Bad Days for Newsrooms—and Democracy
Folks, this isn't just the report of someone hoping to save their job. It's a proclamation of the dark future in store for us all if we don't begin to realize the value of journalism in a free society.
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Journalist Chris Hedges reports on the decline of the newspaper industry and how this is leading us further down the dark path of a total corporate takeover of the information we receive.
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one of those days
it's just one of those days where you wake up and the world just seems out of focus. Something's not quite right with me but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you why. Maybe after some caffeine, things will seem all right.
Age-appropriate content
I've received a scan of the letters my girls were sent home with and it would appear that I need to call the principal and discuss the content of the curriculum, when it starts, the stigma of "opting-out" and whether or not this is educational or religious in nature. If it's the latter, there's a problem: the kids go to a publicly-funded school in Virginia and religion should have no part of their education.
How young is too young?
More details to follow, but my ex-wife informed me that my children were sent home with letters from school. Apparently, there's a program that takes the children away from school for abstinence classes. Parents have to "opt" their children "out" of the program by contacting the school principal.
Am I wrong to feel outraged that my daughters are going to be taught about abstinence? I'm not worried that my 7-year-old is out clubbin' on the weekends. I guess it might depending on what your asking them to give up.
Perhaps, we should instead put that time, a time that would be horribly insensitive to the children, to better use? Teach the children another language. Explore the histories of other countries and other continents. Strengthen their mathematical acumen.
One more from the shoot.
Here's one more from that photo shoot with my friend/boss.
In his words, "Bean kinda looks like a rock star for some cool industrial band." ha ha ha
Some abstract wallpapers
Many eons ago, I was introduced to a wonderful piece of landscape software, Bryce 3. I used it to create fantasy landscapes with rivers that flowed down mountains (even though they had no source) and strange objects with stranger textures.
That was until I ran across a tutorial online on making abstract art with Bryce. Since that time, I've rarely used it for its original purpose: creating artificial landscapes.
So, recently I purchased Bryce from "Daz3D":http://www.daz3d.com and began making more abstract wallpapers for my MacBook.
Here's just a few of my recent ones:
and my current backdrop:
Enjoy 'em! If you like them, let me know. If you don't like them, let me know.
Girls’ last day
Today is the girls' last day in Sacramento. As soon as my brother gets here, we'll all be spending the day at "FairyTale Town (Lots of fun)":http://fairytaletown.org and then tonight, they'll be flying back to Virginia.
It's been a lot of fun and definitely exciting. I'm glad I got to see them again.
Girls’ last day
Today is the girls' last day in Sacramento. As soon as my brother gets here, we'll all be spending the day at "FairyTale Town (Lots of fun)":http://fairytaletown.org and then tonight, they'll be flying back to Virginia.
It's been a lot of fun and definitely exciting. I'm glad I got to see them again.
The Girls are Back in Town!
It's been over a year since I've been able to hold them in my arms, read them a story or kiss them goodnight, but my daughters are back in Sacramento to spend a few weeks with Daddy. They got in at midnight Wednesday.
"Peej (lovely girl)":http://princessjeni.org and I picked them up at the Oakland Airport and got back to Sacramento around 3:30 am. The kids hadn't slept on the plane and didn't sleep during the entire trip back to Sacramento. They didn't actually fall asleep until around 4:30.
Fast-forward to the next day: I have to work, but come straight back to the girls. To keep them occupied for a bit, I break out my "MacBook":http://www.apple.com/macbook and throw open Photo Booth so the girls can take some pictures.
Here's a sampling of the wackiness that ensued over the next 45 minutes. Photo Booth is THE killer app for Mac OS X for kids.
Snapshots from our day in SF
Here's just a few snapshots from our walk-about tour of SF. Mind you, at this point, we'd left our camera in the hotel, so two of these are from Photo Booth on my MacBook and the others are from "Jen's (She's a cutie!)":http://www.princessjeni.org cellphone camera.
