Saturday, December 29, 2007

Another Rant--but this one a bit more serious

I was reading an article on a 17 year old girl who got the bright idea to start something online and is now a millionaire. Her business is taking up so much of her time that she had to quit school and hire friends to help her with it. One of the comments on the site was directed at her dropping out of school, saying that it wasn't a good idea and that they hoped she went back and got her GED or something.

You know, I'm wondering if this girl has the right idea.

Now granted, I'm not in favor of dropping out of high school. I have teenagers of my own and I'd like to see that they get at the very least a diploma, however with the way the government has completely fucked up the education system, I can seriously understand how this girl would take running a business over finishing school. I mean seriously, I bet she's learning a hell of a lot more useful stuff running that business than she would sitting in a classroom, stressing over advanced algebra and literature classes.

My two kids are not natural students. Both have ADD/ADHD (and yes, they are on medication so don't even start with me) one is dyslexic and the other has test anxieties. They have to work their assess off in school to get mediocre grades. And the government, despite their claims of "No Child Left Behind" has created such a mess my kids, as well as thousands of others, will be lucky to get out of it with their sanity intact. Thanks to our wonderful government, they've managed to take the "kid" out of being a kid and thrown today's students into a situation where our educational system is as much, if not more stressful than the working community.

They've created a system based on test scores of "book knowledge" and completely forgot that kids need "life knowledge" as well. They complain that the kids today are obese from staying inside and playing those bad, bad video games....helloooooo, did you ever think they're getting obese because they sit in school all day then have to come home and do five more hours of homework to keep up their grades?????? This girl had the glorious ability to think outside the standard academic box and create an answer to a problem thus starting up a successful business and that she pulled it off showed she's not lacking in the brains area.

But did she pass the standardized testing?

You know, I barely squeaked by in school but I don't consider myself dumb. And you remember those stupid occupation tests we had to take? Well they told me I'd be either a domestic servant or a park ranger. Okay, so maybe to my 16 year old, I am a domestic servant ("I'm hungry", "I need laundry done") but it seems I've done pretty darned good for myself. I can string enough, somewhat grammatically correct sentences together to write a novel and I have enough smarts to hold down a job where the information I analyze and report to the state drives the funding for a pretty good sized school district program. I can even calculate change without using a cash register (now ask any teenager today to do that and see what it gets you besides a blank stare!)

Not to shabby for an academic loser, eh?

So, uh, tell me, Mr. President, if the mean weight of three team members on a bobsled team is 161 lbs and the added (fourth) driver brings the mean weight up to 165.5 lbs, exactly what is the weight of fourth person? Oh, and don't forget to show your work. Remember, you don't graduate if you can't answer it correctly--no pressure or anything.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Don't try this at work, people....

Okay, this one wins the year's biggest 'DUH' factor. A woman, specifically an aspiring romance novelist, was fired from her job when her boss got suspicious that she was typing too much (huh?) and had an IT tech look at her computer. They found her novel that she'd been working on as well as an email from a friend calling her work "a tawdry lust novel" (ACKKK...can you see my eyes rolling back in my head? That ranks right up there with the curse of "bodice ripper" and an insult to all romance writers. If one of my friends called my work they'd die, die I tell you!!! Good thing they're smarter than that). She tries to get out of it by saying that it didn't violate the "personal use" part of the company policy because she really didn't care who looked at her novel.

WTF??????

I don't know which is worse, this chick or the one that was blogging about how much she hated her job....WHILE SHE WAS AT WORK! I don't even think a good smack upside the head would help these two they're so far gone into stupid land. They rank right up there in intelligence with the teachers and school administrators who get busted for having porn on their school computers. Now THAT takes brains.


Okay, listen up people:

rule #1: don't ever put anything personal on your work computer.
rule #2: If you do put something personal on your computer -- TAKE IT OFF!

If you remember nothing else, remember these two rules. Misuse of the computer is near the top on list of reasons employers fire their employees. And don't even think about whining "I'm getting my work done so what's the big deal?" Helloooo, you're being paid to work, not slam the people signing your paycheck, shithead. If you don't like your job, find another one. If you want to write, do it on your lunch hour on your own laptop. If you can't afford a laptop, use a pen and a piece of paper for cripes sake. QUIT YER BITCHING AND USE YOUR FUCKING BRAIN!!!

Like Happy Bunny says..."Make the stupid people shut up" because if they don't, they need to get off my planet.