This is very strange. Why is this not posting? Perhaps I've run out of space on russell.stadler.com. Crud. I'm very very very close to that limit. I need to get some space on Traxit.com or something.

Well, I haven't blogged in a while, and the reason is I haven't felt any sense of urgency about it. I don't have much interesting on my mind, and furthermore, my visitors/day has gone down drastically since the end of school. Anyhow, I'm in Maine today, and it's very nice being here. We've got to clean up the downstairs rooms because my Grandparents are arriving tonight, and we need to totally re-arrange the room due to the fact that the room they are using used to be the room my sisters and I shared.

Anyhow, I think I should learn to do a handstand, and furthermore, walk on my hands. I think being able to do so would be a fine addition to my repetoire of weird things I can do (such as my deformed knee, the bendy fingers, the fact that I can put my legs behind my head, etc. etc...) Although this is a bit more difficult because it is not a mere matter of having overly flexible joints, but instead a test of dexterity and strength. So anyway, we'll see how long I'm determined to do this.

Another thing I need to do is work for InASphere, which is a division of Traxit, which also owns Schoolbrain. I think I'm supposed to be writing an article for the TechSphere section of InASphere about Blogger and how wonderful it is or something like that. Perhaps I should be getting to work... or not. Either way I'm not getting paid. Oh, actually, nevermind that. I should be working because I have a share of this company, so if they do well, I do well. Anyhow, it's been brought to my attention that I should probably follow my friend Geddes around and learn how to run/manage/whatever he does to the webserver that he's apparently trying to get working. I need to develop some skills of which I can apply to some form of a Job.

Finally, in other news, for the few people that care... it's now official that Sarah K. and A. Tyo are an "item." (And is it any coincidence that they're both jewish?) I figure since it's the easiest way for me to broadcast such information, I'll just blog it. Oh well. Just another testament to something that I'm not quite sure of yet.

Finally, I don't think the word exists, but what would "morocide" mean? If you have any ideas, feel free to email me. Thus far, I've come to the possible conclusion that it means killing stupid people, for moro as in moron means stupid person, and the suffix of -cide tends to mean killing of the prefix in that particular word, as in homocide. Well, enough streaming of my conciousness for now, I'm off to purchase some furniture and other things for renovating the downstairs room.

I saw Titan AE and it was decent, I suppose I didn't expect more considering it was a PG Animated movie. Anyhow, in watching the credits, I noticed a section that made very little sense to me. Why does an animated movie need a Stunt Crew?! Well, back to work I go. Bah.

Ok, ignore the below post. It makes no sense. Just acknowledge that Tyo is a fool and shouldn't be on Student Council. Well... maybe he should, but he's going to make school government... interesting to say the least.

I think I should change my poll to "Do you think Tyo has leadership skills worthy of being chosen to go to some Rotary Club sponsored event?" Apparently he and Sarah K. are going to some leadership conference because of the people who requested they were identified as people with some reason to go. That's it, he and Sarah are the only people who applied. Bah. Anyhow, I think that that this Emily character living at my house doesn't interact well with any of my friends.

Hey hey! I've got a great idea. Well... not at the time, no I don't, but regardless, here's a nifty analogy I pulled out of Education Week.

     Imagine the season's final high school cross-country meet, run by the state Office of Racing. Officials pledge to demonstrate how each runner is doing, and which runners, teams, and coaches are the best. Judges crowd the finish line with cameras, computers, stethoscopes, and various diagnostic tools. As runners cross the line, not only their times, but also their pulses, breathing rates, perspiration levels, muscle oxidation, and a host of variables are checked and computed. This is the new world of racing, officials say. We will know how everyone is doing , who is the best, and why.

     Now suppose, despite all this measuring, that the race has no official starting line. Some runners run 10 miles, others five, and still others two. Some coaches and parents complain that the race is not fair, but the Office of Racing is not deterred. This is an absolute measure, officials say, not a relative one. When runners cross the finish line is what matters, not where they started. Sure, runners who start farther back have farther to go, but hey, that's life. After all, this race is only one tool o fmay for assessing running ability. Yes, it will determine the future access to athletics for many runners. And yes, average team results may eventually influence the coaches' jobs. And, of course, teams may be reconstituted if this yea's team performs worse than last year's. But despite these important-sounding consequences, this race is just one indicator of athletic performance. Now, everyone stop whining and try harder.

     The idea of a race with no starting line is absurd, of course. In racing we understand that the distance traveled is critically important in determining the outcome. In fact, the key factor is is each runner's speed, or rate of progress. To know this, we need to know when and where each runner started. Only then, we understand, can we compare them fairly.

     It is also true, in racing, that while we track team scores, we know that they are an aggregate of individual performance. If we compare last year's team to this year's, we recognize that the different outcomes -- whether better or worse -- are significantly affected by having different members on the team. We understand that different runners naturally get different results, even with the same coach. Do we think that effort, practice and coaching quality make a difference? Of course. Do we think these factors make up for having different runners and different starting lines? Of course not. The race described above may may provide information on runners' physical conditions, but it does not tell which runner is the fastest or has the greatest endurance because it doesn't measure how far they have run. For the same reason, it doesn't show which team is best or which coach is most effective.

--Donald B. Gratz.
He is a senior associate and the coordinator of national school reform for the Community Traning and Assistance Center in Boston. He also serves as a member of the Needham, Mass., board of education.

Well... I just thought this was quite an interesting read. He later states that it's not a perfect analogy, and then mentions how it applies to the MCAS.

Sh**. For some reason my ftp server is crapping out. ARGH! I need to get some real webspace from Traxit or something soon.

I don't need to hear this. My sister and her friends are having a discussion on some tampon commercial. I pray for salvation. I don't want to live here. These people are crazy.

Well... I've decided I guess it's worth sacrificing a little functionality, such as having a profile, or being able to see other people's, to have cross compatibility between ICQ and AIM. Odigo Rocks.

You know what's weird? My sister has... wait, let me count... 1, 2, 3, 4 5, 6 friends over and they're all watching MTV to see, I think it's road rules, I'm not sure, but I simply don't understand how that can be entertaining. For example, I just heard some person detailing their "experience" w/ a phallic "toy" of some sort, and I just don't get how watching these people who are sacrificing their privacy can be entertaining. Some sort of voyeuristic thrill for the viewer, and some sort of exhibitionist game for the "actor," if they can be called that.

You know what I think is weird? Email, and how people use it. When I look through the emails written by people, as opposed to silly junk mail that's automated and sent to countless people, I see that I am one of the few people who actually bothers to capitalize things among other mechanical errors I repeatedly see. I mean no offense to you if you're reading this, but even my Principal/Superintendent in some cases (and it's more than just once, so I'm fairly sure it's not a mistake) didn't bother to capitalize things. It's just crazy! The complete laziness of people writing email. When you recieve email from me, and it's not written post 1:00 AM, generally speaking, it's almost always at least puncuated and capitalized correctly.

It's nuts. The fact that my emails look so different from those that people who are supposed to be better educated and such than me.

Well... I don't understand it. I'm thinking about tests, and it occurs to me, at least in history related subjects, there's very little of which we wouldn't be able to look up in the "real world." So, why do they make us take closed-book, closed notes tests? Huh? Why? If you've got a good reason for this, please email me.

Wow. This Odigo thing is cool. The only problem now is that I can't seem to figure out how to get my buddy list from AIM to Odigo.

NICE! I seem to have found an instant messenging product of which is compatible with BOTH AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ. I have yet to try it out... but this could be great! Check it out at http://www.odigo.com

Well... now that school is out... I don't have a lot of good subject matter to ramble about, so... the frequency or length, or both, of my blogs will probably diminish. Anyhow... Unreal Tournament is extremely entertaining. Especially playing fatboy-instagib-deathmatches. It's great!. Well... I'm out of things to say for the time being. Adios.