Boston.com has an article on how parents feel that long term papers are too much work for high school students.

…But Laurie Mokriski, also a PTSO member, said she worries because the papers contribute significantly to students’ already-heavy academic loads. Newton parents met earlier this month to discuss homework and agreed their children have too much, Mokriski said. They also need time for sports, theater, music, and academic teams, she said. ”They’re trying to enjoy their high school years,” she said.

Denise Clark Pope, author of ”Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out Materialistic and Miseducated Students,” argues that today’s high school students are overworked. [boston.com]

Is it me or does this just seem like too much whining. I remember having term papers that were at least 10 pages long in High School. I thought everyone had to do that kind of thing. I like how because the kids have so many extra-curricular activities, we have to give them less academic work.

Linked to from over on the Cult of Mac, the iBitch.

Tired of the picture perfect virtual relationships? iBitch 2.0 puts the balance back into your virtual lovelife, giving you the “low end” to have a more fulfilling and realistic virtual relationship. After all, there can be no good, without the bad, right? iBitch 2.0 is the latest addition to the Virtual Girlfriend software family, compatible with Mac & Windows. [arkamfilms.com]

Oh yes, and this probably isn’t worksafe.

A friend of mine asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I really wasn’t sure. I mean, I want the new Looney Tunes collection coming out on my birthday. In fact, I’d say the first three things on my Amazon wish list are the big items.

If money wasn’t an issue I’d want something like the new Think Outside bluetooth mouse or a iPod Photo (60GB of course) (only partly care about the photo part, I want most of it for music).

Oh, and I just signed up with that freeipods.com thing, so if you want to help me out, sign up for something using http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=10659946. I’m actually opting for the $250 gift certificate for the iTunes music store. Since that will be handy for impulse puchases.

A few years after I graduated from high school, my school started doing mock elections. Since 1988 their mock election has accurately chosen the eventual winner. VOTES 2004 was today, and the winner was… John Kerry! Let’s hope their record of success continues.

It’s a pretty interesting setup. From the web page:

Two schools from each state participate in the highlight of the month-long project—a mock election at which a winner is declared just days before the general election. The VOTES election is unique in that it simulates the electoral college process of selecting a candidate: the winner must earn at least 270 out of 538 electoral votes.

And here is the breakdown of the results:

Candidate
John Kerry
George Bush
Ralph Nader
David Cobb
Michael Badnarik
Michael Peroutka
Others

Electoral Votes
326
212
0
0
0
0
0

Popular Votes
26,920
22,771
2,253
758
572
230
56

Percentage
50.20%
42.50%
4.40%
1.40%
1.00%
0.40%
0.10%

Voter Turnout 70%

Pretty cool I must say. I can’t wait to see how accurate it is this year.

Derrick Story writes about his Favorite Stewart Copeland Story:

The next day, when we had a few moments to talk, I asked him what he thought of the laptop. Stewart was in a great mood. He said that since he didn’t have any of his stuff on it, he just nosed around, and quickly discovered GarageBand. Stewart is more of a ProTools kind of guy, so he’s never taken the time to check out GB.

“I saw this cool looking guitar on the dock,” he said. “So I clicked on it. It seemed like about 20 minutes had passed, but it was more like a couple hours. Next thing I knew, I had some pretty sweet tracks put together. And that was without a USB keyboard (as in the musical type). I was just tapping on the computer itself.” [O’reilly:Derrick Story]

Just in case you happen to live anywhere near a Volcano.

“Oh yeah, AWAY from the volcano…”

From the U.S. Geological Survey's What to Do if a Volcano Erupts page:

During an Eruption –

Move Away From A Volcano – Not Toward It

[via The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century :: Joey deVilla’s Weblog]

Last night I was at a birthday party for a neighbor that was held at Real Art Ways in Hartford. I’d never been there before and it’s a neat little place (and their movie theatre has some interesting sounding things coming up). One of the exhibits there was by Laura Carton and featured pictures that were originally porn that had been downloaded from the net, and then had the people in them removed with the help of photoshop. It definitely changes one views them once you find that out.

The thing is, the concept sounded so damn familiar. I knew I’d heard about it before, and had a feeling it was from BoingBoing. So, this morning I did a bit of searching about and discovered it had been on BoingBoing. And not only on BoingBoing, but by a posted by guestblogger there: the amazing Susannah Breslin.

I’ve been scanning in more pictures for my mom. Both of their trip to New Mexico, which was stunning, and a bunch of old family pictures she had (like ones her father took during World War II), and ran across this old school picture of me from what must have been 2nd or 3rd grade. So I figured I’d post it here.

And on the subject of scanning, I’m still amazed at how much detail the scanner pulls out of those old black and white photos. When you look at the picture itself you think there’s just not much there, and then after scanning. WOW. I’ll post some more as I get to them.

The folks over at Everything Sysadmin have started a wiki to go with the book (along with their blog). They’re also talking about integrating wiki and blog, something that I think could be a really cool thing. I’ve thought about trying to find easy ways to do that myself (especially when I’m posting about some nifty OS X tip).

I made the mistake of going into Borders today and walked out with a stack of manga. They need to stop releasing so many things at once! Today’s purchases:

• Negima! 3
• D.N.Angel 4
• XXXHolic 3
• Hikaru no Go 2
• The Wallflower (aka Perfect Girl Evolution) 1

I’m most psyched about the last one. I’ve been waiting for it to come out since I heard Del Rey picked it up.