Not a good birthday so far. I have a cold, I got about 5 hours of sleep last night, and I rushed in this morning for a meeting. I get in this morning to find that the meeting has been postponed.

Little bit of teaching news that made me laugh out loud... a Missouri House of Reps council rejected a proposal to boost the minimum teaching salary in favor of another proposal to focus on bonuses and such, including "[a] $2,500 retention bonus...for five years at a district that is financially poor and without full accreditation". Seriously? For five years of some of the worst conditions, you'll give them $500 extra a year? Gee.... great.

Don't get me wrong, it's always nice to be rewarded, but if this is supposed to be an incentive? "Hey, if I put up with abuse, disrespect, and constant scrutiny for just four more years, they'll give me just about what I spent on school supplies during that period!"

It is to laugh. Er, I'm not too curmudgeonly, am I? Maybe I am. Don't get me wrong, there are many reasons to teach in those schools, and a little recognition is always nice, but as an incentive...

Okay, that was today's teaching news rant. Later!

Oh, fuck you.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Ha.

Case in point much?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!!

5th Grader Corrects the Smithsonian

That is AWESOME. I feel a kindred spirit. (Says the woman who at 8 years of age prevented a surgeon from making a HUGE mistake with her post-op care that if I hadn't brought it up would have probably meant several more weeks in the hospital if not worse.)

While no previous visitors to the museum had brought up the error, it has long rankled the paleobiology department's staff, who noticed it even before the Tower of Time was erected 27 years ago, she said.

They must be feeling pretty pissed off, huh? "Okay, so next time we want an inaccuracy corrected so we don't look like total idiots, we should just hire a 5th-grader? Good to know."

They must be feeling pretty pissed off, huh? "Okay, so next time we want an inaccuracy corrected so we don't look like total idiots, we should just hire a 5th-grader? Good to know."

"Let's just hire one. Get me a 10 year old to wander around the Smithsonian Institutes and tell us how we suck."

Need to go shower and go to work. Do not want!

Oh, today was a world of do not want! Be strong, brenda. We're all behind you.

Happy birthday Tom!

I think 10 year olds are at that perfect moment of clarity and rationality -they're old enough to be almost-adult in their intelligence, but mostly too young to be hormone-addled teenagers. It's a great age. For correcting the Smithsonian.

I am so glad my mother is only 58, and my father (62) has a ten years younger wife and at least one child who is both not estranged from him and a responsible human being, even if she's only 21 right now.

When she gets old, my mother is going to be a HANDFUL. (I mean, she's a handful now, but a healthy and fully compos mentis handful).

For my birthday, everyone gets free FoTC MP3s!

[link]

Not a good birthday so far.

Bah. But I am glad I clicked through to see what FoTC is! Now if I can only remember that's there when I get home tonight.