Messages

1141

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: September 25, 2011, 03:49:53 PM »

Tardiness was a separate and somewhat complicated issue in high school to say the least.

Speaking of tardies, have any of you heard of (or have) the "Tardy Eliminator System" or "Tardy Sweep?" This is a fairly new thing, overall. My high school implemented it in the spring semester of this year. It's basically just another way to crack down on tardies and reduce them. What happens is that the teachers lock their doors once the tardy bell rings, and if a student is late to class, he or she has to go to a station, get the ID scanned, and then walk back to class with a pass. To get into the classroom, the student must display this pass in the window of the door. With two tardies, a student is let off with a warning. More tardies mean more severe punishments, the worst not being executed but by having three days of ISS. If any of you have this system implemented at your school or have heard of it, I'd be interested to hear your comments about it. I can see both its advantages and disadvantages.

1142

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: September 25, 2011, 01:46:13 PM »

I'm forgetting what grades some of you guys are in who are talking about demerits, but here's a run-down of my "disciplinary" experience.

In my elementary school (4th and 5th grades), we had what was called the "Oops" board, and it was very strict (i.e. don't forget your materials, don't disrupt class, etc). Three "oops" marks meant detention.

In middle school, we did have demerits and referrals. Demerit was the first action, and if you got so many demerits you would get a "referral," which by the way was a "referral" to the middle school principal. So many referrals would then equal an in-school suspension.

In my high school, we also had demerits, but we did not get written up for these little things like forgetting your materials or laughing in class. One big thing was that we had to wear IDs in high school (since it was public), and it was very easy to get written up for that since a lot of people refused to wear them. Demerits were also issued in "groups," meaning a student would hardly ever get just one demerit; often times, even if a student did just one thing wrong, he or she would get three demerits at a time. So many demerits would equal an in-school suspension, then you could get out-of-school suspension.

Paying a teacher $20 is ridiculous. However, at my high school, the cell phone/electronic device policy was very strict. If you were caught using any form of electronic device in class, it would be confiscated and you would have to pay $15 to get it back. That $15 was supposed to go to the office, but there's no way to know for sure that the money didn't just go into the teacher's pocket.

1143

IntelliStar 2 Discussion / Re: IntelliStar 2 Beta Launch

« on: September 25, 2011, 01:34:26 PM »

Comcast in ATL finally got the IS2!

Tavores could you check if your area got it too?

Interesting that they are still launching the IS2 even after switching to "full-screen" LFs at only :28 and :58 for most programming. I guess this shouldn't stop them from continuing to launch an expensive program they developed within the past year, though.

1144

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: September 24, 2011, 12:14:57 AM »

Agreeing with the two posts above, summer is also my favorite season despite the excessive heat the south saw this summer. I actually really enjoy early fall, especially October, because it is a usually a wonderful, refreshing cool down from the intense summer and still has fairly mild temps in the 70s or low 80s for highs (that probably sounds warm for some of you ). But fall usually starts to take a turn for the worst starting anytime around mid-November.

1145

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: September 23, 2011, 03:15:59 PM »

The least TWC could do is add a radar where the LDL ad space is (Bottom Left corner) during live programming on the IS and IS2.

That won't happen.  They'll never want to give up that ad space.  They earn money by showing ads, not by showing radars.

Do they even show ads on the LDL anymore? All I have seen for awhile are the show names only.

1146

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: September 23, 2011, 12:13:31 AM »

Wasn't there an issue with the amount of space the 33% LDL took up? For example, I think I remember it would cover up practically the entire state of Texas on the Weekly Planner maps. But maybe it would look alright now that those have been updated...

If we really wanted to bring it back, put it on long-form.

1147

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: September 23, 2011, 12:10:31 AM »

So long, summer 2011! It'll be hard to forget you...

Looks like it's about time to pack up my things and move from the Front Porch back into the Pot Belly Stove for the start of fall (right as the temperatures started getting so nice...)

Congratulations, everyone, on making another 100 pages of this popular thread! We should be in the 1000s by next year!

I'll see everyone back here on March 20, 2012.

1148

General Discussion / Re: Blackberries and Apples

« on: September 22, 2011, 10:17:23 PM »

To me, the blackberry looks red...like a raspberry. Am I colorbind?

1149

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: September 22, 2011, 09:01:48 PM »

Is anyone else dealing with all of this rain? I swear I don't think I have had a full day of sun in weeks!

No, but could you send it down here to me please?  We need every drop we can get.

Not as much as TX and OK. How much of a drought is Atlanta in? I notice where they (as well as most of the state of GA) are "excessively dry" on the weather.com drought monitor.

As far as the rain in the southern plains, both TX and OK have seen some rain within the past week. But we obviously need a whole heck of a lot more to be anywhere close to escaping the drought.

1150

Hurricane Central / Re: Tropical Storm Ophelia

« on: September 22, 2011, 07:04:40 PM »

Wait a minute, Ophelia? Wasn't there an Ophelia in 2005, too? Why is the name being used again?

Hurricane names repeat every six years, Vic. Thus, we are using the 2005 list again. If a storm does not do enough damage to warrant a retire, then the name will be used over again. Not all names are retired every year.

1151

Programming and Graphics / Re: Studio Upgrade/Revamp

« on: September 21, 2011, 08:46:37 PM »

any word on when the new studio and graphics will be introduced?

Well, from Vivian's special surprise day, it looks like they have converted the former WUWA corner (which was the city backdrop and supposed "couch" corner even before that) to the location for the new, permanent I'm guessing, 3D green screen. That construction looks to be complete. Were there any other renovations being done in the HD studio?

As far as the Global Forecast Center, IDK on that progress.

1152

Hurricane Central / Re: Tropical Storm Ophelia

« on: September 20, 2011, 11:27:19 PM »

Maybe this storm will become something later in its cycle, but for the next few days it sure doesn't look like much.

P.S. Was this upgraded right to a Tropical Storm before it was even a depression?

1153

General Weather Chat / Re: Farmers Almanac Winter 2012 Prediction

« on: September 20, 2011, 11:08:26 PM »

I never agree with Farmer's Almanac predictions. Last year, they predicted extremely cold and below average snowfall for the northeast. We had well above average snowfall and slightly below average temps. They can't even get their 3 month regional forecasts correct. That's just my opinion.

And as stated above, if La Niña makes a return, this forecast will be thrown completely out the window (for the southern Plains, anyway).

Well that is only one piece of the puzzle, it can be overruled like it was last winter by the very strong -NAO contributing to the strong, persistent Greenland Blocking and the parade of storms coming up the east coast. Not saying this La Nina will behave the same as last winter's La Nina, but I remember many forecasted a blowtorch winter for 2010-2011 across the southern US and many of us saw record snowfall, white Christmases not seen in over a century, record lows, and some pretty nasty cold snaps. When that snowstorm came through the SE in January this year, we had snow on the ground for about 3 weeks and it was about a week before we saw above freezing daytime highs. It's reasons like that I take seasonal forecasts as entertainment and a grain of salt, too much FAIL potential. We can't accurately predict 12 hours out in advance in some circumstances, let alone 3 months.

Very true! This might be a dumb question, but I'm guessing these outlooks are supposed to be a general look at the overall winter? But how can you give a general outlook for a season? Because weather in the south, especially, can be very, very inconsistent during the winter season. For example, Dallas saw a major ice storm and snow burst in February of this year, whereas at the same time it was also 82 degrees later that month. I'm pretty sure no Farmer's Alamanc could predict that. What would they say: warm and icy? And yes, these are two specific examples, but many winters in Dallas are often all over the place: we'll have our unseasonably warm days, our average days, and our ridiculously cold days. So essentially, you can't put an "outlook" to that. As you said Tavores, it's sometimes very hard to predict weather hours or a few days in advance, so I don't really understand the purpose of the Farmer's Alamanc. I guess it's to provide some outlook, just so people know what to expect. However, people need not rely on it too much because it has the potential of not being accurate.

1154

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 20, 2011, 09:10:46 PM »

Hmm, the big LDL seemed to slip my mind. That would actually work better with the SD/HD trouble, except of course the dreaded sidebar would return on HD.

Since they're using the squeezeback now, I'm assuming this is what they will stick with for awhile, at least.

1155

General Weather Chat / Re: Farmers Almanac Winter 2012 Prediction

« on: September 20, 2011, 06:42:32 PM »

I never agree with Farmer's Almanac predictions. Last year, they predicted extremely cold and below average snowfall for the northeast. We had well above average snowfall and slightly below average temps. They can't even get their 3 month regional forecasts correct. That's just my opinion.

And as stated above, if La Niña makes a return, this forecast will be thrown completely out the window (for the southern Plains, anyway).