This is now my third try at this post. The first was lost to a glitch in the internet. The second was lost to a glitch in the Blogger editor (or possibly IE). If you highlight from the bottom to the top of a post (in preparation to do a copy/paste into Notepad in case the internet glitches again) everything disappears when the cursor hits the top line. Nice.

Anyway.

Yesterday, I just had a quick stop at the copy place for some youth group materials, then off for home. Nestina had an appointment in Traverse City and wanted to follow me home as she isn't real confident she can find it from TC. Debbie had dinner done by the time we got home, so we crashed in front of the TV and watched Escanaba in da Moonlight while we stuffed our faces. The movie is pretty funny if you have ever stayed in deer camp. If you haven't, the humor probably seems too over-the-top, but take it from someone who has been there: you have to reach pretty far to make satire out of what happens in deer camp. I don't know if it is the cold, the alcohol, the lack of sanitation, or all of the above, but things can get pretty surreal.

In any case, Nestina headed for bed about half-way through the movie, and Debbie and I barely made it to the end. I don't know if it is the flu or what, but we have all been feeling tired and yucky lately.

Today was supposed to be dinner at the pastor's house for all the deacons and their wives, but our pastor's grandmother died yesterday, so that has obviously been postponed. We will likely just head home and get all the jobs on the house set up for tomorrow. We have a whole list of little things that need to be completed this weekend.

A couple reading assignments:

Fred Reed once again blasts our "educational" system. This time it is for failing to teach kids to read after they have been in school for twelve years. This isn't entirely the schools fault. After all, both my sister and myself knew how to read before ever darkening the door of a school. So did both of Fred Reed's daughters. However, the majority of the blame still rests on educators given that they have told two generations of parents that education should be left to the professionals, and that parents need to butt out.

Paul Graham also beats up on our schools pretty good, but that isn't the main point of his article. The meat of what was supposed to be a speech to high school kids, is that school should not be the complete focus of a kids life. As this directly contradicts the party line from the educational industry, it is hardly any surprise that his speech was shot down by the school administration. In any case, read the whole thing, then think seriously about reading it with your high school kids.

And that should be enough for the day.