playing with the template
It's late and I have to sing at a funeral tomorrow (mother of a friend), so I am keep this short. I am playing around with the template feature, seeing what I can do and what I cannot. I changed the header. In the HTML editor I am using, I changed the blog title color to white, but for some reason it didn't take when I implemented it in the blogger editor. I need to figure out what element it is that changes the title's color. I can tackle that tomorrow. Gotta get to bed now.
catching up
In case your wondering why all the posts today, I am simply restoring all the posts from my old blogging system to my blogger account. Now that I have that out of the way, hopefully, I can get back to posting some up-to-date items. I should also be putting together another blog soon called Dead Rivals based on a humorous book I perused as a lad in the early 80's called 101 Things To Do With a Dead Cat. My idea is to offer a forum (www.deadrivals.com) for that under-served niche of haters. Doesn't matter what you hate. Incorporate it in the form of a dead ________ (fill-in-the-blank) and offer a suggestion of something useful you can do with the dead ________. I will take the suggestions and make cartoons for everyone's enjoyment. The suggestions can even be topical. If a player on the rival's team is arrested for public urination then offer a dead ________ (fill in their mascot) as a scapegoat for the offense. Tacky...yet, helpful. The possibilities are endless.
zero intelligence
Elliot Voge forgot about the whittling knife in his coat pocket. When he stuck his hand in his coat pocket, it was too late. He had just left his step-father's car and the car had already left. He was now at school and what was he to do? You are not supposed to have knives at school. So Elliot did the responsible thing. He went to the front office, explained his situation and turned the knife over to them. After all, Elliot is a responsible kid. He never gets in trouble at school. He is a model student. So the admin office commended him for his responsible behavior, told him they would hold onto the knife and that he could get it back if he brought a parent in with him, and sent him on to his class...yeah, right.
They suspended him for ten days and recommended that he should be expelled from school. Only after serious pressure from the community at large (who recognized the stupidity of this), the administrator decided to drop the expulsion recommendation. The family is still fighting the suspension even though it has already been completed. They want it expunged from Elliot's record, and rightfully so. The message that the administrators are sending is loud and clear. If you come across a zero-tolerance item that inadvertently made its way to school, do NOT do the responsible thing or there will be repercussions. Hide the weapon or pawn it off on somebody else. Plant it on an administrator and then call the cops (anonymously of course), but whatever you do, do NOT act responsibly. That will only get you in trouble.
School administrators are paid reasonably well. They are expected to make good decisions, even difficult decisions, but they cannot trust themselves to make responsible decisions when it comes to meting out punishments, so they abdicate all responsibility in this arena to a soulless, heartless, unthinking policy and breath a sigh of relief that they have avoided potential litigation. Poppycock. Elliott's family is now more likely to sue than they would have been if the administrators had simply done the reasonable thing. Litigation was not avoided. Zero-tolerance (IOW, zero-intelligence) policies only exacerbate the likelihood that a school will be sued. Oddly, in this case, there was no zero-tolerance policy to defend. But the position stems from an increasingly knee-jerk response system that over-zealously punishes even the most inane infractions, all in the name of zero tolerance. The truly dumb aspect of this whole scene is that by Indiana law, the administrators have the leeway to make reasoned decisions using factors such as the student's academic and disciplinary records and intent. But the administrators want a defensible position where they can point to policy and say, "Talk to the paper. Blame the policy. I am forced to hold this position."
And are zero tolerance policies TRULY zero tolerance? If I were to walk back to a school kitchen and find any employees with knives, is it safe to say that these employees will be fired? How about employees in shop classes? Don't give me any, "Now you're being silly...". The whole zero intelligence, er, tolerance load of horse hockey is silly. You want to see silly? Check out www.zerointelligence.net for some eye-opening silliness. Zero-tolerance is simply bad policy. If a school board won't take a stand against it and make reasonable judgments then the community ought to come together and put people in their place that will make the tough decisions.
conference weekend
I took Friday off for New Year’s Day (I worked New Year’s and was comped the day). It was my birthday, so I figured taking that day for my New Year’s was appropriate. I got a nice ladder for my birthday (I asked for one). We also went out to a Greek restaurant for dinner, while uncle Alex graciously took care of the kids.I got the three older boys good yesterday for April Fool’s day. It was an oldie but a goodie – the classic bind-the-vegetable-sprayer-on trick. I even got all three of them to turn the sink on with the same ruse – rinse out your bowl. The youngest got it right in the face. He was not happy about it.I got to listen to two of the General Conference sessions yesterday. I missed the second one. The priesthood session was interesting. I enjoyed all the speakers, but I really liked Elder Uchtdorf and brother Monson. Elder Uchtdorf discussed seeing the end from the beginning and how the Lord knows the big picture and if you rely on him, he will guide you in the correct path even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time. He also talked about living up to our potential and opportunities. A very good talk.President Hinkley addressed the brethren at the priesthood session. Generally, he is very positive and upbeat in his addresses, but unfortunately (for President Hinckley), he had to upbraid and reprimand the brethren for unseemly behavior that had been brought to his attention, including: racism in the church, brethren who shirked in their responsibilities to provide for their families, and mean-spiritedness to those outside the church. Generally, such talks are mostly preaching to the choir, but I am sure there are those that were listening that needed it, and for those of us who are doing OK in these regards, it reminds us all that we each have a responsibility to be on guard against these practices.For the non-LDS, General Conference is a semi-annual LDS gathering where the members are addressed by the leadership of the church over a series of five sessions. It is broadcast over satellite and the internet. If you would like to listen/watch, you can get a feed at www.lds.org. The meetings are held in April and October (usually the first weekends).
be a nice guest
I have lived in three other countries besides the US - Brazil, Switzerland and Germany. Each time, I entered the country legally and I learned the language of the hosts. I also did what I could to learn the culture, what was socially acceptable, and what wasn't. I spoke favorably of my host country even though in one country I was robbed and had difficulties recovering from the incident. I never overstayed my welcome and I returned to the US enriched from each experience.I was on more than one occasion engaged in political discussion by locals who learned I was American. Each time the discussion remained respectful and I never went on the offense. Even when gathered together with other Americans, I generally refrained form speaking English. On the few occasions that I remember English being spoken in the presence of a native, the speaker was always reprimanded for their rudeness and we quickly apologized and returned to speaking the local language.I contrast this with the growing population of illegal immigrants, particularly from Mexico. They enter the country illegally and too many violate common courtesies you know they would expect of an American in their own homeland. And to top it all, they have the audacity to challenge our decency, calling us racists, if we make note of their inconsiderate behavior or take measures to enforce basic laws common in virtually any country around the world. I say, let them.We need to start enforcing our laws and paying these rabble rousers no heed. They are more than welcome if they come through our front door, but if they insist on sneaking into our house, we should kick them out like the sneak thieves they are. And while they are here, they should observe all the niceties and courtesies that most legal immigrants are more than happy to observe. Learn the language. Respect the customs. Obey the laws. Don't isolate yourselves. This advice goes for Americans abroad as much as it goes to immigrants in this country. It's real easy - be a nice guest. If you're planning on staying - be a nice American. And welcome.
IFTD crockumentary book
Write a how to manual on producing a Crockumentary. Call it Making Doo with Moore.
It doesn't matter whether you like the guy or not. You could easily ride this catchy title for some good moolah on Moore's notoriety.Contact me if you want to collaborate.
IFTD 032706
On occassion I will post an IFTD, or idea for the day. Since I am often coming up with ideas, I can probably make this a somewhat regular feature. I'll head each post with IFTD followed by the date, that way if you want to filter them out, you can.Btw, in case you were wondering about the toy vault from an earlier post about American Inventor, it's essentially an idea for a toy repository utilizing RFID technology to control how many toys can be checked out at any given time. Once the specified limit (say three) has been reached, the other toys are locked in until one of the three toys has been returned. This ensures that pick up is never too big a chore. I know I would appreciate one.Contact me if you want to collaborate. by(underscore)law(at symbol)yahoo(dot)com
dream home
I currently live in a 1,000 sqft home with my four kids and wife. We have three bedrooms and one bathroom. If you calculate out the square footage per person, it comes to almost 167 sqft/person. That is a little crowded. The one bathroom scenario is challenging at times as well. One of our ambitions is to build our next home. It probably is not going to happen for a while. There are a few things that we need to get in order before then, including our finances. It’s crowded, but we are making due in the meantime. My wife (the other blaw), is working towards a degree in respiratory therapy and in a few years after she graduates, we’ll be in a much better position to move and build a new house.I find it interesting to read what others are doing with the homes they build. My wife and I have definite plans of things we would like to include in the home we build.We would like to have more than a handkerchief-sized lot of land. Ideally, I would like an estate-sized lot (many wooded acres) but close to the city and its amenities. I would like to leave most of the lot wooded and have a clearing near the house where I can landscape and have a nice yard that the family and I can work. It would be nice to be able to take walks on my own property. If it’s adjacent to a park or forest of some sort, all the better.Energy efficiency is very important, if for no other reason than to help us better afford it. I want to build the home using insulated concrete forms (or ICFs). ICFs provide a number of other benefits besides energy efficiency, including durability against catastrophic events (fires, tornadoes, earthquakes), security, lower-cost insurance, and sound-proofing, but probably a more important feature of ICFs is that they offer this without funky hard-to-sell designs (like geodesic domes or underground homes). That is a major selling point for my wife. I also like the fact that I can put ICFs up myself. I’m still debating about whether or not I want to do that or not. I don’t know that I can rely on others to help me. Generally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to put too much stock in others helping you build your house. In fact, I think you are better off planning on building the house yourself (if you go that route) along with any hired help. www.ownerbuilderbook.com offers some good insight regarding this.The people at www.arit.com seem to have a good grasp on the building the entire ICF home with appropriate heating and cooling. They incorporate the technologies that I would like to incorporate in my home including geothermal heating/cooling coupled with radiant floor heating and an air exchange system to ensure the home has adequate fresh air. They also have some other features that I find interesting including speed floors (floors are poured from concrete) and a variation on the speed floors to create concrete roofs so the entire house is a concrete structure.My wife and I have had our house design and floor plan for quite some time and we tweak it on occasion. There are two floors, plus a basement and an attic. Given that the house would be an enclosed envelope, we see no reason not to utilize the attic space for living area. With just the two floors, we have about 3000+ sqft of living area, but when you throw in the basement and the attic, the living area jumps to 5000+ sqft. It’s the same home that many others build out at 3000 sqft, but with a few modifications to the way it’s built, we increase the living space by 66%.The floor plan is designed so that the house is divvied up by usage types. The basement serves as a recreation area. All noisy activities take place at that level. The main floor serves for entertaining and general family activity. With my wife's large family and my smaller, but still large family, lots of space to accommodate entertaining is important. The second floor is where the living area is. All the bedrooms are on that floor. There is also a recreation room on that floor where the children can play and where the laundry are will most likely go. My wife likes the idea of having the laundry area on the same floor as the living area. I am still trying to figure out how the dryer is going to get vented, but I am sure there is a solution to the problem somewhere. The attic will most likely be a crafts area/project room, although it could easily be turned into a bedroom as well. Those that want to engage in noisy activity have their area in the basement, while those that need solitude and quiet can enjoy it in one of the upper areas.
I would like the house to be wired for sound and video so we could monitor the children from anywhere. We would also wire the house for networking, cable and other amenities needed for a smart home. I have read ideas to include outlets on the eaves for Christmas lights, and I like that idea. An even better idea, if it exists, is to have Christmas lights that can retract into a cavity in the eaves with the flip of a switch. It would be nice to not have to climb the ladder each year to hang lights, but in lieu of that, outlets in the eaves would do just as well.One of the tweaks we have added to our house plan is to include a wrap-around porch to the design. Originally, we were looking at cladding our home with brick or stone, but if we have a wrap-around porch, fiber cement siding might make more sense (not to mention how much cheaper it would be). We also moved the entrance of the garage from the front to the side to better accommodate the wrap-around porch. The whole design will incorporate handicap accessible features where possible. I would like to have an elevator, but we will most likely have to do without one, given their high cost.In the important areas of the house (i.e. the kitchen and the bathroom), my wife wants them tricked out – Cambria countertops, top of the line faucets, under-mounted sinks, nice appliances, cherry cabinets, walk-in showers, dual sinks in the bathroom, garden tub. I may splurge for a lighting designer, not just for these areas, but also for the entire house, since I detest poor lighting.I also want the house to be low/easy maintenance, so where I can incorporate an item that will prevent me from having to work I will - things like no-clog gutters, sloped landscape curbing for edging with a mower, steel roofing, no-paint siding, etc.A couple of other features that would be nice but are not high on the priority list (i.e. they probably won’t make it in the house) include: a rockwork/waterfall feature in the foyer, an attached indoor swimming pool (with another waterfall – I like waterfalls), a slide going from the second floor to the swimming pool, an alpine slide (if the topography allows for it), a heated driveway (so I don’t have to clear any snow), a long driveway that winds through the wooded area of the estate, concrete stamping to give the driveway pattern, a pond or fountain in the front, a detached workshop, and solar panels or windmills. Some of these features may eventually make it in as we add to the house after it’s built, but they probably won’t be there initially.We obviously have champagne tastes and a cheap beer budget, but I think there’s a smart way to approach this where you can get a ton more value out of your efforts than conventional means allow. Patience is important. It’s also the thing I am going to find most challenging.
springtime fancies
Ahhh springtime...when the fancies of this young man turn to...football. Sorry if you were expecting something more poetic or noble, but I have my diversions and indulgences. College football is one of them. You already know from previous posts that I am an alumnus of Brigham Young University. Yes, BYU is my favorite team. It's been difficult the last couple of years being a fan, especially if you drive the Undefeated in 20XX bandwagon as I do annually. But hope springs eternal and they were undefeated at the start of each season. Spring is a great time. College football fans are fed a small dose of their passion to hold them over for that interminable period of dreariness known simply as the off-season. Cougarboard, the online watering hole for BYU fans, gets pretty weird around this time. I prefer to hibernate during this period, but occasionally, I have to emerge for a fix. It's horribly addicting.I didn't use to be this way. Growing up, I had very little interest in football. Even as I entered BYU, I had very little interest, but fate had other plans for me. As it turned out, the social scene for Saturday afternoons was the football games. The girls were there, my friends were there, why not? I could go cheer for the home team, show a little spirit, blaw, blaw, blaw. My first game was the '91 match up between BYU and the defending national champions, the Miami Hurricanes. Walking to the stadium, I eavesdropped on a couple conversations. The topic was the same...BYU was going to get their butts handed to them on a platter. Miami was going to kill them. Oh well. At least I will be with friends and cute girls (BYU does have some hotties, or hot mollies as we like to call them).If you know college football history, you know that the game did not play according to the script. BYU went on to win that exciting match up, I lost my voice screaming my fool head off for a game I barely understood, and I was forever hooked on BYU football from that moment on. I can tell you about the awesome plays, but I cannot tell you a single thing about any of the cute girls that were there that day. BYU football was the star attraction that day. Short of stripping buck naked (ain't gonna happen at the Y), the girls really didn't have a chance. I have since enjoyed every game and every season, even the losing ones, and I know that just around the corner, BYU is poised for another undefeated season, and when it comes, I will be there driving the bandwagon slowly so others can jump on board. With so little wear and tear these last few years, the wagon is in reasonably decent condition, so good seats can be found if you act quickly enough. But don't lollygag too long. Like most bandwagons, it can fill as rapidly as it empties.
the fastest animal
Can you name the fastest animal on the planet? How about the strongest? The most dangerous? I can imagine some of the answers you may be thinking. The fastest animal has to be the Cheetah (if you are thinking the fastest land animal) or a falcon which dive bombs at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. Certainly an elephant or a Blue Whale has to be the strongest, or you might even think some insect if you are measuring strength relative to the animal’s size. The most dangerous has to be something poisonous. In terms of deaths to people, chances are the lowly bee may be a strong contender. But how about the human animal? Humans?, I can hear you asking. You’re crazy. The fastest human can barely run 25 miles per hour. That is correct, but the fastest human flies in excess of 20,000 miles per hour (more than 100X the speed of that dive bombing falcon). The strongest human can lift maybe 800 lbs., about 2.5X their own weight. But with the aid of powerful engines, humans can move millions of times their own weight. And who can argue with the danger humans pose, not just to themselves, but to the entire planet?Ahh, I hear you start… but humans can’t achieve those things under their own power. No? Then under whose power was the rocket designed and built? Who created the engines that augment our efforts by orders of magnitude? It was the power of the human mind that made these advancements possible. The human mind is man’s advantage, just as the sleek build of the cheetah is the cheetah’s advantage in a foot race. If you want to dismiss man’s advantage when determining the champion of these categories, then why not dismiss the advantage the cheetah has or the falcon or the ant?There is a scene in the Ice Age animated film where Sid the sloth looks at the human baby in his care, and observes his lack of claws, fangs, strength and his inordinate need for care and attention. Sid doesn’t find the baby terribly threatening. He discounts the power of the human mind. The power of the human mind is what makes the baby one of the most formidable challengers this planet has ever known.In the planetary timescale, man has been around for relatively very little time, but in that short time, man has progressed to the point where we now stand on the brink of controlling our very own evolution. We possess the amazing capacity to destroy the planet we live on. We’re also the only species that can save it. If the planet ever faces another catastrophic event that threatens to wipe out almost all life (they do come around periodically) man alone will offer it the only hope it has ever seen of avoiding the catastrophe. Regardless of how you feel about that (some feel we need a culling of the herd), the mere fact that it is even possible is pretty amazing.What we lack in advantages that other animals possess, we more than make up with our intellectual abilities. I think too many don’t fully appreciate the unique nature of what it is to be human. We have significant potential. The challenge is living up to it.
unnecessarily high cost of education
In Indiana, families are required to lease/rent the schoolbooks for their children. It caught me by surprise the first time I heard about it, because I had never in any of the other states I had lived ever heard of such a thing. Your taxes pay for the school books. School books were part of the free public education. In Indiana it's a little different. The argument goes that paying for school books helps alleviate the burden on those who don't have children in school and shifts it more to those who do. Another argument is that it ensures that the curricula are current and not outdated and that there is enough material to go around. Unfortunately, the reality is that children still end up with ten year old text books, kids are still sharing text books, and property taxes are as high as they have ever been. And what of the lottery that was adopted that was going to be such a windfall to education? It has been parceled out among so many interests that its impact on education is minimal (at least relative to its impact on the gambling addicted and families).
The other problem I have with some of these rentals is the accounting. School systems say that the rental fees simply cover the costs of the books and nothing more. When a child is using a ten year old book that they paid $50 to rent, are we to assume that this book costs $500? I don't think so. If that is the case, the schools are getting ripped off.
Here are a couple ideas I have for school books in Indiana (and even other places too). I have read the law as extensively as I can. Nowhere can I find anything that compels parents to rent their books from the school district. The children have to have the books for their classes, sure, but it's a free market and parents should be able to purchase/rent their books from anyone they want, as long as they get the correct one. If the books are available on Amazon, buy them from there. If you can get a used one inexpensively, all the better. At the end of the school year, simply log back on to Amazon and sell the books back, similar to the way students in college do. Chances are that the purchase price will be comparable if not cheaper than the rental and when you throw in the sale at the end of the year, you come out much further ahead. I've been thinking of setting up an online Indiana marketplace for schoolbooks parents would need.
Another idea I have that is more universally helpful is to open source education. Let's face it. Generally speaking, the material in textbooks is not proprietary. History is history. Math is math. The collation of the material and the examples are the only things that distinguish one textbook from another. Most of the material that is available in textbooks is also available online at wikipedia. How much more difficult would it be to put together an open source collation of material that constitutes a third grade social studies manual or a fifth grade math book? The books could be locked at the beginning of a school year (since wikipedia is always evolving) but include links to the most current material. They could then be made into a downloadable PDF that is freely available to any school system to use. An application could even be developed that allows teachers to mix and match their own material from a base collection and customize the curricula to their students needs. There's no reason to pay exorbitant fees for material that is freely available. Does this make sense to anyone besides me?
Textbook publishers compete fiercely before state legislatures to get themselves on an approved list. I am certain cost is one of the factors state departments of education consider when they determine which textbooks they are going to use. I see no reason why an open source manual that is always up-to-date and costs nothing could not get on the approved list as well with the right support behind it. I know that I as a constituent would be behind its adoption. With families getting more and more budget strapped, I am sure that I am not alone. It's not uncommon for families with just four kids to get sacked with bills from their schools each year for $600+. Ouch! Education shouldn't require major sacrifices from families. An open source curricula would be better, more up-to-date, and cost less. It's a no-brainer.
community education
Growing up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (the ONLY Broken Arrow in the US), at least for part of my life, I was exposed to a wonderful institution known as Community Education. I took Spanish classes and my brother Gary took Tae Kwon Do.
Gary was a happy-go-lucky little couch potato who was turned onto the martial arts at a career day exposition by some karate studio. They sent him home excited with a coupon for a free lesson at their studio. Begrudgingly, my mother took Gary to his free lesson where Gary fell in love with martial arts, but the cost of the lessons were too much for our family’s budget. Not wanting to discourage Gary from pursuing good physical activity, my mother sought out alternatives to the high priced studio and ran across Broken Arrow’s community education and their much more reasonably priced “Wild Bunch” Tae Kwon Do.
It turns out that the Wild Bunch had some of the best martial arts instruction in the state of Oklahoma. Their members routinely took home trophies from tournaments across the state. The instructor was paid a stipend for his instruction but he put it back into the class. He taught for the sheer joy of teaching what he loved and it showed. For the price of a couple weeks at the studio, Gary was learning Tae Kwon Do from the best for a semester at a time. You simply could not beat the price.
My couch potato of a brother took to Tae Kwon Do like a duck takes to water. His grades in school improved significantly. Today he holds multiple degrees (thank you army!). He has captained the Tae Kwon Do team of the US Army and he regularly demos, competes in tournaments, and takes various accolades. He has had offers to do martial arts work for movies. He has the fullest respect of Korea’s foremost dojos (he was stationed there in the army for some time). All this because he had quality exciting instruction in Broken Arrow’s community education.
My community education success story is not nearly as impressive. I have lost a good amount of the Spanish I learned in Broken Arrow, but I have since learned Portuguese, German, and a smattering of many other languages, and I still understand Spanish pretty well even if I cannot fully speak it. I recently purchased an immersion program on CDs and will soon start learning Chinese.
I was often impressed by the choices of courses I had to choose from in Broken Arrow’s simple Community Education program. The choices offered by the Broken Arrow community education program catered well to the needs of the Broken Arrow community. It became the model of what I hope community education in Boone County, Indiana to be. Whatever the education needs of the Boone county residents, whether they be literacy, post secondary, personal enrichment, fun, socializing, or promotion - if the Boone County Learning Network is set up correctly, the educational needs of the community will be met, residents of Boone County will exercise ownership in their BCLN, and the BCLN will flourish.
Community education programs are an asset to the communities they serve. They provide Economic Development programs an incentive to offer potential employers. They offer current employers a vehicle for training their employees. They offer community members a means to come together, explore common interests, and form social circles. They offer school corporations a way to utilize their assets in the off-hours.
States should encourage community education programs and even facilitate the formation of such programs. Perhaps after BCLN has successfully operated for a couple years and can serve as a model for other community programs, we can take our model to the state level and encourage programs to facilitate the implementation of community education programs. A portal through which programs can be administered and operated would help significantly but affordable programs like www.neact.com are available in the meantime. I’ll keep you apprised in the upcoming years of how the BCLN is progressing.
influence at the local level
Last night the central Indiana alumni association for BYU met to discuss upcoming events and activities that would be of interest to BYU alumni in central Indiana as well as a number of Latter-Day Saints (i.e. Mormons) in the area. I am a member of the alumni association and I very often participate in their occasional meetings. Don't laugh, there are hundreds of BYU alumni in Central Indiana. There are even more fans and supporters of BYU in central Indiana. It's a good sized organization.
Tomorrow, the Boone County Learning Network will meet bright and early (barring cancellation from a snowstorm) to discuss the establishment of our fledgling organization. We will most likely finalize our bylaws and discuss a few matters pertaining our establishment as a 501c3. I and another member have been spearheading the bylaws of the organization. we used the bylaws of another organization as our template, taking out what we didn't like, adding a couple things we felt were important, and collating this with input from the rest of the board. Somewhere in the process, I even got elected to vice-chair.
The thing I want to point out here, is that each of these groups represent sizable communities and plays a significant role in the lives of others. The BYU alumni even hold sway over the distribution of some scholarships. If your child is in the running for that, you realize just how important that can be. BCLN is working on establishing an organization that eventually will coordinate non-public school educational endeavors of an entire county. These are some awesome responsibilities - and they are entrusting them to me! If I were to aspire to a similar position at the state or national level, chances are they wouldn't give me the time of day, but at the local level, they are more than happy to have my help. Not because there aren't more qualified candidates (I'm certain there are), but at the local level, enthusiasm and a willingness to help go as far as any qualifications.
At the local level, I get to shape policy, determine direction, and actually make a difference. It's not a power trip. It's a vested interest in communities that I belong to. I want a community education program. I have a certain vision of what community education is and I am providing input that will eventually shape Boone County's Learning Network. Why should I leave it up to others to dictate what BCLN will or will not be? And trust me, there are as many different visions for BCLN as there are people on BCLN's board. Most likely, BCLN will look different from what I or any of the others envisioned, but we will each have had our say in determining the final product. And when all is said and done, I think we will be pleased.
Contrast this with writing letters to politicians in Washington DC where a staffer shoots back a form letter that's been rubber stamped. You want an exercise in futility? Try shaping policy at the national level (or even the state level for that matter). I like the biblical phrase "kicking against the pricks" here (for more than one reason). You're just one in a cacophony of voices (many at odds with each other). I have a vision for how the country should be operated, but I am not going to hold my breath waiting for it. To paraphrase the serenity prayer, we need to change the things that need to be changed and that we can change, not worry about those things that we cannot change, and have the wisdom to recognize the difference between the two. Those who lack the wisdom get the ulcers. I'll take wisdom, thank you very much.
american inventor
Did you get a chance to check out the new show from Simon called American Inventor? It’s in a format similar to the American Idol show. People parade before the judges. They have a couple minutes to impress them that their invention is the American Invention. Obviously, not every invention is shown and I imagine that the show deliberately shows some of the more ridiculous inventions in an effort to pique the audience’s interest with “I can do better than that” type of thoughts. It’s nice to see a few of the ones that ALMOST made it. But it’s also nice to see a couple of inventions that did make it and still leave you thinking, “I can do better than that”.
It’s sad to see some of the contestants that have spent a small fortune on an idea that will never see the light of day. It’s even sadder when some of these people have wasted some of their most precious resources, like the relationships they had with their families. David O. McKay once said, “No success can compensate for failure in the home.” These people are fighting a losing proposition once they sacrifice their family on the altar of personal ambition. Even if they go on to found a multi-billion dollar enterprise, it won’t matter. They would be better off simply giving the idea away to some party who would have interest in the idea and cutting their losses.
Still, it would be cool to see how far your concept could go. Maybe I will have to put together a prototype or concept model of my toy vault and see if it’s American Invention worthy.
three treasures
Mark Twain once said, “Never let schooling interfere with your education”. It’s a witty turn of words that reflects a sentiment that has been common among the public since shortly after public schools began. I like the phrase because it makes the distinction between schooling and education. Education is a life-long process, whether you want it to be or not. Those who take an active role in the acquisition of education have a greater advantage. They have more resources on which to draw for the various challenges that life has to offer. They are more capable in overcoming the obstacles and less likely to find themselves in a bind. It’s not a cure–all for society’s ills. We still find well-educated homeless on the streets. Having the resources and using the resources are two different things. Sometimes a person’s character or their mental affliction is too much an obstacle to overcome.Education is also a treasure to me. More importantly, it’s a treasure that you get to take with you. If you’re not inclined to buy into an afterlife, then accept education for the treasure it is in this life, but if you do look forward to an afterlife, then recognize that education is one of the few treasures that you do get to take with you. The more you acquire in this life, the more you’ll have in the next. And assuming that education continues in the eternities, the more you acquire in this life, the better a foundation you’ll have to start your “real” education. Actually, arriving in the next life will be a big education in and of itself I imagine. I see two other treasures that I consider eternal in nature – character and relationships. I am sure we could mention other things, but I see all the other things as subsets under one of these three treasures. If you want to impress the God you worship, make sure you are blinged to the gills with these three treasures.
Hello World!
I don't know why the first foray into any development effort has to be called "Hello World", but somewhere, someone started the nasty trend and so it continues today (not that I am much into following trends). It does make me wonder... is the last effort of a developer called "Goodbye Cruel World?" It would make sense. If nothing else, I use this initial exercise to introduce myself to the wide world web and maybe set out an outline of the things I like to discuss in this forum where I share my opinion. The old adage about opinions being like bung holes still holds true - everybody has one, and they all stink. But even using the bung hole analogy, the output of each individual is still unique, depending on the material ingested, the pose struck when expelling the material, how sick the creator of the shiz was at the time of output, and so forth. Hopefully, although my output may stink, I hope that I can at the very least offer a unique stench in the environment of opinion. On occasion, when I have supped on the Brussels sprouts of meditation, I might even offer a potent opinion or even, a potent idea.What drives me? I am an artist at heart. I LOVE to create. I love the process of creation. I think that is what is at the heart of art. Some say that it is the need to express. I think the need to create is more powerful (it works to explain why women would go through pregnancy). I think it is a more motivating force. But if you are expecting me to discuss art you might be disappointed. My favorite medium (maybe because it is the most challenging) is people. I like molding people. I like molding collections of people. I like seeing what becomes of the process. Oh, don't read too much into it. It's a very natural process. Unless you are dead, you are most likely doing the same - just passively instead of actively. I have ideas and aspirations to shape the human community at large (don't we all?), but most of my activity is directed at the local community level. It's a comfortable level where I can actively take a role and make a difference. It beats the ulcer-ridden angst of activism against the nation, the government, or the world. Luckily, I didn't have to wait till my death bed to figure that out.
In particular, I like educational issues. I think education is such an important thing for so many different reasons (which I'll save for another blog entry). I also like entrepreneurship. I have yet to start a business, but in my mind, I have made billions time and again. I am constantly churning out ideas. I'll even share a few in this forum. Of additional interest (although not necessarily less so) are: family, religion, government, money, college football, and more. Hopefully, some of what I offer will be of value to you. I look forward to reading the feedback.
