For everything from family to computers…
So as some of you space geeks know, this week marked significant event where a private company successfully launched a capsule into space orbit, returned to the sea and recovered.
The secret payload? Cheese! And it’s in tribute to Monty Python! How awesome is that?! 😀
Update 01/13/2011:
Someone from my area e-mailed her directly for clarification and here’s her answer:
January 11, 2011
Mr. ******
Dear Mr. *****:
Thank you for your message concerning our recent Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST) report.
The education of Texas school children is among the state’s highest priorities. The recommendations in the FAST report are intended to provide school districts with options to manage their budgets during these difficult times.
The FAST report does not recommend firing Texas teachers; the report recommends replacing the current 22-students-per-classroom cap in grades K-4 with a requirement that districts maintain an average of 22 students per teacher for those grade levels. In practice, this would give school districts the flexibility to have slightly more than 22 students in a particular class as long as it was offset by a classroom with fewer than 22 students. In this way, districts could determine student class size based on the needs of their particular students and district rather than a state-set mandate.
To read a detailed description of our recommendation to allow school districts to maintain an average of 22 students per teacher, please see Page 31 of the FAST Appendix, which can be found at www.fastexas.org/study.
In addition, we have recommended a study of the growth in school district administrative positions. Reducing growth of these positions could result in increased resources for teachers. Please see Page 32 of the FAST Appendix for more information on this recommendation.
Legislative action would be required to adopt any of these recommendations, which may be discussed in the 82nd Legislature convening Jan. 11. If you would like to contact your state legislators concerning education policy, you can find their contact information at www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us.
We hope this information is helpful.
Sincerely,
Susan Combs
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
So if the above e-mail is indeed true (and it starts at page 30, not 32), then I would like to do the decent thing by retracting my anger towards the Comptroller. I guess I will not read from The Dallas Morning News anymore.
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As I am about to go to sleep, I come across this disturbing news that the newly elected Texas comptroller is planning to cut 12,000 elementary school teachers to save $500 million! What the %23@#!$!$
Of all the stupid things to do to save money, you cut education?! Cut your own salary first! Even more infuriating is the fact that I see this on her website!
I added the red circle to point out that she promised two things she’s breaking as we speak! What kind of baloney is this?! How is she FOR education by destroying the basic foundation of the education: elementary schools?! Kids first get exposed to school through this system and I can’t see any of my kids being happy to hear that their teachers may not return next year!
I am soo mad right now! I hope people take notice and address this!
We went to Starfire Grille for lunch today. We were eating our meals when a father and son duo walked in. Didn’t think much of it at first except for a bit loud son. He soon got loud and I soon figured out that he was mentally challenged.
He was rather loud. We kept eating. Until JJ brought up the issue. He asked what’s with him and normally, I’d have bypassed the conversation until I realized that every opportunity can be an opportunity to learn. So we had our conversation that no one is best at everything. And that some of us are born with certain conditions that may seem worse than others on the surface.
We talked about “Rain Man” and “Forrest Gump” and the kids seemed to take it in well. I had told them that most of the time, these mentally challenged people are not hurtful though they may seem so on the surface. Most of how your kids see others, I believe, are stemmed from how you as parents teach and raise them. If I had taught my kids to be afraid or be mean to people who are different, chances are that would have everlasting impact on their future behavior.
I am thankful that the opportunity surfaced and that the kids took it in well.
I know… the title of the post seems… unbelievable! But it’s true… this missionary wanted to be able to reach the indigenous tribes in Ecuador easily and so sought out to solve the problem himself! Not only that, powered by a 250-hp Subaru engine, this baby will do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds!
I salute you, Mr. Saint (yes, that’s his name!), on a job well done! His non-profit group I-TEC will build and sell this puppy at $80,000 and hopes to build about 100 per year! Wish I had one!
I found a man who not only has heart for missions but also the innovation to make it happen! My hero of the year!
Video can be seen here.
What’s reminiscence without complementary grandpa?
My paternal grandfather was a man of education. He spent the entire life on education. He was a principal to an elementary school in Namwon. Most of the people that are in and around the area grew up having him as the principal. I recall so many people coming over to pay their respects during his funeral.
It was a very emotional one for me. He had just one wish and that was to hold a great grandson. Trust me, if I could turn back time, I wish I could grant him that one last wish. But alas, he died without having held JJ. I used to think badly of that. You see, Anna is my older child but having grown up in Confucius teachings and the older culture, he practically ignored my daughter when we had visited him several years ago.
I used to hold that against him… but now, I just … let it go. He has known that culture for all his life and have realized that expecting him to love my daughter just as much as he would my son was more than he could. Perhaps, it was being a principal but I remember him being very strict and … not very fun to be around. My (paternal) grandmother was so much kinder, though I barely remember her now… She passed away when I was only about 20. Having bored 10 children was more than she could handle. The biggest thing I remember was that she would let me go out to play when grandpa told us not to go outside.
Namwon was a countryside back then… no covered roads to home… just dirt. So the beginning decades for me weren’t very fond memories of him. But as conversations come back again and again to it, jung (?, the essence of emotional bonds between people that is formed over time and/or circumstances) is a very strong and scary stuff.
Since adulthood, I have had the opportunity to visit him again and again. Once he came to visit us in the States. We drove him around even to Canada to sightsee. Over the years, I noticed him getting… softer. It was rather subtle but it was there. He was less strict and laughed more (at least to what I remember).
I’d like to believe that he died peacefully having made peace with what he could and the people that he could. Seeing all those people coming to pay respects reminded me that he did something right. But it was definitely a gentler and softer grandfather that I remember now… I am so glad that is how I remember him. See you soon grandpa… Hope you can see JJ from up there…
My all-time favorite Hayao Miyazaki’s earlier work/classic is now available in its entirety for FREE! Thanks to Google Video… Here it is! It’s a must!
For almost 4 years my family lived in Seoul in Sung-book Gu (???) during my elementary school years. My (mathernal) grandparents lived not too far from us. I think it was about 20 minutes by walking distance.
Few things I recall about my grandparents, I wanted to write them here more for my own sake than others so I can remember about them. My grandfather was a busy man so I don’t remember much about him at all other than he was a collector of all sorts, including Korean art. I think I have some of that gene as I love collecting things.
Unfortunately, things about my grandfather ends there. It’s my grandmother (????) that I remember more of. She had a … vibrant spirit about her. She was always very straightforward and told things as she saw them.
One, she loved wrestling. In my youth days, there was one Korean short wrestler by the name of Kim Il (? ?) who was infamous for head butting his opponents. She would always watch him play and would love seeing his head butting. I obviously didn’t think much of it at the time, being about 10 years old at that time but it has strangely become a fond memory of her. Weird? I think once time goes by, any memories one retains of the person stays.
Another thing I recall is how she loved to cook. ? (ssook) is a rather common plant as the picture above shows and is known as Asteraceae. This was a very common plant that was everywhere, at least while I was a kid, in Korea. I remember grandma would ask us to go out with her and pick these by the bag-fulls! What did she do with them? Why, make rice cakes (?) of course! ?? (pronounced ssook-dduk) would come out rather dark green in color and didn’t taste very good. Well, to be honest, it tasted terrible!
However, I’d pay million bucks to go back in time to about picking ? with her and I’d gladly eat all the ?? that she would give if I could… I guess I feel nostalgic and miss her. I sure hope she’s making me plenty of ?? up in heaven… I bet she’s picking them up in heaven right about now… See you soon grandma.