I’m always after The Boy to drink more water. It seems he’s met me half way….equal amounts of Dew and water. Yup, he’s definitely 12.

In 1965 (the year I was born)

Lyndon B. Johnson is president of the USSecretary of Defense Robert McNamara calls for a nationwide network of bomb sheltersFormer leader of the Black Muslims, Malcolm X, is shot and killed in New York City To protest voting rights discrimination, civil rights demonstrators begin a march for Selma to Montgomery with federal troop protection The first commercial satellite, Early Bird, is launched into space by Nasa to transmit telephone and television signals Voting Rights Act is signed into law Riots by young blacks in the Watts area of Los Angeles begin, causing $200 million in damage Hurricane Betsy claims 75 lives in southern Florida and Louisiana United States President Lyndon Johnson proclaims his “Great Society” during his State of the Union address Dr. Dre, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey Jr., Shania Twain, Moby, and Ben Stiller are born Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series Green Bay Packers win the NFL championship Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews, is the top grossing film Dune by Frank Herbert is published The Beatles’ Rubber Soul is released “Satisfaction” by Rolling Stones is a top hit The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing songs from their new album Help! Sony introduces the Betamax, a home video tape recorder Nearly all of NBC’s programs are now broadcast in color I Dream of Jeannie premieres

What Happened the Year You Were Born?

That’s the 60s for you. I swiped this from Paula.

I hate…hate….HATE, abhore, detest, dislike, loathe, malign, mislike, object to, am repulsed by, am rankled by, resent, scorn, spite….well you get the picture….constant storm coverage on network T.V. that preempts my shows FOR NO GOOD REASON!!!

A few weeks ago, there was a thunderstorm. I missed most of House while my sister was here (well, we both did).

What the hell? What good does it do to constantly show the same radar images over and over and over and over again with horrible “chatter” between the news people trying to stretch their time in the spotlight as long as possible. WE GET IT! There’s a storm. If it’s near us we should be in a room with no windows…NOT WATCHING THE DAMN T.V. OR LISTENING TO YOUR PATHETIC PRATTLING VOICES SAY THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Not to mention the horrible calls they broadcast from people that “thought they saw” a tornado or “almost wrecked in the flash flood” or “could not believe how hard it was raining”.

Network people….I’m gonna get in the car, I’m gonna drive to your stations, and I’m gonna straighten your asses out. Then I’m gonna get back in the car and I’m gonna drive home. You have done this to me FOR THE LAST TIME!!!!!!

Oh, sorry. I was channeling Alec Baldwin for a second….of course our thoughts go out to his daughter who was so humiliated by that ugly voice mail being broadcast over and over again. Poor thing. I would never make light of her pain.

Seriously….WE KNOW. WE GET IT.

Did I mention that tonight I missed most of House and now I’m missing Boston Legal?

Now I know why people get the satellite. Wait…if I had the satellite I would have no T.V. at all because the storm would have interrupted the signal.

Dammit. I can’t win. Hate storms. Hate the constant horrible network coverage they cause.

That is all.

You Are a Chocolate Cake

Fun, comforting, and friendly. You are a true classic, and while you’re not super cutting edge, you’re high quality. People love your company – and have even been known to get addicted to you.

What Kind of Cake Are You?

What a yummy quiz. Swiped from Paula.

Okay, so here’s the thing. I have a slight gripe about what goes on every morning at the gym with regard to the in-house daycare facility. Well, every weekday morning I should say.

As I’ve said, I really like my new gym and there are no geysers (that I notice) staring at my girly parts while I work out. Everything’s super-nice and they give you free towels to use. And there is LOTS of equipment…so much equipment that even during the busy weekday mornings I have never not been able to do my whole workout.

Anyway, enough about me. Let’s talk about the lady that walks in with her yowling, howling, crying, screaming three year old daughter every morning between 10 and 11. Seriously, I am way upstairs with my MP3 player going full blast on the ellipticals and I can hear this kid pitching a fit all the way up the stairs and across the floor. And it’s a long walk from the day care hallway to the stairs.

The kid screams, “No, mommy! I don’t wanna gooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!” You can literally hear the variations in her voice like she’s kicking while she screams.

Then within 10 minutes of the kid being dragged through the door, kicking and screaming….the announcements begin. Every five minutes. For at least 30 minutes.

“Mrs. so-and-so, please return to the child care center.”

“Mrs. so-and-so, you are needed at the child care center.”

“Mrs. so-and-so, it is urgent that you return to the child care center.”

Today I guess it was so bad they sent this poor kid out with a dry erase board containing the woman’s name. He was forced to walk up to every woman and show them the board, asking if they were Mrs. so-and-so.

The gym’s open 24 hours. Clearly the woman has issues with the child. But couldn’t she wait until after her kid’s in bed, or after school so she can get a teenager to come sit with the kid for an hour so she can go work out? Oh wait…maybe she can’t. Maybe the kid’s such a menace that her father won’t watch her or nobody will ever take her calls to sit. I do have sympathy for the woman. We’ve all had those days where we just need a break from the kids.

But do you think it’s OK to foist such a problem child on those low-paid workers who take turns working in the day care center and wiping off equipment? I’m sure the place has rules. I’m sure they’re not expected to put up with such a belligerent child for hours at a time. But if they call the mom every time the kid pitches a fit, then the kid learns that in order to get out of there, she’ll have to pitch a fit so the mom will be forced to take her home.

Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled child…getting her way the only way she knows how. The way that works.

I’m thinking it will only take another week or so of this and that mom won’t be allowed to use the day care center anymore. That’s way too much to lay on those poor people taking turns at day care duty. They’re really not equipped to handle that.

I never stayed in a restaurant with a crying child. I never allowed my child to throw temper tantrums (it only took a week of consistently sending him to his room when he tried it, telling him to come back and talk to me when he was calmer). I can’t say for sure because I did not have a child that was that out of control, but if I did I’d like to think I would never drag him to a day care center, kicking and screaming, and leave him for someone else to deal with while he was in that state just so I could have a break.

It ain’t right. It just ain’t right. I feel really sorry for that little girl. Clearly, she has attachment and/or anger issues she does not know how to deal with. I don’t feel a bit sorry for the mom. Clearly, SHE would rather dump her child during one of her tantrums than deal with the behavior at home and work her up to being left at the center.

But I have to say…if having to listen to a child in such an agitated state and the resulting announcements that follow is my only gripe about the gym, then it’s not so bad. I’ll just turn my MP3 player up a little more…

As you can see, I still have a long way to go in the countries department. But I have been on four continents…that’s something at least.

Same site as the States visited map generator.  I really should go to bed instead of doing these silly maps….

I swiped this from Bluegrass Mama. I’m sure I’ve driven through more, but these are all the ones I’ve lived in, had a meal in, or went to a business meeting in. 26 ain’t bad. But I’m sure Tommy could beat that number easily. **UPDATE** – Oops, make that 28. We also flew through Memphis, TN and Portland, OR. You see lots of airports when you’re trying to fly home for free.

Go visit the site and make your own map of visited states. It’s pretty cool.

I was having some email and IM conversations with some family members this past week over standardized tests and how they are handled. At my son’s school this week, they took the TAKS (Texas state tests) tests for Reading and Math. This was a critical year for them, because if they did not pass they would not pass middle school without a re-take to get a higher score.

Note: They have question samples for parents to look at on line…seriously, if the kids couldn’t pass those tests without at least a “C” I think they should be held back.

Anyway, they both thought standardized tests do not accurately reflect the subject matter knowledge of the student. Of course…I disagree. I think that taking a test is the only way to truly objectively test whether or not a student has at least an average understanding of the material taught for their grade level. Tests like these can help determine whether or not there are problems with the classroom teaching…and indicate which kids might need extra help to pass the test.

I agree with “teaching to the test”. Why? BECAUSE THE TEST COVERS THE MATERIAL THEY SHOULD KNOW TO PASS THE FRIGGIN’ GRADE! If they can’t pass a test after numerous drills and classes on test-taking techniques, combined with normal classroom teaching and exercises….then they shouldn’t pass. I’ve seen what they do to prepare the kids for these tests. They are set up for success…NOT failure as some might think. At least in Texas that’s how it works.

Newsweek has an article on their site this week about how some Liberal Arts colleges are making submitting SAT scores optional.

In short, they argue that the SAT serves the opposite function it was designed to perform-instead of flattening the playing field for students of all races and backgrounds, the SAT exaggerates the difference between wealthy students whose families can afford expensive SAT prep courses and poorer students who see the exam for the first time on test day.

Okay, my kid is in the 7th grade and he ran through a sample SAT Reasoning Test on the official site…once. No class. No study. Granted, he is gifted. But he scored 60 points over the national average for critical reading and matched the national average for writing….of college bound high school students that took the same test! If a kid pays attention in class and has mastered the English language, I would think they could at least make an average showing on the test…with five years more education than The Boy.

If International kids want to do well on the SATs then they should learn the language. There aren’t that many cultural references that I could see in the sample questions…they’ve worked hard to remove those.

Hey, I wasn’t that great of a test taker in school. But I made a decent showing on the SAT and ACT tests. And I didn’t take any special classes on the test or how to take the tests. I only had to take them once. And I managed to get in to the school of my choice with the combination of my test scores and my acceptable high school grades.

So yeah, I support standardized tests. They are truly the only way to eliminate social promotion, weed out bad teachers, identify learning issues with kids, and measure mastery of the subject matter and the ability to write a decent essay.

What say you? Do you like standardized tests? Or do you hate ‘em?

I know it’s been a tough couple of days with what happened at Virginia Tech. It seems coverage on the tragedy is everywhere.  Of course our thoughts are with those that survived and those that lost loved ones. That was one screwed up dude.

Anyway, to lighten things up a bit I give you this video link. You have to watch it on your high-speed connection to make it work right. It’s about two minutes long. Enjoy.

The other day I walked in the house after running errands, and this is what I saw:

I’m not sure, but I think he wanted to play. The toy had been behind the couch across the room when I left the house. Silly cat.

Don’t forget to go visit The Friday Ark.