The Trouble With Boys

The National Review has a column about a Newsweek article concerning “The Trouble With Boys“.  It is about the “crisis” of boys doing badly in school and what has transpired to cause it.  One issue is with the feminist culture and the belief that boys and girls are not different.  Nature and biology tells us otherwise; but the educational establishment has tried to ignore that fact; to the detriment of boys.  As one “expert” pointed out, boys are thought to be “defective girls” because girls are the gold standard.

I haven’t been feeling well for a few days.  I’ve had some back pain which started the day I was working and sitting in an uncomfortable position for a few hours.  It is also the day I had a cluster headache.  So… since I haven’t been feeling well… I haven’t even been feeling like working.  But, since I am the business and I must work whenever possible, I have been working anyway. I have been working on an issue with a VPN which I had originally set up for a client.  I need to add 3 new computers to the “home-base” and incorporate 3 existing computers from the satellite office.  I am having some issues with it.  To add to that problem, one of the workers at the location gave me some flak for working while they were actually at the satellite location instead of working when they weren’t there.  One of her complaints was that she can’t stand for 10 minutes without sitting down.  Sheesh.

But, the real issue is that I have to be at a location when I can be there.  I don’t have the luxory of being there whenever they want.  I have lots of clients and at times there are multiple clients clamoring for me at the same time.  I must be there when I can be there. They are just going to have to deal with the inconvenience.  But, it makes it harder for me to work and concentrate when they are standing behind me complaining about my being there.

I rarely complain or say much about these kinds of things. But, I intend to tell this worker that she needs to keep her opinions to herself; or take them up with her boss.

I Found This Artist By Happenstance

I absolutely LOVE this artist’s work.  I was just surfing somewhat mindlessly this evening and found this piece:

It’s called “Flight of Aquarius” (and is apparently no longer available for purchase.)

So, I went looking for the name of the artist and found out it is Josephine Wall.  I found her website and also a couple of Fine Art sites selling her artwork. 

Her site is: Josephine Wall and there are links to the other sites from there under the “SALES” section. 

I highly recomend checking out the Gallery section.  There are actually more at the fine art sites than are at her site, but her gallery gives a good representation of her work.  I really like a lot of them, but “Stairway To Dreams”,  “Flight of the Lynx”, and “Mer-Angel” really stand out.

Amazing.  Simply amazing talent.

This is just cool.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/7eaa/?cpg=25H

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,182962,00.html

Hmmmm…….

Here’s a video of “The Easy Way To Fish“.  It’s amazing.

MSNBC has an article — which links to LiveScience Images — about Snow Flakes.  The Physicist says the many possibilities guarantee no two crystals are alike and his site is:  http://www.snowcrystals.com/

I received a $15 credit for Sam Goody’s because of Christmas purchases and my mother signed me up for their rewards program.  I went tonight to see if they had anything I wanted to use it against.  They still had the 6 packs of Playstation2 games on sale for $30.  So, I picked out one that looked worth $15 and I bought it.  It was a good deal to get 6 games for a little over $16 including tax.

I keep thinking about things related to Poorboy.  I will pull into the driveway and think, “I need to go feed, Poorboy.”  Or, I’ll walk across the yard and look to see how he’s doing.  I was driving past the feed store a couple of days ago and thought, “I should go buy some hay for Poorboy’s bedding.” Sigh.

Words are powerful.  They can start wars, mend hearts, create bonds, destroy souls.  At the same time, words mean nothing without action.  Without it, they are powerless.

Take, for instance, the words, “I love you.”  They can buoy a man’s heart and soul.  They can offer him something which little else can offer.  But, the words spoken without meaning or spoken with contrary action take on a negative spirit or become nothing.

So it is with any word.  If a leader of a country proclaims, “I will invade your country,” it has a meaning.  It has a power, as long as the listener believes it.  If the speaker doesn’t act in a manner supporting the speech, the speech is powerless. It becomes neuter.  If the speaker amasses an army on the border, then the action supports the speech and maintains the power of the speech.

It is the same with declarations of love, loyalty, honor and friendship.  One can proclaim friendship to another, but it is the action which enforces and maintains the truth of the proclamation.  The friendship might start with the simple words, “Will you be my friend,” or “I am your friend.” That is power in it’s own right.  But, that power is short lived and cannot maintain without the reinforcing power of action.It is the demonstration of friendship which nurtures and maintains friendship.  One must be a friend.  One can claim to be a friend.  But, the claim of friendship does not make it so.  It is the actual being a friend which makes it so. 

One must show love, show loyalty, show honor and show friendship.  Otherwise, they cease to be.

I watched a movie, “Wit” that I happened by at Blockbuster.  It was cheap and looked interesting enough, so I bought it.  I hadn’t heard of it, but it had Emma Thompson in it.  She’s generally a good actress and the description of the movie made it sound interesting enough.  It was actually pretty good.  It is quirky and has both a sense of humor and a sense of seriousness about a serious subject: dying from cancer.  It is centered around a professor of english poetry who is considered the most knowledgable person about the writings of John Donne, a 17th century poet.  It is based on an award winning play.  It was interesting how they mixed her memories of her human interactions with her present self dressed in hospital gowns interacting with the memories.  The subject was interesting and it was overall a good movie.