That would have sent me over the edge, I'm tellin' ya! Just for fun, I went to the Member's List and it says that "Molly's Mom"'s last activity was TODAY at 7:15pm I wonder if the system is tying your computer to both log ins? I wonder what would happen if you logged out and then tried to log back on as Molly's Mom. Just curious. Maybe it would work now that you've "cleared" entry via another path? Hey, I'll help build your rep back up. :) Robin

For anyone who is interested, here is the link to Jean's post a while back about the sentence composing books: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16258&highlight=sentence+composing

Jan, have you seen Jean in Wisc.'s posts about the sentence composing books? If not, I can try to find the one on this board... its about her son using them. Very encouraging. I'm definitely adding those to our studies next year, regardless of what else we do! Ro bin

I'm glad I saw this, because I'm determined to get up to NY and see your friend in Phantom of the Opera and maybe you, too! :) Now I know what name to look for! Gosh, sorry you had all that trouble. I've had trouble with the system being busy, too, and not being able to log on. But it's always resolved itself within the hour. Robin

Reya, this is completely off topic, but I am so curious... I think I remember you from the old boards a while back, and I'm wondering if you're the same person. The person I remember was a very accomplished young woman who was a published author, and who had one (I think) younger child, and who had pretty much done more in her high school years than I've done in my entire life! If you are that person, the main thing I remember about you is that every time you described what you regularly accomplished in a single month or two I had to go take a nap! LOL Okay, okay, I know you're not in the mood for joking right now and sorry for hi jacking the thread, but self deprecating humor is my specialty :). Just curious if you're the same gal, because she disappeared. Robin

I'm wondering if the opposite won't be true. New technology is so very expensive... somewhere in one of the articles I read about this it said that the only downside is that it's hard to produce for a reasonable price. The govvt. might have to subsidize it to make it affordable at first. I also read that they are now building plants (or a plant somewhere) to make ethanol out of other raw material, like the tops of pine trees that have been harvested for lumber. If so, this might bring ethanol prices down. Lots of promising options on the horizon... but it's going to pinch in the meantime, that's for sure. We're just consolidating trips more, and turning down more opportunities that require cross town commutes. That's about all we can do for now. This all has an eery, Y2K feel to it. I can guarantee you one thing... I'm not going to stock up on a 100 lbs. of beans this time! LOL

More and more people are now coming out and saying this... and it is alarming, but I still don't think anyone is saying that they expect this by the end of this year... these all read like predictions out over the next few years. Still bad, and we'll all still have to adapt somehow, but I still don't think it's breathing down our neck quite so immediately. Robin

Lisa, I think you and Plaid Dad are right... it probably was "revealed" in some fashion, and then discussed elsewhere. Maybe someone gave that poster negative rep and left a comment about putting her on the ignore list. Maybe that's how she found out. I was just curious, because I haven't been using these features (ignore/buddy) and didn't know if there were more to them than meets the eye :).

I can't see it anywhere! I wonder how the other person knew that they were on someone's ignore list? They didn't know WHO had put them on their ignore list... only that SOMEONE had done so. Hey, thanks for trying! I don't know if you can read this or not since I'm on your ignore list :). I hope you remember to take me off! LOL

I saw someone else say that they could tell that they were on someone's ignore list. Can you tell that? Just curious if it shows up somewhere in your control panel. Robin

Google Bell Bio-Energy. You'll find lots of articles. That's what I did.. I was interested, too. Robin

This has been a very helpful thread. I can see both sides... I think that the formulaic writing that some of you are in favor of is really about structure, whereas the formulaic writing that some are criticizing is about style. So it seems that formulaic structure can be a good thing in many situations, but a stilted formulaic style stands out like a sore thumb. Or at least that's what I'm gathering from the opinions here. Thanks for the clarifications and suggestions. I am now totally freaked out because I am more certain than ever before that I don't have a clue what I'm doing :). But at least now I realize my ignorance, whereas I was previously ignorant about it. THat's step one, right? Thanks again!

I have heard this before, especially from an on-line writing tutor. Eek. Thanks for the alternate suggestions.

Yes, I was trying to point out that regardless of how you post, the thread is intact. It might be hard to follow sometimes, but it's still intact :). But hey... even when I carefuly word things I am often misunderstood so perhaps my poor communication is as much about my shortcomings as it is about my not quoting! LOL Thanks for this thread. I'm glad to know how this all looks to everyone else. Robin

Well, it's a good thing I read in hybrid mode or I might not have understood what you were referring to there. (snickering... ducking for cover...) :D P>S> I agree.. the discussion has been good all the way 'round! ETA: Dang! I just tried to rep you, Mrs. Mungo, but the system won't let me. You're a sweetie and I hope you know I was just trying to insert a little levity. :)

Gail, some linear users do hit reply under individual posts. I suppose it's because they don't realize that it shows up as being a reply to that post since they are in linear view. Someone else in this thread has already admitted to doing that, because she honestly didn't know that it made a difference which "reply" button she used. So yes, sometimes a post shows up as a reply to one post when it was never intended to be a reply to that post... and if you are in threaded view it can be a little confusing because when read in one context the post can sometimes say something that the poster didn't intend (because she was actually replying to a different post or the original post). Hope that makes sense. Yes, this has entered the "picking on" zone in my mind because of statements that imply that this is commonly understood courtesy and posters are being selfish for not following it. I've learned a lot too, including the fact that we should be patient with each other in these areas :).

Believe me, saying "David, I agree!" is not much more informing than "I agree". You still have to go back and find David's comments to see what they are agreeing with, since it wasn't quoted in the reply. :) The other forums I frequent are not primarily women and are certainly not homeschooling boards, so maybe that's the difference. They hardly ever quote in their replies unless there is a very specific detail that they are challenging or inquiring about. I just think that every place has it's own unique culture/accepted way of doing things, and that that's a good thing!

We aren't deleting bits of the post when we respond. It's not like we're selfishly not leaving them... it's that we havea quick reply feature that goes straight to a blank message box. To go back to the post and cut and paste and wrap quote marks around it is a lot of trouble. What is the point of having quick reply if you're not making a quick reply, kwim? Now that I know that this is helpful to linear viewers, I will certainly use it more often (when I think it makes a difference), but you have to understand that not everyone views in linear and they don't understand that linear viewers can't follow the conversation. They're not being selfish, they are simply ignorant to your situation. I am hesitant to scold all these wonderful women! My point is that it is just as easy for you, with two clicks of the mouse, to switch to hybrid and back when you want to see exactly who or what someone was responding to (if it's not clear). I can not tell you how many times someone obviously in linear mode posted a response that ended up somewhere that it should not have (they hit reply under the wrong post) and it confused the conversation - and they certainly didn't include quotes in their reply that would have made things clear. I would never accuse them of being discourteous or selfish! Hybrid users are not the only ones leaving out quotes which would make responses more clearly understood. Linear users do it too, and they put their posts under replies to which they aren't even replying. I think Moria did so in this very thread! The point is that no one is being selfish or discourteous, and I think we should all show a little charity to each other and extend a little grace when we know for a fact the other never intended to do anything but make a contribution to a conversation, however awkwardly phrased or formatted or inserted. ETA: I think I should quit posting on this, because it almost sounds like I'm getting all worked up! LOL I'm not... believe me... I just think perhaps the trouble this supposedly causing is maybe getting blown out of proportion a bit. I just don't see it as a huge issue, or least it shouldn't be a huge issue. Every board has it's "feel" and "culture"... we're still finding our footing here... we need to be tolerant and patient. This board will never be like every other one out there.. if it were, I wouldn't be interested in it... and for many, this is the ONLY board they frequent and you know, it's just not fair to expect them to behave like people elsewhere. We just don't need to be picking on each other about this, imo, inferring that others are discourteous or selfish when the truth is they're probably either clueless or made a clumsy mistake.

Cindy, I'm talking about the dollar's value against other world currencies. It is down right now.

But the threads *are* intact... you've just chosen to sort and view the posts in chronological order, instead of their intact relative order. I really don't think anyone is being discourteous to anyone here - not intentionally, at least. I went to two other boards I frequent who use this format (one a weather forum, the other a travel forum) just to see what the norm is there (I've never paid attention, to be honest). Linear is the only viewing option and rarely do the posters quote each other in their responses. What they do is address the person they are responding to by name. I can't find where anyone is complaining about it, either. So I'm not so sure about the idea that everyone everywhere else is more courteous and does this as regular protocol. That may be true on certain boards, but I don't think that the way people post here is an anomoly. AS long as admin makes the quick reply feature available to us, I assume that they don't intend to encourage any "unspoken but understood" rules about quoting text in your responses. And since most of the posters on this forum probably won't even read this thread, I doubt many will stumble upon the idea that quoting is an act of courtesy. Most are like me, viewing in threaded mode, who honestly didn't know about the woes of the linear viewer :). So its not discourtesy as much as it is honestly being unaware.

Colleen, I do not have a link to the report, but here is a link to a commentary about the report from the CIBC which predicts prices to double in four years: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007308/posts You can google and get different reactions to the report.

Jean, there was a study/report released in the last couple of weeks that predicted that gas will double in price by 2012. And that they expect prices to be $7 - $10 a gallon by then. That sent off a lot of alarms about gas going up to $10 a gallon (which was the high end of the estimate). And then I think that people have begun to ignore the "in four years" time frame. The reason for the estimated spike in prices is that production/reserves are not keeping up with demand. But even this study is being challenged by other experts in the field who believe that gas prices will go down by the end of the year, etc. When I started driving, gas was about 35 cents a gallon. If anyone would have told me that in thirty years, gas would be ten times as much, I would have never believed it. And the last time we had $1.75 gas was only four years ago... so gas has doubled in priced in four years... it does seem probable that it could double again in four or five more years. Keep your eye on discussions about reserves... that seems to be a driving force behind this. Also, if the value of our dollar would adjust up, that would help a bit.

The thread below about Bauer is brilliant (I agree, btw!) brought up criticism of formulaic writing. Then someone said something that indicated that IEW taught formulaic writing. Eek... I was looking at that for next year (with 13yo dd). So, in a nutshell, can you guys name the writing programs that are formulaic and the ones that are not?

I can see what you're saying... but of course, if you ever really need to know what the reference is, you can always switch to hybrid temporarily and see what the poster was responding to :). And truthfully, that's really not *any* more trouble than it is for hybrid users to be careful and include quotes in their messages for the benefit of the linear users... *someone* has to take the extra time and effort to click a few more buttons and I don't see why that burden should always fall to the hybrid user. Besides, that would leave the quick reply feature useless. So, the hybrid users are not careful to always quote, and the linear users are not careful to always put their reply under the proper post. I think those quirks are easy enough to overlook, to be honest. There will always be aggravations no matter what mode you use, but for the most part I think we have all done a pretty good job of following the conversations and enjoying the boards in whatever mode we prefer :). I will try to quote more often, though. Honest!

A good friend of mine is a counselor for several small school districts in a part of Illinois that has a lot of Amish. I was surprised to find out that some of the Amish send their kids to public school Some send them to an Amish cottage school, but not all. Anyhow, Amish kids in the public schools is not unusual, and my friend says that they do, indeed, have the same problem. That is why, she says, many of the Amish communities in other parts of the country arrange to basically "trade" marriage aged girls... to mix up the gene pool a little. I don't think the AMish take govt assistance, though (as a matter of fact, I believe they are exempt from social security/medicare taxes because they take care of their members without assistance - I think I have that right).