Florida’s 2008 Teacher of the year?

By now I’m sure you’ve heard of Wendy Portillo; a kindergarten teacher at Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

If not….

She’s made international headlines lately because she chose to humiliate one of her students. Being that this is kindergarten, we’re talking 5-year olds. That makes it pretty bad wouldn’t you say?

The student had been sent to the principal’s office for bad behavior. Upon his return, Ms. Portillo (a fan of Survivor, no doubt) asked the boy to stand before the class. Then she asked each of her students to say what they didn’t like about the child. After that, she had them vote on if he should be allowed to remain in class (perhaps this was a lesson in mob rule?).

He was voted out.  14-2.

And here’s the icing on the cake.:  The boy has Aspberger’s Syndrome (a type of high-functioning Autism).

It’s awful enough that she did this to a 5-year-old, but this one is developmentally disabled.

The story has been all over teh Internets for the past several days. As well as in the news media.

And just like with the infamous Lori Drew case, this one has brought out the Internet Vigilantes in droves.  They’ve posted her home address,phone number and email address all over hell and gone.

Now granted, this is information that is freely available to the public and was on teh Internets in the first place.  But that doesn’t mean we have to lower ourselves to her level…..

With that said….

I’m sure karma will bite this bitch cunt woman in the ass someday.

This is just insane.

I almost never watch TV so I’ve not seen any TV coverage of this yet, but I did find this interview (video) by Harry Smith of CBSNews with the child’s mother.

The 2 Girls, 1 Cup Song (Vocal NSFW)

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One Love, One Unix

I was just reading a blog post on this very topic on ZDNet and it reminded me that I’ve felt this way for a long time.

UnixUnity™ is needed if a Unix-like Open Source OS is ever going to really catch on with the masses.

What Linux (er “GNU/Linux”) has going for it is that when it comes to Desktop users, no other Unix-like OS can compete. But there are too damn many flavors of it (distributions). But Linux has the most apps, period. It also has the most users and therefore the most resources available to it’s users.

After all, the FreeBSD “ports” are named so because most of them really are ports – of Linux apps.

And OpenSolaris has a long way to go to catch up with FreeBSD in terms of the number of available applications.

And maybe just maybe, if we narrowed it down to a handful of Unix-like operating systems (instead of dozens), and got focused on really being the best, we (notably the Linux community) could stop wasting time bashing other Operating Systems.

Regardless of the outcome, I’ll use any OS. I never used one that I didn’t (dis)like. But for the time being,  most of my time will be spent in (Ubuntu) Linux.

In the meantime, I just learned of the release of OpenSolaris 2008.5. It’s the first official release of the new and improved “Ubuntu-like” version of OpenSolaris. And compared to previous incarnations of Solaris, it rocks. The difference is like night and day.  We can thank Ian Murdock (and many others) for this. It’s long overdue.

Anyway, I gave it a shot and I was very impressed. Unfortunately the availability of software is very limited, but at least this is a start.  In addition, it won’t run on my computer. Apparently my hardware is too strange/old for that.  I’ve got it running in VirtualBox (for the most part).  It’s a great start, I look forward to it getting even better.

Anyway, if you’re a Linux user (or even if you’re not) with an open mind, I’d recommend checking out OpenSolaris, DesktopBSD and/or PCBSD. They are all Linux alternatives focused on ease of use and are (generally) as easy to set up as the the most user-friendly Linux distros are now.

Me of course, I’ve got 3 Linux distros and Windows Vista (!) installed on my hard drives and 3 more Linux distros, OpenSolaris & FreeBSD running in virtual machines.

Why? Because I can. :)

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Hi, I’m Scott and I’m a Madonnaholic

Pardon me whilst I bore you with this very very very long post. :)

Madonna Maniac that I am, I pre-ordered her new CD, Hard Candy from Amazon.com.  And naturally I went for the “Candy Box Special Edition“. Unfortunately it’s not yet arrived (I’m hoping for today).

I own all of her CDs save for the collections/compilations From those I just have the singles for each of the previously unreleased tracks (no need to pay for something I otherwise already  owned).

Oh wait.. I do have You Can Dance (and come to think of it, it was the first CD I ever bought. I bought it the same day I got my first CD player back in 1987).

Anywho, I remember back in the day, before most people (save for those who went clubbing regularly or listened to “Urban Contemporary” radio) ever heard of her, I had her first LP (this was a few years before CDs mind you). Holiday still remains my fave track from it. It’s a classic.

And amazingly she turns 50(!) this August. And she’s till got it (imnsho).

So in her honor, I present my MP3 playlist from yesterday. :D

The Madonna 50
(Brought to you by angrykeyboarder™& Amarok)
Title Album
Sorry Confessions On A Dance Floor
Sorry (Man With Guitar Mix) Sorry [DJ Version] EP/Single
Jump [Extended Album Version] Jump  EP/Single
Jump [Axwell Remix Edit] Jump  EP/Single
Hung Up (SDP Extended Vocal) Hung Up [DJ Version] EP/Single
Hung Up (Tracy Young’s Get Up And Dance Groove) Hung Up [DJ Version] EP/Single
Ray of Light Ray of Light
Frozen Ray of Light
Music Music
Express Yourself Like A Prayer
Like a Virgin (extended dance remix) Like a Virgin
True Blue (The Color Mix) True Blue
Cherish Like A Prayer
Papa Don’t Preach [Extended Remix] Super Club Mix EP/Single [Australia]
Everybody (Extended Version) Super Club Mix EP/Single [Australia]
Lucky Star (New Mix) Madonna
Borderline Madonna
This Used To Be My Playground Something To Remember
Something To Remember I’m Breathless
4 Minutes Hard Candy
Dress You Up Like a Virgin
Hollywood American Life
I Love New York (Thin White Duke Remix) Get Together (Remixes)  EP/Single
The Power of Goodbye Ray of Light
Don’t Tell Me Music
Live to Tell True Blue
Crazy For You Something To Remember
I’ll Remember (Theme From The Motion Picture “With Honors”) Something To Remember
Get Together Confessions On A Dance Floor
Rescue Me The Immaculate Collection
Fever Erotica
Bedtime Story Bedtime Stories
Take a Bow Bedtime Stories
Rain Erotica
What It Feels Like for a Girl Music
Justify My Love The Immaculate Collection
Erotica Erotica
Secret Bedtime Stories
Deeper And Deeper Erotica
History Jump
One More Chance Something To Remember
You’ll See Something To Remember
Survival Bedtime Stories
Human Nature Bedtime Stories
Give It 2 Me Hard Candy
Ring My Bell Hard Candy
Like A Prayer (12″ Club Version) Remixed Prayers
Holiday Madonna
Candy Shop Hard Candy
Vogue (12” version) Vogue EP/Single
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