Bang! Zoom! It's Barsoom!

[Elok]

Well, right now I'm finishing up my kids' history of Byzantium.  Odd as it sounds, it'll be far easier to market.  Don't know what I'll do after that.

[Rusty Edge]

Well, right now I'm finishing up my kids' history of Byzantium.  Odd as it sounds, it'll be far easier to market.  Don't know what I'll do after that.

Actually, that sounds kinda cool. There are very few kids in the family these days, but I still might like to buy it now and read it and gift it in future years.

[Elok]

It's intended for Orthodox homeschoolers.  Like my kids.  The fact that there's an existing market of other Orthodox (and a few other) homeschoolers is just gravy.

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, right now I'm finishing up my kids' history of Byzantium.  Odd as it sounds, it'll be far easier to market.  Don't know what I'll do after that.

It's intended for Orthodox homeschoolers.  Like my kids.  The fact that there's an existing market of other Orthodox (and a few other) homeschoolers is just gravy.

Byzantine Empire Anime Opening

[Geo]

Naughty BUncle...

[Buster's Uncle]

bump

[Bearu]

Elok states "Well, right now I'm finishing up my kids' history of Byzantium.  Odd as it sounds, it'll be far easier to market.  Don't know what I'll do after that" and "It's intended for Orthodox homeschoolers.  Like my kids.  The fact that there's an existing market of other Orthodox (and a few other) homeschoolers is just gravy."

The prospect of homeschooling an American child deprives these children of a decent education. While the only prospect of education for children in the American public school system consists of a deprived education because of repulsive actions from the  humans on both sides of the dual party American political spectrum, the Soviet and Chinese models provide a few answers. A critical element of the Soviet model includes a system of tracking the children so the children receive the quality of education commensurate with the level of knowledge. The Soviet model of education provides an efficient and affordable level of education for every citizen while the American system fails many students. The Chinese and Soviet models guarantee every qualified student receives an entrance and funding in the university without the massive levels of debt seen in the American system. The adaption of the positive aspects of the  socialist models with American characteristics will ensure the models flourish for future generations of students.

[Geo]

Luckily the Soviet "model" ain't in existence anymore.
"Tracking" children?

[Unorthodox]

The prospect of homeschooling an American child deprives these children of a decent education.

Source? 

I highly respect those who choose to homeschool their kids.  The ones I know are almost always better educated than the general populace. 

Public schools vary wildly in quality as well.  States vary quite wildly in the quality of the public school system, but even more locally, schools vary wildly.  We chose our housing location based largely on the public school quality.  I know others that choose charter or private schools when the public school available to them is unattractive.  There are, unfortunately, those who don't have much choice, and vouchers only give rise to charter schools more interested in making a buck than educating children. 

[Elok]

Well, I was gone for Advent (I had to go back onto FB for networking reasons, so I broke that), but now I have to buy a Byzantium anime.  Great.  Why they chose Phokas, Constantine VIII, Andronikos III, and Alexios III to mention in those credits, I don't know; were those the villains, I wonder?
EDIT: I looked it up on YouTube.  Yes, it's a joke and there is no series.  Some Greek dude had a lot of free time (but it wouldn't be unheard of for some obscure country to order an anime from a chop-shop studio).  Apparently at one point the lyrics or onscreen blurbs say "Alexios, get on the goddamn horse."  And the four emperors there were just listed as examples of uselessness.  For some reason.

[Elok]

Re: homeschooling, I was miserable for most of my time in public schooling, and my older son, at least, takes after me very strongly.  A homeschooling child's teachers are intensely invested in his success, can customize the courses to fit his learning speed and interests, and can eliminate many of the obnoxious concomitants of traditional schooling, e.g. bullying.

[Bearu]

In homeschooling, the environment either stifles or enhances the child's education depending on the teacher's ability. Learning new skills under an ignorant parent represents a challenge because the parents, depending on the educational and financial background, lack the skills, money, and knowledge to teach the children at an appropriate level in the necessary skills for academic success. The other problem resides with the large number of religious families seeking to educate the children in a religious manner. The groups I have seen include a mixture of secular groups and religious families with the religious families varying in the level of religiosity from orthodox to reformed levels of beliefs in Judaism and Protestant sects. The religious families tend to seek the homeschooling environment  for a variety of reasons, but a major reason exists for either a customized religious education or the desire to avoid the moral and ethical issues in the public education system.

[Buster's Uncle]

Fall of Constantinople Book Trailer #1

[Geo]

Lego!

And now Greece, Kosovo, North-Mecedonia, Serbia, Croatia,... are all released from the Ottoman yoke!

[Elok]

Sorry I've been away for a while.  I'm just going to use this as "Elok's life update thread."  Our old house became toxic and uninhabitable in the months after the hurricane; I'm writing this from my SiL's post-hurricane dwelling, a bizarre structure out in the sticks.  Basically this pair of elderly shut-ins paid to have a prefab housing unit plopped down atop an aboveground cinderblock "basement," then moved in without really finishing the thing.  They left behind a wreck, which the hurricane wrecked further, and my SiL bought it dirt-cheap.  The whole family's been fixing it up on weekends for months, and now we're in it (bachelor SiL is comfy in an old RV for now; we might get her a finished shed later).  I wound up painting most of this house's interior.

I'm working at a Winn-Dixie out on the beach, full-time, with a higher wage than I've ever earned before (the hurricane also created a labor shortage).  Will be returning to school in the fall to become a respiratory therapist, because the pay floor for RTs is about the same as the pay ceiling for pharmacy techs.  In the meantime, our third son is due in about two weeks, and Pyrebound is popular enough that I got something like fifty pageviews today.  That's pretty close to typical.  Big props to BUncle and Lori for helping me get it off the ground!

So, yeah.  Been busy.