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Ahh, finally back for a few. Got a major project off my chest at work, and yes, the whip marks are scabbing up nicely. I have two more projects starting to rear their heads and start charging towards me, blinded by poor management and weak with budget, so this may result in more fragmented writings. I do deeply apologize for having not come up for air sooner, but breathing comes out of our vacation days and I only have four days left.
You know what drives me nuts? In an age where electronics grow exponentially faster and smaller, where data can be fired around the world with blinding speed and efficiency, we haven't come up with something that allows you to write down what's in your head without actually writing it. During my off hours painting our bedroom and sanding floors I wrote blog entries at about a page a day. Stories about meeting friendly workers at Home Depot, discussions about training Maggie for agility and search and rescue work (laugh all you want, but we got her starting to climb ladders this weekend), endless re-writes about my love of Legos, pages and pages of dren for this site. And for my efforts? This, a crappy, three paragraph review of the last weekannahalf. I keep thinking that the day will come soon that we'll screw the whole idea of cell phones and pagers and just go for implants that fit right into the ol' brain bucket, a la Ghost in the Shell style data linkups. Think something up, a design idea, an essay, and you can dump it into a computer program while you eat dinner and watch re-runs of the Nanny (one of the Missus's fave shows and one of my most hated). Surf the web while at the gym, research term papers while hosting a kegger, call and talk to someone without ever opening your mouth. I'd be willing to live with a T1 port at the base of my medulla for such a thing. How about you?
Oh, and a reminder for those interested in seeing a mass gathering of idiots: this coming Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY! Point Pleasant Beach, to the left of Jenks, it starts at noon but get there early unless you like walking seventeen blocks from your car to the boardwalk. You should be looking for this man:
posted by: Jiggsy at 02/23/04 17:55 |
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Yeesh, what a slacker. Actually, that statement is not true in the least. Between a very full day at work (which, thanks to a wonderful boss, could easily be made longer), hitting the gym, taking care of the Love Shack and finishing up my graduate work in GIS, I feel blessed that I even get some sleep. I didn't sleep much last night (a bad case of acid reflux for the Missus kept her up way early and got me up as a result), but I still am fairly buzzing. Granted I had three cups of coffee and a bottle of Coke so far, but normally an early morning will find me face down in my Maxwell House by 10:30, regardless of my caffeine intake. No ill effects so far, although hitting the gym will likely cause my heart to collapse in on itself. Could it be I am finally aging to the point I need less sleep? This from a man whose motto on sleep is "anything, anywhere, anytime." Disturbing life, this insomnia. I was going to write about my niece tripping the school disciplinarian, but intel has advised me not to go to press with such information. Something about a "Geraldo effect." But I will comment on what brought the tripping about. My niece, M2 (there are three M's in the family), is smart for her age. She reads incessantly (I’d wager the bulk of her allowance goes towards flashlight batteries so she can read after lights out), is hyper competitive (she's managed to make household ironing competitive) and has an unerring sense of what is right and wrong with the world. She also has about three molecules of diplomacy to her name and they usually go missing when she needs them most. Suffice it to say she does not back down from anyone for anything if she thinks she's right. Now, in your opinion, what would you do with an obviously talented and intelligent young girl in public school? Would you place her in advanced classes, offer her additional work so she can learn more, find her a mentor, polish her into a shining jewel of academia? Well, maybe you would, but this is America, dammit. All folks are created equal, and even those smarty pants types gotta deal with the mouth breathers on the same plane. When I was in school, I remember being in kindergarten and being allowed to read to the first grade classes (reading is still my passion, if you can't guess). I was in some sort of enrichment program from the single digit grades on up through high school graduation. You wanted to learn more, extra credit was yours for the asking. Wanted still more? Find a teacher to mentor you and work on an independent study. I knew kids who were working with guys from Bell Labs on improving superconductors before they could even drive. Smart kids were given a chance to push themselves beyond the standard curriculum. But now? Now, students who excel are given the task of trying to improve the lot of their other students. Yes, the American school system now asks the honor students to lead the Ralph Wiggums of the world down the bright shining path of Knowledge. How intrepid! How ingenious! What a great way for teachers to shirk any educational responsibility! M2, for her sake, didn’t take it sitting down. She wrote a scathing essay on how bad the current educational system is, describing it as a "gray smear" of students rather than having anyone be ahead or behind in learning (this from a middle school kid, mind you). To the teacher’s credit, she loved the essay and M2 may actually get the chance to read it before the school board. Despite this, though, she’s bored to tears in her classes (thus sending her down the mischievous path of tripping folks). Jiggsy and the Missus to the rescue! We did the only thing we could do: send her our old textbooks from college and high school. I have no idea if she’ll even begin to understand Organic Chemistry without some teaching behind it, but at least it’ll give her something to do instead of trip folks.
posted by: Jiggsy at 02/11/04 12:01 |
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Maid, please clean this blog. Sorry, I didn't even realize how long I had let this go. Letting it slide for a few days is one thing, but letting it lapse a week into the next month is a little unnerving. I'll just find the time and make some noise.
Lots to report, but I'm not nearly awake enough to give details of any of it. So here's the bulleted list:
- My niece tripped her school's disciplinarian and laughed it off.
- I have dutifully gone to the gym since January and have not dropped so much as a pound.
- Work has moved to unforseen levels of activity and joy. (Yes, joy. If you worked at a place where they kept you around simply because you made some money only to find out that you could be making a hundred times that amount, you'd be joyous too)
- I think someone at work is flirting with me and I'm not sure what to do about it.
- We are finally are going to get started on the master bedroom (thanks for the assist, kate).
- We had guests this weekend not once, but twice.
- Maggie has herself a new boyfriend. The little jezebel.
Feel free to inquire on any of the above. Hopefully by lunch I'll have some time to expand on these.
posted by: Jiggsy at 02/09/04 05:34 |
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