HELP! - My Terrible Towel Buying Dilemna

I cannot choose. I'm in the market for a new bath towel, and thus, design. I have narrowed it down to three choices, but I cannot decide. Therefore, I'm going to post the three pictures of the towels I have narrowed the choice down to and see what the blogosphere thinks.







Obviously, for the first two options there are 3 color varieties. I would appreciate knowing the color you likey best, but I am not going to worry if you just like the particular look.

Charter School Chicanery

As a special educator of elementary students, this continuing trend in education has me deeply troubled.

In recent years, as different groups/administrations have tried to "fix" failing school systems, the prospect of charter schools have been lauded and praised as good remedy for the problem. In fact, the Obama Administration is threatening to withhold millions of stimulus dollars to states that hinder the growth and prominence of charter schools.

Therefore, my state's governor, has issued a decree that he wants to nearly double the number of students attending charter schools in the state. I'm sure most charter schools are cute, dainty, lovely educational institutions that cater to the needs of the children they accept...err...wait, what? Accept? Oh yeah, that's something my public school system I work for CANNOT do by law, we cannot refuse anyone an education.

But, onto the real problem many of my ilk have: It's all about money. No, not about my paycheck. Although, as you know, we teachers are VASTLY overpaid *cough, cough.* But, seriously, I am a special educator with a unique set of tools that allow me to better teach students with those needs, and I am barely paid a living wage considering where I reside. It's a damn good thing I love my students and my job.

It's about the economics of a school and how taking students away from a school can drastically affect how much money the administration has to spend. Each student taken away from a school/district carries away with them anywhere from $9,000-$15,000.

Let's take the average of those numbers and say District X spends $12,000 per student. District X also features a total of 5 2nd grade classes with 25 students per class. Let's also say that 10 parents choose to move their child to a charter school via school choice. This means that District X loses $120,000 off the top of their budget. Well, now you have to fire a teacher.

So, we originally had 5 classes X 25 = 125 students. Now we have 115 students spread out among 4 classes. This averages out to over 28.75 students per class.

TRUST ME when I say that there is a huge difference between a class of 25 and a class of 28-29. It seems simple, for it's only 3-4 more students. But, that's 3-4 more students that could shake up the chemistry of a class negatively, and/or that is 3-4 more students you have to divide your attention to as a teacher. Therefore, the other 25 students have their teaching experience suffer.

Moreover, this making the vast assumption that the $120,000 only costs you a teacher. The problem also comes in that schools have fixed costs that no matter how many students you have, you still have to pay a fixed amount.

Such as: Lighting, heating, sometimes cooling, general maintenance costs, janitors costs (the building doesn't magically get smaller when you lose students, they still have to clean the whole building), transportation costs likely wouldn't be lowered because it would be highly unlikely all 10 students were on the same bus, professional development costs, etc, etc.

Finally, as a special educator, my job is incredibly secure. These charter schools typically get to chose who they accept or reject. They would most likely reject the difficult special education students that even applied. This would leave a disproportionate percentage of special needs students in the public school system. And newsflash, they cost more!!

Charter schools are bad business for public education and bad news for public education students who will be left behind. Me and my boy Obama part ways on this issue.

An All-Star Travesty

this All-Star game continues to be a freaking joke. Tim Wakefield, the 40+ year old knuckleball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, has been pitching in the big leagues for 17 years. Originally starting his career with the Pittsburg Pirates organization and being a corner infielder, Wake discovered he wasn't going to get to the majors playing that position. That's when he started toying with the idea of throwing the knuckleball just to find anyway he could eventually make the majors.

He came up to the major league in 1992, and initially had very good success until control problems forced him to go back to the minors in 1993. Eventually he was let go by the Pirates and was signed by the Sox in 1995. From then on, history was made.

For years, Wake quietly hung around in Boston, gaining little notoriety even in the town he pitched in. Eventually, slowly, Wake became a fan favorite and an all-time Red Sox player, and is one of the franchises favorite and most beloved players today.

For the first time in his career, he was selected to be in the All-Star game. He never got to play, and it's largely Bud Selig's fault.

This asinine idea of making this All-Star game "count" cost Wake his only likely chance at an appearance in an All-Star game. Baseball is trying to have their cake and eat it too. And when people try to do this, one thing invariably happens: They don't eat cake, they eat a steaming pile of horse dung.

First, baseball requires that all teams be represented, which is stupid if your playing a game where you should have all the best players available to play to decide an important game. Instead, a player like Ian Kinsler, who is argueably the 2nd best 2nd baseman in the American League, gets left off the roster so that Adam Jones of Baltimore so they are represented. Nothing against Jones, but Kinsler is better.

Second, as an American League (AL) fan, I am thrilled with this set-up because the AL is a superior league all the way around. The AL has won the last 12 All-Star games, that's not a fluke. The AL has the most money to spend, see the MF Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Not to mention the Angels, Texas, etc. The AL has a disproportionate number of teams when compared to the National League (NL) that are willing and able to spend money to buy the best players. This inherently makes this game to decide home field advantage incredibly unfair.

Third, by making this game as such, it causes the possibility for players like Wake who are old and likely at their only All-Star game could be skipped over and not have the chance to even play because the respective managers are afraid of having to forfeit in extra inning because they don't have enough pitchers, thus handing home field advantage to the other league in the World Series.

Fourth, and finally, baseball should go back to the alternating league having home field advantage in the World Series. With the unbalanced schedule, you could argue that choosing the home field based on win-loss record can also be unfair. A team like the Red Sox that plays in the toughest division in baseball can have a worse record than a team like the L.A. Dodgers from the NL, who is actually a worse team, because they play in an incredibly weak division.

Either way, baseball's decision on the meaning of these All-Star games is stupid and incredibly unfair. This needs to be changed back to what was original policy.

Continuing Assault on Teachers and Their Rights

As an educator myself, this infuriates me:

Brad Young was a high school softball coach in Walkersville, Maryland. The team had a good year going 15 and 4 and to the state semifinals this season.

So, he held an end-of-season cookout for his team and their parental units. One parent brought some beer to the shin-dig.

Some of the other parents drank one or two beers. None of the softball team members drank the beer, nor did Brad.

One of the other parents who obviously didn't drink the beer, called the School Board.

Ergo, Brad, for his trouble and for hosting a cook-out at his house...fired and banned from coaching for three years.

I don't drink, I hate bars, I hate big parties where there is drinking...but, WOW. This is truly pathetic. Even I wouldn't have called to complain.

This is one among many reasons why people don't want to go into teaching anymore...this exact type of bullshit. You can't do something nice anymore and not get shit on because of something not being EXACTLY perfect.

I'd be marginally okay with a small censure of the guy for not remembering the rules and not realizing this would be considered an "official team function." But, to fire and ban the guy is a gross overreaction.

At least he wasn't fucking his star pitcher...there are much bigger problems administrators should be worried about.

A realization

Within this or the other blog I run is a post calling for celebs to form a group to turn the tables on the paparazzi and follow the people who follow celebs with impunity. Dig through their trash, stalk them on vacation, etc, etc.

TMZ made this infinity easier by having a ridiculous tv show, so now the celebs can know easily who they should target and humiliate publicly.

The people that work for these clowns, are so pathetic they deserve to be humiliated publicly. I have no sympathy for these clowns.

Twenty Five Percent

Today marks the 25% mark of the year. No, not of the calendar year. The year it will take for me to feel comfortable that my surgical event is going to last for a good long while. Once you hit a year, all things seem to usually go fine for a while. I, am 25% there.

Things are going well, let's keep it that way.

A Note to Starbucks Baristas

When I hand you my Starbucks Gold card to pay for my coffee-related beverage, quit asking me: "Is there money on this card?"

Because, NO, there's not! I'm handing you a card that I knowingly have NO money on, just to waste my and your fucking time! Get a freakin' clue!

James Brown, the ex-footballer, is right

Brown has continued his outcry, publicly calling out star black athletes like Tiger and Michael Jordan and many in the media don't like it and find it uncalled for on his end.

I have argued before in this blog that Brown is right in calling these asshats out. The thing the media doesn't get is fairly simple: While the Coz (Bill Cosby) has come out barking at young, black men needing to take some freaking responsibility, adding on to what Brown has been talking about for decades...I have to believe that young, black men are looking at these two old men and hearing white noise.

Michael may be now too old as well to deliver this message effectively, but Tiger certainly is not. He could use his bully pulpit as an international star of epic proportions to deliver such a message to young, black men.

I am sorry, but making the cash he is making, there is an intrinsic responsibility put upon him to take this role. It's clear to me that Tiger is way too image conscious, when he doesn't need to be. Yet another reason to hate golf...