21 February 2011
Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
Note: I am not taking credit for the majority of this post; only for finding it on Facebook. The author, Meredith, does not have messaging available on her page so I am reposting this without her explicit permission, *BUT* she did encourage others to share it so with that said the following post is here with the author's indirect permission.
Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....
That's $585 X 180= $105,300
per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special
education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an
hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute -- there's
something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher's salary
(nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days
= $277.77/per day/30
students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.
Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....
That's $585 X 180= $105,300
per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special
education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an
hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute -- there's
something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher's salary
(nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days
= $277.77/per day/30
students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.
18 February 2011
I see dead people......
I've had an obsession with cemeteries for years, ever since I was a little kid. My childhood home was within close proximity (i.e. walking distance) to three cemeteries. There was a crematorium two blocks away from where we lived and we called the black ashes that sometimes fell on the sidewalk "black snow". Such an ideal goth childhood, no?
As a teenager and young adult I hung out in cemeteries a few times at night, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes (or cloves) and listening to Sisters of Mercy. No joke. Such an ideal goth adolescence, no?
Once I was able to travel one of my favorite places to visit was....wait for it...cemeteries. I've seen Highgate Cemetery in London, Old Calton Cemetery in Edinburgh, The Necropolis in Glasgow, Pere Lachaise, Montparnasse, and Montmarte (all in Paris). Such an ideal goth adulthood, no?
I'm not the only person in the cemeteries taking pictures of gravestones and memorials. There is definitely a sub-culture of us folk who like walking around the dead. I spent several hours in Montmarte, having ditched my map, just exploring and hanging out with the scores of strays who lived amongst the tombstones and mausoleums.
My first trip to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was in August of 2009. I made a return visit in October 2009. My main goal was to find one crypt: that of Rudolph Valentino, the most famous lover of the silent film era. Valentino died at the age of 31 in 1926. I've read books about his life and watched his movies. But I wasn't able to find him...until today.
It turns out I was looking in the wrong part of the cemetery. All I had to do was ask one of the groundskeepers "Donde esta Valentino?" and he pointed at the other mausoleum at the other side of the cemetery. The ones I had passed both times I had been there previously.
Knowing that I was about to face one of my idols I prepared myself appropriately; I brushed my hair and made sure my makeup was OK. It was pouring rain but I had to look good for Rudy.
It was a pretty poignant moment for me, finally being able to see the resting place of one of my icons. I paid my respects, and then like any good nerd/lover of the dead started snapping away to capture the best photo of Rudy and I. Unfortunately, his plot is six feet above ground and it was hard for me to squeeze both of us in the photo.
I found one new friend on the way out of the mausoleum:
As a teenager and young adult I hung out in cemeteries a few times at night, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes (or cloves) and listening to Sisters of Mercy. No joke. Such an ideal goth adolescence, no?
Once I was able to travel one of my favorite places to visit was....wait for it...cemeteries. I've seen Highgate Cemetery in London, Old Calton Cemetery in Edinburgh, The Necropolis in Glasgow, Pere Lachaise, Montparnasse, and Montmarte (all in Paris). Such an ideal goth adulthood, no?
I'm not the only person in the cemeteries taking pictures of gravestones and memorials. There is definitely a sub-culture of us folk who like walking around the dead. I spent several hours in Montmarte, having ditched my map, just exploring and hanging out with the scores of strays who lived amongst the tombstones and mausoleums.
My first trip to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was in August of 2009. I made a return visit in October 2009. My main goal was to find one crypt: that of Rudolph Valentino, the most famous lover of the silent film era. Valentino died at the age of 31 in 1926. I've read books about his life and watched his movies. But I wasn't able to find him...until today.
It turns out I was looking in the wrong part of the cemetery. All I had to do was ask one of the groundskeepers "Donde esta Valentino?" and he pointed at the other mausoleum at the other side of the cemetery. The ones I had passed both times I had been there previously.
Knowing that I was about to face one of my idols I prepared myself appropriately; I brushed my hair and made sure my makeup was OK. It was pouring rain but I had to look good for Rudy.
Sure enough, there he was in plot 1205, waiting for me:
It was a pretty poignant moment for me, finally being able to see the resting place of one of my icons. I paid my respects, and then like any good nerd/lover of the dead started snapping away to capture the best photo of Rudy and I. Unfortunately, his plot is six feet above ground and it was hard for me to squeeze both of us in the photo.
This is the best I could do:
I found one new friend on the way out of the mausoleum:
A beloved psychic...couldn't pass this up.
Call me strange, call me weird. Tell me your hobbies.
17 February 2011
11 January 2011
The Fighter
The Fighter
Directed by David O. Russell
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo
I recently listened to an interview from NPR's 'Fresh Air' where Terri Gross talks with David O. Russell and Mark Wahlberg, respectfully the director and star of 'The Fighter'. Listening to this interview I can't say that I considered myself a Wahlberg or a Russell fan. The only work of Russell's that I had seen prior to 'The Fighter' was 'Flirting With Disaster' (and I didn't even know he had directed it until I just looked him up on IMDB.) Wahlberg has always been a good actor in my opinion but I haven't gone out of my way to see any of his movies. He did crack me up in last year's 'The Other Guys' and I appreciated his work in 'The Departed'. But other than that....'Boogie Nights'? Yeah, it was good, but I wasn't blown away. Hmm.
My opinion of David O. Russell has always been tainted by the clips of him going off on actors during the filming of 'I Heart Huckabees' (2004). Yeah, you've seen them. He sounds like an egotistical prick, and we're talking HOLLYWOOD here.
I was drawn to the story of two brothers that are part of a (very) extended family from Lowell, Massachusetts, and how boxing changed their lives. I felt Wahlberg's passion about the project come through during the interview and was intrigued to check it out. When I found out that Christian Bale was cast to play Wahlberg's older (and crack-addicted) brother that sealed the deal for me. Bale is known for his physical transformations for his roles ('American Psycho', 'The Machinist') and it often takes away from the fact that he is an absolutely brilliant actor.
Bale plays Dicky Eklund, who knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard in a boxing match in the late 70s. Since then he has become addicted to crack and pretty much wasted his life. Wahlberg plays Micky Ward, Dicky's younger half-brother who has spent the majority of his boxing career as a 'stepping stone', meaning that he is paid to box so that others can beat him and move up the rankings. Melissa Leo plays Alice, Dicky and Micky's mother (as well as the mother of seven daughters) who managed Dicky and now manages Micky. Alice continues to look at Dicky as the prized son and doesn't seem to give a damn about Micky's well-being (letting him box fighters who are 25+ pounds heavier than he) all in order to get a pay check and some sense of glory.
Alice is an extremely unlikeable character. She spends most of her time fawning over Dicky and talking about his "inevitable" come back while ignoring the fact that he is malnourished and clearly in need of serious help for his drug addiction. Dicky appears to have an understanding that his glory days are over but has been unable (and unwilling) to pass the torch to his younger brother, who seems to be at the end of his career at the beginning of the movie. Micky meets Charlene (played by Amy Adams) in a bar after practice one night and convinces her to give him her phone number. He doesn't call when he says he will because he's too embarrassed after getting knocked around in yet another uneven match. Charlene convinces him to leave the management of his family and seek training from those who care about him, not his washed up brother.
I felt extremely sympathetic for Micky Ward, who had a promising career but was overlooked by his family and called “ungrateful” when he began to speak up for himself. The movie culminates with the title match in London. Beautifully shot by the camera men who worked for HBO Sports in the 90s, the fight scenes capture the reality of the bouts and really show how much training Wahlberg himself put in to accurately portray a boxer in peak physical shape.
Bale is eerie and scary to watch. At times it appears that he is the main character of the movie, which is confusing since he has been nominated for supporting awards. Once again Bale has pushed the limits of what an actor should do in order to play a character. He is emaciated, apparently shaved a bald patch into the back of his head, and truly does appear high. As much as you want to hate Dicky it's very easy to feel sorry for him. Perhaps this is because I am the older sibling but I can't blame Dicky for his behavior. I blamed Alice, who condoned his drug use and antics for years. Dicky does not get clean on his own; it is forced on him. It is only with a clear head and the ability to think for himself that he realizes how much he has fucked up and turns his life around.
Adams plays a multifaceted character. Charlene is a girl who had a full scholarship to URI for track and field and messed up her chances of getting out of Lowell because she partied too much. She buries her misery by drinking while tending bar and wearing revealing clothing. Micky's sisters call her an MTV girl. Inside it appears that she wants to be loved and to get out of the hole she has dug herself into. She finds a hook in Micky and his career and becomes his major anchor in life, despite the fact that they have a tumultuous relationship.
I found 'The Fighter' to be an inspiring story about family and dysfunction and coming to terms with the realities of life. Wasted opportunities, low expectations, and determination are all major themes of the movie. I expect Wahlberg, Bale, Adams and Leo to all receive praise for their performances, as well as David O. Russell for his direction.
John Taylor.......
You are a true gentleman.
I'm kind of at a loss for words right now because it's really special to me that you read and apparently cared about this little bloggity blog.
A rough day at work is now ending on a high note.
Trust the process y'all.
XOXO,
Kristin
08 January 2011
'All You Need Is Now....And Then'
Since the release of Duran Duran's new album 'All You Need Is Now' in mid-December I've been listening to it and relishing the feelings of nostalgia that come along while listening to the tracks. It's definitely an insult to the Birmingham boys to say that AYNIN is a rehash of the glory days (i.e. Duran Duran, Rio, and Seven and the Ragged Tiger). In my opinion it's almost a tribute to a classic period of time for music.
What I've done is taken the 9 tracks off AYNIN and 9 older tracks and prepared a playlist on my iTunes and iPod. I've called it 'All You Need Is Now....And Then'. If you're a big time Duranie like I am give it a try. Each of the older songs had something that made a musical connection with the corresponding new track.
I'd love feedback from Duran fans, as well as those who aren't.
Track listing...........'All You Need Is Now...And Then'
1) 'All You Need Is Now'
teamed with 'New Moon on Monday' from Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983)
2) 'Blame The Machines'
teamed with 'Careless Memories' from Duran Duran (1981)
3) 'Being Followed'
teamed with 'Anyone Out There' from Duran Duran (1981)
4) 'Leave a Light On'
teamed with 'Save a Prayer' from Rio (1982)
5) 'Safe'
teamed with 'My Own Way (Night Version)' from Rio (1982)
6) 'Girl Panic'
teamed with 'Union of the Snake' from Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983)
7) 'The Man Who Stole a Leopard'
teamed with 'Tel Aviv' from Duran Duran (1981)
8) 'Runaway Runaway'
teamed with 'Hold Back the Rain (Remix)' from Rio (1982)
9) 'Before the Rain'
teamed with 'The Chauffeur' from Rio (1982)
What I've done is taken the 9 tracks off AYNIN and 9 older tracks and prepared a playlist on my iTunes and iPod. I've called it 'All You Need Is Now....And Then'. If you're a big time Duranie like I am give it a try. Each of the older songs had something that made a musical connection with the corresponding new track.
I'd love feedback from Duran fans, as well as those who aren't.
Track listing...........'All You Need Is Now...And Then'
1) 'All You Need Is Now'
teamed with 'New Moon on Monday' from Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983)
2) 'Blame The Machines'
teamed with 'Careless Memories' from Duran Duran (1981)
3) 'Being Followed'
teamed with 'Anyone Out There' from Duran Duran (1981)
4) 'Leave a Light On'
teamed with 'Save a Prayer' from Rio (1982)
5) 'Safe'
teamed with 'My Own Way (Night Version)' from Rio (1982)
6) 'Girl Panic'
teamed with 'Union of the Snake' from Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983)
7) 'The Man Who Stole a Leopard'
teamed with 'Tel Aviv' from Duran Duran (1981)
8) 'Runaway Runaway'
teamed with 'Hold Back the Rain (Remix)' from Rio (1982)
9) 'Before the Rain'
teamed with 'The Chauffeur' from Rio (1982)
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