Our Country is in Deep Sh*t

Enough is enough.

I Tweeted the article on Bay Area summer schools getting cut and the response was well, let me put it this way. All I heard were crickets chirping at the tumbleweeds rolling across my monitor.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t fault anyone for their silences. I mean, how do you respond to something like that? I don’t know either, but sometimes, I can’t help but to wonder: do we (our nation) even care?

Pardon the profanity, but our country is in deep shit. Our educational system – the foundation of this country, is an utter failure.

• San Jose Unified cuts their summer school from 4 weeks to 12 days this year to save money.
• Seattle School system cut their after school programs.
• “Currently 6,000 of the nation’s 95,000 schools are labeled as needing corrective action or restructuring because they have fallen short of testing targets under the federal law. via The SF K Files.
• There are schools in the US that asks parents to equip. their kids with basic supplies ie: toilet paper.
• Detroit has shut down their school libraries for a semester, for example, when there was enough (private) funding to pay $41 million to their NFL draft pick.

…and those are only a few examples from people I correspond with. Google “budget cuts education” and the number of news articles that pull up are ridiculous.

These budget cuts are unacceptable.

Especially, since I learned the United States is tied for first place with Switzerland for annual spending per student on its public schools*. I don’t know about you, but “not enough funding” sounds like a load of crap to me.

How is our failed educational system ok?

Well, it is not. Something MUST be done.

…I just don’t know what (yet).
But enough is enough.

*via Wikipedia and OECD
**Further discussion on my Facebook and FriendFeed.

Make Your Life Easier: Replace Why with How

According to my parents, I almost institutionalized them with my non-stop questions.

You know, the normal kid questions i.e. Why can’t I chew gum that’s been spit-up? Why don’t people eat the crust (sandwiches)? Why is my face so flat? (all questions I’ve asked, btw), so naturally, “Why?” was the initial word that would come out of mouth for a loooong time.

Several years ago, I noticed most “Why” questions lead to “How” questions.

For example:
“Crap. X and x, now xyz!”, followed by “WHY”s. Why did this happen? Why would it happen? Why couldn’t we prevent it? …and more often times than not, followed by finger pointing, blame, and focusing on what went wrong and frankly, talking in circles.

Once the dust (and panic) settles, we move on to solutions:

• How did this happen?
• How can we properly execute this?
• How can we effectively communicate this?
• How could we have prevented it?
• How can we ensure this never happens again?

By consciously asking more “How” instead of “Why”s right off the bat, I’ve reached solutions more efficiently and quicker …or simply: my life became a trillion times easier.

Since my how question method, emails have been drastically cut down, there are faster turn-arounds, almost always on schedule, etc., etc., because you see, the “how” is often buried in the “why”s.

So for my peers that read this (if you guys still do…I haven’t been updating) – try it, and let me know if I’m load of crap. :)
Image courtesy of Natalie Dee…god I LOVE her!

I am Addicted to Undercover Douchebags.

I have the absolute worst taste in men.

Lumping the men I dig into the “douchebag” category is a bit harsh, since they do not look like the common douchebags. i.e. greasy hair, designer clothes wearin, name dropping, flashy car driving, guido-ish, Myspacing…douchebags. The douchebags I am attracted to, are undercover douchebags.