For Silvan

It all depends upon what was meant by the initiative. In the case of the company I work for, such an initiative would have the schools focus on math, the physical sciences and technology skills -- a far cry from hamburger flippin'.

There's been talk of the same in NM, however what little industry we do have doesn't tend to remain long - except call cneters, and thats not really an industry. Its not NM that causes that, its the nature of many businesses today, here today, gone tomorrow.

The reason for tailor making the workers to the local industry here isn't so people can make a decent living, its so that people don't pull up stakes and leave NM. If they do all that'll be left is retirees. If that happens, who will the politicians scam for money?

John

oooh! oooh! I know! That's easy -- retirees and their heirs.

Ya'll definitely need to get rid of some of those politicians. Having tried to find things in Sante Fe, I think somebody went way overboard with the zoning and sign ordinances.

Sure it was ... that was why I brought it up.

It used to be more than a football school, but I think many, if not most Tech profs would agree that is no longer really the case. (I know several of them. They rue the day their school made it onto the national map.)

I was too stupid to help him with his math homework, but, fortunately, he's smarter than I am.

Hoo boy, you shouldda heard Renee in child birth. She'dda made the sailors pass out. She didn't produce such a ceaseless stream of obscenity this time around, which is really actually encouraging. :)

They might let her out tomorrow, depending. She's about 10,000% better off than yesterday.

I miss her though. I mean sure, we're getting on and stuff, but I'll be glad when she's home. There's laundry to be done, and dishes, and cleaning.

(I gotta get all that crap done before she gets home! I want her to just kick back and not have to worry about anything for a few days. I want her to make sure the doc writes out that excuse to take her through Christmas too. She has sick hours up the wazoo, and if she ever had any call to use them, this is surely it.)

I'm really debating whether to try to juggle both kids in two different floats in the Christmas parade. My wife would have done it, but I'm half the woman she is. It's a logistical nightmare. Under the circumstances, I don't think anyone would particularly notice if we decided to bail.

We appreciate it.

Maybe turn her some kind of urn for her gallstones. :) I just talked to my MIL a bit ago, and she has her own gallstones floating around in her house somewhere. Has had them in a jar or whatnot since '65 or so. So this is actually an idea.

Check with the kids. Sometimes those things *really* matter to them, sometimes not at all. They may also be more understanding than you expect.

Tim Douglass

Wed, Dec 15, 2004, 11:39pm snipped-for-privacy@users.sourceforge.net (Silvan) says: Maybe turn her some kind of urn for her gallstones. :) I just talked to my MIL a bit ago, and she has her own gallstones floating around in her house somewhere. Has had them in a jar or whatnot since '65 or so. So this is actually an idea.

My mother pulled that crap on me. Awhile after I got back home, found a prescription bottle, that rattled. Didn't remember any prescriptions I had left, so I opened it. She had my gallstones in there, and actually thought I would want to keep them. I'm not sure what I said, but I capped it back up, and set it somewhere, then forgot where I put it. When I found the bottle again, weeks later, I made damn sure to personally put it in the trash. Hell, when I die I want to be cremated. Then my ashes loaded into a muzzle loading cannon, and shoot them over the countryside.

JOAT We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

- unknown

Silvan responds:

There are always profs who will denigrate their own schools, no matter what. Unfortunately, I agree, Frank Beamer has a lot to answer for around Blacksburg, including a massively unneeded (except on the 6-7 home game days a year) road system. And then it isn't enough. Getting by VT on game day adds a couple hours to any trip over I81.

Charlie Self "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Sir Winston Churchill

Ayup. Now, if you compare to other college "graduates," you'll get a real enlightenment.

Preachin' to the choir on the road. I'll have to mail you a copy of the newspaper article that features me and mine standing in sight of The Wall. Although the reporter twisted everything I said completely out of context, and quoted me saying things that I said, but never in the same sentence, and also things he tried to put in my mouth, but never quite got me to say. Not that I was surprised by any of this.

I have to say, though, I'm no longer of the same opinion on the road deal that I used to be. Our population has really grown in the last couple three years. I've had occasion to drive across town, both towns, rather a lot lately for various reasons, and traffic on the "business route" has gotten downright nasty. We're the equal of any other nasty stoplights every twelve and a half feet cutting people off and flipping birds and just generally being unpleasant to each other big city I've seen. Quite the metropolitan environment, complete with hostility, impatience and a generous dollop of apathy. I find I use the new road quite a lot to bypass as much of that as I can manage. Though I still think it would have been better to run it through the middle of the mall and Wal-Mart than right beside my bedroom window. Classic NIMBY.

If you want to talk about the Pork Parkway, aka The Billion Dollar Road to Nowhere, though, that's another matter entirely.

I used to want to be cremated, but then got to thinking I kind of like the idea that some archaeologist a couple thousand years from now might dig me up and reconstruct my bones to try to figure out what I used to look like. So now it's a question of getting buried some place interesting, so it looks like I'm worth the bother. :)

start working on that pyramid now, or perhaps surreptitiously dig a hole in The Wall and be slid in, like they do with the powers that be in the kremlin.

Silvan responds:

Ah, yes. The Smart Road. The only thing smart about it was the contractor group that got the contracts.

Charlie Self "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Sir Winston Churchill

Has anything changes since I took the GRE 15 years ago? Back then, even the art students ranked higher than the education majors. (not that there's anything wrong with being an art student, it just struck me as ironic, given the kids in high school and college who majored in art, that they would have higher test scores than those instructing the next generation).

If our illustrious Governor "King" Bill Richardson runs for President then everyone can enjoy his selfish antics. He's got a good shot too given the push for the Hispanic vote, and King Bill is 50% Hispanic! Dems seem to think he's their savior. He's the one promoting NM in NY Times Square. As for SF, its called "The City Different", and it definately is. Their motto is leave your money but not yourself, a huge anti growth population lives there.

Wood, on topic! Saddly the bark beetle has decimated many of the piñon trees in the state.

John

I gott'a read?!?!?!

I'm a gul'durned senior middle manager! Don't I have people to 'splain this to me? :)