My buddy Frank sent me an image of the birdbaths in his yards. They are not only cool because they were made from random springs and farm implement discs, but because they have ten inches of snow on them. I knew Oregon got hit hard, but that amount of snow in that part of Oregon is unprecedented.
Tag: Oregon
Day 827 of 1000
Betty Blonde #11 – 07/31/2008
Click here or on the image to see full size strip.
I loved this video. A guy who moved out to Oregon to log, but eventually got into boot making over in John Day, then moved to Baker City so he could get more traffic. I especially like the part where he and his dad moved from South Dakota to Oregon. They were loggers in South Dakota, but had always wanted to get out into the “big timber”. I have heard lots of people of his generation tell that story.
Day 176 of 1000
I feel very sorry for people who do not “get” Oregon. That includes the people who live in places like Lake Oswego and Cary (sister cities in spirit, decadence, and tackiness–the people in those towns are not from there even if they are, if you know what I mean). Oregon is a state of mind and today is Oregon’s birthday. My great, great grandfather had lived in Oregon for thirteen years before she became a state on Valentine’s Day of 1959 1859. It is, without question, the most beautiful state in the union. Even though it has been, to a large extent, controlled by people from California and the East Coast, the state of Oregon and the spirit of Oregon live on in the eastern and southern parts of the state. We are very, very sad that we are not there now, but we are very happy that Kelly and Christian are will get their degrees at the wonderful NCSU, then head back out west to HOME! The flowers that accompany this blog are dedicated to Lorena, Valentine’s Day, and the enlightened people who “get” the true spirit of Oregon. Only 824 days to go.
Now if I could only get a link to the Oregon rock theme “I Can’t Go Home“.
At lunch today, Andrew mention that when he lived in Seattle he was very impressed with the way the government provided online support and information for things like the DMV, the tax office, etc., but how that when he walks into the office or call on the phone to get help, there is either none or it is surly, lazy, and passive/aggressive. With North Carolina, it is just the opposite. Online infrastructure is not so great, but the people at the counter or on the phone are happy, helpful, and kind. Amazing. It is absolutely true and I prefer the latter most of the time.
Day 107 of 1000 (213.7 lbs.)
I still say The Other McCain is a trainwreck, but he really nails one of my pet peeves today. His description of how Jesus dealt with religious authorities seems to be spot on. The upshot is that Jesus was quite aggressive with religious authorities who were out of line in their admonishments and spirit. He was also very kind to sinners who knew they were sinners and wanted to repent. McCain is truly a gonzo journalist for our time. Now if he would just dump that Rule 5 thing…
Update: Oops! I just saw this post came from Smitty, not Stacy. He is The Other McCain’s trusty, gonzo journalist sidekick. And he is a conservative Oregonian, so that pretty much doubles his credibility in as much as survival as a conservative in Oregon is not an easy trick.
Day 80 of 1000
I found a great article in the Wall Street Journal this morning titled Generation Jobless: Students Pick Easier Majors Despite Less Pay. It had some startling statistics:
Workers who majored in psychology have median earnings that are $38,000 below those of computer engineering majors, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by Georgetown University.
Wow. The article tells a story about a student who switched from Electrical and Computer Engineering because her team stayed up past midnight in a lab to write a soda machine program. They could not get it to work, so to keep from getting a bad grade, she withdrew from the course. Then she switched from engineering to a double major in psychology and policy management. Her grades went from B’s and C’s to A’s. She said her high school did not prepare her for the rigor of an engineering degree.
So the upshot is that she is willing to work in a low-paying career for the rest of her life because she was unwilling to do what was necessary to pass a few hard classes. I have had this discussion with people before. If you cannot handle a specifc course, you can do a TON of things to make it happen. You can get a tutor. You can take the class two or even three times if needed. You can take a more remedial course, then try the tough one again. Is it worth it to go to school for a year or two more to do something you like and that pays well for the next forty or fifty year? It seems like a no brainer.
The crazy part is that even for those who want to do less technical jobs, it is best to prepare for that non-technical job with a hard degree.
Research has shown that graduating with these majors provides a good foundation not just for so-called STEM jobs, or those in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields, but a whole range of industries where earnings expectations are high. Business, finance and consulting firms, as well as most health-care professions, are keen to hire those who bring quantitative skills and can help them stay competitive.
We joked about this quite a bit, but I wanted to get it into the kids head that, if they went to college (not necessarily a given–preparation for many careers–pilot, electrician, writer, and small business owner are monumentally better served through some type of preparation other than college), they could study their passion, but they needed to start with a rigorous degree. We defined rigorous as anything that involves hard math. The use of hard math and statistics is creating new breakthroughs in a lot of fields right now: medicine, agriculture, sociology, etc., etc. etc.
One of our pet peeves during our homeschool years was a couple of homeschool guys from Oregon who wrote a book titled Do Hard Things when they were in high school, then went off to a liberal arts college whose only majors are Government, Journalism, History, Literature, and Classical Liberal Arts. Those are fine things to study, but are very far from the type of “hard” we are talking about here. The only math I could find in their core curriculum was Euclidean Geometry. If you want to get a book on doing hard things, forego the Harris book and get this one by Katie Davis has done at Azima.