Let’s get rid of “Lady” moniker

Let’s get rid of “Lady” moniker

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Haven’t we moved beyond the use of “lady” in front of mascots? – Michael Adams, Lake Travis View

When I took over as sports editor for the Westlake Picayune and Lake Travis View, I decided that in our print and online editions, my policy would be to never refer to the girls teams as “Lady Chaps” or “Lady Cavs.”

‘Lady’ team nicknames can be harmful, experts say

“I think we have to get away from these labels that inadvertently marginalize different people who participate in sports because of their sexuality or gender,” Armstrong said. “I think it has created this binary: the norm and what’s out of the norm, the good and what’s not so good, this is the real sport and this is the other sport.”

MASCOTS ARE MASCOTS, NO ‘LADY’ ABOUT IT

“Lady” has always felt like an antiquated qualifier in sports. I see the argument that it differentiates the girls and boys side of a sport, but it gives the boys the rights to the actual school name and gives the girls’ teams a feeling of being somehow lesser. They are the “ladies.” But boys do not have to be “gentlemen.” Or any other type of descriptor, for that matter.

Schools Move To Drop ‘Lady’ From Women’s Team Names, Drawing Mixed Reactions

“The men’s teams are somehow solely entitled to the general term Hens, without a gender specific qualifier,”

“referring to our women’s sports teams as the Lady Hens while we refer to our men’s teams as the Hens suggests that men’s teams lay claim to true Henship and to the true embodiment of athleticism.”

 

Rest in Peace Martha Kleymeyer

Rest in Peace Martha Kleymeyer

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You broke the mold for Aunts.  Your family, especially all your nephews and nieces will remember you fondly and miss you tremendously!

MarthaKleymeyer
Martha Ruth Kleymeyer
Evansville, Indiana
Martha Ruth Kleymeyer, 92, passed away peacefully on November 21, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Her final days and months were spent surrounded by her sister, nieces, nephews and friends.Martha (Marty to friends) was born in Evansville, Ind. She earned a BA in Sociology from Mac Murray College, in Illinois, and did her graduate work at the University of Michigan.

After college, Martha’s love of travel and adventure lured her to Houston, Texas, where she lived for over 50 years. There, she applied her degrees and her love of helping those who find hardship in helping themselves while working with the Girl Scouts, YMCA, and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Family was always the most important part of Martha’s life. She was the first member of her immediate family to permanently move to Texas in the 1950s. Martha’s brothers and sister followed her to Texas in the 60s, where all four siblings and all eight of Martha’s nieces and nephews eventually resided in Austin together.

Martha is survived by her sister, Susan Kleymeyer Rutan; and her nieces and nephews, Marcia Rutan Bulsara, James William Rutan, Lilia Kleymeyer Johnstone, Richard Alan Kleymeyer Jr., Brent Matthew Rutan, Cynthia Kleymeyer Maxwell, Amy Kleymeyer Ramos and Kerry Kleymeyer Riedel; as well as many grand-nieces and nephews; and first cousins Cliff, Chuck and Bob Kleymeyer and Bob Burk.

She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Ralph T. Kleymeyer Sr. and Mildred Seitz Kleymeyer; and her brothers, Ralph T. Kleymeyer, Jr. (Ted) and Richard Alan Kleymeyer Sr.

Most of all, Martha will be remembered by her family as the quintessential aunt. There was rarely a significant event that she missed. Martha was always there to lend an ear and offered any support she was able to provide. She made it a point to spend one-on-one time with each young descendent as they grew, and made each one feel they were special and loved.

Martha will be interred in Evansville, Ind., at her family plot on a date to be determined. Her family would like to express their gratitude to Hospice and the many caregivers at Brookdale Westlake Hills. Any memorial gifts can be directed to Hospice at Brookdale or M.D. Anderson Hospital, of which Martha was a dedicated contributor.

 

 

 

Why Most Unit Testing is Waste

Why Most Unit Testing is Waste

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Brian reposts Why Most Unit Testing is Waste by James O Coplien

Note the word “Most” in the title.  The article does seem to argue against unit tests except in certain contexts but seems to mostly describe bad unit tests.

I think there is a place for unit tests but they should not be relied on as much as they are, and they shouldn’t be mandated in all circumstances.

I believe writing and maintaining unit tests can be a much bigger effort than the code they are written to test so the return on investment may make them prohibitive when other types of testing can be sufficient for the amount of effort required.

Excerpts:

Be humble about what tests can achieve. Tests don’t improve quality: developers do.

Software engineering research has shown that the most cost-effective places to remove bugs are during the transition from analysis to design, in design itself, and in the disciplines of coding. It’s much easier to avoid putting bugs in than to take them out.

Developers should be integrating continuously and doing system testing continuously rather than focusing on their unit tests and postponing integration, even by an hour. 

For the type of mobile apps I write, with background asynchronous data fetches and event driven flow, I’ve only experienced one solution that worked well and that was a QA team that was well versed with Appium and was able to get a high level of automated regression test coverage in our Android AND iOS application.  There was only a small amount of special coding I had to add to make their job easier such as setting the contentDescription value for a custom view so the value of the view could be determined.

Samsung 55″ TV

Samsung 55″ TV

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Staying with Samsung for our 4th Flat Screen TV.

This 55″ 8000 Series LED Curved Smart 4K TV is s beauty!

This will replace our Samsung 47″ downstairs, 47″ goes upstairs in our new renovated playroom.  XBOX One S on it’s way!

Bought it at Best Buy for $999 ($300 off). Hard to believe our first 32″ Samsung was $1299 !

Funny they showed they only had 1 in stock and they couldn’t find it!  Sales guy was looking everywhere following the paper trail.

I walked around a little and found it for them!

Nice to patronize a brick and mortar business with the majority of our home/electronic purchases being ordered online (Amazon)

 

 

XBOX One S Costco Bundle

XBOX One S Costco Bundle

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Time for a new XBOX.  Best deal I found that suited us was at Costco.

XBOX One S 500GB with 3-month Game Pass and Extra Controller $269.99

With order I got $8 off a 1-year XBOX Live 12-Month Gold Membership

With order got $51 off ANY game (got COD WWII)

Shipping was $1.99 !

 

Kids, Would You Please Start Fighting?

Kids, Would You Please Start Fighting?

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There is nothing wrong with arguing. It’s HOW you argue that matters.

THIS articles spells out why it’s important to teach your kids how to argue

The skill to get hot without getting mad — to have a good argument that doesn’t become personal — is critical in life. But it’s one that few parents teach to their children. We want to give kids a stable home, so we stop siblings from quarreling and we have our own arguments behind closed doors. Yet if kids never get exposed to disagreement, we’ll end up limiting their creativity.

If we rarely see a spat, we learn to shy away from the threat of conflict. Witnessing arguments — and participating in them — helps us grow a thicker skin. We develop the will to fight uphill battles and the skill to win those battles, and the resilience to lose a battle today without losing our resolve tomorrow.

It’s a sign of respect to care enough about someone’s opinion that you’re willing to challenge it.

We can also help by having disagreements openly in front of our kids. Most parents hide their conflicts: They want to present a united front, and they don’t want kids to worry. But when parents disagree with each other, kids learn to think for themselves. They discover that no authority has a monopoly on truth. They become more tolerant of ambiguity. Rather than conforming to others’ opinions, they come to rely on their own independent judgment.

…teaching kids how to have healthy disagreements. We can start with four rules:

• Frame it as a debate, rather than a conflict.

• Argue as if you’re right but listen as if you’re wrong.

• Make the most respectful interpretation of the other person’s perspective.

• Acknowledge where you agree with your critics and what you’ve learned from them.

How do we avert the apocalypse?

How do we avert the apocalypse?

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When we can’t even agree on the basic issues in society (Gun Control, Health Care), there is no way we will ever agree that we need to stop  GNP growth!  Bring on the Apocalypse!

Read how Costa Rica may have the solution

Our chances of keeping global warming below the 2C danger threshold are very, very small: only about 5%. The reason, according to the paper’s authors, is that the cuts we’re making to greenhouse gas emissions are being cancelled out by economic growth.

This is what ecologists call “de-growth”. This calls for redistributing existing resources and investing in social goods in order to render growth unnecessary.

After all, once we have excellent healthcare, education, and affordable housing, what will endlessly more income growth gain us? Maybe bigger TVs, flashier cars, and expensive holidays. But not more happiness, or stronger communities, or more time with our families and friends. Not more peace or more stability, fresher air or cleaner rivers. Past a certain point, GDP gains us nothing when it comes to what really matters. In an age of climate change, where the pursuit of ever more GDP is actively dangerous, we need a different approach.

The Lost Art of Shot-Making

The Lost Art of Shot-Making

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Love this volleyball article. 

Your team may not have the best hitters on the court but that doesn’t mean they can’t win.

“Our team recently had the pleasure of being schooled in the art of shot-making when we ran into a shorter team that was struggling in warm-up to bang the ball but obviously had good players and experience. We started strong with a couple of our own bombs but quickly found ourselves in a deficit on the scoreboard with balls flying off our big blockers, rolling into the corners of the court and slithering down the backside of the front line. It was a thing of beauty – for the other team.”

Volleyball Injuries

Volleyball Injuries

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Came across this article titled “Overuse, specialization, club? High volume of injuries in college alarming”.

Kristen has chosen not to play Club Volleyball next season.  Though the primary reason is she got hooked on Sand Volleyball this past summer, it doesn’t hurt that she won’t be subjected to the long repetitive indoor season.  She wants to continue to play basketball for her High School this year and next.  Sand will afford her a more flexible schedule and perhaps more options in the summer.  She skipped the Spring/Summer Select Basketball season this year.  Last year, she played on a Club “Lite” program to allow her to play Select Basketball in the Spring.

Here are some excerpts from the article linked above:

More and more college volleyball players are showing up on campus already broken or they break down once they arrive.

But everyone has a responsibility to take care of the players and nobody wants to be the person to give the kids rest, not the high school coaches, the club coaches, the college coaches. The problem is not going to be solved until everyone takes a joint responsibility in giving the players the rest they need. Everyone wants to complain, but everyone’s equally responsible.

I think a lot of people will say playing on cement all the way through is a problem,  It is a problem and with kids starting younger and younger, and there are some positives, but there’s also a cumulative effect of playing on bad surfaces all the time.

Athletes train more than ever before and “they’re training the same motor patterns over and over and over. There’s not as much recovery time and there’s not as much general athletic training, just getting away from the sports-specific components. And that’s everywhere.

I think cross training is really important, especially for younger kids, It so good for your body to be doing something different.

We play too much volleyball at the junior level. Only volleyball. What I mean by that is I would rather recruit a kid who is playing some basketball, some softball, track and field, or maybe soccer, because I think we overuse the same muscle groups in that one sport. So if you’re only playing volleyball you’re wearing out the shoulders and the knees. In basketball, you have some different things and you’re running. In soccer you’re doing more cutting moves.