Because I’m an Army Wife and That’s what we do

I moved again.  For the two of you that have me in your feed… It’s here:

SharpAroundTheEdges.com

I Don’t Really Like to Play Tag

But I will do whatever JP asks me to do so here you go:

List these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tage 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their name as well as a link to their blog.

Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
1. I hate school.  I really do.  I enjoy the act of learning and the process of learning, just not the environment, I guess.  A lot of what happens in school is a total waste of time but a lot of value added activity is missing.  That is what I don’t like about it.  The higher you get, the better the value-added activity gets but the learning style of the learner must adapt to the teaching style of the teacher and that is frustrating.
2. I have always wanted to be a teacher.
3. I think that a house is not a home without at least one pet.  ~hugs my puppies and my wonderful (shithead) cat~
4. A perfect evening for me includes dinner that I made with Sarge’s help and a houseful of people for games and conversation.
5. I love to meet new people, make new friends and try new things but I seldom have the opportunity.
6. I don’t think we’re done adopting children.  In fact, if I had the money right now, we’d be going for a pair of girls who’s Russian last name means “Bastard”.  I probably need to figure out a different way to help the children of the world.
7.  I put on amazing vocal performances on my way to and from school.  I wish Nintendo would make a good karaoke type game.  They have a couple but I ain’t singing High School Musical songs.  In the words of the Emporer:  “High School Musical is gay.“

So now I am supposed to tag seven people.  I don’t know if I know seven people that have blogs!  I’ll do my best:

Ian, Tal, Becca, Mel, May and Sarah.

On The First Day of …

Bah Humbug!  I’ve been saying for a few weeks now that I really hate Christmas.  While that may not be entirely true, I was forced to analyze my reasons for frustration in the holiday season.  I may even have blogged on these before but they haven’t changed and who reads the blog anyway, right?

I think my primary frustration comes from having family on both sides that puts the fun in dysfunctional.  We’re not close, can’t explain why and see no need to really try and resolve it.  Honestly, I have felt like an outsider inside my own family since I was quite small.  As a result, I crave for my family to be closer.  We are but sometimes it seems not quite close enough.  And, of course, factor in that the older four brats have flown the coop and the holidays seem like a big, fat, letdown in the making for family time.

I also hate presents.  I hate shopping for presents.  I’m intimidated by how much some people give their kids and, while I have never really felt the urge (or had the ability) to keep up with that I always wonder how that makes my kids feel.  I also hate that presents take the focus of Christmas away from what it should be which is faith (although I am losing mine lately but that’s another post), friends and family.  Having a shitty family has set me up for disappointment for quite awhile.

The other part I don’t like so much is that once Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are done, that’s it.  Typically the days between the 25th of December and the 31st are just nothing but wasted opportunities for fun.  So this year, because I am really digging deep to make these holidays not suck, I have come up with and will be implementing the first annual 12 Days of Christmas.

Here they are:

• 24^th Christmas Eve (@our friends’ house for cards, cocktails, whatever)
• 25^th Christmas Brunch here will also involve opportunities to play with all the video games and other toys that we’ll be getting.  (ROCK BAND!) So come over and get your nerd on.
  
• 26^th Boxing Day: Grocery shop and deliver purchases to food pantry
• 27^th St. Stephen’s Day: Surprise friends with treats or maybe dinner?
• 28^th Denzel Washington’s birthday: Movie Festival!  Not necessarily Denzel Movies since a lot of them aren’t really Khan friendly.
• 29^th Celebrating the birthday of the inventor of the chicken nugget! Nuggets and fries for dinner and game day!
• 30^th Rudyard Kipling born 1865: Watch Jungle Book, my favoritest Disney Movit today.  Also: Severus: Harry Potter!
• 31^st Hogmanay, 14^TH Wedding Anniversary: Dinner party,Games, make sure I am showered with gifts and accolades and treated like a Queen (yeah, right!)
• 1^st New Year’s Day
• 2^nd Ogre/Crunchy and the Queen (hopefully) here for more video games and family time
• 3^rd Kindertag (kids can plan the day) Sarge and I will be here for our anniversary.  It is rare that we get away like grown ups.  I am very excited.
• 4^th Anniversary of the Battle of Reading.  I realize this has nothing to do with books but the kids will never figure it out since we’ve blocked Wikipedia.  I shall curl up with a good book, read some stories to the Khan and whomever else wants to listen and everyone picks a favorite snack for lunch and dinner that day.  I will have to work to make some of them healthy.

January 5th will be “Haul my Fat Ass to the Gym” day.

Cheers!

Curses! Foiled Again!

So my fall off the NaBloPoMo wagon in Denmark was not intentional.  Apparently the lack of reliable wireless is a barrier to to blogging while traveling in Europe.  I didn’t really have consistency until Tuesday when I wisely took my laptop to the conference.  Blogging during the conference seemed to be bad form (but I can assure you that Facebooking was not;)).  I wish I could say the trip went well, my host was certainly gracious and the country is lovely.  I came away from the conference with a few ideas for research in the area of alternative energy.  We’ll see how that all goes.  A couple of other super fun things happened in Denmark too.

1.  I apparently picked up a nasty virus or a lovely case of food poisoning.  I’ve been sick since Wednesday.  If I can keep it down, it just keeps on going right through.  It’s so wonderful.

2.  The monster has returned.  The best part is the retinal specialty that accepts our insurance is in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  My insurance will and is paying to fly me there but what a pain in the ass!  Kudos to the dudes who pulled off travel orders in an hour after I pitched a fit about the safety of driving four hours plus with vision issues and driving back after a four hour dialated retinal exam.  Yeah, I’m pretty worried.  Every time the monster returns, permanent damage is done.  How much permanent damage can I take before I lose the ability to do all the stuff I like doing like, you know, seeing?  It’s fabulous.  I’m looking for some positive things here but it gets harder all the time.

So I still want to be President and I have way more than 30 reasons but due to missing a week of blogging for the Denmark trip and three more days for the New Mexico trip, I’m probably not going to get them all listed.  Sorry.

Yell at me in the comments if you want.  Maybe I’ll tell you about my other insanity problem later.

B&P

Me

Reason #13

I already have supporters.  I got one vote this year.  I just need 100Million more!

Reason #12

I should be President because I understand value creation.  Taxpayers pay for their government to act in a way that creates value for them.  Gone will be the days where a little extra money buys you a little more influence in government.  Yay!

Reason #11

I read an article in yesterday’s New York Times about our military that concerns me.  While I am typically an ardent supporter of the first amendment, this article could be getting our soldiers killed.  The information is highly detailed with units and names and locations and, in my opinion, the kind of information that should not be disclosed.  Any military members providing this information to the media should be immediately receive punishment under UCMJ for their statements as they jeopardize the mission and the lives of their subordinate soldiers.

Something that I would definitely do as President is put a tighter rein and higher value on security clearances.  Breeches of this nature happen all the time because we have too many people who seek personal gain (as evidenced by the presence of their name in the article) or get some kind of perverse glee in sharing the secret (the legendary “Unnamed sources”).  People need to recognize and respect that there are reasons that support the lack of full-disclosure by our government and their need to be swift and immediate sanctions for government employees disclosing information that not only jeopardizes national security but is, in fact, a direct cause for the loss of American lives.  At the very least, these disclosures are treason.  At their worst, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and should be addressed as such.

Please don’t misunderstand, I support your right to free speech but you do not have the right – as a result of the first amendment – to jeopardize the lives of any other person.  It is careless and callous to thank your volunteer military and the other agents of freedom abroad by disclosing information about their actions, mission and location that put their lives at risk.

Reason #10

Being a pragmatist, I am just not convinced that bailouts like this, this, and this are a good idea.  Don’t get me wrong, I certainly understand the impact of the business failure of any one of our Big 3 automakers on our economy, but how does a bailout hold them accountable for their failure to respond to the demands of the market?  They have been losing market share because they do not produce the kind of cars that consumers want and they have been exceedingly slow to respond to changing tastes.  Consumers have shifted in favor of higher fuel economy cars for thirty years and the Big Three have lagged by at least five years in providing one or two options per brand rather than the full line-up that our global competitors have offered and expanded upon for over 20 years.  We should not be rewarding obliviousness on the part of the management of these automakers.  You should have seen in the 70′s you weren’t the only choice instead of taking an extended recess and allowing your competition to eat your lunch.

The same view applies to big insurers and, of course, our banking industry.  Thanks to your ego and misguieded priorities, your business model is fundamentally flawed.  You have not used sound judgement or basic management, accounting or finance principles.  You have even managed to circumvent the requirements for earning your bonus away from sound criteria so that even though your business isn’t making money you are getting yours.  Now you want my money too?  NAY! I say!  Nay!

So how do we fix it?  I think any kind of ‘aid package’ should come with some common sense.  All these folks ask for handouts with no strings and I think that needs to stop.  If you want the taxpayers’ money, then the taxpayers have a right to demand that you make fundamental changes to your current operating procedure and fix the things that are fundamentally wrong with your business.  You ask for money, we ask for full disclosure including an external audit of your accounting.  Anything not quite on the up and up… no deal.  If the audit goes well, we still expect full disclosure and sound practices until the taxpayers get their money back.  And Mr. or Ms. Overpaid Chief Executive?  That means you and your entire management team take a pay cut.  How can you prove you’re earning your paycheck if you’ve run your company into the ground and are now panhandling to the Federal Government?

Reason #9

We have to bluntly and seriously address the issue of education.  Forgive me but I’ve been reading academic research this morning and getting angry.  The system of education here is rotten from the bottom to the top.  At the top you have academics more concerned with research volume – to the point where nearly 10% of Organizational Psychology Research is focused on statistical methods and another substantial chunk is based on testing parameters – rather than determining and providing the kind of information that current market conditions demand.  In other words, academics get tenure based on research volume and the focus then is on creating that volume.  Phrases like “teaching interferes with research time” and “well, you may have to start at a teaching-focused school but you don’t want to stay there” are common.  Higher Education wants money but they don’t want anyone dictating how they use that money and they’re not necessarily concerned with whether that money generates any kind of return on investment in the form of useful knowledge for practitioners or capable, competent alumni of the institution.    As long as they graduate the university looks good so who cares if they know anything?

This mindset diffuses itself through the rest of our society.  If we are producing college graduates that are not really productive in terms of logical, creative thinking skills and subsequently not capable of adding value to their profession, we perpetuate the cycle of teachers who can’t teach and students who don’t learn either because they don’t know how or because they cannot see the knowledge presented as useful.  We stifle creativity, problem-solving, inquisitiveness and intelligence.  The result is further erosion of our competitive advantage.

We have got to change this cycle.  The emphasis in higher education must shift to a mix of theoretical research – developing new theories – and applied research.  We have to create knowledge that can be used in practical settings to advance our industries.  Research must be more market driven in order to strengthen our economy and our country as a whole.  Contrary to the opinion of a majority of academics, the people providing the funding should have a voice in how it’s spent and teaching is at least as important as research if not more so.  Research should be used to improve teaching quality and subsequently the quality of output – graduates and their capabilities in the work place.

Subsequently, the standards at lower levels of education must also change.  We must provide teachers that can teach in order to improve our odds of getting students that can learn.  Then we put more of the responisbility for learning on the student and the parents.  I understand the whole concept of avoiding responsibility but to place all the onus for learning on the teacher is completely unfair.  In order for little Johnny to learn, Johnny has to want to learn.  Knowledge transfer is a two-way street.  We need to accept that it is okay for kids to fail and teach kids that failure is undesirable. We must teach them that if they fail, it is their fault and they must take responsibility for improvement so they do not repeat the failure.   Competition is not evil and high standards are a good thing at every level of education or we will never regain our competitive advantage.  We also need to put our teachers and administrators in a position where collaboration with parents (willing collaboration by parents) is integral to success.  Parents should not be able to shift full blame to the teacher for their childrens’ performance or lack thereof.  Students who choose to create disciplinary problems will be denied educational opportunity because of their behavior.  Kids won’t leave schools because of bullies.  Bullies will be removed from schools and their subsequent options will not be as desirable.  Parents will be held accountable for their childrens’ behavior until their children reach teh age of majority.  No excuses.  That is what being a parent entails.  If little Johnny’s a bully – it is your fault Mom and Dad.  Trust me on this.  I have never seen it be otherwise.

Our public education system must be redesigned to be superior to each and every other education option.

Failure to view education in terms of its impact on our ability to compete and succeed in the global marketplace is a mistake.  It is imperative that immediate action be taken to reinvent the public school system from pre-K to PhD. to design a system that encourages learning, critical thinking and creates teachers that can teach (leaders that can and do lead!) in every field.  Then we can take the next step and create students who can and do learn and take that learning to the next level which is further research that is applicable in the marketplace and serves to provide, enhance and sustain our global competitive advantage.  The more we diminish the value of competition in the educational setting – where we all spend the majority of our formative years – the more likely it is that we will not regain that competitive urge as adults.  Knowledge builds on knowledge and our foundations are currently crumbling.

Is it too late?  I don’t think so but we must take swift and decisive action.  We must end No Child Left Untested and we must develop national standards for learning at all grade levels including strong math, science and foreign language requirements beginning at the earliest grade levels..   National standards, accreditation and licensure for Pre-K – 12th grade teachers designed to ensure parity in quality of teachers nationwide must be developed and implemented.  There must be a stronger connection at the post-secondary level between teaching quality and funding.  At the very least, academics must recognize the value of research that truly furthers knowledge in the practical setting rather than the theoretical.  We have enough statistical models and testing parameters.  Tell us how to be more effective leaders.  Give us new technology.  Give us some substantial, quantifiable return on our research investment.

Reason #8

This national blog post month is getting old.  I’m tired of this blogging already!  Why do I do this to myself.  I want to apologize for yesterday’s post, by the way.  It was just one of the many very long days I’ve had lately and I vented my frustrations on the blog before drowning them in pizza and cabernet.  Yummy…yummy… pizza…. (You’ll never guess who’s back on South Beach, right?)

Anyway, reason number 8 that I should be president is because I think that healthcare reform is essential to our long-term national prosperity.  Everyone should have equal access to and funding for healthcare.  I don’t know whether it is possible to create a working universal healthcare system similar to other countries in the world, but I promise to put the best minds I can find on the task of developing something that somehow levels the playing field for everyone and guarantees each and every American Citizen the health care they need.  I’ll start with JP.  She already works too hard but she’s definitely up to the task of finding the rest of the brain trust to hammer it out.