Franklin Township Schools

I had a conversation with a co-worker yesterday that has been gnawing at me. We both live in Franklin Township. He and his family have lived there all their lives. We moved in to the township five years ago because of the schools even though the taxes were high. A shock to those Republicans out there, we chose to pay higher taxes so our boys would be in better schools. One or two years ago they capped the property taxes at 1% which is all well and good for our wallets, but it means the schools have less money, which means cuts, which means referendums to try and raise more funds, which means votes, which means people voting down said referendums to hold onto an extra $200 a year, which means teachers losing their jobs, bigger class sizes, cuts in the arts, cuts in busing, extra fees for activities which were previously free, which means more referendums and more voting.

So let's review, taxes were slashed and while people lived in the township for years and years paying thousands more than others in taxes for the benefits of great schools, when they get a tax break they can't give back a fraction for education.

Now, back to the aforementioned conversation at work. The reason he voted against the referendum is because he was sending a message to the school corporation about how he felt about the football stadium they built. When asked how long ago the stadium was built, he said 11 to 13 years ago. Now I'm all for holding grudges, but the people responsible are no longer on the board. He has five kids in the school system and because he's still mad about a football stadium, he's going to vote against a slight increase in taxes which is still much less than we were previously paying.

Update:

After further conversation today, there is more to his argument. I still don't agree with him overall, but he and others want more transparency with how the funds will be spent, which is reasonable. Apparently there has been some wasteful spending, but again, you can't punish everyone for a few poor decisions. Rectify the issues and move forward.

This argument is at least better than my neighbor's who said, "I'd rather have the $200 in my pocket." Fool.

Sunday

Four days at home with the kids. Ready to go back to work. What will happen come December when it's 14 days?

What did I do on my 5 day holiday? Here's a list:

Went to mom and dad's for a lovely dinner.

Watched the end of the first season of True Blood.

Watched Dirty Harry for the first time. TCM gave it four stars and it had some boobs, but it wasn't as good as I expected it to be.

Read about 250pgs of House of Leaves, which is one of the strangest books I've ever read. Some passages are written backwards, upside-down, or in code. It's also a story within a story told through footnotes. It's good, but can be difficult.

Started Bioshock 2 finally.

Did laundry.

Built a fort for the boys.

Went for ice cream.

That's about it.

No moles

I have had two moles cut from my body now and while I likely won't catch up with Lindy on this, I must say that it's not that fun. The first was from my leg and wasn't so bad. Today's was from my back. It didn't hurt, but for some reason I couldn't get the picture of what was happening out of my head. I kept picturing the scalpel cutting into me and the hole it must be leaving behind. I'd feel pressure and know they were trying control the bleeding. I hadn't had much to eat either so I got a little light headed and woozy. Luckily they were almost done, so I got a few crackers and a drink and they finished up. The problem is is that I have two more that they want to take off my back. They're just a little dark, but I guess I'll just eat a ton of food beforehand and maybe see if they won't let me listen to my iPod to take my mind off it. But for now, I have six or seven stitches in my lower back that itch and tug when I move around. They don't hurt, but it makes me paranoid to feel the tug and wonder if they're going to split open and bleed and need to be sewn up again. Goddamn I'm a pussy.

Harry Potter

Today, Lindy, the Coopers, and I all took off work to go see the new Harry Potter movie. It was quite good. The kids have steadily gotten better as actors over the years and the story is of course much darker than at the beginning of the series. My favorite part was when the story of the Deathly Hallows was being told. It's animated and looks very cool. Anywho, if you've been following the movies and love the books, you'll probably enjoy this movie as well. Now we just have to wait until summer to see the conclusion. I don't think it will be nearly as sad as when the books were over, but we'll see.

As for previews, we saw the Green Hornet, the Green Lantern, TRON Legacy, and Kung Fu Panda 2. There was one about Romans too that looked ok (Eagle or something like that). TRON looks cool. The Green Hornet will probably be crap since it's coming out in January and The Green Lantern looks like it's going to try and be a bit too clever for it's own good.

Hard as stone

I got a junk email at work today that promised "a rock hard erection on your penis." Either this is broken English, or someone out in the interwebs is offering to rub their boner on my weiner.

According to my counter this is the blog of the beast

That's right, it's post number 666. Anywho, yesterday's derby between Manchester United and Manchester City was a pretty damn boring game. But you know what's not boring? Hanging out with Hippie John and Fronte. So thanks to them for coming out yesterday to watch the game and drink some beers.

White Stripes / Third Man

Is it sick that I want all of this?

http://modlife.com/thirdmanrecords/blog

Bounce Spot

Tonight Lindy and Candice went scrapbooking so it was just me and the boys. Coop texted me and asked if we wanted to meet at Bounce Spot (formerly BouncerTown) to let the boys go nuts. So we headed over and this is what I observed:


1) You cannot take hot beverages into a bounce house. Cheeseburgers, scissors, and cigarettes are also frowned upon.

2) People with neck tattoos like to play games for tickets. Note to any cops out there, if you want to catch some small time criminals, set up a game that gives a ton of tickets per token. A line of white thugs will line up around the block. I have seen these people with giant bags full of tickets. Maybe after buying cigarettes they need something else to blow money on. Maybe they just have their eyes on the 1200 ticket tiger pillow or the 2500 ticket inflatable Scooby-Doo.

3) Some people think naming a girl Tesla and a boy Justice is a good idea. Shockingly enough, the dad had neck and face tattoos.

4) One guy thought it was a good idea to read a Glenn Beck book amidst screaming children. Here's a note to said douche, it's never a good idea to read Glenn Beck.

The House

So the Republicans took back the House, but now what? If the economy gets better in two years, then Obama is looking good. If nothing changes, then they might lose the House again next time around because they couldn't get anything done either. Of course, if things don't get better, they'll just blame the black guy. Here's something to think about, what if the parties actually used common sense and worked together to get things done instead of putting up fronts for the benefits of re-election?

Big day

So I voted and counted at 6:15 this morning. I don't know how much I actually count but at least I cancelled out one Republican.

The Giants won the series. I watched maybe 2 outs. I just didn't care this year.

The new Matt and Kim is out today.

The Walking Dead started on Sunday and if you missed it, you missed something fantastic.

Logan lost his two front teeth yesterday. He sounds very cute. It's almost like he got younger with it. I can't explain it, but he just seems a bit sweeter without them.

Now go out and vote, unless you're voting for the Republicans, then you guys are going to win anyway so why not just skip it.