I spent Christmas on a cruise of Key West and Cozumel, Mexico. Cozumel, Mexico was surpisingly dull; I spent most of the time on a bus going back from the Tulum Ruins (very cool) and a beach (not so cool, because it had been ravenged by a hurricane). Our bus got stopped by the Mexican Army, who were looking for people smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs from Belize. Also, I was amused by a store in Cozumel called, “Tequila and Drugstore Playa Mart.” I hope Snoop Dogg is involved. (By the way, I just saw the commercial for B.I.G. I won’t lie, I’m excited.) Anyway, the cool part of the cruise, for me anyway, was Key West. The night before, we were at dinner on the boat, and the two guys sitting with us were weirdos. The older guy told us not to go on the island because, “Key West is filled with hobos and homos.” What a weird place! Only the gay people have shelter. “Sorry sir, it appears as though you like women! Please leave the premises immediately!” The younger guy - who sounded like The Comic Book Guy - kept falling asleep and snoring, which makes eating awkward. At one point, I was genuinely worried that he had died. He eventually woke up to enjoy some Garlic Soup.
I’m going to start my Key West discussion by making a statement, and considering my well-documented love of pie, I understand the gravitas of this statement: Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe has the best Key Lime Pie I have ever had. In fact, it was so good that the next piece of Key Lime Pie I had, one that came from a recipe that won ‘Best Key Lime Pie in Venice, FL,’ was disappointing. I’m not even sure I can ever eat another piece of Key Lime Pie without feeling as though I had reached the summit and was settling. Fortunately, there is a recipe online, and I’m more than willing to order some of Kermit’s Key Lime juice. It is some good pie! They also sold Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick, which was just as amazing.
The best way to describe Key West is like Ocean City, but everywhere. The people there are not all homos and hobos; in fact, I only saw one hobo and men and women seemed to be holding hands. People from Key West say they are The Conch Republic. A history behind the Conch republic movement can be found here; basically, the US Government set up a blockade between Key West and the mainland to try to stop illegal immigration. They basically decided, “if you are going to treat us like a 3rd World Nation, we will become a 3rd World Nation.” So they were their own country on April 23, 1982. The motto of The Conch Republic is “We Seceded Where Others Failed,” and have a vision of “the mitigation of world tension through the exercise of humor.” They have actual passports which people have used to travel around the world. You can even apply for one. The best part is that they crack jokes on their webpage, but it is not a parody site. People from Key West are very proud about being from the Conch Republic; it’s just a very laid back place.
Within a couple of minutes of entering the city, you can’t help but notice that there are chickens all over the place. In fact, there is 1 chicken for every 12 people. They wander free through shops, museums and the streets and nobody touches them. The entire island of Key West is a bird sanctuary, and people used to keep them for cockfighting. Once cockfighting was banned, the mayor order that all the chickens be released. Now they wander throughout the island. Some people in Key West love them. Other’s can’t stand them. I guess it depends on how much damage they do to your garden, or pooping on your car. It is actually a $500 fine to touch a chicken.
There used to be a “Chicken Lady” named Kathy Sheehan (related to Cindy?) who would was legally allowed to capture roosters and put them in her house… umm… “bird sanctuary.” But she died, and now people down there are looking for other ideas. One of the ideas was to let “domestic” foxes run through the streets and eat them. Of course, the major drawback is that now you have a pack of wolves running unabeited through the island. I don’t know how a pack “domestic” foxes wandering through the town is any better than chickens, but wolves get rabies. Wolves also eat people when they get hungry enough. But hey, no chickens! My other personal favorite chicken-removal idea was to round up all the chickens and put them in the local dump (affectionately called Mount Trashmore), plant bird seed in the trash and surrond the entire island with a fence. Then, people can go over and get eggs to help feed the needy. It would be like Escape From New York for chickens. However, there were two majors problems with this plan. First, contrary to popular belief, chickens can, in fact, fly. The only way to enclose the chickens would be to build a Bio-Dome consisting of nothing but the waste products of the residents of Key West and a community of chickens. Second, the place is literally a dump. People have observed “purple pools of some unknown substance” on Mount Trashmore, and the last thing Key West is for the chickens to mutate into three-winged chickens… or ZOMBIES! Key West came thisclose to becoming a leper colony overrun with zombie chickens who are denying us the key limes necessary to makes delicious Key lime Pie! Needless to say, I am very glad this didn’t happen.
I got to go to Captain Tony’s Saloon, famous for being the place where Jimmy Buffett got his start. You parrotheads probably know that Buffett dedicated the song Last Mango in Paris to Captain Tony. Unfortunately, Captain Tony died a couple of months ago, so I never got to meet him. This is a man who once said, “all you need in life is a tremendous sex drive and a great ego. Brains don’t mean s**t.” And he said this during the Key West mayorial race. And he won by 32 votes! Imagine what would happen if Barack Obama or John McCain said that! Actually, I think that “tremendous sex drive and a great ego” described John Edwards perfectly. Anyway, Captain Tony’s platform was to, “limit Key West’s growth and to keep its reputation as a refuge for eccentrics and renegades who had found their way to the southernmost point of the continental United States.” (Did I mention this was an island that calls that prides itself on mitigating world tensions through humor and lets chickens run wild in the streets?)
To wrap up this terribly long note, some of my favorite Key West Signs: “Ornery Children will be tied to the Yardarm and left as sharkbait,” “Warning: Bad Dog,” “Enema Syringe Tips!,” “Pet a Live Shark! Really!” and “Red Barn Theatre: Featuring Wild Women of the Planet Wongo.”
It’s nice how my home becomes filled with decorations during the Christmas season. My mom is very big on decorating the house with Christmas decorations. In fact, I think our home is plain most of the year and gets loaded with colors towards the end of the year.
For anyone who has watched football over the last few weeks, you’ve probably seen the Beyonce DirecTV commercial enough times so that are probably already involuntarily humming, “Upgrade ya, Upgrade ya (Clap Clap) And lemme upgrade YOU to the best channels in HD… only on DirecTV… UPGRADE YA… I’m talking about the hottest channels… not that HD lineup you get on cable… DirecTV, now that’s a good look! Lemme lemme lemme upgrade ya grade ya!” This commercial is cross-producing her new album, I am… Sasha Fierce, in which Beyonce debuts her alter-ego, Sasha Fierce. Sasha Fierce, which is an anagram for ‘I Shear Faces’ and ‘Ass Face Heir,’ is Beyonce’s “sensual, aggressive alter ego” who is “strictly for the stage.” However, at first glance, there doesn’t appear to be much of a difference between Beyonce and her alter ego. For example, Beyonce and Sasha Fierce both love to have two backup singers wherever they go, whether it’s Destiny’s Child, Check on It, her movie DreamGirls or her Sasha Fierce video. Even as a child, it seems she had back-up singers and a camera at all times. It appears that Beyonce’s ego, alter ego and super ego have inferiority complexes that can only be solved by paying Kelly Rowland to follow her every move.
So what is the difference? Sasha Fierce wears a power glove! I was hoping that it was the Nintendo version of the Power Glove from the 1980s, and that Sasha Fierce would go on the road with Fred Savage to the Nintendo World Video Championships and, after intimidating the crowd with her Power Glove prowess, sneer at Rihana and say, “I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.”
Tragically, Beyonc… err… Sasha Fierce is sporting a random titanium “power glove,” which means that Beyonce has all of the signs of the Musician Who Has Snapped and Completely Gone Off the Deep End. Here’s a checklist:
(I mentioned this because my friend Steve has a theory that all musicians who put out a double album inevitably suck afterwards and their careers come crashing down. Prime example: The Smashing Pumpkins. I almost put Guns N’ Roses, but its debatable whether Use Your Illusion was a double album since it was two different CDs released on the same day. But Guns N’ Roses blew apart anyways after its release, so it proves my point.)
* An alter-ego that the musician considers an extension of their art, but nobody takes seriously? CHECK
By the way, it’s not a good omen for Beyonce’s career that the parallels between Sasha Fierce and Garth Brook’s laughably terrible Chris Gaines experiment are so strong. From the “Who is …” websites (Sasha Fierce and Chris Gaines), the bizarre outfits (the Power Glove and Chris Gaines’ bizarre country/emo outfit complete with soul patch) and contrived back stories. Did you know Chris Gaines released six albums from 1986-1996 with titles such as Straight Jacket and Fornucopia? No? That’s because they’re not real! Just like Sasha Fierce.
This alter ego trend is not limited to musicians. Take actress Anne Heche, who claimed that, while dating Ellen DeGenerous, her body was inhabited by Celestia, an alien from another planet who could talk to dead people, see into the future, and was a half-sister of Jesus Christ. I’ve always wondered how Ellen felt when Anne said, “we need to break up, because you haven’t been dating me. You’ve been dating an alien who possessed my body. But now that I’m OK and free from my alien oppressor, I don’t think we going to work.” That has to be on the list of most devastating break-ups ever! How do you bounce back from that? Is Ellen’s dancing shtick actually some spiritual cleansing ritual that makes her feel better? I need to know these things!
Some people embrace their alien alter agos. Take Cleveland Browns Wide Receiver Donte Stallworth, who believes that his body is inhabited by an alien from Mars named Nicco when he is playing:
Stallworth doesn’t let Nicco do interviews. He’s allowed to come out during games, but then, Stallworth says, Nicco is sent to Mars. “He only comes around during the game time,” Stallworth said. “And I say that because off the field, I’m laid back. I’m not a real outgoing person, but when I get on the field. I’m a totally different person. I feel like I’m just crazy out there, so he’s gone back now.”
Amazingly, there may be a photographed moment of when Nicco was created. In the end, alter egos like Nicco are harmless. Other alter egos, which magically appear when a football players commits any sort of felony like Michael “(Ron Mexico)” Vick and Plexico “Harris Smith” Burress.
Naturally, there is a fine line between “silly” and “bizarre.” Which is why I wasn’t really annoyed when Tampa Bay Buccaneers Defensive End Greg White legally changed his name from Gregory Alphonso White Jr. to Stylez G. White. The name ‘Stylez’ is based on the character Stiles from the movie Teen Wolf, and I’m not sure if changing it to ‘Stylez’ gives him more or less street cred or even if that matters in Tampa. (”Come on Stylez, let’s go the the original Hooters!”)
Nor was I terribly concerned when Chad Johnson changed his name to Chad Ocho Cinco since his jersery number is 85. Of course, if he gets traded to a team with a guy who already has #85, then he’s in real trouble. Plus, it would provide the opportunity to try to say “At Wide Receiver, Chad Ocho Cinco, #19″ without getting extremely confused and demanding that we change the number 4 to ‘Favre.’ At least he didn’t change his name to ‘Chad Uno Zero Uno Zero Uno Zero Uno.’
Yes, like Sasha Fierce, it’s a sign that Chad Johnson lost his mind. But it’s not harmless, unless you had Chad Johnson on your fantasy team, then you’re screwed. You aren’t dating the alien half-sister of Christ, getting shot in the leg by Harris Smith or catching herpes from Ron Mexico. Of course, his fantasy stats may have been better if he was wearing a Power Glove.
Hope you enjoyed,
Matt “LaMatthew Poland” Morrison
I’m home again for Christmas. This time, I’m loaded with medical applications to do. I’ve decided to upload scenes of Christmas around my house and at church. Hopefully, I can get to uploading one a day. Be sure to visit my flickr often!
The Poly Library dropbox in the visitor parking lot will be closed from Friday December 19th at 4:00 PM to Monday December 29th in the morning when it will be reopened. With the exception of Saturday the 20th, the Library will be closed during that week as well.
Please take note that fines on overdue books do not accrue on the days the Library is closed - in this case, for the holiday break - but they do remain overdue
If you are a department or adviser looking for a new way to maintain communication with your constituents, we are pleased to offer Blackboard Organizations populated with the students for every College, Department, and Major in OASIS Banner. We’ve set up an automatic process that reads students College, Department, and Major codes from Banner and adds them as members of corresponding organizations in Blackboard. The lists are maintained so that as students change majors or graduate, they are added and removed from the organizations, ensuring your organization roster remains current.
These sites are full-fledged Blackboard sites. They are very useful for sending email to the students you advise, and can also be used to make available departmental documents such as program requirements, graduation applications, course authorization request forms, and any other departmental paperwork you maintain. A discussion board is available to foster communication amongst your charges. File uploads, announcements, surveys, everything you can do in a Blackboard course you can do here.
We have four levels of organizations available:
Majors: For every major code in OASIS we create an Organization, and populate it with students that have that major code. These would be most appropriate for advisers and chairs.
Departments: For every department listed in OASIS, we create another Blackboard organization. In many cases, there is a one to one relation between majors and departments, ie, a department only offers one major, but there are many cases there a department offers multiple majors. In those cases, a Departmental organization would be convenient for communicating with all the majors in that department at one time.
Colleges: For each college in OASIS, we create yet another Blackboard organization. These are collections of departments, and are appropriate for the Dean’s office of each college.
Lastly, we create three flavors of each of the above organizations
one with just undergrad students
one with just grad students
one that combines both grad and undergrad students
By default, these organization sites are invisible to students until a department takes ownership and makes it available.
If you or your college or department is interested in one or more of these organizations, please contact us.
Exam week again. Conveniently, students at USF respect each others’ time to study. I suppose it was my time to give up distractions for these several days. However, I couldn’t resist making another post.
Doing Business (http://www.doingbusiness.org/) is a publication by the World Bank. It provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 181 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. Reports can downloaded for free. The four key areas are Starting a Business, Dealing with Licenses, Registering Property, and Enforcing Contracts.
This week I was officially awarded a Professional Development Grant, which will make my travel to San Fran for 4Cs much easier on the wallet. I’m also 1 week away from receiving final exam essays from the students I asked to start Twitter accounts. Their responses will be the basis of my presentation, and I already know that I’m going to continue with this research next semester b/c I’ve learned so much from them in terms of what their 1st semester college freshman experiences.
This semester I let students protect their updates and only follow me as a way to let them explore the informal writing space; however, I think next semester I will require students to follow all their peers in class too. That way, especially for my online writing courses, we can build community and more easily and quickly share resources. The discussion board posts can evolve to be more formal writing responses and Twitter can remain informal.
More on this once I see if my current students even feel that maintaining the timeline helped them reflect on their tech literacy, but here’s a video created by the folks at Twitter about how and why some people use the microblogging tool. If you notice, nearly everyone is updating from their phones…something I plan to point out to my students!
It’s been a year since I’ve posted on this blog. I continue to work toward my Masters in IT - which for USF is Instructional Technology - not information technology. I am completing Instructional Media with Dr. Downey. I love working with the technology and creating learning. I could spend hours tweaking to make the product perfect, but a some point I have to say “that’s enough”.
Next term is Measurement. Wish me luck, I am taking it via distance learning - which should be interesting.
Have a happy holidays to whomever stumbles across this message.
The Library (and the Open Use Computer Lab) will be open during the following hours in the coming weeks. Please take note that the Library is always closed on Sunday:
From Monday, December 8 to Friday, December 12: 8:00AM to 8:00PM
Saturday, December 13: 9:00AM to 3:00PM
From Monday, December 15 to Friday, December 19: 8:00AM to 5:00PM
Saturday, December 20: 9:00AM to 3:00PM
From Monday, December 22 to Saturday, December 27: CLOSED
From Monday, December 29 to Tuesday, December 30: 8:00AM to 5:00PM
From Wednesday, December 31 to Thursday, January 1: CLOSED
Friday, January 2: 8:00AM to 5:00PM
Saturday, January 3: 9:00AM to 3:00PM
Regular opening hours will resume Monday January 5 at 8:00 AM.
Wow! I survived. Until now, I really had no understanding of how to create a website. In fact, after receiving my B.A. in Sociology and Political Science at New College, I found that several of the positions I was interested in required web design and management skills. This left an unfortunate hole in my resume and put jobs that I was otherwise qualified for out of my reach. Taking this USF Instructional Graphics course with Prof. Simon has not only lifted the fog on what I previously found an intimidating affair, it could be the most practical course in my MLIS trajectory.
My Green Gaia Growers site is not the best example of tantalizing web design but it will be a foundation to better experiments. I think my color schemes may have saved me from the fact that it has a rigid boxed look from it’s prominent table structure. Typically, you’ll want to limit the use of bordered tables to give the site a more fluid appearance. Using a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) would help me unlock my sites potential allowing me to quickly change the design without altering the content, simply by editing or replacing the style sheet.
Designing a great website not only depends on an artistic eye and design strategy it depends on an adequate understanding of a variety of applications; web editors, image editors, audio editors, etc. and codes; HTML, Javascript, and CSS etc. I was able to learn enough about the process to go much further on my own. I’ve borrowed web design books in the past but none of them were as cogent as the MacDonald, Beaird, and O’Reilly books. In addition, there are so many tutorials, blogs and websites geared toward webdesign that I will have no problem improving my skills. It’s amazing how many free resources are available as well. You can really put together an impressive site with no finances- and only the commitment of time and creativity. This course takes you from the basics to the complex in a well organized approach.
Fortunately the format allowed me the flexibility to operate at a delayed pace. This semester has been tough. I planned on working part time so that I could dedicate myself to my 2 classes and my 2 children but my job turned into a full time endeavor (selling and distributing plants throughout the state of Florida; 15 hr days). If I quit I’d be in dire straits in a horrid job market so I just had to accept the fact that my web project wasn’t going to be superb by semester’s end. I fell several weeks behind so participation to class discussions was pointless (forums and blogs are better when the communications are closer to realtime). I found it useful to read the forums, but most of the students were moving right along so I felt it best to simply find solutions on my own. I’ve been taking Dianne Austin’s Preparing Instructional Media course where the discussion board is an optional feature so my apologies to anyone who wondered why I was not routinely sharing my experiences throughout this course. Nevertheless, this class has put the wind in my sails. I’ve learned so much more than I could have imagined. I can actually look at the source code for a web page and identify the tags! While using Komposer in the WYSIWYG mode I click different parts of the web page and switch to HTML in order to recognize the tag features. After a while, you realize the inverse relationship. Ultimately, learning any technology properly depends on practice and many a sleepless night.
In general, I feel that Hillsborough County runs a very good government. No government is perfect, and each one certainly has its low points, but overall I think they do a good job.
For the Sheriff’s Office and the Jail, there is always a lot of bad press. Especially this year when the paraplegic got dumped from his chair and Callaway made a mistake and said “My Bad”. But then the panel that reviewed the jail showed that they actually run a very efficient operation. All the agencies impressed me with the way they are moving into the 21st century with having good technology.
People tend to think Government is their enemy. These people usually think of it just like that, too: Government, with a capital G, as some monolithic entity that is after your money and out to make life inconvenient for you. And it is true there is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape in government. But it is there to help you, and really the issue is lack of involvement in government’s affairs. From the public meetings we attended, we noticed that the actual “public” was sparse or invisible.
The availability of public records may be hindered by the public officials’ issues with delivering them, and they do need more training. However, I found that my experience with doing my profile that the staff was more than accomodating. But even still, the people need to be more involved, tracking what their government is doing and how their elected officials are voting.
Because the volume of work required to do this would be too great for the average citizen, it falls on the role of the journalist. The government correspondents get paid to go and find out these things and report them to the citizenry so they can be better informed. However, lately media has fallen under the spell of sensationalism, the sound bite, and partisan-biased reporting. This has shaken the public’s confidence in the media. Also, the cost of newspapers is no longer worth the quality in cases such as the new Tribune format. The rise of the internet has also led to the decline of newspapers…who’s going to pay for what they get for free? But for local government reporting, newspapers are still the citizens’ best bet.
I think both the papers and the government could do better in advertising public meetings. Usually if there is an issue that may be important, it isn’t in the paper until the day it happens, which may be too late for some people to schedule going. And unless you have a good reason (like, say, a Public Affairs Reporting class), you aren’t going to be checking the Hillsborough County website’s calendar on a daily basis.
I think this class has given me a little more faith in my public officials than I may have had before. Seeing them in person, and not just newspaper photos, makes you see them in a different light. But I think the real changes for Hillsborough County have begun after this election. The defeats of Brian Blair and Buddy Johnson will hopefully restore some confidence in the County Commission and the Elections Office.
Robert Evan Turner is the Property Appraiser for Hillsborough County. This is an elected position, and he took office in January of 1997. It is a partisan position, and Turner is a Republican. The job of the property appraiser is to set the values for homes and other buildings. They do not set the tax rate, the County Commission does. They do not collect the taxes, the Tax Collector’s office does.
THE MAN
Turner makes $153,823 a year in his job as Property Appraiser. This is a raise of $640 more a year from last year. He lives at 69 Bahama Circle in Davis Islands, which is assessed at $483,284, costing him approximately $10,000 in property taxes, currently unpaid. Interestingly, unlike most homes, Turner’s value has actually gone down the past two years. It was $528,719 in 2006 ($11,800 in property taxes, and $514,236 in 2007 ($10,500 in property taxes).
Turner’s mailing address is listed at 2635 W Prospect Road in Tampa. Registered to him in 2005, it is now registered to Donna Lois Marino, his wife. He is from Virginia and went to University of Virginia. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Turner is a member of Toastmaster’s International, a nonprofit whose goal is to help instill public speaking and leadership skills.
THE OFFICE
The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser’s office has a budget of just over $13 million, a slight increase from $12.9 million last year. It employs 147 people, a decrease from 153 last year. They use 47 cars, including 18 Ford Escapes, 27 Ford Focuses, a Ford Explorer (Rob Turner’s car), and a 2001 Chevy Blazer, the oldest of the cars, used by David Webb, Senior Appraisal Manager of the Agricultural Team. Most of the cars are relatively new, half of the Escapes being 2008. They are all plain white.
The office spent a little over $1000 over the summer of 2008 putting locking gas caps on the automobiles.
Turner’s senior staff includes his Chief Deputy Warren Weathers, his General Counsel Will Shepherd, and his Executive Secretary Merary Gomez. My initial request was handled by Carolyn FIllipone, Director of Human Resources. It was then passed off to Sarah Herms, an Accountant III, and then Rita Skutnik, an Accountant II.
Turner at Work
Mr. Turner incurred $675 in educational expenses last year. He attended a school for the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAOO) in Orlando in December of 2007, where he stayed at the Florida Hotel and Conference Center in Room 1048 for a cost of $99 a night. He also went to the Property Appraiser Association of Florida’s Mid-Winter Conference in Tallahassee in February of 2008. He stayed overnight at the Ramada Conference Center in Room 2257 for $79.95.
In addition to the educational trips he took, Turner also took several business trips in 2008. He attended the first Software Techniques Inc. conference in Orlando in March of 2008 (STI helped update the Property Appraiser Offices technology and bring them online shortly after Turner took office in 1997.) He stayed two nights at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in room 708 for $175, and paid $20 for valet parking each night. His lunch on March 27, 2008 was provided by the conference.
He went to a Department of Revenue Conference in Daytona Beach in May of 2008, staying overnight at the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort in room 994 which has 2 queen beds and a fridge for $99, and paid $8 for parking. He next went to a DOR workshop on Amendment 1 (“Save our Homes” homestead exemption and portability) in Lake City in July of 2008, where he stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn in Room 323 for $84.
Turner’s total gas and food expenses totaled $723.51. He apparently only gets reimbursed for $38 in meal expenses per day. His hotel stays add up to $949.95, making his total travel expenses for 2008 equal $1673.46, except for one flight to Nevada.
Turner stayed at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada for the IAAO’s annual conference. The airfare for this trip was $961. He paid $40 for taxi service, $500 to register for the conference, and stayed with Donna Turner for $105 a night.
Turner’s travel expenses do not seem excessive. He stays in what appears to be modest accommodations, although I noticed he almost always uses the maximum food per diem. Does he really spend $8 for two meals and $22 for the third?
THE ELECTION
Turner was challenged this election cycle by Democrat Ken Ayers. In all, he raised over $73,000 for his campaign, over $4,000 in “In-kind” contributions, and spent a little over $70,000. Naturally, he spent most of his money on advertising and mailing, although his “qualifying fee” to the Supervisor of Elections was $9000. Curiously, he sent out seven refunds for contributions over the limit in August of 2009.
His big donors early on were farmers. In March of 2007, Deedee Grooms and Carl Grooms of Fancy Farms in Plant City both sent him $500, and then another $500 on behalf of their business. Berry Patch Farms, Inc. donated $250 and Astin Farms, Inc. donated $500. Builders, Insurance, and Realtors made up the majority of his larger contributions, as well as his employees.
Turner defeated Ayers by over 43,000 votes, a nine point lead.
CONCLUSION
The people at the office were very pleasant. They provided me with all the information I asked for with no problem, in a timely manner, and Rita Skutnik allowed me to inspect the records and pick which information I wanted copies of.
It’s curious the things you catch when you look down from an observation tower. The wooden structure at Lettuce Lake Park has been a recent favorite of mine to go to and explore the beauties of the outdoor world. I think USF is fortunate in the fact that so many natural reserves surround the area. Living here, I often find it rejuvenating to get away from the urban lifestyle and explore the parks in the area.
The USF Bookstore will be at USF Poly for the Textbook Buyback on Saturday, December 13th, from 10:00 AM to 3:00PM. The buyback will take place in LTB 1105, facing the USF Cashier’s Office.
Here are the items newly arrived at the USF Polytechnic Library during the month of November. As always, new circulating books are found in the “New books” stacks in the Group Study area; the new reference and A/V materials are being immediately shelved in their respective stacks.
DVD/VHS
Slacker uprising [videorecording] / written and directed by Michael Moore ; producer, Monica Hampton ; Dog Eat Dog Films. [Culver City, Calif.] : Brave New Films, c2007.
JK1764 .S5445 2007
Reference
RMA annual statement studies. Philadelphia : Robert Morris Associates, 1977-
Reference HF5681 .B2 R6 2008/09
Books
Relationship marketing / Robert W. Palmatier. Cambridge, Mass. : Marketing Science Institute, c2008.
HF5415.55 .P34 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for drama 6-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Dept. of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 D72 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for English 6-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Dept. of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 E54 2008
English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) K-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee : Florida Dept. of Education, 2008.
LB1772 .F6 E545 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for humanities K-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Department of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 F59 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for reading K-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Dept. of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F5 F78 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for journalism 6-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Department of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 F595 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for marketing 6-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Department of Education., 2008.
LB1772 .F6 F618 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide general knowledge test / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Department of Education., c2008.
LB1772 .F6 G46 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations test information guide for Mathematics 6-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Dept. of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 M37 2008
Florida Teacher Certification Examinations : test information guide for music K-12 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee, Fla. : Florida Dept. of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 M83 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for middle grades English 5-9 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee : Florida Dept. of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 M533 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for middle grades mathematics 5-9 / Florida Department of Education. Tallahassee : Florida Dept. of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 M5354 2008
Florida teacher certification examinations : test information guide for speech 6-12 / Florida Dept. of Education. Tallahassee : Florida Dept. of Education, c2008.
LB1772 .F6 S6331 2008
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The upgrade to Blackboard 8 provides Instructors with a powerful new Grade Center to manage grading in a course. This Grade Center replaces the current gradebook. If you are currently using the Blackboard gradebook, the new Grade Center can look different at first, but it improves highly on its predecessor.
In addition to creating online documentation about the Grade Center, special training sessions are available to Instructors and Departments. Instructors can call ahead for one on one training on the Grade Center. Departments can take advantage of group training sessions to be held in your meeting rooms.
For One on One sessions, please call 974-3286 to learn about available times.
For On Site training, Office Managers can 974-3286 and request On Site
Grade Center Training.
The following are the dates that these special sessions are available.
December 15-19
On Site Training
One on One Sessions
January 5-9 (First week of Classes)
Limited Onsite Training. Please call for availability.
January 12-16
On Site Training
One on One Sessions
