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The General's parents have been trying to get the kids over for another overnight visit and wanted to have them out Friday into Saturday and so the General trying to sell them on it says that "it's just boring adults hanging out and going places, it's probably not going to be that interesting" so Crookshanks says indignantly "Of course it's going to be interesting, they're from FaWtL!"Are you going to tell us who's visiting, or is it a sekret?
Zelda, Aiymi, and I. Zelda's eldest has spent the week visiting with friends in the rural area NW of Eau Claire WI. She was told to get a bus ticket to come back home, so she got one. To Madison. Because she's 17.
So we're going to make a day of it and head up there to get some lunch at Grumpy Troll then meet up with Cap and company. The kid's bus comes in at 6pm, so we'll pick her up then and be home by about 9-10pm.
I hope you have a kickass time.
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KFC's grilled chicken is pretty good. Mmph. I like grilled chicken. Fried chicken with batter just makes me feel guilty.
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Off to Lake Geneva again, should be a long day, entirely on OT hours.
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Is gencon going on now?
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KFC's grilled chicken is pretty good. Mmph. I like grilled chicken. Fried chicken with batter just makes me feel guilty.
Wait 'til you're over 50.
Dressing your salad will make you feel guilty.
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Cleavage, cleavage everywhere. It's like being at a Barbarian's Rage-Off, only with extra bosoms.
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Renting equipment is entertaining insomuch as it's all about how often it gets rented, NOT how much it costs.
For example, renting a compact car you can easily find one at $45/day (usually significantly less), or around 0.25% of the car's purchase price per day. In fact, no matter what kind of fancy-schmancy car you get, nor what kind of rip-off artist car rental place you go to (I'm looking at you, Hertz!), you'd be hard-pressed to find a place that cost over 1% of the car's value per day.
On the other hand, last year I rented backpacks for the kids for a 5-day trip. They were roughly $25/day. This year, since the kids have indicated at least a willingness to keep up the backpacking tradition, I decided to buy packs. At $250 each.
So renting a backpack is 10% of the pack's value per day. All of a sudden buying the pack seems like a much better decision.
And now it has me wondering: What's the worst possible thing to rent from a price to rent vs. price to buy perspective?
I know the RV was ridiculously expensive per day, but it was still around the 1-2% mark, so the backpacks are the worst I know of at the moment...
EDIT: I just remembered: Appliance dollys from moving places. $15/day vs. $100 to buy, so I'm up to 15%...
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Renting equipment is entertaining insomuch as it's all about how often it gets rented, NOT how much it costs.
For example, renting a compact car you can easily find one at $45/day (usually significantly less), or around 0.25% of the car's purchase price per day. In fact, no matter what kind of fancy-schmancy car you get, nor what kind of rip-off artist car rental place you go to (I'm looking at you, Hertz!), you'd be hard-pressed to find a place that cost over 1% of the car's value per day.
On the other hand, last year I rented backpacks for the kids for a 5-day trip. They were roughly $25/day. This year, since the kids have indicated at least a willingness to keep up the backpacking tradition, I decided to buy packs. At $250 each.
So renting a backpack is 10% of the pack's value per day. All of a sudden buying the pack seems like a much better decision.And now it has me wondering: What's the worst possible thing to rent from a price to rent vs. price to buy perspective?
I know the RV was ridiculously expensive per day, but it was still around the 1-2% mark, so the backpacks are the worst I know of at the moment...EDIT: I just remembered: Appliance dollys from moving places. $15/day vs. $100 to buy, so I'm up to 15%...
Movies. A ticket to a crappy cinema for a crappy movie can cost you 15 zloty here. Later you can get a cheap DVD edition for... 15-30 zloty.
(20 zloty - approximately the price of McDonald meal, 40 zloty price of a good 20-25 inch diameter pizza with multiple toppings).
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Ii hope that you all have a wonderful time.The General's parents have been trying to get the kids over for another overnight visit and wanted to have them out Friday into Saturday and so the General trying to sell them on it says that "it's just boring adults hanging out and going places, it's probably not going to be that interesting" so Crookshanks says indignantly "Of course it's going to be interesting, they're from FaWtL!"Are you going to tell us who's visiting, or is it a sekret?
Zelda, Aiymi, and I. Zelda's eldest has spent the week visiting with friends in the rural area NW of Eau Claire WI. She was told to get a bus ticket to come back home, so she got one. To Madison. Because she's 17.
So we're going to make a day of it and head up there to get some lunch at Grumpy Troll then meet up with Cap and company. The kid's bus comes in at 6pm, so we'll pick her up then and be home by about 9-10pm.
+1
Really sounds like a nice little excursion.
Have a fun time Vany's and Cap's respective family groups.
Cleavage, cleavage everywhere. It's like being at a Barbarian's Rage-Off, only with extra bosoms.
Kjeldorn wants to be where you're at...
Purely for the aesthetic experience, mind you…KFC's grilled chicken is pretty good. Mmph. I like grilled chicken. Fried chicken with batter just makes me feel guilty.
*Munches on some chicken-wings*
Feel what now?| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Movies are also a case of instant vs delayed gratification. Tickets are expensive partly because you are effectively paying a premium to see it sooner.
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Speaking of getting older...
...my former co-worker (now retired) used to take a full month of unpaid leave every year, because
(1) He could afford it, and
(2) He said he needed it.
Now that I'm over 50, the idea of just taking a month every year to relax, recharge, work on the house, etc., sounds like heaven.
So why do kids get 12+ weeks off a year in the prime of their lives (14-22), yet us older folk have to fight hard just to get 4?
Meh. Just thinking about it because I'm on the final day before a 2-week vacation, and 2 weeks seems like such a long vacation for me these days, and it really isn't.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Speaking of getting older...
...my former co-worker (now retired) used to take a full month of unpaid leave every year, because
(1) He could afford it, and
(2) He said he needed it.Now that I'm over 50, the idea of just taking a month every year to relax, recharge, work on the house, etc., sounds like heaven.
So why do kids get 12+ weeks off a year in the prime of their lives (14-22), yet us older folk have to fight hard just to get 4?
Meh. Just thinking about it because I'm on the final day before a 2-week vacation, and 2 weeks seems like such a long vacation for me these days, and it really isn't.
As I've been told, because the school year is scheduled around the harvest. Now that there's minimal need for kids to help on the farm, it could change, but we hold to it out of tradition and the utter disaster that would probably ensue from trying to change it.
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Personally, I'd love to phase out summer vacation in favor of smaller quarterly breaks because Jesus H Christmas, getting kids to retain information over summer.
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Also getting back into the swing of things after three months is havoc on the ol' sleep schedule.
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When I used to work at a Megacorp there were a few people I worked with that would take an entire month off. I had to fight just to have a week off and not lose my job.
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Personally, I'd love to phase out summer vacation in favor of smaller quarterly breaks because Jesus H Christmas, getting kids to retain information over summer.
All kinds of studies show that summer breaks kill education as kids forget what they learned.
But until teachers stop piling ludicrous amounts of homework on students (Impus Major averages 3 hours a night, so combined with his 7.5-hour school day he's working 10.5 hours a day, plus another 6 hours on weekends, or 58.5 hours/week. Yes, that's under the teachers' 60-70 hours/week, but could we give all involved parties a break, please?), and parents are pretty much required to at least help students manage their time, if not out-and-out help with the homework, parents'll never go for it.
(My life during summer break is SOOOOO much easier. It's kind of scary to realize just how much time I have to dedicate to getting the kids out the door in the morning, doing their homework in the afternoon, and prepped for the next day in the evening.)
EDIT: I also like to point out to anyone who'll listen that Impus Major went from a "C with difficulties" in math to an "A and kicking everyone else's butt" in math solely because he went from a 40-problem-per-night teacher to a 10-problem-per-night teacher, so he could actually take the time to understand the problems. His worst-ever was a chemistry teacher who had them fill out spreadsheets of ionic bonds. By hand. A couple of hours of stupid busywork a night, teaching the kids nothing but a hatred of chemistry.
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Personally, I'd love to phase out summer vacation in favor of smaller quarterly breaks because Jesus H Christmas, getting kids to retain information over summer.
Getting kids to retain information over the weekend is bad enough.
I think Zelda is going to have a pretty hard time getting the kids back on their regular sleep schedules with school coming up again in 2 weeks.
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Cleavage, cleavage everywhere. It's like being at a Barbarian's Rage-Off, only with extra bosoms.
hooba jooba whaaaaaa?
Even in my depressed state, I would like to know where you are.
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I am not a big believer in the "kids forget everything the instant they leave" philosophy, largely for the reasons NH pointed out, but also because it is something I see in adults more than children. Besides, if it was true, none of us would know how to read. At least I wouldn't, as summer vacation meant grandmas house and daytime tv.
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Is gencon going on now?Yes. In Indianapolis.
He never listens to me. I told him over text that GenCon is in Indy yesterday.
Oh...wait...NYC thinking...No Freehold, Indianapolis is nowhere near Wisconsin. See, we have this thing called "distance" between places in this part of the country. It's about a 4.5 hour drive between Indy and Lake Geneva, and that's assuming you don't spend any additional time with delays going through Chicago. Or just getting out of Indy.
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Is gencon going on now?Yes. In Indianapolis.He never listens to me. I told him over text that GenCon is in Indy yesterday.
Oh...wait...NYC thinking...No Freehold, Indianapolis is nowhere near Wisconsin. See, we have this thing called "distance" between places in this part of the country. It's about a 4.5 hour drive between Indy and Lake Geneva, and that's assuming you don't spend any additional time with delays going through Chicago. Or just getting out of Indy.
oh no, I know those are different places. I just thought the con was over.
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Personally, I'd love to phase out summer vacation in favor of smaller quarterly breaks because Jesus H Christmas, getting kids to retain information over summer.
that almost happened in NY. But the chancellor who was about to create the system died not long after he got in office. Heart attack.
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I'm torn on the homework issue.
Every district I've worked in has been low-income with a large proportion of kids holding down part-time jobs, so we're all encouraged to not load on the homework. At the same time, we're expected to cram in an insane amount of information that needs homework for practicing to make sure they get it. I try to ease off, but I have no idea how the other departments handle it.
And this is more anecdotal, but I do make it a point to give at least 10 minutes of class to at least get started on the assignment...and I always see the kids complaining the most about how much work they have using that class time to screw around. I know that's not every kid, but...this is how perceptions get formed.
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oh no, I know those are different places. I just thought the con was over.Is gencon going on now?Yes. In Indianapolis.He never listens to me. I told him over text that GenCon is in Indy yesterday.
Oh...wait...NYC thinking...No Freehold, Indianapolis is nowhere near Wisconsin. See, we have this thing called "distance" between places in this part of the country. It's about a 4.5 hour drive between Indy and Lake Geneva, and that's assuming you don't spend any additional time with delays going through Chicago. Or just getting out of Indy.
And to be clear - just a little sarcastic ribbing, hopefully to get at least a little smile on your face. You've driven through Ohio. I know you understand. ;)
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Personally, I'd love to phase out summer vacation in favor of smaller quarterly breaks because Jesus H Christmas, getting kids to retain information over summer.that almost happened in NY. But the chancellor who was about to create the system died not long after he got in office. Heart attack.
There's at least one district in the STL metro area that does it. I remember my parents commenting on it before we moved. Not sure if they still do it, though.
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I am not a big believer in the "kids forget everything the instant they leave" philosophy, largely for the reasons NH pointed out, but also because it is something I see in adults more than children. Besides, if it was true, none of us would know how to read. At least I wouldn't, as summer vacation meant grandmas house and daytime tv.
writes "Test tomorrow" in big letters on the board
"Okay, don't forget to study for the test!"
---
"Everything off your desks except a pencil."
"Wait, we have a test?"
Every. Time.
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Every now and then, I flirt with the idea of a flipped classroom - screencast video lessons onto Classroom and use class time to have discussions and practice. But I think that might actually take up more time at home than "here is a grammar worksheet, go forth my child."
Plus, there's every chance they won't, y'know...actually watch it, so I have to use class time to catch them up to things anyway...
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There's a few private and charter schools around that have toyed with scheduling and tried year-round schedules. Mixed reviews, a lot of noise garbling any real data from being informative.
In the public school sphere, I know Bloomington High School, back in the late 80's, was using a schedule with kids only being in class from 8am to 2:30pm with a half hour lunch in there, so only in the classrooms for 4 hours per day.
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Honestly, my issue right now with how we approach education reform is that they've politicized the issue.
If you really want to compare/contrast an initiative's impact, you need at least 13 years: K-12. Compare test scores of this K-12 test school across those children's school career to a school not using said initiative. But we don't have terms that last 13 years. Presidential is 4, Reps are 2, and Senators are 6.
As we're doing now, we're testing kids against standards that were not in place at their earlier grade levels...and wondering why there are gaps. We're also testing students via platforms that aren't always prepared for proper accommodations, which leaves our hands tied for kids that need them.
So yeah, let's keep changing things every 4 years or so. I'm sure that won't confuse the crud out of the kiddos, give them testing fatigue to the point of apathy, and make them feel incapable because the metrics we have to examine their success with keep changing...
But it'll make Candidate Bob look like he's doing something!
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Is gencon going on now?Yes. In Indianapolis.He never listens to me. I told him over text that GenCon is in Indy yesterday.
Oh...wait...NYC thinking...No Freehold, Indianapolis is nowhere near Wisconsin. See, we have this thing called "distance" between places in this part of the country. It's about a 4.5 hour drive between Indy and Lake Geneva, and that's assuming you don't spend any additional time with delays going through Chicago. Or just getting out of Indy.
Oh, jeez. Just try living in California and talking to Europeans.
"Yeah, I live just east of San Francisco!"
"Oh, so you must go to Disneyland every day!"
"Er, no... Disneyland's just south of Los Angeles."
"So? It's what? A 2-hour drive?"
"Not... quite..."
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Ah, map scaling.
Reminds me of a quote I saw somewhere.
"Europeans think 100 miles is a long drive. Americans think 100 years is a long time."
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KFC's grilled chicken is pretty good. Mmph. I like grilled chicken. Fried chicken with batter just makes me feel guilty.Wait 'til you're over 50.
Dressing your salad will make you feel guilty.
I'm trying to train myself to eat salad without dressing. If you give me a grilled chicken to go with my salad, I don't need dressing. If I pop open a can of tuna, the brine solution is sufficient for dressing.
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I actually do wonder the impact it would have on our society if we changed how summer vacation worked. Specifically seasonal employment.
A lot of businesses depend on having high school kids as summer workers. Summer vacation's hypothetically now three weeks instead of twelve. That's not gonna work so well.
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Ripple effects like that are interesting.
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I'm currently making 21 dollars an hour to make mud (and water a shitload of plants).
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Personally, I'd love to phase out summer vacation in favor of smaller quarterly breaks because Jesus H Christmas, getting kids to retain information over summer.All kinds of studies show that summer breaks kill education as kids forget what they learned.
But until teachers stop piling ludicrous amounts of homework on students (Impus Major averages 3 hours a night, so combined with his 7.5-hour school day he's working 10.5 hours a day, plus another 6 hours on weekends, or 58.5 hours/week. Yes, that's under the teachers' 60-70 hours/week, but could we give all involved parties a break, please?), and parents are pretty much required to at least help students manage their time, if not out-and-out help with the homework, parents'll never go for it.
(My life during summer break is SOOOOO much easier. It's kind of scary to realize just how much time I have to dedicate to getting the kids out the door in the morning, doing their homework in the afternoon, and prepped for the next day in the evening.)
EDIT: I also like to point out to anyone who'll listen that Impus Major went from a "C with difficulties" in math to an "A and kicking everyone else's butt" in math solely because he went from a 40-problem-per-night teacher to a 10-problem-per-night teacher, so he could actually take the time to understand the problems. His worst-ever was a chemistry teacher who had them fill out spreadsheets of ionic bonds. By hand. A couple of hours of stupid busywork a night, teaching the kids nothing but a hatred of chemistry.
NH - my college was full of days with like 4-5 hours sleep. So yeah, 19 hours study + revision.
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And to be clear - just a little sarcastic ribbing, hopefully to get at least a little smile on your face. You've driven through Ohio. I know you understand. ;)oh no, I know those are different places. I just thought the con was over.Is gencon going on now?Yes. In Indianapolis.He never listens to me. I told him over text that GenCon is in Indy yesterday.
Oh...wait...NYC thinking...No Freehold, Indianapolis is nowhere near Wisconsin. See, we have this thing called "distance" between places in this part of the country. It's about a 4.5 hour drive between Indy and Lake Geneva, and that's assuming you don't spend any additional time with delays going through Chicago. Or just getting out of Indy.
if I didnt understand before, I do now! Lol!
It still amazes me that things are so far apart outside of NY. Talking with my friend and you helps to put a human face on it. But there is a reason why I am probably never moving outside of Brooklyn, and that's because I can get literally any kind of food I want, within reason, within 50 minutes or so. And that's by foot/bus. Dont get me started on car/bike.
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Honestly, my issue right now with how we approach education reform is that they've politicized the issue.
If you really want to compare/contrast an initiative's impact, you need at least 13 years: K-12. Compare test scores of this K-12 test school across those children's school career to a school not using said initiative. But we don't have terms that last 13 years. Presidential is 4, Reps are 2, and Senators are 6.
As we're doing now, we're testing kids against standards that were not in place at their earlier grade levels...and wondering why there are gaps. We're also testing students via platforms that aren't always prepared for proper accommodations, which leaves our hands tied for kids that need them.
So yeah, let's keep changing things every 4 years or so. I'm sure that won't confuse the crud out of the kiddos, give them testing fatigue to the point of apathy, and make them feel incapable because the metrics we have to examine their success with keep changing...
But it'll make Candidate Bob look like he's doing something!
interesting.
Very much so.
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Is gencon going on now?Yes. In Indianapolis.He never listens to me. I told him over text that GenCon is in Indy yesterday.
Oh...wait...NYC thinking...No Freehold, Indianapolis is nowhere near Wisconsin. See, we have this thing called "distance" between places in this part of the country. It's about a 4.5 hour drive between Indy and Lake Geneva, and that's assuming you don't spend any additional time with delays going through Chicago. Or just getting out of Indy.
Oh, jeez. Just try living in California and talking to Europeans.
"Yeah, I live just east of San Francisco!"
"Oh, so you must go to Disneyland every day!"
"Er, no... Disneyland's just south of Los Angeles."
"So? It's what? A 2-hour drive?"
"Not... quite..."
Hey!
…And its 2 to 2½ hours of driving (depending on direction) to get to any border with another country thank you very much...
...Americans think 100 years is a long time.
Well…
It kind of isn't.At least not outside your average persons lifespan…in terms of the development of societies, ethnicities, nations and the like.
Heck even in terms of modern cultural and societal developments a 100 years is a bit on the short-ish side.
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Gods, sometimes it's hard working for a Global Megacorporation.
They tinkered with the user interface for our coding tool, and it is now, without exaggeration, the worst user interface I have ever worked with. There are not one, not two, but THREE nested vertical scroll bars. In the innermost pane are not one, not two, but THREE panels, and you can't see more than one of them at once, even though you need to know what the settings are on one panel before you do anything with another panel. To make the whole thing truly wonderful, this whole mess takes up all of 2" of vertical space on your monitor and is not resizable.
In short, it's unusable. If I were a customer and I were to see that interface alone, I'd decline to buy the product.
As a customer advocate, I want to point this out to the powers-that-be and say, "Someone needs to be fired over this!"
Knowing how Global Megacorporation, the response would be, "OK, out the door you go!"
It's... hard...
EDIT: OK, I showed the problem to my manager, just for due diligence, and she found that they'd added a little unlabeled button that pops the editor into full-screen mode and actually makes it usable. So, why does it even have the unusable version? Heck if I know. Elephino?
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Oh, jeez. Just try living in California and talking to Europeans."Yeah, I live just east of San Francisco!"
"Oh, so you must go to Disneyland every day!"
"Er, no... Disneyland's just south of Los Angeles."
"So? It's what? A 2-hour drive?"
"Not... quite..."
Hey!
…
And its 2 to 2½ hours of driving (depending on direction) to get to any border with another country thank you very much......Americans think 100 years is a long time.Well…
It kind of isn't.
At least not outside your average persons lifespan…in terms of the development of societies, ethnicities, nations and the like.
Heck even in terms of modern cultural and societal developments a 100 years is a bit on the short-ish side.
Think in terms of architecture. Europe is full of buildings that have been around for several hundred years. In America, if it gets over 50-75 years old and has any major problems, people start talking about tearing it down and putting up something new instead. When we have a building that sticks around for anything over 100 years, people start looking at it in pure amazement, as if it's hardly possible for something to stand for so long.
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NH - my college was full of days with like 4-5 hours sleep. So yeah, 19 hours study + revision.Personally, I'd love to phase out summer vacation in favor of smaller quarterly breaks because Jesus H Christmas, getting kids to retain information over summer.All kinds of studies show that summer breaks kill education as kids forget what they learned.
But until teachers stop piling ludicrous amounts of homework on students (Impus Major averages 3 hours a night, so combined with his 7.5-hour school day he's working 10.5 hours a day, plus another 6 hours on weekends, or 58.5 hours/week. Yes, that's under the teachers' 60-70 hours/week, but could we give all involved parties a break, please?), and parents are pretty much required to at least help students manage their time, if not out-and-out help with the homework, parents'll never go for it.
(My life during summer break is SOOOOO much easier. It's kind of scary to realize just how much time I have to dedicate to getting the kids out the door in the morning, doing their homework in the afternoon, and prepped for the next day in the evening.)
EDIT: I also like to point out to anyone who'll listen that Impus Major went from a "C with difficulties" in math to an "A and kicking everyone else's butt" in math solely because he went from a 40-problem-per-night teacher to a 10-problem-per-night teacher, so he could actually take the time to understand the problems. His worst-ever was a chemistry teacher who had them fill out spreadsheets of ionic bonds. By hand. A couple of hours of stupid busywork a night, teaching the kids nothing but a hatred of chemistry.
O_O
Really!?
If I look at the time I spend on lectures, assignments, reading, smaller classes…I would be looking at around 30-ish? maybe 35 hours a week!
Now during exam time, I would be pushing around 40-45 hours a week, but definitely no more then that!
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I never went to college, but I was kicked out of one.
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Ah, map scaling.
Reminds me of a quote I saw somewhere.
"Europeans think 100 miles is a long drive. Americans think 100 years is a long time."
Oh, please, here within 100 miles you can find sites that contain human (oid) remains 80-100 thousands year old.
100 years? That's not history, that's current affairs...
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We're at T minus 72 hours at the latest.
My kitchen is entirely packed except for the contents of the refrigerator. All of our furniture is on the truck except for the mattresses and WW's desk. But his entire closet and office still remain to be boxed up, and all my sewing supplies in the attic. And a few more piles of books.
So we're something vaguely resembling almost on schedule.
Except for we just remembered that we have to arrange to get the utilities set up at the house. Because actually having water and electricity and gas is good.