Category Archives: Rants

Raising Teenagers is Tough

Posted on by podcaster

Have you ever noticed that there are very few advice and self help books on the subject of raising teenagers? I always say that the reason is that there are no experts on dealing with teenagers. No one has the magic answer to getting through the teenage years successfully.

It is really hard to deal with kids who are growing quickly, trying to deal with school and their peers, popular culture and testing boundaries. Anyone who can produce a kid that doesn’t end up in jail or pregnant before turning 18 is doing a good job. I know that is a low threshold, but it seems like the majority of kids cannot even measure up to that.

Eat Pray Love Barf

Posted on by podcaster

The Julia Roberts movie, Eat Pray Love was on the cable movie channel. So I started watching it. Maybe a good chick flick would be relaxing and maybe even romantic. After all, the title refers to Love. But it was really about some whack job looking to find herself and the men she ditched for no good reason other than she felt restless.

It was one of the most awful, pitiful movies I have ever watched. I was so disgusted with the main character that I wanted to slap the whine right out of her. I couldn’t finish the movie – it was too stupid. Awful movie – and even Julia Roberts couldn’t save that piece of claptrap.

Attacking the Dropout Rate

Posted on by podcaster

Our new mayor is getting serious about his campaign promise to attack the dropout rate in the county. But he might be a little too late. Evidently, the state has taken over the county schools and has their own plan of attack in mind. They fired most of the school principals and moved people around all over the county, giving some promotions and others just re-assigned to where they can do less damage.

I would love to see the schools get serious about making the school campus a safe and pleasant place for our children to spend the better part of their days. If you’ve not been inside a public school lately and seen the awful conditions, listened to the demeaning and humiliating way that the teachers and school staff talk to the students, and actually looked inside their current textbooks to see what they are supposed to be learning – you can’t begin to understand the ginormous problems we are facing in trying to improve or revamp our public education system here.

Laptop Defects

Posted on by podcaster

My last two laptops – really good brands, high end – have both failed for the same reason my son’s just failed. The little connector piece in the back where the power cord plus in gets loose from the inside connection  to the motherboard. Once the motherboard loses connection, the laptop is basically toast. You cannot reconnect the motherboard and you can’t solder it back together. This is obviously a design flaw inherent to may different types and brands of laptops.

If someone wants to start up a class action suit against the laptop manufacturers for this defect, I’m on board. I’m about sick of spending about $3,000 every year on a new laptop because one little connector piece breaks. Just once I would like to feel that my investment in a laptop will last for 3 years. Mine haven’t even reached one third of their tax depreciation value before they have to be thrown out.

Rude Surprise

Posted on by podcaster

Saturday always means errands and today was full of them. I headed out the door around10:00 this morning to take a dog to the vet. But when we got out in the street to get into my car, I noticed a lot of yellowey stuff on the side of my car. Evidently, sometime during the night some punks came by and threw raw eggs at my car. The eggs had broken on the windows of the driver’s side and the whites and yolks had run down the glass and onto the doors and side panels of my car.

that was really annoying and if I catch the punks there will be drama. As it was, nothing was broken – except their eggs – and no real damage done. I took my dog to the vet and once we were finished there I drove through an automatic car wash and got the egg off of my car. At least this was the old beater car and not my nice truck. And like I said, there was no damage. But it is disturbing that this neighborhood is experiencing even these minor acts of vandalism. We have enjoyed a nice, quiet, respectful neighborhood until recently when a few houses down the other end of the street have been rented out to tenants with kids. If it wasn’t those kids I suspect it was some of their friends. If it happens again I’m calling the police and setting up a trap for the punks. As long as they keep getting away with it they have no reason to stop.