Splashin', gettin erbody all wet. This ain't SeaWorld, this as real as it gets! I'm on a boat.....
If you know the song then you understand why I ended when I did.
The world is a very scary place. Now, how am I going to tie that to this rantfest/argument with myself/blog?
I find it tiresome, to scream at this webpage with all the things I already know, things I've already discussed, things I've already researched, things I've seen with my own two eyes. I find it frustrating to have to explain something in order for you, the reader, to keep up with what I'm saying. If I talk to my brother I can jump in at any point in a conversation and he's right there with me, essentially agreeing with me, while we tear down the balcony of all that society would have us become accustomed to. For others though, the vast majority of which don't understand most of what I say or do. If they attempt to it's no deep understanding, which is the goal really. I just thought of Indiana Jones. The new one, with the crystal skulls. See, I don't even want to go through the chore of explaining the significance of that simply because by the end of it you would most likely go "Eh, okay."
I have enough words. This week's blog post are over. Roasted.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Watch this
I'm going to start showing you the film Waiting for Superman in it's entirety. If you want to watch it's on YouTube, just search. It's all on there.
Kickapoo
Kickapoo. They are an actual Indian tribe. How did they come up with their name? Were they just standing around one day, nonchalantly kicking turds around, when someone said "Hey we should call ourselves the Kickapoo tribe. I think that really captures our image."
I have a headache. I get headaches when I go to school. Why? Why am I stressed so by school? I really don't understand, I don't find the work difficult, I just don't want to do it. I think the reason I feel so burdened and honestly just annoyed by school is the fact that I think of how many things I don't want to do all the time. Each day in one class or another I'll think "Man I really don't want to be doing this" or "That project is due tomorrow. Crap." Right now I don't want to be writing blog posts, but I am, because I'm an over-achiever and a loser with nothing better to do. I think I'd rather like to sit around and think of something awesome before attempting to blog about it, but because we have the requirement of 1200 words and three blog posts per week, I'm rambling about insignificant meanderings which have only the loosest connection to the central topic.
I find politics a massive waste of time. I sense many people feel the same way. Why does it take so long for anything to get done? The answer lies miserably in that it takes so long for the extreme political animals to yell at each other and argue and call for a recess and then regroup and argue some more, give up ground, argue some more, have another recess, call a committee, find out the committee is useless, yell some more, tear up the proposed bill, argue and argue and argue and confuse and sensationalize and then filibuster and then have an affair with someone and then somebody dies, so that puts things on hold for a year. After all of that we now have a different grade of highway paint....sweet. The above scenario is completely hypothetical yet an accurate representation of how things work in politics. I would absolutely hate being a politician and I honestly don't hold them in a very high regard whatsoever. They aren't going to solve mankind's problems, no single person can nor can a massive body of elected officials. I digress. It's in my firm belief that education works much the same as politics. In class I will hear the teacher answer the same question 15 times. If asked enough times the teacher will give up and give everyone the correct answer for the aforementioned question that is apparently impossible to figure out, even though I figured it out the first time she explained it. How often do politicians answer the same question over and over and over? A bunch. How often are there answers misinterpreted or mined for quotes? All the time. How often do teachers answer the same question? I just gave you a scenario depicting such a situation. What happens if the teacher gives a slightly different answer from one person to the next? It becomes a yelling match of "Hey that's not what you said!!" or "She told me wrong" or blah blah blah blah blah! Figure it out! If anything is too change, whether it be an assignment, a project, or something larger like class schedules, it's the same drill. Someone doesn't figure it out, someone else yells at someone else for it, someone else has to go to the bathroom, and during the whole thing no one is listening and it just becomes a massive waste of time.
Yes, that is why I get headaches. I don't like talking, I don't like making useless noising. I prefer quiet. I prefer actually doing something worthwhile and not screwing around the whole time. No one cares about your girlfriend or boyfriend troubles, so don't talk about them. No one else cares that you're having a bad day, shut up. I hardly talk as it is, even if I'm having an awesome day, so if I'm having a bad day I'm not going to broadcast it. Look at me, I am somehow going to feel better by talking about how crappy this day is...what?! Shut up! Fix your problems, don't complain about them! I realize that in this blog I am basically complaining about things, but 90% of the time I give a new way to make things complained about better. I would like to have nothing to complain about, few things that I do have to be annoyed at. I have a roof over my head, money in the bank, food in the fridge, clean water to drink, when was the last time you didn't have those things?
People have come to expect everything to just be handed to them, both in school and in life. If I tell you something and you choose not to pay attention I'm not explaining it again, why would I? Teachers generally feel the same way but they give one-on-one attention to students, time and time again, teaching them things that they will almost certainly forget directly following the test they desperately crammed for day in and day out. People look to politicians and leaders to solve their problems when what they should be doing is looking in a mirror. It's my firm belief that 90% of people's problems originate from their own indifference and/or laziness. You don't have any money? Get a job. You don't have any education? Get one. You don't have any money for an education? Get a job. Don't have a girlfriend? Buy some deodorant and get rid of your thirty cats. You think society is messed up? Look at yourself.
Bam! I've said some harsh things in this post, but people are soft. Quit being so soft people. Grow a pair
Boom. Roasted.
I have a headache. I get headaches when I go to school. Why? Why am I stressed so by school? I really don't understand, I don't find the work difficult, I just don't want to do it. I think the reason I feel so burdened and honestly just annoyed by school is the fact that I think of how many things I don't want to do all the time. Each day in one class or another I'll think "Man I really don't want to be doing this" or "That project is due tomorrow. Crap." Right now I don't want to be writing blog posts, but I am, because I'm an over-achiever and a loser with nothing better to do. I think I'd rather like to sit around and think of something awesome before attempting to blog about it, but because we have the requirement of 1200 words and three blog posts per week, I'm rambling about insignificant meanderings which have only the loosest connection to the central topic.
I find politics a massive waste of time. I sense many people feel the same way. Why does it take so long for anything to get done? The answer lies miserably in that it takes so long for the extreme political animals to yell at each other and argue and call for a recess and then regroup and argue some more, give up ground, argue some more, have another recess, call a committee, find out the committee is useless, yell some more, tear up the proposed bill, argue and argue and argue and confuse and sensationalize and then filibuster and then have an affair with someone and then somebody dies, so that puts things on hold for a year. After all of that we now have a different grade of highway paint....sweet. The above scenario is completely hypothetical yet an accurate representation of how things work in politics. I would absolutely hate being a politician and I honestly don't hold them in a very high regard whatsoever. They aren't going to solve mankind's problems, no single person can nor can a massive body of elected officials. I digress. It's in my firm belief that education works much the same as politics. In class I will hear the teacher answer the same question 15 times. If asked enough times the teacher will give up and give everyone the correct answer for the aforementioned question that is apparently impossible to figure out, even though I figured it out the first time she explained it. How often do politicians answer the same question over and over and over? A bunch. How often are there answers misinterpreted or mined for quotes? All the time. How often do teachers answer the same question? I just gave you a scenario depicting such a situation. What happens if the teacher gives a slightly different answer from one person to the next? It becomes a yelling match of "Hey that's not what you said!!" or "She told me wrong" or blah blah blah blah blah! Figure it out! If anything is too change, whether it be an assignment, a project, or something larger like class schedules, it's the same drill. Someone doesn't figure it out, someone else yells at someone else for it, someone else has to go to the bathroom, and during the whole thing no one is listening and it just becomes a massive waste of time.
Yes, that is why I get headaches. I don't like talking, I don't like making useless noising. I prefer quiet. I prefer actually doing something worthwhile and not screwing around the whole time. No one cares about your girlfriend or boyfriend troubles, so don't talk about them. No one else cares that you're having a bad day, shut up. I hardly talk as it is, even if I'm having an awesome day, so if I'm having a bad day I'm not going to broadcast it. Look at me, I am somehow going to feel better by talking about how crappy this day is...what?! Shut up! Fix your problems, don't complain about them! I realize that in this blog I am basically complaining about things, but 90% of the time I give a new way to make things complained about better. I would like to have nothing to complain about, few things that I do have to be annoyed at. I have a roof over my head, money in the bank, food in the fridge, clean water to drink, when was the last time you didn't have those things?
People have come to expect everything to just be handed to them, both in school and in life. If I tell you something and you choose not to pay attention I'm not explaining it again, why would I? Teachers generally feel the same way but they give one-on-one attention to students, time and time again, teaching them things that they will almost certainly forget directly following the test they desperately crammed for day in and day out. People look to politicians and leaders to solve their problems when what they should be doing is looking in a mirror. It's my firm belief that 90% of people's problems originate from their own indifference and/or laziness. You don't have any money? Get a job. You don't have any education? Get one. You don't have any money for an education? Get a job. Don't have a girlfriend? Buy some deodorant and get rid of your thirty cats. You think society is messed up? Look at yourself.
Bam! I've said some harsh things in this post, but people are soft. Quit being so soft people. Grow a pair
Boom. Roasted.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
I Like Pancakes
The link to the article I'm talking about is here.
Read the article, please.
No Child Left Behind has got to be by far one the worst laws ever created, and in my opinion the worst that has ever been implemented.
I have not read the hundreds of pages that make up the entirity of the bill; I have a life. Nonetheless I can still point out the gaping holes of idiocy between the non-existent bits of good sense. George Bush, what were you thinking?! My god man, did you throw darts at a board covered with terrible ideas and throw together whatever you hit? How does someone come up with such a crappy law and think it's a good idea?
I remember last year taking the annual statewide tests over all the core areas. The school was offering incentives (in the form of the option to be exempt from finals) to students if they did one of three things: 1) improve 3 points on the composite from last year, 2) score above the 42nd percentile on the composite, or 3) score above the 85th percentile. WHO CAN'T DO ONE OF THOSE THINGS?! Honestly, they tell you you're supposed to gain about 4 points every year, that is if you're an average student, you're set. If you score usually in the 60th percentile, you're set. And if you're generally achieving more than most, if you're in the 85th percentile, you're set. If a kid scored in the 9th this year, up from the 6th percentile, where he fell the year prior, he gets to skip a final?! I don't think so! Those kids who either can't or won't seem to learn anything very fast are the kids that need to take tests. Maybe if they get tested on something over and over and over and over and over and over and over something will stick. I also remember that my math teacher, whose room I was taking all these tests in, said that the state hoped to have 100% of the kids in the state above the 42nd percentile. .....hmmmm Him being a math teacher and I being one with a good understanding of mathematics, we burst out laughing at this impossible goal. You simply cannot have 100 kids performing better than the bottom 42. It cannot happen in this universe. No. It's against the rules. Mr. President, go back to school first, and then realize your No Child Left Behind is utterly senseless.
For those of you just joining us, I am one who believes in those who are academically and generally excellent, those people at the top of society, those who get things done and don't apologize for succeeding. I absolutely hate it when people think they are deserving because they try or because they were born in a geographic area or during a certain time period. It isn't my fault nor is it my problem if you are an old person who lived through the Depression and who has failing health, so why should I pay for your healthcare? It isn't my fault your old country sucks and that you can't speak English, why should I pay taxes for your kids to go to our schools? It isn't my obligation to see that you have a job when you return home from war, why would you think so? If you want to debate freedom and service and sacrifice, not only is that another conversation but a ball-stompingly intense experience. Free enterprise. Survival of the fittest. Boo yah, grandma.
Why then, if our country was founded on these principles, do we run our schools like a super-liberal, everybody-is-going-to-be-happy-or-else kind of institution? Tracking isn't allowed in this country. That is, they do keep track of our scores and everything, but they don't affect you. Your scores don't hinder you in any way in this country. You could be a high-school graduate with a 1.77 GPA with an ACT score of nine, but if you've got enough money and the ability to make an effort, you could graduate with a law degree.
........How does that make sense? I'm certainly not going to hire someone such as just described to be my lawyer, and I think it insulting to other lawyers for an institution of higher learning to award such a person a degree in law. That sounds horrible and cynical, but if you don't have not demonstrated the mental capacity to make a compelling defense in court, or really learn anything in your entire career in primary education, how do you expect to succeed? I realize there are many, many, different types and practices of law, and obviously they don't all involve courtrooms, but my principle remains valid.
I don't quite know how to rap this up. I believe test scores and demonstrating ability says more than effort, and I don't think that people should be awarded for trying really hard, which I've said before but there are still more specific discussions to dissect.
Boom. Roasted.
Read the article, please.
No Child Left Behind has got to be by far one the worst laws ever created, and in my opinion the worst that has ever been implemented.
I have not read the hundreds of pages that make up the entirity of the bill; I have a life. Nonetheless I can still point out the gaping holes of idiocy between the non-existent bits of good sense. George Bush, what were you thinking?! My god man, did you throw darts at a board covered with terrible ideas and throw together whatever you hit? How does someone come up with such a crappy law and think it's a good idea?
I remember last year taking the annual statewide tests over all the core areas. The school was offering incentives (in the form of the option to be exempt from finals) to students if they did one of three things: 1) improve 3 points on the composite from last year, 2) score above the 42nd percentile on the composite, or 3) score above the 85th percentile. WHO CAN'T DO ONE OF THOSE THINGS?! Honestly, they tell you you're supposed to gain about 4 points every year, that is if you're an average student, you're set. If you score usually in the 60th percentile, you're set. And if you're generally achieving more than most, if you're in the 85th percentile, you're set. If a kid scored in the 9th this year, up from the 6th percentile, where he fell the year prior, he gets to skip a final?! I don't think so! Those kids who either can't or won't seem to learn anything very fast are the kids that need to take tests. Maybe if they get tested on something over and over and over and over and over and over and over something will stick. I also remember that my math teacher, whose room I was taking all these tests in, said that the state hoped to have 100% of the kids in the state above the 42nd percentile. .....hmmmm Him being a math teacher and I being one with a good understanding of mathematics, we burst out laughing at this impossible goal. You simply cannot have 100 kids performing better than the bottom 42. It cannot happen in this universe. No. It's against the rules. Mr. President, go back to school first, and then realize your No Child Left Behind is utterly senseless.
For those of you just joining us, I am one who believes in those who are academically and generally excellent, those people at the top of society, those who get things done and don't apologize for succeeding. I absolutely hate it when people think they are deserving because they try or because they were born in a geographic area or during a certain time period. It isn't my fault nor is it my problem if you are an old person who lived through the Depression and who has failing health, so why should I pay for your healthcare? It isn't my fault your old country sucks and that you can't speak English, why should I pay taxes for your kids to go to our schools? It isn't my obligation to see that you have a job when you return home from war, why would you think so? If you want to debate freedom and service and sacrifice, not only is that another conversation but a ball-stompingly intense experience. Free enterprise. Survival of the fittest. Boo yah, grandma.
Why then, if our country was founded on these principles, do we run our schools like a super-liberal, everybody-is-going-to-be-happy-or-else kind of institution? Tracking isn't allowed in this country. That is, they do keep track of our scores and everything, but they don't affect you. Your scores don't hinder you in any way in this country. You could be a high-school graduate with a 1.77 GPA with an ACT score of nine, but if you've got enough money and the ability to make an effort, you could graduate with a law degree.
........How does that make sense? I'm certainly not going to hire someone such as just described to be my lawyer, and I think it insulting to other lawyers for an institution of higher learning to award such a person a degree in law. That sounds horrible and cynical, but if you don't have not demonstrated the mental capacity to make a compelling defense in court, or really learn anything in your entire career in primary education, how do you expect to succeed? I realize there are many, many, different types and practices of law, and obviously they don't all involve courtrooms, but my principle remains valid.
I don't quite know how to rap this up. I believe test scores and demonstrating ability says more than effort, and I don't think that people should be awarded for trying really hard, which I've said before but there are still more specific discussions to dissect.
Boom. Roasted.
Mr. Anderson.......(matrix reference)
It's been a week since I've been on here. A week has seven days. A week has no astronomical benchmark. A year is one revolution of the Earth around the Sun. A day is one rotation on the Earth's axis. A month is one cycle of the moon. There is no reason that a week is seven days. We could call a week eleven days and have thirty-three weeks, but apparently that isn't cool. I suppose then we would have a workweek of seven days and four days of weekend, just to keep things proportional. Though in truth you would have to have eight days of normal days and then only three days weekend if you wanted to keep things exactly proportional. Do the math, it checks.
I have thoughts. Thoughts are cognitive sequences that often include ideas. Thus, I have ideas. Some ideas are good. Some ideas are incomplete or muddled. Some are terrible. Others are scary, the ones that I hope never come to pass (!!!Lord of the Rings!!!). These ideas aren't capable of being eradicated, though. Like a child stuck in a bad dream, experiencing the same blood-curdling horror over and over. And over again.
And then over again. I'll get to depressed if I blog with that same tone, but you get what I mean. Bad things are necessary for there to be good things, so there's no sense trying to get rid of all the bad because assuming you achieve the impossible by succeeding, you just destroyed everything that is good in this world because there is nothing to contrast it. And the theory that you could create a society which only has evil in the form of parking tickets or not recycling is also impossible. Sorry to rain on your parade, Democrats and those who are hopeful for mankind, but there never will be a society (at least on the mass scale and even on the micro-scale there are problems) that is completely free of crime, discrimination, pain or suffering. It simply will not happen. That's so depressing to think about. Imagine if there were no devil. Would there be a God? Why does God get capitalized? If there's no devil there is no hell, there are no demons, no underworld. Without the underworld where do the evil people go? And if there's only heaven left there's no cosmic counterbalance to keep it holy and pure, so heaven could turn into a strippin' bar and casino and still maintain the title of heaven. You can't have one without the other.
I have thoughts. Thoughts are cognitive sequences that often include ideas. Thus, I have ideas. Some ideas are good. Some ideas are incomplete or muddled. Some are terrible. Others are scary, the ones that I hope never come to pass (!!!Lord of the Rings!!!). These ideas aren't capable of being eradicated, though. Like a child stuck in a bad dream, experiencing the same blood-curdling horror over and over. And over again.
And then over again. I'll get to depressed if I blog with that same tone, but you get what I mean. Bad things are necessary for there to be good things, so there's no sense trying to get rid of all the bad because assuming you achieve the impossible by succeeding, you just destroyed everything that is good in this world because there is nothing to contrast it. And the theory that you could create a society which only has evil in the form of parking tickets or not recycling is also impossible. Sorry to rain on your parade, Democrats and those who are hopeful for mankind, but there never will be a society (at least on the mass scale and even on the micro-scale there are problems) that is completely free of crime, discrimination, pain or suffering. It simply will not happen. That's so depressing to think about. Imagine if there were no devil. Would there be a God? Why does God get capitalized? If there's no devil there is no hell, there are no demons, no underworld. Without the underworld where do the evil people go? And if there's only heaven left there's no cosmic counterbalance to keep it holy and pure, so heaven could turn into a strippin' bar and casino and still maintain the title of heaven. You can't have one without the other.
Friday, October 14, 2011
I started out with nothing and still have most of it left
^Quote from Seasick Steve, the famous hillbilly^
I just like that quote.
Recently I have been thinking immensely hard about things to blog about. To me, this blog has been an opportunity to take my mushy concepts and sloppily throw them against a metaphorical canvas see how it turns out. I think I've been stressing a bit too much about how it looks at the end of things, causing me to hold back in my posts. I've observed another thing (I observe everything in case you haven't noticed, haha that's like a pun, you observing my observation skills), and that is that I don't research or cite sources very often, which I initially saw as a negative, and something I should be doing. But then I thought, "Why the hell would I do that? This is the internet, I can publish any outlandish tale and someone, somewhere will believe me." I don't aim to create a revolution based on the notion that all Gummy Bears are actually tiny doses of demon that eventually turn us evil from the inside out and cause an all-out fission of all known things, I'm simply stating in a grandiose fashion, "I think what I think and I don't need someone's supporting evidence to think that". To confuse you further, I do have valid sources to draw from, I just don't cite them. I don't see the point of listing a bunch of things other people have said in their exact words, or even following closely to their words, because if all I say is someone else's words, then I'm not really saying anything at all am I?
I just finished watching some videos of pick-up artists in action, even them giving seminars for people to educate themselves of their methods. I know what you're thinking. You might be (and probably are) thinking that I'm a lonely, desperate person who has a severe lack of luck with the opposite sex; I've never had a relationship or have blown it when I had a chance. By power of suggestion you are most definitely thinking that and I'm now telling you that the hypothetical description of myself is false. Why not? Why not suggest an inaccurate conclusion and then deny any chance of it being true, which only further highlights the statement, "I was lying about lying and I actually have terrible luck with women, but I deny any notion of that even though I watched those videos and then told you why by describing someone to whom those videos would probably appeal the most, which was supposed to have the opposite effect but most people are able to read between the lines and see the truth!" I've already told you I watched those videos, for one reason or another, why not assume that I'm desperate and lonely? When you see a pregnant girl who's in high school do you automatically assume it was through fault of her own? Most people do, but the possibility is there for the thing God did to Mary, whatever the clinical term is, could've been rape, *!sensitive topic alert!* but statistics say it probably wasn't, so it's isn't unreasonable and even justifiable to think that she is someone of poorer socioeconomic status who got knocked up by her much older, dead-end-job-working alcoholic boyfriend. Now, through all of that did I confuse you, or did I confuse you? You haven't the slightest idea as to what I'm trying to say, you certainly don't know where we're going to end up, but I probably distracted you, if only for a moment, from those videos I started with.
In these videos, these pick-up artists, whether you like them or not, are really good teachers. If you subtract the material they're teaching and just evaluate how they're teaching the principle would hold true. I realize I do this a lot, and not suprisingly seeing as my experiences are limited due to my age, but these guys really reminded of my old German teacher. Like it was eerie how similar their techniques of presenting and discussing concepts were to my German teacher's. To completely remove any reservations you may have of these people as people based on what they're teaching, assume they teach a class for continuing education for working adults, say they teach Marketing. Apply the same methods and techniques they already use, and you have a wonderful marketing class. Mr. Ayers, if you do happen to read the blogs, which is improbable based on the sheer volume of posts there are to read, you use a lot of these same techniques as these guys. As from what I can tell Mr. Ayers, you are big into lectures, which is fabulous. Some teachers try to avoid lectures like the plague "because they're boring". No they aren't!!! You make something boring, something isn't just boring because that's the way it is!! My old science teacher (there's the previous teacher references again) delivered nearly 100% of his cirriculum via his own words, and you know what? He held the attention of the students! If he couldn't hold their attention, it wasn't a lack of ability or charisma on his part, it was the student's inability to focus and/or stay awake/hide their hangover/their addicition to texting/being uninterested deliberately etc. And if you're thinking, "some people don't learn well from listening to lectures," I have a huge balloon -popping-needle counter for that. Not only did he talk; he drew things on the board, and not just a general outline of things, he illustrated several pages worth of information with the space of a medium-sized whiteboard. Not only did he just talk and illustrate things, he brought in materials that related to what we were studying. For example, a very old camera to demonstrate certain properties of optics and how light behaved and what not. Boom. you have the three majors learning styles: lecturing and note-taking, visual, and tactile. In addition to all that, his goal was not to fill the student's head with a knowledge of test answers and one-liner definitions, his aim was to get the student to understand and at the very least have some idea how to apply this knowledge when necessary. He was a true believer in understanding concepts, the details of which are not nearly as important as understanding the idea. Who cares if you know the melting and freezing points of all the noble gases (which are extremely close and difficult to achieve)? Who cares if you can't rattle off all the possible formulas necessary when doing calculations with circuits? What's the point in memorizing something you will probably never use again except on a future test, also with the exception of it being used often in your chosen occupation/field of study? My math teacher was exactly the same way. He told us the first day that we would remember about 50% of the total material covered during the year, which was fine, because he didn't want us to memorize theorems or equations. He wanted us to think about math as a way of illustrating something as true or not true, he wanted us to view math as a way of representing the physical world as number, which is what mathematics are. Same as with my science teacher, he explained things with words, pictures, and physical demonstratoins that involved us. Why then, if people have figured out that teaching this way works, are there so many bad teachers? (Mr. Ayers I realize I have turned a paragraph that was originally intended to analyze and generally praise you on your teaching into a debate that has been a source of anxiety for me for a while now, and for that I do hope not to disappoint.) There are a lot of bad teachers! I'm sure everyone has had one which fits the description. Need I go into detail? Reread all the good things in the above paragraph and then imagine the opposite, with a much more limited delivery method. Add in unnecessary homework and textbook reading and you've got the poster child of bad teachers. Now, I don't mean to say that anyone who is new to teaching or is trying to iron out their hiccups in their approach is a bad teacher, because #1: they're new #2: they're adjusting, which is never easy when you have 100 students who expect a lesson every day. If a teacher doesn't adjust or the very least attempt to quite honestly they should fired on the spot. I've seen good teachers be fired on the basis that they have lesser seniority, have less students enrolled in their classes, or are too old and expensive. Rather, the school would like to hire less qualified people because they're cheaper, but they'd also like to keep those on who are incompetent but have worked there a long time, which also means they're expensive.....hmmmmmm. I know I've mentioned the film Waiting for Superman before. A behemoth problem with public education is tenure. As Geoffrey Canada put it, "If you are a teacher, and you manage to maintain breathing for two years, you have tenure." For those of you who don't know or are too lazy to search it, tenure is a contractual obligation for the education institutional that basically prohibits the firing of a teacher short of murder or sexual abuse of a student. Tenure was originally solely for college professors who conducted research, and was obtained over a course of something like 25 years. Tenure was intended to protect the professor's job from being terminated on the basis that their research was controversial or offensive to some. A modern example would be stem cell researh. If there's a professor conducting stem cell research at a college, it isn't in the power of the school to fire him for it. The government may take away his fetuses, but the school can't fire him because what he was doing was seen as unfit by a group of people. As times goes on, tenure is gradually introduced to the other levels of education (public schools). Now we have system that is legally bound to keep teachers on their payrole no matter how low their test scores, how late they are to class, the severeness of sexual abuse they inflicted on a student, or just how crappy of a person in general they are. That sounds so mean but I'm not taking it back. My fourth grade teacher was an old witch, and she just was not happy to be alive. Why would you let someone like that be a teacher of young children? Does it make sense to hire a serial killer as a nanny? I realize that's a gross overexaggeration but my point remains valid. People who aren't good at what they do are neither deserving of a position in that particular field nor taxpayer money to pay them and "rehabilitate" them for the things they've done wrong.
This post is 1841 words in length. (just in case you were wondering)
Boom. Roasted.
This post is 1841 words in length. (just in case you were wondering)
Boom. Roasted.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
A Swift Kick to the Groin
^Sounds awful doesn't it?^ I would hope to shout!
Frustration. Lack of patience. Pessimism. Lack of faith. Annoyed. Puzzled. Pacified.
These are all things I experienced today. I went to school and I had a lot good moments, if I wasn't then moving here was pointless. However the low points or the parts that could be better still scream at me with the same, or maybe more intense, severity that they always have. Is that weird? Is it so odd that a substantial portion of my time is spent thinking about the crappier parts of my education? I sound like an over-privileged pompous ass, but it's true. I'm thankful for the country I live in, the personal liberties I have, the roof over my head, the food on my table, but I'm extremely dissatisfied at the same time. It's odd that, the fact that no matter how well things are, people manage to find someone or something to complain about. Some people do this with regularity and with gusto, possibly not even realizing how annoying they are to those around them. To put down and slander someone based on split-encounter encounters or tiny tidbits of information is to highlight your own flaws as a person, and ultimately expose a side of you that is only the ugliest kind of experience.
Now that the philosophy lesson is over, I shall attempt to dazzle you with my insight once more. I don't think of myself as some all-knowing authority on the subject of anything, but I do believe that my knowledge and judgement of many things are leaps and bounds ahead of those who are my peers, or anyone for that matter. I've seen adults with the emotional maturity of an eight-year-old, and I've seen old people throw hissy fits as if they were back in kindergarten. That being said, I'm only a hundred words shy of my 1200 word requirement. Not that that matters, but it certainly may affect the length of this post.
As I was rereading the last paragraph I remembered something: I am a philosopher. Everyone is a philosopher to some degree. I've been told many a time that I have the air and the ideas of a philosopher, guys like Aristotle and Socrates, not these noobs of present day whom no one could name or recognize. This blog isn't just about education, (god that words grinds against my eardrums like sand between two panes of glass!) it's also about my own philosophy. On life, on learning, on loving (not big into this but I thought it couldn't hurt to list), on the existence of humans, on consciousness not only as a species but as a cosmos. The cosmos-consciousness thing is actually a possible topic of my essay, though I'm not sure if I have a story to illustrate the behemoth concepts that encompass the topic...
This was good. Not an overly-serious post, just a couple of guys hanging out, being regular people. Family Guy reference. Boom. Roasted.
Frustration. Lack of patience. Pessimism. Lack of faith. Annoyed. Puzzled. Pacified.
These are all things I experienced today. I went to school and I had a lot good moments, if I wasn't then moving here was pointless. However the low points or the parts that could be better still scream at me with the same, or maybe more intense, severity that they always have. Is that weird? Is it so odd that a substantial portion of my time is spent thinking about the crappier parts of my education? I sound like an over-privileged pompous ass, but it's true. I'm thankful for the country I live in, the personal liberties I have, the roof over my head, the food on my table, but I'm extremely dissatisfied at the same time. It's odd that, the fact that no matter how well things are, people manage to find someone or something to complain about. Some people do this with regularity and with gusto, possibly not even realizing how annoying they are to those around them. To put down and slander someone based on split-encounter encounters or tiny tidbits of information is to highlight your own flaws as a person, and ultimately expose a side of you that is only the ugliest kind of experience.
Now that the philosophy lesson is over, I shall attempt to dazzle you with my insight once more. I don't think of myself as some all-knowing authority on the subject of anything, but I do believe that my knowledge and judgement of many things are leaps and bounds ahead of those who are my peers, or anyone for that matter. I've seen adults with the emotional maturity of an eight-year-old, and I've seen old people throw hissy fits as if they were back in kindergarten. That being said, I'm only a hundred words shy of my 1200 word requirement. Not that that matters, but it certainly may affect the length of this post.
As I was rereading the last paragraph I remembered something: I am a philosopher. Everyone is a philosopher to some degree. I've been told many a time that I have the air and the ideas of a philosopher, guys like Aristotle and Socrates, not these noobs of present day whom no one could name or recognize. This blog isn't just about education, (god that words grinds against my eardrums like sand between two panes of glass!) it's also about my own philosophy. On life, on learning, on loving (not big into this but I thought it couldn't hurt to list), on the existence of humans, on consciousness not only as a species but as a cosmos. The cosmos-consciousness thing is actually a possible topic of my essay, though I'm not sure if I have a story to illustrate the behemoth concepts that encompass the topic...
This was good. Not an overly-serious post, just a couple of guys hanging out, being regular people. Family Guy reference. Boom. Roasted.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Great Times!
Grrr!!! Gettin' jacked! Say it with ya chest!
Kevin Hart reference anyone? I seem to have a massive stand-up comedy and funny movie database from which to pull quotes that most Kennedy kids don't, not the few I have met anyways.
I have so many things I just want to scream into this computer screen right now. If I were to give a speech on everything I want to say not only are there not enough hours in the day but my vocal cords couldn't handle the enormous stress I would put them under for extended periods of time in the course of the lecture, because when I say something I feel strongly about, I say it with meaning. By meaning I mean (hahaha it's like a pun or something, Spongebob reference) I'll yell it. Seriously I can work myself into a tizzy just thinking about things, sometimes so much so I just start discussing things with my cat. Sounds totally weird but don't kid yourself, you've done it too. I'm the one who embraces the fact and you're calling me weird? You'd better check yourself before you wreck yourself. Due Date reference. Anyways, you can tell I have material for this post, though maybe I'm just killing words with the above explanation. The world may never know...Tootsie Pop commercial reference
I will attempt the impossible. That is, present a clear and well-thought out thesis on a specific topic. I loved Montaigne so much for his writing, because my brain is wired like his writing. I do not think in order, I do not think like a file cabinet, I don't think related thoughts, and the slightest utterance can produce a tangent completely wild and original. This is major reason I do not like language arts. It may be true that making notecards helps many people organize their thoughts and receive a good grade, for others (like myself) they are a roadblock for creativity and a source of anxiety. No, I don't need to write a sentence on a piece of paper to remember where it should in my paper. Mr. Ayers, I must take my hat off to you (which really means I'm praising you immensely for saving my belief, or maybe it's just a hope now, that there are still good teachers out there) for your lack of hoop-jumping and anxiety creating books and pencils and worksheets and outlines and other insufferably boring techniques that flat-out do not work. To clarify, I like your teaching style. People learn from people, not from books, not from websites, not from homework, not from doing tedious tasks that require knowledge previously attained, not from sitting in a group doing nothing when we're supposed to be working, not from doing any number of pointless techniques. People learn from people. They learn from concept sharing, storytelling, idea-bouncing-offing, question asking, discussion having, maybe even from arguments debating. 2000 years ago people didn't have such a thing as homework, because there wasn't a ready supply of paper. When people went to school they had conversations. Sometimes one on one, many times delivered as a lecture in front of a group. Aristotle and Plato didn't learn what they learned, though considered weak when held to today's standard, by doing worksheets, or by comparing and contrasting, or by filling in bubbles. They sat around and look at stuff until it made sense to them, then they wrote it down. John Nash didn't need a class to tell him he knew how to do math, because he obviously knew how to do math. And math he did, without the credentials that the aristocracy of academia demanded (who eventually did grant him more than the necessary credentials to be taken seriously after he published his revolutionary theses). High schools don't understand this! People have natural talent, and requiring them to do things the same as everyone else is cruel and unusual punishment. There once was a student at North Fayette who had completed Pre-Calc (highest math class offered) after his freshman year. He entered Calculus at Luther the next year, and held the highest score in the class the whole term. I don't know the specific details of the story, but I'm willing to bet my left testicle that it took him considerable time and effort to achieve that. When I say considerable time and effort I don't mean he had to try really hard at math, I mean he had to convince the administration that this was the right thing. Math was obviously something he was naturally good at and something he enjoyed. School didn't offer enough of a challenge, so he went to college. Again, I don't know much more than I already told but I would make the same bet as I did previously as to he destroyed the college math courses as well. I experience the same thing! Put me in the hard class without the pre-requisites! Challenge me! Test my knowledge! Strain my brain! Ask me questions I don't know the answer to! Involve me in the conversation! Stimulate my thoughts! Do a bunch of other things that generally don't happen in the classroom!
End post. Boom. Roasted.
Kevin Hart reference anyone? I seem to have a massive stand-up comedy and funny movie database from which to pull quotes that most Kennedy kids don't, not the few I have met anyways.
I have so many things I just want to scream into this computer screen right now. If I were to give a speech on everything I want to say not only are there not enough hours in the day but my vocal cords couldn't handle the enormous stress I would put them under for extended periods of time in the course of the lecture, because when I say something I feel strongly about, I say it with meaning. By meaning I mean (hahaha it's like a pun or something, Spongebob reference) I'll yell it. Seriously I can work myself into a tizzy just thinking about things, sometimes so much so I just start discussing things with my cat. Sounds totally weird but don't kid yourself, you've done it too. I'm the one who embraces the fact and you're calling me weird? You'd better check yourself before you wreck yourself. Due Date reference. Anyways, you can tell I have material for this post, though maybe I'm just killing words with the above explanation. The world may never know...Tootsie Pop commercial reference
I will attempt the impossible. That is, present a clear and well-thought out thesis on a specific topic. I loved Montaigne so much for his writing, because my brain is wired like his writing. I do not think in order, I do not think like a file cabinet, I don't think related thoughts, and the slightest utterance can produce a tangent completely wild and original. This is major reason I do not like language arts. It may be true that making notecards helps many people organize their thoughts and receive a good grade, for others (like myself) they are a roadblock for creativity and a source of anxiety. No, I don't need to write a sentence on a piece of paper to remember where it should in my paper. Mr. Ayers, I must take my hat off to you (which really means I'm praising you immensely for saving my belief, or maybe it's just a hope now, that there are still good teachers out there) for your lack of hoop-jumping and anxiety creating books and pencils and worksheets and outlines and other insufferably boring techniques that flat-out do not work. To clarify, I like your teaching style. People learn from people, not from books, not from websites, not from homework, not from doing tedious tasks that require knowledge previously attained, not from sitting in a group doing nothing when we're supposed to be working, not from doing any number of pointless techniques. People learn from people. They learn from concept sharing, storytelling, idea-bouncing-offing, question asking, discussion having, maybe even from arguments debating. 2000 years ago people didn't have such a thing as homework, because there wasn't a ready supply of paper. When people went to school they had conversations. Sometimes one on one, many times delivered as a lecture in front of a group. Aristotle and Plato didn't learn what they learned, though considered weak when held to today's standard, by doing worksheets, or by comparing and contrasting, or by filling in bubbles. They sat around and look at stuff until it made sense to them, then they wrote it down. John Nash didn't need a class to tell him he knew how to do math, because he obviously knew how to do math. And math he did, without the credentials that the aristocracy of academia demanded (who eventually did grant him more than the necessary credentials to be taken seriously after he published his revolutionary theses). High schools don't understand this! People have natural talent, and requiring them to do things the same as everyone else is cruel and unusual punishment. There once was a student at North Fayette who had completed Pre-Calc (highest math class offered) after his freshman year. He entered Calculus at Luther the next year, and held the highest score in the class the whole term. I don't know the specific details of the story, but I'm willing to bet my left testicle that it took him considerable time and effort to achieve that. When I say considerable time and effort I don't mean he had to try really hard at math, I mean he had to convince the administration that this was the right thing. Math was obviously something he was naturally good at and something he enjoyed. School didn't offer enough of a challenge, so he went to college. Again, I don't know much more than I already told but I would make the same bet as I did previously as to he destroyed the college math courses as well. I experience the same thing! Put me in the hard class without the pre-requisites! Challenge me! Test my knowledge! Strain my brain! Ask me questions I don't know the answer to! Involve me in the conversation! Stimulate my thoughts! Do a bunch of other things that generally don't happen in the classroom!
End post. Boom. Roasted.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Say Whaaaattt??!!
The post before last was a jumble of words puked out by me, literally equivalent to literary vomit. I am my own worst critic though, so perhaps not.
HOWEVER, I need to form of train of thought. nnnnnnnnnnneeewwwwnnnnnnnnn....Big Bang Theory reference anyone? It's from the episode where Sheldon dresses up as the Doppler Effect for Halloween. Funny stuff I encourage you to watch. GOD I form weirdly construed bits and pieces of thoughts that somehow make sense to me.
I don't much like doing these blog posts. It would be much more stimulating to have conversations. Here I'm just in my own head arguing with myself about things I already understand or at least have some grasp of comprehension on. I don't find myself discovering new things, maybe I should do some research.
Bad idea. Education in the media makes me want to puke. 90% of the time when there is some new development in education, either locally or nationally, the media shows a bunch of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed over-eager students behaving like saints, (which is hardly ever the case) or pictures of teachers in friendly and nurturing poses, perhaps pointing helpfully at a piece of paper while the students gaze thoughtfully upwards, absorbing the infinite wisdom of their teacher. It's bunch of bogus. A lot of classrooms are talkative, off-topic, lazy, and generally not there to learn. Too many teachers are bad at what they do, too many students are dirt broke and involved in crime, drugs, or both. A new act or bill will not fix that, and when the media portrays schools as somehow magically fixed by actions of the government, it really sends the wrong message. It literally does make me nauseous when the news talks about how great things will be now that Suzy can have her own little crayon drawer, or how much better things will be when little Timmy doesn't have to say "Under God" in the pledge of allegiance. It's manufactured happiness. And it's false. When I watch TV there is this vibe that everything that is happening is made from a mold, produced by a machine, with no true human element. True events are unscripted, the greatest speeches are not written, or even drafted. Tom Robbins once said, "Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature."
End post. Boom. Roasted,
HOWEVER, I need to form of train of thought. nnnnnnnnnnneeewwwwnnnnnnnnn....Big Bang Theory reference anyone? It's from the episode where Sheldon dresses up as the Doppler Effect for Halloween. Funny stuff I encourage you to watch. GOD I form weirdly construed bits and pieces of thoughts that somehow make sense to me.
I don't much like doing these blog posts. It would be much more stimulating to have conversations. Here I'm just in my own head arguing with myself about things I already understand or at least have some grasp of comprehension on. I don't find myself discovering new things, maybe I should do some research.
Bad idea. Education in the media makes me want to puke. 90% of the time when there is some new development in education, either locally or nationally, the media shows a bunch of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed over-eager students behaving like saints, (which is hardly ever the case) or pictures of teachers in friendly and nurturing poses, perhaps pointing helpfully at a piece of paper while the students gaze thoughtfully upwards, absorbing the infinite wisdom of their teacher. It's bunch of bogus. A lot of classrooms are talkative, off-topic, lazy, and generally not there to learn. Too many teachers are bad at what they do, too many students are dirt broke and involved in crime, drugs, or both. A new act or bill will not fix that, and when the media portrays schools as somehow magically fixed by actions of the government, it really sends the wrong message. It literally does make me nauseous when the news talks about how great things will be now that Suzy can have her own little crayon drawer, or how much better things will be when little Timmy doesn't have to say "Under God" in the pledge of allegiance. It's manufactured happiness. And it's false. When I watch TV there is this vibe that everything that is happening is made from a mold, produced by a machine, with no true human element. True events are unscripted, the greatest speeches are not written, or even drafted. Tom Robbins once said, "Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature."
End post. Boom. Roasted,
Gettin' Ready
My aunt has won the Extreme Home Makeover deal, and today she and her family were welcomed home by the Extreme Home Makeover team as well as scores of other people, including myself. It was pretty cool, and I can say I was there.
At my aunt's house, among the hundreds of people, I saw my old science teacher. It was simply wonderful to meet the man again, and to have a talk with him was even more enjoyable. Not to criticize or put anyone down, but he is by far the single greatest science teacher I've ever had the honor of knowing. The reason I say science teacher and not just teacher in general is that I have had three of the best teachers around, one of them taught me German and the other math, the third I just named. I always value this man's opinion, and it was exciting to have his ear for as long as I had for I had so many questions. In our discussions we talked about such things as cars, extra-terrestrial life, education, (obviously or it wouldn't be related to this blog) the universe, you know, all the usual stuff. Looking past the other things, whilst conversing on education I found something he said particularly interesting. That is he said, "The greatest obstacle teachers have is dealing with students". I thought about this, and I was a bit surprised to find that he was right. I would've thought that teachers have more problems thrown at them by administration, or the government, or parents...anything but students. I thought of students as the whole reason one becomes a teacher, and I think, or hope, that's true. However students do create more problems for teachers than any other entity or person. Think about it. It's students who need an education, and teachers are tasked with providing it. How does one go about it? Well, usually a student either can't or doesn't tell a teacher how to teach them something, they can only tell the teacher if something is working or if something isn't. If a teacher tries to do something and it works well, great. If it doesn't work so great, what happens? The teacher is caught in a pickle and lots of them aren't good at eating their way out. There aren't clear-cut instructions on these types of things. It's like sexing a chicken. You are either good at it or you're not. Teachers have to decide what to talk about, how to talk about it, how in depth to go, whether there is homework, textbooks, all that jazz. When you throw in all those choices in a mixed-ability classroom the room for error is massive and essentially unavoidable. Along with different abilities come from different learning styles, which throws in another factor that expands the possible ways in which teachers can do things. The possibilities are literally infinite. Ask a good teacher to do something different every day and they'd never run out of things to try. The best teachers I have had, my favorite three, have several things in common:
1) they rarely or never use a textbook
2) they TALK--explain things like a normal person, not a scholar, not like they're talking to a third grader; AND they care about what they're teaching, which is contagious
3) they teach to those who are willing and able, very little spoon-feeding and slowing down for those who can't or won't keep up
I've already said several things that parallel all of the above, so get used it.
At my aunt's house, among the hundreds of people, I saw my old science teacher. It was simply wonderful to meet the man again, and to have a talk with him was even more enjoyable. Not to criticize or put anyone down, but he is by far the single greatest science teacher I've ever had the honor of knowing. The reason I say science teacher and not just teacher in general is that I have had three of the best teachers around, one of them taught me German and the other math, the third I just named. I always value this man's opinion, and it was exciting to have his ear for as long as I had for I had so many questions. In our discussions we talked about such things as cars, extra-terrestrial life, education, (obviously or it wouldn't be related to this blog) the universe, you know, all the usual stuff. Looking past the other things, whilst conversing on education I found something he said particularly interesting. That is he said, "The greatest obstacle teachers have is dealing with students". I thought about this, and I was a bit surprised to find that he was right. I would've thought that teachers have more problems thrown at them by administration, or the government, or parents...anything but students. I thought of students as the whole reason one becomes a teacher, and I think, or hope, that's true. However students do create more problems for teachers than any other entity or person. Think about it. It's students who need an education, and teachers are tasked with providing it. How does one go about it? Well, usually a student either can't or doesn't tell a teacher how to teach them something, they can only tell the teacher if something is working or if something isn't. If a teacher tries to do something and it works well, great. If it doesn't work so great, what happens? The teacher is caught in a pickle and lots of them aren't good at eating their way out. There aren't clear-cut instructions on these types of things. It's like sexing a chicken. You are either good at it or you're not. Teachers have to decide what to talk about, how to talk about it, how in depth to go, whether there is homework, textbooks, all that jazz. When you throw in all those choices in a mixed-ability classroom the room for error is massive and essentially unavoidable. Along with different abilities come from different learning styles, which throws in another factor that expands the possible ways in which teachers can do things. The possibilities are literally infinite. Ask a good teacher to do something different every day and they'd never run out of things to try. The best teachers I have had, my favorite three, have several things in common:
1) they rarely or never use a textbook
2) they TALK--explain things like a normal person, not a scholar, not like they're talking to a third grader; AND they care about what they're teaching, which is contagious
3) they teach to those who are willing and able, very little spoon-feeding and slowing down for those who can't or won't keep up
I've already said several things that parallel all of the above, so get used it.
Friday, October 7, 2011
A Horse, A Horse, A Kingdom for my Horse
^^ Monty Python reference ^^
Kool-aid tastes like gumdrops from the mystical land of NeverNeverLand.
"They say love is blind...and marriage is an institution. Well, I'm not ready for an institution for the blind just yet." --Mae West
"I think, therefore I am." --Descartes
"I don't feel good." -- last words of Luther Burbank
"The man on top of the mountain didn't fall there." --Anonymous
"I haven't talked to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt her." --Rodney Dangerfield
Kool-aid tastes like gumdrops from the mystical land of NeverNeverLand.
"They say love is blind...and marriage is an institution. Well, I'm not ready for an institution for the blind just yet." --Mae West
"I think, therefore I am." --Descartes
"I don't feel good." -- last words of Luther Burbank
"The man on top of the mountain didn't fall there." --Anonymous
"I haven't talked to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt her." --Rodney Dangerfield
Sunday, October 2, 2011
A Good Title
Blogger would have me believe I have published eleven posts, which seems like more than I've done. But this will be my last post of the week and that's that.
In my last post I introduced Ford into the picture (finally). I intended to have at least two pretty unrelated topics to blog about, just in case I cannot think of a whisper of a thought to blog about the first thing. I know I also said I would keep things interesting for those of you that know nothing or next to nothing about cars, so I will do my best not to stray into deep, uncharted waters that only an esoteric group of car enthusiasts would understand. Though, a blog is a vehicle designed for one to express oneself unedited, so maybe I'm only kidding.
ANYWAYS...
Ford. It rolls from the tongue with such grace and adroitness, one cannot but marvel at the sensation it generates on one's skin.
That's quite enough of that, don't you think?
Ford is the fifth-largest auto manufacturer in the world according to vehicle sales. They are the second-largest in the US (second to GM) and they employ approximately 164,000 people. Ford Motor Company was founded on the 16th of June, 1903 by Henry Ford and an investors' club that included a fellow by the name of Alex Malcomson and the Dodge Brothers. Fast-fowarding (but not skipping) a few years, in 1963 the first prototype of the GT40 was born. The GT40 was the product of a grudge match between Ferrari and Ford after Ferrari pulled out of a merger deal at the last minute. The prize was victory at Le Mans. From 1966 to 1969 Ford achieved just that, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans four years in a row. Ford beat Ferrari at their own game. Ford made a car that not only handled like a dream, but could scream down the straights at over 200 mph. No other American car has ever won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and no car has ever won the race twice with the same chassis (Ford never changed the chassis). The chassis is the first and most important structure the rest of the car is built around. Everything is attached to the chassis, and accordingly the chassis plays a critical role when designing and building a race car.
Today Ford still makes the GT40's modern cousin, the Ford GT. The model of the car is Ford GT, so if you were to say the make and model together, you would say Ford Ford GT. This is not a GT Mustang!! Google Ford GT and you will know what I'm talking about. Anyhow, the modern GT, produced from 2003 to 2006, uses a 5.0 liter V8 set in the middle that develops 550-bhp (brake horsepower basically means available horsepower, so it's the power that reaches the wheels, and there is variation involved). Top speed: 212 mph. 0-60 mph: 3.3 seconds. That's faster than a McLaren F1 (which is a multi-million dollar supercar that is ridiculous and outlandish in a number of ways other than its price). Cost of a McLaren F1: ranges in the several millions. Cost of a Ford GT: if you order one it's about $250,000; if you buy one it's more, ranging from $300,000 to over $500,000.
A sloppily strung-together collection of thoughts? Maybe. A blog post? Yes. Boom. Roasted.
In my last post I introduced Ford into the picture (finally). I intended to have at least two pretty unrelated topics to blog about, just in case I cannot think of a whisper of a thought to blog about the first thing. I know I also said I would keep things interesting for those of you that know nothing or next to nothing about cars, so I will do my best not to stray into deep, uncharted waters that only an esoteric group of car enthusiasts would understand. Though, a blog is a vehicle designed for one to express oneself unedited, so maybe I'm only kidding.
ANYWAYS...
Ford. It rolls from the tongue with such grace and adroitness, one cannot but marvel at the sensation it generates on one's skin.
That's quite enough of that, don't you think?
Ford is the fifth-largest auto manufacturer in the world according to vehicle sales. They are the second-largest in the US (second to GM) and they employ approximately 164,000 people. Ford Motor Company was founded on the 16th of June, 1903 by Henry Ford and an investors' club that included a fellow by the name of Alex Malcomson and the Dodge Brothers. Fast-fowarding (but not skipping) a few years, in 1963 the first prototype of the GT40 was born. The GT40 was the product of a grudge match between Ferrari and Ford after Ferrari pulled out of a merger deal at the last minute. The prize was victory at Le Mans. From 1966 to 1969 Ford achieved just that, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans four years in a row. Ford beat Ferrari at their own game. Ford made a car that not only handled like a dream, but could scream down the straights at over 200 mph. No other American car has ever won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and no car has ever won the race twice with the same chassis (Ford never changed the chassis). The chassis is the first and most important structure the rest of the car is built around. Everything is attached to the chassis, and accordingly the chassis plays a critical role when designing and building a race car.
Today Ford still makes the GT40's modern cousin, the Ford GT. The model of the car is Ford GT, so if you were to say the make and model together, you would say Ford Ford GT. This is not a GT Mustang!! Google Ford GT and you will know what I'm talking about. Anyhow, the modern GT, produced from 2003 to 2006, uses a 5.0 liter V8 set in the middle that develops 550-bhp (brake horsepower basically means available horsepower, so it's the power that reaches the wheels, and there is variation involved). Top speed: 212 mph. 0-60 mph: 3.3 seconds. That's faster than a McLaren F1 (which is a multi-million dollar supercar that is ridiculous and outlandish in a number of ways other than its price). Cost of a McLaren F1: ranges in the several millions. Cost of a Ford GT: if you order one it's about $250,000; if you buy one it's more, ranging from $300,000 to over $500,000.
A sloppily strung-together collection of thoughts? Maybe. A blog post? Yes. Boom. Roasted.
A Long and Well-Thought Out Prose...(sort of)
Watching Resident Evil: Apocalypse...zombies seem misunderstood to me
I think I will do something which I've been meaning to do for a while: introduce Ford to the blog. Ford, this is my blog. Blog, this Ford. There. We all know each other now.
Ford is the greatest! The greatest of them all! The ball went up and the came down, and then it hit the ground or some such similar thing. If you've ever heard the song about the kid that whiffs three times and then thinks he's the best pitcher ever you understand the reference, and the joke. I believe the song is by Kenny Rogers.
Black guy just died in the movie! Should've ducked man! Maybe your head would still be attached, oh well, it's always 20/20 hindsight.
Why is Ford the best? I could list a series of achievements and distinctions that make Ford look good, but being the exemplary blogger that I am, I will do my best to keep things interesting to those of you that don't have an emphatic interest in cars.
end of post. boom. roasted.
I think I will do something which I've been meaning to do for a while: introduce Ford to the blog. Ford, this is my blog. Blog, this Ford. There. We all know each other now.
Ford is the greatest! The greatest of them all! The ball went up and the came down, and then it hit the ground or some such similar thing. If you've ever heard the song about the kid that whiffs three times and then thinks he's the best pitcher ever you understand the reference, and the joke. I believe the song is by Kenny Rogers.
Black guy just died in the movie! Should've ducked man! Maybe your head would still be attached, oh well, it's always 20/20 hindsight.
Why is Ford the best? I could list a series of achievements and distinctions that make Ford look good, but being the exemplary blogger that I am, I will do my best to keep things interesting to those of you that don't have an emphatic interest in cars.
end of post. boom. roasted.
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