Social media is the best school
[youtube_sc url=kl1ujzRidmU]
The New York Times has decided to take up the cause of studying English in college.
This discussion sounds similar to the discussion of whether we should legalize gay marriage. Generation Y is so overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing gay marriage that the debate is a waste of time. It’s opposed by conservative, out-of-date Baby Boomers who want to freeze society in debate sessions like they try to hold onto their delusions of agelessness with plastic surgery.
The discussion of teaching English is absolutely ridiculous. Here’s why:
1. Writing for just one teacher to read is stupid.The Internet provides a way to write for hundreds of people at once. Which means we try much harder when we write a comment online than we do when we write a paper for one teacher. To hear that a student is more motivated by a good grade than a good conversation is absolutely crushing. So we should all be grateful that kids care a lot more about writing online than writing for school.
2. Social media teaches writing better than school. Stanford has conducted a wide-ranging study of kids who have access to top educators, and the conclusion is that kids learn better writing in the context of social media than in a classroom. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the biggest one is that we write to inform and persuade. Trying to keep people you don’t know from clicking away is a much bigger challenge than writing for one teacher. So kids are better off engaging in social media, which, by the way, is all written.
3. The Internet drastically changes how we write.Wiring that is relevant and informative has links. The respect for the reader increases immensely when you link to the sources that inform your opinions. The information is all there, online, so there is no point writing the information again. You can link to it and write your opinion. Which means that now we have downloaded the encyclopedia onto the Internet, and we have created a living encyclopedia in Wikipedia, you do not need to pontificate on your research unless you are doing original research. This style of writing is new, not part of standard English education, and learnable only by writing online. (Hold on. Sidenote: This is a great link about the passion behind Wikipedia.)
So can we all just stop talking about teaching writing and teaching English? We are wasting our kids’ time. Tell them to write a comment on someone’s blog and subscribe to the comments to see if anyone responds.
Finally, take a look at the video up top. It’s breathtaking for two reasons. First, it’s an example of the outstanding writing that kids are doing in the context of social media. But also, it’s an example of how very strong writing is empowering kids in ways that were unthinkable before social media.
The father in this video is incredibly abusive in his disrespect for his daughter. The ending is stunning because of the dad’s pathetic use of violence. But the end is also hopeful. This girl’s words speak so much for her. And I have a hope that she will come out fine, because she’s using her voice. She didn’t need an English class for this.
Hi Penelope, I totally disagree with your assessment of the dad in the video. I think you need to address the behavior of the teenager that led to this. What about her incredible lack of disrespect for her dad’s time, money and parenting.
You’re being very one sided on this issue.
And as far as violence goes, I really thought this was going to be a video of a dad hitting his kid. His actions are stunning (and perhaps not the actions that we your reader group would use); and he could have achieved the same end result by just pulling out the battery pack or hard drive, but the extreme drama of shooting the laptop really hammers home his feelings of dealing with his spoiled child. A bit more objectivity would have been helpful here.
Okay, let the flaming begin…
I agree with you. The thing that struck me most about the video was how hurt he was that his daughter would write that about him and post it for the world to see. Shooting the computer was a bit extreme but I have to admit, kinda funny. I usually agree with P about most things but I think she’s way off base here. It was the daughter who was being disrespectful, not the dad.
I, the adult, am hurt by the child’s writing about her frustrations so I am going to up the anti and create a violent ranting video about my hurt while disrespecting and shaming you then top it off with immature violence. THIS is the way to make a connection with a child.
I understand the daughter acted out with inappropriate behaviors. Rather than encouraging a discussion about how they each feel and seeking peaceful resolution — modeling for her how to work things out through open communication, which she clearly doesn’t know how to do either — he just goes straight to shaming and punishment. It seems that the disrespectful behavior he’s so angry about she learned from him.
I am not sure groundings, shaming, violence are the best way to show her the error of her ways. Clearly this is not working for this family. I only see escalation here.
You know me … I love a good gun story. :-) This isn’t a good gun story to me. I see a father grooming his daughter to accept violence and immaturity as the norm to expect from someone who supposedly loves and cares for you.
I can admit it looks wild and fun at first blush (in part because I was raised with similar attitudes and behaviors) but honestly with some reflection it feels sad and shaming and violent and angry and frustrated to me and I don’t see it getting any better/different anytime soon.
My hope for you … you can see the flip side of this display of parenting technique.
i absolutely agree.
when we were kids and i felt my dad went overboard when addressing a problem with my brothers he’d tell me “i pick my battles. there are attitudes i want to address just once and uproot them from the beginning.”
if the girl is dumb enough to do that to her dad who works in IT wait until she does it to her employer (if she ever gets a job). the boss won’t shoot her computer, he will shoot her career.
Perhaps his daughter wasn’t dumb, but instead was purposeful in sharing on Facebook. Perhaps she won’t have and employer or get a job, but instead will create her own career and have her own employees… much like the creator of this blog.
@ Lisa – Replace the word ‘boss’ for ‘client’, and you got the same conclusion.
There is one point I would like to add to this view. Maybe people indeed try much harder when writing a comment online than when writing a paper for one teacher. But trying harder when writing online might not IMPROVE their writing as much as in class, because IMHO the kind of feedback being received online and in class is different.
Online feedback in general will debate your arguments or express agreement with them. In general it will not comment your writing style nor how you could improve your writing by changing its structure, by reordering its parts, by reformulating, and so on.
Following the link to the Stanford study I found this very clear statement :
“Participants reported that conversations about writing with teachers, professors, teaching assistants, and post-doctoral fellows had the greatest impact on their writing development. ”
I do not see any reference to writing for social media here. I do agree that it improves one’s writing, but that does not make teachers, professors, teaching assistants, and post-doctoral fellows obsolete. And let’s add editors to that bunch too, because, though my personal addiction to your writing is because of your brains and your brazen authenticity, I think that it’s your editor who makes your writing ultimately irresistible! So I thank the both of you! :-)
Great comment.
Both types of feedback (online and “class”) contribute to a person’s writing development in different ways. I put class here in parenthesis since it may not take the form of traditional schooling but rather coaching or other type of teaching.
It’s true that you wont receive the type of detailed grammer and spelling feedback online as you would in the classroom. But you do receive feedback. Just look at how many people comment on spelling and grammer on PTs blog.
Now I think about it, perhaps the best solution is to encourage your children to hire a social media editor.
I doubt there is something like THE writing on The internet -writing online is as varied as writing not online. Comments, blogs, notes, twitter, facebook, articles and on and on,if you practice one kind of writing you will usually improve at it, whic is great. Writing for an online blog-like community or epressing opinions in comments does rarely improve technical writing, which by the way is peppered with links to other work -even when written on paper.
i read blogs like jezebel and such. the commenters tend to be educated women (and some men).
when there are typos or weird sentences….don’t you ever think people will let it die!
everyone points it out. which encourages the writers to edit better.
in my blog i just sort of ignore grammar structure because i feel like it tampers with my passion to express a point.
HOWEVER, no one reads it so i’m good ;)
I am horrified that people think what this dad did is okay. It never occurred to me that anyone would say that on my blog.
Here’s the problem with what he did:
He is the adult. He should be respectful no matter what his kid is doing.
He is resorting to violence to get control over the kid. He is using fear tactics as a way to parent.
He is using public humiliation as a tactic for parenting.
He is disrespecting her property and her privacy which teaches her that she is not a valuable human being.
These are parenting tactics that are typical of borderline personality disorder. You can google “borderline personality disorder” and see quickly how typical this guy’s behavior is for borderline personality in parenting.
What the girl did: complain about her parents on Facebook – is what every other teenager in the US does. It’s normal teenage behavior.
The problem here is that parents who have borderline personality disorder are most affected when a kid tries to separate from the parent.
His punishment is not a result of her normal teenage behavior. His punishment is the result of his inability to watch his daughter have a different opinion than he does about what is going on in his house.
The video made me so sad I couldn’t even write about it yesterday when I saw it. I was too upset.
Penelope
I totally agree with you Penelope! I hope child protective services payed a visit to the family. A man who gets so upset and violent for such minor reasons should not own a gun! What 15-years old kid DO NOT complaining about the chores and think her parents are stupid?! I feel really sorry for the girl. The only silver lining in this story is because of social media she is getting support from people online and her fathers actions are condemned by other adults.
“What 15-years old kid DO NOT complaining about the chores and think her parents are stupid?!”
Mine. And many others. It is a matter of treating each other with true respect.
How is it that you so clearly see the violence in this video, but somehow turn blind to the violence within your own home? Is it worse what this father did versus the Farmer pushing you in front of your sons?
If I were turning a blind eye then you wouldn’t know about it, right? The only reason you know about what goes on in my house is that I am paying close enough attention to it to tell it to one million blog readers.
I have a feeling the guy in this video, and his daughter, will benefit immensely from the public outcry over this video. For each and every one of us, seeing our lives reflected back to us is a great method for gainings self-knowledge quickly.
Penelope
btw: the link is broken;
here it is; fixed:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/a-reason-to-major-in-the-humanities/
also, shooting the laptop will *hurt* her schoolwork and her future. he just insured that she will hate him even more.
Thanks, Jill. I fixed it up top.
Penelope
Penelope,
This is the first time I have ever disagreed with you. This man is a great dad from all the available information. He warned her that this behavior would not be tolerated again. Kids need to now understand that Facebook has consequences. From spouses, to employers- now and in the future. It is not a benign diary into which a 15 year old can jot her thoughts and it will never see the light of day. As an IT guy, her Dad understands that.
As for violence. No again. That was theatrics. He in no way was violent towards her. The property was his (as he paid for it) not hers. It was hers to use at his discretion.
This is nothing about a personality disorder. There is nothing here about separation issues.
And you are wrong again about the punishment. This was not about her having a opinion. It was about her being disrespectful, violating the rules, and caring enough about his daughter to make her understand that 15 years of age with loving parents that provide you everything is as good as it is ever going to get.
Tough love is occasionally necessary. If she feels it is appropriate to publicly humiliate her parents, than why is his public response unacceptable in your opinion? This was a very mature response. Quite brilliant. (You probably think me immature for saying so.)
I think he did a great job on all counts and am stunned that the woman I read whenever she posts wrote this.
The English remarks have merit worth discussing, but I also think Thomas has valid points.
Wow. Thanks for bring both points to the fore however.
Monica, I agree with you completely and you said it very well.
My computer keeps cutting out so I miss the last minute of the clip, but I assume the daughter’s not even around. I don’t see how this could be violating her safety. If anything, he’s getting his frustration out in a very non-confrontational manner because he’s doing it alone. If he bought the computer, it’s his to do whatever he wishes with.
Really, even for a 15-year-old, his daughter is a bit daft. I mean, duh, her dad’s an IT guy. And because of her own post, the whole world now knows she’s a thoughtless, lazy, and self-absorbed. Chances are many of her friends view her the same way.
Monica:
“As for violence. No again. That was theatrics. He in no way was violent towards her. The property was his (as he paid for it) not hers. It was hers to use at his discretion.”
With respect, the research on domestic violence does not back up your claim. From one of a thousand “help guides” on domestic violence: http://www.shsu.edu/~counsel/hs/violence.html
“What is Abuse? … EMOTIONAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL–This type of abuse, though not as obvious as the previous two, is also traumatic and the effects long-lasting. It is often easy to deny, but can be the most difficult to recover from. This abuse is more than verbal arguments–it is the systematic destruction of an individual’s self-esteem. Emotional and psychological abuse may involve the following practices:
… Intimidation. Abusers may frighten their victims by using looks, actions, gestures, or loud voices; by smashing things; or by destroying the survivor’s property. They often act like bullies, asserting what they believe is their entitlement to the partner’s services. Verbal degradation, cursing and name-calling can contribute to the humiliation.”
He did not teach his daughter respect. In fact, he taught her just the opposite. I would venture to reason that this parenting style contributed to her selfish, disrespectful written outburst. We learn this stuff at home.
I’ll give you that I think that there has been a parenting breakdown along the line and that there are numerous better ways he could have handled it, but 15 year olds are far removed form their future self. This link may have been a better suggestion for the father.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/crime/2012/02/15/dnt-facebook-photos-on-porn-site.necn
Facebook is not benign in any way. If it was, as I hope was his major point, to drive that home, I hope he still accomplishes that goal.
I think others are correct. Most of us seem to be reading too much into it. Or more to the point, imposing far more on this one situation. We don’t know the full extent of the home. If they need help, I pray they get it. If the kid is just having a bratty day, I hope she sees the wisdom in her parent’s concerns.
i feel like when P explains how his behavior reflects borderline person. disorder it feels true.
but when i first watched the video and he explained what the chores actually were i didn’t think they were extreme like what she describes.
if your kid acts like a normal teenager it doesn’t mean that’s true.
she had done in the past and the dad was upset. they provide way beyond what is required of a parent and she acts like a brat.
she’s got excellent writing skills, apparently, but she is immature.
i don’t know why i think he isn’t being violent. he’s destroying a computer not a person. those things are hers but they are the parents.
i don’t know. maybe i got the talk of “you are not entitled to anything; whatever we give you beyond food, shelter and basic clothes, is a blessing, an extra.” that kind of thing.
anyway, this is about writing. but writing is for communicating. she is using social media to paint her parents as slave drivers rather than dedicated parents that give her above and beyond what is needed.
if she did that and bad mouthed her boss i doubt the boss would shoot the computer he facilitated for her work. if the boss was humiliated and irritated enough he would destroy her career, credibility, and close doors shut so no one can hire her again.
just because her behavior is common i don’t think is less bullying than what he did.
I think you are right: her behavior is bullying and his is also, albeit in a different way. There is a limit what you should post on publicly available venues. It is different from complaining to your friends about your parents: social media provide a much larger forum, and contribute due to a certain level of anonymity often to a considerable escalation which would not (or only rarely) happen in a person-to-person conversation. Cyber-bullying has become an important concern for the online community for a reason.
The man is controlling and manipulative. Since he is unable to control her feelings he controls her actions. When you punish a behavior, the person being punished will then work harder to not get caught.
Maybe people don’t realize that children feel hurt and offended by rough language and injustice, just as adults do. We should practice respect when getting our points across whenever possible and be an example for children.
I just want to know if you did something you r spouse/partner disagree with or about would you think this was an acceptable response by said spouse/partner? If not why is it OK because he is an adult and the daughter is in her mid-teens. Are you telling me it is acceptable to beat you to get the point across that hitting someone is not OK? If you mis-managed the check book would it be OK to shame you publicly and/or physically hurt you? What is the best way to teach you? Shaming and disrespect? Communication and working it out and natural consequences?
Actually if my spouse posted a diatribe on what a terrible wife I am on facebook, I think it would seriously damage my marriage. Of course, he is a grown-up and theoretically should know better the consequences of that kind of behavior. What the daughter did was disrespectful and hurtful and should be addressed. Shooting the laptop doesn’t bother me, but the public shaming seems excessive.
I had to stop watching half way. There was nothing that young woman said that I found outrageous. I’ve said much worse about my parents. He is totally psychotic. I am also surprised that people think this is a reasonable response to a completely normal developmental stage this young woman. He is totally abusive. He is humiliating her. I find it disgusting. He is out of control, worse than borderline. He seems like a total sociopath. Honestly, I don’t understand how children are still in this home now that the video is all over the place. “A bullet in your laptop?” That’s so violent and terroristic.
I was really upset for the dad, because it is obvious that he cares about his daughter and she hurt him. I think this could be a better example of poor communication in the family unit, then good English. It is clear that he does not talk to his daughter or give her trust to make good decisions. She learns how to handle her feeling from him, which is why both of them are acting passive-aggressive. Communication is so important. Recognizing your children’s emotions and teaching them how to handle their emotions is much more important then teaching grammer or good writing. I am new to you blog and I think you are amazing! You make me think so much deeper and question thing!
At first I didn’t think it was so bad (kid actually does seem to be a brat, and I even like brats usually), but then you can see him sort of unraveling as he does go on. I think he’s making himself angrier. By the end, I can’t believe what I’m watching, and why the bullets? It was such a shock, that I didn’t even get to the hopeful part.
Penelope has blogged about 50-0-50 theory of Judith Rich Harris. This theory says that how a child turns out is 50 percent genetic, 0 percent parenting, 50 percent peer socialization.
Intuitively, the idea is absurd. I’ve come to realize that it has some merit, it’s just that it only has merit for families with traditionally-schooled children.
This Facebook story illustrates that.
Harris herself explicitly states that the reason why the parents have no impact on the way the kids turn out is that the effects of society’s program of institutionalized enculturation, or socialization, are so pervasive and overwhelming, that nothing the parents do can really compete.
Parents don’t generally affect outcomes because the norm in this society is to leave raising and shaping a child to the school system and their schoolmates. Since schools refrain from any but the most gross moral instruction, that just leaves the schoolmates for that.
Peer pressure does not just compete with parents, it neutralizes parents, marginalizes them and discounts their input. Parents are adults, what do any of them know about *my* life? Suddenly Harris makes a lot of sense to me.
But what happens if you remove peer pressure from the equation? What happens when it is not the peers that shape the child but their parents? What happens when you homeschool?
I suspect something a lot closer to 50-45-5. This a long comment, but this gets to the heart of why many parents choose to homeschool and why “what about socialization?” is such a touchy subject.
I saw nothing that gave me any indication in the articles I read that Harris examined homeschooling families, or that this ever dawned on her. I agree with her that sending your kids to school carries a risk that the child you brought into this world may end up almost a complete stranger to you.
That is evidently what happened in this Facebook story as there is no functional line of communication, and apparently no level of mutual understanding. Personally I do not see it as bad parents or a bad kid, rather a mutual explosion of frustration at the radical incompatibility between the family culture the parents obviously seek, and the peer culture of the child.
From the looks of it, the daughter has nothing in common with the parents except an address.
Most insightful Mark. Thanks for this comment. Have forwarded it to my homeschool list. Parents such as yourself are one reason we are now homeschoolers. Kind Regards.
Mark K, I loved your comment, and I have really enjoyed reading many of your past comments as well. When I saw this video yesterday, it sparked a long conversation between my husband and me, and your comments tied together many of the things I expressed. It was just what I needed to read. This blog so often gives me the affirmation that I am on the right track, despite how out-of-step with my community I can be.
Thanks Mark.
I liked your “long” comment. Very worthwhile reading.
Penelope – Thanks for being a voice in opposition to the claims that social media/the Internet is eroding communication skills. I was a creative writing major in college, but it wasn’t until I started blogging that my voice truly began to develop. I’ve been experimenting with storytelling on my site, and I can see the progress — both by comparing recent posts to those I wrote 2 years ago and from the quality of the comments.
To everyone who defends the dad in that video –
Here are the facts we can be absolutely sure of:
1. The daughter complained about her parents on Facebook.
2. The father responded by posting a video to her wall, which includes him pulling out a handgun and shooting her laptop.
That’s it. We don’t know with any certainty any of the dynamics of their household. We don’t know whether her chores were indeed a burden. We don’t know whether the father is truthful in anything he says. Typically, the truth falls somewhere between two opposing versions of events.
Based on those two facts, how can we respond to his actions with anything other than horror?
Even if the father’s version of events is 100% accurate, how can we applaud violence as a resolution? What is he teaching his daughter? When her subordinate is out of line, she should smash her laptop? Not to mention the fear of knowing your father would take a gun to your belongings in anger…one day it could be pointed at you.
This is such a great, calm assessment of the situation. Thanks Brigitte.
Penelope
It’s fascinating the natural inclination to take sides. What the girl wrote and the way she wrote it was terrible. The way the father dealt with it was terrible. But the father has more responsibility than the girl to behave in a constructive manner.
There’s no reason to think that either of them are terrible people. He’s just not skilled at dealing with his daughter and her behavior (along with his reaction to it) reflects that.
I hope they get some decent family counseling.
Good points.
Unfortunately, I don’t think he’s the type to seek family counseling or other form of help. The original Facebook thread (his page) which links to the video is prefaced by the following –
“Parents and Kids… watch.
Today was probably the most disappointing day of my life as a father and I don’t know how to correct the situation. Since I can’t seem to make any headway with my daughter on Facebook, I chose instead to remedy the problem permanently.”
I also hope they get some form of help.
You’re right, Mark. Frequently, the ones most in need of help are the most resistant to it. And for him to think that he’s actually fixed the problem, “once and for all,” when he’s actually exacerbating it, doesn’t bode well for them.
I see guys like this and I wish I could sit down with them and help them understand that they really don’t know what they’re doing, and that there’s no shame in that.
What a disturbing video. That father is menacing and hateful, exuding violence and reactivity. Something is rotten in Denmark, for sure.
I’m a seasoned classical homeschooler, and I use my collegiate background in English and Philosophy to teach grammar and formal writing at a classical school that my children attend one day a week. The poor girl in the video is not an “outstanding writer.” Her writing is, in fact, quite weak. Simple sentences, subject-verb constructions without exception, cliched, trite vocabulary, etc. Why did you use her writing as an example of the way kids can learn to write eloquently or evocatively from social media? Are your standards really that low, or are you simply trying to showcase a provocative YouTube for other reasons? I’m sure there are many ways to skin a cat when it comes to teaching writing; however, the young girl’s writing in your example is simply not an example of proficient, nuanced writing for any age beyond third grade. I hate to diappoint you, Ms. Trunk: The parenting/teaching path of least resistance which you so describe yourself as choosing is *not* best for kids.
The feeling I am left with is that the daughter is going to run away at the first opportunity and not look back. I feel like encouraging her to leave for the reasons Penelope mentioned about the dad disrespecting her property and privacy. It makes me sad to think that she would be better away from her parents rather than with them.
If you never teach english, you’ll never teach people to be critical thinkers, to CREATE and INVESTIGATE for themselves. That’s what good teachers teacher. Without that we’ll be left with a world full of people who can only link … bloggers, I guess. America has enough people with opinions. This girl, for example, with her 6th grade writing skills. Outstanding? Really? We can do better. We need people who know how to get off their bottoms and do shit. You know, create all those things for you to link to
Amen.
Penelope, I’ll be interested to read your opinion of this in about 5-6 years when your boys are in those obnoxious, know-it-all, self-centered teen years (the years all teens go through). Sometimes parents just get tired of it and do drastic things. As for property and privacy? Who is providing this girl’s home, food, clothing, AND HER COMPUTER? We parents aren’t here to offer privacy. We’re here to raise and protect our kids. To teach them how to function in the real world. When little miss 15-year-old sweetie pants can take care of herself and not depend on her parents, THEN she can get the privacy she thinks she deserves.
As for English classes, I think our kids still need them. They first have to learn to read and write. They can then learn further on social media.
I have no comment about your post, but I do have a comment about the video. I heard about this incident when one of my Facebook friends posted an article describing it. She and many of the comments were in the “good for that father” vein. I, on the other hand, thought it was the kind of displayed violence and intimidation that some of us girls learn early on, and then get into a violent, adult relationship and wonder what happened.
I’m glad that you posted the video here so I could see it in its full context. While I agree that the daughter’s actions were childish and disrespectful, and the father has a right to be angry and discipline her, his choice of shooting a gun into the computer is flat out physical intimidation. Same thing if he would have taken a baseball bat to it, or simply punched a wall.
If this is what we teach daughters at home — that your upsetting words will be met with physical force — and we teach sons that are watching that this is how “smaller” people can be treated, how can we be surprised when these same women enter into non-violent relationships down the road. This father’s anger was justified, but not his actions or the pride he displayed when he did it.
Correction: Read – “… how can we be surprised when these same women enter into violent relationships down the road.” Oopsie… Big difference. And one I know from experience.
What I find a bit shocking is that the majority of people seem to think the girl’s attitude in writing this letter is totally normal teenage behavior. Being angry at your parents and whining about your chores is normal. Demanding your parents pay you for chores, expecting them to buy you whatever you want, refusing to get a job, sneering at a person providing housekeeping services for your family — these are not normal teenage behaviors and should not be tolerated. This is the kind of attitude that becomes gross entitlement in adults. And this entitlement is what stunts kids so they are not able to grow up and handle their own adult responsibilities.
The kind of teenager who expects not to have household chores or to not have to get a job is the type of adult who won’t be willing to work hard and who expects things to be handed to them. That’s why this attitude can’t be tolerated as “normal”. Because the 15-year-old who has this attitude becomes the non-functional 28-year-old living in her parent’s house with no plans to move out.
Shooting the laptop may have been over the top, but this attitude is striking and needs to be addressed before this kid becomes a lazy, non-functional, entitled adult. And the fact that people think it’s normal is indicative of the problem with today’s parenting.
BRAVO!!! Well said and so true!
Have you ever thought about adding a little bit more than just your articles?
I mean, what you say is important and all. Nevertheless just
imagine if you added some great images or
videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with pics and clips, this blog could certainly be one of the very best in its field. Great blog!