Who wants to buy a country?

You can do it here.

Global warning.

It was 72 degrees today. It's January. Scientists are worried. We should be too.

Curriculum ridiculum.

Forget this reading crap. Are our children learning life's really important lessons early enough?


I got through both high school and college with As and Bs, and I don't believe I ever cracked a book.

I'm not proud of it.

But I didn't miss a single class in four years of college. I read Cliff Notes, took class notes like crazy, paid attention, spent time with my professors, and took study partners and practice tests seriously. I had a math partner in college who had big boobs and wore a tight T-shirt that said "STOP STARING AT MY TITS."

But I digress.

Today, I read news voraciously from at least a dozen sources daily, and I consider myself somewhat of a Middle East buff. I read about technology (well, not enough about phone service) future fuels, politics, interest rates, real estate, war, advertising, health, music and movies.

I even avoid Fox News wherever possible.

What's my point? I'll tell you. The last 16 years of my life suggest to me that our school curriculums are not adequate.

We all took the obligatory language, math, history, science, social studies (whatever that means), health ed, art, and gym.

Did we ever learn how to invest money? Or even how to balance a checkbook? No, we didn't. We worked at a hardware store after school, and borrowed money from Dad.

Did we ever learn how to get a mortgage? No, we didn't. We didn't learn this until we had to know it, and by then it was too late. I can attest to this personally. Everything I learned about mortgages I learned on the fly, and during the excruciating process of refinancing. How much would I have saved in interest, fees, points and aggravation had I known about all this stuff in advance? Fantastic amounts.

Did we learn how to fix anything in shop class? No, we didn't. We made ashtrays and lamps or other useless shit.

Did we learn in any class how much exercise we need or how to eat right? About portion control and trans-fats? No, we didn't. I broke my thumb playing basketball, and we threw cookie batter at each other in home-ec. Good times.

Did we learn about recent relevant political history? Did we learn about the origins or the scope of Arab ire? Of the long-term effects of global warming or the disastrous consequences of excess greenhouse gases and melting ice caps? Or the insufficient progress of new battery technology? About managing our future? No, no, and no.

We learned about Washington crossing the Delaware. We learned about the Crusades. We learned about Reaganomics. We learned about Orion's Belt. We read Catcher In The Rye. Well, most of us did. But an argument can be made for the answer to this question: Who cares?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking education. When I meet someone with an advanced degree, or someone who can speak half a dozen languages, I get all tingly with jealosy. And I get that those who don't understand the past are condemned to repeat it. It is also debatable whether children should necessarily have all of these "adult" things thrust upon them by age 18 anyway.

And George Washington was a really important guy. For sure, teachers work hard; we wouldn't be where we are without them. But when you watch the news, you see that we're falling behind in the world. And in our own lives. Well, I am. It seems to me that there are things besides the standard content of your high school courses that are just more important to our current survival and success. I think it's because more in the world has changed in the past 20 years than remained the same. Our education system simply has not kept up. What do we do? We fill in the holes. We improvise. We get thrown into situations and we learn the hard way. We sue each other. We take advantage of those who know less. The system needs work.

As a child, I was blessed to have parents who sent me on every kind of lesson there was: Ski lessons, swim lessons, music lessons, martial arts lessons, language lessons, soccer camp, you name it. And it wasn't because they had money: growing up, my parents shared a shitty used car, and the only vacationing they ever did was when my grandparents flew over to Europe from the U.S. to see us. My parents sacrificed a lot for my brother and I. They wanted us to be exposed to every conceivable skillset, so we'd be more prepared for later life. It made a difference, and I'll force this sort of thing on my kids as they whine kicking and screaming. And they'll thank me when I'm old. Not everyone gets these opportunities.

Meanwhile, I took a stab at an addendum to today's curriculums, in an effort to get kids today to be better prepared for tomorrow. Think what you will. Comment if you like. Or if you don't. Educate me.

In addition to the basics; math, science, history, literature (oops!) and gym, these are some month-long crash courses that I'd add as requirements somewhere within the eight years of high school and college, if I had any qualifications or authority on the matter. Maybe it's just a glossy brochure and an hour guest lecture. Maybe it's both. Of course, those who major in finance are automatically ahead of the game. Not to mention those who are lucky enough, smart enough, or disciplined enough to go through law school/medical school/business school or other advanced trade school.

That leaves the other 90% of us. I'm not saying that 15-year-olds need to know everything about Muni bonds. But I have to believe that some basics will go a long way when they graduate with a clue. I wish I did.

FINANCE Courses:
Understanding Credit Cards
Networking & How To Look For A Job
Balancing Your Checkbook & Budgeting
Personal Investing, 401ks & Interest: The Benefits Of Starting Early
Understanding & Preparing Taxes
Understanding Real Estate
Understanding Renter's/Homeowner's Insurance
Understanding Life Insurance

HEALTH & SOCIAL Courses:
First Aid
The Importance Of Exercise & Eating Right
Personal Hygeine
Dating
Social Ettiquette & Getting-Your-Lazy-Ass-Off-The-Computer-And
-Interacting-With-Other-Humans
How To Play Cards
Understanding Wines & Liquor
Understanding Health Insurance
Social Security & Our Aging Parents

BASICS Courses:
How To Buy/Rent A Car
How To Change A Tire
How To Buy/Use A Computer
New Technology
100 Things You Can Fix Yourself
Public Transit & How To Get Around
Understanding Global Warming
Recycling
Home Security & Personal Defense
Dealing With Customer Service
Basics Of US Government
Politics & World Leaders
Understanding Europe
Understanding The Middle East
Understanding Central & South America
Understanding Asia
Warfare & Nuclear Weapons; Current Conflicts
Why We Vote
Going To Jury Duty
Filling Out Applications
How To Organize & Keep Records
How To Use Maps
Ebay Is Your Friend
Synopsis Of The World's Great Religions

Hello. I'm a technotard.

With one call, my phone/internet bill has just gone from $60/month down to $24.99.

And since all my training and experience tell me that $24.99 is considerably less than $60, I'm happy. Verizon is not.

I can live with that.

Just when I mustered the courage to eliminate my home phone, I woke up and discovered that we have lots more choices today than we did as recently as just two years ago.






















Perhaps I'm a little behind the times. What say I hit you over the head with my receiver and we see who's laughing then. Deal?


Who knew that you are no longer required to have an active phone line to have dsl? Most of the world, for sure. But maybe I just assumed it was necessary. Maybe it just made sense to the gerbil running around on the treadmill in my head. Maybe it was that Verizon says so in their 0-point legalease. Of course, Verizon is very careful not to promote dry-loop dsl, since some FCC law was enacted around 2004 preventing them from bundling (read: forcing dial tones down people's throat along with other services they may not need.) And that means they're probably hemorrhaging profits. Interestingly, I couldn't find a lot of news stories about this, but I found a ton of bloggers raving about it.

$35/month less is $420/year savings. This is not insignificant. Better yet, you see I can do basic math.

If you're a technofreak, like my brother, this whole thing is not news. Nor will you care about it if you have cable modem, or millions in the bank. But some of you dsl users might find this information useful. To me, it was like discovering fire; The simple truth is, you no longer need to have an active phone line to have dsl streaming through it.

The drawback is, you no longer have an active phone line. But so what? I have a fair amount of confidence that T-Mobile might actually be able to continue eeking out decent cell service 80% of the time. More importantly, I haven't made a call on my home phone in nearly three years. And the only people who call on that line anymore are telemarketers and politicians.

I don't know what they're going to do now, but I'll work through it.