Odds and Ends Commentary 4-25-2006

School uniforms in the Fort Worth ISD

Today the Fort Worth ISD school trustees are expected to approve a standardized dress code for students from kindergarten through eighth grade, while leaving the issue of a dress code in individual high schools up to the vote of the teachers, students and their parents. If you ask me, they should do the dress code for all the way up through high school. Yeah, there will be the cries of “repressing creativity and expression” and such—but I am unmoved by such pleas. (Warning: I’m about to sound like an old dude) Kids today get away with a lot more than I would have gotten away with at that age, so they can just go cry in their iPods and their MySpace websites about school uniforms. I wore uniforms back in grade school, and I wasn’t physically, socially, or psychologically harmed by them –nor was my creativity or expression suppressed. Children at those age groups benefit from more discipline, not less. I could go across the board as to why mandatory uniforms are much more of a plus than a minus, but that’s been discussed elsewhere already ad nauseum. But I will say that everyone will benefit from eliminating the “fashion war” that high school has become in recent decades. The more students concentrate on their studies and the less they concentrate on their clothes, the better we will all be—both in the short term and the long term. And these same, complainer “they’re stifling my creativity!” students can always be creative and expressive --but on their own time after school!

Tom Cruise and other celebrities

I am officially tired of hearing about the following celebrities: Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, George Clooney, and Jennifer Aniston. Actually, I’m pretty tired of hearing about celebrities in general and the “out-of-touch-with-reality” lives that they live. Celebrity watching these days has become a freak show, and one that I am tired of listening to. Some people want to boycott gas stations, I say let’s boycott celebrities and quit feeding their already inflated egos. Who’s with me?

Cool camera special effects

Over the weekend, while experimenting with my camera, I came across some cool “special effects” that my digital camera can do. I’ll be posting some of the pictures that I’ve taken later in the week. :-)

Sports

Dallas Mavericks’ coach Avery Johnson is rumored to about to be named Coach of the Year. It will be the first time for the Mavs, and I can’t think of a more deserving coach to get it. Now if the NBA can follow suit with a “Most Valuable Player” to Dirk Nowitsky, followed by the Mavs winning the championship, then we can call this a banner year for the team!

And speaking of the Mavs, their farm team, the Fort Worth Flyers, reached the finals of their league, but lost to their opponent. It was quite an accomplishment to get to the finals at all, considering that not only is this the first year of existence for the team, but that it had roster changes like nobody’s business. That’s life in a farm team, though, as the numerous minor leagues team managers in baseball can attest. The Flyers are much better than the previous “Texas Rim Rockers” team (which was a constant car accident in progress for its entire first and only season), and it looks like the Flyers are going to be around for the foreseeable future.

Math Trick

This came to me by e-mail. Enjoy!

A NEW & DIFFERENT MATH TRICK:

Here is a math trick that might get you to thinking...

1. Grab a calculator. (You won't be able to do this one in your head.)
2. Key in the first three digits of your hone number (NOT the area code.)
3. Multiply by 80.
4. Add 1.
5. Multiply by 250.
6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number.
7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again.
8. Subtract 250.
9. Divide number by 2.

Do you recognize the answer?