7.01.2009
And now, dear graduates...
I figure over the course of my own academic and professional careers, I've heard no fewer than 30 different Commencement speakers. Some were really good and some, well, were not. I suppose it just goes to show you that professional success does not mean that you could wow the room at the local Toastmasters!
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Regardless of whether you consider yourself "Mac or PC", he sure hits the nail on the head with this!
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time..
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Regardless of whether you consider yourself "Mac or PC", he sure hits the nail on the head with this!
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time..
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
6.30.2009
I'm Just Saying...
It's 68 degrees outside, overcast with a chance of rain. I wonder if Mother Nature forgot that it's nearly July?
File this under: "I'm really glad there are only two of them"
Children are never dull. In defense of that statement, I offer the following:
On Sunday evening, after a deafening burst of quiet emanated from our upstairs bathroom, Diva Husband found The Manimal STANDING on the bathroom counter unscrewing the light bulbs.
Shortly thereafter, I went to inspect another rumble of too much quiet and found the same child sitting IN the powder room sink playing in the water trying to "wash" the willow branches that are in a vase on the counter.
Last night, in a fit of motherly frustration, I told him that if he didn't eat his chicken, he wouldn't get a treat. IMMEDIATELY after finishing his chicken, he announced "I ate all my dinner! Now I get a treat!" I got the ice cream out of the freezer and he said "Yay! Ice cream! Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!"
The Manimal loves to play upstairs in his room, and was doing so. We could hear him singing to himself and talking to the trains. This went on for some time, until the doorbell rang. There he stood, clad only in his undershorts and a grin. He'd apparently slipped out the garage door and taken a bike ride up the street. I'm considering installing an invisible fence...
Lest you think The Manimal is the only entertaining one of my two...
Sweet Son #1, after being the main entree on the mosquitos' evening buffet, came in and pitifully asked "Can't we move to a place where there aren't any bugs?"
Logic is clearly not a strong suit among the nearly-nine set. When we were gathering items for our garage sale last weekend, he decided he would pack up and sell some of his beloved Legos.Which was all well and good until he announced he would use the money from the sale of said Legos to, you guessed it, buy more Legos.
A budding man of the world, while getting his hair cut on Sunday, I heard the hairstylist ask SS#1 if he would be practicing any schoolwork this summer (seriously, what kind of question is that?!). I quietly thanked my lucky stars that he didn't just snort in laughter, and then he responded "No, I don't think I'll have enough time, because I'll be travelling a lot this summer."He'll be with the Diva Grandparents and Diva Godparents for most of July, then will indeed take a little car trip down to Tennessee at the end of the month. But "traveling a lot"? I guess it's all in your perspective.
On Sunday evening, after a deafening burst of quiet emanated from our upstairs bathroom, Diva Husband found The Manimal STANDING on the bathroom counter unscrewing the light bulbs.
Shortly thereafter, I went to inspect another rumble of too much quiet and found the same child sitting IN the powder room sink playing in the water trying to "wash" the willow branches that are in a vase on the counter.
Last night, in a fit of motherly frustration, I told him that if he didn't eat his chicken, he wouldn't get a treat. IMMEDIATELY after finishing his chicken, he announced "I ate all my dinner! Now I get a treat!" I got the ice cream out of the freezer and he said "Yay! Ice cream! Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!"
The Manimal loves to play upstairs in his room, and was doing so. We could hear him singing to himself and talking to the trains. This went on for some time, until the doorbell rang. There he stood, clad only in his undershorts and a grin. He'd apparently slipped out the garage door and taken a bike ride up the street. I'm considering installing an invisible fence...
Lest you think The Manimal is the only entertaining one of my two...
Sweet Son #1, after being the main entree on the mosquitos' evening buffet, came in and pitifully asked "Can't we move to a place where there aren't any bugs?"
Logic is clearly not a strong suit among the nearly-nine set. When we were gathering items for our garage sale last weekend, he decided he would pack up and sell some of his beloved Legos.Which was all well and good until he announced he would use the money from the sale of said Legos to, you guessed it, buy more Legos.
A budding man of the world, while getting his hair cut on Sunday, I heard the hairstylist ask SS#1 if he would be practicing any schoolwork this summer (seriously, what kind of question is that?!). I quietly thanked my lucky stars that he didn't just snort in laughter, and then he responded "No, I don't think I'll have enough time, because I'll be travelling a lot this summer."He'll be with the Diva Grandparents and Diva Godparents for most of July, then will indeed take a little car trip down to Tennessee at the end of the month. But "traveling a lot"? I guess it's all in your perspective.
6.29.2009
Sanity Giveaway!
No, I'm not giving away my sanity. It's long gone, but I find I can make do when I take a little break.
However, I've discovered in the blogging world, there is collateral damage to taking a mental vacation. When bloggers go away, so do readers! And while I do primarily write for me, I do enjoy reading comments and knowing that there are folks out there who are part of my little bloggy world.
So I'm back (as is my sanity, for the moment), and to celebrate, I'm doing a little giveaway!
The first blog I ever read was The QC Report. Quinn is a talented actress whom I can remember watching on "Family", and she has managed to avoid the problems that plague most "former child actors". She's a talented, funny writer with a family that consists of Daughter, Consort, and a rotating door menagerie.
The second blog I ever read was May December, and I was hooked at first read. While Melissa and I certainly travel in different circles, she is down-to-earth, and like the socialite hostess she is, graciously opens her virtual home to thousands of readers every day. She loves her husband and loves to cook, and their fur child Monty is "the bees knees". Melissa is the epitome of a classic preppy and has made me want to visit NYC (and a whole host of other travel destinations!).
Melissa's preppy, socialite lifestyle is what has inspired my "Back to Blogging" giveaway. Recently, she did her own giveaway for a copy of "Mating Rituals of the North American WASP", a book I'd actually just finished reading. Melissa captured the gist of the story so well:
"Here's the short version: A mismatched pair end up married after a wild night in Vegas. She's a bubbly and outgoing store owner from Manhattan, he's an aloof and introverted writer from an old line Connecticut WASP family. Realizing they're completely ill-suited to one another, they try to have their marriage annulled. The matriarch of the WASPy family intervenes, a deal is made, and you'll have to read the book to find out the rest..."
Melissa's giveaway is over, but if you'd like another shot, you're in the right place. Simply leave a comment here telling me one of your favorite summer reads, and you're entered! :) The contest ends at 11:59 pm on Friday, July 3rd, and on Saturday, July 4th, one random commenter will win a copy of the book!
However, I've discovered in the blogging world, there is collateral damage to taking a mental vacation. When bloggers go away, so do readers! And while I do primarily write for me, I do enjoy reading comments and knowing that there are folks out there who are part of my little bloggy world.
So I'm back (as is my sanity, for the moment), and to celebrate, I'm doing a little giveaway!
The first blog I ever read was The QC Report. Quinn is a talented actress whom I can remember watching on "Family", and she has managed to avoid the problems that plague most "former child actors". She's a talented, funny writer with a family that consists of Daughter, Consort, and a rotating door menagerie.
The second blog I ever read was May December, and I was hooked at first read. While Melissa and I certainly travel in different circles, she is down-to-earth, and like the socialite hostess she is, graciously opens her virtual home to thousands of readers every day. She loves her husband and loves to cook, and their fur child Monty is "the bees knees". Melissa is the epitome of a classic preppy and has made me want to visit NYC (and a whole host of other travel destinations!).
Melissa's preppy, socialite lifestyle is what has inspired my "Back to Blogging" giveaway. Recently, she did her own giveaway for a copy of "Mating Rituals of the North American WASP", a book I'd actually just finished reading. Melissa captured the gist of the story so well:
"Here's the short version: A mismatched pair end up married after a wild night in Vegas. She's a bubbly and outgoing store owner from Manhattan, he's an aloof and introverted writer from an old line Connecticut WASP family. Realizing they're completely ill-suited to one another, they try to have their marriage annulled. The matriarch of the WASPy family intervenes, a deal is made, and you'll have to read the book to find out the rest..."
Melissa's giveaway is over, but if you'd like another shot, you're in the right place. Simply leave a comment here telling me one of your favorite summer reads, and you're entered! :) The contest ends at 11:59 pm on Friday, July 3rd, and on Saturday, July 4th, one random commenter will win a copy of the book!
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