A few weeks ago I put my name in to be featured as SB’s geek of the week. I got the message through twitter this morning that I was being featured this week.

About a week ago both Andrea & I were nominated to the WP Rockstar Showcase. We have been sitting in our current position of being on both the highest list and most rated list for the last few days. We wouldn’t object to you stopping by and giving us a boost tho’

I have also been sharing the writing with Andrea over on the WPMU Tutorials blog which is definitely one of the reasons I’ve been writing less here.

I’m not expecting to be less busy over the next few months. But, Andrea & I are considering a westward bound weekend trip in July. We just have to firm a few things up before we say too much about it.

About 44% of what I paid for the gas today was various taxes. At the high price I paid a few months ago, only 27% was taxes. Removing the taxes from both prices means that the price today was approx 27% of the high price I paid only a few months ago.

A few years ago I read an article which said that one of the big 3 was making an average of $11-12,000 on its top of the line gas guzzling SUV. So, IMO, the place the big 3 need to look for their lost profits & potentially assistance is big oil because once that gas guzzler was driven off the lot, the folks who have been making out like bandits from it have been big oil.

Again, just my opinion, but if the government is interested in bailing out the economy long term then the place where they should be investing is in green technologies. Investing in green technologies would reduce oil demand & consumption. An ongoing investment in that area would stabilize the prices of oil based products. What that should do for the big 3 is increase their sales enough to give them an opportunity to retool themselves to produce economically viable products.

The title of this post is directed to the President of Ecuador, who has asked for permission to set up a military base in Miami. A reasonable request, one would think.

HT: Roy

At various times, in her blog, Andrea has mentioned I have the knack for running into people I know while I’m travelling. On Friday, when the boarding call came for the flight back to NB, I immediately recognized the person who stepped into line 2 people in front of me. Frank McKenna has most recently held the prestigeous position of Canadian Ambassador to the US. “(Frank) won the largest electoral victory in Canadian history in 1987 when his party won every seat in the (New Brunswick) legislature.” (wikipedia)

Now what made that a somewhat memorable event is that in passing through boarding security you have to show photo id. The airline agent looked at him, then at the photo id and boarding pass and then asked him if he was McKenna. Because my seat was further back in the plane I ended up standing by his seat waiting for the person in front of me. He looked up at me and I asked him (with somewhat of a wry grin), “So, is it a good thing when they do recognize you…or, when they don’t recognize you?” He laughed and nodded assent to the second.

Tonight, Andrea, Emma and I went to do a bit of shopping. We ran into a woman (who is now retired) at the grocery store that I worked with 7 years ago. And there was a second lady shopping there who I met in the same time frame but, so far, I’ve been unable to remember where she worked. (I was doing contract work at the time and probably met 1000 people over a span of 5 years.)

In my little world, I’ve been working on getting Gentoo up and running. It does not come with an installer and it is preconfigured with a minimal configuration. It is bringing back memories from 15 years ago when I first started working with unix. I’ve been using up my evening mental energy on that. I took last night off (mostly) and went on a 2 hour drive to explore the countryside. Tonight I’m trying to catch up.

Next week I will be away from the internet for the week. I’m getting on a plane very early Monday morning and flying to Toronto. I will be there all week. I’m hoping to meet up with at least one homeschooling family while there.

The note I would like to add is that TTUAC is not the only parenting book which advocates a judgement (i.e. crime, punishment, shame, humiliation) based parenting approach. I don’t have the info on any others at this time. But I do recall Andrea and I discussing more than one of these books over the years. If you know of others could you drop the info in a comment? TIA

Via: Joanne who has provided additional resource links here.

Andrea and I briefly discussed the story in a google chat. Andrea told me not to read the linked news story. And I haven’t. If I have time and the heart to do so, I’ll write on this subject sometime. As much as our society pressures us to compartmentalize our selves, I do not for a moment regret that I cannot help but feel an indescribeable amount of sorrow, not only for this young man, but also for the thousands upon thousands of children who are treated in a similar manner.

For now, I’ll borrow the words of Valerie who has written a good post about it:

But one thing that I don’t understand is the insistence of some Christian sects on using the older bits of the Bible — translated from a far more distant time and culture – as t.h.e. guidelines. Those people were neolithic nomads. At least Jesus was a person who lived an urban life. Why not focus on the newer parts with the message of love and acceptance, ’suffering’ children to come unto me, doing good to the ‘least of my brothers?’ How much more ‘least’ can we get than small children. (But that leads to a different can of worms. Why beat children you’ve insisted have a right to be born?)

Good question: Why?

When Andrea and I write posts here or in the atypicalife, we sometimes have a few grammatical errors in them. Most of them are typos and the remainder are usually us changing our mind half way through a sentence.

But, I’ve got to say, Sara Jenkins has got to get a press agent. The latest press release for her ‘comprehensive guide’ that takes 50 minutes to read is atrocious. Here’s a sample:

The statistics so far emerging has plenty to confirm this argument.

Hunh?

So how do the parents cope in these circumstances, where a lack of planning could seriously jeopardize their children’s homeschooling plans, especially in those areas, where homeschooling was seen by the state authorities as a negative vibe.

Pick a tense and go with it (but don’t run on too far).

There are papers to be filled out, curricula to get decided, and the school committees to be aptly convinced about.

I’ll get right on that.

What makes her homeschooling ebook guide … more significant, according to Sara, is the manner that she has chosen to communicate her ideas with.

more significant than???

The cookie-baking classes and pop quizzes on laundry essentials that once dominated some home ec courses in junior high have broadened into courses geared toward “life skills,” including tips for budgeting, and basic knowledge of supply and demand.

So know you have to go to college to get some basic knowledge?

Not only that, I find it highly ironic that the average person doesn’t find it unusual that these classes exist, yet at the same time accuse homeschoolers of not living in the “real world”.

Um, yeah. My kids have learned how to manage a houshold effectively by (wait for it…) actually managing and participating in running the household.

No degree required. And they do their own laundry.

Good idea, right? Well, yeah. But I think they should look a little further if they really want to help. To wit, my own neighbourhood. There’s a large-ish elementary school about two blocks away, around the corner and up the street. The street has lots of suburban houses, loads of kids.

The kids on that street who go to that school get bussed home. Even the kids whose backyards butt up against school property.