A priceless education

28 January 2009, 8:29 am by Giggles
Categories: Education, Politics, Venting
I am of the opinion that education is priceless.

Unfortunately, I seem to be living in a state that thinks you can put a price on education, and that you can then sell it at the dollar store because it’s that cheap.

Can I please, just once, live in a state that values education??

Today there are more than 1,000 University of Arizona students and faculty, together with I’m sure thousands of other students and faculty from the other two state colleges here, protesting at the state capitol building. I will be one of them.

The legislature is proposing a $243 million cut from the Arizona University System in the 2009 fiscal year, and as if that weren’t quite the death blow, they are then going to cut another $388 million in the 2010 fiscal year. What are they thinking?!?! And there will be even more cuts for the k-12 education in the state.

Maybe the state legislatures should take a look at the report card Education Week gave education in Arizona this year. Arizona got a C-! 72.2% overall. The national average is not much better, 76.2, but it is better. Arizona is already failing when it comes to spending on education. Can you do worse than an F?! You’d think they’d be completely embarressed by what they are spending on education!

I can’t think about this too much. It makes my blood boil. There is nothing more important than the future, and Arizona legislatures are ready to just throw it all away. A states economy depends so much on how well the value education. Businesses are attracted to places that have a good education base. Killing the universities in this state will not help the economy. Killing education in Arizona will kill Arizona. I hope they figure that out sooner rather than later.

There are few things outside of my religion that I care and believe as deeply as I do about my religion, but education is certainly one of them.
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Choose

26 January 2009, 8:23 am by Giggles
Categories: Gospel, Relationships

It seems like my list of ways to annoy a single person is always growing. I want to talk about one thing people often say. Some might say they are well-meaning people. But I think well-meaning people would think about what they are saying before they say it and would know who they are talking to before they speak. These people are not well-meaning because they speak without knowledge and thus their words have negative meaning, not well meaning. Or maybe I’m just cynical about some things.

Anyway.

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Successful teaching

24 January 2009, 12:19 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Learn Something, Questions

An interesting question was raised in one of my classes this week. The professor asked who in the room had ever had a calculus class. A handful of us raised our hands. I had it in both high school and college. He then assumed we all passed the class. I did, C in high school (if I remember right), and A in college. So was I successfully taught calculus?

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My name is…

23 January 2009, 10:53 am by Giggles
Categories: Books, Education, Folks, Meme

I read recently an article about nicknames (What’s in a nickname – BBC). It is interesting to think about how they come to be and who uses them. So I’m going to think about it here for a minute.

I never had a nickname growing up. My brother called me something when he was little before he could say my name, but that didn’t last long. I didn’t have a nickname in high school or college. But within a year of graduating college I had two.

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An “Historic” Day

20 January 2009, 8:40 pm by Giggles
Categories: Politics

I watched the inauguration stuff today because I needed to analyze the speech in terms of motivation for a class.

I have to admit, I didn’t feel the overwhelming sense of history about this day. Part of that is that I really don’t remember any other inauguration in the past. We’ve had other presidents before this one. We’ll have other ones after this one. The economy is going to suck for a long time still. Half the world will probably hate us till the world ends.

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Moved!!

20 January 2009, 12:25 pm by Giggles
Categories: Proclamations, Science & Tech

Some of you yesterday, and even this morning, saw a post that isn’t here any more. It looked like this:

We (the mouse in my pocket and I) are moving all the files for my website from one machine to another. That means that any comments you make from this point on until the move is complete, are more than likely going to be lost.

I’m actually terrified of losing this whole blog in the move. But hopefully we’ve taken enough precautions and made enough back-ups that this won’t happen.

At least the packing for this move is easier and lighter than the packing for my move last year.

January 19th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

The move took me all of yesterday afternoon and without Mr. Me’s help I probably would’ve lost the whole blog. It’s thanks to him that all my random ramblings are still here for everyone to enjoy. So I hereby proclaim a celebration in his honor. Hooray!!

While I was backing everything up and moving everything, I updated the software used to run my blog too. Now I can add a few plugins I’ve been eyeing. Those will happen over time.

Right now I’m just grateful that this move was much easier than my move last year. Actually, come to think of it, Mr. Me helped a whole lot with that move too. His mad tetris skillz were what got all my stuff into the moving truck last year. Another celebration in his honor. Hooray!!

Now, back to your regular random ramblings.

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Quilts!!

17 January 2009, 10:04 pm by Giggles
Categories: Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

Today I was escorted by a very handsome man to the Tucson Quilters Guild’s annual quilt show, a Quilt Fiesta if you will. It was a lot of fun, for both of us (if I can be so bold to say). We agree we probably had rather different experiences even though we were both looking at the exact same things at the exact same time. That’s just the nature of having different backgrounds. I was looking at technique and style while he was enjoying overall effect. It was fun to see it through other’s eyes.42D

I also got a lot of fun ideas for possible future quilts. I must finish all the ones I’ve already started or bought fabric for first though. And I’m actually doing quite well on that too. I think in 2008 I finished more quilts I have fabric for than I bought new fabric for other quilts. So that’s moving in the right direction.

I took photos of a lot of the quilts and I’ve added them to a page on my web site. Take a look at them. Some of them are real cute and fun, all of them are down right amazing.

Miss Giggles 2009 Quilt Fiesta Photos

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