CUPCAKE CANNON

That's what I am talking about. This should be a excellent birthday party.

Enjoy the video that was also really well produced.

Florida Senate Bill SB06 is wrong for our children's education

The Florida Senate bill passed SB06 which will drastically change the contracts of teachers by basing salary and job security on the FCAT test scores and possibly standardized testing while also increasing the class size which the Florida voters voted in years past to decrease the class size to allow teachers to teach and to have a positive learning environment in the classrooms.

Simply stated this SB06 bill is WRONG. This will have a detrimental affect on learning gains for Florida students and decrease any possibilities on being competitive in a multinational world. To reward merit pay by test scores and annual reviews is not the answer. While increasing test scores and learning gains are important, it should hot be the only barometer in a teacher's salary.


I would ask the state legislatures to rethink and reevaluate this bill. It would be advantageous to incorporate some merit pay by test scores, tenure, and annual reviews. Yes, there are "bad" apples in the bushel. There should be checks and balances in the system to allow these mediocre or poor performing teachers not to earn a reappointment to teach.

Basically this bill would in my opinion, change the concept of learning in the classroom. Instead of teaching our children to synthesize, hypothesize, inquire and question, "thinking outside the box" these teachers will change their style and teach kids how to pass an exam. This will not assist our children in the very competitive world we live in. Teaching strategies on how to take a test is very different than teaching higher order thinking and learning skills for children to prosper and continue to be life long learners. This will be the demise of our country and will move the USA farther away from the competitive edge that Asia, and Europe are excelling at.

I ask the Florida state representatives to kill the SB06 bill. Go back to the drawing board and think outside the box to address teacher pay, job security and mainly our children's education.

Recovery Plan - 1 year

I was driving to work this morning and I had a chance to listen a special on the radio of what Main Street thinks about our $750 billion Stimulus Plan and if it has been working or not.

The radio special was clear that many people are not too keen about the results of the Stimulus Plan, and even they feel the stimulus is a waste or money (Only1/2 of the over total amount approved by the congress has been already spent).

I am not that sure of whether the measure of the stimulus results are correct or not, but I want to layout some points here that I think any individual should have in mind before determining a direct negative (or positive ) opinion about the Stimulus Plan:

1- Let’s never forget that almost everything the politicians are doing in Washington is about getting "elected" or "re-elected", so before you “jump into the boat“ (left or right), please think! The right will do anything to jeopardize the plan, because they want to have the biggest “piece of the cake"... the same is true with the left, which in this case is the continuation of power.

2- Also, remember that most of the people that voted for these politicians (again left and right) that start this big political, social and economic mess, are the same people criticizing the current administration. Of course there are the exceptions too (that is growing every day).

3- At the bottom end, everyone can talk about his own experience on this recession economy. So here goes, I will talk about my personal recession experience.

My wife works for FAU in a department the depends on government "grants" to continue offering a course education for current teachers that want develop a better career as a teacher and give more quality education for children at school. That is pretty cool. Your kid, my kid will be better prepared for the future.

Because of the education plan of this administration and the stimulus, my wife was able to keep her job for one more year, and her department continued doing the amazing job with South Florida teachers through their program. Well, what is my recession experience on this?

A. My family depends on the combined incomes of my wife and I to be able to pay the mortgage. Food for two kids and two adults, pay the usual bills, etc. With this I won't have to go crazy about our financial situation. I am able to do my work and at the least, my neighbors won't have to worry about another foreclosed house in their neighborhood, etc, etc, etc.

b. My kids and YOUR KIDs will have a better education, a result of the FAU Grant that has been helping many teachers and South Florida in general. I believe also the education plan extends for the entire country, and I dont even want to mention how important teaching is for american children. Yours, mine, all the kids should have the best...the future of our country depends on this...we are talking about a future generation here!!

THERE ARE SOME OTHER POINTS THAT I WANT TO SHARE AS WELL

I – About Banks

II – About THE WAR

III – WHO IS TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THE STIMULUS

Some manipulators of the system are trying to divert your attention from real problems, so WATCH OUT!

I – About our BANKS

If Obama and the current congress (R or D) are looking for re-election, it would be wise for them to start doing something more effective, especially with the amount of scams we are being expose to. I mean use the resources of the FBI, Congress, etc. Below are two links:

BANK BAILOUT – You will love this! ( I mean hate)

Scheme by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford

And read this article. In the end will be a video that you can watch. You will understand what is happening with the dollar. Watch it. Read it. You will make your own conclusion. And trust me, you won't have a good opinion about it!

People are talking about the Recovery plan (what is that again...$750 B something!!). What is it about the BANK BAILOUT? What we got from it? Did we have transparency of did we see nothing? Your interest rates are being raised and bank scams are growing and growing. Is the FBI doing something about it? If the law is designed to protect the bad people....LET’S CHANGE THE LAW!

II - War

Left and right keeping blaming each other about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

STOP!

This is everybody's fault. We need oil. We need it big time. The Iraq war was about nothing more than that. Thank God we got it. What, do you think that big fat plasma screen TV you have at home is made from... WOOD? We are witnesses and participants in the degradation of our society because of oil. You, me, everybody! Don't to play the "not guilty" card! We need oil to move. We love plastic (what do you think your phone is made from...?). Watch the video Collapse (a documentary)...it's all about Oil Dependence. Very! Very interesting

We need to develop new technologies, and get away from oil. The new generation needs be able to CREATE something else (Don't worry - I won't talk about school and teachers again)

III -YOU MAY NOT BE GETTING ANYTHING BUT OTHER PEOPLE ARE GETTING SOME http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123761674&sc=emaf

My wife still have her job and we are able to keep our house so far. That was a good help from the plan.

Celebrities Big Mansions

"Don't ask, don't tell" act

What is Gender identity disorder (GID)?

It seems this week the big discussion is the act "don't ask, don't tell" that may be ending soon.

I tried to get myself out of this discussion...but too much happened in my life to let this go. I want to start with a short story that happened with me years ago, and I will try to make this as short as possible to get to my point.

I got a position as an art director with this international company and for facts that I will describe in another blog, I was promoted as an International Director of Operations with their subsidiary in Brazil (as this point you already notice my writing is not great...And I want to apologize for it). For a couple years I managed to open and run this company in Brazil and after many complaints from my girlfriend about the continuous travel, I requested to hire a general manager for the Brazilian branch. Skipping the whole story processes behind, I hired this very talented writer, a young man that I knew through his books that I read. He came to the US to meet the CEO, CFO and the entire upper management. Everybody liked him. The same day I invited him to come to my house, I told him my girlfriend was great in the kitchen. (She was great and talented but she didn't cook :)). We were driving to my home. He mentioned that he was very glad I liked his writings, but he felt better if he showed me another side of his life at my home.

We arrived at the house. He sat at the computer and opened a site with photos of this gorgeous girl. I wondered what were this about and my girlfriend too, when he just slipped the phrase: "Do you like my pictures?"

The longest 5 second break ever. I could understand and I said that I love the pictures and I asked him who was in the pictures. Marta my girlfriend with the most obnoxious look, laughed and told me in a loud voice, "That is him you moron!"

I did not know what to say. We did not know what to say. The man in front of me has nice legs and boobs! I looked at his breast (he was using a suit). I laughed thinking it was a joke, and he insisted to tell me that this wasn't a joke.

He told me that he had a syndrome call GID (Gender Identity Disorder). He came up with the entire lecture about Parkinson’s disease and his story of being attached to a man’s body for years desiring other men. I asked what his wife and daughter was saying about it, and he mentioned he told them few years ago and they were very supportive of the fact.

In short words he explained to me that GID was a neurological problem that in most of the cases it generates in the seven months of pregnancy. It seems during the seven month of pregnancy the fetus has the neurological formation in the brain. Between the time he was describing most of his childhood was bad experiences, I was there in my living room seeing this 35 year old man with tears in his eyes, and my jaw dropped.

Well he did great work in the three years at the company, and was one of the best professionals I met in my life.

I started with this story not because it was my first contact with a homosexual. For many years I had been a homophobic person. Really! I had one cousin (with female mannerisms) that I grew up with. I used to fight with him all the time, with lot retaliation from my parents and relatives. He was a very smart kid, bright! And he grew up to be a geology teacher at the best university in São Paulo - Brazil, and his boyfriend/partner was very proud of him. Thank God I had chance to apologize to him before he died of AIDS years ago.

Gender identity disorder is characterized by strong, persistent cross-gender identification; people believe they are victims of a biologic accident and are cruelly imprisoned in a body incompatible with their subjective gender identity. Those with the most extreme form of gender identity disorder are called transsexuals. These disorders are considered mental disorders because the body does not match the person's psychological (felt) gender.

In my life I am always thinking the best way to understand some other individual is put you in his situation. Try to do this exercise:

If you are a man (heterosexual of course): You see this wonderful, very attractive woman, and you want to have fun, but there is a problem. You like her, you are attracted to her and her girl friends...but you don't have a penis...YOU HAVE A VAGINA! How bad you will feel?

Do the same exercise, now if you are a woman, you met this nice, elegant, earth living man that love kids at the coffee shop. You want to kiss him, you want him to hug you will with all the kindness of the planet. You know he is straight and you want to have sex with him, but you don't have a vagina...YOU HAVE A PENIS!

This is happening with same sex marriage discussion. People with a mental disorder, GDI syndrome, or any other name you want to call it, civil rights are erased. Now the same people that want to be in the war field to defend you and your family are being discriminated again.

I am heterosexual man; married with two gorgeous kids (a boy and a girl). I have all the Christian values you could think of, but I believe if the world (and especially our government) wants to do something about the "Don't ask, don't tell" act, they should be more cautious and address the problem by the root. Where everything starts?! It should start in the formation of a family, the care AND SUPPORT of family and children. I deeply believe if this happens it will minimize the problem.

The society needs to support these individuals as equals...but I have a message to the community too...BEHAVE... I have some gay friends that never...NEVER...put me in an embarrassing situation.

The reason that I am a man doesn’t give the rights to be messing with every woman I want. If you want respect, you need give respect.

http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec15/ch203/ch203b.html

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=is+GDI+a+sindrome%3F&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder