Monday, August 21, 2006

Back to School with serious hesitation

My children head back to school next week. Neither my fourth or seventh grader is happy about the return to school. This is pretty typical you'd think. Unfortunately, I understand their hesitation.

I received my 7th grader's temporary schedule last year. It seems that with the start of 7th grade, they try to mimic a high school schedule. The schedule is given to them on the first day of school and then any changes have to be made by Monday (they return to school on Thursday.) His big issue is that they are given 15 minutes for lunch this year. Can you imagine? Fifteen minutes to stand in the lunch line, eat your lunch, and then it is a school rule that students at each table clean their own area. So this means the students at the 6-person table have to wipe down chairs and table surfaces, bring up trays, deposit any litter, eat, and get their lunch within 15 minutes. It's absurd. The government blames video games and TV for children's growing waistlines - I have my own ideas about training childen to wolf down an entire meal within at least 10 minutes. Then the 7th graders all go to their student advisor instead of recess where they will discuss bullying, peer pressure, and any educational concerns. My son has already announced that he does not want to bother bringing a lunch to school this year because he doesn't like having to eat it in record time. I can't blame him...

Meanwhile, my 4th grader will have a 20 minute lunch this year and then 10 minutes of recess. Every year, the recess gets shorter and shorter for these kids. Better yet, if they don't get their work done in time they have to skip recess and sit in their classroom and finish any school work instead. This happened last year to my daughter. She'd gone to one of her gifted classes and didn't have time to complete her writing assignment. So she was forced to skip recess. I was ticked and the school had to deal with my wrath. I'm not a popular person at that school - not at all.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Thicker skins

Some people in the world today need to toughen up. I came across an email yesterday that was insulting, poorly writtten in terms of grammar and punctuation, and contained enough bad language that it made the author of said email look childish.

Those who know Jen and I know that we founded Roundtable Reviews on the premise that we would not rate books...we would tell readers what we thought about a book. The question on our mind while reading a book is "Would we be willing to spend the money needed to buy this book?" That is what we ask of our reviewers and ourselves.

Last week, I reviewed a non-fiction title that was okay, but the principle behind the book bothered me. I'm part Irish and am not about to hold my tongue--never have, never will. My review stated that the book was well-written, but the fact that the author (a former police officer sworn to uphold the law) states clearly that he broke many laws he is sworn to uphold bothered me. He waited until the statute of limitations ran out, released this book, and is now profiting. That does bother me regardless of his reasoning for breaking the laws. Sorry, but as a mom, I find anything glorifying breaking laws and stating "To beat a criminal, you must becomea criminal" is not something for which I would be willing to pay money. Hence the answer to my question - "would I be willing to buy this book if I were in a bookstore today?" That is what I based my review on. http://www.roundtablereviews.com/cearobert80106.htm

The author states he is disgusted by my "Dan Rather Gorilla Type" journalism tactics and that I make money by twisting the truth. My response to this - book reviewers are not paid despite what you proclaim. Online review sites do it for the love of books, not for money. I've never profited off my reviews - in fact, I wind up shelling out personal money to cover things like shipping, website fees, etc. So in no way am I biased by money. Secondly, one thing all authors need to realize, and most do, is that reviews are OPINION. This review is MY OPINION of your book. If you don't agree, so be it. That's your right.

I, however, still stick by my first opinion. People got hurt. Laws were broken. And now a profit is being made. I do believe that the author himself stated that his years as an officer provided him with the resources to "pad his pockets". Sure, the author knows what he did was wrong and has turned his life around. I do not debate that. However, if you look at the definition of "padding pockets"...


pad 1 (pd)
n.
1. A thin, cushionlike mass of soft material used to fill, to give shape, or to protect against jarring, scraping, or other injury.
2. A flexible saddle without a frame.
3. An ink-soaked cushion used to ink a rubber stamp.
4. A number of sheets of paper of the same size stacked one on top of the other and glued together at one end; a tablet.
5.
a. The broad floating leaf of an aquatic plant such as the water lily.
b. The flattened fleshy stem of a cactus such as certain varieties of prickly pear. Also called paddle1.
6.
a. The cushionlike flesh on the underpart of the toes and feet of many animals.
b. The foot of such an animal.
7. The fleshy underside of the end of a finger or toe.
8.
a. A launch pad.
b. A helipad.
9. A keypad.
10. Slang One's apartment or room.
tr.v. pad·ded, pad·ding, pads
1. To line or stuff with soft material.
2. To lengthen or increase, especially with extraneous or false information: pad a lecture with jokes; pad an expense account.Idiom:
on the pad Slang
Taking bribes.

This suggests that the author realizes he is now profiting from his past by a. Providing false information or b. taking bribes. Either way, I still find it wrong.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Driving Rules

I have a new rule. This blog entry goes out to the two drivers who beeped and gave me the finger yesterday! Perhaps you'll read this and learn something.

Exit 14 on the interstate has led to some one-lane issues which means the traffic is backed up for a long time. I was on the interstate yesterday and got caught in it. After spending 30 minutes moving from Exit 16 to the bridge over the Winooski River, I was getting hot and tired. My kids were no different. On the bridge, a sign stating "Merge Right. Left Lane closed in 1/2 mile" appeared. That means people had 1/2 mile to get over. So two drivers raced by on the left right when I was about 10 car lengths from the barrier with the lane closing. They then expected to be let in immediately. No one in front of me did and I wasn't about to either.

If you have had plenty of warning that you need to merge, then don't expect those who have merged in advance to suddenly feel sorry for you for ignoring the signs. I'm not about to let you in, not if you wait. If I had my way, you'd be sitting until the wee hours when traffic finally eases enough for you to get over without issue. If you can't follow the signs, you don't get the perk of getting on with your day. Sit and wait like the rest of us had been doing!

Monday, August 07, 2006

Back To School Shopping

My son finally got his back to school list from the school (7th grade). I guessed almost completely wrong. I'd bought him pencils, which were needed, pens (again necessary), notebooks (not needed at all)...

So I get the list - 2 inch binders - four of them. I checked Staples and Walmart. For 2 inch binders, we are looking at at least $5 a piece. Staples has them on sale this week 3 for $21. I'd bought him 1 inch binders, but apparently that won't do. I'm slightly ticked because that's a lot of money to have to spend on binders that he is certain he could have used 1 inch and made do with them by cleaning out the old from time to time and 1 inch are what he's used in the past.

We also have to buy him a scientific calculator, a metric ruler, colored pencils, computer disks (not that they mentioned the size, I'm assuming they mean 3 1/2 inch disks, though blank CDs would be much handier to me as I always have those on hand), reinforcers for the binder, and dividers for the binders. He will not get his schedule until the first day of school, so the rest of the list will be given to us when his full schedule is set. I'm ticked about that. That means parents will have to do a mad dash to get the rest of the items that weekend.

Our daughter, they still haven't sent her list yet.