$578M school? You have GOT to be kidding me

I saw this in the newspaper this morning and it about blew my mind.

Yes I still read an actual newspaper, I'm kinda old school.

Yahoo News linkage.

Now most people that know me know I'm going to school to be a public school teacher and I substitute in public schools currently. I'm all for improving education, but L.A. is doing it wrong.

From the linked article-

"New buildings are nice, but when they're run by the same people who've given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they're a big waste of taxpayer money," said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. "Parents aren't fooled."

I certainly hope they are not fooled, especially after reading this -

The pricey schools have come during a sensitive period for the nation's second-largest school system: Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation's lowest performing.

Am I wrong when I say this is like slapping some bling on a rusty old beater that barely runs and overheats on the way to the corner store?

Did I just say "bling"?

These "Taj Mahal" schools as they are being called make even the colleges I went to look like slums and I would be hard pressed to believe the children attending them are going to get anything close to the education I had. Even if they did, that still doesn't justify the price.

I think the money could have been better spent on several smaller, simpler schools. Schools with relatively small classroom sizes. Better yet they could take it a step further and on the high school level have career specialized schools. Something like one for the arts, another for trades, another for science and engineering and so forth. These are just ideas that are bouncing around in my head that seem to work pretty well in other parts of the world where the schools don't have massive atrium's, parks, food courts, and buildings that resemble modern art masterpieces.

Here's a really radical idea in education. No text books, no computers, none of the modern "Taj Mahal" school things. Teach the way it used to be done, through lecture and have the students take notes. As archaic as it sounds, it worked great at one of the colleges I went to - Cambridge University. I learned more there than at any other school I attended and I was there the least amount of time, just a summer. I retained most of it too. I was hearing it, seeing things on boards, slide shows, pictures, diagrams and the like and writing it down all the way. Filled up 3 notebooks while I was there! In addition to that I also hand wrote 5 research papers, each about 2,500 words in length. My research was done the old-fashioned way - in a library with books. Part of that was in the same library that Newton calculated the speed of sound in, but I got myself permanently banned for reenacting his experiment.

There's a point to be made with such a radical, yet very ancient, idea. Students to not need all the expensive things that "Taj Mahal" schools have to learn. These things are nice, but are not going to do diddly for education. If I were a taxpayer in California, I would be totally fucking outraged. If I were a teacher in that school system, I'd switch to a private school if not open up my own. With 3,000 teachers laid off, it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to band together and show their former employer how it should be done.

A few muslims are terrorists, so let's burn a Quran!

Let's not.

Before I get started on what I know is going to be a long rant, take a look at these links-

http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68592

http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Burn-A-Koran-Day/134718123226530?v=wall

Yeah, I know the first one is a forum post that links to the second, but there are quite a few people there that are all for this. If I were not currently banned from that forum, I'd post a link to this if not just post the whole thing there. If anyone would like to do that on my behalf, I'd be pretty cool with it. I'd like to get some comments from those that support burning the Quran or any other book. You know, have like a discussion?

I'm very against this. I know not all Muslims are terrorists. The people behind what happened on 9/11/2001 were, but they only represent a relative few that are extremist fanatics. Nearly all Muslims I have encountered are pretty nice. Aside from that I am against book burnings in general. Nearly all books serve either a purpose of education or entertainment. I think it's completely asinine to to burn a book because you don't like it or don't agree with it. Burning a religious text carries a bit of added weight as that text hols a pretty special meaning to those who are members of the religion that is attached to that text. Burning a holy text is purely an act of hate and ignorance.

From the Facebook link -

On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm - 9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!

Did I read that right? In remembrance? That alone is something I've got a pretty big issue with. There's a lot better things one can do in remembrance of those that died that day than commit a blatant act of hate. It's total disrespect! Why not have a big group prayer for those that died, their families they left behind and the soldiers still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? I don't believe in praying as I am an atheist, but I do understand that most people that belong to one religion or another do. That's at least respectful. Or how about some big charity fund raiser for the families of the victims? Or send care packages to the soldiers? Or just do something positive and respectful?

But there's other problems I have. As I said, not all Muslims are terrorists. Islam is the second largest religion and accounts for 23% of the worlds population, about 1.57 billion people. At least that's what Wikipedia tells me. It's only a relative few, pretty much their equivalent to militant fundamentalist Christians, that do commit terrorist acts. It seems rather asinine to burn Qurans over a few when many of them are not bad people at all. It would be like burning KJV's because the members of Westboro Baptist Church are total fucking douchebags. In other words, committing a hateful act toward a large group is just ridiculous when only a few are the problem.

And about burning the Quran. It's a religious text. Just a book to anyone else, but to a Muslim it's pretty special. Burning it is only going to make the terrorist fanatics fell justified in their actions and at least annoy the rest. Not to mention make those doing the burning and anyone even remotely associated look bad. Great move there folks, you are doing America a real solid. If any reading this is planning on participating in burning Qurans, before you do, think about how you would feel if it was your holy text that someone was burning.

Another thought on this, where are they going to get the Qurans from? If they are going to acquire them legitimately, well that's a lot of sales of Qurans. The people publishing them and the bookstores I'm sure will appreciate your money. Heck it may even look like a lot of people just converted to Islam. And if they are acquired not so legitimately? Well isn't there something in the Bible that says "Thou shalt not steal"? Hmmm Exodus 20:15, Matthew 19:18, Romans 13:9. And it's usually in the front of the Bible with the rest of the 10 Commandments. So if you are not purchasing your Quran before you burn it and you believe what the Bible says, you are going to Hell. Why not give that money to a charity? You know, do something positive with it? A Quran costs between $8 and $40. You could feed or clothe some people with that. Heck if a large enough group gave that each, they could probly put a child of one of the victims through college, if not a few. Just another thought.

Another thing to those that are planning on burning a Quran. Have you read it? If you are going to buy it, you might as well read it before tossing it in to the fire. If anything so you really know what you are burning and why you are burning it. You might learn something. I suggest you not burn it. Read it and keep it as a reference. It may come in handy in a theological debate with a Muslim. It's why I keep a Bible handy as well as having BibleGateway.com bookmarked. This quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War comes to mind.

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

Not that I consider Muslims or Christians to be enemies of mine, but I do get into debates with them, mostly the latter. Getting back to the point, burning any text without reading and understanding it is just ignorant.

In closing and to sum it up, anyone that is participating in a Quran burning is only exposing their hate, ignorance, disrespect and just being a total douchebag. I feel like for the most part I'm preaching to the choir here, but if I change someone's mind or cause them to think, well them my time wasn't completely wasted. At least I got it off my chest.

Almost back to good.

Bills are back in order, life is back in order. I get paid Friday and that will take care of the rest of my hanging debts.

My Warhammer 40K Orks army is coming along nicely. Nobs are painted. I have 16 more boyz and 3 deffkoptas to go. I have to buy a bunch of stuffs too. Deffkoptas, warbuggies, big mek.....

And AngelSpit is coming to town on the 30th. I got off. I got cupcakes to make. I got to decide on a frock! I promised them a frock and cupcakes.

Next step is getting back to performing and getting a car. Not to mention getting my hands on that electric violin I want so bad.

An update on my money issues

The funds have finally cleared the payroll company, they are overnighting the check to my work.

So I get paid tomorrow.

So I still have to pay a late fee on my rent.

And I have to pay my electric tomorrow, which is late. No doubt another late fee.

New shoes will have to wait until next paycheck. Thanks to Bank Atlantic closing my account and screwing me over, I can't afford them on this pay. At least we will be able to buy food. Dinner tonight was a mix of shrimp and beef ramen. Ghetto surf and turf.

A public letter to Bank Atlantic

Long story short, I wouldn't recommend using Bank Atlantic, their customer service sucks as bad as their policies.

Dear Bank Atlantic:

Subject: Account Closing

On the morning of October 2, 2009, I found out that my checking account was closed. This was after trying to use my debit card and having it decline. I had just gotten paid that day and my paycheck gets direct deposited into my account. I was told at the local Bank Atlantic branch that my account was closed as of September 23, 2009 and that the deposit was returned to my employer. No one had told me previously that my account was closed. Had I known, I would have changed my direct deposit information with my employer. When I got to work, my pay stub showed that my check was deposited and the accounting department was gone for the day.

I needed this paycheck to pay my rent and my electric, and to buy groceries and a new pair of shoes. As the accountant at my work is tracking down my money, I'm running risk of accruing late fees, going hungry and walking in severely worn out shoes. I do not own a car and my feet take me most everywhere.

Because your representative at the local branch told me the deposit went back to my employer, I had to wait until today, Monday, October 5, to get it resolved. The accountant at my work contacted the payroll company, and I was informed that Bank Atlantic still had my money. I called the toll free number. The individual I spoke to did work on the case and did make an effort to resolve the issue to no avail. They ACH department had already returned the funds to my employer as of 9:00 am. It's a matter of waiting for the funds to clear and my employer to cut me a check at this point. However I was also informed by the representative I spoke to over the phone that I should have been informed of my account being closed and that when I was at the local branch on Friday, they could have released the funds to me then.

I'm rather upset. If I had been informed of my account being closed, I would not be in the bind I am in now. If your representative at the branch would have released the funds to me then instead of finding the quickest way to push me along, even after I stated that I needed the funds to pay my rent, I would not have a problem right now. I'm going to have to pay an additional $60 on my rent alone because no one on your side wants to offer any level of customer service. Even the man I spoke to on the phone seemed reluctant until I became rather upset and told him sorry does not make up for the late fees that could have been avoided. I will admit, I did overdraft my account. That was a major oversight on my part. However, I did correct that issue and had I known my account was going to be closed I would have corrected things on my side and you would not even be reading this right now.

It could have all been avoided. Why was I not told of my account being closed? Why did your representative at the local branch not do anything to help me? Why did I have to get upset with your representative over the phone to get help? Are you going to do anything about the late fees that could have been avoided had your people done the right thing?

It may seem like a moot point for me to say that I will no longer use your services after my account is already closed. I do want to let you know that I will be posting copies of this letter on every social networking medium that I use. People need to know about what kind of service they can expect from Bank Atlantic.

There you have it folks and as of the writing of this I am still without a paycheck. Please spread the word, I really don't wish this on anyone.

I really hope I missed a deduction

Because I can't really do much with a $78 tax return.