Cancel nap time

In a recent article posted on line, a kindergarten class had it's 'show' canceled by the administrators of the school. Now, we know all things posted on line are absolutely true, (uh huh), so I'm guessing this one is too.
Actually, this was passed on by a source I trust, and therefore believe it to be the case.

Now, why would anyone want to cancel a kindergarten show? Well, according to the administrators, the expectations of learning in the twenty-first century are forcing them to focus solely on developing these kindergarten students for college and careers.

Really? A single two day show for five-year-olds is interfering with their preparation for college which is still fourteen years away? If this two day show is interfering with their curriculum that much, they should make sure they do away with 'nap time'. Some of the reasons listed for this decision are: keeping them from becoming stronger readers, writers, co-workers and decision makers.

If those are your reasons, you have a severely limited view of how to educate children. Let me see...making them stronger readers; nope, learning lines read from a script wouldn't do that. Writers? Okay, I'll give them this one, unless one of them is writing the script for the play. Co-workers? Naw, working together to put on a play or show does nothing to help little children become better co-workers. Decision makers? Letting them think about how to do something or be in the right place at the right time has nothing to do with that. They obviously won't be making major decisions on the production, but that's not something they would be doing anyway.

I often complain about teachers and administrators, even though I am fully aware that there are many tremendous teachers out there. But, such knee-jerk reactions from administrators always leaves me scratching my head. Too often, many lack a prime measure of living and growing in the world...common sense.

Read for life

As one would assume, I have a vested interest in books. Mostly mine, as I would like to sell a million and be filthy rich, but, that takes time. What I'm rambling about today is not the books themselves, but what you do with them; reading.

My Beloved and I were watching a show the other night, an investigative show about a crime. I think it was one of the 48 Hours types of shows. Detectives were trying to make the girlfriend of the suspect spill the beans, as it were. It was a contrast in speech, to say the least. The detectives spoke normal English with full sentences. They weren't using 'big' words. It was just common vernacular. The girlfriend however, almost couldn't put a sentence together without using any phrase or dialect that didn't come off the street.

As I listened to her, I closed my eyes. If I were to pick her out of a lineup simply by her speech, I wouldn't have been able to tell you if she was black, white, southern, northern or anywhere else specific. Did she have an education? Likely from the street. Then the thought crossed my mind; I wonder when the last time this person picked up the printed word in nearly any form and read it? I'm sure she simply looks at the pictures in The Enquirer, and that's about it.

One doesn't have to be an A+ student to get through life and be moderately successful. Think about where this person's life could be if she just picked up a book and read once in a while. Urban-speak to me is simply being lazy. Like it or not, one is judged often on what comes out of their mouth. A person brands them self with their speech. I am overly educated; I am a normal person with a grasp of the language, or I speak like an uneducated slouch.

Opportunity is often what you make of it, or make of yourself.

Peeves

I was going to ramble about something today; had a thought in mind I was developing for a few days. Then what happens...grrrrr

There is a new trend in shopping centers, one that really annoys me. It started a few years ago with the handicapped ramps being installed around not only my neighborhood, but the city. And it has spread. It's another attempt by others to solve a problem that really, doesn't exist, at least in my mind. It's one more thing to spend money on because of stupid people.

It seems now, at the end of nearly every sidewalk coming out of a grocery store, is the set of dimpled panels embedded into the concrete. Now, I believe originally, these were to give traction on the sloped ramps. If that were the case, why the hell are they putting them on completely flat and level stretches of concrete? One set coming from the store into a parking lot, is simply there to vibrate your cart full of groceries and aggravate the hell out of me. You have to slow down to a crawl to get over it.

Another aggravating newcomer to my world is flashing speed limit signs on local exit ramps. For fifty years, the circular exit ramps around our fair town have had nothing but the yellow sign with the curved black arrow. Not a problem. However, within the last five or so years, drivers who are too stupid to know how to operate a vehicle, be it a semi or a car, have caused us to spend tax money to put up flashing lights that weren't needed for five decades.

I suppose the dimpled ramps are to slow us down so we don't get hit by cars as we go into the parking lot. Sigh...just one more way to stop the cull of the stupid. Natural selection folks, natural selection.

What's a WIP?

So it's been a long time since I plugged one of my own books. I am a retail manager extraordinaire by day, and a roving fantasy writer by night. Unless of course I'm working the evening shift and then I write in the day. But, after coffee and toast in the morning, that doesn't leave much time. Night writing is much more suited to my general frame of mind. I think one quirk that I have is when writing night scenes, it is much easier for me when it's dark outside. Perhaps it just puts me in the mood.

Anyway, now that I am about two-thirds of the way through writing the second in the 'Last Elf Prophecy' series, I thought it would be a good time to plug the first book in the series. I released Sands of Nevertime in late summer last year. I was hoping to follow that up with the second book sooner than this, but, life and stuff always seem to get in the way of one's best laid plans. I envy those who are able to write as a full-time career. Someday I hope that I may join that club.

Sands of Nevertime

In the coming months I will be releasing more information on the forthcoming book for this series. I hope you'll pick up a copy of Sands of Nevertime. I don't think you will be disappointed. Enjoy!

Besides, it's only $2.99. What could go wrong?

Zombieland

It's an epidemic. Everything is zombie. You can't turn around without running into a zombie. Well, I  hope you can, because then I'd have to run, and run hard.

Somewhere along the line, these infamous creatures seem to have inundated the world we live it. There almost isn't an area in life where zombies don't reach out and place a dead hand on your shoulder. In just about every aspect of entertainment, zombies rule. There are literally thousands of books to buy featuring zombies. Amazon alone likely has a million books with zombies. Heck, I know authors myself that write zombie  books.

Even the Discovery Channel has fallen to them with the Zombie Apocalypse. If this was on the Sy-Fy channel, I think we'd be safe. But when the Discovery Channel falls, its only one more step before it becomes another also-ran like TLC. (Sorry TLC, you used to be good, now your choice of programming stinks. You need to seriously think about changing your name). Anyway, AMC's, The Walking Dead is a consistently a highly rated series with nothing seemingly ready to slow it down.

So, what does this have to do with me? I don't write zombie books or watch zombie shows. Well, I killed about a million and a half zombies outside over the weekend with my grandson Ragin' Cage. It was the first good weekend as far as weather goes, and the Nerf guns were a-blazing. We swung on the swings so he could get high enough to shoot them from above. We climbed on the neighbor's play yard, our now 'summer home' and held the fort against them. We carried so many plastic guns in our pockets and arms we didn't have enough hands to shoot, but we could have taken down North Korea we had so many guns.

But, we conquered the onslaught, and my world is now zombie-free........at least for now....hahahahahahahahaha! They'll be back........