"Murphy was an optimist!"
Homeschooling seems like a better idea December 11, 2006 6:59 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, News, Of InterestFor reasons like suspending a 4 year old for sexual harassment, er, hugging (btw, that story pushed our little E TN news webpage onto Reddit.com). The child’s hugging is appropriate for continued emotional development.
Emotional Development
Most children aged four to five will:
- Still rely on caregivers, while no longer needing or wanting as much physical contact with caregivers as they received in infancy and as toddlers
- Continue to express emotions physically and to seek hugs and kisses
- Socialize with peers, begin to develop relationships, and learn to recognize some peers as friends and others as people they don’t like
- Have more opportunities to interact with peers, either through school or recreational activities, and will play with other children
[Source]
Today I get the pleasure of having a meeting at Noah’s school. I requested a meeting with one teacher and I ended up with a meeting with all his teacher’s and the vice-principal. This kind of ridiculousness makes me regret not homeschooling Noah this year.
Update: The meeting ended up being 5 women and me. The teacher and vice-principal were only interested in rhetoric and bureaucracy taking exactly the defensive posture I tried to get everyone to put aside. Btw, the meeting was called because at the beginning of the year my son lost a $9 book that my wife offered to replace and it was never replaced so while the rest of the class had books they could write in, my son had to do all his work on a loose leaf paper using a borrowed workbook. I found out about this last week. Absurd statements rolled from the primary teacher’s mouth such as "from the meeting with your wife I gathered the only reason your son is in school is to be a safety." She is a hateful person and I have less respect for her after my meeting than I did before.
This meeting also reinforced my belief that we made a mistake not homeschooling Noah for the fifth grade. One approach some friends used with their children was to home school only in the fifth grade. This gave the child some one-on-one time with the parent at a non-critical year. For instance, to do the one year in the sixth grade would potentially harm the child’s social opportunities through middle school. I think Noah would have learned more this year and had a better time at home. A home schooled child can have plenty of time for social interaction through community activities/sports, home school social networks, and home schooled group classes (that’s right, homeschooling does not imply a child locked away in a closet).
3commentsHoliday Music December 8, 2006 11:46 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Holiday, Humor, Music, Of Interest, PhilosophyHere are some titles over at Santastic. My disclaimer: I haven’t listened to any of these but I found the titles amusing.
- Rudolph the Paranoid Reindeer
- Stop I’ve Had Enough Christmas Music
- Let Me Clear My Throat At Christmas
- Rudolph Berry Molecular Pattern 5
- Horny Christmas (mature theme warning!)
Update: James gives these a thumbs down.
2commentsSchools Closed Today December 8, 2006 9:08 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Daily Life, Of Interest, SarahAs I drove Sarah to school this morning, I did my morning torture and forced her to listen to NPR. Once again, we found ourselves stunned to hear the announcement of school closings. Sarah contained her excitement and disappointment but I still say she sat up straight in her seat at the prospect. I guess we live in the wrong county.
| School | Status |
|---|---|
| Campbell County | Closed |
| Christian Acad./Campbell | Closed |
| Claiborne County | Closed |
| Crossville Christian School | Closed |
| Cumberland County | Closed |
| Fentress County | Closed |
| Grainger County | Opening 1 hour late |
| Hancock County | Closed |
| J. Frank White Acad. | Closed |
| Morgan County | Opening 2 hours late |
| Oneida | Closed |
| Scott County | Closed |
| Sevier County | Closed |
| Tri-State Christian Acad. | Closed |
Whodda thunk!? Closing information provided by WBIR.
add a commentCan’t stop the signal! December 8, 2006 8:40 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Firefly / Serenity, Of Interest, TV / MoviesJoss Whedon said Firefly is no more and we have seen all kinds of drama and hype yet the fan base shows no sign of slowing. Fans have even created their own documentary
1 comment so farMultiverse, maker of a free MMO-creation platform, plans to announce Friday morning that it’s struck a deal with Fox Licensing to turn the show into an MMORPG in the fashion of Star Wars Galaxies or Eve Online. [Source]
Someone should class action Sear’s collections November 30, 2006 10:51 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of Interest, Touchy SubjectsSo I was a Craftsman kid. Loved their tools! Bought my ladder and washer and dryer at Sears. I was well into paying off the Sears credit card when all hell broke lose. So, back in 2000, I had a little bit of a breakdown. Breakdowns come and breakdown go. What I did about it was quit reading my mail for the better part of a year. Your creditors really don’t like that. Since 2000, Sears has taken a $900 bill and increased it to over $4000 with not a single purchase. Since my home phone went away they have made at least two calls to my parents house. Now, these people have no business with Sears. They are in no way associated with my account. Such calls are harassment, an invasion of their privacy, and absolutely a total disrespect for my privacy.
I decided to call Sears and request the removal their number from the collection database. The response I received from the rude person on the phone was, "deal with it!" When I prompted for his employee id number and a way to file a complaint he hung up on me. My second attempt to call them from Skype failed (blocked?) There should be a way to counter this but that employee will go unchecked and frankly Sears doesn’t care. Really, the people this most directly affects are the least capable of bringing change. How can the working poor afford a class action suit against a giant?
One recourse, we all could quit shopping at Sears! Yeah boycott! Another might be that we all quit paying their bills but that’s as absurb as not buying gas for one day and thinking that gas prices would change. Here’s hoping karma comes into play.
Apparently the $165 million dollar punishment Sears received in 1997 has not been very effective in changing their collection practices.
comments closedThe Inheritance Books November 30, 2006 9:02 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Book / Magazine, Of Interest, Publishing, Reviews, TV / MoviesChristopher Paolini began writing Eragon when he graduated from high school at the age of 15. Eragon
Eragon is an epic story of a farm boy’s travels in a land with dragons, elves, dwarves, and humans ruled by an all powerful overlord complete with allegiances, underground resistances, ancient broken promises, and magic. The book is riveting with unexpected plot twists that wrench at your sympathies. I must balance that statement by pointing out at times I felt the story was somewhat formulaic as attempted to guess its direction; however, it never failed to disappoint. I give it a high recommendation and suggest reading the book before seeing the movie.
2commentsYellow pages only gets to a few November 28, 2006 9:11 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Book / Magazine, Of Interest, PublishingWhen I ran my Internet Service Provider business, I spent $12,000 a year on a full page yellow page ad. That ad generated more calls than any other advertising. In the end, all my business came word of mouth.
I learned something yesterday. As I drove out of the neighborhood, many of the houses had their new Yellow Pages directory. But not us. It did not take long to realize that the phone company is mad at us. See, after having the same phone number for 15 years, we decided to cut the umbilical cord and go mobile completely. It was scary because we were so accostumed to having that phone line which would ring throughout the house. We actually had two lines and could conference the calls together. We lost use of our fax machine in the process. Yesterday I would have liked to have received a fax but it was not necessary.
What did we lose in going completely mobile?
- We don’t get a phone book anymore.
- We are not in 411 directory assistance so it is more difficult to track us down.
- Solicitations and bill collection calls dropped significantly (at times Sears would call every 3 days because they are Satan’s spawn).
- We don’t pay $80 per month for a desk ornament.
- The younger children are having different phone experiences/lessons that the older children did. (But our phone lessons/manners/habits are significantly different that of our children…and think about our parents…I remember a party line but could you imagine your children using a party line?!) Oh, and the younger children do understand phones. Even the 17mth old uses the cell phone proficiently.
- It is slightly more difficult to track down a single person and sometimes takes calling multiple numbers to reach someone at the house.
- No more long distance bills!
Now, the publisher of the Yellow Pages and the phone company are not one in the same. They are in cahoots but the publisher of the Yellow Pages makes their money from ads and distribution. I think we are getting ready to witness a paradigm shift in the way phone books are distributed. First and foremost, we don’t use it because we either look online or send google a text message from our phone (Text "Borders, Knoxville, TN" to 46645 and watch the phone number and address pop up in seconds). Secondly, the publisher is going to realize that their distributions are dimensioning as the phone company gives them fewer and fewer land line addresses. Their ad selling point is "we deliver x number of books and your ad will be seen by those people." My bet is that before long we will see stacks of Yellow Pages books at the grocery store entrances being distributed for free to anyone that wants one.
I think another service cell phone companies need to offer (and maybe they do) is one number that rings multiple cell phones. That way we could give away a "family number" and when one cell answers all others stop ringing.
I before E except after C unless of course you are spelling proficiently.
2commentsAnd the fifth one went wii wii wii all the way home empty handed… November 27, 2006 2:56 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cool Sites, Games/Puzzles, Hardware, Of Interest, TechnologyLooking for a wii? At the time of this posting, only eBay has them "in stock"
3commentsAtomicTumor site overwhelmed November 17, 2006 1:48 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Cool Sites, Of InterestA flood of traffic seems to have brought down the Tumor. I am sure it will be back soon.
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A Blogger Has Passed November 17, 2006 12:57 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Of InterestGoldenAppleCorp has been declared brain dead. I assume that means this is her last offical day. May she rest in peace. May those she leaves behind be at peace.
Take a moment to hug a loved one. Forgive that person you have fought. Resist the urge to rage on that stranger. Make a random act of kindness. Never part company angry. Reach out. Love.
add a commentToys my child will never play with! November 17, 2006 11:50 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of Interest
What the hell were they thinking
There is also a SpongeBob version so your son can play with his own
Woot Off! November 16, 2006 8:22 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Bargains, Cool Sites, Of Interest
We have a confirmed Woot-Off! I explain woot off here. And thanks to Single Dads we have a site that will sound an alarm whenever the product changes! Good shopping!
add a commentCool Pool November 15, 2006 8:35 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cool Sites, Of Interest- Water: 2.500.000 liters of spring water at 30°C, visbility >33m, without chlorine smell
- Ferment: 2 pools, 3 pits (5, 10 and 33m)
- Decoration: Caves at -10m, possibility of fixing of new decorations.
- Never seen before: Three permanent bells of air under pressure (-9m, -7m, air renewed permanently), they avoid ceaseless return tickets bottom-surface of the student and his instructor.
- Technic: 250 anchoring points distributed in the tank to:
- changer the aspect of the swimming pool (for the amateurs)
- adapt it to the need for a film making
- to adapt it to the need for the scientists and technicians
- Changing rooms : Heated, separated man-woman, showers separated, toilets separated.
- Lightning : Natural & artificial
Let Them Feed! November 15, 2006 8:29 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of InterestIn more breast ignorance, a woman was kicked off airplane for breastfeeding baby.
2commentsAmanda, re-boomed November 14, 2006 3:53 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : News, Of Interest, Publishing, VideoI was an Amanda Congdon fan since Sept 27, 2005 (See?). Upon her departure, Rocketboom lost its appeal and I switch ed to watching Ze Frank’s The Show. It appears that Amanda is returning to video blogging! The twist is that she’s gone mainstream media and is on ABC’s online news channel with a 5 minute format.
Congdon, 25, will regularly appear on ABC’s online news channel, ABC News Now, and will host a weekly five-minute video blog appearing on ABC.com. Congdon, who will primarily provide news analysis and commentary through the network’s online channels, says she also expects to occasionally pop up on Good Morning America, Nightline, and other ABC news television programs.
…
She’s working to develop a show for HBO’s on-air and on-demand channels.
[Source]
This should be an interesting development in the video blogging world. I need iMovie!
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