Skool Daze

So, it is Sunday and I should probably be getting ready for Church, but I decided that I'd rather blog, just so long as I don't spend to much time. I have been reading more lately, than I believe I have ever read. I have never been a fast reader, and have continuously had homework and such to worry about, and therefore never did much reading for enjoyment. There were times of course where I read all of The Lord of the Rings and other such things here and there, but never a time before when I simply wanted to find a book to read simply for the sake of reading. This is something that I always wondered if it would happen when homework went away. And lo, and behold, it did. I guess I can add this to my reasons why school stinks. ;-) Of course I'm an advocate for education and always will be. But I always felt like very little of my education made a desirable effect on me. Usually, it was simply a game to see what the best grade I could get was with the least amount of work. Terrible, I know. But I feel many teachers design the class in such a way as to make it nearly impossible to approach it in any other way. So, I think to my self, what could be done to better our educational system. This is a very complex question... a question that I know many readers of this will have strong opinions on. First of all, I realize that not all schools suffer from the same problems. Problems in downtown LA are not felt in the farming lands of Idaho. And the problems for education for elementary age students are vastly different than high school students. And of course, college is a world of its own. So, since I don't have much time, and I could spend hours laboring through the problems of each level of education and in each region, making opinions that are all prejudice to one degree or another and short-sighted, at this point, I don't think I will offer an opinion at all. But I simply want to ask each of you to please comment and answer the following question.

If you had a magic wand, and could make one change to the schooling systems that your children have/are/will go through, what would the change be.

Please submit a 2 page double spaced paper in Time New Roman 12 point font. Your papers are due this Friday at start of class. All late papers will be marked off 10% per day. This paper will be worth 100 points, or 1/10th your final grade. Hee hee!

Have fun, and I can't wait to hear what you all have to say.

BJ is gwaduated

This was written to a few friends and family on the day I graduated, August 8th:

Hey All,
Some of you I just saw today, others of you I haven't heard from in a
while. I hope you are all doing well, and I thought I'd just drop a
note to let you know that today I graduated. Hurray! …Applause…
Thank you, thank you. Now I hope I didn't startle any of you too
much, but yes, it seems that I finally got there. I graduated in
Sociology with no official minor, but a slew of computer science
classes under my belt. (Computer Science doesn't offer any minors.)
Now where to from here? Well, for now, I go to work. I recently got
a new job with Property Solutions, as their one and only Quality
Assurance Engineer. Really, I can kinda have any title I want, and so
I have also thought of Director of Quality Assurance, or
Vice-President of Quality Assurance, but really I'm just directing
myself for now, so the titles are just that… titles. I started with
them two weeks ago, and I'm enjoying my time there. They are a new
business, less than 20 people, but they seem to be constantly hiring
so they seem to be growing right now. In a few years, when the time
is right, I will head back to school to get an MBA so I can have
another title under my belt. They like to have students with
experience, and so it really isn't feasible to go now. Kirk and Andy
(brothers in law) both recently graduated from the MBA, and Ryan
(brother) did it years ago with his law degree. I'm starting to feel
left out. Rochelle is continuing in her nursing school. She has one
semester down and 4 to go (or 2 years). She will be a fantastic
nurse. She is currently TAing for a class, and helping teachers do
research.
Anyways, we have a new web page up… and it IS new. Incomplete and
unfinished, but still worthy of your browsing I hope. Please visit it
at http://somedayhappened.net Inside you will find pictures and a
blog, both of which will be updated soon. For those who would like to
log in, just send us an email, and we will send you an email that will
let you create your own account. Currently logging in allows you to
add recipes to the recipe page, and potentially see family birthdays
when the page is working right (also soon to be redone). We hope to
be expanding the web page soon with my new found free time, so check
back from time to time, and feel free to drop us a line.
Take care all,
BJ

Back to School, Back to School!

Well, our short vacation is finally over. BJ and I have class and work today. I worked at the Bean Museum. I compile statistical reports and make/ give the employee of the month award. It has been a good job; I have been there longer than any of the other students working there now! I will only be working there a little longer, though.
Lately, we have been working on a new website. We had an old one that BJ made shortly after we were married, but we decided to buy a real domain name and get a site started that we could do more with. Well, BJ has wanted to do it for a long time, but was always too busy with classes. Now, with him graduating soon, he finally convinced me it was a good ideal, and we decided to have a go at it. It has been a lot of fun. It is not fully functional yet, but it has a few pictures up. We hope to have a bunch of cool stuff on it, like a family birthday calendar, more pictures, family recipes, games, BJ's photography portfolio, and other stuff as we come across it. It was fun to come up with the design for the main page. We made kind of a scrap-booky look by scanning things in that I made, and digitally altering them.
Something that I am pretty excited about is that my sister Marissa got in to BYU and will be attending in the fall. I am trying to help her find a good apartment; let me know if you have any good suggestions. We hope to have her contract all done with pretty soon.