NYC Travel

New York, New York
I love the city and what it has to offer, but the best part is that I
leave each night and can return the next day if I wish. I have family
who live about 45 minutes away from the city by train. I really enjoy
riding the train to and from the city because it gives me a chance to
relax, read, sleep, or do pretty much anything else I wish to do. Today,
I am using the time on the train to type this entry. I am on my way into
the city to attend a Broadway musical. I think that the show should be
fun and relaxing. This will be my first Broadway show. I know I will
enjoy the technical aspect of the show as much as, if not more, than the
show itself because I will be able to relate to that part of the show.
While I am not going to a show that I have heard about before this trip,
I know that I will still enjoy the atmosphere. I am almost to the city,
which means I will be underground, therefore I most post now to avoid
losing the above information that does not have very much substance or
flow. The big apple awaits.

The Governor

Everyday is a new day filled with at least one first, and today wasn't an exception to the rule. I found out this morning that Governor Bobby Jindal would be in town this afternoon and that he was going to be speaking at LSUA. My grandfather asked me if I wanted to go with him and I decided that I would. The event was in a small conference room and there were less than 100 people in attendance, but it was a unique situation for me. I went with my grandfather on my dad's side of the family, but I managed to sit between both of my grandfathers. I can't say that I have ever had that happen before, and especially not in that setting. One grandfather was there as an elected city official and the other one was there as an appointed state official. It was really neat to hear Mr. Charlie Weems recognize each of the special members in the audience including my grandfather who is on the Board of Regents, but not my other grandfather who is on the local city council. The grandfather who was not recognized by Mr. Weems was absolutely fine with not being recognized, but the first words out of the governor's mouth were that we would also like to welcome Councilman Silver. It was really fun for me to be able to experience such an occasion, and I would have to say that is probably something that is very unique to my family. Both of my grandfathers have served and chaired many of the same boards, and, in fact, have worked on several projects and boards together over the years. I feel very lucky to have both of them as grandfathers. Each has a very interesting personality and other character traits that make them very unique individuals, and I appreciate that about each of them. I also can't even begin to say what the two of them have done for me over the years. I will say the event with the two of them there made it very special. Now back to what made the event special for most people--the governor. He came to announce two capital outlay projects in the works after the first two special sessions and the first regular session. The first is almost a 10 million dollar project for a building at LSUA, and the second is a close to 30 million dollar project for a center to be used for natural disasters or man made disasters. I was very impressed with his ability to speak. He only looked down at his notes when discussing figures and actual names of the buildings. In other words, only when the information was very easy to confuse because he mentioned over ten locations of projects and the amount of each for the Central Louisiana area. Overall, the experience was very unique and entertaining. By the way, I also met the new chancellor of LSUA.

The Red Stick

Today I am in the capital of Louisiana, Baton Rouge. I am going to an event at my aunt's school called Superhero Day. She has been putting on the program in her classes for many years, but I have never seen the program before today. Baton Rouge is much different than Alexandria and Natchitoches. Last night, we went to eat and needed reservations to get in because the place was so busy. Pretty much every restaurant we passed was packed. I would say the restaurants in Baton Rouge have all benefited from Hurricane Katrina. Also, the roads most definitely have more traffic. Traffic is the main reason that I like where I live. (Also, I will use contractions in today's post to appease certain readers) The traffic here is awful to me even when it's supposedly not bad at all. I can't imagine being in such traffic everyday because I would go crazy waiting all of the time; however, I would like the many restaurants and multiple great stores that this city has to offer. So I guess with every larger city there is a price to pay for the extra conveniences and options. Overall, I like the city, but wouldn't like to live here on a daily basis. Later today I will return to the normal life of bad traffic being a line of ten cars, the options of restaurants going from 300 to 50 and about a five to ten cent difference in gas prices, but I will realize that there are many things I love about the small towns I live in within this much larger place we call Earth.

Open Enrollment

Rapides Parish has decided to change all of the high schools to open enrollment. What does open enrollment mean? It means that students can decide which school he/she wishes to attend without regard to any type of zone. But wait, if there is no zone what will happen to the size of different schools? Will athletes be heavily recruited? Will some schools become academic and others sports schools? Will some schools lose all students? I will address each of these to the best of my ability. Please note that I have read the information published and talked/listened to different school personnel discuss the events, but do not guarantee that all of the following information is 100% accurate. If a student applies to attend Bolton High School, he or she will be able to attend Bolton as long as the school has not reached some magic full capacity number set by the schools and school board. If the school is filled, the superintendent has the right to decide which school the student will attend. I think that could cause a nightmare. Athletes may be heavily recruited, but the LHSAA said that parish should develop a system-wide policy that is strict on recruiting. Athletes will be immediately eligible at whatever high school he/she chooses, but if he/she decides to switch schools he/she will lose one year of eligibility. Also for the first year, any and all students will be able to switch high schools and be immediately eligible. One last note, transportation will only be provided to the home school, or the old zoned school. The problem that could arise from this is that if a student moves from one house in Tioga to Alexandria and plays sports for Tioga and rides the bus to school, the student would need to apply to stay at Tioga, which would most likely happen, but most importantly provide his/her own transportation. If he/she decides to switch schools as is normally done when such a move occurs, then he/she would be ineligible to play sports for one year because the bona fide move clause no longer exist since no attendance zone exists. Obviously, just as the case is today, some schools will be better at sports and others have a strong academic side, but I do not think the schools will become divided on the basis of sports and academics alone. Also, no school will lose all enrollment because the rules are setup to prevent this from being possible. I believe that Rapides Parish is in for an interesting year in the high school atmosphere, but I also think it could turn out to be a complete success if the parish stays on top of all rules and regulations. I will say that Bolton is still the best school to send a student to in the parish for academics, extracurricular activities and some sports. Other schools may be the best all round or the best in sports, but no other school can provide the diversity of Bolton. Bolton activities are as diverse as the students that attend the great school. DISCOVER BOLTON- DO MORE- LEARN MORE- BE MORE at Bolton High School. Open House TONIGHT 6:30 pm!

Technology

I promise I will not have three posts everyday, but today is the first day and I have plenty to write about on the blog. This morning I had office hours for The Current Sauce, the Northwestern State University student-run newspaper, and about an hour in the internet went down. I hate when technology fails me or fails in general. I live through technology. Constantly I am checking and writing e-mails, going to new websites, reading the news from the best websites and news sources on the web and trying to find something new to do online, and because of my addiction with doing all of the above I am dependent upon computers and especially the Internet. Anyway, the Internet was out for about two hours and I was confined to using my Blackberry for all communication through technology. I love my Blackberry as a secondary source, but not as the only source for surfing the web. During the two hours, the News Editor began to wonder how the down time was impacting the school, students and faculty at NSU, and I began to ponder life without the Internet and before the Internet. We were most definitely a more patient society because we could not just send a quick e-mail to someone about an event taking place at the end of the week, but rather had to hand write or type a letter to be mailed by the United States Postal Service. The turn around time was much greater, but the message was much more personal. Now if I send an e-mail, I expect a response within 24 hours for sure and normally within 8-12 hours. Ultimately, I realize that technology is a very important resource in the business world and in the personal world, but is it more important than the virtue of patience? I do not know the answer to this question, but what is your take. Let everyone know by commenting to this post. For now, technology will continue to make me more impatient than what I would be without having technology.

The Daily Grind

Have you ever thought that from one day to the next everything looks the same, but then realized how different the day really is. Today, I walked up to the newsroom and decided that I wanted to start a blog. Why a blog? It is a way to express myself and to post opinions on different things that I care about or like to talk about. It can serve as a soapbox on some days or maybe as an educational site on other days. It is a way to move each day forward, but still have something to look back on about what I was thinking or what was happening in the world on that day. I hope that someone will find the topics of interest, and join in the conversation through comments or questions and allow this site to become a fun place to collaborate and communicate.