Not loving the city

I appreciate the guest post, Jewel Rodgers

My kids were just not loving it in the city – they weren’t really making any friends and I didn’t necessarily feel safe with them walking long distances and things like that. I thought about it for a long time and I finally made the decision last year that it’s time for us to all move out here to the country for a different life. We’ve been here for about 6 months now and the kids are adjusting really well. We got a dog and http://internet.hughesnet.com internet so they could still get on Facebook and all that and I generally just feel more rested and less stressed being out here. My boss is allowing me to work from the farm most of the time which is great since it’s about an hour commute and I just feel good about the changes my family is making. My kids are great kids but they needed more room to thrive and I feel like now that we’re out here in the country they can really be who they were meant to be.

I think it is more widespread than imagined

A few years ago a good friend of mine died of some form of cancer. At the time no one told me exactly what the cancer was, but I’m beginning to think it was Mesothelioma because he ran a cement company. I’m thinking that because I just found out that there is asbestos in insulation, roof shingles, cement, brake linings, flooring products, and textiles. The “textiles” part really worries me – because “textiles” generally refers to fabrics. Does that mean carpets and fabrics?

I really didn’t realize that asbestos was in so many products that we come into contact with on a daily basis! And I just found out that the symptoms often don’t surface until as many as 30 to 50 years after the exposure to the asbestos!

With the baby boomers were born, there was a massive housing explosion that created a lot of these products to be put into the general population. I think that the repercussions are yet to be fully seen.

Moving

Thanks for the post from Sylvester Campbell

The list of things that need to get done before moving is seriously getting longer and longer. I know that I sort of take on that responsibility since I am a homemaker and my husband works out of the home, but he is going to have to help me with some of this list or it just isn’t going to get done in time. The things at the top of my list today are to research New york energy rates and find a list of day-cares that I am going to check out when we go for our house hunting trip. I really am excited about this move, but I do wish that I could crawl in my bed and just wake up when all of this work is done! I just want to wake up and be in my new home with everything unpacked and my children in their new schools. This is not my first rodeo, I have done this plenty of times. I know in my heart that it will all get done and work out, I just need to start my to-do list!

My goosebump song

I think that if someone were to ask me what my all-time favorite song in the world is, I would have to answer that it is “The Impossible Dream” from the musical “Man of LaMancha.” I can remember when I was a pre-teenager my school was taken to a field trip to a theater in the round to see that as a live performance. I’ve seen it a couple more times as live performances, and seen the movie several times as well. At one point in time I had the sound track on an LP, but I don’t have any LPs any more – my ex got all of them as part of the divorce settlement. Every time I hear that song I get goosebumps. What is YOUR goosebumpy favorite song?

The modern classroom

Guest post by Susan Schumaker

Computer Based Training is increasing in popularity in the work place and in the classroom. The Information Age has made many changes to the way people are approaching education. As a college student, there are many classes I took that included taking labs in the computer lab at school. In the workplace, several of the places that I have worked focused their training sessions in an office full of computers.

Many professions now require the passing of state certification exams, and the preparation courses for these exams are available over the Internet. The exams themselves are done on computers in modern, secure testing facilities. The Information Age has truly transformed the way that business and education are done in the United States.

In Maine, the public education system gives the students their own personal laptop computers to take home with them, and to continue using the same laptop through out their high school years. This kind of forward-thinking is something that I think every state should get involved in. The world is shrinking, and becoming more competitive every day. We need to give our students every competitive edge we can.