Bit of a rant.

I've seen a lot of people screeching incoherently about children being ripped from nursing at their mothers' breasts, and separated and put in *gasp* concentration camps!!!

What these fucktards are conveniently forgetting is one simple thing these parents could have done to prevent this from being done to their families:

Don't.  Come.  Here.  Illegally. 

Fucking duh. 

American parents who commit crimes are ripped away from their children and sent to prison.  If there are no family members available to take custody of the children, they're put into situations worse than most can comprehend: the children get stuck in limbo, in state custody and control.  They may be put into a good foster home, or they may be put with abusers who might rape them or murder them. 

And nobody screams about that. 

No, they're just screeching like fucking psychologically disturbed brain damaged monkeys about the people who shouldn't be fucking coming here in the first place, getting their children removed from them. 

Well, dumbasses, I can see another possible solution: start shooting the human smugglers on sight.  Shoot any male who crosses the border on sight.  Turn any female around, and make sure she knows there are guns aimed at her until she's well and truly back in the country she tried to cross from.  They'll stop, or they'll die out.  Either is fine by me.

No, I'm not saying I think the situation is right.  I'm saying the situation is wrong, starting with the actions of the so-called parents putting their children in the danger that the fucking window-lickers are screeching about.

I think that, along with shooting the smugglers and adult males crossing (especially those with specific tattoos), we need to publicly prosecute any hiring manager of any company that hires illegal aliens (not immigrants--immigrants are legal), and every employee of any temp agency that deals with them.  Every hiring manager needs to be sentenced to a mandatory ten years per illegal alien hired, no parole possible, consecutive sentencing only.  We need to sentence the construction companies picking up day laborers from the Home Depot/Lowes/whatever parking lots the same way. 

Hell, I'm in favor of sentencing those pushing the DACA act with the same guidelines.  

We need to make it hurt for those attracting the parasites. 

Adventures in parenting

I found out, this week, why my son hadn't been using his Kindle Fire, in spite of adoring the silly thing: it had somehow gotten de-registered to the account, and the WiFi was switched to airplane mode.  NO clue how. 

I also have no clue how I managed to figure out how to fix it.  I am a barely competent user of MS Word, and of some aspects of Firefox.  My personal Kindle is a Paperwhite (which I dearly love, and which is very much uncomplicated).

Also, this week, the kids had day camp at their school: a 2 hr/day, 4 day class on using iPads.  And playing coding games. 

Yep.  Coding games. 

I am inclined to get the kids a netbook and make the home page Khan Academy.  I want them to learn to take care of their tech better than I've learned, and earlier. 

(there are also a few touch-typing game sites I'd be setting them up with) 

Other than that?  They've been playing outside with water pistols, watching TV, and doing normal kid summer stuff this week. 

Including complaining of being bored and pushing boundaries. 

I need to find something else to have them do--swim lessons, VBS, something.  I got them sidewalk chalk and Popsicle molds today (which have been filled and stuck in the giant upright freezer in the garage).  But they need more, especially while we've got mid-90s (or more) highs, and no lower than 60% humidity daily, with not enough wind to offset that.

I've got two more months and they go back to school. 

Love it!

So, back in January, I got m'self a new pair of headphones.  Spent more than I usually do on headphones on them, too--around $50 for the one pair.  They're wireless-capable, but also have an audio cable jack. 

Which is why I bought them in the first place. 

Previously, my headphones had failed right where the wire goes into the jack on the end that plugs into the computer, somewhere between the three and six month mark.  The headphones themselves likely would have kept working, were it not for that one spot.  Every time. 

My headphones' audio cable broke day before yesterday.  So I unplugged the audio cable, set it up to listen to music wirelessly, and put in an order for new cables from Amazon--5' cables, rather than the dinky 3' one that came with the headphones. 

These headphones are very good in sound quality: balance of treble and bass is very good, and everything is just crystal clear.  They're incredibly comfortable, too--I have, in the past, worn them all day without winding up with my ears sore from pressure.  And, if the kids are watching something utterly obnoxious (a frequent occurance), I can unplug and just wander around doing housework with the headphones blocking out the crap they like watching. 

The replacements arrived today, and the 5' length means it's easier to work at my desk.  An extra two feet of audio cable means I don't have to sit hunched forward to listen to music.  I can lean back and stretch without either taking off the headphones voluntarily or getting them yanked off when I forget how short three feet is.  Best yet?  Four cables from Amazon (at about $8) was less than a decent set of cheap headphones (at least $15, going sharply up from there) that won't last but maybe six months. 

And then, when all four of the cables have broken, I can get another set.  Because I really doubt the headphones themselves will have worn out by then. 

And when you consider that the headphones themselves are vital writing equipment?  Massively good deal, here.