911, Can you help me?
My favorite radio show played a clip of an actual 911 call today from Los Angeles. During this call a lady sitting in a Burger King drive through calls 911 and asks them to send a cop down because Burger King has failed to make her hamburger correctly. My description does not do this clip justice, so please follow the link and listen for yourself.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Sunday, March 20, 2005
An Open Letter To Professional Athletes...
To all of the Barry Bonds and Mark McGwires out there. I don't think I have a problem with the fact that you used steroids. They were not illegal in your sport at the time and being professional athletes I am sure you want every competitive edge you can get. Performance leads to compensation and job security and the need to perform at a high level could possibly justify your decision to use a substance that your sport had not deemed illegal. Being the best at what you do not only translates into performance pay but also endorsement deals which supplements your lifestyles and support your familes. I understand that. But believe me, a guy who supports his family on $40,000 a year lacks sympathy for the millions you make which lead me to this.
We know you used performance enhancing drugs, the truth is out. I, along with many of millions of Americans will respect a person who comes out and admits to his past indiscretions and takes responsibility for his actions. The problem is when everyone knows that you used the substances and you continue to deny so. It reminds me alot of the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky incident. Everyone knew the president had inappropriate relations with the lady, yet he lied under oath about doing so. When our public figures fail to tell the truth when in the national spotlight and under oath what are we teaching our kids? Just as guilty in all of this is Marion Jones. i have watched several times as Marion Jones has denied knowing Victor Conte, yet he has produced evidence that she knew who he was and had met with him on many more instances then she could recall. Again, be truthful and maybe I would have sympathy for you, however when you continue to tell lie after lie I doubt you will see overwhelming empathy from the public.
I used to be a huge Mark Mcgwire fan. I saw tape of him from the congressional hearnings and he came off looking pretty bad when he refused to answer any questions about past use. Typically, as everyone knows, if you don't have anything to hide you typically will answer questions. McGwire however would not give a yes or no answer to any question deling with past use.
I think the biggest issue I have with this situation as well as many things shown on television these days is that we seem to give the perception to people that it is okay to lie. For my children's sake, i want them to learn that telling the truth is okay and when the people that they look upto can not tell the truth, why should they bother telling the truth.
All I want is for my children to learn that you are better off
To all of the Barry Bonds and Mark McGwires out there. I don't think I have a problem with the fact that you used steroids. They were not illegal in your sport at the time and being professional athletes I am sure you want every competitive edge you can get. Performance leads to compensation and job security and the need to perform at a high level could possibly justify your decision to use a substance that your sport had not deemed illegal. Being the best at what you do not only translates into performance pay but also endorsement deals which supplements your lifestyles and support your familes. I understand that. But believe me, a guy who supports his family on $40,000 a year lacks sympathy for the millions you make which lead me to this.
We know you used performance enhancing drugs, the truth is out. I, along with many of millions of Americans will respect a person who comes out and admits to his past indiscretions and takes responsibility for his actions. The problem is when everyone knows that you used the substances and you continue to deny so. It reminds me alot of the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky incident. Everyone knew the president had inappropriate relations with the lady, yet he lied under oath about doing so. When our public figures fail to tell the truth when in the national spotlight and under oath what are we teaching our kids? Just as guilty in all of this is Marion Jones. i have watched several times as Marion Jones has denied knowing Victor Conte, yet he has produced evidence that she knew who he was and had met with him on many more instances then she could recall. Again, be truthful and maybe I would have sympathy for you, however when you continue to tell lie after lie I doubt you will see overwhelming empathy from the public.
I used to be a huge Mark Mcgwire fan. I saw tape of him from the congressional hearnings and he came off looking pretty bad when he refused to answer any questions about past use. Typically, as everyone knows, if you don't have anything to hide you typically will answer questions. McGwire however would not give a yes or no answer to any question deling with past use.
I think the biggest issue I have with this situation as well as many things shown on television these days is that we seem to give the perception to people that it is okay to lie. For my children's sake, i want them to learn that telling the truth is okay and when the people that they look upto can not tell the truth, why should they bother telling the truth.
All I want is for my children to learn that you are better off
What has he thinking?
I just finished watching an interview with Tom Sizemore on Geraldo. Can anybody tell me they actually feel sorry for this guy? First of all he can off as a total prick during the interview and was more worried about losing 18 million dollars than his addiction problem. Second he was worried about being blacklisted and not being able to work. What I really want to know is where did he get the idea that even dating Heidi Fleiss would be a good career move. He made the decision to date a convicted felon and then after his decision turns out to have been an unwise one he wants us to feel sorry for him and talks bad about her in the interview. Did he not know who she was when he made the decision to date her? Why does he think he can use poor judgement and then blame the consequences of that poor judgement on others. I hope after seeing this interview that he never again works in Hollywood, because he does not seem to take responsibility for the bad decisions he has made. Unfortunately, we live in a society that ignores poor behavior by the elite.
If I had to choose a political party I would refer to myself as a Republican. However, I doubt whether I really see the significance of congress, Republican or Democrat. After seeing first of all that whether or not steroids is being used in baseball is a matter of national inerest, I started to lose any of the little faith left I had in congress. The rest of the faith was lost tonight when I watched the House of Representatives debate and then vote on the Terri Schiavo case. Congress needs to realize there are more important issues that they should be dealing with. The reason that congress chose to take up the Terri Schiavo case, I think we will soon learn is that it fits the Conservative Pro-Life agenda and any court victories won in this case may be used to push for a complete ban of abortion. Please do not take me wrong, because I do sypathize with her family, I just do not feel that it was a congressional issue. Congress is over stepping its boundaries in both of these situations.
I thought I was going to win $10,000 with my NCAA bracket at ESPN.COM, however I have come to the realization that it is probably not going to happen. I can say that all four of my Final 4 teams are still alive, which at this point buts me way ahead of quite a few people. Currently, I am ranked at 99.2% or 21000th place, to be that high out of millions of entries and still have all of my final four teams alive is actually quite an accomplishment and means I still have a shot at the money but I was feeling better yesterday when I was at 100% and in the top 1200. I know my chance of winning is 1 in some odd million but I can dream until I fall out of the top 2% of overall entries.
I just finished watching an interview with Tom Sizemore on Geraldo. Can anybody tell me they actually feel sorry for this guy? First of all he can off as a total prick during the interview and was more worried about losing 18 million dollars than his addiction problem. Second he was worried about being blacklisted and not being able to work. What I really want to know is where did he get the idea that even dating Heidi Fleiss would be a good career move. He made the decision to date a convicted felon and then after his decision turns out to have been an unwise one he wants us to feel sorry for him and talks bad about her in the interview. Did he not know who she was when he made the decision to date her? Why does he think he can use poor judgement and then blame the consequences of that poor judgement on others. I hope after seeing this interview that he never again works in Hollywood, because he does not seem to take responsibility for the bad decisions he has made. Unfortunately, we live in a society that ignores poor behavior by the elite.
If I had to choose a political party I would refer to myself as a Republican. However, I doubt whether I really see the significance of congress, Republican or Democrat. After seeing first of all that whether or not steroids is being used in baseball is a matter of national inerest, I started to lose any of the little faith left I had in congress. The rest of the faith was lost tonight when I watched the House of Representatives debate and then vote on the Terri Schiavo case. Congress needs to realize there are more important issues that they should be dealing with. The reason that congress chose to take up the Terri Schiavo case, I think we will soon learn is that it fits the Conservative Pro-Life agenda and any court victories won in this case may be used to push for a complete ban of abortion. Please do not take me wrong, because I do sypathize with her family, I just do not feel that it was a congressional issue. Congress is over stepping its boundaries in both of these situations.
I thought I was going to win $10,000 with my NCAA bracket at ESPN.COM, however I have come to the realization that it is probably not going to happen. I can say that all four of my Final 4 teams are still alive, which at this point buts me way ahead of quite a few people. Currently, I am ranked at 99.2% or 21000th place, to be that high out of millions of entries and still have all of my final four teams alive is actually quite an accomplishment and means I still have a shot at the money but I was feeling better yesterday when I was at 100% and in the top 1200. I know my chance of winning is 1 in some odd million but I can dream until I fall out of the top 2% of overall entries.
Friday, March 11, 2005
Wow...
A substitue teacher decides to smoke Marijuana with 7 students at a Fresno High School, during class.
Michael Jackson shows up for court an hour and a half late, in his pajamas.
Rapper 50 Cent makes up with rapper The Game less than a week after both rappers crews got into a gunfight leaving someone injured.
A cat shot a man. A man while cooking dinner left his loaded 9mm on the kitchen table, the cat jumped onto the table, knocked the gun off, and it discharged upon hitting the ground, hitting the guy and sending him to the hospital.
New Star Wars movie to recieve a PG-13 rating. Let's just eliminate the population that actually enjoys these movies. I haven't liked one of these movies since Return of the Jedi, but then again I was 7 at the time, maybe that is the problem.
Bruce Willis and Lindsay Lohan.
Barry Bonds left off the congressional subpoena list for steroids in baseball.
A substitue teacher decides to smoke Marijuana with 7 students at a Fresno High School, during class.
Michael Jackson shows up for court an hour and a half late, in his pajamas.
Rapper 50 Cent makes up with rapper The Game less than a week after both rappers crews got into a gunfight leaving someone injured.
A cat shot a man. A man while cooking dinner left his loaded 9mm on the kitchen table, the cat jumped onto the table, knocked the gun off, and it discharged upon hitting the ground, hitting the guy and sending him to the hospital.
New Star Wars movie to recieve a PG-13 rating. Let's just eliminate the population that actually enjoys these movies. I haven't liked one of these movies since Return of the Jedi, but then again I was 7 at the time, maybe that is the problem.
Bruce Willis and Lindsay Lohan.
Barry Bonds left off the congressional subpoena list for steroids in baseball.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Stacy Johnson-Klein...
In the wake of all the controversy going on at Fresno State over the Stacy Johnson-Klein situation, I have just a couple of comments to make on the matter. First of all I do not think that anything she did was any worse then what Fresno State went through during the Jerry Tarkanian era. However, I felt that Jerry Tarkanian should have been let go long before he was, so in that regard I do support the firing of Stacy Johnson-Klein. Let's not get to the point of being on 60 Minutes again, we have already been there.
To those in the community who think that she has done so much for the Women's Basketball program I would like to point out that we were nobodies in the Women's College Basketball landscape before she got here and outside of a few dreamers in the central valley, we are still nobodies. If you look at ESPN.COM on the day of and day following her firing you will realize that it did not make the headlines either on their home page or on the Women's College Basketball Home Page. However, I would like to point out that 4-23 St. Louis did make they front page of Women's Basketball for firing their coach. 4-23 and they deserve an article. Fresno State with a winning record however was not so worthy.
In the wake of all the controversy going on at Fresno State over the Stacy Johnson-Klein situation, I have just a couple of comments to make on the matter. First of all I do not think that anything she did was any worse then what Fresno State went through during the Jerry Tarkanian era. However, I felt that Jerry Tarkanian should have been let go long before he was, so in that regard I do support the firing of Stacy Johnson-Klein. Let's not get to the point of being on 60 Minutes again, we have already been there.
To those in the community who think that she has done so much for the Women's Basketball program I would like to point out that we were nobodies in the Women's College Basketball landscape before she got here and outside of a few dreamers in the central valley, we are still nobodies. If you look at ESPN.COM on the day of and day following her firing you will realize that it did not make the headlines either on their home page or on the Women's College Basketball Home Page. However, I would like to point out that 4-23 St. Louis did make they front page of Women's Basketball for firing their coach. 4-23 and they deserve an article. Fresno State with a winning record however was not so worthy.
The Price of Gas and Other Insignificant Observations...
I recall when I first started driving at the age of 16 that I would pay typically between the price of ninety cents and a dollar for a gallon of gasoline. I was disgusted yesterday when I paid two dollars and twenty-eight cents a gallon for gas. Something has to be done about the price of gas. I just heard on the radio that they are now expecting the price of oil to rise to eighty dollars a gallon. As oil continues to rise so will the price of gasoline, I can't wait to see where gas is come Memorial Day or the Fourth of July when prices are typically higher anyways.
Education Conferences sure can be boring things at times. When your program director is complaining about the conference you know it must be boring. I am beginning to think that this E-Learning summit I am attending in Clovis is more about district self-promotion than technology. This conference has pretty much been about Clovis showcasing itself and talking about how they see themselves as leaders in the field of technology use in education. They boast about their laptop program, however, laptop programs are dictated by SES. If you have money and attend an affluent school you can join the laptop program. During more student teaching at Miramonte Elementary I quickly learned that Miramonte did not have a laptop program, because I had hoped to be placed in a laptop classroom. So this conference starts with self-promotion and then moves into more self-promotion. Of the three panelists, one is a Clovis Unified Employee, one is the daughther of a Clovis Unified Employee and former Clovis Unified student and one I have yet to hear how he was actually qualified as a panelist. Supposedly he heads an organization which has more than 200 products on the market for education. Can't tell you the name of his company or a single thing they do because they really did not qualify this guy as an expert other than saying he heads a company. So this guy, Tom Greaves was a poor mans Bill Daggett. I heard Bill Daggett speak at the High School Summit in Sacramento in October, and Bill Daggett was substantially more knowledgeable and a much better presenter. The conference is sparcely attended, in my approximation, after subtracting vendors and people directly related to Clovis Unified there are probably a total of 30 people in attendance. Last year I attended the CUE conference which remarkably as one of its strands covered the same information that has been covered here and did a much better job at it. When you present breakout sessions you should invite other presenters to host sessions about what they are doing at their schools instead of monopolizing the time. In the session I attended yesterday, the presenter went as far as putting people in groups and having them complete tasks and jigsawing. All groups were done and just chatting and he was just chatting with a group, wasting time that did not need to be wasted. When I go to workshops and attend sessions I want to hear about what others are doing, not brainstorm as a group how I would have done it if I were to do the task, I felt like I was in a class myself. I can do that anytime I want. You should also have vendors from competing corporations present and not just the ones that your district has partnered with. Unfortunately I can say that instead of this being a California E-Learning Summit as it has been titled, it is instead the Clovis Unified Technological Showcase. And unfortunately the price of admission is far greater than the value of the material presented.
I recall when I first started driving at the age of 16 that I would pay typically between the price of ninety cents and a dollar for a gallon of gasoline. I was disgusted yesterday when I paid two dollars and twenty-eight cents a gallon for gas. Something has to be done about the price of gas. I just heard on the radio that they are now expecting the price of oil to rise to eighty dollars a gallon. As oil continues to rise so will the price of gasoline, I can't wait to see where gas is come Memorial Day or the Fourth of July when prices are typically higher anyways.
Education Conferences sure can be boring things at times. When your program director is complaining about the conference you know it must be boring. I am beginning to think that this E-Learning summit I am attending in Clovis is more about district self-promotion than technology. This conference has pretty much been about Clovis showcasing itself and talking about how they see themselves as leaders in the field of technology use in education. They boast about their laptop program, however, laptop programs are dictated by SES. If you have money and attend an affluent school you can join the laptop program. During more student teaching at Miramonte Elementary I quickly learned that Miramonte did not have a laptop program, because I had hoped to be placed in a laptop classroom. So this conference starts with self-promotion and then moves into more self-promotion. Of the three panelists, one is a Clovis Unified Employee, one is the daughther of a Clovis Unified Employee and former Clovis Unified student and one I have yet to hear how he was actually qualified as a panelist. Supposedly he heads an organization which has more than 200 products on the market for education. Can't tell you the name of his company or a single thing they do because they really did not qualify this guy as an expert other than saying he heads a company. So this guy, Tom Greaves was a poor mans Bill Daggett. I heard Bill Daggett speak at the High School Summit in Sacramento in October, and Bill Daggett was substantially more knowledgeable and a much better presenter. The conference is sparcely attended, in my approximation, after subtracting vendors and people directly related to Clovis Unified there are probably a total of 30 people in attendance. Last year I attended the CUE conference which remarkably as one of its strands covered the same information that has been covered here and did a much better job at it. When you present breakout sessions you should invite other presenters to host sessions about what they are doing at their schools instead of monopolizing the time. In the session I attended yesterday, the presenter went as far as putting people in groups and having them complete tasks and jigsawing. All groups were done and just chatting and he was just chatting with a group, wasting time that did not need to be wasted. When I go to workshops and attend sessions I want to hear about what others are doing, not brainstorm as a group how I would have done it if I were to do the task, I felt like I was in a class myself. I can do that anytime I want. You should also have vendors from competing corporations present and not just the ones that your district has partnered with. Unfortunately I can say that instead of this being a California E-Learning Summit as it has been titled, it is instead the Clovis Unified Technological Showcase. And unfortunately the price of admission is far greater than the value of the material presented.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
After a week of no posts, I guess I better post something...
Professionalism. What is professionalism? Everybodys definition of this differs, and I am sure there are going to be many people whose opinions differ from mine. My biggest pet peave about professionalism is appearance. There are somethings that just should not be acceptable: (1) Old men wearing earings; I was at a professional workshop the other day and a guy in his 40's who is a principal for an unnamed school somewhere in the central valley had an earing. If I were a parent with a child in this school I would have an issue with this. There are schools that don't allow boys to wear earings period and then there is this school with a middle-aged man wearing an earing. If this guy so chooses to wear an earing, honestly, that is his perogative and i m not going to judge him. But it s something that just does not look professional and should not be worn in the workplace. (2) Old men with gray hair who have pony tails. Come on, it is unattractive for old women with gray hair to still have long hair and pony tails, why would a man think it is okay. Again, it truly is his decision, I however do not feel like it is a professional look for someone who is in education and supposed to be a role model.
Anyways enough ranting and raving on that issue, let's move on to Workers Compensation. What a joke. We have now been licensed for approximately three weeks, however, since we can not get our Workers Compersation in place we can not take kids. We did find out today that the former supervisor at the Boot Camp is now in charge of group home placements for Fresno county. This is a good thing because Jad was the one to contact her today and she remembered him. Hopefully this will pan out into some placements for us. Only time will tell, if we are ever able to get Workers Compensation.
We had a 3D ultrasound on Saturday. Unfortunately, Madison did not want to smile for the camera so we were unable to get any pictures of her. Luckily, since we did pay over $100 for the appointment, the tech offered to have us come back to re-do the ultrasound Wednesday. The next five posts or so will be the pictures we got from the ultrasound. I hope everybody enjoys them.
Professionalism. What is professionalism? Everybodys definition of this differs, and I am sure there are going to be many people whose opinions differ from mine. My biggest pet peave about professionalism is appearance. There are somethings that just should not be acceptable: (1) Old men wearing earings; I was at a professional workshop the other day and a guy in his 40's who is a principal for an unnamed school somewhere in the central valley had an earing. If I were a parent with a child in this school I would have an issue with this. There are schools that don't allow boys to wear earings period and then there is this school with a middle-aged man wearing an earing. If this guy so chooses to wear an earing, honestly, that is his perogative and i m not going to judge him. But it s something that just does not look professional and should not be worn in the workplace. (2) Old men with gray hair who have pony tails. Come on, it is unattractive for old women with gray hair to still have long hair and pony tails, why would a man think it is okay. Again, it truly is his decision, I however do not feel like it is a professional look for someone who is in education and supposed to be a role model.
Anyways enough ranting and raving on that issue, let's move on to Workers Compensation. What a joke. We have now been licensed for approximately three weeks, however, since we can not get our Workers Compersation in place we can not take kids. We did find out today that the former supervisor at the Boot Camp is now in charge of group home placements for Fresno county. This is a good thing because Jad was the one to contact her today and she remembered him. Hopefully this will pan out into some placements for us. Only time will tell, if we are ever able to get Workers Compensation.
We had a 3D ultrasound on Saturday. Unfortunately, Madison did not want to smile for the camera so we were unable to get any pictures of her. Luckily, since we did pay over $100 for the appointment, the tech offered to have us come back to re-do the ultrasound Wednesday. The next five posts or so will be the pictures we got from the ultrasound. I hope everybody enjoys them.
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