#1 Chinawoman Marginalizing Other Chinawoman!

The other day in - Chinese Racism - we met a (typical?) self-righteous, strict Chinese mother.

Christine Lu offers up a nice rebuttal:

Drawing from personal experience, the reason why I don't feel this works is because I've seen an outcome that Amy Chua, the author fails to address or perhaps has yet to experience.

My big sister was what I used to jealously call "every Asian parents wet dream come true" (excuse the crassness, but it really does sum up the resentment I used to feel towards her). She got straight As. Skipped 5th grade. Perfect SAT score. Varsity swim team. Student council. Advanced level piano. Harvard early admission. An international post with the Boston Consulting Group in Hong Kong before returning to the U.S. for her Harvard MBA. Six figure salary. Oracle. Peoplesoft. Got engaged to a PhD. Bought a home. Got married.

Her life summed up in one paragraph above.

Her death summed up in one paragraph below.

Committed suicide a month after her wedding at the age of 30 after hiding her depression for 2 years. She ran a plastic tube from the tailpipe of her car into the window. Sat there and died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage of her new home in San Francisco. Her husband found her after coming home from work. A post-it note stuck on the dashboard as her suicide note saying sorry and that she loved everyone.

Mine is an extreme example of course. But 6 years since her passing, I can tell you that the notion of the "superior Chinese mother" that my mom carried with her also died with my sister on October 28, 2004. If you were to ask my mom today if this style of parenting worked for her, she'll point to a few boxes of report cards, trophies, piano books, photo albums and Harvard degrees and gladly trade it all to have my sister back.

For every success story that has resulted from the "Chinese mothers" style of parenting, there are chapters that have yet to unfold. The author can speak to her example of how it's worked for her but it'll be interesting to see how long you can keep that gig up and pass it down until something gives.

As a responsibility to herself as a "superior Chinese mother", I think Amy Chua should do a bit of research outside her comfort zone and help readers understand why Asian-American females have one of the highest rates of suicide in the U.S. -- I bet many of you didn't know that. I didn't until after the fact. It'd make a good follow up book to this one she's currently profiting from.

***
A few years ago I got up the guts to begin sharing the story of my sister because the more I learned about depression and suicide following her death, I found myself growing increasingly frustrated with the stigma of depression in our society. I was also shocked to learn that Asian-American females had one of the highest suicide rates in the U.S.

http://www.pacificcitizen.org/si...

I have personally helped 2 young women in the last few years who reached out to me as a result of sharing my story. Both the "perfect" daughters of "superior Chinese mothers" who were sharp Ivy League grads hiding their depression from their families and friends. I was also able to play a role in preventing the suicide of a friend of mine several months ago because of the awareness I've developed about depression and suicide since my sister's passing.

I want to clarify again that my sister's story is an extreme example that hits home for me. I'm not trying to say that strict "Chinese mother" style parenting was solely the cause that lead to her depression and suicide nor will it result in all kids burning out later on in life.

But I do hope it shows that this parenting style isn't a proven template that results in all kids turning into the success stories that author Amy Chua gives herself credit for raising.

Not for anything, but this Christine Lu is one decent-looking young lady:

She's out in LA I think - rich and gorgeous.

What are the odds that our own West Coast Tom could successfully *buy her a drink*?

But They All Insist They Love *The Seasons*...

My kids and I are having an absolute blast down here in Naples, Florida. We've been here a full week now and we're so comfortable it may as well have already been a month!

Recall we left Arctic Boston last year after serving a 5 year sentence for the moderately warmer climate of Long Island.

Of course Florida in January is just about the ideal place to be.

When I saw that news story and especially the picturesque image of what I've left behind this morning I let out quite a cackle.

I even pondered a gloating sort of Tweet a la Lebron James!

But that would just not be right, not a particularly grown-up thing to do.

Squeezing A $100 Million Church Through The Eye Of A Needle

A commenter from a post earlier today introduced me to Joel Osteen - someone I'd never heard of. He's apparently the *most popular* preacher in America:

So the critics assail him for being too light on Jesus and Scripture; for promising his followers worldly rewards; etc. Almost like an infomercial that's too good to be true, right?

Well I for one love infomercials. I watch them quite often on my low-def, round-screen color TV - even if I NEVER buy anything (only The Bean). Even though I'm not a big fan of brainwashing, the marketing is usually ingenious. The packaging of these too-good-to-be-true products really does highlight latent consumer demand.

So the commercial success of Oprah, American Idol, iMorons,..., and the *lite* ministry of Joel Osteen is definitely preaching some truth worth noting - even if it's not the TRUTH outsiders are holding them too.

You know the Jesuits were (and might still be!) VERY UN-ORTHODOX in their methods, in how they courageously spread the Word to frontier heathens. It's all too easy for armchair do-nothings to sit back and criticize. Here's my boy Will Durant:

"Wherever men do things, other men will arise who will explain to them how things should be done."

Indeed!

So I say *so what* if Joel Osteen isn't running the perfect ministry for whatever YOU think YOUR NEEDS are. YOUR fear of him becoming a Big Media caricature is just that, YOUR SELF-INDUCED problem. Live and let live (and tune out Big Media). Like I said, I'd never even heard of this guy before today. And I'm not afraid at all to investigate him further.

More Radio Talkshow-Induced Savagery!

On the heels of that little incident:

I will issue a language and *flesh* warning for this one:

Since it didn't look like anyone got too hurt....I submit that it's okay to chuckle a little - the male bystanders certainly did!

Here's another from a couple of months ago:

Heavenly Auto-Biography

I just read preacher Greg Laurie's little autobiography - Lost Boy - and it was pretty interesting.

Who is he?

He's a very popular Christian evangelical-type based out in California (see his website - Harvest Ministries). Being a life-long suffering *Northeast Catholic* I'd never before heard sermons like I first heard from him on the radio, down in Naples two years ago.

Greg had a rough life. He was born a bastard and had to endure the misadventures of his drunken whore mother; and he also was a stereotypical drug-abusing hippie - not exactly the conventional path one might expect of a world-renowned minister.

Now if I can only figure out who that other amazing Irish/British preacher was that I once heard on my car's AM/FM stereo...

Princess Leia - Then And Now

What I'd Sound Like, With An Accent

I never heard of this guy - Nigel Farage - before...

And I don't quite know all the circumstances of the following clip:

BUT it's always delightful to witness 'old coot' bastards getting smacked down!

Homeschoolers = Flat-Earth Goatherds?

The The New York Times seems to be running an awful lot of *education* articles these days. In one of the latest the question of a federal income tax break for homeschoolers is discussed.

Now even though plenty of pinko hippies have taken upon themselves the education of their brood....homeschooling is a four-lettered word in NYT circles.

Here are some of the comments about homeschoolers from that article:

The fact is that that EVERYONE has a vested interest in the education of the kids in their communities,therefore everyone should pay. Let anyone school their kids however they want, but don't jeopardize the education of the public as a whole, to grant favoritism to a few who school their children in one certain way...


We had home schooling for thousands of years and the results were widespread ignorance, illiteracy and a near total lack of numeracy skills among the population. The recognition that a minimum level of skills combined with exposure to all members of society were the driving forces behind mandatory public education. Reverting back to the flat world concepts of the past is no reason for a tax break; indeed home schoolers should pay an additional tax for the future burden on society they are creating...


While it would be inaccurate to grab a large paintbrush and say that home schooling never works, as I've indicated above, the vast majority of the time, home schooling is a disaster for the children involved in the same. Unless some system can be developed to monitor what goes on in every home schooling situation, most often the real losers are the children...


I think it was a great mistake for America to allow home schooling in recent years. While some people may be pushing for a tax break for parents who "home school" their youngsters, I would respectfully suggest jail time for such parents...


In this country, and elsewhere, we need more intellectually advanced schools, textbooks, and teachers, not kids sitting at home watching TV all day or herding goats...


I sat beside a woman at swimming lessons who was at work convincing her friend to home school. She said it really only take less than 2 hours to teach everything they would learn in school and then the rest of the day is free. She's probably right...how long can it take to tell a kid there is no global warming and the world is flat...

Ha!  Jail time?

And don't think I cherry-picked all those unkind words.

Well I actually did....but from the top of the *reader recommendation* pile!!!

So one can safely infer that these sentiments accurately represent NYT readership.

A tax break for parents like me?

I reject the premise. I'm AGAINST the income tax altogether as all of this nation's Founders would most certainly be. So I won't get sucked into this stupid divisive debate.

Of course the income tax is horrible because it codifies *envy* via redistribution.

But it also effectively politicizes EVERY economic transaction between otherwise free men and women.

A Homeschool Film?

Other than that *trailer* that I just saw....I don't know anything about this upcoming motion picture.

Here's the movie link.

Who Would Want The Napping Dinosaur, Anyway?

What's your policy on advertising the current book you're reading?

I think most people genuinely try to hide the cover of their book lest anyone cast judgment on what they've chosen - heck, even I do that sometimes to forestall questions/conversations from adjacent Morons.

Yet I always crane my neck to see what others are reading!

Some 'old coot' on the beach the other day was reading the above.

I just had to look it up when I got back. Here's the link with explanatory subtitle:

You Can't Have Him, He's Mine: A Woman's Guide to Affair-Proofing Her Relationship

Why the bleep might a sixty-something 'old coot' be reading THAT!

He was either researching *escape strategies*...

OR it might have been one of those classic cases where the 'old bag' wife just grabs one of her cheesy novels or any old book and throws it to her illiterate aliterate husband, imploring him to *read something*. I'm pretty sure this is what my mother does to my old man. He obliges too - reading at about 2 pages per hour through his closed eye-lids.

Will Now Have To Ask For Directions

Someone broke into my car last night and stole the GPS out of the compartment thingy.

They must have jimmied the door open OR somehow gone in through the trunk windshield. Tonight, when taking my golf clubs out for safekeeping, I noticed that one of the wires that attaches to the rear defrost mechanism was broken off. So perhaps they pried that open, crawled in - kicking off a wire(?), and then exited out the driver's side door.

This was bound to happen. I've heard that in NYC anyone with those circles from the suction cups on their windshield gets their car broken into for their GPS. This is what pisses me off - that I was lazy and never got around to regularly washing those conspicuous marks off.

But heck, we're in a gated community down in Naples with only 16 units here. Someone either jumped the fence or a contractor with knowledge of the code came back for a $40(?) propina. The key code to enter here is simply the numerical address of the building. No doubt whoever the 'old coot' on the HOA board is who set that up....I'd wager that they not only use AOL for their email, but also that their password is *password*!

I'm just about 100% sure that I did lock the car last night - y'all might not believe how anal I am with that habit. But I'm going to do a little detective work nonetheless. From the web:

If they used a slim jim, they probably damaged the weather strip at the lower edge of the door glass.

If they went through the door frame, they damaged the door-to-body weather strip.

If the pried the door frame out, usually the upper rear corner, they may have actually bent the door.

I'm also going to keep my eye on Craigslist. A guy in the condoplex told me today that someone once jacked his scooter out of here but he tracked the crook down because the Moron tried to sell it on Craigslist!

I'm not going to replace the GPS - I don't think.

I'll probably just have to use my Droid phone for navigation. I wonder if there's a dock/charger that doesn't break the bank AND doesn't advertise itself to thieves...

Yet Another Athletic Prodigy...

...That probably will never live up to the hype.

Note that his father looked pretty short.

Thanks to my most loyal reader (since the very beginning!), HG, for this one.

My Pelvis, A Game-Changer

Remember how back when you were a dumb kid and you *fell in love* with a the perfect shapely broad or charming dude....remember how you'd be bouncing off the walls and infatuated to the point of complete distraction?

Well that's how I feel at the moment.  I was up all night and can't stop my mind from racing this morning.

And no it's not the perky bartender from last night.  (I was at a kids-eat-for-$1 family restaurant with 5 little brats.)

I think I may have FINALLY, yet again, found the solution to the mystery of my pain-ridden back.

Reading that book I mentioned the other day - 8 Steps To A Pain-Free Back - I discovered some major insights.

It was actually quite simple. I was sitting wrong, standing wrong, walking incorrectly, and sleeping in positions that were guaranteed to be hostile to my back.

While the yoga I was doing the past few years was a step in the right direction, I was still making a major *kinesthetic* blunder - my pelvis was tucked back instead of properly anteverted (pulled forward).

So all my efforts to battle head-forward posture, rounded shoulders, and to tighten my core were almost for naught on account of this foundational problem. One can't well straighten out their spine with the all-important bottom piece of it out of whack!

Above I said that I was bouncing off the the walls but that's not entirely accurate.

I've actually been *glidewalking* all over the condo - back and forth nonstop.

What's that?

It's a method of ambulation described in her book that merely stretches out your hamstrings, engages your core, and gives an incredible buttocks workout. Yeah, all from just taking a few steps across the room!

Much, much more on this development will be forthcoming.

Birth Of An Author?

I'm not sure if I mentioned this on my blog already, but my 6.14 year old homeschooled son and I recently conceived and started writing a *story*.

It's about a personified pencil - PencilEd (a play on "pencil head"), his severed hindquarters EraserBurt (a play on "eraser butt"), and sundry similar characters. See his post - Pencil Ed.

Anyways I came up with the initial idea (I think), we talked about it a lot, and then set to work trying to sketch the cast and storyline.

Eventually we sat down, me at my PC and my son 6 feet away at his, and I created a *shared* Google Doc so he could read along as I started typing up the ideas we had been jawboning. I kind of got into it a little but my son....he was absolutely RIVETED in his seat.

It was all he wanted to do for weeks thereafter!

"Dad, can we do some more PencilEd???", became a nagging refrain.

I did do a little more with him but then I checked out on our joint-venture completely. PencilEd was a casualty of limited time and priorities.  A horrible homeschooling parent, I've been leaning more and more on edu-activities THAT DID NOT INVOLVE ME.

But in hindsight my negligence looks like a masterstroke. One day a couple of weeks ago the 6 year old Prince sat down and continued the story all on his own. He implored me to take a look at it more than a few times but I never did - until just the other day.

I was absolutely blown-away with what he wrote. And when I showed it to my first wife she too was incredulous, and interrogated me hard as to whether or not I *helped* him. I most certainly DID NOT.

Here's a link to a copy of our very rough story. The beginning is almost all my work but I clearly indicate where my son takes over:

Pencil Edventures

What do y'all think?

I was particularly taken aback by his penchant for *suspense* and *flow*; and I like how he changed fonts/font sizes for emphasis. He is only 6 after all.

But realize that he's read nothing short of a bazillion books already. So he's well-aquainted with basic literary form.

See also:

Prince C-Nut - Book Devourer

Raising a Bibliophile.

Chinese Racism?

Some woman, one Amy Chua, just ripped round-eye American parents in the WSJ - Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.

Most of what she said was substantially correct, BUT:

Her tone was *racist* in the true sense of the word - implying racial superiority.

She has a profoundly misplaced emphasis on *academic grades* - like they mean ANYTHING at all.

And although I can be a bit of a, as my father once remarked,...a *drill sergeant*, get a load of this LUNATIC:

Here's a story in favor of coercion, Chinese-style. Lulu was about 7, still playing two instruments, and working on a piano piece called "The Little White Donkey" by the French composer Jacques Ibert. The piece is really cute—you can just imagine a little donkey ambling along a country road with its master—but it's also incredibly difficult for young players because the two hands have to keep schizophrenically different rhythms.


Lulu couldn't do it. We worked on it nonstop for a week, drilling each of her hands separately, over and over. But whenever we tried putting the hands together, one always morphed into the other, and everything fell apart. Finally, the day before her lesson, Lulu announced in exasperation that she was giving up and stomped off.


"Get back to the piano now," I ordered.


"You can't make me."


"Oh yes, I can."


Back at the piano, Lulu made me pay. She punched, thrashed and kicked. She grabbed the music score and tore it to shreds. I taped the score back together and encased it in a plastic shield so that it could never be destroyed again. Then I hauled Lulu's dollhouse to the car and told her I'd donate it to the Salvation Army piece by piece if she didn't have "The Little White Donkey" perfect by the next day. When Lulu said, "I thought you were going to the Salvation Army, why are you still here?" I threatened her with no lunch, no dinner, no Christmas or Hanukkah presents, no birthday parties for two, three, four years. When she still kept playing it wrong, I told her she was purposely working herself into a frenzy because she was secretly afraid she couldn't do it. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic.


Jed took me aside. He told me to stop insulting Lulu—which I wasn't even doing, I was just motivating her—and that he didn't think threatening Lulu was helpful. Also, he said, maybe Lulu really just couldn't do the technique—perhaps she didn't have the coordination yet—had I considered that possibility?


"You just don't believe in her," I accused.


"That's ridiculous," Jed said scornfully. "Of course I do."


"Sophia could play the piece when she was this age."


"But Lulu and Sophia are different people," Jed pointed out.


"Oh no, not this," I said, rolling my eyes. "Everyone is special in their special own way," I mimicked sarcastically. "Even losers are special in their own special way. Well don't worry, you don't have to lift a finger. I'm willing to put in as long as it takes, and I'm happy to be the one hated. And you can be the one they adore because you make them pancakes and take them to Yankees games."


I rolled up my sleeves and went back to Lulu. I used every weapon and tactic I could think of. We worked right through dinner into the night, and I wouldn't let Lulu get up, not for water, not even to go to the bathroom. The house became a war zone, and I lost my voice yelling, but still there seemed to be only negative progress, and even I began to have doubts.


Then, out of the blue, Lulu did it. Her hands suddenly came together—her right and left hands each doing their own imperturbable thing—just like that.


Lulu realized it the same time I did. I held my breath. She tried it tentatively again. Then she played it more confidently and faster, and still the rhythm held. A moment later, she was beaming.


"Mommy, look—it's easy!" After that, she wanted to play the piece over and over and wouldn't leave the piano. That night, she came to sleep in my bed, and we snuggled and hugged, cracking each other up. When she performed "The Little White Donkey" at a recital a few weeks later, parents came up to me and said, "What a perfect piece for Lulu—it's so spunky and so her."


Even Jed gave me credit for that one. Western parents worry a lot about their children's self-esteem. But as a parent, one of the worst things you can do for your child's self-esteem is to let them give up. On the flip side, there's nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn't.


There are all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, overdriven people indifferent to their kids' true interests. For their part, many Chinese secretly believe that they care more about their children and are willing to sacrifice much more for them than Westerners, who seem perfectly content to let their children turn out badly. I think it's a misunderstanding on both sides. All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that.


Western parents try to respect their children's individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions, supporting their choices, and providing positive reinforcement and a nurturing environment. By contrast, the Chinese believe that the best way to protect their children is by preparing them for the future, letting them see what they're capable of, and arming them with skills, work habits and inner confidence that no one can ever take away.

Now I most certainly could rip this women, her teaching philosophy, and her chauvinism to shreds but I think she clearly Marginalizes herself.

Worse than her priorities and methods is her drunken and unapologetic self-righteousness.

Just imagine what she might say about other demographics *off camera*...

Thanks to the UkrainianFop for sending me this link.

The Political Utility Of Dumb Kids And Bad Adults

Y'all will have to excuse me if you've already seen or heard about this interesting story - how (our?) hackers allegedly devastated Iran's uranium-enriching computers. Living under a comfy rock, I just caught wind of it. Thanks LeagueIslander.

Of course this is the type of stuff we should be doing INSTEAD of spending $500+ billion a year on standing armies and sci-fi weaponry.

I recently came to an important realization about Big Education that also applies here.

Government schools miserably fail the *top* students, YET all of the news/propaganda about them focuses on how it fails the worst students - complete tautological BS!

Why is that? Well I submit it's not out of genuine compassion or anything but rather because highlighting drop-outs and illiteracy in say East New York, Brooklyn or Camden, NJ is a far more effective ploy for unquestioned, and INCREASING overall edu-funding.

Likewise, focusing the entire news cycle on *nuclear* Iran, a handful of Iraqi decapitators, and Mid-East rock tossers also keeps the public sufficiently *alarmed* and too distracted to question the enormous scope and spending of Big Military.

See why I don't follow the *news*?

This Guy...

...probably gets a lot of broads, don't ya think?

Talented as (bleep) though...

Vicarious Thrill Ride

Thanks to Crave for this one!

The 4-Second Funny Bone Tickle

Another Bad Back Book

While I've just started reading this one - 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back - I can tell it's going to be helpful. Perhaps it'll even be *the one* that helps cure my broken back. The focus of the book is *perfect posture*.

With over 170 reviews on Amazon it impressively still holds a 5-star rating. Click the link, read the reviews, buy it, and make yourself perfectly erect!

See also - Another Piece of Bad Back Puzzle.

Screw Zillow.com

I could be wrong/blind but it appears as though Zillow.com has done away with its best feature - Sales Price History.

Obviously it's an attempt to placate and solicit ads from those unctuous realtors. God forbid any prospective buyer find out that homes can be disastrous *investments*...

Yet another triumph for *opacity*!

Here's hoping the website DIES and its owners get foreclosed upon.

UPDATE - It appears that I am wrong/blind. An intern from Zillow.com informed me in the comment section that *sale history* is still being duly reported on their website.

Look. I most certainly did not imagine this. I'd been looking at *sale history* on that site for a few years before without any trouble. Then all of a sudden I couldn't find that data on the last bunch I pulled up. And it could be because I started searching an area (NY?) that simply didn't have much published sales price history. I don't know. But this morning, BEFORE running this post I did a quick Google of the question and came upon this:

That complaint was not only curiously unanswered, it was ON THEIR WEBSITE. One might think they would address those critiques before coming here...

I simply combined my frustrated personal experience with that corroborating link and a dollop of my trademark cynicism in penning the post. I can't well research everything to the N^th, now can I?

I think they may have removed the explicit link to *sales history* and folded it into their ridiculous estimated *price history* (at the behest of advertising brokers?). So if you click on price history it should be there, although it's *buried* by the laughable and infinitely useless *5 year* default time range. You'll have to expand it.

Note that most real estate brokers today LOVE the *5 year* time-line as well!

Productivity Killer

Click here.

Y'all can thank PrivateCaller for this torture!

Homeschooling = Lifestyle Design, Too

Here's a pic of my kids from five days ago in New York:

And here's a snapshot of what they have doing the past two days in Orlando and now in Naples, Florida:

While they did have a blast in the snow for a couple hours last week...

Still, they tragically hadn't been to a park in almost the past two months.

While Long Island has numerous large, beautiful, and well-funded parks I've been very disappointed with them on another front. There simply are NO KIDS there for mine to play with, EVER.

If I was one of those LOSER *likers* on Headbook...

My wall would read "CaptiousNut likes Snowbirding*!

And so do my kids.

We spent New Year's Eve last week with two other neighborhood couples and their children
up north.

Both of them have *1st graders* - girls the same age as the Prince AND also a younger child right behind like our Princess.

And both of these couples, I think, have already been captivated by the idea and evidence of us homeschooling our children. The endless stream of questions they they fire at me and my wife suggest much more than shallow curiosity. I can literally see the wheels turning in the brains during these conversations - most especially this past week over a New Year's Eve standing rib roast when we revealed that we were packing the car up for Florida.

Twice one of the guys incredulously asked me later that evening, "You're really going down for a whole month?"

Indeed I was....actually for a little longer!

Making Good Time

Last night we did arrive in Jacksonville - covering a hefty 600 miles on the road.

The Prince, with the help of some parental marketing, decided upon Hooters *family* restaurant for dinner.

Wow. Let's just say the staff in Florida was a lot more possessive of *qualities important to the superficial male* (credit Jerry Seinfeld) than the Hooters I went to in Philadelphia back in the mid-1990s.

The tank tops are fine, but the tiny shorts, the way they sit down at the table to take your order, and the flirting are a little over the top - not to mention the *hula hoops*! The waitresses there can be described as nothing short of *reluctant strippers*, IMO.

Why did we stop there?

I told y'all - because my son chose it!

Also, I recall faintly that their wings were pretty good - I had them years ago, the lightly-breaded variety.

But they weren't that good this time. And not-for-nuthin'....they have to start cutting off the freakin' wingtips.

FYI, if you are going to go to Hooters *family* restaurant, try to get the seat next to the kitchen window. That's where we were put. From that perch you'll have a perfect view of ALL of these reluctant stripper waitresses running(!) to pick-up their food orders.

We had a much, much better lunch in Smithfield, North Carolina.

I highly recommend stopping there, about 2-3 miles off I-95 for some terrific BBQ.

We thoroughly enjoyed every part of the Combination Platter - BBQ (that's *pulled pork*, yankees), fried chicken, slaw, potato salad, and fantabulous hush puppies. Also, their sweet tea is some of the best, if not the best I've ever had.

The kids behaved angelically considering we did 10 solid hours of driving. While my son did read for a bit and his sister was hard at work with her *art*....I did let them watch three movies on the DVD player - Narnia, Harry and the Hendersons, a SpongeBob video, and one other one that I can't remember. You see we have that DVD player built-in with the Tahoe that comes with headphones. Furthermore, it has *channels* so I can listen to the radio aloud while they listen to the movie (or CD) through their headphones.  This feature is nothing short of HUGE for long trips.

I'd say that I enjoyed yet another benefit of starving my kids of color TV. When they get a chance to watch something, anything, like they did yesterday....they become very excited. I'd imagine a kid who gets to watch that crap all the time might have started kicking my seat during a 10-hour drive.

We crashed at a $30/night Motel 6, where I'm typing this, that I must say is positively DISGUSTING. And for me to say that is really something. Thank God my wife isn't here as she'd have me pack up and find another place to stay!

For one thing, this *non-smoking* room smells like crap. Probably someone smoked in it (often the *help*!) and so they nuked it with some explosive, cheap air-freshener or something. One bed had burrs stuck on the covers and it had cigarette burn holes through it. There's no refrigerator (okay now because it's cold enough outside); there were only three pillows on two double beds; and they only left us half a roll of toilet tissue (1-ply smudger). You get the picture anyway. And believe me....I'm far from a snob in these matters.

That's got to be one of the most Moronic things I've EVER SEEN - a *no smoking* sign placed ON THE BOTTOM of an up-turned ashtray. Way to go Motel 6!

Short 2.333 hour ride today to Orlando - where we'll hang out with a displaced South Philly jabroni and his family.

Then on Wednesday we'll polish off the last four hours of the drive to Naples.

It's supposed to be 78 degrees then!

Snowbirding, Again!

Despite the forces conspiring against me, I managed to pull it off again this year.

Right now I am in a motel outside of Richmond, Virginia with my two homeschooled children.

Having failed to find a rental in Miami, we instead secured one in Naples, Florida.

We'll be staying right on Vanderbilt Beach about 1.5 miles from where we stayed in January 2009.

The plus side is that we got good deal ($2,500 all in) for a 2 BR.

The down-side is that my first wife's office is in Miami. She's still going to work there for a couple of weeks - but we'll spend the weekends together. Then at the end of the month she'll take a week off and we will saunter our way home - visiting family, friends, and perhaps Mickey Mouse in Orlando.

While I was very excited about spending this winter in Miami (South Beach!)....I do know my way around Naples, I have a good friend down there, and Naples is probably a much better all-around place for children, not to mention it's cheaper. In fact my buddy referred to Miami as *like a foreign country*.

Seemingly EVERYONE is nervous about me driving down (23 hours?) by myself, with a 6 year old and a 4 year old in the back seat.  After asserting that she was going to go to bed *early* last night I received an email from my first wife at 1:13am declaring that she *couldn't sleep* and that she was *nervous* about us driving down.

The first day (8 hours) was fine.  The kids watched two movies on the DVD player (I made them at least wait until we got to NJ), the girl napped for two hours, and I allowed the boy to play with my Droid phone - for a while he played chess, then he was permitted to download some free *game apps* provided he figured out how to do it himself.  Of course I only let him download mid-80s Atari games like Pac-Man and Pole Position!

It is tough stopping every 2 hours for childish bathroom breaks.  You'll pass a rest area thinking you can make the next one which is 25 miles away, after all, I'm trying to make time....then you come to a dead stop with congestion or something.  And you pray no one in the backseat bursts!

If memory serves me, I-95 really opens up beyond Richmond - so it should be clear, boring sailing from here onward.

Jacksonville is about 600 miles away.  I don't know if I can reach it today, but we should at least get near, if not to Georgia tonight.

A Large, Devilish Vocabulary

So my son , the 38 lb 6.12 year old Prince, was wrestling with one of my extremely obese cousins (a medical professional!) during Christmas-related festivities.

In one particular move, my cousin cruelly rolled the full burden of his corpulence on top of my little guy. The Prince screamed, jumped out, and hollered with a pointed finger, "YOU FIEND!"

Hah! Only a couple of people in the room were familiar with the term fiend ("devil, demon").

But I guess that's to be expected when - with no color TV or video games available - a kid reads science fiction and fantasy books all day long.

Just before Christmas he read THREE Charlie Bone books - a jaw-dropping total of 1,200 pages - in a 10 day period.

Some Serious Levity

Methinks the most impressive thing about it was....getting so many adults to keep a straight face throughout!