I shouldn't have looked. I knew what to expect. But I looked anyway.Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat from South Dakota, may have suffered a stroke earlier today (although his spokesman is now saying that's not the case). If Johnson can't fulfill his term, it would apparently go to the governor of South Dakota to appoint someone to fill the seat. The governor of South Dakota happens to be a Republican. So one more Republican in the Senate would...
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Fight for the future
This is why some things are worth fighting...According to a story from Media General, Rockingham County schools exceed the state average when it comes to school violence. For the school year 2005-06 there were "64 reports of possession of a controlled substance, 43 reports of possession of a weapon, 20 reports of possession of alcoholic beverages, 13 reports of assault on...
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Christmas Tree 2006 and the first presents
Well, here is our Christmas tree, all decked-out for 2006...I put it together last Wednesday night and Lisa did the decorations over the weekend. Yeah it's an artificial one that we've had for a few years now, which I know that some people swear by getting a real one for the holidays... and let's face it, no fake tree will ever have that wonderful scent that effuses through...
Comprehend THIS! Something cool for teachers and students (and anyone else)
Found some really neat stuff that I can imagine being a great lesson for science and math teachers to use in their classrooms.First of all, have you ever wondered about just how big our solar system is? Well, here is a scale drawing of the Earth's solar system: the first one that I've ever seen. There are some physical scale models of the solar system around the world that usually portray the Sun as being the size of a basketball and the Earth...
Monday, December 11, 2006
AFTER-ACTION REPORT: School board members sworn in, new chair elected... and Chris makes a lil' speech
Even though I didn't win a seat, I'm still going to the school board meetings. As I told someone tonight who asked about it, "I'm already in deep". Besides, I believe that the people who got elected... well, four of them anyway... deserve my full support, and I wanted to be there for them. But I also had something else in mind, even though I indicated otherwise a few days...
I hate TV Christmas specials
There are so many Christmas specials on TV about the true meaning of Christmas that the true meaning of Christmas has lost all meaning.But if they outright must be part of the season, we might as well have the greatest Christmas special of all time, celebrating its 41st anniversary on the air this year...A Charlie Brown Christmas will never get old. Between the quirky animation...
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Grace Hopper was born 100 years ago today
The modern world owes more to this fine lady that it will probably ever realize...Today is the 100th birthday of Grace Hopper: Rear Admiral of the United States Navy and computer science pioneer. Hopper was the first person to come up with a compiled computer program (as opposed to a program that's executed line by line). She was also instrumental in creating the COBOL programming...
Friday, December 08, 2006
Before it goes down the Memory Hole (Ron Price again ZZZZzzz...)
He just can't stop doing this to himself...Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's time yet again for another examination in that wonderful case study of solipsism, Ron Price: admitted thief and future member of the Rockingham County Board of Education who believes that it's okay to break the law because "I was elected".This will probably get zapped into oblivion before too long, like...
DON'T watch tonight's DOCTOR WHO on Sci-Fi
There is only one reason I can possibly think of why tonight's episode of Doctor Who on Sci-Fi merits some curiosity, and that is because the actress who plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies is in this.Other than that, "Love & Monsters" is an unholy mess of an hour that you'll never get back and will probably not even be able to admit to anyone for as long as...
Hey FIREFLY fans: Wanna be a Browncoat?
It's set to be announced today that Firefly is being turned into a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game.I don't play MMORPGs anymore, but if they'll let you be a Reaver I might have to check this out :-)(Or, if a player is a Christian, the game should let him/her play as a Shepherd so they can walk around the game spouting spiritual stuff to other players. That might be even more fun than running harvesters in Star Wars Galaxies :...
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Was my approach to education appreciated by the Flanneled One?!
It's been sent to my attention that the first commercial from my school board campaign - the "Star Wars" one with the Death Star blowing up the schoolhouse then the scene with me wielding my lightsaber - has been given special mention as one of a group of "great education-related videos" by a website called Edutopia.Edutopia, it turns out, is the website of The George Lucas Educational Foundation.Here's what the site has to say...YOUTUBE PICK: BEST...
Wii are in danger
I've been lusting for a Nintendo Wii for the past few weeks, even though it'll probably be awhile before we wind up getting one. Now I'm not so sure if wanting a Wii is such a hot idea, given that we just bought a 37-inch HDTV and we want it to last for awhile. A new website called Wii Have A Problem... is chronicling the mayhem that's resulted from using the Wii's unique controller. The toll so far: 8 television sets (including some pretty 'spensive...
Sixty-Five years ago today...
"...December 7, 1941 - A date which will live in infamy..."Today will mark the final time that the survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack will ever reunite. Their numbers are now fast dwindling.U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.The memorial floats directly above the sunken battleship:a tomb for the more than eleven-hundred sailorswho perished aboard the Arizonaduring...
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Yeah, another update on the Ron Price fiasco
Quick primer for those who don't know what's going on: Ron Price, one of my fellow school board candidates, was caught in the act of stealing campaign signs on the evening of November 6th, the night before the election. The signs he stole belonged to U.S. House incumbent Brad Miller and Price was working on the rival Vernon Robinson campaign. Price later said he was just taking the Miller signs to the local DOT because they were illegally placed....
Opening scene from the STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL
I don't dare force anyone to watch the entire thing. If you want to find it, it's easy enough to track down on the web (it's also "serialized" into several parts on YouTube). But in this season of too many Christmas specials on TV, it's good to be reminded of how much worse they all could be by taking a look at the most glorious travesty that was ever done in the name of Star Wars...This is the thing that George Lucas has stated that if it were...
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
"Conservative" group goes too far with "manger" scene
The lust to destroy other people because of their political persuasion will certainly lead to the downfall of this country. I don't care who it is who's doing the hating: Democrat or Republican or "conservative" or "liberal". Seeing one's fellow man as a target of political expedience is... I don't know what else to call it except "base evil".(Look in some of the more prominent...
