Your High School Teachers Were Wrong

It’s funny to see how education standards differ from high school to college.  In physics, the professor basically stated that all throughout elementary and high school we were taught math incorrectly.  We were taught how to calculate numbers only, when we should have been taught to figure out formulas using only symbols.  So, on his tests, if we plug in the values of symbols into the equation before completely working out the problem using symbols we will get a big fat 0 ZERO! ”Math is a language that you must know.”  I understand why he is doing this.  In the real world we will have many different variables, and a bunch of numbers can become a jumble.  Also, if you only figure things out using symbols, you can use the same formulae for more than one situation and just plug in your numbers for they varying situations.  I think pre-college educators should get on this and try to teach the stuff so that we are prepared for this “revelation” and not caught off guard by having to change the way we’ve been solving problems since middle school.

Sheep, Wolf, or Sheepdog… Which Are You?

 

I ran along this article a few years back when attending TAP/TAMP at Lackland AFB in San Antonio.  TAP/TAMP is a pre-discharge class to help military members get ready to assimilate back into the civilian population.  Many things are taught, including how to search for jobs, create a resume, and various other areas of transition that may prove difficult for someone used to the military lifestyle.  One of the handouts given was this article relating Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves to people.  I had misplaced the paper a while ago, and just stumbled upon it on the inter-web today.  I’m glad I did.  I love reading it. My favorite part is the section discussing a peace officer who even carries concealed to church because of an incident a friend of his was involved in.  I encourage you to read the article.  There are variations on the web, but this is the one I originally read at TAP/TAMP.

I believe I am in the Sheepdog category.  If you can’t read the caption, it says,” Sheep-dogs give me the creeps: I can’t tell if they’re watching me or not…”

I was born a sheepdog, have always been a sheepdog, and always will be a sheepdog; even if I have to act like a sheep.

 

If you are a sheep, there’s nothing wrong with it.  If there weren’t any sheep there would not be a reason for us sheepdogs to exist.  That would only leave wolves, and, quite frankly, they can kill each other all they want.

Which are you?  It doesn’t matter to me what you are (and I’m not actually looking for a response. It’s a rhetorical question.), because I know who I am.  There may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing

next to you right now and you don’t know it yet, but the sheepdog is watching, waiting for the wolf to show himself.  Let them do their job, and maybe give them a pat on the head once in a while.

I found this other page that had the same story, but with some pictures that I like. I think they help with the point. sheep, wolf, sheepdog with pictures

Integrity

So I had a test for Physics earlier tonight.  It was tough. Let us skip all the chit-chat and get down to business.  After handing in my test I walked out the door and began walking to my car.  Just ahead of me (approximately 20ft away) was a group of 5 or 6 middle-eastern guys from my class.  They are always coming in to class late, together, often leave early, together, talk throughout the class, together, and have the stench of “I’m better than you.”  Well, to get to the point… I overheard them discussing the test we had just taken.  I heard one say,” I was texting your brother the whole time,” followed by,” I took a picture of it and sent it to him (I don’t know who the him is or if the guy I heard say this was the same as the first quote).  I’m pretty sure that they were discussing cheating.  I wrote an email to the professor and told him of this.  I know these two “sound bites” aren’t enough to prove that they cheated, but I believe it is highly possible.  Stereotypes are there for a reason. I’m just saying.  Anyway, the professor said I need to name names and drop my request for anonymity.  I don’t really care to get rid of my anonymity, but the idea of these cheating SOBs really pisses me off.  I had to stop myself from making a scene when I heard them talking.  I mean, DO YOU REALLY WANT SOMEONE WHO CHEATED THEIR WAY THROUGH PHYSICS BUILDING YOUR BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES AND STUFF?  I didn’t think so.  Good thing I’ve written the account in this blog so I have a reference of what I heard… (if it comes up later on and I have to remember it.)

Terrorism is a Real, Yet Preventable Disease

It has been well over 2 or 3 months since I’ve blogged.  I don’t know what to write most of the times that I think of writing, so I don’t.  I’m not even sure of what to write now.

How about a tale of summer adventure? A guy I know at school works for Texas Direct Auto at their “production” lot.  I guess that’s in a different location than the sales lot on 59N.  He told me about this guy that showed up to the sales lot on 59, dressed up in a suit and holding a nice little leather attaché, saying he was there for a job interview.  The floor manager told him that they did the interviews at the “production” (I can’t remember what he said the name of this office was, so I’m calling it “production".) office and offered to get him a cab to go there.  After the cab ride the man went into the lobby or whatever and was asked to have a seat and wait to be interviewed.  My buddy, said the guy randomly got up and shouted,”I have reached my final destination!” before he could do anything, some people tackled his misguided ass and got the attaché away from him. Bomb Squad was called in and the guy was taken away by Homeland Security.  My friend said his boss was calling the news stations and everything, but none of them could come out for this attempted suicide bombing… it didn’t receive any coverage or mention at all.  Instead of covering this important subject our news was focused on the ever important story of Nikki Araguz, the widow of a deceased firefighter.  The story was that she used to be a he.  As entertaining a story as this may be, what about reporting REAL news?

I don’t have much else to write about right now. I’ll try to think of more stuff to write, and more often.