$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.

So what have I been up to lately?

Quite a bit. Honestly, I spend most of my time exhausted when I'm not doing stuff, but it keeps me out of trouble. Here's some of the highlights:

Thanks for the overtime, could have done without the bad mouthing though.

So Tuesday morning I had to call the GSM of the hotel I work for because there it was 7:15 am, I'm all alone, she's the only one on the schedule and I just heard from one of the maintenance guys that there was an accident that may have been on her route to work. Now I thought I was nice and respectful, I even felt a bad about waking her up, but according to what I have been told, she had a bit of a different story. I'm not sure exactly what was said, but apparently I was shitty to her. I also heard she got corrected by the same maintenance guy that was present when I called her. Oddly enough, when I called her back later on because I noticed I left with the desk keys she didn't seem to have a problem with me then or when I saw her Friday when I picked up my check. Heck, she was pretty nice both times. I thought about confronting her about it, but I'll be over it once I'm done typing this.

Yeah, I'm over it.

Look Mom, I know you are trying to help me here, but I'd rather carry 100 pounds of lead than 10 pounds of feathers!

Well, my mom is out of the hospital, but not quite 100%. I've been helping her out. Kinda wish I could do more. One big thing though is doing the grocery shopping for my parents. May not seem like a big deal, but try carting a weeks worth of groceries across town taking buses and walking. Every week it's the same thing when my mother is giving me the list - she keeps worrying about the weight of the things, I'm worried about size. I'm built like an ox, I can carry a lot of weight. I'm not very big though, and my backpack can only hold so much. I try to keep it limited to a full backpack and 2 bags. I don't care if the backpack is full of canned goods, that's cool. But when I'm carrying a family size box of waffles, a bag of hoagie rolls, a big bag of chips, etc. well space gets to be at a premium. And in case anyone it wondering, my father can devour a family size box of waffles in a few days all by himself.

And speaking of my father....

There's some program he's on now. It's like a day care for geezers. As opposed to putting them in a nursing home. I'm thinking it's not very good. He goes on the days my mom is at dialysis. So my mom has to get him ready before dialysis and usually take care of him when he gets home. He's come home a few times with a Depends full of shit and piss. Also, I don't know what they are feeding him there, but his blood sugar has been higher than ever a few times afterwards. The program he's on is called PACE. I don't know all the details, but if things don't straighten out, expect a rather big long rant from me after we get him out of the program.

And all that being said....

It's getting up on the end of my shift here at work, which means my computer time will be significantly limited until I come back to work. I still need to buy a new laptop. I still can't afford it. Well I could afford it just fine if I was not going to DragonCon.

BTW, you can help me in a small way be clicking on the Google ads, or in a slightly bigger way by clicking on the "tip jar" in the corner.

Mom is home from the hospital, job search continues

She's not back to herself, but she's trying to make as little work for me as possible. I really wish my father would do the same. He wants to be lazy, have everyone do everything for him but won't go into a nursing home. Like he would rather make life hell for me and my mother. It's like he's trying to make himself weaker too. He can get around using a walker, but insists on using a wheelchair instead. He'd make a bed-ridden invalid of himself if he could get away with it.

In other news, remember that job interview I had?

Well, it didn't happen. I had to call and rescheduled due to my relief coming in 10 minutes late. Which caused me to miss my bus. And the next one was late. Yeah, got fucked over by both my job and public transportation. Not cool. And when I called and rescheduled I only got to talk to a voicemail. They never returned my call. I called again Tuesday, still no returned call. Really not cool. I don't think I would have gotten the job anyway. Too corporate. I doubt my current haircut and colour would have flown. And the last time I changed my look for a job I regretted it. I'd rather not do that again. Though I did meet some cool people so it wasn't all bad. Still when your boss seems to be more concerned about your grooming that how you do your job, something is seriously fucked up.

I'm still on the hunt for something else. Been thinking maybe it's time to do something that is not hospitality. Not sure what though. I've been a Help desk person, network admin, college teacher, substitute school teacher, mechanic, hotel desk guy, night auditor. I've done a lot. I'm not even sure where to go from here. I want to be a high school math teacher, but I need to finish my degree first.

I'm sick of dealing with stupid bull shit like what I had to deal with tonight. Why can't people just shut the fuck up when I tell them other hotel guests are complaining about their noise? And why do they have to tell me how much money they are spending? I don't give a shit. What makes people think that the amount of money they spend invalidates someone else's complaint? What am I supposed to do? Tell them, "I'm really sorry, the people that are keeping you awake spent more money than you so you are just going to have to put up with it." Yeah, I'm sure that will go over really well.

It's been a while since I've said anything, but I've got a lot going on

Let's start with the really big deal, my mother is in the hospital. She's got Mercer. She went in soon enough though. She's on some serious antibiotics. I think everything will turn out OK. I can only hope for it. She went in Friday. I found out after returning from a job interview, but I'll get to that in a moment. Since I have been busy with work and taking care of my father. And not sleeping much. My father is a lot of work, he really needs to do more for himself or go back into the rehab center until he can. They sent him home way too early.

I don't know how my mom does it honestly. Since my father has come home from the rehab, he's like a big baby. A 250lb, 74 year old baby, with a really bad attitude. And it's not because of sickness and old age, but that he has made himself dependant on anyone who will do anything for him. He's not doing anything to get better and attempts to get him to are met with him whining "I can't!" Seen it too many times when the therapists are over. He's a handful for me and I'm young and healthy.

Last time I talked to my mom she was doing well, or about as well as can be.

I mentioned I had a job interview, didn't I?

Yeah I'm really pissed with my job again, so I was doing some vengeance job hunting. And I got a response. And a interview this past Friday. It went quite well and I have another interview in the morning. If all goes well, I will be a call center supervisor. Heck, I'll take just about anything that pays the same or better to get me out of here. Not much has changed since I bitched about it here before and what really irks me the most is that some people can't bring themselves to show up for work on time. Like I really want to get out at 7am, when I'm supposed to, but I looked at the schedule and I know that's not going to happen. And depending on how late they are, I could be really fucked over for time. Not cool, really not cool. I made about 2 hours overtime last week thanks to my co-workers, but you know what? I would have rather they got here on time. It's not fucking rocket science. I get to work on time nearly every day and I use public transportation. Seriously, what the fuck? How can you work at the same place for years and never show up on time? And not get fired over it?

Great job done today by PSTA at 6:45 PM, left a pregnant woman and several others behind at a stop.

I was one of those others and here's the complaint I just submitted to PSTA. I really need a car.

Myself and several others were waiting for the northbound rt18 in front of the Dollar Tree at Largo Mall. This bus arrived just behind the southbound rt 18 and the Westbound rt 59. While those other 2 buses stopped at the stop and waited, bus #2202 went around them and kept going, only stopping well behind the stop to let passengers off, not giving any time to allow any one to get on the bus. People were left behind at this stop including a pregnant woman. Most of the others at the stop that needed this bus,including myself, ran across the parking lot to catch it at the other stop.

This is just another in a long list of complaints I have had about your service. I really wish at this point that I could afford a car so I wouldn't have to use you shoddy excuse for a public transportation system.

Need help deciding on a laptop

With a better soldering iron than the one I have, I might be able to fix my Dell. The power connector has gone bad. Actually the connection between it and the motherboard is what has gone bad. As I said, with a good soldering iron I should be able to fix it. According to Dell, I should be replacing the motherboard. I've looked at new and refurbished cards online and $300-450 is way too much to soak into a 3 year old laptop that has had a quite few issues since I bought it. If I can't fix it, I'm going to have to replace it.

The question then becomes what with? I at least need something that can handle Eve-Online. I haven't played Eve in too long and I miss shooting at Amarr. If it can run Eve, it can run the other games I like. I did see this Toshiba at the local Walmart. Less than $400, meets the requirements. Not sure how good of a laptop it really is though. I don't want another Dell. I will not buy another Dell product again. I'm open to suggestions here. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but I don't want to buy a piece of junk either.

So can anyone recommend a good laptop with a good graphics card that's not too terribly expensive?

Can we start blacklisting people and organizations again?

Really can we?

Here's a case in point - tonight at the hotel that I am working at we have this group that is being rude to the staff and guests alike, acting like they think they own the place, being drunk, loud and otherwise obnoxious. They stayed at the hotel last year around this time and acted the same way. They were at the hotel I used to work at and were no different. In dealing with their leader guy, they think because they are spending what they think is a lot of money, they can do what ever they want. Meanwhile I have guests that are complaining about the noise. Amusingly enough they are threatening not to come here any more. Not much of a threat really.

Not the first time a dealt with a group like this. Or even an individual that acts this way. Sometimes I think blacklisting would be another method of recourse that might just reduce such instances. I could just see the potential for a group such as the one mentioned above to blacklist themselves out of places to have their functions.

Sadly there are just some people that will never catch on to the reason why people have a problem with them is because they are a problem.

Events like this also have me thinking about why people think that because they spent a given amount of money and/or have taken a given number of rooms that it entitles them have free reign over the entire hotel and not care that they are keeping other people awake or just being otherwise rude.

I think I'm done venting for now.

I feel..........

...Disappointed - I came in to work tonight to a note of apology from my day shift about the paperwork. I was expecting worse, but it wasn't really anything all that bad. The restaurant's printer pissed me off more. I want to go Office Space on it.

...Bloated - I've put on weight, I really need to do something about it, but today I feel more bloated than usual today.

...Sore - My feet hurt all the damn time. I think I need to find some good shoes for walking/everyday use. The cheap shoes I've been wearing hurt more than my 6" heels. And if my feet didn't hurt so much, I'd jog more.

...Like I'm about to puke - Seriously, my stomach is not so good right now. Might have been something I ate.

I think that's about it for now. Stay tuned though, I'm in a mood for a rant about video games.

Sometimes I can win, sometimes I can't

I managed to make the fridge work, now it's my laptop that's making problems.

The AC adaptor went bad and the battery emptied out. So I get a new AC adapter. When I plug it in to the laptop, the light on it goes out and the laptop does not see that the AC adapter is connected. So I was thinking it was a bad battery. I got a new battery and the same thing happens. It will boot up and run on the new battery. It doesn't run on the AC adapter. When I plug it in, nothing happens on the Laptop. And the light still goes out on the adaptor.

The only thing I can think of this being here it that something may have gone bad in the connector on the laptop. I have a good battery and a good adapter, both work fine on another laptop.

The Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1420. If anyone can give me some advice here, I'd really appreciate it.

Anyone that reads this know anything about fixing refrigerators?

So I'm at my mom's house today and she wants me to take a look at the refrigerator. It's filling up with water. It's not one of those fancy modern ones with an ice maker or anything like that. I'd guess it's just condensed water that it's filling up with but I'm kinda stumped on how to make it stop. Any ideas?

Yeah, this guy puts the mental in fundementalist

More lunatic behavior from the fundies -

Ever since I read about what you do and saw a picture, I have been unable
to read anything you write without my stomach turning. I'm not joking. I
actually get nauseous whenever I see your username.

Wearing women's clothes (see I Corinthians 6:9) deems you worthy of
the burning fires of eternity and complete separation from God. Are you prepared
for that? I don't think so.

I think the only reason you hang out here is the same reason that fool,
Granite and Flipper hang around. You all know that God is true and you also know
that His people are forgiven (even though they don't appear perfect to you) and
you secretly desire that forgiveness but your pride is still in the way.

You know you are sick and in need of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The molten
lava in God's cup of wrath is poised over your head and you can feel it's heat.
It worries and concerns you but you just haven't seen the need to trust Jesus in
faith yet so that He can save you from that wrath. You're hoping that your
season of sin can last just a little bit longer.

Your days are running out though. Your sin is no longer fun and you know
it. It's time to let down your pride, let down your guard, and quit running from
the living God who desires to lavish His grace and blessings on you.

REPENT OF YOUR UNBELIEF OR PERISH FOREVER!!!

Source.

I seriously wonder just what this guy thinks I'm up to. Or what he read about me that I may have missed. This, BTW is not the first time I've had a run-in with this guy. His name is Adam Briggs and he's a pastor at a church somewhere in Indiana. Call me crazy, but I actually want to pay him a visit at his church one sunday morning. I think the theatrics that would ensue would be hilarious.

There's also several spats I've had with him on TheologyOnline.com. This guy has a huge hangup on me being transgender. Here's one from a while back -

Quote:
Originally Posted by Adambassador
So says the person that can't even take care of himself.
The person who runs amok in our society, parading as a woman and deceiving
people everywhere.

Yeah. Total loonball I know.

Well maybe visiting him at church might prove him right there, but the show might be worth it.

I guess he does have a point.

And this is why I love TheologyOnline, only there can I find people that think this is a completely logical argument.

Originally Posted by Nick M You must be one big retard to say Boeing 777's just devolp into working machines if left in a pile of parts over billions of years.

Source.

I really wish he was joking.

I'm really concerned about my father and could really use some advice

I was talking to my mom earlier today, she was with my father at the rehab centre today. I didn't like what I heard and I have to say I'm a bit worried for him. I was worried any way because the last time I saw him he looked really sad. Not just in sad shape but sad emotionally. Yeah, in the past years since he stopped working he hasn't been the greatest husband to my mother and I haven't gotten along all that well with him since I was an older teenager, but he is still my father. He wasn't always like he has been and he hasn't done anything bad enough to deserve this. I still care about him. He was a good father.

He's not getting proper care. They are supposed to be in his room to check on him every 2 hours. My mother was there several hours today and someone was only there to bring him lunch. They have him in a Depends because of his bladder control problem. Well that and the fact that he can't get out of the bed on his own. It went unchanged and unchecked until my mother said something to the charge nurse and regrettably that was after he had a bowel movement in it. According to my mother, when they changed it, it was saturated. Now I know you can't leave a baby in a dirty or wet diaper, so it makes sense to me that the same goes for a 73 year old man in a Depends.

There's another thing. We are nearly positive he's being drugged in some way. I know my dad. He's been my dad for all my 33 years. My mother is telling me he's scared of the staff there. Now I do understand that realizing one's own mortality may does things to a person, but this just isn't him. He was a biker. He raced cars. He raced motorcycles. He raced boats. I wouldn't have put it past him to race planes if he had the money and pilot's licence. Same goes for anything else that could be made to go faster. In his younger days he was a bouncer at a bar. He was forced to drop out of high school because of the number of fights he found himself in then. He was always a tough, stubborn and fearless man. If personality traits are genetic, it's certainly where the tougher side of me comes from. I remember rather vividly at my high school graduation someone making a remark about where he parked his customised '56 T-bird. My dad was right in that guy's face. Trust me when I say this, hearing about him fearing anyone is a huge shock. Even in his rather disabled state, it would be more likely to hear about him beating the stuffing out of a staff member rather than fearing them.

I'm going to pay the rehab a visit. I do need some advice first. Especially if any of this continues. As much as I'd like to walk in there and crack a few skulls, I have a feeling that's probly not the best course of action. Has anyone ever had to deal with this sort of thing?

I just want him to get well and be mobile again.

He's in a rehab centre now

Nursing home, rehab centre, he will tell you it's a jail.

It's his fault he's there. He should have taken better care of himself. He should have listened to me. He should have listened to my mom.

The doctor was at least able to figure out what is going on with his arm. It's just severe arthritis. There is a surgery they can do, but they are giving him steroids and physical therapy in an effort to avoid surgery.

If he can be up and mobile, he can come home. He's way too much for my mom to take care of if he is not mobile. He's not seeing it that way yet. Hopefully he will. Hopefully he will get good care while he is there. It looks like nice place.

We have bigger concerns now. When my mom and I went back to her place to pick up some of his things to bring back to him, there was a card on the door from a Department of children and Families Adult Protection investigator. I'm worried for my mom. Since he has been in the hospital, we have been working to get the smell out of the house. In case I never made it clear, he has had a bladder control problem for years and lives in an easy chair. He refuses to wear Depends or anything of that nature. The chair is saturated with urine, the house reeks. He also goes for months with out bathing. Making him and the house reek more. He's got what appears to be bedsores on his butt and the backs of his legs. He looks like a serious case of neglect.

My mother cleaned up after him a on regular basis. She begged, pleaded, and argued with him to wear the Depends. Same goes for getting him to bathe or even to get up and walk around or just do something other than sit in his chair and rot. She's talked to his doctor about the sores and about his bladder problem. They tried to do something about the bladder control and did nothing about the sores.

I'm going to be pissed if DCF does anything to my mom. She's done nothing wrong. She's done everything she could short of getting him hauled out of there. I don't blame her for any of this, I blame him. She tried to help him, he did nothing but fight her.

I'm going to be continuing to help her with the house so when they do come to inspect, it doesn't look so bad.