[iucracker]

its a great place to live and vcation all year round!!!

[Blondie621]

I moved to Florida 3 years ago from Jersey....I cannot stand these rednecks here! Horrible! They are nothing but bigtime rude, disrespectful, unfriendly animal abusers! Ready to go back to good ole' Jersey!

[cal bear]

Originally Posted by BlueWillowPlate

Perhaps we don't have UCLA, but University of Florida, FSU, and University of Miami represent us quite well.

On the football field perhaps, but I'm still not impressed. Florida and the SEC is one big football plantation.

Tell you what - I'll stack the team GPAs of the Stanford, Cal, and UCLA football teams against Florida's, FSU's, and Miami's any day. And when it comes to knowledgeable, articulate, black athletes who can find Ulan Bator on the map, we win hands down.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by cal bear

BTW, that's precisely my point - your kid didn't get state help until he proved his academic excellence - that state doesn't do diddly squat to financially help students BECOME ACADEMICALLY EXCELLENT - a hugely important difference. It rewards the cream and lets the milk go sour.
I was in Florida when that One Florida machination was passed. What a joke.

Well, maybe we are coming at this from different points of view.
IMHO a kid had to take *some* responsibility for his education. There is only so much that can be done getting that cream to rise to the surface.

Originally Posted by cal bear

>Cal bear, that willy-nilly development you abhor can certainly be >dreadful, but some of the worst examples I've ever seen of it were in >SoCal, where the accompanying traffic was deplorable.

As if the 60 mile stretch of US 1 from Palm Beach to Miami is a journey that is any more aesthetically pleasing (a McDonald's every 4 blocks)....and besides, Northern and Central Californians have an ambivalent relationship with SoCal anyway.

As for Florida beaches, I thought St. Augustine was one of the most beautiful little beach towns I ever visited. Mind you, this was over 20 years ago, so I have no idea what it's like now. I do know about the beaches in St. Pete - I learned that in the summer, one does not go to beach to cool off - felt like a sauna. And yes, evening breezes in Florida are magical, but one has to survive the day first - yuck.

Go to Negril Beach in Jamaica - that's a real beach, with clear water. Jamaica...

Negril is where we spent our honeymoon, 26 years ago. Once we chased the rats away from our little apartment, it was great. More murky than the Gulf, though.
But going to the beach here on Amelia is both cooling and relaxing. I saw a sea turtle this evening.

And of course I've heard of the FAFSA - one cannot receive financial aid, scholarships, or fellowships without it. But should one really have to go into debt in order to retake Algebra I in community college? I went through not only my AA but also my BA and MA degrees by paying out of pocket and not taking out any student loans. It is only as a Ph.D. student that I've had to do so. I know folks in NY who are 40K in debt just from their community college days - pure madness. If one adds it all up, it would have cost them the same to live and go to school in California.

Yep. Seems to me that those "shoulds" that you speak of are up to YOU to change. Anyone who looks into high school education should have awareness of college algebra expectations--and opportunities. You are not necessarily going to be taken by the hand and strolled through the process. My kid and his friends took care of what they needed to do, and everyone on his soccer team went to college.
I have one older kid who ended up going to U of WI grad school, and who knows where our younger one will go. But neither relied on the state to coddle them through. Neither of them will be $40K in debt.
I've had to go back to school, myself, to secure employment. And I am far below the PbD level.
I agree with you that these problems are all over, and are not always easy to navigate. But you do what you need to do, and then enjoy the results. Best of luck to you, whatever happens.

[Alphaman]

Originally Posted by BacktoFLigo

If you compare the water from the EAST coast of Fl to the gulf, that is a huge difference too. The water looks so much cleaner and bluer over there from Melbourne down. I think the gulf water is pretty brown and not attractive over here. And there are about NO waves over here...

The water up in the northeast is not dirty... The sand up there is darker making it look like that. It's very clean, we don't get red tide up there ever... It's just too cold to swim in for me.

No red tide in the North east? I think you might be mistaken I was born and raised on the coast of Rhode Island and although not common it has happpend, and the water is clean up north unlike the other poster said.


Here is a link about red tide.

http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/factsheets/redtide.html

[Alphaman]

Originally Posted by Blondie621

I moved to Florida 3 years ago from Jersey....I cannot stand these rednecks here! Horrible! They are nothing but bigtime rude, disrespectful, unfriendly animal abusers! Ready to go back to good ole' Jersey!

Where in florida are you?

[ChrisA70]

I never saw a red tide in Maine. It happens all over along the coasts. It all depends on algae.

The water up there in the northeast(NY, New England is very clean) I agree too. It's just more rocky with darker sand. It's just COLD up there, that water is freezing!!!

Originally Posted by Alphaman

No red tide in the North east? I think you might be mistaken I was born and raised on the coast of Rhode Island and although not common it has happpend, and the water is clean up north unlike the other poster said.


Here is a link about red tide.

Red Tide

[Alphaman]

Yea it is cold I don`t know how I ever could stand it when I was a kid but I did and had loads of fun looking for cool rocks and finding horseshoe crabs they were every where!

Also loved catching skip jacks in the summer.

[cal bear]

Originally Posted by BlueWillowPlate

Well, maybe we are coming at this from different points of view.
IMHO a kid had to take *some* responsibility for his education. There is only so much that can be done getting that cream to rise to the surface.

Negril is where we spent our honeymoon, 26 years ago. Once we chased the rats away from our little apartment, it was great. More murky than the Gulf, though.
But going to the beach here on Amelia is both cooling and relaxing. I saw a sea turtle this evening.

Yep. Seems to me that those "shoulds" that you speak of are up to YOU to change. Anyone who looks into high school education should have awareness of college algebra expectations--and opportunities. You are not necessarily going to be taken by the hand and strolled through the process. My kid and his friends took care of what they needed to do, and everyone on his soccer team went to college.
I have one older kid who ended up going to U of WI grad school, and who knows where our younger one will go. But neither relied on the state to coddle them through. Neither of them will be $40K in debt.
I've had to go back to school, myself, to secure employment. And I am far below the PbD level.
I agree with you that these problems are all over, and are not always easy to navigate. But you do what you need to do, and then enjoy the results. Best of luck to you, whatever happens.

We might be coming from different points of view, but I think we are both pointing towards the same thing, the importance of education. But after spending time in Holland, France, Scotland, and England, I think that this country could do much more to finance EVERYONE'S education - not loans, but full tuition. For the richest nation on earth, not to do this is inexcusable and will soon, if not already, bite us in the **s. Students in Holland and Scotland are more stoned and drunk than US students yet still excel in the classroom - it's all about culture and the social contract between the state and its citizens.

Just like healthcare, the individualization of inequality is an old, tired notion which simply reproduces social and economic hierarchies.

Thanks for the best wishes, same to you and yours.

[Alpha man]

if ur white = good place u live in gated comm. and safe black = forecd into ghetto, gun violence, crime. so not good.