"It's just like the Depression or something!"
(OC Reg’s “College Life” blog)
Wow, at this rate, we oughta just keep an open link to “College Life.” Science Dude Garry Robbins has posted yet another scintillating educational story there today, explaining that “Orange County’s nine community colleges could collectively be forced to reduce full and part-time enrollment by 31,500 as most of the schools would have to cut almost $30 million to help balance the state budget….”
Robbins notes that, of the four OC community college districts, SOCCCD is the exception:
Robbins includes “a preliminary analysis from the state”:
(I don't really understand that last point. Why would SOCCCD lose any students at all? As a "basic aid" district, the SOCCCD stands to lose when local property is devalued [as is gradually occurring] and thus less property tax money is collected. But the devaluation won't hit right away, and, besides, SOCCCD has quite a bit squirreled away for a rainy day.)
Wow, at this rate, we oughta just keep an open link to “College Life.” Science Dude Garry Robbins has posted yet another scintillating educational story there today, explaining that “Orange County’s nine community colleges could collectively be forced to reduce full and part-time enrollment by 31,500 as most of the schools would have to cut almost $30 million to help balance the state budget….”
Robbins notes that, of the four OC community college districts, SOCCCD is the exception:
South Orange is a “basic aid” district, which the state says means that “high property tax value covers the cost of supporting all of the students.” That means that the district doesn’t get lots of money from the general fund. But the other three districts do.
Robbins includes “a preliminary analysis from the state”:
• The Rancho Santiago district must cut its budget by $8.8 million and reduce enrollment by about 10,749.
• The North Orange County district must cut about $10.1 million and reduce enrollment by 8,493.
• And the Coast district must cut $10.9 million and trim enrollment by 7,062.
• Although the South Orange district isn’t project to lose lots of state money, [spokeswoman Paige Marlatt] Door said the system could lose 5,247 students.
You realize these pics are bullshit, right?
Actually, this is a pic of the recent Saddleback/IVC softball game.
I dunno about the May meeting, but at the April meeting of the SOCCCD board, much discussion concerned how to deal with the increased demand for classes caused by the economic downturn (and, I suppose, the turning away of students at the three other districts). Unlike the other three OC districts, the SOCCCD is in a position to accommodate growth, but at a cost: money would be diverted from improvement of facilities.
What do you suppose our trustees will do? Is there a high road here? If there were one, would they take it? I think they'd better consult the Lord, cuz this ain't easy.
OK, this is how I get when nobody writes comments.
What do you suppose our trustees will do? Is there a high road here? If there were one, would they take it? I think they'd better consult the Lord, cuz this ain't easy.
OK, this is how I get when nobody writes comments.
14 comments:
Roy, the last line of your post is so darn cute how could I not post....Sleep tight and may you have very, very sweet dreams.
I was hoping to be a rabid poster today, but I am trying to correct my sleep schedule. SO, I pulled this all nighter, right? The plan was to fall asleep at like 6pm and sleep until 8am (I've done this before, and it worked). But, I just woke up about half an hour ago - I'm totally screwed.
Anyways, I work at Regal, and I think I saw YOU, OR someone who resembles you very much there like a day or so ago. Whaddya think?
Or if you wanna start a conversation related to rationality I have a few new thoughts regarding that.
Oh, and the music is much too enjoyable. I usually complain about these things, but Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah is hitting the tired spot right now while I write this. The widget is really ugly though; so there.
I think Raghu's salary is right up there with the big bucks the big boys make the the UCs - you know that an assemblyman introduced a bill that would allow the state legislature oversight on the blaoted admin salaries at the UCs right?
Maybe they can cut Ragu's take home too. Some of these guys make more than the president of the United States.
Meanwhile, is it true that they outsourced IVC's registration system to India? Anyone know anything?
BS, if by "Regal," you mean Regal Lanes (isn't that the name of that theater complex up on Portola?), I often lurk there. I recall driving by there with my sister Annie recently. She was in search of the lost chord. I'm glad you like the music. Quite ecclectic, isn't it? As for the ugliness of the widget, I've modified it JUST FOR YOU. I hope it is less ugly. N.B.: be careful what you say here, for I love these cats more than I love you, but that's true for almost everybody. And rationality: hmmm. Had did that come up? Apparently, I ended this post with "cuteness." I know that you didn't say that, BS. I can tell it was a woman. No idea who. A lack of comments isn't all bad. We get lots of hits these days, and that's more important, I suppose. But I do miss the generally witty and thoughtful comments that a few of you provide, including you, BS, who should know that you are already a good writer with a definite "voice," one well worth developing further. (I expect great things from you, and not just on the blogosphere.) I figure you people have rich lives and have better things to do. That's a good thing. I also have better things to do. I should do them.
I've never heard anyone call the theater "Regal Lanes," we call ourselves "Foothill Regal 22" though.
Two things I noticed - this man was significantly balding (you weren't losing your hair the last time I saw you), but had similar facial expressions. He was also accompanied by a smaller red haired woman. Honestly, I thought "This must be Roy's parents," and considered just saying the name "Bauer" through the microphone to see the response, but I had a customer, and well customers are timid, easily confused, and often easily angered, but always unforgiving.
The widget looks significantly better; nevermind the formatting (isn't there a width and height property you can modify?). I can't tell which of your friends is in the picture. The list is eclectic, the music elicits feelings of melancholy for me though, I think I enjoy it. Makes me want to burn a CD and hit the roads for awhile, alone or with the girl, makes no difference.
Rationality: This came up because I was reading posts on the skepdic site, and came across "magical thinking." It, somehow, had me considering what it was to be rational. Though, I have one of your old philosophy packets (remember the 'Old Theater is on fire' example?) and it seems that my new thoughts seem to correspond with something you already taught (oops). I guess I can't expect the sponge to soak up every drop.
Apparently it was cute, and that post is very clearly female (that, and I never post with the anonymous title). You can tell by the use of the word 'cute' and the 'very, very sweet dreams' bit. I would never say that to anyone. I don't even really care much about what other people dream. I don't wish bad dreams on others, but I do think they are interesting, and they could be a useful tool for making people want to wake up. That's a joke of course, suffering in a bad dream is often times worse than suffering in reality (or so I find).
Chunkerton, as always, thank you for the kind words, they have a lot of meaning, and I certainly hope I don't let you down.
Ooh, Patti Smith and "Gimmie Shelter," this is a great way to end a long post.
"Chunkerton": an excellent pet-name for our friend, BS. I, too, have missed comments from the likes of you on the blog; I guess that's a summer thing, when other things in life arise to distract us more often. I have been exceptionally lazy about reading and posting lately, myself.
Yeah; the "sweet dreams" comment has to be from one of your many female admirers, Chunk. Very sweet, it was.
I have to add another aesthetic critique to BS's: the cat with gun is horrible! It's so out of balance with the other beautiful brats that you've so wonderfully captured with your excellent eye and camera. I request another graphic, of any kind, to replace the hideous, weaponed cat in the top corner. (Do I have as much pull as BS?)
Hell, I always thought "Regal Lanes" was a bowling alley!
Regal Lanes is a bowling alley--or it was one, in Orange. Sheesh, I'm having flashbacks.
MAH: Speak for yourself you silent little thing!
Fun fact: I always try to relate Chunk's name back to something relevant. The default (i.e. when I'm not feeling clever) can be Chunkerton though. I'd like to think that while he was in San Francisco I once referred to him as Chunkeroni... but I don't recall if I did that just for fun or what. For awhile though, I was just experimenting like crazy, so I can't tell. But, I do remember he responded with something of the likes, "I'm not a bowl of pasta."
True, that.
By the way, I *liked* the cat with a gun! I thought it was a creative use of a yawning cat. I think you should replace the picture on the playlist (which is apparently gone now), but hey, the fitting is great! Bravo!
"It's the time, of the seeeaaassooonnn foor llooovvvinnngg," badum, pshaah.
I had, in fact, noticed your many clever variations on "Chunk," BS. Always have appreciated them, especially in light of their family resemblance to Chunk's own play with words (e.g., "assholery"). I was not, however, clever enough to notice that they were often relevant to the topics at hand. Humbling!
All right: just to show my grumpiness at the June gloom, I don't even like the cat with mouse and laptop. I never did care for that kind of anthropomorphized imagery of animals. Remember those godawful commercials in the old days that made cats appear (not very well) to speak words? Hated 'em more than I can say. The magnificent creatures are interesting enough in their own right not to need "enhancement" with faked human activities.
Sorry, Chunk! I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.... and I am thankful for feline imagery (in any form) in place of human mugs any day. Plus you are probably considering a wider audience of louts like BS.
Only kidding!
MAH, I guess we disagree. (That's great; we have something to discuss!) I don't think the "cat with mouse" image (or even the "cat as Rambo" image) anthropomorphize cats at all. For me, the humor in part depends on the utter absurdity of the situations--that is, these images place cats in situations that make absolutely no sense for them. Cats are not like Rambo; cats are not inclined to manipulate a mouse (huh huh) and surf the web. To me at least, some of these images are much more about the human counterparts to the images and the attitudes of those who respond to them in contemptible ways. This is especially true for the "Rambo"-style image. There's something (no doubt you could articulate it better than I could) ridiculous about the attitudes and sensibility of the "Rambo" crowd, and placing a fundamentally sweet and fuzzy creature in the middle of all that just cracks me up--in part, I think, because it pokes fun of the Rambo-people. (I really love that image.) The cat-at-computer image is more silly, but it no more anthropomorphizes cats than does my putting a tie or fedora on TigerAnn, which, for me, would be funny (momentarily) exactly because I would know what the Tige is "thinking," namely, "What are you doing now? I need control, and I need it now. I am waiting to bolt.... Fuck you, big guy." It would be different, I think, if I were thinking of TigerAnn as human-like (or businessman-like). Cats are charming to me in part because they are so different from human beings, both more innocent and more transparent in their desires and feelings. I mean, obviously, these images do "anthropomorphize" in the sense that they portray cats in "human" situations, but not in a sense that bothers me at all. I will try to dig up an image that DOES bother me in this regard. I GUESS the reason that some of those cat-food commercials annoy me is, not the "anthropomorphizing," but that they are stupid and unfunny and unclever. But if they were to use the approach of one of these recent "talking baby" commercials (Do you know the ones? Some baby/toddler talks about finance[?] I think), that could be funny. I approve of those "baby" commercials because whoever puts them together has a good sense of the creepiness and wild oddness of putting these thoughts into the head of a baby. I don't think he/she imagines for a moment that babies ever have these attitudes or anything like them. PACE, Mad as Hell. I know you have already thought of some of this. But I'm sayin' it!
Thanks for your thoughtful, intelligent take (as always) on these things, in both comment and blog-post, CW. I gotta wake up enough to think about it a bit, and then maybe I'll have a fabulous, razor-sharp response--or not! (Yep; the June gray-thing made me nap in the middle of the day again. I hate that.) I'm gonna think about it. As usual, I seem to have underestimated you----but I still hate those images. I'll try to figure out, more subtly, why that is.
Who exactly is "South Orange [spokeswoman Paige Marlatt] Door"? There is no one listed by that name in the directory,
The post does not say or imply that Door is an SOCCCD spokeswoman. If you look at the original article, you see that Door is a spokesperson for something like the state chancellor's office. Go back and check.
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