My blog on homeschooling and alternative education
may be found here:
www.homeschoolhomefrontier.com
Thanks for visiting.
Be seeing ya at my new blog!
I lifted this from Apple Seeds which I thought was well-said:
1. Life is not
fair. Get used to it. The average teenager uses the phrase “It’s not
fair” 86 times a day.
2.
The real world
won’t care as much about your self-esteem as your school does. This may come as
a shock.
3.
Sorry, but you
won’t make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won’t be a vice
president or have a car phone, either. You may even have to wear a uniform that
doesn’t have a designer label.
4.
If you think
your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.
5.
Flipping
burgers is not beneath dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for
burger flipping. They called it opportunity.
6.
It’s not your
parents’ fault if you mess up. You’re responsible! This is the flip side of
“It’s my life” and “You’re not my boss.”
7.
Before you were
born your parents were not boring. They got that way paying your bills and
listening to you.
8.
Life is not
divided into semesters. And you don’t get summers off. Not even spring break.
You are expected to show up every day for eight hours; and you don’t get a new
life every 10 weeks.
9.
Smoking does
not make you look cool. Watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That’s
what you look like to anyone over 20.
10.
Your school may
be “outcome-based,” but life is not. In some schools, you’re given as
many times as you want to get the answer right. Standards are set low enough so
everyone can meet them. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to
anything in real life—as you will find out.
Ever received one of these? Well I have, and more than once too. How do I know this is a scam? Well, I am not and never been a Paypal account holder. Phishing schemes never let up and you should not fall prey to these vultures who are invading your mailboxes.
Dear valued PayPal
member:
Identity protection matters. And PayPal
works day and night to help keep your identity safe. That’s why it has come to
our attention that your PayPal
account information needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to
protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you
could take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal
records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.
However, failure to update your
records will result in account suspension.
Once you have updated your account
records, your PayPal
session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.
To login to your PayPal
account and update your records click on the following link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run
Thank You for using PayPal!
The PayPal
Team
Accounts Management will periodically
send you information about site changes and enhancements, as outlined in our
User Agreement.
Please do not reply to this email. This
mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance,
log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link located in the top right
corner of any PayPal page.
PayPal Limited is authorised and
regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the
institution.
PayPal Email ID PP359
Accounts Management will periodically
send you information about site changes and enhancements, as outlined in our
User Agreement.
This and similar cons like the Nigerian 419 fraud and eBay ones are a real pain. More recently, we’ve had fake emails disguised as Maybank advice to ” verify your account.” Well, that’s the power of the internet for you.
Here’s information excerpted from Paypal’s site:
PayPal will never ask you to enter your password or
financial information in an email or send such information in an email.
You should only share information about your account once you have
logged in to https://www.paypal.com/ directly from your browser.
Remember: A legitimate vendor will never ask you to enter your password or financial information in an email.
While other kids were mugging away in arid classrooms
homeschoolers had themselves an adventure of sorts at the Lentang Recreational
Forest off Karak Highway. It was a nice and breezy day and we had the river all
to ourselves. That would have been impossible if it were the weekend where day
trippers and gawkers would have put paid our little experiment. A ranger did
stop by to ask what we were doing seeing the amount of bamboo trunks we hauled
up to the riverbank.
The object of the excursion was a raft-building expedition
that was part of the group’s
project. Nothing fancy you know, just get the
bamboo raft to float, and that’s it, they told me. Taking care of the
project logistics was part of their project as well, and I thought they
pretty much acquitted themselves. Lots of bamboo, lots of tools, lots
of bread and dogs – marshmallow even!- way too much food too, lots of
spunk. The kids were supposed to do
all the work
but some of us couldn’t help but lend a hand, or more than just a
hand. – You know moms and dads. Me, I put on my best imitation of the invisible man. Nevertheless we all
had a really good time. Now, the kids will have to figure out if they did
good…
At first I didn’t know what to make of it – a
Hasidic Jew
rapping in a reggae-flavoured album? Well, it appears Matisyahu (aka
Matthew
Miller) is not your regular one-trick novelty, he’s for real. I mean he
is a real Hasid and he actually appears on stage in traditional garb
and yarmulke. It’s not so odd when you know the rastafarians sing about
Zion (Ethiopia!) and Jah (Yahweh!) all de time except that’s all
twisted to orthodox Jews . His lyrics do come across as a little
juvenile; he doesn’t stay on pitch now and then, and he tries too hard
to put on a Bob Marley accent. But he’s all right and there is an
infectious beat all through, so you have to wish him well. I also thought the
lyrics to the title song Youth was neat. Pretty thoughtful too.
Some of them come
now
Some of the running
Some of them looking for fun
Some of them looking for away out of confusion
Some of them don’t know where to be
Some of them don’t know where to go
Some of them trust their instincts
That somethings missing from the show
Some don’t fit society
Their insides are crying low
Some of them teachers squashed the flame
‘fore it had a chance to grow
Some of them embers still glow
Them charcoal hushed and low
Some of them come with hunger supressed
Not fed them feel the death blow, yo
[CHORUS:]
Young man control in your hand
Slam your fist on the table
And make your demand
Take a stand
Fan a fire for the flame of the youth
Got the freedom to choose
You better make the right move
Young man, the power’s in your hand
Slam your fist on the table and make your demand
You better make the right move
“youth is the engine of the world”
Storm the halls of
vanity
Focus your energy
Into a laser beam
Streaming shattered light
Unites to pierce between the seams
And it seems
The world open peering
The children see
Rapid fire for your mind
Half a truth is just a lie
They rub me the wrong way
They say their way or fall behind
Seventeen disconnect left out
The concept as to why
There’s a spiritual emptiness
So the youth them get vexed
Skip class and get wrecked
Feel with beer and cigarettes
To fill the hole in their chest!
Oh no, not again! This time it’s Pangandaran off Java’s southern coast.What happened to the early-warning system that was hyped up after the last tragedy?
But despite a push after
that disaster to establish a tsunami early warning system, there was not one
working in
Monday’s quake struck, according to an official at the geophysics agency in
“We still don’t have a tsunami early warning system in place,” said
the official.
Both the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in
and the Japan Meteorological Agency issued tsunami alerts for parts of
It seems so ridiculous to read that Japan and Hawaii read the signs and
sent out an alert, yet Indonesia found no way to do the same for her own people?!Something can’t be right here.
Latest report 530 dead.
Initial stories reported a handful dead and I thought at first it was one of those things.
54,000 displaced! Indonesian media voice frustration and Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the
government would build an early warning system in Java and
other areas in Indonesia in three years. In the meantime…?
God have mercy.
We’re helping out a friend by giving him temporary lodging. What’s
interesting is we’ve got a dissenting view in our home now. Here’s a
guy who says (a) why can’t Iran and North Korea have their own nuclear
warheads? and (b) the Jews deserve to be wiped out.
Howzat for friendly stimulating conversation?
Not that we only seek out people who agree entirely with us (the very
thought is ridiculous and myopic) – but it challenges anyone to account
for their position or point of view. You know what they say about
religion and politics….
PS: caught South Park’s take on the Muhammed cartoon hoohah, and another episode on Scientology. Funny!
North
Korean dictator offered to abandon his nuclear weapons program in exchange for
the role of the villain in the new James Bond film.
In a press conference in
Pyongyang, Mr. Kim said he was prepared to dismantle his entire nuclear program
for the chance to play a Bond villain, calling the part “the role of a
lifetime.”
“I have been preparing for this role every day of my life,” Mr. Kim said.
In
Rice reacted to the news that Mr. Kim’s bizarre tenure as president of
been nothing but a Method actor’s preparation for a coveted role.
“The strange pronouncements, the weird haircut, the crazy glasses – it all
starts to make sense,” she said.
In times like this, a bit of humour helps.
This isn’t exactly news – it’s something most of us know for years -
but now we get to see some figures. Plus, now you know what kind of
courses to keep away from………..
B.Suresh Ram
The Sun
Some 70% of public universities and institutes of higher learning graduates in
the country are unemployed.
This is in contrast with 26% for private institutions of higher learning and
34% for foreign graduates.
Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar revealed the figures
today (July 3, 2006) in reply to a question from Opposition Leader Lim Kit
Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor).
He said the ministry had taken several steps, including the establishment of
the graduates’ retraining training scheme as well as providing feedback to the
Higher Education and the Education Ministries, to ensure courses are in line
with those required by the job market.
To the original question by Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh (BN-Gopeng), Abdul Rahman
said 20,217 graduates registered with the ministry’s Job Clearing System were
still unemployed as at June 12.
The breakdown showed UiTM as having the highest number of unemployed graduates
with 3,278 (16.2%) followed by UUM 1,532 (7.6%), private institutions of higher
learning 1,217 (6%), UTM 1,147(5.7%), UKM 971 (4.8%), UPM 919 (4.5%), other
public institutions of higher learning 840 (4.2%), UM 531 (2.6%), USM 505
(2.5%), UMS 371 (1.8%), UIA 358 (1.8%), foreign graduates 342 (1.7%), Unimas
174 (0.9%), UPSI 39 (0.2%) and others 7,993 (39.5%).
Abdul Rahman said the breakdown according to job sector showed ICT with the
highest number of unemployed graduates with 3,942 (19.5%) yet to find jobs.
This is followed by Business Administration with 2,714 (13.4%), Accountancy
1,923 (9.5%), Electric/Electronic and Telecommunication engineers 1,229 (6.1%),
Human Resources Management 1,022 (5.1%), Civil Engineers 983 (4.9%),
Mechanical/Mechatronic Engineers 884 (4.4%), Literature Social Science 843
(4.2%), Pure Science 770 (3.8%),
Financial/banking/insurance/investment/property 613 (3%), Office technology
Management/Information management/Library Management 552 (2.7%),
Architecture/Building/Quantity Surveying/ land surveying 540 (2.7%), Applied
Science 533 (2.6%), Economy 440 (2.2%), Agriculture/Forestry,
Fisheries/Environment 401 (2%) and others 2,828 (13.9%).
Abdul Rahman said apart from the job clearing system, other measures had also
been taken by the government to reduce the number of unemployed graduates in
the country.
Two vicious cases of school bullying have got everyone
talking. Both cases -one involving boys (Kota Tinggi), and the other girls
(Miri) – were recorded on phone videos and widely circulated on the internet (on YouTube too, until it was removed!)The
Malaysian Psychological Association wants to propose the implementation of a
bullying intervention programme developed by Dr D. Olweus. “The programme attempts
to restructure the existing school environment to reduce opportunities for
bullying. We have submitted our proposal to the ministry (of education),” said Malaysian
Psychological Association council member Datin Dr Noran Fauziah Yaakub
The programme has met with success in schools where it is
used in Scandinavian countries as well as the US. Basically it’s all about
increased supervision, more parent-teacher interaction, a curriculum of
courtesy and respect, and sanctions for aggressive behaviour (which I imagine
are all a given in the first place). Schools are also expected to do the
following:
Anyway, I say go ahead and give it a shot. What piqued my
interest however was the first point – we’re to expect adult teachers at school
to deal with bullying. The programme assumes that if bullying occurs, very
likely the parents of victim and aggressor are not informed, or do not
recognize the signs. That’s when schools step in to talk to all parties
involved. There’s some merit in having an outside party to take charge, but it
won’t amount to anything if the student and his/her family do not also take as
firm a stand as schools.
I think it all boils down to character, which in the final
analysis, is best inculcated at home.
Why then are parents failing in their job to instruct their kids in
basic decency and respect? Why do we
keep hearing about the importance of ‘socialising’ when the only social skill kids are picking up
at home and school is to ‘look out for number 1’? When a cynical media in an
indifferent society displaces the basis for values and virtues, we should not
be surprised when our kids turn violent. We make the world what it is today.
I can almost hear
you ask: what if the parents are unable or will not do their job?
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