Random Thoughts

Some random thoughts on a beautiful Tue afternoon before mowing the lawn and heading out to tee ball practice:

Coming from one who still doesn't own a cell phone, I still can't quite figure out this FaceBook thing.  Specifically, I get e-mails, mail inserts, even newspaper items asking me to "Like" somebody or something or some company on FB.  What's the deal with that??????  Are we that insecure?  Is it a marketing ploy for companies?

I can't imagine anyone, other than a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, voting for Gary Peters for the US Senate.  First, I believe he's got big bucks, likely a millionaire; yet, he sides with the "99%ers," the "occupy" movements.  I wonder why he doesn't forfeit his wealth, donating it or giving it away so he can live like his "99%ers" or the "occupiers."  Is hypocrisy rearing its ugly head yet again?

I wonder if the supporters of the national Core Curriculum Standards think they are such a good thing, why the colleges and universities haven't made the slightest move toward adopting a similar core.  The argument in favor of them is that we must be able to compare schools from state to state.  Fine, let's have college cores so we can compare UCLA with UNC with U of M, etc.  And, we could also institute cores for U of M, MSU, Central, Western, Oakland, and all the state schools so we can compare them, too.  All this core stuff does is to engender more testing, deleterious on its own merits.  It does nothing to ensure better teaching/teachers, which all research shows is the number one factor in producing quality education.

In baseball, there are some frustrating moments.  I don't know which is more frustrating.  Is it hitting a high foul pop-up and being forced to watch the fielder move over to catch it, knowing even if he drops it, there's no getting on base involved?  Is it hitting a frozen rope right at a fielder, who makes, as my late father used to say, "a fielder's choice--catch it or get killed by it?"  It wasn't frustrating to me, but the thing I hated the most about batting was striking out.  Boy, I hated it!  It was the worst, to me an event of complete failure.  I think I remember my strikeouts as much or more than any big hits.
I wonder if more major leaguers had such a dislike of striking out instead of opting for one more swing for the fences (where the money is!~)......