August 22, 2007

All in all today was a good day. It was another Teacher Workday, but from 10-12 new students (freshmen) were allowed to come to the school for an orientation and then to walk their schedule and meet their teachers. It is nice to meet the students for the first time and wish them well on their last days of summer break. Most students did not have any questions, mostly because they didn't know what to ask, but many parents did. Some of the more popular questions were about frequency and type of homework as well as frequency of tests. The biggest drawbacks of such days are the repetitive nature of the the event and the time lost to planning. With each new student that comes into the room, I have to repeat for them some basic information, such as what to expect, where the list of supplies are on the board, which supplies they may or may not have, when do they have to have these supplies by, can their binder be shared with another subject, when is their lunch. It does get tiring, especially when 12 o'clock rolls around and the principal announces to the visitors that the orientation is over and the teachers need to go to lunch to be back in time for a meeting and there are still parents strolling into classrooms to hear all the information. But with the sacrificed planning time, it is usually a good investment in PR time. This first impression on the students and parents is very valuable in the relationships that will be necessary to build success in the classroom.

A new stretch of I-540 was opened recently here in Wake County. It is God-sent. It now runs into Cary/Apex at NC-55, which is the road Evan's school is off of. This new stretch cuts 15-20 minutes travel time when I pick up Evan each day after school. It also cuts out countless traffic lights, driving through the airport, one lane highways behind construction vehicles and many moronic drivers. This will continue to help immensely because I will be able to commit a few more minutes after school each day for meetings and extra help (even though it is only 15-20 minutes, it sounds a lot better to say that you are leaving at 3:30 instead of 3:15).

Today's Headlines:

Queens Man To Auction Bonds' Home Run Ball

I am a little confused. Matt Murphy caught Barry Bonds 756 homerun ball, the one that broke Hank Aaron's record. Now he says he will have to auction it off or else it would be expensive to keep. He would have to pay taxes on the baseball. Here is my confusion. Since the ball has not been bought or sold, what is it's dollar value? How much tax would you have to pay on something that doesn't have a value? I was under the impression that it is not an economic object of demand until it was sold, at which point a dollar value will be paid thereby giving the government a dollar value by which they can base their tax. As far as I am concerned, it is a baseball, which couldn't have cost more than a few bucks. So if the government wants to consider it property on which to place a property tax, it should be based on the known value of the ball, not the supposed or projected value of the ball.