Posts Tagged ‘pain’

The Preschool Screening

Monday, November 10th, 2008

My public school drives my absolutely bananas.  I wanted to get Madison’s hearing screened just to make sure that there were no problems.  We thought maybe some of Madison’s attention issues were due to her not hearing.  However, my school being the pain in butt that they are wouldn’t do it unless we scheduled her to be prescreened for preschool through the school (which is a joke but I’ll tell you about that later).  Obviously, there is some sort of federal funding they get for this, because I wanted a five minute screening and got stuck with an hour long screening.  I sucked it up and took her.

I swear that they expect these kids to have a flash memory drive in their heads. I could hear some of the things they were testing her on, and from what I could tell, she was doing well.  When they called me up after the testing was over, I was right.  Except for cutting and catching, she scored everything else in the 6 year old range.  Madison is only 4.  I am seriously wondering if some of the attention issues we are having with her at preschool are due to her being bored. That was the good news.

The bad new was that we failed her hearing screening.  I asked what the school would do for that.  The answer:  nothing.  We would have to pay for additional testing elsewhere.  The other thing that ticked me off to no end was that she couldn’t even get into the school preschool if I wanted to send her.  The only kids who get in are those who are considered “at risk” (which Madison is obviously not) and if we made less than $80,000 a year.  Umm, yeah.  We make more than that.  In Chicago, I am not sure if you can even own a decent house making less than $80,000 a year.  Basically, the only kids who get in are those who don’t speak English (because there were several kids like that there) and low income people.  I guess my question is what about the middle class?  Why do we always get screwed?

Entrecard Forums Censoring Again

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

I really do like Entrecard.  I really do.  However, some of the missteps that have occurred over are just crazy.  One of the ongoing missteps is their moderators on their forums.  This was an issue a while back before.  New forums popped up due to the censorship that a lot of the members were feeling on the Entrecard forums.  Seriously, that was how bad it got.

Now, I thought that was over and done with.  We were told that wouldn’t happen anymore and blah blah blah.  Well, I learned firsthand myself how much crap that was (I’m a little irritated . . . can you tell?)  Now, I have moderated before (I was moderator at the Izea forums over a year, so I know what a pain it can be.  However, we were never ever ever allowed to delete anything unless it was spam.)  Now, the thread in question is this one: http://entrecard.com/forums/7/15804/#p=21.  Now, they posted a question and people started responding. I happened to be one of them. And my response got deleted since he (the moderator who started the question) didn’t like the answer. He also removed the reference to another forum called Firestorm.   I’m sorry, you can’t ask a question on a public forum and then start deleting the answers you don’t like. Sorry, that is crap. The part that I especially love is that other forums are listed there. His reasoning? Firestorm and Forum Finder (which is the one I listed) are too close to what Entrecard’s forum does (huh?).  I wouldn’t be half as ticked if he didn’t leave other forums up there that do the same darn thing.  I don’t understand the double standard.  I am not one to kiss ass which is probably why my comment is gone (I’ve left two more comments questioning why — we’ll see how long those last).

Now, I don’t own either forum that got taken off the list.  I get no benefit for writing this post, besides releasing some of my anger.  I just am sick and tired of Entrecard’s double standard when it comes to their forums.  Obviously, the only way to get your posts to say is to kiss up or keep your opinions to yourself (which I would think is counterproductive on a forum).

Let me know your thoughts.

Izeafest: Night 2

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

See this picture? A lot of the time, it looked like this. I didn’t know that we needed to get auto insurance quotes before we left, but I won’t tell you how many times we got lost downtown, because everything was one way!  I also won’t  mention how many times we almost turned the wrong way on a one way street!  What a pain!  Next time, Ted, please give us directions to these places!!! There and back!

The theme for the evening was funny hats if you can’t tell from this picture of Heather and Ted. I don’t remember the name of the bar we were at, but the food was excellent, and I got to talk to many bloggers and Izea team members that evening.

We also got a bit silly afterwards:

If you can’t tell, it was a fun evening.

What can’t you live without?

Friday, September 19th, 2008

Of all our modern conveniences that we have, what can’t you live without?  In my house, it would have to be disposable diapers and cell phones.  My son, aka the pooping machine, has so many dirty diapers a day that I would seriously go insane if I had to wash all those.  Seriously, the kid poops a minimum of four times daily.  My other convenience has to be cell phones.  I remember a time when you only used your cell phone for an emergency because otherwise, it was sooooo expensive.  However, in time, prices have come down, and people actually get rid of their landlines for these.  I can’t imagine not being able to get ahold of my husband at the drop of hat like I can now.  He is often driving from job site to job site, so without this convenience, I wouldn’t know where he was or if he got stuck in traffic on the way home.  I couldn’t call him to pick up a gallon of needed milk either.

When Madison had to get stitches (this is when she was 2), it was a day that Bill forgot his cell phone at home.  I can’t tell you what a pain it was to try and get ahold of him.  I had her at an Urgent Care, and my mother in law called my father in law who called the office that Bill was at to let him know to come home.  It is almost scary how much we rely on cell phones.

Speaking of convenience, you should check out the coupons here to get yourself some Yoplait yogurt.  Can you imagine life without the convenience of plastic?  I know, me neither!  Thank you PBN for this great coupon!