A glimmering of thought

I've been hearing this song on the radio off and on lately and I quite love it. The music video is here.

Also, I keep hearing a song that, apart from the lyrics, sounds an awful lot like "Gives You Hell" by All American Rejects, except in a tropical, Hawaiian sort of way; and I think it's an awesome idea. Someone so needs to make an Hawaiian version, best if done with a ukulele. I think a laid back feel to that song would be really interesting.

You just have to see this. I'm not sure whether to laugh uproariously or be terrified. Though I especially love that little bit at the end that says it's endorsed by John McCain.

This video is just too funny not to share.

It's a few years old, around 2000 I think, but this show made by PBS on the advertising machine is a quite good one. It's a bit scary, but it's not entirely all new information to all of us, just more plainly stated. It's nicely chunked into 10 minute portions too.

Huzza! I have found a sung copy of the song, Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory. Twas a song that I somewhat learned growing up and have never fully forgot. I especially have always loved the main chorus.

I found this video called Adventure Time before, but couldn't remember what it was called. I am now archiving, as it's taken me a long while to find it again.

I saw this vid yesterday, and it just cracks me up. I love all those vids out there that are "instructional". Nothing like learning...

Also, I got the bug for some unknowable reason and started working on a short fic this morning. It's sort of an introspective on Clark's part, though it's in an indefinite time period and universe. Kind of in the movie universe as it involves his klutziness, but mine probably owes as much to all the other cannons as the movie universe. Also, I do not, and will never, recognize Kate Bosworth as an acceptable Lois. Smallville, Lois and Clark, the animated series, comics, and even novels -- these tend to contribute to my idea of Lois (the first movies' Lois a little too, but it's been so long that I've forgotten a bit). Not that she's actually in the fic at all, but I had to put it down now in case the bug stays with me any longer.

Okay, this is just plain awesome. Definitely worth a watch, but only if you like awesomeness.

I dearly love what Orson Scott Card has to say about homework and its lack of usefulness. He even explains how studies done have shown that there is no noticeable connection between lots of homework and improved learning. Having gone through a pretty average public schooling, I have to agree with what he has to say about the current state of homework. Honestly, I was the guy who never missed a single homework assignment going through school, and I did fairly well on my tests, but I can honestly say that only a small fraction of the homework I did ever taught me anything.

In fact, I have learned more geography and history from cartoons and personal reading than anything ever taught or assigned in school. I learned more math from a few problems done in class than I ever did doing hundreds for homework. I may have learned a tiny bit, but it no where was worth the amount that I had to do. I remember struggling for hours every evening, trying to do a handful of AP physics problems, and never really understanding a whole lot better. Yet, in ten minutes of class, I could understand at least half of them due to some simple explanation. What's worse, homework never taught me how to learn and recall information. It only taught me how to look up specific words or phrases and to regurgitate it back for a test, never actually keeping more than a fraction of it. I'm paying for that now, coming out of 16-17 years of schooling and not recalling much of anything.

Although, I have to say I also have a problem with the way they sometimes teach in classes as well. I have a decently large vocabulary with absolutely no thanks whatsoever to school. Any knowledge of the intricacies of the language, such as parts of speech and grammar, I learned accidentally through all my reading. My education in proper grammatical structure and parts of speech I vaguely recall as being covered for a few minutes a day for like a week, back in middle school. That was it. I have friends in college who still can barely read. I honestly think we need to go back to the older ways of learning, such as by rote, song, and mnemonic devices. I mean, honestly, would anyone remember the color scale arrangement if it weren't for ROY G BIV? I've learned the majority of the countries of the world thanks to an old Animaniacs song. I remember Magellan because of them as well. I can remember nursery rhymes from when I was like seven easier than I can remember what I learned in high school, or heck, last year.

My long-winded two cents. Five cents or so, given inflation.