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Although reading, as it is so widely promoted, is vital to a child's literacy, I feel that creative writing is the loftier goal.

We want kids to learn and become more informed, for that they require reading skills; however, all that a child reads is typically prepared by someone else. The greater achievement is to have the child write.

Through writing, a child feels a sense of accomplishment, researches material, interviews subjects, draughts a story-line, and the like. In the process, he or she will encounter and absorb proper grammar and spelling via peer review and constructive criticism.

From my perspective, this active (writing) versus passive (reading) activity encourages the use of a plan and better prepares the child for the real world. It doesn't dispense with reading... that would be ridiculous. It merely treats it as a necessary means to an end.

If our education system is going to meet the needs of our children in the decades to come, it will have to adjust some practices before it's too late, and pro-actively build skills for the difficult future ahead.

If you feel, as I do, that a focus on creative writing for children is but one type of realignment our educators might adopt to help our future office workers, then please add your comments or visit the link.

Day 107: SBI bubbles web-site to the top

I have not written anything on this blog for sometime because I've been busy constructing a new web-site called www.short-stories-help-children.com.

Back in November of 2006 I came across an opportunity to acquire an existing web-site that had a strong following in the Greater Toronto Area. I made my proposal, and then set out to locate software or a service that would help me design a portal to direct traffic to the viable components within the prospective web-site.

I soon discovered Site Built-It from SBI. With it I could construct the portal I needed to target the web-site, but I had not acquired it yet. What to do? I chose to study Site Build-It as deeply as I could, check referring sites et cetera until I decided I had better get my feet wet. Then I figured.. 'Why drive traffic to a failing local website when I could talk to the world'. I picked an albeit competitive arena in short stories but with a slant to use short stories as a tool for helping children. It has become a layman's guide for parenting and child development. Consequently, I left the local web-site idea alone.

The SBI web-site can be found at SiteSell.com. The founder, Ken Evoy, made various claims like a 100% unconditional guarantee... that your site would get into the Top 3% of world-wide web-sites, as far as Alexa goes... and that SBI 'over-delivers'. All typical marketing hype, to be sure. Or was it?

Well, the 'over-delivers' aspect is evident even before you purchase the inexpensive web-based service. I was able to access the training tutorials before spending a dime, and I was hooked. The amount of expertise and the crafting of the message and techniques are outstanding and you soon feel that the knowledge you acquire is worth far more than the small fee. It truly over-delivers.

The guarantee is moot since the over-delivery of information, technology , and advice is seemingly limitless. Anyone claiming that guarantee would simply be mean, spiteful and be the kind to blame someone else for their failures.

And as for the Top 3% promise...well, as of this morning, my 107 day old site has made it to an Alexa ranking of 560,220. That effectively puts it into the Top 1% . The work needed to get there wasn't a walk in the park, but that's not the claim. The service provides the tools and the search engine optimization expertise to support all of your efforts... but you will learn. And you will get excited. I promise.

Third one's a charm

For Katey Sagal that is. The news today is that the ex-co-star on Married.. with Children has had her third baby at the age of 52. I know that's no record but isn't anybody concerned over this.


We know the median age of North America's population is climibing by about one year per year, the last I heard being 39. And, like all other stats moving in a bad direction, this will likely accelerate. So what does this tell us?

Well, first, in about 10 years, half of our population will be over 50. Is that a senior citizen yet. No, then OK, let's say in another 6 years after that, half will be over 60! Happy?

That means that by the time Katey's new baby is able to enter the workforce (if celebrity kids ever do that) his or her tax dollar contributions will have to support an enormous population of seniors requiring health benefits.

We knew years ago that our (Canadian) pension plan was sorrily lacking in foresight. Well, I suspect there will soon be little or no hope for it. Our government's answer is to open the doors to immigrants from countries busting at the seams. Unfortunately that has held the minimum wage down, and raised expenses in our health care system due to fraud.

Bandaids everywhere and it will have to stop, before Katey #3 starts flippin' burgers.

A bug by any other name

There will be more of these unfortunately, but it's all part of life. The new super-bug, or bacterial infection, is called Community-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or CA-MRSA for short.

It is a bacteria that has mutated over the years to now be even more resistant to anti-biotics than it once was. If you've read any of my earlier articles you may recall that I was once afflicted with the flesh-eating disease. And the CA-MRSA can develop into that if not treated soon enough.

CA-MRSA is not an epidemic but outbreaks have occurred in more and more communities where people might share towels, locker rooms and the like. Originally, found mostly in hospitals, the infection often appears as a growing boil on the extremeties. Basic personal hygiene is your best defense. It it transmitted by touch.

In the big picture, this is not to alarm anyone. It is to keep reminding you that the smallest of enemies may be the most powerful. And they are getting stronger day by day.