lark
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 104
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Post by lark on Nov 6, 2007 12:20:33 GMT -5
I just read this one, and I liked it up until the end. It really annoyed me that they returned the money and made the TV crew leave. What a waste of time for the poor crew! I'm sure they weren't too thrilled having to film a family with 8 loud kids all the time either! Couldn't the Pikes just have sucked it up and lasted for one more day? That's worth 10k in my book! Oh well.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Nov 6, 2007 16:16:38 GMT -5
^ yep, that bit annoyed me enough to put me right off this book! ;D
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Post by aln1982 on Nov 6, 2007 16:30:28 GMT -5
I always thought it was kind of foolish they didn't just stick it out (or find a way to get around the problems) for the money, too. Even though it was a good message, I guess, I would have been a lot less inclined to turn down the money. I don't know, though, as I've never had the chance to find out. ;D
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Nov 7, 2007 0:27:26 GMT -5
^ it was just ridiculous, considering they'd put up with the invasion for so long already. What was one more day?!
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Nov 7, 2007 19:18:12 GMT -5
Yeah, if they'd decided earlier on that it wasn't worth the hassle, I could see that, but letting the TV crew ruin most of December and then not sticking it out for one more day to get their $10,000? That's just dumb.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Nov 8, 2007 0:28:10 GMT -5
^ TOTAL word. I wanted to scream at the Pikes ;D
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Post by aln1982 on Dec 26, 2007 1:22:28 GMT -5
I felt for the Pikes – the kids especially – with how awful it must have been with those camera people following them around and making them “cut” constantly. I know they were being compensated but it still would have been miserable. After all the misery, though, I would have finished and taken the money. Probably what I would have done is stuck it out with the camera people and went through the motions and then celebrated “Christmas” the way I wanted (with the $10,000 ;D) another day. Still, I liked this one pretty well, though I would have enjoyed more baby sitting chapters. But the Pikes are always fun to read about.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on Dec 26, 2007 10:38:07 GMT -5
Mallory and Vanessa could get scholarships for their writing abilities. Not sure about Nicky, Margo and Claire... I could imagine Adam and Jordan going insane at frat parties, whilst Byron is the stereotypical university student with his books, scarf and hot chocolate or coffee ;D Is it really an absolute expectation that parents pay for their child's college education? Over here we have a government funded scheme which almost completely removes any financial obligation from parents. I really don't think a family with eight kids would be able to afford the total cost, unless their dad was Bill Gates or something. Oh, it's expected. You fill out a ton of paperwork, and the government tells you and your family what they can contribute. For me, it completely sucked because I spent my trust fund the year after I graduated from high school, expecting that my parents would pay. And they would have, except for the fact that my family lost a TON of money in 2001 due to some sort of investment scan and a war and a collapsing economy. So I ended up having to work and put off college, which I never expected, and even though I didn't live with my parents, their income still contributed to how much financial aid I got. I had to wait until I was 24 before they stopped counting my parents income towards my education. I was lucky that I could work part time and go to school part time and I had good enough grades for scholarships. I didn't get to go to the school I wanted, which was sad... but I look at that as my punishment for listening to my parents, when I knew better by 18. I think it's the stupidest thing ever to give more money to people with more children. It's an incentive to bring more kids into this overpopulated world/country and a violation (IMO) of the establishment clause. If they are going to help, they should help everyone, including parents who are responsible enough to save money for their kids, people who are irresponsible enough to spend it, people who have 17 kids, and people who have one kid. Or help no one, which is also a valid option. Do you think I want to pay for the Duggars education? No. But I will if it means I get free eduction. But... not going to happen. It wouldn't be the end of the world if higher ed was given back to just the people who deserve it, instead of expecting that everyone should get one, free. The people who suck at school bring everyone else down, and probably shouldn't have gotten in with a 2.0 GPA. A little competition never hurt anyone, and we will always need people to go to trade and beauty school...So I'm thinking that a merit based system would make more sense, or at least a "per family" amount of money. And they really should spend some more money on our elementary schools and high schools before giving money for kids to go to college. Just my opinion. Oh, and the book. I didn't like this one at all. WTF Old fashioned Christmas? Why would kids want that? And why did they turn the cameras away? They could have easily had another Christmas after the cameras left. They could have put the money in savings or CDs so they could have it when they need it. Or saved it for retirement or gifts for the hundreds of grandkids they will have someday.
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Post by greer on Dec 26, 2007 10:43:38 GMT -5
I don't get why America can't pay for higher education when a country like Russia, which has way more problems, pays for the entire higher education, bachelors to phd, for every student who scores above a certain level on the college entrance exam. oh right we spend billions of dollars on pointless wars. *rolls eyes*
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on Dec 26, 2007 11:08:33 GMT -5
Well, people in the country don't place a very high value on education, period. It's not just higher ed -- our primary schools are failing as well. I know that some of that has to do with the fact that schools are considered to be controlled by local governments, not the federal government. Sure they step in every so often, telling local governments to do certain things, but schools are funded and controlled by state and local government. This leads to the inconsistency that we see, with wealthier districts giving more money to schools. People who live in the areas with the nicer schools are more likely to vote, period, and therefor allocate the money to the schools. They are also more likely to go to college and pay attention to what their kid are doing after school.
This is not to say that poorer people don't want to be smart or have their kids best interest at heart. But it is well known that the priorities of people with less money, those people who are struggling day to day to feed their kids, are less likely to vote. And those that do, are less likely to know what they are voting on, and to actually pass a new tax. These people are also usually so worn out from working two or three jobs and living with poor nutrition and inadequate health care that they literally can't be as supportive of their kids education as people who live in a nicer area have have better jobs with more pay and benefits.
And all of the old people who vote are all like "i don't want any new taxes.. these people are so ungrateful..blah blah blah." We need to take the vote away from people who are going to die soon anyway, because it's not like school funding affects them at all. And they are the ones voting no on library and higher ed / lower ed millages. They are also the ones voting for people who start random wars under false pretenses.
But this really isn't a political board.
Um, yeah, so Mal and Christmas... their old fashioned christmas was surprisingly secular. That seems to be a big part of old fashioned christmas.. not that I minded.
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Post by greer on Dec 26, 2007 11:11:48 GMT -5
and in my area most of the money allocated to the schools goes to... the athletic programs. 25 sports fields for one high school are like, totally necessary!!!111
it's funny though that mal's christmas was so secular, considering that in christmas chiller the pikes were all about the pagent.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on Dec 26, 2007 11:46:41 GMT -5
^it's not just your area. One of the arguments for why the school boards consistently vote for sports over arts in most districts is that sports give back to the community. I don't know how true that actually is. BUT, it is true that students who are involved in extra curricular activities do tend to be favored by top universities and are more likely to do well in school. I still don't understand why we like sports more then... say reading or writing. And why on earth professional athletes make so much money... but there's nothing I can do about it. I have two copies of Christmas Chiller and I think I read it when I got one of them, but I don't remember a thing about it. Maybe I'll read that today. But that would mean I broke my "read the whole series in order" thing I was going. Even though I already broke that when I chose not to read mallory pike #1 fan.
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Post by greer on Dec 26, 2007 13:52:51 GMT -5
why didn't you read mallory pike, #1 fan?
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on Dec 26, 2007 15:11:13 GMT -5
it was the last book I read before I decided to re-read every single book in order, plus I didn't like it that much because it's kind of weird. And I don't get how Mal suddenly forgot what fiction was. I can go back and read it, if it's that important to you ;-)
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Post by greer on Dec 26, 2007 15:12:08 GMT -5
hahaha no i just thought perhaps you were like "this is too bad! i can't bring myself to spend any part of my life reading it!"
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