Doom! dispair!
Oh what wretched folk we be to hurt our mother so!
toxic waste! deforestation! Global Warming! Over Population!
we human being don't deserve this place...maybe it would be best if we just went the way of the dinosaurus.
Bullshit.
Any problem that has been caused by technology can be fixed by technology. Things come up daily that reduce our dependence on the old ways.
If the earth is our mother then we are her children right?
If we are children then we have some growing to do for us to become adult, correct?
Think about it like this, when kids are young taking care of them is a strain, but the kid isn't aware of the strain. As the child grows older, if he is a conscientious child, he begins to see how he strains his parents, he experiences self loathing, depression, wild fits of emotion and an unreasoning desire for either freedom or oblivion. He has become a teenager.
When I listen to the environmental advocates talk and feel the zeitgeist of the world around me I tend to think that the race of man has entered into his teen years.
peace,
Shane
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Posion Ivy SUX!
I am allergic to Posion Ivy.
I'm not talking about a small case of contact dermatitis, a little red rash and a small annoying itch, I'm talking welts, blisters, and an itch that's so the only thing good about it is the scratchin'.
it spreads as well. the stuff that causes the allergic reaction is an oil called Urushiol and when I get it on my hands it spreads to anywhere I touch....and I mean anywhere. If I scratch my nose, my nose swells up, belly?...yep got a rash there too. How about the age old act of male activity of scratching your nuts? Yep did that too...you'd think you could'nt walk around with a hard on for a week but you can.
The only thing I ever found that would get rid of the rash was a Prednisone dosepak. That would usually get rid of it in about a week.
I hate posion Ivy,
Shane
I'm not talking about a small case of contact dermatitis, a little red rash and a small annoying itch, I'm talking welts, blisters, and an itch that's so the only thing good about it is the scratchin'.
it spreads as well. the stuff that causes the allergic reaction is an oil called Urushiol and when I get it on my hands it spreads to anywhere I touch....and I mean anywhere. If I scratch my nose, my nose swells up, belly?...yep got a rash there too. How about the age old act of male activity of scratching your nuts? Yep did that too...you'd think you could'nt walk around with a hard on for a week but you can.
The only thing I ever found that would get rid of the rash was a Prednisone dosepak. That would usually get rid of it in about a week.
I hate posion Ivy,
Shane
Thursday, June 26, 2008
score one for personal freedom and rights.
Who would have thought it...
From the same people who made it legal for big buisiness to steal your land.
They finally make a ruling that makes some sense. At least to me...quite a few people don't see it that way.
In this post, and most probably a bunch more I would like to try to qualify and quantify both gun control and gun ownership's arguments as well as make a few conjectures of my own on the issue. Be advised in advance that my bias will be toward the gun ownership side of things, but I will try and see the gun control side of it as well.
So until then,
Shoot straight!
Shane
From the same people who made it legal for big buisiness to steal your land.
They finally make a ruling that makes some sense. At least to me...quite a few people don't see it that way.
In this post, and most probably a bunch more I would like to try to qualify and quantify both gun control and gun ownership's arguments as well as make a few conjectures of my own on the issue. Be advised in advance that my bias will be toward the gun ownership side of things, but I will try and see the gun control side of it as well.
So until then,
Shoot straight!
Shane
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Bullwhips and the zen mentality
When I was young my father made me a bullwhip. Now granted it wasn't a Mike Murphy 16 plait, split kangaroo 15 foot Indiana Jones special, it was a piece of broom handle with 3 pieces of nylon cord nailed to the end and braided. It was about 6 ft long and I couldn't crack it to save my life...lord knows I tried.
Growing up there would come the odd time that some one would have a whip and all the guys would gather round to see who could crack it. I'd always feel like a poser in situations like these, the memory of all the failed cracks of my misspent youth conspiring to stiffen my arm and steal my strength. But years pass and time and work combine to leave no time for the dreams of the would be Lash La Rue or Indiana Jones.
Strange how the winds of fate blow sometimes. I met a guy. He knew whips. He even belongs to a whip social group. Next thing you know you've got yourself a whip from a guy in Dallas who's into dog sledding and you've taken your kids out to the park to learn how to crack a whip.
You know what's odd about cracking a whip? Once you learn to do it the whip actually cracks itself. I was a bit ill at ease when we first started, I kept wanting to force it to crack, I thought it was all about putting power behind it...bulling through it. It's not. it's the easiest thing in the world, as simple as flicking a wrist or moving your forearm up and down, if you do it right the whip will crack.
I learned some things about whips, like that there are five basic ways to throw a whip
1. The Cattleman (Sir Anthony Hopkins throws like that when he's putting out the candles while tutoring Antonio Banderas in Zorro ...and for the hell of it here's a nice pic of Cathrine Zeta-Jones. )
2. The Overhead Cattleman. (Think The Man from Snowy River...and what the hell here's another pic...I know Cathrine Zeta-Jones wasn't in that movie..guess what? I don't care.)
3. The Coachman. (hmmm...I can't think of a movie I saw this one in, and I don't think I can describe it...just trust me it's one of the five basic cracks.
4. Overhand. think...chunking a spear but instead of letting go, flick your wrist down, it's the only reliable way to crack really long whips...i.e greater than 15 ft. )
5. Underhand. Think popping a towel only you let the ground be the fingers holding the end.
I can Cattleman and Overhead Cattleman like a pro, I mean I can do it in my sleep...I have done it in my sleep. I can do the Coachman pretty well as well. I'm learning the proper way to do Underhand and I've a long way to go before I get Overhand down. I've even learned some tricks. I can do what's called a figure 8 and a fast figure 8. I can crack with either hand and I can wield two whips at once.
That said I've still a long way to go, but it's fun and I enjoy it. Oh and the kids? They pick it up like it's nothing, but they are more interested in going to the park afterward...still life is grand...I can crack a bullwhip!
Peace
Shane
Growing up there would come the odd time that some one would have a whip and all the guys would gather round to see who could crack it. I'd always feel like a poser in situations like these, the memory of all the failed cracks of my misspent youth conspiring to stiffen my arm and steal my strength. But years pass and time and work combine to leave no time for the dreams of the would be Lash La Rue or Indiana Jones.
Strange how the winds of fate blow sometimes. I met a guy. He knew whips. He even belongs to a whip social group. Next thing you know you've got yourself a whip from a guy in Dallas who's into dog sledding and you've taken your kids out to the park to learn how to crack a whip.
You know what's odd about cracking a whip? Once you learn to do it the whip actually cracks itself. I was a bit ill at ease when we first started, I kept wanting to force it to crack, I thought it was all about putting power behind it...bulling through it. It's not. it's the easiest thing in the world, as simple as flicking a wrist or moving your forearm up and down, if you do it right the whip will crack.
I learned some things about whips, like that there are five basic ways to throw a whip
1. The Cattleman (Sir Anthony Hopkins throws like that when he's putting out the candles while tutoring Antonio Banderas in Zorro ...and for the hell of it here's a nice pic of Cathrine Zeta-Jones. )
2. The Overhead Cattleman. (Think The Man from Snowy River...and what the hell here's another pic...I know Cathrine Zeta-Jones wasn't in that movie..guess what? I don't care.)
3. The Coachman. (hmmm...I can't think of a movie I saw this one in, and I don't think I can describe it...just trust me it's one of the five basic cracks.
4. Overhand. think...chunking a spear but instead of letting go, flick your wrist down, it's the only reliable way to crack really long whips...i.e greater than 15 ft. )
5. Underhand. Think popping a towel only you let the ground be the fingers holding the end.
I can Cattleman and Overhead Cattleman like a pro, I mean I can do it in my sleep...I have done it in my sleep. I can do the Coachman pretty well as well. I'm learning the proper way to do Underhand and I've a long way to go before I get Overhand down. I've even learned some tricks. I can do what's called a figure 8 and a fast figure 8. I can crack with either hand and I can wield two whips at once.
That said I've still a long way to go, but it's fun and I enjoy it. Oh and the kids? They pick it up like it's nothing, but they are more interested in going to the park afterward...still life is grand...I can crack a bullwhip!
Peace
Shane
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Things that suck in the world.
Grrrrrr.....
I hate the entire concept of "Centralized Planning.”
Just in case you didn't know from the link, it's an economic model whereby a centralized authority oversees the development and planning of all aspects of the economy. Sounds good doesn't it?
IT'S CRAP!
"Of course it is", you say, "Socialism went out with the Soviet Union."
Ah, you just think it went out with the ruskies! Centralized Planning is alive and well in Texas. It's taken the form of the No child left behind act, and specifically the TAKS test.
My kids are smart kids. Wanting them to have better mathematical understanding, I embarked upon a journey to find a better math program for my 1st and 2nd grade children to learn. One of the things I came across was a little known Japanese tool called the Soroban. Kids who learn this tool can eventually become so good at it that they can dispense with it and simply imagine the soroban to do their math. Later a thought came back to me from across the years about a little Korean girl who set a world record on the old 70's TV show "the Guinness game" where by she was given a suitably huge set of numbers to multiply. She did it in a suitably awe inspiring brevity of time. When the announcer asked her how she did it; she replied in one word...chisanbop a kind of finger soroban.
I taught my kids Chisanbop. I learned the basic finger positions, the philosophy, and I practiced a little. Then with a tube of M&M's minis in hand I showed them the positions and then had them show them back to me, with each success I'd give them a mini. After I had them to where they knew the positions I started showing them how to do math with it, once again rewarding each success with an M&M mini. My kids aced math.
The rub came when the teachers wanted me to quit teaching the method. They were teaching rote memorization of math tables instead of teaching what math was. It's kind of like learning a bunch of foreign words without learning their meaning. They do this to make sure that the kids can pass the TAKS test. Who cares if they understand it or not, if they fail it cuts our funding.
What really pisses me off though was the fact that after the TAKS tests are done, the teachers quit teaching! The last 30 days of this past school year were spent playing games, or taking field trips! The funding was secured, lets party!
The bad thing about "no child left behind" is that it has to slow down everybody else to keep up with the slow ones.
On top of that it's like making everyone wear the same size pants. The curriculum for students in East Hampton, New York probably would not work for students in Compton California. By making all the students "march to the same drum" you ensure that you loose some of them through simple boredom, usually the more intelligent ones. I'd rather lose the dumb ones; you don't have to have all that much education to do menial tasks.
Also this insanity takes away teachers most powerful weapon in teaching a kid...her creativity. 99% of teaching is getting the students interested in the stuff you are teaching, if you can do that the kids teach themselves and all you have to do is guide them in the right direction! There is not "one true way" to teach a subject, there are an almost infinite number of paths to learning something.
You know, thinking on this has reminded me of an old Greek legend I read of when I was young. My kids probably won't get to read it because it's probably not on the curriculum, and if they do get to read it their ability to appreciate it as irony to their current situation will probably be stunted because they were simply required to read in literature and not practice rhetoric or critical thinking It's the story of Procrustes, and the more I think on it the better it fits the current state of affairs.
Still pissed, but feeling better for the rant...
Shane
I hate the entire concept of "Centralized Planning.”
Just in case you didn't know from the link, it's an economic model whereby a centralized authority oversees the development and planning of all aspects of the economy. Sounds good doesn't it?
IT'S CRAP!
"Of course it is", you say, "Socialism went out with the Soviet Union."
Ah, you just think it went out with the ruskies! Centralized Planning is alive and well in Texas. It's taken the form of the No child left behind act, and specifically the TAKS test.
My kids are smart kids. Wanting them to have better mathematical understanding, I embarked upon a journey to find a better math program for my 1st and 2nd grade children to learn. One of the things I came across was a little known Japanese tool called the Soroban. Kids who learn this tool can eventually become so good at it that they can dispense with it and simply imagine the soroban to do their math. Later a thought came back to me from across the years about a little Korean girl who set a world record on the old 70's TV show "the Guinness game" where by she was given a suitably huge set of numbers to multiply. She did it in a suitably awe inspiring brevity of time. When the announcer asked her how she did it; she replied in one word...chisanbop a kind of finger soroban.
I taught my kids Chisanbop. I learned the basic finger positions, the philosophy, and I practiced a little. Then with a tube of M&M's minis in hand I showed them the positions and then had them show them back to me, with each success I'd give them a mini. After I had them to where they knew the positions I started showing them how to do math with it, once again rewarding each success with an M&M mini. My kids aced math.
The rub came when the teachers wanted me to quit teaching the method. They were teaching rote memorization of math tables instead of teaching what math was. It's kind of like learning a bunch of foreign words without learning their meaning. They do this to make sure that the kids can pass the TAKS test. Who cares if they understand it or not, if they fail it cuts our funding.
What really pisses me off though was the fact that after the TAKS tests are done, the teachers quit teaching! The last 30 days of this past school year were spent playing games, or taking field trips! The funding was secured, lets party!
The bad thing about "no child left behind" is that it has to slow down everybody else to keep up with the slow ones.
On top of that it's like making everyone wear the same size pants. The curriculum for students in East Hampton, New York probably would not work for students in Compton California. By making all the students "march to the same drum" you ensure that you loose some of them through simple boredom, usually the more intelligent ones. I'd rather lose the dumb ones; you don't have to have all that much education to do menial tasks.
Also this insanity takes away teachers most powerful weapon in teaching a kid...her creativity. 99% of teaching is getting the students interested in the stuff you are teaching, if you can do that the kids teach themselves and all you have to do is guide them in the right direction! There is not "one true way" to teach a subject, there are an almost infinite number of paths to learning something.
You know, thinking on this has reminded me of an old Greek legend I read of when I was young. My kids probably won't get to read it because it's probably not on the curriculum, and if they do get to read it their ability to appreciate it as irony to their current situation will probably be stunted because they were simply required to read in literature and not practice rhetoric or critical thinking It's the story of Procrustes, and the more I think on it the better it fits the current state of affairs.
Still pissed, but feeling better for the rant...
Shane
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
What a man needs in a woman...
1. It's important to have a woman who helps at home, who cooks from time to time, cleans up and has a job.
2. It's important to have a woman who can make you laugh.
3. It's important to have a woman who you can trust and who doesn't lie to you.
4. It's important to have a woman who is good in bed and who likes to be with you.
5. It's very, very important that these four women don't know each other.
2. It's important to have a woman who can make you laugh.
3. It's important to have a woman who you can trust and who doesn't lie to you.
4. It's important to have a woman who is good in bed and who likes to be with you.
5. It's very, very important that these four women don't know each other.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Football and Gumption, or why college football is more exciting than Pro.
High school football players are highly motivated, lean and hungry and believe they are immortal, to counter that they have very little skill at the game.
College football players are almost as motivated as High school players but have the advantage of better coaching and the opportunity to play against the best that the High schools could produce as well as more seasoned players
In Professional football it all changes. All their lives they have struggled to get to the very place that they are now, in effect a dream fulfilled. Most don't have the imagination to redefine their dream to include being the best Pro football player that there ever was. On top of that they are playing against the upper 99.99th percentile of players in the world, with superior coaching, and a whole different set of circumstances to get used to, it's enough to crush anyone's motivation for a while.
On top of all that the players are now older and finally have begun to realize that they are not immortal, the daring things done in college can end a career prematurely. Professional coaching doctrine preaches "run your lane, memorize the play" which further destroys individual initiative in the hope of limiting mistakes.
So in other words, high school has the worst players with the highest motivation
The pro leagues have the best players with the worst motivation.
At least that's my opinion...maybe you have a different one.
Peace
College football players are almost as motivated as High school players but have the advantage of better coaching and the opportunity to play against the best that the High schools could produce as well as more seasoned players
In Professional football it all changes. All their lives they have struggled to get to the very place that they are now, in effect a dream fulfilled. Most don't have the imagination to redefine their dream to include being the best Pro football player that there ever was. On top of that they are playing against the upper 99.99th percentile of players in the world, with superior coaching, and a whole different set of circumstances to get used to, it's enough to crush anyone's motivation for a while.
On top of all that the players are now older and finally have begun to realize that they are not immortal, the daring things done in college can end a career prematurely. Professional coaching doctrine preaches "run your lane, memorize the play" which further destroys individual initiative in the hope of limiting mistakes.
So in other words, high school has the worst players with the highest motivation
The pro leagues have the best players with the worst motivation.
At least that's my opinion...maybe you have a different one.
Peace
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