Sunday, June 24, 2012

Hitler - Smiling At His Modern-Day American Counterparts




Story:


State lawmakers in Albany voted this week to make kindergarten mandatory for all 5-year-olds in New York City, lowering the required age for schooling by one year.


Proponents of the measure, which awaits the governor's approval, praised the move as a triumph for thousands of 5-year-olds who are from poor and minority families or have disabilities. Many of these children, they say, are often turned away each year by school officials on grounds of a lack of space and the lack of any requirement that they attend school.


"I think it is a real gain," Norm Fruchter, the senior policy analyst at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, a nonprofit educational research and policy group, said of the vote. "There is a ton of research about what early-childhood programs do for children, and I think there is a whole bunch of parents of children who, for a variety of reasons, don't register them when they should and then they lose out for a whole year."


Mr. Fruchter said children who miss kindergarten may never recover.


"You're entering behind a lot of the kids in terms of your skills and overall development," he said. "And it is particularly with things like familiarity with the alphabet and with letters and numbers and school routines."


In her State of the City address in February, the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, trumpeted the idea of lowering the compulsory age of schooling to 5, from 6, as one of her prime educational initiatives.


If this becomes law, Ms. Quinn said, "the system could turn no child away."


"It stops the abuse of cherry-picking some 5-year-olds over other 5-year-olds," she said.


Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg backs the proposal. In a memo in support, his administration said that ensuring kindergarten for all 5-year-olds would "result in more students getting a strong start in their education."


There are 78,600 students enrolled in kindergarten in the city, a number that has steadily increased in recent years. But Ms. Quinn said that nearly 3,000 children enter first grade each year without having first gone to kindergarten, a figure her office said was based on an analysis of the city's Department of Education enrollment data for recent years.


The Democrat-led State Assembly passed the measure on June 4, and the Republican-led State Senate followed with a 59-to-1 vote on Thursday.


The bill now goes to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. He has 10 days, not counting Sundays, to sign or veto the bill before it automatically becomes law.


All that *reasoning* is complete bull$hit. The fact is....it's the young children who spend too much time AMONG OTHER CHILDREN in schools and in daycare are the ones who MAY NEVER RECOVER.

Why did the average 6 year old in 1950 have a 4,000 word vocabulary and yet today's average 6 year old only has a 1,000 word one???

Note how the reasoning is drenched in sympathy for the *poor*, i.e. class warfare. And note how even Republicans voted for this expansion of government.

Pre-school will be mandatory next. And the school year would be longer already if these government clowns weren't so fiscally irresponsible and beholden to the demands of lazy, unionized teachers.


"Give me the youth, and Germany will rule the World" - Adolf Hitler

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Those 'Old Bags' Were Right?







99 degrees today in New York...

On days like this it's too hot to go to the (government) pool so I wait until the evening - which is generally pretty nice.

After an excruciating 30 minute wait to renew my membership (3rd attempt this week!) we finally got into the pool area.

Not 3 minutes later a *floater* was supposedly espied by the lifeguards and they evicted 200-300 people from the water!

Everyone left but we waited an hour for the *flush*, i.e. re-open.

Later on the story changed to a *puke situation* and was verified. (They sent the scatologist home.)

Obviously, whoever the Moron kid was, they DIDN'T WAIT 20 MINUTES after eating before jumping back in the pool!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Brutal Honesty, Oozing Out


I sort of put my foot in my mouth earlier tonight.

I was talking with a local *mom* who I just met through my daughter recently.

Making get-to-know small talk she asked me if I had ever been to (certain local establishment, catering to kids).

CaptiousNut - Yeah. Only once. When I saw the absolutely ridiculous prices....I walked right out.

Woman - Well, we own that.

Woops!

I apologized, a couple times. But I guess it wasn't that bad - what I said. It wasn't like I said, "The place is run by a$$holes" or anything, right?

She told me that she wants to raise the fees even higher but her husband is reluctant.

Why so expensive?

$6,000 a month in taxes, $5,000 a month in utilities, insurance, mortgage (they bought the building in 2005, ouch!)....all told, with employee salaries she told me that it costs 70k per month just to operate.

45 minute classes there cost $30. Like I said, ridiculous!

And who wants to take their kid(s) to a 45 minute class? It's so short, you can't even run to the grocery store in the meantime...

Mixing It Up


I don't understand these people that vacation at the same place every year.

Yeah if you have a *free* place to stay it makes sense in the short run. But it's a big world out there...

You have to fight turning into a *creature of habit* with all your might.

Last year we went on a mini vacation to Sandusky, Ohio - to a homeschool convention.

This year I really wanted to do the Jersey Shore....er, the South Jersey Shore which isn't to be confused with that show that I've still never seen. South Jersey is Philadelphia country, really.

I had such a great time, again, at my golf tournament in Wildwood three weeks ago I got to thinking about bringing the entire fam down.

Ocean City, pictured above, is where we are heading next week for 5 nights ($988 motel). I've never been there before. All I know is that it is a *dry* town, i.e. no alcohol, period. And that it's supposed to be terrific for young children.

My wife's family does have a house out in the Hamptons, but, again, I don't think it's healthy to spend all our vacations there, no matter how *cheap*.

Branch out a little, will youse?  The alternative is that you WILL TURN INTO YOUR PARENTS.

Another Help-Self Book




I just read The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive.

It was *okay*. I happened to get it directly from the author for $7 instead of the $16 it costs on Amazon now.

It's funny how at $7 I will definitely buy it, but would hesitate at $16. We all have our price points, I guess.

I had read his Millionaire Messenger previously - which was better and, really, sufficient as far as giving me the gist of his spiel. So I recommend reading that one first/instead.

Who is he?

He's a dorky little guy who's carved out quite a name/wage for himself in the high performance, personal coaching industry. Rich people pay him astronomical sums, e.g. 250k for a year of *coaching*, 50k to have him watch one guy speak,...

If this HJ can make it big, then so can we!

Making Guests Clean Your House?


Well, sort of.

Without incoming guests....I don't know that I'd EVER clean my house.

So by simply inviting them, my house somehow gets tidied up, and fast!

All that *limbo* junk, the stuff you have all over the place, guests force you to finally make a decision on it. (Hint - trash it)

All the self-help gurus like Tim Ferriss swear by creating a sense of urgency for you to-do list. I have to say, it's pretty darn good advice.

The only possible hitch, and we've experienced this lately,....is when the guests won't leave!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Pinewood Derby Car Displays




Better than rolling off the kids' bureaus, no?

My son and I assembled one of these the other day with the other Cub Scouts in his den.

It turns out, the kit was designed and marketed by one of the Scout leaders in our town.

If you want to buy one (or more)....contact him at DerbyGurus.com.

(I told him I'd give him some link-juice here.  Have to support anyone, especially neighbors, who's doing entrepreneurial side-work!)

Abandoning The Canoe?



A few years ago I was hiking up Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire with a buddy of mine...

And we saw a gang of kids(?) that were climbing as well, only they were collectively carrying a canoe up the 3,000 ft peak!

My buddy tried to ask them what the bleep they were doing that for but was intentionally ignored for one reason or another. I confess that I myself have been known to ignore most of the things he says!

I just Googled for the picture above - which may or may not be the losers we walked past at the summit.

Anyways, I was lamenting to my first wife the other day how I haven't had even a spare second to put up some blog posts...

At that she invoked a reference the *story of the canoe*.

"What was that?", I inquired.

FirstWife - It's about the people who use the canoe to cross the river....but once on the other side they leave it behind. The canoe (my blog?) got them on the path they needed to be on, so it was now useless.

It is true that I've reaped untold non-monetary riches from my blogging. Heck, from blogging I came across the whole idea of homeschooling my kids. For that one thing alone it was a boon.

I get up at 4am most days....but I just don't have any time to post anymore - between getting my exercise in, taking care of household stuff, house guests, homeschooling, traveling, golf, and, most importantly, running around everywhere to educational events with my kids.

I'm so busy now that I don't even respond to emails - the ones I read/notice anyway.

After this week, my schedule should start to open up a bit - because ALL of our weekly organized activities will be over for the season...

And then come July my kids will be at camp each day until 12:45 or so!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Utterly Timeless, But Checking In...

We were in NYC today for a homeschool performance show...

On the way back we passed through the famed chess-hub of Washington Square Park.

Of course I was going to have my son play against a *chess hustler*!

Sorry I missed the first several moves:


The gentleman was very nice and offered sage pointers throughout the game. Heck I should probably pay him $20 an hour to teach my son!

On the way out he was surprised to hear my son was only 7....and showered John with compliments, saying he hadn't seen too many kids his age at that skill level.

See also:

Fathers Promoting Their Pawns

Best Self-Reinvention Ever?

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Slutty Big Media and Skanky School Slaves


This story is running on Drudge and a couple people have already emailed it to me this morning...

Guess what, incidentally, yesterday around 10:45am I walked right through a sea of Stuyvesant students in front of their building....along with my kids and another family on our way to our *homeschool Field Day*.

But all I saw were a bunch of nerdy-looking juveniles burdened with heavy backpacks...

Well, the headline got it to the front page of Drudge....so I guess that's a *winning story*.

Though these kids really ought to *get in line* like the perfect future slaves they are on track to become...

Imagine getting kicked out of this school because you refuse to cover your shoulders, midriff, and tiny Asian boobies???

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

It's About Time!


Recall I'm neutral on pets/animals....but very ANTI- dog people who are some of the biggest Morons in our midst.

I can't tell y'all how many times I saw someone driving with a freakin' dog on their lap!

I wouldn't make the law so strict. But as long as they aren't on the driver's lap they can run around, as far as I'm concerned.

Funny GIFs - 3

















Kid Goes For Spin...




From the YouTube description:

A thorough investigate was completed. Our system records told us that a customer swiped their laundry card about an hour before the event occurred; however, the wash credit remained on the machine because they didn't use the machine. However, when Sondra's friend, placed Samir, a 13 month old toddler, into the washer and LOCKED the door, the machine started and placed a permanent lock. After Samir got stuck in the washing machine, they frantically searched for help, and found Kong Enh, a Federal Laundromat employee, who came to the rescue, tossing aside tables to shut off the machine's circuit breaker. Finally, Samir was freed from the machine.
 Samir is well and was safely returned to Samir's mother, Sakai David. Although the Camden County Prosecutor's Office states, "This was not an intelligent choice to put the baby in the washing machine but it was not a crime," Sakai David announced that she will be pressing charges against Sondra on charges of negligence.
**Note: the people in the video are NOT the parents. Samir was left in his father's girlfriend (Sondra)'s care while, Sakai (Samir's mother) was at work. Samir's father was/is in jail, and is aware of the video**

Watched Too Many Movies?




Camtasia....It's Pretty Cool!




I just opened the box and rather easily made this, my first video - unshaven and completely unversed in Camtasia's plethora of tools and options.

So I'd expect that with a little practice I'll be able to produce some really crisp and snazzy videos with this so-called screencast software.

Of course most of y'all would need a *little practice* to be be able to multiply like me!

BTW, speaking of math...

My short ebook is almost ready for publication/distribution.  I'll be sure to let everyone know when it's out.

Also, the KahnAcademy.org has gotten better. It's more than just a bunch of videos. The site now has more structure, exercises, and INTERACTIVITY.

Everyone should have their kid on it (counting through calculus) in addition to whatever they are doing in school.

Log into the website with your child's Google or Facebook acct....

Then click on *profile* and add me as their coach (if you want).

My Coach ID is "cyscholar(at)gmail(dot)com".

Monday, June 04, 2012

Coming To A Market Near You...


It's amazing how NOBODY in America thinks this can happen here...

That is, if they are even remotely aware of what's befallen buy-and-hold, down-averagers in Japan since the late 1980s.

People just dump money, blindly, every month/quarter, into mutual funds and haven't a clue about what exactly they are *investing* in, and what risks are entailed.

But they don't want to know either. The idea that one can passively invest and get rich is just far too appealing. It's sort of like an omnivorous couch potato thinking that simply taking a Big Pharma pill will make him healthy.

Go to 30% cash, at least...