Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Parenting Advice from a Single male with no kids.

I have no kids, but I came to a realization if I had any I would not enroll them in cheer-leading or any of these extracurricular shizz.

Why because it COSTS too much dang frakking money.





I am a big fan of Penn and Tellers show Bullshit, The First Episode of Season 8, was about Cheerleading and it was an EYEOPENER.

In the Cheer-leading ep, P&T mention that two divorced parents were paying $10,000 on their two daughters. That is $5000 each. Lets put this in perspective I owe about $25,000 in student loans. Now each year these parents pay enough to knock off $10,000 of that. They could have paid it off in 2.5 years.

It isn't just cheerleading, I am seeing too many youth athletic activities that care more about fleecing every dollar they can get out of parents. Why because of burn-out rates. 80% of the kids whose parents enroll them in soccer, hockey etc. Will burn out and quit by 12. that is about 6 years. It means that those parents in 6 years will have paid $60,000 to Varsity Brands Inc. Some of that burn-out has to do with CASH.





Some parent will probably g on about college and scholarships and stuff, all I have to say is this.
Better way to pay for your kids future, take that 10k. Or whatever you will spend on that and  spend it all one savings bonds, or a stable investment account and let it mature for 6 years. Do it every year with the money you would blow on that BS for 6 years. You will have enough to send maybe 1 kid to Yale or 3 to a state school.  If you did not go to Yale, you kid is not going to Yale, If you went to Yale you probably make enough a year where Money is not much of a problem.

Better than blowing it one some gamble that they might get some sports scholarship. Trust me chances are slim.


In this episode of Bullshit they mention safety on how to become a Varsity Approved Coach all you need to do is sit through a class on a Sunday Morning and take a 3 hour open book test. None of it really covers first aid procedures. REALLY.

















Another reason to stay away is safety, if kids want to play sports they are better off trying out for a team at their school, not some off school league made of volunteers. Why, background checks, With a scholasitic team the coaching staff is part of the faculty, to get that job they need to have certain credentials. Not only that they have to submit to a criminal background check. With some strip mall dojo or local community soccer league there is no City, Country, State or Federal law mandating these organizations have to do a background check on their volunteer staff. These volunteer orgs also do not mandate the staff have ANY FIRST AID training. Sports, people get hurt playing it, PROS who get paid millions get hurt, you can expect that that team has a army of medical practitioners on call to deal with any injury. Not saying that some city soccer league should have a medical staff, but the coaches and parents should know what to do if a kid gets injured and should be able to properly respond.



If you are doing this so Junior can get exercise, all kids need is 60 minutes a DAY, not $15,000 a year in some  league that will put you into debt because you want to show off to Jimmy's Mom.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Red Dawn, Desperation at teh Homefront

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-china-red-dawn-20110316,0,995726.story?goback=.gmp_1657547.gde_1657547_member_47363684

This LA times story states that the studio for Red Dawn changed the enemy China to North Korea to not offend the Chinese. Why would it matter? Because they know this film will under-perform and that need that international BO of China. If they execs knew that this film will make hundreds of millions on its opening weekend in the USA. The studio would not care about how China felt, but this move also has another reason. Recently there was a release of a Video game called Homefront. Now this game is about a future USA in 2027 that is invaded by a resurgent NK, the game goes into detail to explain this. The game was also written by John Milius the writer of Red Dawn.

So some exec saw the commercials for the game mentioning John Milius and thought, we need Chinese movie goers, and if we connect this movie with this game we can get their butts in seats as well.

All they are trying to do is Lessen the Blow for a film that will be released in a already crowded blockbuster movie season. The figure this game might also create some brand awareness for their film as well.