Short - as a parent of a number of past, present, and future high school students, it amazes me how much homework kids have these days. I had less than 10 hours of homework in grades K-12 TOTAL. We got time in class to do assignments and I got a great education. Times are different now also in high school. My 2 oldest ones in HS have jobs, sports, church activities, etc. I would hate it if they were assigned something like the entire LOTR (50 hours in mp3 format). My sister-in-law was a poor reader and was forced to read Crime and Punishment in HS which turned her off to reading like nothing else could have.
Diverse - this should be almost like a taste test at the food court. If what is chosen holds their interest they will develop their tastes accordingly. If they are forced into long stories they do not like it will turn them off for good.
I have been consulting with a company for a year and they have offered me a job with the company now. They like my work and I know what my job responsibilities would be, but it would be a cut in pay and I could no longer deduct my mileage. I wouldn't have to buy my own health insurance anymore. I would also get trained in different technologies. I prefer the consulting, personally, but may be cut off if I don't take the offer.
A: A good start
Last year I was in an airport waiting for a delayed flight during a kidney stone attack. I bought Internet access at through Boingo for the day and it helped me get through the attack.
Maybe just getting your mind off things would have been a better test.
If I had to do it over again I would have just used an inverter plugged into the cigarette lighter of my car and left the car running. For one thing in my case, where we lived had hardly any trees to blow onto the lines so we never experienced an outage the entire time up there (yay Manitoba Hydro!!). My generator still sits in the box never used after 10 years. Another thing is the gas tank on my car is much larger than the small tank on the generator. Inverters for cars are also much cheaper.
Obviously this will not work on a large scale, or when you are not home, but it is probably the cheapest solution.
I use IBM manuals quite a bit that I have saved in
"I am, therefore I am." -- Akira