer our educational resources in the best possible manner to provide our children with the education they deserve. Take time and comment now! For the children.

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C|Net doesn’t like my comments April 23, 2008 11:26 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Communications, Daily Life, Education, Health, Technology , add a comment

C|Net posted a story called N.Y. court upholds school cell phone ban and I replied with this comment:

I find it disheartening that for reasons which sound fearful and lacking of understanding “…contending the mobile gadgets can promote cheating and harassment…” that schools fail to teach a tool which will be integral to our children’s success in life once they leave school. Schools should be teaching our children how to use the tools on the cell phones including productivity management (calendar apps, todos, alerts), etiquette (better to learn it in school than on their first job!), emailing, sms, Internet searching from the phone, social networking (that’s how contracts and sales will be landed, jobs offered, and an edge above the rest secured), and so on.

Address issues of “cheating and harassment” on an individual basis and let’s not limit our children’s education based on speculation!

I have more here including a video where teaching cellphones in school proved to be successful: http://realityme.net/2008/02/23/teach-cell-phones-dont-ban-them/

Now, I had some difficulty submitting the comment so it may have appeared as though I tried to submit it three times. The comment is now gone. Instead blather like this is left:

It is so funny to hear people say that their little johnny is such a perfect child and that they have the right to reach him in the event of a comet hitting the earth. First of all, johnny is a little pervert cheater with no respect for his teacher or the classroom. Second of all, the parents are just as bad as their kid. Sick sick sick. They all need to be be put back on track and taught what is right and what is wrong. They can stomp their feet and throw a tantrum or they can pull their heads out of their butts and see the light. Boo hoo… Cry me a river. We never had cell phones when I was in school. Somehow I survived. Somehow may parents picked me up from football. Somehow they picked me up when I was sick at school. Somehow they were contacted when I threw spit balls. Kids and parents nowdays are screwed up big time.

I have read the C|NET terms of use and unless the relevant link to Reality Me can be construed as advertising then there was no justification for the comment deletion. If the link was a problem, remove the link! I have reposted the comment but if it disappears I simply won’t participate in C|Net discussions anymore.

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My son needs your comments. Please help him! April 15, 2008 4:09 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Environment, Family, Health, Tommy, Touchy Subjects , add a comment

My oldest son is doing a class project in ecology. He is writing two posts a week and soliciting comments which he will compile or aggregate into his report. He cannot complete his project without comments. Please take a moment and read his posts. If you are so compelled, please comment on as many as you can. Thank you!

His posts to date:

Please make the comments on Tommy’s blog.

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Please help my son March 26, 2008 9:37 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Tommy , add a comment

Tommy is doing a project in his Ecology class and needs to collect different opinions on a variety of topics. The first is regarding the water dispute between Tennessee and Georgia. Could you head over to Tommy’s blog and give him your thoughts in the comments of his post Water Dispute? Thank you!

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ACT NOW! They are voting TODAY! February 27, 2008 8:35 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Activism, Education, Health, Local Politics, Politics, Touchy Subjects , 1 comment so far

They are voting today!

This vote regarding kids going to the school closest to [their] home, gets voted on TOMORROW! This is an initial vote by six house members. They must be contacted today.

The original email:

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Rep Mike Turner and Senator Haynes have proposed a change to the Tennessee Code that shall allow "any pupil so desiring to attend the school closest to the geographical location of the place of residence of the pupil." This bill is in committee this week so we must ACT NOW! You can get more information on this bill by going to the TN government state website: http://www.state.tn.us/

The bill is being proposed in both the house (2524) and senate (2891). This addresses the concerns of many families throughout Knox County who felt that their children should attend a school closer to their home.

I encourage you to call or email your representative. Also, if you have a relationship with anyone on this list or in the State House or Senate, please contact them as well.

Below is a list emails for State Officials representing Knox County.

Thank you for your time.

Pamela Treacy

Senate

  1. Randy McNally (R) 307 WMB, 37243-0205 741-6806 741-7200
    94 Royal Troon Cir, OR 37830 483-5544
  2. Jamie Woodson(R) 317 WMB, 37243-0206 741-1648 253-0270
    8509 White _s Pond Way,37923 539-8683
  3. Tim Burchett (R) 310A WMB 37243-0207 741-1766 741-7200
    8220 Bennington Dr 37909 693-1902

House District

  1. Harry Tindell (D) 33 LP, 37243-0113 741-2031 741-1446
    P.O. Box 27325, 37927-7325 524-7200
  2. Park M Strader (R) 214 WMB, 37243-0114 741-2264 741-1005
    708 Farragut Commons Dr,37934 694-9165
  3. Joseph Armstrong (D) 25 LP, 37243-0115 741-0768 253-0316
    4708 Hilldale Dr, 37914 523-6374
  4. Bill Dunn (R) 205 WMB, 37243-0116 741-1721 532-8221
    5309 LaVesta Rd, 37918 687-4904
  5. Frank Niceley (R) 113 WMB, 37243-0117 741-2282 253-0217
    1023 Creek Rd, Str Plns37871 433-4419
  6. Stacey Campfield (R) 113 WMB, 37243-0118 741-2287 253-0217
    2011 Flagler Rd, 37912 455-2627
  7. Harry Brooks (R) 207 WMB, 37243-0119 741-6879 253-0212
    6600 Washington Pike, 37918 687-5987
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