Archive for November 20th, 2012

Florida Keys Gadfly Club

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
From Nashville J yesterday:
No posts up today – so I hope that you are not sick or something and instead just taking a day off.
If your sick – feel better soon!
J
======================
I replied:
put this on Facebook this morning:
 
So, sometime last night my old laptop gave up the ghost, which I learned on getting up before dawn and trying to use it. So, I went back to bed and, to my surprise, was able to go back to sleep. I dreamt of driving my car southward on Seven Mile Bridge, up to very heavy construction, men digging into the bridge, under it, then my car was on a slab of road which was split off from the men in front of me and the road behind me, and my car was about to tip into the gap in the front, but a gentle wiggle, or nudge moved the car and me safely onto the section of road just big enough to hold the car. I asked the men, “Are you installing power, water or Atomic Energy Commission?” They didn’t answer. I awoke thinking maybe I might take the day off, get a new laptop at Radio Shack on Big Pine, which is how the day mostly is going, so far.
So far, this replacement/new laptop sucks
=====================
J replied:
Sorry about the puter, hope you get where the new one works the way you want it to, we can’nt have you missing many days.  :-)
Might try that sleeping in more tho – I could not go back to sleep when I woke up for 63 years – but in the last six months, now sometimes I can go back to bed and sleep another couple hours.
Thanks for lettimg me know you are ok.
J
====================
I replied:
Here’s an example, of mmple senas supposd to be siany so this how  far today of machine types essenteces tennc – th and another This laptop really doesn’t likets to type documen at it just did to these two sentences See wh
The cursor, en it wants to work , lsdoclicker works wh
======================
J replied:
Yep, that sucks alright!  Do you have a program that you speak and it types what you are saying?
OK, I am leaving you and the computer to work out your differences this evening and hope that all is working in the morning!  :-)
J
======================
I replied;
No, g program on speakinsick puppy going back to Radio Shack in This am
======================

The replacement ASUS laptop seems to work just fine. The one I got yesterday worked like I had bought it at the Dollar Store or Chernobyl. I doubt anyone else wants to know, or even cares, what came to me about why I was put through that ordeal just after Hidden In Plain View’s Facebook page became unaccessible except through Erika Biddle’s Facebook account. Quel domage.
=============================
From The Key West Citizen today:
[Ed] Davidson has a reputation for asking questions as a School Board gadfly. Dick said he is confident Davidson will continue the tradition now that he is a board member.
 
Ed will be sworn in, I think at the beginning of this afternoon’s School Board  meeting in Key West, starts 4 p.m. I imagine John Dick and the other three school board members will not enjoy having Ed in their midst, as an equal, as opposed to a mere gadfly who only got to speak 5 minutes at a school board meetings for the last 10 years.
For years The Citizen has labeled me a gadfly when it writes about me running for office. When Sandy Downs ran for sheriff in 2008, The Citizen labed her a gadfly. She looked up gadfly and found it was what Socrates was called, and she liked that. Welcome to the Florida Keys Gadfly Club, Ed. Right now, as far as I know, there are only three members who actually have been called gadfly by The Citizen. I also have been called gadfly by the Keynoter.
I heard “Sean Kinney” in my sleep this morning, so after waking up I  went on line and went to the Keynoter online and found this:

By SEAN KINNEY

skinney@keynoter.com

Posted – Saturday, November 17, 2012 10:20 AM EST

takestock

By SEAN KINNEY

Anthony Garcia-Montero (center), a 10th-grade Key West High School student, signs a contract joining the Take Stock in Children program, which culminates in a full college scholarship if he abides by the contract’s terms. The Monroe County School District has a new group of students that could be headed to full college scholarships in five years. This week, 58 seventh-graders signed their Take Stock in Children contracts to stay crime- and drug-free, maintain good grades and get involved in community service. They also meet once a week with a mentor. If successful, they are rewarded with a scholarship good for two years at one of Florida’s 28 community colleges, followed by two years at one of 11 state colleges or universities. The educations are financed through public and private money invested in the Florida Prepaid College Foundation. John Padget, a member of the state Board of Education and a former Keys schools superintendent, has taken Monroe County’s lead in Take Stock through the Monroe County Education Foundation. “We always talk about the end game,” Padget told students at a Thursday signing ceremony at Key West High. “A bachelor’s degree from a college or university, that’s the goal. It’s not a dream, it’s a plan.” Take Stock Program Coordinator Leslie Holmes said that in Monroe, there are 248 students now going through the program, with a total of 621 served countywide in the program’s 13-year history. Statewide, there are 6,656 active Take Stock students. Programs offered to Take Stock participants include are Leadership, Excellence, Accelerating Potential, hosted on the University of California-Los Angeles campus and giving students a peek at college life; and the Experiment in International Living, which sends students around the globe to stay with host families and become immersed in a foreign culture. The program is driven by volunteer mentors who agree to spend an hour each week assisting students.

========================
Sounds like a good program. This gadfly wishes, though, that John Padget and the School District had as much devotion to vocational training, which far more Keys students need.
Sloan Bashinsky
goodmorningfloridakeys.com
goodmorningkeywest.com

Posted in Today's FlaKey Drivel | No Comments »