Wednesday, June 13, 2007

What do your children owe you? - Nothing...


I am always amazed at people who somehow believe that their children OWE them time and attention. Children do not represent your old age retirement system or your support group. Children are a continuation of your SELF - their actions are only an extension of your own behavior and values. Hopefully you have done a good job and the best part of you and your spouse moves on.

We love our children...and have the luxury to think and worry about them everyday of our/their lives. Remember they have their own lives to live And if you need to hear their voices pick up YOUR phone.

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Key People Responsible ---- For Parkway's Conversion to XP

Just a reminder...

Dr. Malito, Kathy Blackmore, Steve VanMater, and Monty Montgomery were the chief secret planners for the conversion of the 5,000 Parkway School District Macs to Windows XP (Approved by BOE in FEB 2007) .

This conversion decision made in secret, with the participation only a few SELECT schools, no public plan of instructional or financial impact, no meaningful public discussion with community or outside experts, no validation of vague reasons for the conversion, and not mentioned in the Parkway District Technology Plan (2006).

Time will measure the consequences.... but a terrible waste of people and resources in my opinion. And odds are that no matter how much financial accountability is often "hawked" in the district the true costs of this project will not be made public since cost was not a "factor" in the Board of Education's final approval. (Note: Apple Computer was not even invited to make a bid for the intel based processors - another indication that cost was not a factor in this decision since their "non-invited" bid was actually less than the final bid submitted and accepted by Parkway from HP.)

Recently I noted that the District is "PUSHING" the staff to accept laptop computers since they require less electricity (and the HP computers require almost twice as much as the Macintosh computers and thus would cost the District hundreds of thousands of dollars in unplanned electrical infrastructure.) What is really sad is that the staff members who accept these computers are expected to pay for any accidents with their own home insurance.

Lastly, I challenge the School District to make a public summary of this project with all the costs involved. Needless to say, that EVEN IF they made such a public document it would be "incomplete" and not subject to review by critics.

While I could continue to tear this issue to death with other issues of poor planning I know it will not change what has already happened. Still, I want to leave this reminder for the future. How many times in the past has the BOE approved a "proposal" without a detailed plan including cost or instructional impact? Only AFTER they approved the "proposal" did the proponents offer to write THE PLAN.





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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Record Keeping

I have been working for the last couple of months on family genealogy. While it has been a very enjoyable pursuit it has also made me even more aware of the necessity of keeping "backups" of important records at remote sites. Some things (photos, original documents, etc. are simply irreplaceable.) And since you can't keep original records in multiple locations you can can keep COPIES.

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Deceit - A Way of Life...?


Having lived a good portion of my life - I have come to conclude that much of human existence is lived with an element of deceit. No matter how much professed "morality" or "good intentions" I suspect there is always some "untold" story, "truth", "behavior", or whatever that is not freely shared with other people for a variety of reasons - such as suggested by the "Seven deadly sins" of (pride, wrath, greed, envy, lust, sloth, and gluttony.)

No matter who you are you have a secret life.....

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