enjoy

bring up terminal (or tui login) sudo su
chown -r username:username /home/username

This ensures files in /home/username are owned by user username & group username. You should be good to go.. unless the system is booting in single user mode.. Make sure to be careful when running programs as root.. for instance sudo firefox will change ownership of .mozilla/… not good, eh?

I hope the punch card system has a really small display with a really large magnifying lens in front of it. Better to see Casablanca with.

Oh man. When I was a junior/senior high school student (back when dinosaurs walked the earth), our town failed six school levies in a row. The school board finally had to cut the sports program to save the academic programs, such as they were.

Within six months, the “town fathers” had passed a special levy to fund high school sports.

Fuckers. I played football and ran track in school but that crap just pissed me off.

On the other hand, my son just graduated high school and the marching band program was one of the greatest highlights of his school career, and that includes playing three times at Lincoln Center in NYC (jazz twice, classical once).

One of his college selection criteria included whether or not they had a marching band.

So high school sports has some benefits beyond the immediate participants.

I have a copy of Dying Earth signed by Vance two years ago. The poor guy is almost blind, but it was a real thrill to see him.

However, I’ll still have the Times and the WaPo if they sink Healthcare reform by fellating the Blue Dogs and the GOP.

Worst ‘Fantasia’ re-enactment EVAH.

I was just in the high school marching band and forced to play at varsity games, so I’m just the right sort of cynical to take on decoupling sports from scholastics.

The misery of it still festers a bit, honestly.

And yet band funding continues to be cut, despite evidence that participation in band is a much more reliable predictor of long-term achievement than participation in interscholastic sports.

The misery of it still festers a bit, honestly.

Meanwhile, in Japan:

TOKYO —

Without mentioning numerical targets, the plan states, ‘‘It is necessary to enrich Japan’s education in order to secure a level that is in no way inferior to major European countries and the United States.’’

shabadoo
Couldn’t track and cross-country have been run on a club basis? That’s how many schools are forced to do it now, since football and basketball are such budgetary leeches. I would also observe that most interscholastic sports cannot be practiced for a lifetime, even in a condensed form. Besides, shouldn’t gym (or PE) be a real class teaching lifetime fitness? Just because most phys ed classes now are a way to let a coach have an uninterrupted hour of cell phone time doesn’t mean it has to be that way.

I’m not in favor of eliminating sports, just uncoupling their interscholastic incarnation from the school. If a kid wants to play football, let the parents fund it as a club sport, same with basketball. Stop hiding those costs in the school budget.

Hey now – high school football may accomplish little more than crippling kids for the enjoyment of others, but that doesn’t mean all high school sports are a bad idea. Easily-accessible, no-additional-cost athletics get kids exercise and are a basis for a lifetime of physical activity – something we Americans need more of.

Years ago, running track and cross-country turned me from an introverted nerd with bad grades to an extroverted nerd with pretty good grades.

Took me a minute to recognize that picture -

Stalingrad

Yep.

Stalingrad

In Soviet Union, crocodiles fuck you.