New Blogroll Additions

The following sites have been added to the blogroll here at Georgia On My Mind:

Here's Your Holiday---Mike-El describes his site as the poorly thought-out and even worsely worded ramblings about whatever happens to be on his mind at the time. You've been warned. I personally think he has some great postings.

Amo---a lovely blog with a little bit of everything expecially her art

My Beautiful Chaos---April contact me after Carnival 15 and said it was nice to locate some fellow Georgia bloggers. She has a great site and recently added a co-blogger, Lani, to her site.

JasonPye.com---Many regular bloggers on the Atlanta scene already know about Jason’s great site. He blogs about local, state, and national news from a captialist’s point of view.

Satellite TV Guru---The title says it all….now Georgia has their own online expert for those pesky dish problems

Educated and Poor---In her own words Miss Kitty is an adjunct college English professor. She battles ignorance daily at three different Georgia colleges.

Moonshine, A Journal of the Arts---Take a break from all the bloggy madness and head on over and check out all of the great submissions at this online magazine.

Yanked---a Yankee has just moved to Savannah! This is going to be interesting….

Georgia Birding---this is actually a website, but wow, what a great birding resource!

Of Eagles and Dawgs---Tales of life in a house divided by college allegiances

Bumps in the Road---Heg, pronounced as “hedge”, writes about daily absurdities and missteps….yep, you got it…life’s little bumps in the road.

GPB Cover to Cover---GPB as in Georgia Public Broadcasting. I was very excited to locate St.John Flynn’s blog which is basically a blog bookclub.

GPB Midday Music Blog---the blog for Georgia Public Broadcasting’s midday music show

GPB News---updated morning and afternoon with Georgia’s latest news

GPB Georgia Gazette---the blog for the weekly radio show with the same name…

Historical Books---research, history and genealogy books

Georgia Carnival 16

Welcome to the 16th edition of the Georgia Carnival. Please support these fine Georgia bloggers by letting them know you have visited them with a comment. Your continued support with your links and shout-outs at your site helps to alert others to what we Georgia bloggers have to offer.

Check out the new carnival button over on the right. It’s a great way to let others know about the carnival. If you would like to have this at your site send me an email, and I can provide the code.

You can host the carnival at your site! Just let me know you are interested and I will set up a date for you. It’s a great way to put your own personal spin on the carnival.

Now… on to the highlights of Georgia blogging during the past two weeks:

Items of Controversy

Elisheva points us to an article in the journal Nature where Evolution Theories are Challenged by Fossils.

Problems with money at Grady Memorial Hospital…..we’ve heard this for years. Georgia Politics Unfiltered says …Even though he’s a Republican, state Senator David Shafer (R-Duluth) comes up with some good pieces of legislation every now and then. See the solution.

Aging Hipster says please, no new road from Savannah to Knoxville.

I fear the housing market will become more and more controversial in the days to come. Who’s to blame? How can this be fixed? If you are planning to sell your house in the next few months you’ll want to take look at the post from Everything Finance Blog titled, Features That Add Resale Value to a Home.

Cadillac Tight opines on the Jose Padilla Conviction.

Red Clay Commerce discusses sonic booms, Gulfstream , and their little known impact on the Georgia economy in From Booms to Rumbles.

Iraq….yep, it’s controversial. Buzz says, “Apparently my video question for the You Tube Presidential debate has upset some people.”

….and what about Hillary? SpacyG, along with Sara, may have the answer with Hillary's Media Makeover, and Sara provides the background regarding their collaboration.

Innovations With Technology

30plusteacher provides the top forms of technology that kids want in their classrooms.

My mom and dad used to invite people over to see their hundreds of slides regarding their trips to Europe. Boring! Grift Drift has been traveling above the Mason-Dixon line and he’s been posting pictures along the way. Go on over and make sure you scroll down all the way. He’s heading to Gettysburg today and I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures and reading about his impressions.

SpaceyG shares Georgia's Aviation Past which would be a terrific clip to show students at the beginning of a unit of study regarding the early 1900s.

Every time you pay a bill online, you transfer money into your online savings account or your employer direct deposits your paycheck, do you know what kind of a transaction is really taking place in the back end ?

Its called an ACH transaction. Everything Finance Blog gives us the whole explanation.

Satellite TV Guru shares How to Save Money on Your Satellite or Cable Bill.

Introspection, Diversions, and Just Some Damn Fine Readin’

Pastor Bill asks, is anger good? Does it have a place for a Christian? Yes, it does! Read more.

Grasping for the Wind provides a review of Tipperary.

So which Georgia university is rated numer 1? The Other Athens has posted the academic rankings of Georgia's Universities.

The Amo page shares A Dream Home. Jefferson, of Red Clay Commerce, likes this painting and shares that Amo is his wife.

About Atlanta discusses some happenings in ATL over the weekend.

Terrell and his new class had an unexpected teachable moment and a surprise on a watershed walk.

Over at History Is Elementary I provide links to the latest Military History Carnival and the Education Carnival… C'mon....Get out of your comfort zone and follow those links.

As an educator I know how important visuals are. Apparently Mike-EL over at Here’s Your Holiday appreciates visuals as well. When Peach Pundit started taking names for the 50 most important People in Georgia politics he got busy and put some faces together with names. Great Job!

Food, Fabulous Food

Atlanta Malcontent gives the scoop on Atlanta's bests burgers.

Go eat at Toast says Atlanta Foodies

The next edition of the carnival will be found here two weeks from today.

Posts can be sent to gamind@mail.com or use the handy submission form.

Thanks for your continued support of the Georgia Carnival!

Carnival Submissions are Due

Well, it’s been slow around here this week. My extra time has had to go to classroom duties.

The 16th Georgia Blog Carnival will post sometime this Friday, August 17, 2007.

Submissions should be sent to me at gamind@mail.com or use the Blog Carnival submission form. Please forward your submissions before tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Submissions can be posts from your own site or you can nominate a post from another blog.

Poor Planning With School Registration...Who Is To Blame?

I was glad to see WSB News did not place the Clayton County School System as the bad guy in the recent reports concerning the crowds that deluged county board offices yesterday and today. The reports have stated that there were over 1,000 people in line attempting to register their children.

Imagine owning a television repair service and having 1,000 people showing up at your office wanting immediate service. The problem is they forgot the television. How could you help them? You couldn’t. Not until they bring the television. Okay, I realize my analogy may be a little off, but I want to post this and don’t have time to think of something really neat.

Most counties in the metro area have begun asking parents to register their children in one centralized location in the county….usually the county board office. In this way everyone is told the same thing and paperwork is streamlined. Most non-educators have no idea how the school-site offices become so clogged with parents three or four days before school starts wanting to register their children. You simply can’t move for the crowd and there isn’t enough room in the school-site offices for more than 10 people at a time in the outer offices. The paperwork is involved…..several pages. Many don’t have the shot records they need, social security cards, and in so many more cases now than ever before. the necessary divorce agreements so that educators know who they legally can talk and legally can’t. At the high school level discipline records have to accompany new move- ins as well, since we are getting more violent students in record numbers.

Actually I personally feel the main reason registration now occurs in one central location has to do with the safety of the office personnel. Parents verbally abuse the office staff when they are simply complying with state and local rules. With accountability the number one rule these days most school employees would rather be cussed out than told good bye by the school system for not obtaining the correct documentation. In years past when on-site regstration was still going on I’ve seen deputies on duty in the office to maintain order and I have seen pushing and shoving matches underway by parents in line.

I realize Clayton County has had and still has numerous problems with their school system, however, what I see is an ongoing non-educator problem….mainly parents. They lost their accreditation not too long ago because some of the elected school board members kept interfering with the day-to-day operations of the schools. Recently the school super resigned on her own, or perhaps it was hinted at, and the talk is it was over test scores. Clayton still has, according to the folks I know, a huge problem with school attendance. If the kids don’t show up they can’t learn in order to pass a test. Showing up is ultimately the parent’s job. In this most recent bad publicity parents ignore news reports regarding registration news, ignore the ability they have to call the school system or access the school system website to find out what they need, and decide they’ll just show up at the tail-end of summer and demand service. Folks, it just doesn’t work that way.

I recently registered my daughter for school back in our home county after she had attended school in the county where I teach. Even though I’m an educator I checked with the school system about what to do and went on line and printed out ALL of the forms I needed. We did have one little hiccup in that I was told my daughter needed a shot update. We headed to the Health Department and were told she was up-to-date to my daughter’s immediate relief. It seems that the folks in the registering department in our school district were so overwhelmed with folks from out of state they were telling everyone they needed more shots. We got a new copy of her shot record and were done, but here’s the real reason why we didn’t stand in line…….I registered my daughter over two weeks ago. One of the Dad’s on the video tape was complaining that his daughter needed a shot and it would cost $100……..It would not cost near that amount at the the Health Department. Another line stander complained that her grandbaby had never missed a day of school and it would be the school system’s fault if a day was missed. If we really want to know why so many children today will not take responsibility for their own actions we only need to look as far as the child’s biology.

Sure I understand that there were a few people in the long lines in Clayton County who did just arrive a few days ago in the state, but you can’t tell me that everyone in that line just arrived. No way……the majority got what they deserved for their procrastination.

I'm Not Sure How I Feel About Bonds...

Well, I’m not sure what I think about Bonds hitting 755…..He’s not Hank, you know?

Back in April I remembered my own experiences the night Hammerin’ Hank surpassed the Babe's record.

Georgia Carnival 15

Welcome to the 15th edition of the Georgia Carnival. Please support these fine Georgia bloggers by letting them know you have visited them with a comment. Your continued support with your links and shout-outs at your site helps to alert others to what we Georgia bloggers have to offer.

Check out the new carnival button over on the right. It’s a great way to let others know about the carnival. If you would like to have this at your site email me and I can provide the code.

You can host the carnival at your site! Just let me know you are interested and I will set up a date for you. It’s a great way to put your own personal spin on the carnival.

Now… on to the highlights of Georgia blogging during the past two weeks:

Literary Georgia

What’s wrong with the writing some Christian fiction writers produce? Otter, over at Grasping for the Wind thinks he knows.

Financial Georgia

I guess we all have visions of the perfect credit card. Mine would be one that automatically credits my account at the end of the month. Personal Finance of a Resident Alien provides some much needed information in Review: YourCreditNetwork.com.

Also, who doesn’t need a few Easy Ways to Save Money.

Educating Georgia

Just what do those teachers do on their summer off? Terrell from Alone On a Limb clues us in with one possibility.

The Fourth of July usually means it’s time for teachers to begin returning to the classroom to get it set up and ready. I generally spend two hours a day between the Fourth and August 1st at school along with several of my colleagues.

Bird In Hand also visits her school during summer, and recently picked up her $100 card compliments of the state of Georgia….you have to be quick though and spend it before they take it back.

Over at History Is Elementary I ask, Is state history being erased? and did you know Africans fought in World War I?

Another History Blog’s David Parker provides information regarding our newest and oldest graduate. It’s never too late to achieve….never.

Miss Kitty from the Educated and Poor blog is a brand spanking new addition to the blogroll. She is an adjunct college English professor. Over at Educated and Poor she writes about an ethics class service project. Personally I love the cat with extra toes…..I have one myself.

The Principal’s Office says nuts to peanut allergies!

Travel and Good Eatin’ Georgia

“…he’s going to have to sell a lot more watermelons than what he had in the trunk of his car to fix her teeth. And, hell, I saw the sorry condition of her teeth from the road.”

So begins Savannah Red’s excellent travel log Savannah River Swamp Trail.

Want to visit a non-populated spot? Stephen’s Untold Stories has the map for you.

Miss Vickie from Beyond the Crossroads fame has been traveling blog post style through our great state. Pack your bags and enjoy her travels with Things I Love About Georgia, Touring Georgia--Peaches to Beaches---Fountains to Mountains and All in Between, Are You Loving Georgia Yet?, Georgia's Shining Lights, Touring Georgia's Shining Lights, and Dreaming of Georgia's Lighthouses.

Creative Georgia

Marketing = Writing = Blogging……One of the things we don’t realize when we start blogging is through the process of our writing we are actually participating in marketing. Who knew? Scott over at Atlanta’s Marketing Center does and wants to share the good news that marketing is writing.

Creativity and cultivating new ideas isn't easy. Here are 5 ways to ignite the spark of creativity in all you do from Pastor Bill at Provocative Church.

Seems like creativity has met up with the culture of the business meeting as well…. It seems the grocery stories is the next meeting hotspot. Whole Foods has WIFI has the lowdown from So….What’s Next?!?

Ever gotten creative with food? In the past so have many Georgians, and they ended up making a fortune. Rebecca at Atlanta Foodies provides the history of food in Atlanta.

Georgia Takes on Politics and Current Events

Lefty via A la Gauche states it must be nice to be a member of the elite,

A Typical Joe has some advice regarding how to deal with conservative courts.

The Buzz Blog is buzzing about the fair tax while Blog For Democracy says there they go again!

Doug over at Considerettes states, “Americans are fleeing to Canada. What effect will this have on American politics?

Stacey at About Atlanta wonders about another Atlanta airport.

“He made them an offer they couldn’t refuse… and that’s what it boils down to…” so says The Beef Jerky Blog concerning Rupert Murdoch, the Godfather..

Is a certain group speaking for the homeless or not? Shelbinator wonders....while Atlanta Public Affair’s DecaturGuy asks what kind of body language does an illlegal alien have?

And what’s all of this from the AJC’s Political Insider concerning changing the way presidential primaries are held?

Worshiping Georgia

Mmmmmm…..Coookies at church? Valtool’s Box asks What would Jesus do with an oreo?

Ever been on one of those 1-800 help numbers and discover the person helping you is way off in India? Seems like everything is outsourced today….even compassion says Irenic Thoughts via Questing Parson.

The next edition of the carnival will be found here two weeks from today. Posts can be sent to gamind@mail.com or use the handy submission form.

Thanks for your continued support of the Georgia Carnival!

Villanow

Walker County’s hamlet of Villanow is interesting.

It is a crossroads community which has an interesting history regarding its name.

Two stories exist….one states that the name derives from a magnificent palace described in Jane Porter’s novel, Thaddeus of Warsaw, named Villanow. Another more local story tells of Mrs. Constantine Wood proposing the name saying, “It is no longer a hamlet, but it is now a village, or a village now, i.e. “Villa-now”.

I mentioned Villanow in my article Changing Pockets back in June.

This is a picture of the Villanow General Store.