Friday, February 25, 2011

Blogging from the iPad

Found a LiveJournal app for the iPad, and giving it a try. Works OK, but suffers from the inherent suckiness of the on-screen keyboard. Would probably be fine if I had a good Bluetooth keyboard. At the moment I don't have *any* Bluetooth keyboard at all.


(originally posted on my LiveJournal site)

Thursday, February 24, 2011

G'Kar's "Declaration of Principles"

(from the Season 5 opener of "Babylon 5")

The universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice.

The language is not Narn, or Human, or Centauri, or Gaim or Minbari

It speaks in the language of hope

It speaks in the language of trust

It speaks in the language of strength and the language of compassion

It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul.


But always it is the same voice

It is the voice of our ancestors, speaking through us,

And the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born

It is the small, still voice that says


We are one


No matter the blood

No matter the skin

No matter the world

No matter the star:


We are one


No matter the pain

No matter the darkness

No matter the loss

No matter the fear


We are one


Here, gathered together in common cause, we agree to recognize the singular truth and this singular rule:

That we must be kind to one another


Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us and each voice lost diminishes us.


We are the voice of the Universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future.


We are one.


Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET'S SEE....

That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.

Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days == $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student -- -a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!)

WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.