I need to say something here.... As far as I know, GHC extended an olive branch, apologized for the handling of the matter and have offered to invite them back. The ball has been in their court for a while... they chose not to come back and yet do the "new" conventions & Creation museum bookfair or whatever. So, it's not quite fair, as they were offered to be allowed back. Those Who Will Not Be Named seem to be making a very concerted effort to sow the seeds of dischord and divisiveness. Still feeds into my conspiracy theory. ;)

Sorry I didn't go to the dessert night. WAAAAAY too tired. Thanks for those few of you who know me on sight, brought me chocolate, bourbon chocolate cupcakes, or said hello! Sorry if I wasn't there when you stopped by. I only got to say hi to MCT once! Even though I was at the convention almost the whole time (with the exception of when I was teaching classes over at a UC campus) I feel like I missed it! :confused: We need a skype chat... but I don't know how to do those.

LOL, when I read this thread title, I was all excited and ready to do some name dropping. :D But it is just about whether they went to college and where. How boring. ;)

:iagree: and I think this is a VERY good thing to do. (I don't know how to multi-quote) Mrs. Mungo... See, I don't get this. I have been to these since the beginning, and choose to ignore what isn't relevant to me and focus on what is. I have never felt like I am having anything shoved at me, though I can see where someone might think that if they are looking for it. ANd they have MORE secular vendors this year than ever before, so it is odd that you would make that statement. Seriously, I broke it down and it is around 1/3 secular/neutral. I think we are all being played, that's what I am trying to say. Julie was the unfortunate target for whatever reason. I would not put anything past that HAmmbone, and I think it is his personal mission to try to take these down. That is just my personal opinion, but it really feels like a big smear to me. Coupled with those "new, "real" conventions" and all that jazz. It just all smells bad. And while I agree that they should focus on "the rest of us", they are still devout Christians, who are YErs, and they want to do this for themselves too. I think that since they are totally reactionary because of last year, they would be easily manipulated, IMHO. Again, Julie was the unfortunate target. She is also from around here... which in itself makes my radar go off. It is all wrong, no matter how you slice it. Does any of this make any sense? I will get off the computer until later....like tomorrow morning!

I would like to apologize for the rambliness of my above post, I should probably edit it, but there would be too much work to do. Better just apologize and leave it. If you can glean what I am trying to say from it, you get a gold star. If you are just confused, I'm sorry... it makes sense in my head. ;)

I am going to play devil's advocate here, sorry, it is in my nature. First of all, I adore both SWB and Julie, and I totally support both of them. I also have had contact with the people who run the convention as they called me to ask for secular/gifted vendors they should invite (as I am pretty vocal in this area lobyig for them). They invited MCT & Julie in the first place due to customers asking. They happened to think MCT was awesome and wanted some more people like them (MCT & RFWP) to invite. I gave them a long list and a few were there the next year. In my conversation, this was pre-kerfuffle BTW, he explained how he really wanted to make the convention about HSing, and make it where a lot of different HSers could find something... but still keep their "base" happy. Part of me thinks this is a concerted effort on someone's part to screw these people and destroy their business. How better do this than get not only the YE hammy people upset, but then also get the people on the other side upset. It just seems too perfect. First divide the YE Christian community (some people here in Ohio have always been mad at them for starting these and "killing" their state convention... which was narrow anyway and they have always been angry about it, which I think is silly), then piss off the secular/classical community. Poof! They will have such bad feelings all around that they won't be able to run them anymore. The result will be the same. I don't know, I just feel like there is more to the story than meets the eye, and more than has been told to Julie even. I wish I knew the real back story, but part of me is still skeptical about the whole thing (not about it happening, just about the circumstances and motivations. As usual, I think they handled it badly, but I think that is because they are human and have not hired a good PR person. I cannot imagine how much s%^$$t they get from all sides all the time, and still attempting to put these things together, fork out all the $$ in advance to reserve these places, arrange all the stuff. It makes my brain hurt just thinking about it. They are really stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I feel sorry for them, if you want to know the truth. It seems like a hard line to skate. I will be so happy to see Julie & SWB this weekend, and any of you coming, and all my favorite secular vendors. <<I also would hate it if this then screws all the vendors. SWB included. If attendance drops, the wwhole thing will go in the crapper and no one but KH will be happy. >> Ok, that's my measly two cents! Off to take a shower and get ready to go to the convention!;)

:iagree:though I live in Westwood. Having grown up in Chicago, this place is pretty low crime. That being said, and I know you all hashed this out, everyone should do what they feel is comfortable, but should not be overly paranoid either. Seeing a cross dressing prostitute (I can't imagine you would see one downtown, that would be a bit farther away...) is different than being accosted by a cross-dressing prostitute. They are trying very hard to revitalize downtown and I think do a pretty good job of being proactive. Now, if you are going to be driving around OTR looking for crack, you might run into some problems.;) Ok, I know, it is more about being a woman alone. That is universal anywhere. It does come across weird though. I will be walking by myself to M & S, and then walking by myself to my car. I have my keys I can shove in someone's eye if I have to. :D

Ones I have seen or heard MCT SWB Lukeion Janice Campbell Jim Weiss Andrew Peduwa (but you can get his lectures off the IEW website) Christopher Perrin (depends on lecture) Carol Barnier was good, is she there this year? Zaccaro is alright Ones I am looking forward to but have not seen: Shellagh Gallagher Dwayne Thomas (visual Latin) some other "gifted" speaker whose name escapes me Remember, if the subject is not something you are interested in, it doesn't matter how good the lecturer is (although MCT's poetics and Vocab lecture are great). And some people are duds, and don't be afraid to get up and leave and get in on another one. :D

I will stop by after I close up.... I will only stay a while, I will have to teach 2 back to back invention classes Saturday morning. :tongue_smilie:

I'll mostly be working. So you guys figure something out.... and let me know. please wave and sell hello to me. I'll be at booth 316. Don't be afraid to sneak me in some goodies. :D

Of the gifted speakers I have only seen MCT and Zaccaro. I think talking to the people at their booths might give you a clue as to if they will be good to see or not. Many of the talks tend to be a bit of a product push...however, Shelagh Gallager's subjects look good (especially Gifted AND....) also, Kathy Kuhl is basically a 2E person. However, I don't think her talks (I bought a CD of a few last year) were a bit basic. I think you should just ask what their lectures will be focusing on and make a decision then. ;)

:iagree: If they want they can look at what comes in several different boxed curricula and then do this...list each subject...fill in what secular material they want to use for each subject....put it in a box and wrap it and put it on the front porch. :D

I say go for it! :D I would be less worried about what to do for 1 day in a decently sized city, than i would be about the driving. But really, 18 hours split up between a few days is fine. It will be an excellent adventure!

Thanks for this! Not only did I have a good laugh, but I also lost about 3 IQ points reading it. :D 100% behind the idea it is an irritated kid.

nt

It totally depends on the book! <Gosh, those birds are so pretty!> Some books I try to buy as cheaply as possible, others I want to support the publisher/author directly, and if it is basically the same price everywhere...I will go local. There are zero book stores on my side of town so going to a bookstore is like a field trip to my family. I actually dislike purchasing from the B & N as if they don't want to put a bookstore on my side of town, but keep putting them in a totally saturated bookstore area, screw 'em. As if a whole side of a decently sized city doesn't read books. The closest one is across the river in Northern KY where it is situated in a tourist area where parking is $5.

My 13 year old wants to build a Messerschmitt (a vintage minicar) that runs on his own waste. It has a drink dispenser in the dashboard and would have a toilet "unearth itself" from under the front seat when needed. He then started to describe how he thinks it might work. He revealed this idea to me in the checkout line at the grocery store.

Hmmm.... We did Singapore from Earlybird to 6A. 5-6 years We're on year 4 of MCT We're in year 3 of History at our House I'm coming up on 3 with a few others, like Life of Fred. I flop around with other things. :D

I found the only real religious content to be in the 3rd section of each lesson. The reading/translation section, I think. I just skipped the ones that were too religious, like God is good, angels are in the sky, Satan is bad etc. As my kids won't translate them. With a small amount of work, you could change any nouns or adjectives yourself. But really, they are sort of innocuous statements. So... technically, they are 1/3 religious. Honestly, it doesn't bug me... his delivery and content otherwise is so much fun that I am willing to endure it. The overall tone is NOT religious. I find the religious parts to seem like they don't fit. I think boys will especially like it, although my friend who recommended it to me (an uber secular person) has girls.

I am in Cincinnati (although we'll be in Dayton next week for a HS thing) and the whole area is really HS friendly. The WPAF Museum is awesome. Depending on the age of your kids Boonshoft Museum is awesome. There are several other small arts places, theatres, art museum, etc. Ohio rules/regs look hard but they aren't. I am sure that there are plenty of good HS groups around. I would say to join as many OH yahoo groups as you can, and join a few Cincinnati, West Chester ones as well. Ask a lot of questions. Good luck! :D Feel free to PM me anytime. SW Ohio is smaller than you think!

yep. this.

OK, so there is a privacy fence now, right? Is it yours or hers? You should be able to figure this out by which way the inner beams are facing. if it is her fence, she can take it down. If not, she can't touch it and you could sue her. You are not in any way obligated to pay for anything. She might even have to pay to have the property surveyed... Don't let her bully you. ;)

I hope this is posted in the right place. My younger son (almost 12) has a reading issue. He was a late reader. He is an extremely slow reader. He is also on the gifted spectrum, and is a perfectionist. He did have a lead issue when he was small (highest level was 7, they don't seem to care unless it is over 10). We keep doing remedial reading/spelling programs to try to help with his reading speed. I have suspected that he has stealth dyslexia, but whenever I investigate it, he doesn't test for ANY dyslexia signs. Anyway.... he told me yesterday that he can't remember anything he reads unless he says it out loud. :confused: This is the first I have head of this, and I find it scary. What do you guys think this sounds like? Is there any place you can point me to? TIA!:D

I think you should thank Cash for Clunkers. A lot of people ditched a lot of perfectly fine cars, that they just destroyed. The used market is likely overpriced and depleted due to this very reason. I think it might have to do with how many '09-'10 cars are around as well.

Because it's formatting and font don't bother me. :D I don't mind odd. I cannot stand the way certain things are laid out, and most things are laid out that way. I hate that OPGTR used a font where the capital I looks like a lower case L. I can't stand comic sans. I hate when there are too many words on a page. I love the idea behind Bravewriter and the Writer's Jungle, but I cannot stand the way it is laid out. Like I said, I like things that are not typical, and certain editorial choices just don't work for me.