Add Just One Thing--But You Have to Take One Thing, Too

Kids these days are so unprepared for college/the real world! They have no skills/critical thinking/knowledge base! Aack! I recall reading (somewhere) of a litany written more than one hundred years ago deploring the decline of the admissions requirements for some elite college. The writer was incensed that Latin and Greek were no longer both mandatory (possibly provided proficiency in one other modern language).

Truly, things are always already in decline.

I would agree, however, that there is a serious problem: a small portion of high school graduates are either functionally illiterate. That's just unconscionable. Another serious problem: too many kids these days (!) can't do math. More problems: no knowledge of how things interact with one another in the world, etc.

Most people would agree that these are significant ills. But what to do? Lots of people have great ideas about how to fix things... "if only they could add a class on estimating!" or "what they really need is training in life skills!" or "why don't they just..." Fine. I agree! But there are only so many hours in a school day (and only so many school days in a year [and both hours and days cost money, people, and you have to pay the dreaded taxessss to fund it-oops, guess that'll be the day, right?]). So: what would you add, and what would you take away to make room?

Overlay County Boundaries onto Gmap

Here

Amusing

We watched Portlandia the other day. Susan had seen ads and so TiVo'd it. There was included a funny little music video called "Dream of the 90s is Alive in Portland." I enjoyed it. Of course it underscores how great Portland is.

All Right, You're a Good Cook. Can you Farm?

Whoa.

Useful Websites

Demographics

Whaa?

Just what the hell is Brooks trying to say here? Has to be read to be believed.

One of Nature's Iron Laws

Susan gave me a mandoline for Christmas. Within a day of receipt I cut off a hunk of my thumb. Because I is smrt.

Conflicted

As you might now know from Susan's blog, we went down to Charlottesville for a quick trip last week. We saw James Madison's home, The UVa, and Thomas Jefferson's home. It was interesting, and generally very nice.

However... as I think more and more about it, I find that whatever their other virtues, it is almost impossible to admire "The Founders" on any personal level. They may have been diligent, intelligent, and full of righteous abstemiousness, but they owned other people. Bought and sold them, often without regard to their family or other attachements. They almost certainly engaged in illicit and ethically problematic relationships with them... And I find it impossible to believe that they didn't know it was wrong (obviously some even acknowledged the practice was evil, but didn't stop).

It's pretty "icky," for lack of a better word. I also am not at all sure that I can excuse it based on the norms of the times. Clearly the people we're talking about thought long and hard about ethical matters-and hardly lacked either insight or the fortitude to engage in perilous change.

Played

Went last night at 10 to provide some cover for that indoor soccer team I sometimes associate with. My play was "meh." I got a goal (which was nice) and an assist (which was merely OK) and broke up a lot of plays coming towards our goal, mostly settling and putting the ball to an outlet on our team. Towards the end of the game, though, my concentration was a bit lax and I had a couple of errors that caused goals :( Boo.

Still, I didn't get hurt (though may revise that opinion later, if minor aches become major ones), and had some fun.

Italian Soccer

Soren has apparently seen too much; he keeps kicking the ball and then laying down upon the floor.

Progress

What is the root of improvement in mankind's lot?

Hostage-taking for Fun and Profit

But we've proved it again and again, That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld You never get rid of the Dane.

Soccer Wave Home Game Dimensions

Dad asked me for the dimensions when I was there. Here you go. At 1 inch intervals from the ground (I'll give the vertical height as the X and the distance from the very back to the surface of the ramp as the Y in an (X,Y) format).

• (0,36)
• (1,25)
• (2,20 1/4)
• (3, 15 3/4)
• (4, 12)
• (5, 10)
• (6, 8 1/4)
• (7, 7 3/16)
• (8, 6 3/8)
• (9, 5 3/4)
• (10, 5 1/4)
• (11, 5)
• (12, 4 7/8)
• (13, 4 3/4)
• (14, 4 7/8)
• (15, 5)
• (16, 5 1/4)
• (17, 5 1/2)
• (18, 6)
• (19, 6 7/16)
• (20, 7)
• (21, 7 9/16)
• (22, 8 1/4)
• (23, 9)
• (24, 9)

The thing to remember, though, is that this is a bit rough, and you'll want to experiment a little. The top half of the return curve may lean just a tiny bit too far forward. Only a bit, though.

What to do About FIFA?

Their bizarre and Machiavellian choice to have Qatar host the 2022 World Cup Final is like a poisoned dirk lodged in my breast. I have nothing against the Qatari (is that right?) people, but apparently FIFA's ExCom do: the "government" of Qatar is apparently on the hook for tens and tens of Billions of dollars worth of extravagant construction--luxury items like giant stadia (which will somehow be climate-controlled and Carbon-neutral and disassembled after the WCF and shipped to a variety of deserving nations) as well as infrastructure (airports, rail, and roads) that will be dramatically out sized to their population (and therefore subject to decay immediately) and hospitality amenities that will go unused after the WCF--for which they will have just evanescent use, at tremendous opportunity cost!

I am hopeful that a short while in advance it will become apparent that this millstone is too heavy for Qatar, and FIFA will discreetly approach one of the few countries able to host a WCF on short/no notice (the US, UK, a few countries in Western Europe--maybeAustralia) and either be rebuffed, or have their disgusting manipulations turned back on them.

Imagine the US saying "Absolutely! We're all in!" and then threatening FIFA with canceling the tournament 26 days out unless FIFA charters/incorporates in the US. Then we introduce the fabulous ExCom to our little friends: RICO statutes.

Chilly

I've been running home from the train station again. Since it has been colder out, it has been pretty uncomfortable. Generating my own (very modest) windchill in addition (sometimes) to whatever there is already tends to make the nose and all other exposed skin surfaces very very cold.

Like Falling off a Table

The temperature when I left for work (around 8:00am today, due to a brain fart involving muting my alarm clock last night) was over 60 degrees Fahrenheit. By 3:00pm it had dropped around 16 degrees! In any event, it was brisk running home tonight.

A Warning

Don't feed Soren cake after... say... midday. He had some bites of my cake (no frosting bites, mind you) and he's completely off his rocker. Also, I ran home from the train station again. It was nice, but I got caught at two lights, so it seems sort of less awesome.

Chilly Morning

A wee bit chilly this morning.

Treed

Obtained a nice looking tree. It is now mounted in its stand and chilling on the balcony. We'll light that sucker up tomorrow. Such nice smells, the various fir tree aromas.

Unusual

It's not yet 6:30pm, here, and my entire family is asleep. Up to and including cats. Susan and Eleri had a rough night with El's coughing and waking up (I'm a bad man, taking advantage of the extra bed in Soren's room, on a school night) throughout. Soren is also sickly. So I sent Susan for a nap, then lulled Soren to sleep singing Christmas carols with youtube, and conked Eleri out thereafter. No explanation necessary for the cats, I trust.