Trashing Teens; The Case Against Adolescence

A couple of interesting articles about how we, as a society, have artificially extended the length of adolescence. I find this highly interesting and see some good, salient points in the article. With three kids, all teens from early to mid to late, I can agree with a lot that is in the article from experience. Go read and make your own conclusions.

Psychology Today: Trashing Teens

Along that same vein is an article I ran across on things one needs to learn, but that are not being taught in schools. Most of these, we have tried to instill in our kids. I would say we have been most successful with the youngest, probably because WE were still learning some of these, on our own, into our adulthood! Ehhh, our parents did their best... just as we do our best.

27 Skills Your Child Needs to Know That She’s Not Getting In School

Detroit, Rock City...

I had to take a day trip to Detroit yesterday for work. Let me tell you, Detroit is an interesting city because despite the Tigers moving to a new stadium, the old Tiger Stadium downtown is still there! And, despite the sorry Lions moving to a new stadium, the Silverdome is still there! Now, this is not like Houston, where the Astrodome is still used or like Dallas, where Reunion Arena is still open for business. Nope, quite the contrary. Just big empty wastes of space.

I really didn't get to spend a lot of time in the city, but that really struck me as weird. Oh well, maybe they forgot demolition in the cost analysis. Maybe they expected someone to buy a property, without it's major tenant. That would be a wise business decision!

When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?

Interesting article from the New York Times on age variations in kindergarten. It especially offers some insight on "redshirting" where you hold back your child and start them a year later. We did this with our daughter who has an August birthday and it was the best thing we have done for her in terms of maturity and social responsibility. We should have done the same thing with our oldest son, who has a June birthday. Although, gifted and intelligent, his immaturity from the time he was young has been a burden to him and to us. Even now, as a young adult, he struggles to put the past behind him and move on with his life. I think I can safely say that although my oldest son and daughter are different in many ways they have the same personality traits; the difference in maturity, besides the male/female differences, I can attest to holding her back a year.

So my advice to you, if you have young children, is to consider holding them back, especially if they will be one of the youngest in their class. If you hold them back one year, in turn, they will become one of the oldest in a class and hopefully, that small change will make a world of difference. Notice I said consider, as usual your mileage may vary!

Standarized Testing - Education - Schools - Test Scores - New York Times

Ten Ways Being a Geek Makes You More Attractive

This is really great reading! All you single ladies out there need to find you a geek!

No, really...

REALLY, just read this...

Mingle2.com - Ten Ways Being a Geek Makes You More Attractive

Of course, those of you nice ladies who are already married to a geek, the secret is out. So please spread the word to your single friends... we will all be happier for it!

How-to advice sites

I thought I would post a list of sites I visit that provide very good and very easy to follow how-tos. These sites have a lot of information and are usually a lot of fun.

First up is the venerable Lifehacker, run by Gina Trapani. She and her staff have a lot of great stuff EVERY day, even weekends.

Another site is Hack a Day, which offers a lot of interesting "hacks" of every-day and not-so every-day items. It might be a bit too geeky for most, but is fun to visit just to see the craziness, if you will.

Instructables is a step-by-step guide to doing many things, like building and NES PC or creating a 3D effect with image editing software.

wikiHow offers featured articles on everything from How to Dress in a Sari to Do(ing) the Samoan Fa'ataupati (Slap Dance).

Make Magazine and Tricks of the Trade, which, unfortunately, is on a hiatus until who knows when, are two more resources for you quest to do something constructive. Make Magazine also has an annual Maker Faire that looks like a lot of fun!

Hope you have fun doing some projects from these great sites!

And as usual, GL&HF!

Wow, this has been an up and down week...

Had my biggest "view" day ever earlier this week, and now, nothing... Only ONE view today, and that was from me, lol...

Actually, I have been a bit distracted this week, as well as being sick. My wife had an accident that really threw another kink into the works.

I hope my 15-minutes are not over...

Crazy...

It's been a crazy weekend and start of a new week... So posts are a little lacking right now. I'm preparing a couple of articles that will be part of my "foundation", if you will, going forward.

Oh, about the craziness, to top it off, my wife had an accident last night and broke her right pinky finger... again! Other topics will follow... I might have to write a book on this one...

Update: This just in... The orthopedist doesn't think it's broken after all, just very swollen and cut up. This is good news... no GREAT news!

Oldest is movin' on...

My oldest son moved out this weekend. Can't say it wasn't about time, but then again seeing your kids move on is tough. He was a lot of help around here, then again, he was a pain at times. You know, he is an adult, so he wanted to do "adult" things which very much was counter to good night's sleep and well-being of the wife :o. You know if moma ain't happy, nobody's happy, right? Lots of contention at times, but we still love him and wish him well. I fixed him with a goody package tonight, cuz I'm cool like that... I figured I was still shopping for five during that weekly trip to Sam's and Wal-Mart, so I set him up for a week or two. He is a good cook, like his pops!

Tired...

I'm tired today... time changes don't really affect me much, but having to work for 4-5 hours because of the "new" time change sure does. Even went to bed early last night, but kept waking up... or being woke up (I'm thinking of the wife right this minute, who insists that, a.) she doesn't snore, and b.) she has to have the TV on to go to sleep - guess who has to turn it off...) So going to bed early was really not that great. Well, it was ok for other reasons :o!


Now, it's the end of the day and I'm feeling beat and I need to go work out. Weight Watchers is not going so well this time because I need to go work out consistently. Not getting my money's worth this time around... Last session, I lost 30+ lbs. Not this time, buddeh!

Oh, BTW... I are smart, so don't mess with me

Click on the "badge" to take the test yourself and see how "stupid" you are. :D

BTW, scoring 100 is NOT good...

Which Superhero are you?

Found this quiz over at Heather Kovar's blog in this article about Comic Con . She writes some really cool stuff from her experiences as an anchor for News 12 Connecticut. UPDATE: Oh, yeah, she writes some really cool stuff about her dog, too...

Which Superhero are you? Quiz

bleh, I'm Spiderman... and only, 5% more than freakin' SUPERGIRL! yikes!

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 65% Supergirl 60% Superman 60% Iron Man 55% The Flash 55% Catwoman 50% Robin 45% Green Lantern 40% Hulk 40% Batman 35% Wonder Woman 30%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

It's Monday...

we have an Active Directory (AD) problem at work and there's not much to report on... but I'll get something interesting posted... maybe...

Oh, the Academy Awards were pretty much to form, except for the mild upset in the "Best Supporting Actor" category. I really thought Eddie Murphy would win that, but Alan Arkin was a good choice. Both movies are really good!

Lunch Conversation...

You have to understand that after a lifetime (well 43, err 44 years...) of being overweight, my wife and I, together, have lost about 90 lbs since last spring/summer with more to come... So here's a snippet of our conversation at lunch:

Brenda: "I am full. So why am I still eating?"
Me (trying to be all supportive): "Ummm, you haven't eaten that much... you still have stuff on your plate?"
Brenda: "I said I was full; I didn't say I was done!"

We laughed... Losing weight can be a challenge!

Pit Bulls - Fact and Fiction

Found this article on one of the 2000 Bloggers sites... We have a pit bull, Duke, and he's the most sincere and fun dog we have, however, I think that's his handiwork on the bannister. We also have a Catahoula (Armani, don't ask) and a Redbone Coonhound (Reba, get it - the red hair and Reba McIntyre, the country singer), but Duke is the most well behaved of them all. Binary Blonde writes an interesting article on facts and non-facts about the breed, which is actually three different breeds. I didn't know that! Anyway, good read here.

Google: Royboy

Apparently this guy is the one and only Royboy... He's a tattoo artist... and an animal tamer... and a photographer... and, well you get the picture. He's also apparently been in some trouble! Just thought I would throw this out there for your reading/viewing pleasure. Enjoy...

Hey, folks!

I know I'm all over the place with my postings, but that's kind of the story of my life... I've always been "jack-of-all, master-of-none" and it's served me well. But it can also be detrimental because it comes across as unfocused or uncommitted. What are your thoughts, especially as it relates to this blog? Any ideas, thoughts or critiques you may have are certainly welcome.

Dreams...

As most people do, I dream. Sometimes I remember my dreams, sometimes I don't. Sometimes my dreams scare me and wake me up, but that is rare. SOMETIMES, I have dreams that are so weird, yet so profound, that I wake up flabbergasted, bewildered, amazed - you know, that WTF-state of mind... Well last night was one of those nights with that kind of dream. Here's a run-down of the themes/characters, in no certain order:

• Quake 3
• Aztecs/Mayans
• My grandmothers, and I grandfather I barely knew because he passed when I was very young
• Fantasy characters, like Lord of the Rings
• Lumber and coal mining
• Trains
• The Catholic Church (I'm not even Catholic)
  
• Engagement/marriage events
• Bad plumbing
• Cousins who I haven't seen in years
• Wheelchairs
• Horses, or horse-like creatures
• A Honda Civic
• ...
  

And that's just what I can remember... I remember waking up and trying to get the facts, such as they were, straight in my head because I think I woke up in a state of despair, like I wanted to cry, but I don't remember exactly why. It took a while for me to go back to sleep. Oh, yeah, and when I awoke from the dream, I was exhausted; like I had been having this dream for hours or days, but I had only been a asleep for a little under two hours. I got up to turn off the TV - the wife has to have it on to go to sleep - at around 12:00 a.m. and I awoke from this dream/series of dreams at about 1:45 a.m. Anyway, weird, I say... just weird.

Group Shot - SHS Class of '81

IMG_0289
Originally uploaded by royboy81.

Recently attended our 25th high school reunion... amazingly we are planning another get-together in Sept. Should be fun, as this one was quite a blast.

View the whole set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/royboy81/sets/72157594201595990/