Smarter than a 5th Grader

Is my dog smarter than a 5th grader? It depends how you measure smart. He (Dixon - my dog) couldn't give the capital of Panama - well, I don't think he could ... I haven't asked him. However, he does know not to cross the road in front of cars. A 5th grader on the other hand ... isn't that how you are meant to cross the road? In front of cars, when their light is green and I have a 'don't walk' sign? It isn't restricted to 5th graders either ... all US children do it, right up to their 30s or 40s.

The big question is ... why does Dixon know not to cross in front of cars? The answer is that we have taught him never ever ever to walk on the road unless we are there and we give him the go ahead. I am constantly waving cars through that want to stop and let me and my dog cross illegally just so that he doesn't think that he can walk in front of cars. On the rare occasions that he does get away from us, he knows not to cross roads. It has saved his life at least once.

Kids on the other hand are actively taught by the system that crossing roads and ignoring fast moving 2 tons lumps of metal is just the way it is. The school bus stops, kids get off and run across the road - the cars will stop. Kids want to cross against the lights - no problem, the cars stop and let them. Kids want to cross in the middle of blocks. Adults that don't know any better stop and wave them over. Thus, the kids learn that crossing roads is painless, easy and carefree. All you have to do is start walking and everyone else just gets out of the way.

Yes - my dog is smarter than a 5th grader ... mainly because I have taught him not to walk or play on roads, while 5th graders are taught to ignore common sense. And we wonder why people get killed on the roads. Don't get me started on parents that put out signs 'Careful, children playing in street'.

Walk the dog

Stuck? Too close to the problem? Cannot see the way forward?

Well, I have the answer for you - get a dog ... then take said dog for a walk. It does wonders for taking your mind off what ever the issue is / was. For one, you have to think about your dog - what is he doing / is he safe / is he standing in the middle of the road / are there squirrels or bunnies about to distract him, or worst, a skunk!

In between these thoughts you can think about what was puzzling you, you can let your mind wander and give yourself the time and distraction you needed to get the right answer.

Is that all a dog can do for you - make you walk him? Nope. You get back what you put it - teach your dog to kiss and you get kisses. Teach your dog to trust you and you get his undying trust ... Just don't abuse it. Finally, he also teaches you humility - there is nothing quite as earthy as picking up your dog's crap - just don't use one of those scoop things or you miss most of the lesson.

So - what made me Angry?

My wife is a member of Pricescope and posts quite a bit of informative information on their forums about diamonds and similar stuff. I have also posted there 15 times (a totally massive count ... not), mainly on a silly TV show - The Legend of the Seeker.

Anyway, she had mentioned some of the forum's silly rules so I decided to dip my toe in the water ... sure, I was tweaking the mods name but I thought what I posted was ok. I even read the forum rules before posting. The one that I infringed ...

#3 - For your privacy and security do not post any private information including emails, personal pages, and usernames on other sites or IM's on the open forums.

So - what did I post ... "I haven't been watching the second season of Seeker ... mainly I am watching The Mentalist - those guys make me laugh. BTW - if anyone wants to email me, my email is ruff dot hi at gmail dot com. I know that this breaches #3 but I waive my privacy and security in this instance - that email address is more than safe enough".

So - what happened? The post got deleted and I got banned (no warning, no email, just blocked from posting). Pretty bad hey! Other forums that I am on have a warning system so you know when you are pushing the rules. So, was that the worst part? No, my wife also got banned - because I broke the rules. Everyone thinks that my post was actually by Kareyn ... she didn't even know about it and her faced drained of color when I told her about it.

Reading further, I find that pricescope isn't actually a community forum ... it is a privately owned site that restricts member to member contact, does not allow you to post links to flickr, imageshack or the like ("To reduce the number of broken links and keep the forum clean" - what a lame excuse). They allow you to upload pictures, but anything ... ANYTHING that you do upload, post, contribute, etc remains yours but they have full rights to use. You better not post the cure to cancer on their website because they will rob you blind. Here is that section of their forum agreement ...

The Company does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Forum Service. However, by making Content available via the Forum Service You automatically grant (or warrant that the owner of such materials expressly granted) to the Company a perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and display, create derivative works from and distribute such materials or incorporate such materials into any form, medium, or technology now known or later developed.

You hereby waive all moral rights in any Content that you author and make available via the Forum Service. You warrant that all moral rights have been waived by the authors of any Content You make available.

The Company, it's staff and it's moderators reserve the full right to remove, edit or move posts by users at anytime without cause or notice.

If they were really concerned about privacy and security, they would force everyone to mail (not email!) their posts in, then a mod would physically remove all identifying information and post the balance. Wait, that wouldn't work - the mods would have your postal address. Guess you would have to put your post inside an envelope and then inside another one - they open the first and throw all of the others into a big bin, then open the others - that would break the link between your post and your postal address. I'll wait for them to implement that level of security and privacy!

Why Blog?

Well, the short answer to that is ... why not? The longer answer is that I now have something to say. Well, I've always had something to say but never really seen the point in a blog ... but now I do.

Something happened the other day that made me angry. Angry enough to dump my spleen in public ... and I want to say this in public. A friend said to my wife the other day that she thought I was getting cranky in my old age. Truth be told, I have been thinking the same thing. I like to think that I am a funny crank but I pretty much know that I'm not. I imagine that I am pretty much just like my father ... get stuck on an issue and just keep talking about it, even when everyone else has turned off the lights, left the room and gone to bed (sorry Dad). Guess this nut hasn't fallen far from the tree.