Perdue, Obama and the teachers’ unions | Cynthia Tucker

Interesting blog about how we can improve our schools. But I'm not at all sure that incentives based on test scores is the solution. Standardized testing has failed, and even the test makers have always warned against "high-stakes" testing (where students pass or fail based on their test scores). If school systems took the millions they spend on testing (and a few overpaid top administrators) and put it toward ordering supplies and text books for the poorest schools, fixing up aging schools and improving teacher pay, I think our education crisis would be solved. Perdue, Obama and the teachers’ unions | Cynthia Tucker

It's Not Rocket Science

David M. Cutler: Health Reform Passes the Cost Test - WSJ.com

Dating is Like Super Mario

Love is like rice - start with good ingredients, bring to a rolling boil, reduce to a simmer and put a lid on it :)

Dating is like Super Mario - play the game, get the bonus points. You win. Easy.

Actually I think both are hard.

I think the latter is especially hard for men, so I'm going to start there. And you married guys may want a refresher, because of course all good marriages are treated more like dating, at least some of the time, right?

We all know Super Mario, the video game, right? It's invaded the culture, like all kinds of electronic games, and we know that you have a mission, or a maze to travel, and you have to navigate obstacles. This is the "real life" part of living that Mario has to deal with. He has somewhere to go, and he has to jump, run, leap and dodge stuff to get there. He's a man, tho small, and seems to love the challenge.

Along the way he has chances to grab bonus points. This is the extra fun part, because once you learn NOT to fall off ledges, you get to go after what looks, really, like low hanging fruit, or coins, and BA BING you get MORE points!! How cool!

But if you get lots of bonus points, and still can't navigate the basics, you lose, at least that life. No matter how many bonus points you got along the way. And if you don't learn how to get the bonus points you have NO (zero) insurance when you make a mistake and therefore you never really get all that good at climbing the levels (cause you don't get more chances), and are going to be a pretty mediocre player. Who wants that??

So the game is easy. Play the basics, get the bonus points (insurance), you win.

Dating isn't all that hard either. Play the basic game, get the bonus points, you win.

Here's the trouble. Lots of folks are great at one (the basics) or the other (bonus points) and then they can't understand why they keep losing!

So I've been telling my guy friends the Secret lately. Figure out what you aren't good at and do it more!

Big Grin.

This means, for some guys who are so good at the basics of life, (they work, make a good living, and know how to balance having a personal life with the demands of being a responsible adult) that they need to go for more bonus points.

For other guys, who have the bonus point system down that they have to get better at the basics - start playing the game consistently.

The Basics

Sometimes this means working more, but a lot of times it means working less and balancing your life better. It could mean stabilizing your financial house, or getting your ex-wife out of your hair (better known as fencing in the three headed monster). For some guys you have children that need you, and you have to learn to make room for a love life. Other men have children who DON'T need them, but will hang on perpetually slurping from Daddy's Money Fountain forever, unless you start showing some backbone, and respect them (and yourself) enough to cut them off.

Some guys need to finish school. Others need to start. And one or two men out there need to learn some very basic things like "Go to the doctor once in a while." and "Don't try to have a bunch of women or flirtations, 'cause you ain't that good."

Do what you say you are going to do, and call or text your lady once a day, whether dating, married or shackin' up. Try to be sweet once in a while. But if you are naturally somewhat gruff (Stan the Elder) then you can rely on bonus points :)

So those are some basics. Just normal grown up stuff.

The bonus points are totally fun.

These are so easy. And yet so many guys just don't get it/them.

Bonus points come from things you know about but like to pretend you forget! (Newsflash: We women are on to you!)

Easiest bonus points : flowers. Candy. Jewelery (even costume jewelery). Nice dinner out. Movie with popcorn and sodas. Call or text everyday (yeah, it's basic, but the more consistent you are the more she loves it)

Mouth-breathing, knuckle dragging guys can figure out the easy bonus points. Funny thing is that so many pretty sophisticated guys forget the easy ones. lol

Medium bonus points:

• Movie that isn't violent with popcorn and soda and holding hands.
• Dinner at home that you cook together.
• Going to a place she loves - day trip like antique stores, or a park.
• Sweet texts or calls or emails.
• Sending her a link to a romantic song
• Taking out the trash without any reminders :)
• Fueling up her car, getting it washed
• Hanging in bed with her on a weekend with coffee you made and the newspaper. Taking her to brunch.
• A picnic you put together. Pick a good spot. If it's cold bring blankets and find a sunny rock :)
• Open doors for her, even the car door once in a while.
• Teach her something you love - pool, fishing, hunting, racing, mud wrestling (jk), Shakespeare, Chamber music, geocaching, rare books, good wines.
• Do chores and fix things willingly, with and without her.
• Don't bite when she's stressed out and needs a hug. (Ask first - hugging a pissed off Woman without warning can be hazardous)
• Rub her feet. Understand that high heels are an American form of Chinese foot binding.

Major Bonus Points

• Getting her car serviced. Yeah, even just an oil change. BIG points if you do it yourself.
• Going to a chick flick - with popcorn, soda and snuggling
• Going to a social event and making her look good. Dress the part. Respectfully letting people know she's hot ;) Making sure you can drive home.
• Start (or keep) opening doors for her. If you do it sometimes, do it more.
• Take her to a concert she really wants to go to - extra bonus points if you don't really love Celene Dion or Elton John, but you go anyway.
• Big jewelery, of course is always big big bonus points. Stuff that makes her friends gasp is going to do you some good for a LONG time :)
• Making dinner (something she likes and you can do well) without her and adding music, wine and candles.
• Take her on a trip - a weekend or a week. Somewhere romantic, just the two of you and let your hair down. Could be camping, but could be a cruise. Whatever works.
• Get her something she's been learning with you - a fishing rod, a wine basket, a CD of the music you both love.
• Listen to a problem she's having without offering advice. Help her decide what SHE wants to do about it. (hint: ask a lot of questions, let her ramble)
• When she's upset/tense/out of sorts, be sweet. Learn the three Golden Scripts :
  "It sounds like you've had a hard day."
  "Want to tell me about it?"
  "Is there anything I can do to help?"
• Do chores and fix things without her asking
• And the classic, but true: Give her a back rub and don't ask for sex :) (but let her ask ;) (no kidding hint: if you divide up chores evenly, or help her with hers, then she's gonna have more energy for the fun stuff )

So easy, bonus points. Not all the time, not always the same ones, and never always at the same level, but if you can play the game, and get the low hanging fruit too, then trust me you win.

And of course the same goes for women. Just different different different stuff to do.

hmmm... I guess I better get on that blog entry - what women can do for guys :) (and it's not just show up naked. With beer lol)

Love and Totalitarianism

"I grew up in a society where the motto was, "Those who are not with us are against us," implying that if somebody doesn't agree 100% with a certain point of view, he or she is the enemy and must be eliminated. This is how totalitarian societies are created. This is horrific on a societal level and such an approach certainly has no place in the Arts."

Astute commentary from one raised in Russia and imprisoned because he was Jewish. His observation draws a haunting parallel, for me, to the state of our politics, the polemics and polarized politicians who can't seem to work together for the common good.

Conversation with Mischa Maisky

The performance in which I fell in love with Maisky.

Amazing performance, in the last few years

Building a Better Teacher

Amazing

1. that we don't know how to do this

2. that we are finally admitting it

3. that we've allowed bureaucratic buffoons to determine HOW we measure good teaching (with standardized testing - where does that measure encouragement? or caring?), thereby making teaching even more difficult

4. that it will take years before we can get something in place to teach the NEXT generation of teachers, while we are faced with the immediate loss of the best teachers quitting because it's too stressful and low paying, or retiring, thus leaving us with fewer good role models

5. that anyone would want to teach with all the expectations of parents and administrators to meet all the complex needs of children, where parents are unable or unwilling to do their part

6. that it is difficult to impossible to get good talent from outside the "standard" track because teacher unions create barriers, while many good candidates are out of work

Building a Better Teacher - NYTimes.com

A Hidden Corporate Subsidy

This is interesting, an article about imported workers, tho it's a bit dated. I thought I was a bit dense because I couldn't find figures for how many foreign workers are working in the country. I'm not a zenophobe. My degree is in International Business. But there is a limit to our hospitality, isn't there?

Here is more about importing labor:

No labor shortages

Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman called the program a corporate subsidy, as quoted in a 2002 article in Computerworld.^[15] The accuracy of this quote can not be ascertained, however, as Mr. Friedman has since died. Others holding this view include Dr. Norman Matloff, who testified to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration on the H-1B subject. Matloff's paper for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform claims that there has been no shortage of qualified American citizens to fill American computer-related jobs, and that the data offered as evidence of American corporations needing H-1B visas to address labor shortages was erroneous.^[16] The United States General Accounting Office found in a report in 2000 that controls on the H-1B program lacked effectiveness.^[17] The GAO report's recommendations were subsequently implemented.

The Real Unemployment figures

New figures are in

There are about 15 million people unemployed

About 9 million are underemployed (working part time but want full time work)

2.5 million are "marginal" meaning they haven't looked for work in the past 4 weeks, for various reasons, but have looked in the last year. These are the folks who have given up.

So that's really about 25.5 million people unemployed.

And the Senate couldn't get a jobs bill passed. Makes you wonder if the now $10 billion package (it was $15 billion a few days ago) wasn't passed by the House just yesterday because they knew the new unemployment figures were coming out today.

How, if we lost another 36,000 jobs, did the unemployment rate stay the same? Did we add that many more imported workers?

(As best as I can tell about 100,000 workers are working under what is called an H-1B visa - wouldn't that make a lot of jobs for our American residents, to just send everyone home who has a green card? I'm pretty sure it's a LOT more than 100,000 workers.. H-1B visas are just for "highly skilled" workers, meaning anyone who can run a computer :)

Wow.