Results tagged “kids” from jsstudios.com

Anybody who checks out my blog from time to time knows a few things:

1. I'm a pretty liberal, idealistic guy.

2. I'm for free speech.

3. I'm not very religious.

With that in mind when I came across this news in one of the video podcasts, I had to do a little more research.

In Clay County, Florida a girl by the name of Lexi is running for student council president and created the sign you see in this post. As is so often the case, a bunch of stuffy parents are upset about the fact that the sign reads, "Jesus loves you! Lexi for Prez!" Some have been even so motivated as to write a letter to the principal of the school.

However, school officials said the sign may stay because it is neither "sponsored speech" nor "offensive."

Good for them!

According to Lexi:

"My friend told me that this dude said it's a little cheesy, but I don't listen to that kind of stuff," Lexi said.

Good for you Lexi!

Stick to you beliefs no matter what some people may say. If only our elected politicians had the same fortitude the world would probably be a better place.

I hope you become student council president! If I could, I'd vote for you!

I don't know who said it, but the saying goes something like this, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Little sayings like that permeate our society, but every so often you find that they actually mean something. I found out why that saying is true yesterday when my son's principal called.

Evidently some kid, who I guess also happens to be some kind of first-class ass, was picking a fight with my son's friend. Although my son confirmed that his friend didn't really need it, my son jumped in between them. I guess the other kid decided to direct his anger towards my son. A little shoving match ensued. The other kid ( the ass ) ended up on the floor.

I guess after that he got up and started pulling my kid's hair? Now what kind of a little punk pulls another guy's hair?

What a puss.

After that the teacher showed up and broke them apart. No real punches were thrown. No one got hurt. I think the principal did the right thing by having them spend the rest of the day in in school suspension. However, it was a real good opportunity to teach my kid the meaning of the saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

I'm sure he was trying to do what he thought was the right thing. He was trying to break up what could have escalated into a fight. However, he got himself caught in the middle and ended up having to face the consequences. His friend? Nothing happened to him. No in school suspension. My son even concluded that his friend probably didn't need the help.

My kid, in my opinion, did the right thing. He tried to be a peacemaker. He tried to stand up for his friend. But at the end of it all I had to ask him two things:

Do you know that your friend would have stuck his neck out for you in the same way?

Do you believe it's fair that you took the consequences that, had you left it to work itself out, would have been on him?

What do you think? Did my kid do the right thing? Is it fair that he spent the day in in school suspension? Are guys that pull hair when they fight total pussies? Discuss.

I first heard of the Amethyst Initiative on the way to work this morning, and later found it on Yahoo! via Reditt.

If you haven't heard of it, essentially the initiative addresses the notion that the policy of allowing people to drink ( legally ) once they are 21 years old does not reflect the reality of today's society. The initiative has quite a few signatures. The signatures are representative of a lot of well-known colleges and universities across the US.

However, groups such as M.A.D.D. are openly against the initiative primarily because they believe reducing the age will lead in more teen deaths.

Quite honestly, I can say that I cannot understand why kids as young as 18 can be shipped off to Iraq, have a rifle thrown into their hands and expected to take lives, but yet, cannot sit down in a bar and have a beer.

On the other hand, having gone to college and experienced the social expectation that is prevalent on many campuses - that if you should attend a party you are expected to consume vast quantities of alcohol; that sporting a hangover at your 8 AM class is akin to a badge of honor; that it is cool to be majorly fucked up beyond all recognition; that it is a rite of passage one must accomplish and then decide that it's really quite stupid before they hit bottom or become lifetime alcoholics.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so cool to be fucked up it it wasn't portrayed as cool in movies about college life. It is as obligatory a scene in most college-themed movies to have a scene with underage kids drinking at the most awesome party of the year as it is to have hot coeds romping topless in any other scene. 

In other words - it's our culture stupid.

Overheard while a certain someone took their daughter to cheerleading/gymnastics class:

Dad: Why are there no cars in the parking lot?

Daughter: I don't know? Oh wait! Remember, it's spring break so there's no classes tonight.

Dad: So you mean we don't have to go tonight.

Daughter: Well, yeah ( like dad hasn't a clue ).

Dad: Well then I guess we don't need to go.

Daughter: Duh . . .

My son started wrestling this year on his middle school wrestling team. They traveled to Manhattan, Kansas for the Little Apple Grapple. He's never wrestled before, but I encouraged him to give it a shot because I think the best athletes expose themselves to a lot of sports. He did pretty good, as far as I'm concerned ( I'm a bit biased of course ).

He won his first match ( by pin in the first of three rounds ), but lost his second two to some pretty experienced wrestlers. Regardless, he didn't get pinned and never gave up.

Here's the video of his first match. He's the one in the blue singlet without the stripes on the side. Or a link if you prefer it that way.

 

I know I've been mysteriously absent the last few days. It was for a good cause. My son's soccer team, The All American Patriots, had their first soccer tournament since reforming and creating a team to compete in a premier league. It was a weekend of driving to Olathe and back Saturday and Sunday, getting a bit sunburned, and watching the boys play their hearts out. Going into the tournament, my expectations ( admittedly ) were not exceptionally high, but I figured it would be good experience for them. They needed to get "clicking" and working together.

Since the team consists of boys who have played together for about a year and a half and a bunch of new kids, communication is very important as well as getting a good feel for knowing where your teammates will be when you need them. They lost their first game. A couple of the players got lost on the way to the tournament, but showed up in time to sub in the second half. A few more straggled in, but it was too little to late. The other team had worn them down and scored too many points for the boys to recover.

Since they now had plenty of subs, they won the second game after a six hour layover between games. My son ate too much before the second game. He shook it off by the second half thanks to some pepto-bismal. That second game really, really was a demonstration in poor officiating. I won't complain too much, since our boys won. But there were a plethora of bad calls for and against us. A note to soccer officials: I'll get up on my soapbox just for a second.

You are supposed to be objective. The decisions you make and your behavior really tell a lot. You would expect that 12 year-old boys will make mistakes from time to time. Most of them are not intentional. However, when you consistently call against one team and the other team has absolutely zero calls against them - well, it looks a little suspicious at the end of the game. Throwing our coach out of the game on top of it all because he called you out on your lack of professional ability to officiate a game was merely an act of vanity on your behalf.

Like I said. Our boys won that game in spite of poor officiating. So not only did they beat the other team, they beat the officials as well. The second day they tied. This put them in line to play for the championship. The team they played for the championship is a team they'd faced before - twice. They'd beat them once and lost to them once. Another thing . . . and I won't let this digress into a rant . . . the other team's parents are not my definition of good sports. They bitch about every little thing. Every call. Every time a kid trips another player regardless of whether or not it was accidental. I had the misfortune of sitting near this team's parents at a previous game. It took every ounce of restraint I had to keep myself from going off on them. I wanted, so very much, for these kids to beat this other team into the ground. I know they most likely couldn't hear the parents criticizing them unless they were on that side of the field. But it didn't matter. I would know. And a few other parents knew as well. I wanted my son, and his entire team, to be able to feel that sense of accomplishment that comes from pouring your heart and soul into something and emerging victorious. I wanted them to be rewarded for having the courage to go out there and leave nothing behind taking home their pride.

And they did. They blew them out 3 to 0. The All American Patriots were victorious. U12 Kansas Rush Autumn Festival Soccer Champions!!

I recently mentioned that my son celebrated his 12th birthday. We had quite a bit of fun at the go-cart track. He and I got to take a ride together in the two-person carts. I would have let my son drive, but you have to be 18 to drive the two-person carts. But he got to drive plenty of the one-person carts - so don't get the impression that he didn't enjoy himself or that I denied him any amount of fun. While I drove I let him shoot a short video. It's pretty short and kind of bouncy, but here it is

The other day I ranted a bit about how kids are held to different standards than I was when I was their age. One of the cases I used to illustrate my point was that of two middle-schoolers that could potentially face jail and be required to register as sex offenders for slapping their peers on the ass - which, as it turns out, is a pretty common thing in their social circles and not to be taken as a sexual advance but rather as nothing more than a greeting of sorts. As I said, to each their own.

In reading the comments that followed the story online it appeared there were fairly mixed opinions. Some people believed that there was no need to push this issue and felt the school and law enforcement were going too far. Others felt that the kids should do their time since they should know better. As someone who has two children aged 9 and 12 I would contend that they often do know better. And parents teach their children better. But sometimes kids don't do what they're told. Sometimes they make bad decisions in order to conform to the rest of the pack so they will fit in, as I so often hear, "with the cool kids." I thought perhaps I was in the minority when I chastised those Oregonian school administrators and legal administration. In essence I suggested that those kids' lives could be ruined because they made some bad decisions which could be addressed by something as simple as a suspension rather than locking them up and labeling them as sex offenders. It appears I was wrong. I wasn't in the minority.

The comments from Bradley Berry outraged the parents of the two 13-year-olds, Ryan Cornelison and Cory Mashburn, who with their lawyers were deluged with calls from ABC, CNN, Fox, Court TV and radio stations across the country a day after a story about the prosecution appeared in The Sunday Oregonian.

Perhaps there's hope. Was it simply a school administration or legal office that wasn't quite so dogmatic in their approach to dealing with kids that they decided to rethink what they were doing? Was it the dedication of people who see our little world getting out of hand when it comes to raising our kids? Perhaps the school system was afraid of a law suit? Who knows? Maybe the district attorney feared that his career would end up going the same direction of Nifong's. Regardless, it's a good thing when people wake up and smell the coffee. Of course sometimes a nice, sharp smack on the ass can help.

Some recent events have caught my eye lately. Not long ago a reader of my blog followed up on a post I wrote that pointed to an article I linked to about people who were born before 1980. The article was a bit of a sarcastic congratulations. "How could people who were born before 1980 possibly have survived?" Rinsem followed up with a post that suggested we take a very serious look at how we raise our kids to produce children that will take risks and explore the world without fear. I wholeheartedly agree with Rinsem. I try to give my kids the freedom they need to try things and experience life. I may ask them to wear a helmet when they ride their bikes or come in from the rain, but I consider that common sense rather than fearful hovering.

In response to Rinsem's post, I commented to a specific point:

We are raising a generation who will not take a risk because they've been warned throughout their lives that the risks are dangerous. While this can be good, they simply don't understand the difference between a good risk and a bad risk because they don't have the life experience.

My comment on his post was:

The only thing I'd add here is that the price we paid for poor decisions or mistakes was much smaller when I grew up. At the very most, I might receive a generous spanking ( at least that's how my parents dealt with things ) or a very stern talking to. However, now our kids have to deal with "no tolerance" policies, litigious pricks who want compensation for everything little thing and little understanding that kids will make mistakes even when their parents teach them otherwise.

While I'm sure Rinsem understood what I meant, I want to use a couple examples that best represent what I mean. Recently a sixth-grade girl faced being sent to an alternative school for four months. Her crime? She wrote, "I love Alex" on a wall at school with a marker. The school has since changed their mind after the story got the attention of local media and citizens. She faced the same punishment that those who fight, make terroristic threats, and are caught with drugs. Granted, she shouldn't write on school walls. So give her a detention, some soap and water, and have her clean the mess. Thankfully the school eventually made the right decision. But what about the fate of these two 13 year-old kids?

Evidently childish behaviors, like slapping your peers on the ass, now warrant sex charges. It seems, based on the statements of several kids at the school, the norm is to slap your friends on the ass ( regardless of their gender ) as a form of greeting. Well, when I was younger we only did that on the football field or basketball court, but hey . . . to each their own.

So what should happen to these kids? Well, here's what could happen:

Police arrested Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison of McMinnville and if convicted could be permanently marked as sex offenders, The Portland Oregonian said Sunday. The teens also could spend as long as 10 years in juvenile detention if found guilty.

That's the way to do it. Brand them as sexual offenders and stick them in the system. Evidently the district attorney is ready to prosecute:

While the boys' parents have opposed such a harsh penalty, McMinnville District Aattorney Bradley Berry said such youthful acts could have longstanding consequences for the alleged victims. "These cases are devastating to children," he said. "They are life-altering cases."

Damn straight they are. Branding them "sexual offenders" and institutionalizing 13 year old kids for acting stupid does alter their lives. But hey, you gotta get tough with these kids these days don't you? You need to punish them so severely that they would never think of making that mistake again. Zero tolerance. That's the ticket. Brand them for life the first time they step out of line. Honestly, when do we make the distinction between what is criminal and what is a product of bad decision making when it comes to kids? Why should we always resort to ruining someone's life in order to discipline? Couldn't a simple suspension have sent the message that their behavior was inappropriate?

Evidently I'm not the only one that has noticed this story. If you visit that link you'll also find a more in-depth news article about the incident.

When I was growing up my family moved around a lot. My father was an accountant and he was constantly chasing a better paying job. Up until I was about thirteen it was pretty cool. Never living in the same place for more than a few years had its virtues. If ever you did anything that made you look like a complete and utter fool, it was ok. It wouldn't be long before you could have a fresh start in a new place with new people who knew absolutely nothing about you.

Incidentally, my father was often drawn to cities like Houston, Salt Lake City and Chicago, where it was not only a larger place but your anonymity was amplified by the sheer volume of people. Way back then the children-should-be-seen-not-heard doctrine pretty much ruled. In the event some kid forgot that, well . . . corporal punishment was employed as a reminder. Let it be said that I had a short memory and a sore ass to show for it. Times changed as I grew older and I think it's great that teachers aren't allowed to use corporal punishment anymore. And there's been a movement to foster kids' self esteem in the hopes that children will think better about themselves and what they can accomplish.

But, have these changes produced a generation that not only gives little thought to their own privacy but also gives little thought to anyone but themselves?

Today, twelve years ago, at 11:30 AM I was given a gift. A son. He is someone that has impacted my life in more ways than I would have ever guessed. I try to give him the benefit of the experiences that have shaped the person I have become - my successes, my failures, the lessons I inevitably learned by making mistakes.

Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't.

In the end it doesn't matter because he's my son. And just in case he decided to read my blog today . . . a few words from a guy back in 1999. I can't think of a better way to impart upon you some things that I wish someone would have shared with me when I was much younger. I hope you had a wonderful birthday, son.

Tomorrow is the kids' last day of school. Unfortunately my son has the virus that was kicking the crap out of me last week. We kept him home today and most likely he'll be home tomorrow. I feel really bad for him. As a kid I know that the last day of school is always one that is almost as highly anticipated day as Christmas day. The thought that you have the whole summer ahead of you with nothing more to worry about than what time after 9 or 10 you might just roll out of bed is pretty cool. The kids won't be doing that, however. We've signed them up for a summer-long sports camp. Yes, it's kind of a "day care" solution to the fact that my wife work during the day now. But it's better than what they did last summer.

Ultimately, unless their friends are around ( which isn't always the case ) they spend the day whining about how hot it is or how boring it is or . . . insert random complaint here. So they'll spend the summer with kids their age staying fit and busy.

But back to the title . . . I spent this evening getting things going on my son's new website because I have every confidence that he has met ( if not surpassed ) his promise to bring his reading grade up while maintaining his other awesome grades. His hosting package came with something called Community Server. It's a pretty nice ASP.Net application that allows you to create a thriving community complete with blogs, forums, file downloading and photo sharing. He wants to build a community around an online game he plays - Runescape. He envisions selling ads and making buckets of money. Never let it be said that I tried to stifle his entrepreneurial dreams. After all, he earned it. I made sure that it was set up so he could play around with it and mess with this and that tomorrow since he'll be missing his last day of school. Hopefully he'll feel up to it. If not, it'll be ready for him when he's feeling better.

This weekend is pretty busy. A beginner BMX clinic for my daughter and soccer games for both my kids Saturday and Sunday. Lots of running around to keep me busy.

So far my son's team won and my daughter's team experienced their first loss this season. I actually thought they would go undefeated, but things just weren't clicking for them today. It was a difficult game for the girls today. They played a team that is one of the better teams. They've beat them before, but today just wasn't their day. Whenever that team and my daughter's team gets on the field together things get a little rough. Both of the teams have some aggressive players. There's pushing and shoving, and the ref doesn't catch all of it. As you can probably guess, whatever the ref doesn't catch he's going to get a lot of grief over at the hands of angry soccer moms and dads.

For example, today one of the coaches/dads from the opposing team at my daughter's game became so perturbed that he began yelling, "Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ!" from across the field. I think what bothered him was that the ref didn't call a foul that the guy thought he should have called. This was followed by some confusion about who should be throwing in after the ball had gone out of bounds. Thank goodness he didn't decide to get all violent over it. At one point he did come onto the field and was trying to argue with the ref. It's real easy to sit back and classify that guy as a major prick who is trying to live his life vicariously through his kid and since he never accomplished much he's not going to let his little girl grow up to be like him. But that wouldn't really be very nice to think of someone like that. Would it? Perhaps he doesn't realize that by behaving the way he does he'll probably guarantee that she does grow up to be just like him because he's teaching her exactly how to do it.

My 11 year-old son is trying his hand at stop-motion animation.

I loaned him my camera and tripod and we created a short ( about 7 seconds or so ) little film with Windows Movie Maker. He did all the clay and animation stuff with a little help from his little sister. She manned the camera for a while. I helped out with uploading the pictures and figuring out the movie maker software.

For now, the windows movie file resides on the web host's server. But, I think we are going to look at uploading the video to You Tube and see if that works better for him. We're learning a few things by doing this and I think it would be kind of cool if he started sharing his experiences while doing this.

Ever find yourself thinking, remembering, reminiscing about growing up and the things you miss? Here are a few that I remember. Some of them are still around; others gone forever:

• GI Joe with the Kung-Fu Grip - No kid could resist one of these.
• Big Jim's Rescue Rig - My favorite. I had a few other Big Jim toys as a kid. They fueled many a Saturday morning adventure.
• The smell of fresh-baked rolls drifting through the school hallways just before lunch. Olfactory memories stick with us the longest. Even if you didn't like school lunches, I'm sure this smell would take you back.
• Fall Preview show of the Saturday Morning cartoon lineup. - Remember Hong Kong Phooey? How about Captain Caveman? Run Joe Run? Land of the Lost?
• Pick-up baseball in the street.
• Playing post-office. I played the first time with the girl across the street. I think her name was Kathy. We were both in the second or third grade. It's never been the same since.
• The first day of school. It was always filled with optimism. You got to wear your brand new "school clothes" that sat in the closet until the day you picked your favorite to wear on that very day.
• The last day of school. It was filled with absolutely nothing. Usually we had a field day and got to have recess the majority of the day. The excitement built over the entire day ultimately erupting into a rush for the doors at the final bell.
• Creature Feature. It was always on during the weekends starting around 8 pm. I would watch cheesy, old horror flicks into the night. My favorite host was the Son of Svengoolie.
• The Fonz - He was the definition of "cool" when I was a kid.

How about you? Anything you remember that really takes you back?

It's been a busy weekend of soccer games - three of them to be exact. My daughter's team won both of their games on Saturday and Sunday. My son's team lost, but they played incredibly against the top ranked team in their league.

Whoever may say that girl's soccer is boring or lacks intensity as compared to boy's soccer hasn't been to one of my daughter's games. My daughter isn't in the picture below, but it does demonstrate that they're not afraid to follow the ball into the goal regardless of the goalie being in the way or not.


So far my daughter's team is undefeated. They're really starting to show that they are beginning to understand the game. Hats off to their coach on the start of a great season.

Note - no little girls were harmed as a result of this play.

It's 8:27 in the morning and the sky outside is getting to be a dusky gray. In the Western half of the state ( as well as neighboring states ) last night they had some pretty rough weather. I guess we're going to get a bit of it today and into the night.

While I'm not particularly worried about it, my son is. Growing up I lived in several states that often carried the threat of tornadoes during the spring and early summer seasons. I don't remember ever being as afraid of them as my son. I do remember, when we moved to Utah from Nebraska, asking my teacher if they had tornadoes in Utah and she explained that they couldn't make it over the mountains around Salt Lake City.

I was pretty young so that made perfect sense.

I wish I could use that explanation for my son but he is way too smart to buy into that. Honestly, I think it is the fear of the unknown that drives his fear. He's seen the shows on the Discovery channel and the Weather Channel about how tornadoes form and the breathtaking footage of the massive destruction they can do. But he's really never seen one first hand. Last Spring, I thought it might help to take him to one of the Storm Spotter classes that are held by the National Meteorological Society and offered free of charge to the public. It was pretty informative. Even I learned a few things I did not know. However, I can't say that it helped his fears that much.

The one thing that does make them scary is the fact that they are so random. You never really know when and where they will happen. Although all kinds of radar and other scientific instruments are developed to better forecast and track the weather, there's no single way to really predict and identify them better than human eyes. Which, as anyone can figure, works best when the sun is up. So, going to bed at night during a severe thunderstorm can be pretty scary for a kid. All those blinding surges of electrical light followed by booming thunderclaps powerful enough to shake the windows and the fierce, howling winds that seemingly threaten to rip the roof off of the house even cause me to sometimes get out of bed and turn the local news station on.

Another installment in the random photo series.

Another Friday is upon us.

Most people would agree that Fridays are something to look forward to. For me, it usually is the beginning of a hectic weekend of chauffeur responsibilities. Somewhere, I hear someone saying, "James, bring 'round the limo . . .."

This weekend it'll start at 5:30 am Saturday morning. I'll take my wife to work and then come home. My son's soccer game isn't until 11:30 am, so I get to take a little nap. The rest of the day is wide open, but I imagine the remaining agenda may be subject to the kids' whim. Then, around 10:30 pm or so, we'll all go pick up Mommy from work. Sunday, it'll start out just the same - take Mommy to work. My daughter's soccer game got canceled, but how fortunate to be able to fill that slot with volunteer work at my son's BMX track from 1 until 4 pm.

We'll finish with an hour to spare until my daughter's soccer practice at 5:30 pm ( and a 20 minute drive away ) before heading back home, getting ready for the next week, and then going to pick up Mommy again around 10 pm.

And the season of outdoor activities is just getting started. I can hardly wait until soccer practices start overlapping, the kids have soccer games at the same times on different fields, or we have to make a choice between a soccer game or a BMX race.

And CEOs think they have to make tough decisions.

So far I know that my daughter's soccer practices are Sundays and Tuesdays at 5:30 - 6:30. My son's soccer practices are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:30 - 5:30. My daughter's flute lessons are Thursdays at 7:30. Pretty soon, my son will want to go to open BMX practice at the track on Wednesdays around 7:00 ( or so ) until 9:00.

A daddy's work is never done. The upside to all of this. Man I'm glad that I can provide for them to have a life beyond home, school, and television. They both give 110 percent at everything they do. At the end of an exhausting, hectic, logistical nightmare of a weekend I can say:

I'm so damn proud of my kids.

I couldn't help but share this picture ( obviously doctored a bit ) of the latest innovations in playground equipment. ( Note . . . unfortunately I can't take credit for this one )

It's no wonder the kids came home smelling funny.

I got a new toy today.

I love it, too! I used it tonight (Friday) to take some pictures of my daughter's soccer game. I took roughly 43 pictures of which only 32 turned out good enough to use. That wasn't because of the camera - that was me. Photographing sports events isn't as easy as I had hoped.

I still think I got some decent photos. The good news is that I only used 1/3 of the battery ( if that ) in pretty close to one hour. I was also smart enough to get an additional 128 mb of memory - so I can take pictures to my heart's delight.

Today I will try to get pictures of my son's game and post those too. I also started an account at Flickr. I only uploaded 3 pictures there. Feel free to browse through. Needless to say, I will probably be taking as many senseless, self-indulgent photos as humanly possible in the very near future. I'm already planning my next photo escapade.