Deuce

Ditto that.

So is a person online when it says they are invisible? Or are they really, honest-to-god invisible?

Iwan took the RW one, I think, Mac took the Freestyle one, and I took the rest, I think. I've gotten more than enough credit and bennies from Bets than my pictures are worth. Iwan was there as my associate at the Holiday Boogie and we were SDA contractors when we took those pictures. It's a beautiful spread Bets, great work and thanks for sharing it.

That would have to be harder than heck. Like trying to flick a booger with crampons off your finger. BillV. I pray that somebody has pictures of what that poor fool looked like after. Aerial combat with a cat. Classic.

My life is a total trainwreck if it is to be judged regarding order. ( see attached real time photo of my home office) My biggest reason for having my kids in my local Catholic school is the love that is there. At our parent-teacher conferences our teacher told each of our daughters "I love you", and she does. And we love her daughter and son, too. I suspect that in the public school system, if a teacher told a kid she loved him there would be some sort of discipline. It's just so cool to drop my kids off and have them exchange hugs with their 8th grade "Buddies" (bigger kids assigned to littler kids to help them out during the school year) Aside from freefall, it's the thing I love most about skydiving. It's a loving, caring environment. Orderly heirachical organizations are neat, and I admire them, but I've done extremely poorly in them on every occasion. I was a cop for a long time, but that wasn't for order and heirarchy, it was for the opportunity to beat the shit out of bullies and kick them weeping into a corner where they begged the forgiveness of their victims. See? There I go again. Poor impulse control.

Have your blood tested. Your meds are balanced perfectly today. -Dude, you are so funny.

I'm in.

I LOVE roundabouts! In the Pre-Kid Era we rented a Fiat Punto in Rome. And when in Rome, drive like the Romans do! I'm mostly concerned about looking left for oncoming traffic and getting hit by a bus.

I'll be with the family in Britain before the Herc boogie. I'll be there solo a few days after. As for hotels, I was hoping for some Non-Ramada local pensione-type places. I know that is probably pretty impossible in London, but for the rest of the trip. Tower of London, check. That's something my 7 year olds will dig. Museums probably not a big hit with them, depending. Oxford, check. My Mrs. mentioned that as a stopover. Teeny car, BZZZZT. Not one, but three female travel companions. I'll probably need a Unimog. Netheravon? ANybody going to be jumping after the Herc Boogie? I'm in the UK for five days after Sweden, sans family.

I'll be in the UK before and after the Herc Boogie. Before, I'll have the wife and kids, and need to rent a car. I did this in Australia a very long time ago, and could drive on that side of the road pretty good and only screwed it up at 4 way stops . Car rental places to use/avoid? Places to stay and things to not miss in London? Current plan is a few days in London, up to Scotland, back to London via Wales. After the Herc Boogie I'll be skydiving a few days back in Britain before heading home. So, locals, what to see and what to avoid?

Look through my galleries and let me know if you see something you like. among others, Quade has a gallery, and so does Iwan Vanderschoor. pulltime.net

Did I? Or irrevelantly bump? Ban me. Please. Ban me.

I'm your friend, Lawrocket. and I'm a right winger. And I have deemed you "real".

Go to Pub, and then link. Or you are gay in a bad way.

I mostly get that I seem really intelligent other than my religious and political views. Strike that. Mostly I get people telling me that I make a great first impression and then I start talking. That is, of course, assuming you didn't meet me after the beer light has come on. Then it may be "The guy on the ancient 7 cell tied to the collection of drunk guys? That's JP"

Some of the people I like the most have political views that are often the polar opposite of mine. Gareth Holder is the clear frontrunner, but he's in the company of Quade and the vonNovaks (not that Amy and Bill are joined philisophically at the hip, that I know of, for sure ), Kieth, and many of my skydiving friends. So how about the rest of you pontificators and bloviators? Do you exclude the other side of your political fence from your social circle? Thank God my friends don't. -And on that note, I must grant massive truly heartfelt admiration to Bill and Amy. When visiting their home recently I saw firsthand their genuine commitment to their professed values. They have the only residential greywater system I have ever seen.

Well, I could write a long essay about that. Suffice to say, it is not universally true. Absolutely. Your mind is clearly closed to the advantages of conservative political orientation, and you are a Professor.

Such interactions with our parents are extremely formative. It's hard to love our parents (or even to hate them) and have statements of such gravity not profoundly affect our worldview. As we've exchanged here and in PM's I disagree with your premise. I think most of it's anecdotal, and perhaps Orange County has a really screwed up diocese. That research does not extend to California, the nation, or the world. Having twins, I supposed I could do a double-blind study, but having lived a while, I know what's best for my kids.

So, your anecdotal experience was negative. It's hard to keep that bias out of the research, no? I split my time between public and private schools growing up as my parents did or didn't have the money for it. On balance I did much better in parochial school. Having been in both systems I choose the parochial one for my kids. I'm biased too.

Those are the days you let me pick the ticks out of your back hair, right?

Yeah, that's what my Mom said, that for all that money the freaking priests kept us questioning everything, including faith, and it made us all agnostics. For a while, anyhow.

That goes back to my littebug point. If those behaviors were accepted, they were committed. Yeah, if the parents tolerate that stuff, it will happen. Young people rise to their expectations.

Kris, those statistics seem to be right out of something from the CTA. Until the Calfornia system does away with Average Daily Attendance, the schools here will suck. As to administrators being credentialed, and teachers being credentialed, I see it as having little value. That I can take my Master's degree and teach college without a credential, but can't teach elementary school, seems silly to me. My kids teacher has a MS degree in education and is credentialed, but mostly she's a wise and loving woman with children in the same class as mine. "Wall-wash" is important to young people who have education but not experience. It validates them against people with less wall wash, but decades of real world success. As to what should happen in the public school classroom, it just doesn't, except in the most exclusive school districts. When funding runs out for kids with behavior problems, they get thrown in with the rest. Teachers are pressured to stop sending evil johnny to the principle, because there simply isn't anything the principle can do with him. And evil johnnie's parents think it's the schools job to raise him. It's costing a fortune, but I have decided to forego letting my daughters participate in this particular social experiment.

I completely disagree. More litterbugs mean more litter. The amount of trash is the same, the difference is between people who bother to walk it over to a trash can, and a peer group that does or does not tolerate watching someone drop their garbage on the ground. The other parents at my kid's school are also likely to step in when they see my kids doing something rude. We parents are all in this together at our school. My friends with their kids in the local schools are always surprised at the level of "it takes a village" stuff we do with other kids. In general we have higher behavior expectations from our kids than folks seem to have from the public school kids. And our class sizes are huge compared to the local schools. The difference is our intolerance of disruptive students. And I have no problem discriminating against hyperactive ADD kids with behavior problems. 29 kids should not have to color while the teacher is engaged in combat with one challenged student.