Video Games = Psychotic Drugs!

His mother cancelled his World of Warcraft *account* or something:

This is why I do everything I can to prevent my kids from playing video games...

I Did It - ONE MILLION HITS!

This morning my blog received its 1,000,000th hit, finally!

I thought it would happen sooner (1.5 years ago), but whatever.

Nothing is more unpopular than *the truth* (credit: Will Durant), I never tried to game the Google search results like everyone else did, and the competition for web eye-balls has gotten fierce over the past few years.

This blog has done wonders for me. It's been more educational and more rewarding than all my years of schooling. And through it I've met some terrific people - most of whom I've never met in person but still consider dear friends.

I'd like to buy each and every one of my readers a drink.....but just not in Manhattan - home of the $17 vodka tonic and $20 martini!

So thanks!

I do hope that sometime in the future I can post again with my old prolific regularity....

Teaching Science To Dumb Kids

I used to love this show:

Awesome!

Thanks to CaptiousNut for this one.

Al Gore DID NOT Invent The Internet!

Nor did any Commi agency.

It turns out Big Government HELD BACK the development of the web!

Read Stossel.

Pirate Golf

One Captious commment on YouTube (not mine!):

I know I'm gonna catch a lot of shit for this. But good golfers know this guy has an advantage over two legged golfers. The only thing he ever had to learn was swing plane. His center stays put because he cannot sway without falling over, and the low point of his swing arch is super consistent cuz he's anchored. This guy is the human equivalent to a belly putter. off the course he is at a disadvantage. But in golf...he kinda has the ideal anatomy.

Time Flies!

I should make my kids do this!

Heck, I should do this myself too.

The World Is ENDING!

And I'm not talking about the imminent crash of the stock and bond markets....or any other such trivialities.

I just now joined both Twitter AND Pinterest!

I actually only wanted to join Pinterest....but I needed a Twitter account in order to create an anonymous profile. Otherwise it syncs with your real name on MyFaceSpaceBook.

What can I say?

I'm experimenting with traffic generation for HomeschoolDad.com...

Moronic Pseudo-Science

"16 out of the last 17 years....we've had record temperatures..."

????

Okay.

The *record* is only 100 years or so long...

AND Earth (my least favorite planet), is allegedly 4 billion years old.

So, yeah, let's all go and extrapolate from this STATISTICALLY INSIGNIFICANT sample set!

One might euphemistically call this *intellectual arrogance* from a present-tense Moron...

But whatever you want to call it....it's not *science* by any stretch.

Who Is Da Biggest Moron?

It's a tough call!

Book Rec - The Talent Code

I just read The Talent Code (a mere 2 days)....and, well, it's not that bad.

If anything, it's got me hitting golf balls at the range M O R E S L O W L Y.

And it's also, from my perspective, yet another *homeschooling book in drag* - even if most of the people reading it (and the author!) don't realize it.

It's in the same mold as Outliers and Talent Is Overrated. So if you appreciated those...

Here are the links to those:

Book Rec - Talent Is Overrated

Outliers - A Must Read

Daniel Coyle also has a blog. Today's post has a neat little soccer video on it too (if you're into soccer anyway).

One For The 'Old Coots'

My own kids actually like this classic series. I bought a $5 DVD of the Rascals at Walmart and let them watch in the car a couple years ago on our long drives.

They laughed so much and so loudly....my wife and I kept yelling at them and threatening to turn it off!

I'm Shattered

Is that really MacGyver?

And, can he really not fix a horseless carriage???

In the old days he could handle thing with some duct tape and his Swiss army knife!

Career Reinvention Update

Long-time readers will recall that I used to trade the financial markets....and that I took a whooping shorting this insane bear market rally.

I've recovered from many an a$$-whooping in the trading account over the years (16+) but for variety of reasons it was time for a difficult career change.

Well I'm still in the process, HomeschoolDad.com is the main long-term business plan at the moment, but I've also been angling to break into the lucrative high-end tutoring market here in the NYC metro area.

Not in dire need of money, I've been holding out for precisely the kind of work I wanted.

And, finally, I'm starting to make some inroads.

Today I taught my first *competitive math* classes in a summer program here on Long Island.

Class is 4 straight hours and pays $320 cash....which while nothing like what I used to make selling a 100-lot of juicy puts back in the day, it still felt good. The thing is, I enjoy teaching math so much that I would almost do it for free. Almost.

The kids are young, 100% Asian, and well-behaved (so far).

In the future I hope to get my hourly rate north of $100 once my reputation as the *best math teacher on Earth* spreads...

And I'll also use this teaching position as an opportunity to build out my (math) info-products.

It's been a slow process, but things are finally looking up for me on many fronts.

Punching Dorks

Thanks to LeagueIslander for this gem!

Truth In Advertising?

I always wondered why say a restaurant didn't try to advertise itself as having *the most fattening cheeseburger* or something.


I guess if it did, it would ring like this:

Ineffective AND probably expensive to make on account of the *star power*. I'm sure someone in the marketing dept. of Hulu got fired over this one!

10,000 Hours - Golf Test Case Update

3,000 hours in....and he's down to a 6 handicap.

I myself am probably only a 7-handicap.

But I'm quite sure I'd easily psych him out/scare him in a head-to-head match!

What's going on here?

The dude has dropped everything and decided to test the the 10,000 Hours Hypothesis.

See also - Great, Another Golfing Wacko...

Weighing In

I'm tipping the scales at an all-time record of 173 lbs right now.

Only 6 months ago I was at my personal low of 161 and annoying family members were saying I looked *emaciated*.

I myself am shocked at this sudden reversal. My busy schedule has limited my short bursts (20 minutes of the elliptical) of aerobic exercise AND it has induced a lot of *eating out* for lunch and dinner (burritos and pizza)...

But still I am somewhat surprised and frustrated by the weight gain. I still do the kettlebells and 30 grams of early morning protein from The 4-Hour Body.

Added muscle? Maybe - but certainly not all of the bulge.

So right now I'm finishing up Day 2 of a serious diet (if I make it through bedtime!).

No pizza. No burritos. No ice cream. No candy. No soda. No bread. No pasta. And tons of fruits and vegetables.

My goal is to purge for 10 straight days.

I pretty much suck at avoiding sweets so these experiments never last long.

But this time I'm more motivated - not only by the *all-time* number, but also from reading about Tony Robbins and his ninja mental tricks. I'm really interested to see if I can pull this, a major behavioral change, off.

I'll weigh in again the morning of July 12th, shaved, naked, and post-defecation.

See also - Breaking My Vows.

Happy DEPENDENCE Day!

Big Government is a Hyrda-headed monster...

And I seriously doubt the capacity of today's Americans to slay it - not when our best entrepreneurs peddle socialism, not while the jurassic ruling class continues to feather its nests on the backs of future generations.

Robbing The Robbers!

So what's the difference between them stealing from you and vice versa?

Oh, yeah, they have the Big Government thugs on their side!

A plumber just left my house. He changed the *insides* of two toilets.

Guess how much?

With tax, $283.51.

And he wouldn't leave the house until I paid him, either. No more *billing* because people have been stiffing THEM, back.

I don't blame them even though the premium in my price no doubt is subsidizing those debtors.

$135 an hour for labor? That seems high to me - extraordinarily high actually.

And I love how they mark-up the *parts* which they certainly get for 50% of retail prices...

Self-Help, Health

Last year I discovered self-help guru Tony Robbins - a guy whom I like to describe as the *mind over matter* dude.

Many people no doubt scoff at Robbins, the *informercial* guy from the late 90s but I just read another of his books - Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement - and came across some fascinating heath/body stuff that I'd never read before.

Ever hear of *food combining"? I certainly hadn't.  It's a digestive theory that asserts certain foods (e.g. meat and potatoes) shouldn't be eaten at the same time because some necessitate a stomach acid for proper digestion....while some foods demand a stomach base (alkali?) for proper digestion.  For example, the American staple combo of meat and potatoes is to be avoided.

Why?  Because the acid and bases supposedly neutralize each other and make your body work harder to digest.....leading to bloating (ever felt that???) and other stomach issues (*out of your brains* farting!) In his book Robbins even said that eating a ton of incompatible sh*t food can even lead to a bad night's sleep if you eat late and your body is working overtime (several hours) to digest while you are sleeping.

I'm sure that those overweight doctors and the medical establishment have a study that debunks this....

BUT if anyone has stomach issues they'd be crazy not to experiment with separating their foods according to this *quack* theory.  I myself don't think I have but am willing to give it a whirl and see what happens.

There's also a snippet in the book about the lymph system, body cell waste products, and proper breathing.

Now I myself have been unable to stop shallow, mouth-breathing for quite a while now.  But Tony has a method that seems to be clicking with me.  Breathe in deeply, hold your breath for 4-times as long, and then breathe out slowly for twice as long as your inhaled.  When I do this....I can really feel the inhale get deep down into my stomach.

Okay we're still here on the beach (Ocean City, NJ)....and I just missed the sunrise writing this post. As my son would say, "WHAT AN EPIC FAIL!!!"

See also:

Moronic Respiration

Breathe-Right?

Hitler - Smiling At His Modern-Day American Counterparts

Story:

State lawmakers in Albany voted this week to make kindergarten mandatory for all 5-year-olds in New York City, lowering the required age for schooling by one year.


Proponents of the measure, which awaits the governor's approval, praised the move as a triumph for thousands of 5-year-olds who are from poor and minority families or have disabilities. Many of these children, they say, are often turned away each year by school officials on grounds of a lack of space and the lack of any requirement that they attend school.


"I think it is a real gain," Norm Fruchter, the senior policy analyst at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, a nonprofit educational research and policy group, said of the vote. "There is a ton of research about what early-childhood programs do for children, and I think there is a whole bunch of parents of children who, for a variety of reasons, don't register them when they should and then they lose out for a whole year."


Mr. Fruchter said children who miss kindergarten may never recover.


"You're entering behind a lot of the kids in terms of your skills and overall development," he said. "And it is particularly with things like familiarity with the alphabet and with letters and numbers and school routines."


In her State of the City address in February, the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, trumpeted the idea of lowering the compulsory age of schooling to 5, from 6, as one of her prime educational initiatives.


If this becomes law, Ms. Quinn said, "the system could turn no child away."


"It stops the abuse of cherry-picking some 5-year-olds over other 5-year-olds," she said.


Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg backs the proposal. In a memo in support, his administration said that ensuring kindergarten for all 5-year-olds would "result in more students getting a strong start in their education."


There are 78,600 students enrolled in kindergarten in the city, a number that has steadily increased in recent years. But Ms. Quinn said that nearly 3,000 children enter first grade each year without having first gone to kindergarten, a figure her office said was based on an analysis of the city's Department of Education enrollment data for recent years.


The Democrat-led State Assembly passed the measure on June 4, and the Republican-led State Senate followed with a 59-to-1 vote on Thursday.


The bill now goes to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. He has 10 days, not counting Sundays, to sign or veto the bill before it automatically becomes law.

All that *reasoning* is complete bull$hit. The fact is....it's the young children who spend too much time AMONG OTHER CHILDREN in schools and in daycare are the ones who MAY NEVER RECOVER.

Why did the average 6 year old in 1950 have a 4,000 word vocabulary and yet today's average 6 year old only has a 1,000 word one???

Note how the reasoning is drenched in sympathy for the *poor*, i.e. class warfare. And note how even Republicans voted for this expansion of government.

Pre-school will be mandatory next. And the school year would be longer already if these government clowns weren't so fiscally irresponsible and beholden to the demands of lazy, unionized teachers.

"Give me the youth, and Germany will rule the World" - Adolf Hitler

Those 'Old Bags' Were Right?

99 degrees today in New York...

On days like this it's too hot to go to the (government) pool so I wait until the evening - which is generally pretty nice.

After an excruciating 30 minute wait to renew my membership (3rd attempt this week!) we finally got into the pool area.

Not 3 minutes later a *floater* was supposedly espied by the lifeguards and they evicted 200-300 people from the water!

Everyone left but we waited an hour for the *flush*, i.e. re-open.

Later on the story changed to a *puke situation* and was verified. (They sent the scatologist home.)

Obviously, whoever the Moron kid was, they DIDN'T WAIT 20 MINUTES after eating before jumping back in the pool!

Brutal Honesty, Oozing Out

I sort of put my foot in my mouth earlier tonight.

I was talking with a local *mom* who I just met through my daughter recently.

Making get-to-know small talk she asked me if I had ever been to (certain local establishment, catering to kids).

CaptiousNut - Yeah. Only once. When I saw the absolutely ridiculous prices....I walked right out.

Woman - Well, we own that.

Woops!

I apologized, a couple times. But I guess it wasn't that bad - what I said. It wasn't like I said, "The place is run by a$$holes" or anything, right?

She told me that she wants to raise the fees even higher but her husband is reluctant.

Why so expensive?

$6,000 a month in taxes, $5,000 a month in utilities, insurance, mortgage (they bought the building in 2005, ouch!)....all told, with employee salaries she told me that it costs 70k per month just to operate.

45 minute classes there cost $30. Like I said, ridiculous!

And who wants to take their kid(s) to a 45 minute class? It's so short, you can't even run to the grocery store in the meantime...

Mixing It Up

I don't understand these people that vacation at the same place every year.

Yeah if you have a *free* place to stay it makes sense in the short run. But it's a big world out there...

You have to fight turning into a *creature of habit* with all your might.

Last year we went on a mini vacation to Sandusky, Ohio - to a homeschool convention.

This year I really wanted to do the Jersey Shore....er, the South Jersey Shore which isn't to be confused with that show that I've still never seen. South Jersey is Philadelphia country, really.

I had such a great time, again, at my golf tournament in Wildwood three weeks ago I got to thinking about bringing the entire fam down.

Ocean City, pictured above, is where we are heading next week for 5 nights ($988 motel). I've never been there before. All I know is that it is a *dry* town, i.e. no alcohol, period. And that it's supposed to be terrific for young children.

My wife's family does have a house out in the Hamptons, but, again, I don't think it's healthy to spend all our vacations there, no matter how *cheap*.

Branch out a little, will youse?  The alternative is that you WILL TURN INTO YOUR PARENTS.

Another Help-Self Book

I just read The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive.

It was *okay*. I happened to get it directly from the author for $7 instead of the $16 it costs on Amazon now.

It's funny how at $7 I will definitely buy it, but would hesitate at $16. We all have our price points, I guess.

I had read his Millionaire Messenger previously - which was better and, really, sufficient as far as giving me the gist of his spiel. So I recommend reading that one first/instead.

Who is he?

He's a dorky little guy who's carved out quite a name/wage for himself in the high performance, personal coaching industry. Rich people pay him astronomical sums, e.g. 250k for a year of *coaching*, 50k to have him watch one guy speak,...

If this HJ can make it big, then so can we!

Making Guests Clean Your House?

Well, sort of.

Without incoming guests....I don't know that I'd EVER clean my house.

So by simply inviting them, my house somehow gets tidied up, and fast!

All that *limbo* junk, the stuff you have all over the place, guests force you to finally make a decision on it. (Hint - trash it)

All the self-help gurus like Tim Ferriss swear by creating a sense of urgency for you to-do list. I have to say, it's pretty darn good advice.

The only possible hitch, and we've experienced this lately,....is when the guests won't leave!

Pinewood Derby Car Displays

Better than rolling off the kids' bureaus, no?

My son and I assembled one of these the other day with the other Cub Scouts in his den.

It turns out, the kit was designed and marketed by one of the Scout leaders in our town.

If you want to buy one (or more)....contact him at DerbyGurus.com.

(I told him I'd give him some link-juice here.  Have to support anyone, especially neighbors, who's doing entrepreneurial side-work!)

Abandoning The Canoe?

A few years ago I was hiking up Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire with a buddy of mine...

And we saw a gang of kids(?) that were climbing as well, only they were collectively carrying a canoe up the 3,000 ft peak!

My buddy tried to ask them what the bleep they were doing that for but was intentionally ignored for one reason or another. I confess that I myself have been known to ignore most of the things he says!

I just Googled for the picture above - which may or may not be the losers we walked past at the summit.

Anyways, I was lamenting to my first wife the other day how I haven't had even a spare second to put up some blog posts...

At that she invoked a reference the *story of the canoe*.

"What was that?", I inquired.

FirstWife - It's about the people who use the canoe to cross the river....but once on the other side they leave it behind. The canoe (my blog?) got them on the path they needed to be on, so it was now useless.

It is true that I've reaped untold non-monetary riches from my blogging. Heck, from blogging I came across the whole idea of homeschooling my kids. For that one thing alone it was a boon.

I get up at 4am most days....but I just don't have any time to post anymore - between getting my exercise in, taking care of household stuff, house guests, homeschooling, traveling, golf, and, most importantly, running around everywhere to educational events with my kids.

I'm so busy now that I don't even respond to emails - the ones I read/notice anyway.

After this week, my schedule should start to open up a bit - because ALL of our weekly organized activities will be over for the season...

And then come July my kids will be at camp each day until 12:45 or so!

Utterly Timeless, But Checking In...

We were in NYC today for a homeschool performance show...

On the way back we passed through the famed chess-hub of Washington Square Park.

Of course I was going to have my son play against a *chess hustler*!

Sorry I missed the first several moves:

The gentleman was very nice and offered sage pointers throughout the game. Heck I should probably pay him $20 an hour to teach my son!

On the way out he was surprised to hear my son was only 7....and showered John with compliments, saying he hadn't seen too many kids his age at that skill level.

See also:

Fathers Promoting Their Pawns

Best Self-Reinvention Ever?

Slutty Big Media and Skanky School Slaves

This story is running on Drudge and a couple people have already emailed it to me this morning...

Guess what, incidentally, yesterday around 10:45am I walked right through a sea of Stuyvesant students in front of their building....along with my kids and another family on our way to our *homeschool Field Day*.

But all I saw were a bunch of nerdy-looking juveniles burdened with heavy backpacks...

Well, the headline got it to the front page of Drudge....so I guess that's a *winning story*.

Though these kids really ought to *get in line* like the perfect future slaves they are on track to become...

Imagine getting kicked out of this school because you refuse to cover your shoulders, midriff, and tiny Asian boobies???