NJ girl, 14, arrested after posting nude pics
...of herself.
Granted, posting nude photos of yourself on your MySpace page is pretty retarded. Even more so when you're fourteen.
However, the getting arrested part is the worst part. This girl might have to register as a sex offender if she's convicted. Doesn't that mean that this fourteen year old girl's photo, name, and address will be placed online for anyone to look up? Where real sex offenders can find her?
(This girl lives in the same county I do. Sigh.)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Teaching highs and lows (with stolen pizazz)
There are days I love helping students learn, and other days where I wonder what the point is.
There are projects from Spanish classes plastered all over my school right now. it's basic vocab stuff, "Me gusta" fill in the blank here and then draw a picture.
This was actually put up on a school building wall.
Not only does the poster say "I don't like school," but the kid misspelled "escuela."
However, the other day I was working with my fifth grade general music class. I'd given them a worksheet about Mozart's early life. The point of the worksheet was that some words in the story were written in musical notation, so they had to read the pitches to identify the missing words. Unfortunately, since there are only seven musical letters, there are limited choices for your word selection. We had been laughing over the sentence "No doubt, Wolfgang loved beef burgers for his feed" when one kid did the math and realized Mozart died at age 35.
Kid #1: What did he die of?
Me: We can't know for sure. It doesn't help that we don't know where he was buried, so they can't dig him up to do tests and find out.
All kids: Ew! Can they do that?
Me: Well, this is a bit off topic, but it was rumored that our 12th president, Zachary Taylor, was poisoned and murdered, but scientists dug him up about 20 years ago and proved he wasn't.
Kid #2: So what did he die of?
Me: Really, really bad food poisoning.
Kid #3: Aha! So he was poisoned!
Kid #4: Don't you mean feed poisoning?
Pretty sharp for fifth graders, I think. And just for fun, another fifth grader the next day:
Kid (whining to me about another kid): She stole my pizazz! (Upon noticing my puzzled look) I just wanted to say that.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Two Unrelated Links
From the New York Daily News, we have custom made babies.
Gat-ta-ca! Gat-ta-ca! Gat-ta-ca!
And from the New York Times, the man who went about town in a Snuggie.
"She handed me a flier for the show, which I was able to take easily because Snuggie has sleeves. I did not have anywhere to put it, however, because Snuggie does not have pockets."
Gat-ta-ca! Gat-ta-ca! Gat-ta-ca!
And from the New York Times, the man who went about town in a Snuggie.
"She handed me a flier for the show, which I was able to take easily because Snuggie has sleeves. I did not have anywhere to put it, however, because Snuggie does not have pockets."
Saturday, February 28, 2009
A neat commercial, but as a musician, I must rant.
Watch this commercial for Loewe sound.
2) Upping the volume on your tv will not make the tenors sing an octave highter.
3) Upping the treble on your tv will not make the sopranos sing a new harmony. (Although they'll probably sing that dotted rhythm too early anyway, just like in the video. Heh)
That is all.
The piece they're performing is "Va pensiero" from Verdi's Nabucco. It's a choral work I've not only performed, but taught, so I know it fairly well. Well enough to say this, anyway.
2) Upping the volume on your tv will not make the tenors sing an octave highter.
3) Upping the treble on your tv will not make the sopranos sing a new harmony. (Although they'll probably sing that dotted rhythm too early anyway, just like in the video. Heh)
That is all.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The New Hailing of the Chiefs
C-SPAN recently came out with a ranking of all the US presidents, which is an updated version of the one the Wall Street Journal did in 2000. Presidential history is one of my minor hobbies, so I was very interested in the results. There are also separate rankings on various qualities.
Here is a link to the lists.
Voici...my commentary. Remember, there are only 42 men ranked as Grover Cleveland is counted twice in presidential order and Barack Obama's only been president a month.
The overall list: Not surprisingly, it's changed very little. Most of the presidents barely moved on the list. Only a few moved more than two spots, and only two would I consider big leaps. Those are:
Bill Clinton - Up six spots to #15. That makes sense I guess, since he's the most recent president to appear on the list twice.
Ulysses S. Grant - Up ten spots to #23. Can't really explain this, but he's still in the bottom half of the list, so it's still okay.
And where's George W. Bush? Coming in at #36. Beating out Fillmore, Harding, W.H.Harrison, Pierce, A. Johnson, and Buchanan. We're talking a low position here. Will he rank higher over time? I doubt it, based on his ranks on the other specific qualities.
There you go. Some of these still need more time to fully settle in history, but I don't think there's any way that the recently departed for Dallas can bubble up into the top half of anything.
Here is a link to the lists.
Voici...my commentary. Remember, there are only 42 men ranked as Grover Cleveland is counted twice in presidential order and Barack Obama's only been president a month.
The overall list: Not surprisingly, it's changed very little. Most of the presidents barely moved on the list. Only a few moved more than two spots, and only two would I consider big leaps. Those are:
Bill Clinton - Up six spots to #15. That makes sense I guess, since he's the most recent president to appear on the list twice.
Ulysses S. Grant - Up ten spots to #23. Can't really explain this, but he's still in the bottom half of the list, so it's still okay.
And where's George W. Bush? Coming in at #36. Beating out Fillmore, Harding, W.H.Harrison, Pierce, A. Johnson, and Buchanan. We're talking a low position here. Will he rank higher over time? I doubt it, based on his ranks on the other specific qualities.
- Public persuasion - 36
- Crisis leadership - 25 (A 9/11 bump, but it couldn't stand up to Katrina and a tanking economy)
- Economic management - 40 (Just over Hoover and Buchanan. Clinton is #3 on this one.)
- Moral authority - 35 (Clinton's 37. Heh.)
- International relations - 41 (Only beating out William Henry Harrison, who spent the entirety of his month-long administration in bed dying of pneumonia)
- Administrative skills - 37
- Relations with congress - 36 (Dead last here is Andrew Johnson, who took his vice presidential oath drunk and basically told off all of congress afterward.)
- Vision/Setting an agenda - 25 (It's one thing to have a vision and agenda, another to accomplish it. Remember a year ago when W pledged to have peace in the middle east by the time he left office?)
- Pursuing justice for all - 24 (Why is Clinton, Mr. Don't Ask Don't Tell, at #4?)
- Performance within context of the time - 36
There you go. Some of these still need more time to fully settle in history, but I don't think there's any way that the recently departed for Dallas can bubble up into the top half of anything.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
You were young and stupid, A-Rod? Well, I can believe the stupid part.
I have the day off from school today, which means I can watch the A-Rod press conference live. it hasn't even ended yet, actually.
The main excuse for his actions seem to be that he was young and under pressure to perform, and therefore didn't know any better. He keeps saying that he was around 24, 25 years old. Apparently A-Rod can't do math: He admitted that he took steroids from 2001-2003, meaning he was 26 to 28 years old. Also, 2001 was his sixth full season in the majors. He just suddenly decided to start steroids after six years? Of course, during the press conference he also admitted to using stuff in Seattle that's currently a banned substance and taken off the shelves at GNC. Who knows what else he'll "remember" after the press conference is over?
All I can say for now is that he has no positive tests after 2003. The year that the MLB started punishing for positive tests was 2004. The US prohibits ex post facto laws, so until a positive test from 2004 on shows up, I don't think they can do anything. However, A-Rod is the only name that has popped up on something like 103 or 104 tests from 2003. Tests that were supposed to be anonymous. Release the other names, don't let A-Rod take all the blame for this.
I haven't really formed my own opinion on the whole legacy thing, the asterisks and whatnot on his career. But I think that having several of his teammates present at the press conference to support him means something.
The main excuse for his actions seem to be that he was young and under pressure to perform, and therefore didn't know any better. He keeps saying that he was around 24, 25 years old. Apparently A-Rod can't do math: He admitted that he took steroids from 2001-2003, meaning he was 26 to 28 years old. Also, 2001 was his sixth full season in the majors. He just suddenly decided to start steroids after six years? Of course, during the press conference he also admitted to using stuff in Seattle that's currently a banned substance and taken off the shelves at GNC. Who knows what else he'll "remember" after the press conference is over?
All I can say for now is that he has no positive tests after 2003. The year that the MLB started punishing for positive tests was 2004. The US prohibits ex post facto laws, so until a positive test from 2004 on shows up, I don't think they can do anything. However, A-Rod is the only name that has popped up on something like 103 or 104 tests from 2003. Tests that were supposed to be anonymous. Release the other names, don't let A-Rod take all the blame for this.
I haven't really formed my own opinion on the whole legacy thing, the asterisks and whatnot on his career. But I think that having several of his teammates present at the press conference to support him means something.
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