There is a right way and a wrong way to make a New Year's resolution. Here are a few expert tips to see that your resolution actually makes a difference...

If you are going to make a resolution here is the way :)

New Year's Resolution Tips

Do you feel the urge to reveal your deepest, darkest secrets? If you do, you are not alone. Thousands of people have revealed their secrets on a web site called PostSecret.com. According to Technorati, PostSecret.com is the seventh most popular blog on the internet as of August 1, 2006. What is PostSecret? It’s a web site that invites you to anonymously reveal your secrets. The directions are simple:

“Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.”

Create a 4-by-6-inch postcard and draw, paint, or cut and paste whatever you desire to reveal your secret. Then anonymously mail to it to Frank Warren, the artist behind the project. Every Sunday, he puts the postcards on his web site. Sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny, and sometimes sad, it’s hard not to feel a wide range of emotions when reading the submissions. The skeptic in me ponders if the secrets are really secrets at all. But the artist in me knows that it really doesn’t matter if the person is telling the truth or not. We all have secrets. We all have something we hide about ourselves. It’s the choice to reveal what we want to the world that makes us who we are. And reading the submissions reveals more about us than it does the person who submitted it. It should remind us all that we have our own secrets to deal with.

This is from last fall but still interesting

20 Questions with Frank Warren

Quote from sports report at 3pm

"Just about every national media prognosticator from television, newspapers and the Internet have picked Virginia Tech (10-2) to beat Georgia (8-4) in tonight's Peach Bowl.

A victory tonight would secure the Bulldogs a spot in the final national top-25 of both major polls for the 10th consecutive season. With 7-6 FSU highly unlikely to be unranked at the end of this season that sustained mark of success by Georgia would become a national best.

More importantly, a victory tonight over the best team in the ACC this season and the most consistent program from that conference over recent years would cement Georgia's status as one of the nation's best all-around programs."

Well contrary to popular believe and the negative wishes of a certain Canadian the GA Bulldogs came back after half time and provided a victory for the home team.

The underdog pulls through

The Marshmallow Shooter is an excellent addition to the office arsenal, shooting calamitous confections over 30 feet. It is easy to fire and reload, making it perfect for quick attacks (or rapid defense). The Shooter holds up to 20 marshmallows for extended office campaigns, and is capable of rapid fire for laying down cover for coworkers.

Awesome!!

Marshmallow Shooter

The eStarling frame is a standalone Wi-Fi LCD photo frame that connects to a wireless network and automatically displays photos e-mailed to it in a slideshow format. Additionally you can specify an RSS photo feed from Flickr based on your own tagged keywords. You can even shoot photos on your mobile phone then e-mail them directly to your eStarling frame for display.

They are not taking orders right now but this rocks. It reminds be of an entrancing LED sign with up to the minute headlines

Wi-Fi Gmail and Flickr Enabled LCD Frame

To simplify a complicated subject,
there are two basic attitudes towards deaf people.
One is cultural, the other is medical.

THE CULTURAL VIEW
In the cultural view, deaf people are seen as whole, non-defective persons, as members of a socio-linguistic minority culture. They have a full-fledged, sophisticated language (American Sign Language in this country) that can be used in everyday life. Deaf people enjoy having their own sign-based schools, churches, theatrical events, and celebrations.

THE MEDICAL VIEW
In the medical view (also known as the "pathological" view), deaf people have a disability that needs to be remedied. If they have defective, damaged, or incomplete auditory equipment, they can use prostheses (hearing aids and cochlear implants) to correct or lessen this disability. Since hearing people use speech and listening to communicate with each other, deaf people should strive to improve their speech and listening skills to fit comfortably into this community. "Separatism" is discouraged. Sign language is looked on with disfavor or indifference, since it isn’t a "hearing" means of communication. Speech is "normal," signing is not.

This is an interesting article about the history of how society viewed and dealt with hard of hearing people.

Opposing Approaches

School headmaster Chamnong Chupatpong and Mano Sonkaew were driving a pickup truck on their way to Ban Baedo school in Yala province when they were shot, dragged out of the vehicle and burned to death, according to a witness, Lt. Tatsapol Suwannabul said.

And here we're worried about textbook stickers.

Muslim rebels in southern Thailand target school teachers

Of all the places that sexual predators could end up after prison, the worst is out of sight, away from the scrutiny and treatment that could prevent them from committing new crimes. But communities around the country are taking that risk, with zoning laws that banish pedophiles to the literal edges of society.

As the areas off limits to sex offenders expand to encompass entire towns and cities, if not states, the places where they can live and work are shrinking fast. The unintended consequence is that offenders have been dispersed to rural nowhere zones, where they are much harder to track. In confined regions like Long Island, they have become concentrated in a handful of low-rent, few-questions-asked areas — an unintended and unfair imposition on their wary neighbors.

The problem with residency restrictions is that they fulfill an emotional need but not a rational one. It’s in everyone’s interest for registered sex offenders to lead stable lives, near the watchful eyes of family and law enforcement and regular psychiatric treatment. Exile by zoning threatens to create just the opposite phenomenon — a subpopulation of unhinged nomads off their meds with no fixed address and no one keeping tabs on them.

I recently read another article about this same matter and registry issue they have run into recently. This is an interesting quandary

Sex Offenders in Exile - New York Times

WINE FLIGHTS
Sample our most popular wines by the glass

Flight One - White Varietals
Maso Canali Pinot Grigio, Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, Ironstone Chardonnay, Kendall-Jackson Reisling

Flight Two - Jazzy Reds
B.V. Coastal Estates Pinot Noir, McWilliam's Shiraz, Ravenswood "Lodi Old Vine" Zinfandel, Terlato & Chapoutier Shiraz

Flight Three - Progressive Wine Experience
Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc, Hawk Crest Chardonnay by Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, B.V. Coastal Estates Pinot Noir, Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon

Flight Four - Premium Reds
Le Crema Pinot Noir, St. Francis "Old Vines" Zinfandel, Rutherford Hill Merlot, Geyser Peak Cabernet Sauvignon

There is a restaraunt called Wildfire that does these wine flights... seems to be a good chance for those that are inexperienced in wine to try a couple

'Wine Flights' at Wildfire

This link is to a letter my Superintendent sent to Johnny Isakson in reference to No Child Left Behind. It makes several good points. I figured I would share

Congressional NCLB Letter