Wow, lots of entertainment and celebrity news today.  Ellen is the new American Idol judge to replace Paula Abdul.

Woah, I just saw Patrick Swayze died.

Hi everyone, it looks like this post is getting a ton of interest which is great.  I’m getting some good comments on the post and don’t forget to check out the rest of my posts while visiting (come back and visit me at jeremyperson.com).  I was looking at all of my snake postings and found I have quite a few so if you enjoy this one check these out.  @WilliamsJoseph tweeted this out and I thought it was pretty awesome.  Can you imagine running into this thing?

“A massive python named Deliah was moved by Florida wildlife officials to a temporary home after her chain-link cage near Apopka, Fla., was deemed unsuitable on Friday. The 16-year-old python measures 18 feet long and weighs 400 pounds.”  Source: http://news.aol.com/article/400-pound-python-delilah-seized-from

download .mp4 (203 MB) | read the transcript

I just finished watching the President’s speech tonight and I liked it.  I think the first part was a little weak but toward the end it had some real substance.  I don’t know if it had much impact in student’s lives overall but I also don’t think it hurt anything either.  I loved the examples at the end regarding failure.  Everyone is going to stumble at one point in their life and you aren’t always going to be good at everything you try.  I think people give up on things too easily.  I had a preacher in Oregon who didn’t teach me much (sorry but you didn’t) but the one thing that did stick is every Sunday he would tell his congregation to “stick and stay and make it pay”.  What he meant by that is you are going to get your feelings hurt at one point or another but if you let others take you away from your true purpose you will lose out on learning and fellowship.

Let’s take a look at America’s education system:

• American 12th graders rank 19th out of 21 industrialized countries in mathematics achievement and 16th out of 21 nations in science. Our advanced physics students rank dead last.
• Since 1983, over 10 million Americans have reached the 12th grade without having learned to read at a basic level. Over 20 million have reached their senior year unable to do basic math. Almost 25 million have reached 12th grade not knowing the essentials of U.S. history.
• In the same period, over six million Americans dropped out of high school altogether. In 1996, 44% of Hispanic immigrants aged 16-24 were not in school and did not hold a diploma.
• In the fourth grade, 77% of children in urban high-poverty schools are reading “below basic” on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
• Average per-pupil spending in U.S. public schools rose 212% from 1960 to 1995 in real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) dollars.
• In 1960, for every U.S. public school teacher there were approximately 26 students enrolled in the schools. In 1995, there were 17.
• The average salary of U.S. public school teachers rose 45% in real dollars from 1960 to 1995.
• In 1996, 64% of high school seniors reported doing less than one hour of homework per night.

My article with sources at the bottom of the page: http://www.freedomworks.org/

My Notes from President Obama’s Speech:

• Unless you show up, education doesn’t mean anything
• Put in the hard work it takes to succeed
• Education is the responsibility they each have
• Everyone has something they are good at and you have responsibility to yourself to find what that is
• You can’t drop out of school and drop into a good job
• Nobody has written your destiny, in America you make your own future
• You won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try
• Some of the most successful people in the world are those who had the most failures
• You can’t let your failures define you, you have to let your failures teach you
• Asking for help isn’t the sign of weakness isn’t a weakness, it is a strength
• Even if people give up on you, don’t ever give up on yourself

Everyone has been super quiet in “commentland” these days, what did you think of the speech?

I had to have some blood work done about a month and a half ago.  I’m not big on needles and I’m certainly not big on blood so when you combine those two things together I am a complete wreck.  I somehow managed to gather enough courage to get my blood drawn and let me tell you the guy who took it was super nice about the whole thing.  I was a big baby and made sure to communicate that I am squeamish around needles and blood and was really hesitant to give him my arm.  I felt super light headed but miraculously somehow survived.  I even got a nice cold Gatorade in the process.  Some poor lady who came in with crutches beside me must have laughed seeing a 31 year old guy in a shirt and tie moaning and groaning like a big baby.  Seriously I thought I was going to pass out there for a while.  Why am I talking about all of this?  Oh yeah…healthcare…yeah don’t really like it sometimes.  I ended up paying $194 for one of the tests which evidently wasn’t covered by my insurance unbeknownst to me. If you ever followed the Show 30 Day from Morgan Spurlock (the man who produced SuperSize Me), he did a show on minimum wage.  It basically showed if you are poor in this country and can’t afford insurance you are pretty much forgotten about which is sad and we need to take care of the people of this world not forget about them.  I’m not saying what I embedded above is perfect, I’m not saying Obama’s plan is perfect, but what I am saying is we need to at least do something because what we are doing isn’t working.

Portuguese shepherd was jailed following deadly argument over goats.  >> read the full article