Some Blog Site

I heard someone use the phrase “that took forever” and although it never bothered me before, now it does for some reason.

That reason is that if something really takes forever to complete, then it can’t have completed, therefore the phrase can’t be in the past tense.

Acceptable uses are “taking forever” or “takes forever”, but never “took forever”.

I like to do things, and I like to use the internet to help with instructions. Usually they’re helpful, sometimes they’re not. One gripe that I won’t go into here is that videos are not the answer to everything.

One thing that all my searches have in common though, is that a page from ehow.com will appear in the search results. You can save yourself a lot of time if you just always avoid visiting that website. I have made that mistake enough times that I know better now. And I am passing that knowledge on to you. Learn from my mistakes.

In case you’re wondering what the problem is, I will summarize every eHow page:

How to Fix Your Widget

Step 1: Get your replacement parts
Step 2: Get the broken widget, remove the screws holding it together, and open it up.
Step 3: Remove the bad parts
Step 4: Put in the new parts
Step 5: Close the widget and tighten the screws holding it together.

You’re done!

Lest you think I’m being generic and leaving out details for my example, I’m not. The eHow pages that I’ve read are all like that – they don’t provide any details on the specific procedure I was looking for.

I’m my cases, I’ve usually tried to do the obvious stuff and got stymied by something that was not cooperating and then I look to the internet for tips unique to the particular item.

Other websites are more helpful – Instructables, just about any forum-type site, etc. Those all provide useful details. But eHow and its cousin Wikihow and also Justanswer I have found to be useless.

I don’t remember what responses I had back when I was younger and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

But now that I’m older and know better, let me tell you the answer I’d like to give:

Retired.

Aim high, kids.

I saw someone the other day who was wearing a shirt that said “There is no planet B.” Something like this:

or this:

And I thought to myself, “But there is!”

That poor soul must not know the Bible well enough. There will be a new earth, likely resembling how things were before the fall of Adam and Eve. So it should be better than this current earth, which is apparently planet A.

To be correct, we should expect there is no planet C.

One of the heavily-travelled intersections near our house is closed now due to construction. Heavily-travelled is a relative term. I’m sure some people in larger cities would scoff at the numbers of cars going through there, but locally it was known as a bad intersection.

Anyway, the roads around it are closed far enough from the intersection such that you can’t get close enough to see what’s going on. And the county work commission website shows only the start date and projected end date, with sporadic updates.

But…

What they’ve done on this project is setup a web cam.

That helps a ton. In this day and age of round-the-clock news feeds and instant status updates, having that web cam will quell the impatience of the masses.

Plus it’s fun to watch.

Note to anyone in charge of a public works project, especially those affecting people’s commutes: setup a web cam.

Yes, I know it’s 2017. But I never wrote about the book I read during our vacation last year, so here it is:

The Collapse of Parenting by Dr. Leonard Sax

I’ve written some about his other books before. If you’ve read and enjoyed those books, then you’ll enjoy this book too. Maybe enjoy is not the right word – appreciate maybe. Because the picture he paints is bleak. It’s a book of warning – kids aren’t doing a good job of growing into adults because the adults are not doing a good job of parenting them.

Here are three main thoughts I had while reading this book:

• Your child can have a variety of friends. He can lose friends, he can make friends. But he has only one set of parents. If you are trying to be his friend, then he has lost his parent. If you’re not being his parent, then who is? Kids don’t need friends; kids do need parents. Be a parent. Tell him no. Make him work. Let him play outside. Do things with him.
• I am slightly concerned about my kids. This book makes you think about all the things that could go wrong. But I’m more concerned about my country. The younger generation is in trouble. Of course, every generation says that. And of course, it’s different this time.
• This book should be read along with Lord of the Flies. Considering the themes of that book with the topics of this book will help you understand why I am concerned about the course of the USA.

There are an increasing variety of things these days that are not appropriate for kids. For the purpose of this blog post, I’ll focus on movies, but it could apply to other things, such as any TV show being made now or a number of books or songs.

I have heard some people justify taking their kids to things they shouldn’t, or producers justifying inappropriate content in what should be an innocent show, by saying that it will just go over the kids’ heads.

In other words, they won’t understand it, so it won’t hurt them.

How do you think kids learn things?

If you do that enough – take kids to things that go over their heads – eventually they will catch on. The basic concept of education is something like this: 1. present new material, 2. explain it to the students, 3. see how well they understand it.

By having things go over their heads, you are not keeping them out of harm’s way; you are introducing them to the new material. You are starting the education process. So you think it’s okay because you’re skipping part 2? That just leaves them to form their own conclusions about why the adults are laughing.

Kids are kids for only a short time. Don’t make them grow up faster than they need to, just so you can have your entertainment. What will matter more for eternity: that you were amused for a few minutes or that you let a child be pointed in the wrong direction morally?