tales from the rock

for those of you who thought the whole “you don’t get to have priorities after you birth a child” rant was a little cliche - you’re right, it is. the amazing thing is that while I think we all understand that these cliches are rooted in truth, so many people choose to totally ignore it. that would be a mistake, so believe me when I tell you, this is some real shit.

attempting to balance your old life and new life will get you every time - especially when you are trying to claim your new life is so important to you, blah blah blah. context is important - if you used to have fun going out drinking with your friends as a single, childless person, you may have to find some new entertainment once you are married and have a kid. hopefully, that entertainment is found in diaper changing, bottle feeding, silly song singing, and Barney watching. Like Russell Simmons said in “The Show”; keeping it real is an excuse fools use to act like a fool. when you are an international rap superstar, keeping it real should be about living a nice life with all your money - not guns, drugs, and violence. that ain’t real anymore.

so you may ask, why such an early return to such a basic topic. well, let me tell you a story….

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listening to the radio this morning on the way to work (102.7 da bomb - music still sucks, but at least DJs are half decent), sam da man confesses that he fucked up at his son’s first birthday. basically he got really drunk, and then didn’t help anyone clean up. wife got pissed, so she left him at the venue, then let their kid open his presents at home without dad around. ouch.

as one side of the story is told, it’s clear that this dude messed up, but it’s also clear that he doesn’t really understand why he messed up. he was definitely sorry, but it’s the kind of sorry that comes with not wanting to be in the middle of this horrible mess, and not the kind of sorry that expresses any remorse, or understanding of what led to the disaster.

on top of all of this, he calls his wife on the air, meaning to apologize, but then ends up getting into another fight when he tries to point out what his wife did wrong! the lady starts crying on the air, they cut to an unplanned commercial, and I’m left thinking about marriages, fights, and parenthood.

so let me take this opportunity to school you soon to be parents on how this needs to work - this is my totally biased opinion of course.

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so the baby got into an exclusive pre-school here on the rock.  some would say it is elite, or prestigious, but I will avoid those adjectives for now since they imply a certain amount of achievement, which I’m not certain has been demonstrated yet.  I’m sure when it comes time to apply to kindergardens, I’ll have much grander ones to use anyway.

the school is exclusive in the sense that of the dozens of 2 yr olds that apply, only 8 are chosen each year.  it’s totally word of mouth also, and I think lots of people don’t bother under the assumption that you need an ‘in’ to be accepted.  last year, they didn’t accept any ‘outside’ kids - all younger siblings of current students or alumni.

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so much to write about, I don’t know where to start.  first of all, once again, I have fucked up my taxes.  for the past 5 years, I have been unable to successfully estimate my liability, and plan my deductions accordingly.  the pendulum is swinging like a bitch too - huge refunds one year, then thousands owed the next.  last year, I had to pay almost $10k, but I knew it was coming since in 2005, I was independantly employed, and wasn’t paying ANY taxes all year.  with things settling down last year, I thought I’d be close to normalcy.  I even hoped to shed the estimated tax payments I had been making.

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I’m not sure when exactly I took this exam, but I’m pretty sure it was the spring of 1991. the college board website says the test format was changed in September 1991, but based on the sample tests and transcriptions I found on the web, all they do now is choose better questions that test not only language and basic functional processing skills, but also put emphasis on the cross over with math, general science, business (supposedly), and engineering (not sure what this means). My test used Pascal as the programming language - it changed to C++ in 1999, and then to Java in 2004. I don’t think the language really makes any difference, and at worst, reinforces the idea that tests/interviews should focus on language minutiae, instead of analysis and problem solving skillzzzz.
here is the test, best I can transcribe as text (maybe I’ll scan some stuff later). for the record, I had a 5 on the A test, and 3 on the B test.

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