Frenzied Daddy

A ninth grader in Tennessee has been charged with theft and sent to court for stealing … a forty cent lunch. Fifteen year old Jon Riker receives a reduced lunch at Gallatin’s Station Camp High School. One day last semester, his mother forgot to give him the forty cents for lunch. He was hungry at lunch and he went through the line and didn’t pay. He received a three day suspension and a court date.

Ok, so the kid did take lunch without paying for it. But forty cents is a little silly. The problem is the school’s no tolerance stance on lunch thefts. I think a more appropriate solution could have been found, perhaps involving dish washing, or detention, or something.

In the mother’s defense, she’s been a little frenzied herself. They have a family of six, and tje youngest had brain surgery recently. I have lunch money slip my mind too, but I just get an annoyed phone call from the cafeteria lady who reminds me to send in some lunch money.

In the spirit of “sending in lunch money,” some people are banding together to send lunch to kids at the school; sending forty cents to

Station Camp High School
600 Lower Station Camp Creek Road (1040 Bison Trail)
Gallatin, TN 37066
Attn: Principal Art Crook

With a kind note suggesting he use the forty cents to buy lunch for other kids who don’t have the money, and following that up with a suggestion to find creative, appropriate punishments for kids who steal lunch.

source

Heh. Yeah, stole this title and these list entries from here, however, I think these 5 attributes are generally applicable rather than just programmers.

1. Humility. You need to understand that being a father isn’t about you.
2. Love Of Learning. New father? You’ll be learning a lot. Second kid? You’ll be learning a lot. Third kid? You’ll be learning a lot. Get with the program.
3. Detail Orientedness. It’s not enough to throw your kid into a room and say “clean this.” It’s not enough to hand them their homework and say “do this.” You need to pay attention to the details and demonstrate how to finish the job.
4. Adaptability. You think being frenzied is fun? Trade ya. Become unfrenzied; adapt to the situation. Don’t shout at the three year old because she changed her mind about the kind of sandwich she wants.
5. Passion. You can’t just “phone it in” when you’re an effective father. You’ve got to have heart. Got to have passion. Got learn from Mr. Miyagi and beat up the bullies…. sorry, got carried away.

I didn’t go into as much detail as the Philosophical Geek did in the link above, however, these are crucial traits for fatherhood as well as programmers. Heck, I bet even chefs need these traits!

The world is abuzz with the news that Microsoft is making another play for Yahoo. I’m not sure what this means, overall, but the technological folks in my life won’t stop talking about it.

However, I found news of another cable cut in the Middle East positively alarming. Ok, one break in an underwater cable, sure, could be an accident. Two cuts? kind of weird. But three?!!

What happened at the beginning of the mess in Iraq? Do you remember the bloggers, the news, the live video feeds? I do. I remember the blog of the Iranian, recording everything that happened in his town. ( This chart taken from The Internet Traffic Report. )

Yeah, sure, I’m willing to admit that I’m susceptible to conspiracy theories, especially against the “current political regime.” But now, Iran’s network is cut off from the Internet. Major lines of communication are out of commission for at least two days, possibly as many as ten.

Doesn’t that strike you as scary? Or am I off my rocker? Again.