On topic: Teaching kids engineering
in [Design]
|
From: krw on 15 Jun 2010 23:33 On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:58:16 -0700, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgroups(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >Hi Keith, > ><krw(a)att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz> wrote in message >news:l0ag16tpbadu36jbogodkrse0uedute0f2(a)4ax.com... >> I was paying $35 a week in VT. I bought a decent mower when we moved here, >> so >> I'm back to doing it myself. > >Riding lawnmower? Those are really kinda fun -- not really work at all >anymore. (Even self-propelled mowers come close...) Honda walk behind. I only have .4 acres; too small for a rider. >> The professionals do a far better job than the >> neighbor kid, and they trim and clean up too. > >In general I agree... although I bet you can cajole most kids into doing as >good of a job if you pay them a bit more provided they have access to the >tools to do it with (e.g., a string trimmer). ....and pay as much as a pro. They know how to hustle and have their own equipment. >> I used to pay $.50/hr. Minimum wage was $3something. At $10/hr we would >> never have gone out. > >Yeah, but at the time would you have paid $3? :-) Probably not. Certainly not as often, which wasn't all that often. >Do you have pets? Locally dog sitters get ~$30 per day for two visits >(probably ~15 minutes each, although there is certainly some drive time to get >out to the house as well). I was surprised when I first learned this... (I >only brought a cat to the marriage, my wife brought two dogs... :-) ) Two cats. They pretty much take care of themselves, at least for a few days. We generally get a neighbor to look after them if we're gone more then three of four days. >I was amused at an advertisement for a live-in house/petsitter where you were >still paying them to stay at your house -- but while dogs and cats were great, >they specifically refused to housesit if there were going to be any humans >around. :-) ;-) >I suppose all of this seems cheap compared to the ~$3,000/month it costs to >have someone in assisted living these days. Both my stepfather and my >grandmother-in-law are in that situation now -- my stepfather's own estate >being slowly eaten away, whereas my GIL's bills are paid for by medicare. That's tough on everyone, but it's better than me paying for it. My mother's estate was pretty flat when she died (at 95) too. I told her decades ago, when she was complaining about not leaving us much, that I wasn't owed anything more than I'd already received. Sure, I'll take what's left over if the other choice is the state, but other than that it's hers to do with what she wanted. ...make sure that her wishes were known. She did.
From: Michael A. Terrell on 16 Jun 2010 01:42 "krw(a)att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote: > > On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:47:46 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" > <mike.terrell(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > > > > >"keithw86(a)gmail.com" wrote: > >> > >> On Jun 14, 6:19 pm, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgro...(a)yahoo.com> > >> wrote: > >> > "Joerg" <inva...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in message > >> > > >> > news:87nqbmF480U1(a)mid.individual.net... > >> > > >> > > Sure, but back in my days spending a few Deutschmarks or later Guilders > >> > > was not so easy. Because they simply weren't there most of the time. > >> > > >> > I'm OK with giving kids some allowance for doing chores or whatever given that > >> > these days it's pretty much impossible for a kid to find a regular paying job > >> > until they're 16 or older. > >> > >> The neighbor kid want's $25 to mow the lawn; not a bad hourly wage. > >> I'd even do it for that. ;-) > > > > > > I let my yard go to seed this spring. I'll start mowing parts of it > >at daybreak each day, to annoy some bad neighbors who play their stereo > >too loud. :) > > I should do that to annoy the owners of the incessantly barking dogs, next > door. I found a NOS Radio Shack 25 W power tweeter that's supposed to have full output at 40 KHz. Now I need to build a sweep generator that runs between 20 KHz and 30 KHz, and a good amplifier. -- Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
From: Joerg on 16 Jun 2010 09:48 krw(a)att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz wrote: [...] > I'm sure there was some of that, but mostly boring medical stuff. Some novels > were considered racy, but mostly they just wanted to keep the damage > contained. ;-) It was pretty easy to get permission to go into the stacks. > College was a different matter. Kiddies (undergrads) weren't allowed in the > stacks under any circumstances. Apparently they were afraid of getting a book > (out of 6M) out of place. ;-) Or the kids could, like we did back then, find a chemistry book and try some of the recipes in there ... -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
From: krw on 16 Jun 2010 19:45 On Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:42:22 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > >"krw(a)att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote: >> >> On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:47:46 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell" >> <mike.terrell(a)earthlink.net> wrote: >> >> > >> >"keithw86(a)gmail.com" wrote: >> >> >> >> On Jun 14, 6:19 pm, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgro...(a)yahoo.com> >> >> wrote: >> >> > "Joerg" <inva...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in message >> >> > >> >> > news:87nqbmF480U1(a)mid.individual.net... >> >> > >> >> > > Sure, but back in my days spending a few Deutschmarks or later Guilders >> >> > > was not so easy. Because they simply weren't there most of the time. >> >> > >> >> > I'm OK with giving kids some allowance for doing chores or whatever given that >> >> > these days it's pretty much impossible for a kid to find a regular paying job >> >> > until they're 16 or older. >> >> >> >> The neighbor kid want's $25 to mow the lawn; not a bad hourly wage. >> >> I'd even do it for that. ;-) >> > >> > >> > I let my yard go to seed this spring. I'll start mowing parts of it >> >at daybreak each day, to annoy some bad neighbors who play their stereo >> >too loud. :) >> >> I should do that to annoy the owners of the incessantly barking dogs, next >> door. > > > I found a NOS Radio Shack 25 W power tweeter that's supposed to have >full output at 40 KHz. Now I need to build a sweep generator that runs >between 20 KHz and 30 KHz, and a good amplifier. That would just hurt the dogs. ...and make them bark even more.
From: krw on 16 Jun 2010 19:48
On Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:48:02 -0700, Joerg <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: >krw(a)att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz wrote: > >[...] > >> I'm sure there was some of that, but mostly boring medical stuff. Some novels >> were considered racy, but mostly they just wanted to keep the damage >> contained. ;-) It was pretty easy to get permission to go into the stacks. >> College was a different matter. Kiddies (undergrads) weren't allowed in the >> stacks under any circumstances. Apparently they were afraid of getting a book >> (out of 6M) out of place. ;-) > > >Or the kids could, like we did back then, find a chemistry book and try >some of the recipes in there ... I never found any "interesting" recipes in chemistry books back then. They weren't hard to find elsewhere, though. The best "recipe" I had came pre-made and we had it regularly shipped in from Colorado. Now with the Internet, this stuff isn't even a challenge, though DHS would certainly have our home phone on speed dial if I were a kid these days. |