Coffee on the deck.
After such a hectic week, one of the most calming experiences of my life thus far was finally to be able to sit with wife and child on our own deck, with a forested background we own, sipping coffee.
Breakfast
Eduwonk.com: The Teacher Voice in Data-Driven Accountability
From Eduwonk.com:
Rather than invest in teachers, and capitalize on their knowledge, policymakers and administrators attempt to create systems that they hope will obviate the need for excellent teachers.” The Teacher Voice in Data-Driven Accountability
Fortunately, this is far from the situation in my new school…
Recipe for Exhaustion and No Time
Begin by
- Moving, to a
- New city, where you live in a
- New house, while starting a
- New job, with a still relatively
- New baby.
Eventually, I will begin writing here again...
RCG 2007
Dave Pack is stuck in a rut. Or maybe you’d call it an obsession. I would imagine it’s about all he talks about: the stats for his site.
In his latest sermon, “RCG 2007: Looking Ahead,” he talks about one really: web site stats. For about ninety minutes he goes on and on (and on and on) all the countries that are visiting his site, about all various government agencies are coming to his site, about how his site is so much bigger than any of the other splinters’.
How has he done it? The Google ad campaign. He finally gives some numbers on that.
Our ads have been shown over 700 million times. Other groups will talk about that, they don’t talk about it quite as much because they understand how big we are. And they’ve been clicked on, by the end of this month, 4 million times. Now, if you put a billboard up […] you get about one percent response. […] We’re finding that of the people who are seeing our ads, are coming to our site, and we’re only paying for those.
Shown 700 million times and clicked on 3 million times?! Wow! That’s a staggering 0.57% response! And that’s all he says about it. He doesn’t give any details about how many people, on clicking through, have actually stuck around. I suspect a great number of those clicks are from those who would like to see the RCG’s money wasted, and so they click just to cost them a nickel.
“So, cut to the chase — who comes to Dave’s site?” you’re asking. Well, the truth of the matter is, we really don’t know. Neither does Dave. He thinks he knows, but as we’ve discussed here before, getting a hit is not the same as getting a visitor. But don’t tell Dave — it’d break his heart. Anyway, without further ado, I present The List, more or less verbatim:
- Courts: Court of the Crown Prince of Bahrain; the European Court of Justice; the International Criminal Court
- Departments and ministries: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; Saudi Arabia Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Kuwait Ministry of Communications
- Embassies: Russian Embassy in China; Iranian Embassy in the Philippines; the South Korean Embassy in Belgium; the Austrian Embassy in Israel; the Israeli Embassy in Canada
- Prime ministers and presidents: (“Somebody in the office.”) Presidential Office and Computer Department of Iran; the Philippines; Lithuania; Australia; Prime Minister of the Palestinian Territory
- News media: the Economist; the International Herald Tribune; Boston Globe; Washington Post; Toronto Star; New York Times; Washington Times; Jordanian News Agency
- Misc: Joint Command Southeast Headquarters; the Pentagon; United States Air Force; US Navy
That’s just to his main RCG site. The following have been seen virtually thumbing through the Real Truth
- Embassies in the US: Sudan; China; Bosnia; Canada; Botswana; Belgium; Saudi Arabia
Prime Minister’s and President’s offices in London, Iran, the Philippines, South Korea, and Russia - Associated Press;
- Foreign Governments: Israel, South Africa
- Misc: NATO headquarters, pentagon, NYC police department, CIA, Navy, Army, Air Force, United Nations (in Vienna, Geneva, etc)
Of particular interest to Dave is the increase in the visits from the Vatican. He explains that, for some time now, the Vatican has been coming every now and then, but only taking one item each visit. “One, one, one, one, one, one, then 22. And we know what they went in to see. Christmas booklet—couldn’t have been happy.” That’s right, Dave. They read your Christmas booklet — rather, your paraphrase of Armstrong’s — and now they’re plotting how to shut you up. Permanently.
Of course, says, Pack
I don’t know that [Pope] Benedict [XVI] went to 22 pages on our website. At some point whoever did it is going to go back and report it to him. […] That will happen. […] It may have already happened. […] It may have been the visit that he said, “Find out more, and get back to me,” with a thick German accent. I don’t know.
Perhaps nothing he’s said before so clearly illustrates how little thought Pack really puts into what he says. Benedict speaks English in the Vatican?! The content of the imaginary command is just as ludicrous. It sounds as if Pack has been reading too many cheap spy novels and Chick tracts in his free time.
Pack is clearly delusional. Think of what he’s suggesting: because he’s saying Christmas is pagan in origin the Vatican is going to put a contract out on him. Compared to death threats, feces-smeared Virgins, murdered nuns, I think any suggesting that Pack’s little pack would elicit more than a laugh from anyone in the Vatican is, itself, laughable.
So the Vatican, the CIA and the NYPD are all visiting Dave’s site. The question is, how realistic is Dave’s understanding of all this? Talking about presidential offices supposedly visiting his site, he says that it doesn’t have to be the president, of course. It could be “Joe the Janitor down in the basement.” But he says that he doesn’t “know that Joe the Janitor would have access to the International Criminal Court website.”
What is he talking about? Is he saying that Joe the Janitor wouldn’t have internet access while working at the International Criminal Court? Is he saying that Joe the Janitor would somehow be trying to access the International Criminal Court’s website through the RCG, or vice versa? Is this just a misspoken bit of nonsense? Or is it an illustration of how very little Pack really knows about internet technology?
Dave’s a smart man, so I’ll reluctantly go with it being a verbal stumble. Yet such verbal stumbles often reveal hidden truths. For instance, in the same sermon, Pack begins talking about how Christ could raise up stones to do the work — literally. And then: “I’ve used and recognized certain people. ‘That’s just a rock.’” There you have it — David Pack finally fessing up to his entire leadership model since he’s been in a position of any sort of authority: he uses people.
It’s good that he’s admitted that. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving it, David. We’re all proud of you…
Crawling
New video with L learning to crawl -- rather, already knowing. Didn't catch enough in the act of learning...
Fan Participation
I sometimes play guitar for L. She likes it, but she doesn’t sit quietly and listen, much to my dismay. It’s not that she doesn’t appreciate music — she loves music. The problem is she wants to play too:
It’s not that I mind her playing. Rather, it’s somewhat dangerous: her little fingers fit between the strings and a tug can cause her sudden pain as the string digs into her.
Still, it’s an enjoyable way to pass some time.
Horse
The Girl met her first horse the other day:
She wasn't exactly thrilled.
Details
When looking for a house, there are certain things you look for and think about and many details that just seem to disappear. Then, when you go to paint the house, you notice the details.
You notice, for instance, that a door was poorly hung and instead of fixing the problem, the installer just modified the placement of the strike plate; that all the door hardware has been painted, and that paint is now peeling; and that someone was once so lazy with painting that he didn't bother opening a window before painting it:
And all the things you want to correct (to put it mildly) grows daily. Hourly. By the second, sometimes.
Top Painting Music
I’ve been painting. Lots of it. A house of it. And it’s not done.
But I have determined what music works best with painting — that’s always critical.
Topping the list, without a doubt, was Bach’s Mass in B-minor. Bach just exudes linear symmetry and exactness — just what you need when painting.
Next: Grateful Dead’s classic American Beauty. It’s a great travel album, and maybe that has something to do with it — traveling from one corner of the room to another and back again, from one room to another and back again, from one end of the house and back again … there’s a lot of walking to painting.
For jazz, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme seemed like a good choice, but it was too intellectual (read: tiring) when painting. I found Ellington’s Piano in the Foreground to be about perfect: not too stimulating, but not overly mellow.
Bad choices:
- Mahler’s second — I love it, but I swear, too manic-depressive for work.
- Beck’s Mellow Gold — like Love Supreme it’s too busy. Odelay was better, but not much.
- Springsteen’s Ghost of Tom Joad — holy cow! You can’t be depressed while painting!
In the end, silence was actually fairly acceptable.
Sunday Morning Suprise
This morning I changed our Geico insurance from North to South Carolina. Previously, I'd been fairly pleased with Geico. We were paying just over $300 for six months' coverage -- more than reasonable, I thought. A great deal, in fact.
Moving to SC, however, would bring about higher rates. How much higher?
Geico's quote was $690 -- an increase of 122%!
"Time for insurance shopping," I thought. First call -- Nationwide. $440, or an increase of 41%. Still a significant increase, but certainly more reasonable.
Any suggestions for insurance companies that might offer better rates?
First Realization as a Homeowner
I hate painting.
Open Comments
One of the dangers of having a controversial website that is also open to viewer comments is the threat of visitors’ words being attributed to the site owner.
As an aside, Dennis Prager rehearses the now-common (but still pretty good) observations about the difference in reaction in insulting Islam and insulting other religions. He points out the absurdity of the Federal Koran-in-the-toilet suit versus the crucifix-in-urine modern art piece. Putting a Koran in a toilet and putting a crucifix in urine are essentially the same thing, but the reaction is entirely different.
In this video, Ibrahim Hooper, of CAIR, makes just such a claim against Robert Spencer and his site Jihad Watch. “[Hooper] quoted a genocidal comment that was made on this website yesterday, and made it appear as if I had written it,” Spencer writes.
His response: “In reality, someone kindly alerted me to the existence of the comment shortly after it was posted, and I removed it and banned the poster.”
So it was on the site for a short period of time, but then disappeared. How then would Hooper have known it was there? Someone emailed him? Someone at CAIR monitors Jihad Watch continuously?
Spencer continues,
The comment itself seemed to me and to others who posted on the same thread to have been written by a provocateur — someone who wanted to discredit Jihad Watch and me by planting a comment here. Such people come through here fairly often. And now, after Hooper’s use of this comment despite its being deleted, I suspect even more strongly that it was written by a provocateur. (Jihad Watch)
Could it be that someone who is critical of the site posted such a comment to make the site look bad? It seems entirely possible.
The Confederate Flag
While wandering around Gatlinburg some weeks ago, I noticed several “Dixie-sympathetic” shirts. Confederate flags, Confederate war heroes — the works.
A few of the shirts I saw:
- I don’t wear this shirt to piss you off, but if it does, that makes my day.
(Why would that make your day? Are you just trying to be provocative? If so, to what end?) - It’s a Southern thang. Yanks’ll never understand.
(What is the “it”? The Confederate flag? Racial pride? Pride in one’s heritage? A drawl?) - It’s not a Redneck thang, it’s the RIGHT thang.
(Does that mean that slavery was the right thing “RIGHT thang”?) - Heritage, not hate.
(Yes, but that heritage included a war for the right to keep people enslaved.) - Dixie defenders (with a portrait of Lee)
(I just picture Dixie cups on this one…)
My personal favorite:
I only saw it in shop windows, never on someone. Which is a shame, because I would have loved to walk up to someone wearing it and request the history lesson.
August, and Everything After…
And so August arrives, and instead of thinking, “I start teaching next month” it’s a question of a few days. August 20 — kids return and I, for the first time since finishing college, will be doing the work I spent all that time preparing for while in college: teach English.
I have nine years of teaching behind me. Seven are teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language. One I spent working with autistic children. One I spent trying to teach science and social studies to at-risk youth, and spent most of my time teaching social skills. Now, for the first time since student teaching, I’ll be teaching “The Most Dangerous Game” and gerunds and dangling modifiers and indirect modifiers and interpretative skills and how to avoid run-on sentences.
I’ve got some planning done, bought a new domain name to have a class blog and to have a place to stick Moodle, and I’m starting to feel relaxed about it. Excited, even…
I loves you, [L]
Last night, before L went to bed, I’d put in a Nina Simone CD, figuring it was calming enough to play in the evening.
Little did I know.
A few minutes later, while trying to put the Girl to sleep, I began the CD again. She wasn’t crying, but she wasn’t settling down. I rocked her, walked her, bounced her gently, talked to her — all the tricks, but she was just not completely calming down.
When track six — “I loves you, Porgy” — began, instant calm. So I did the logical thing: hit repeat and put the Girl to sleep by playing one of the loveliest songs ever…about fifteen times.
As an aside, here’s a very sweet claymation video set to a Simone song: