I didn’t plan for resolutions

I said once that I don?t make New Year?s resolutions?but I do make plans. According to Thesaurus, ?plan? is one of the words listed for ?resolution,? so in a way I make resolutions.

I?m not ready to reveal them just yet.

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Thesaurus?one of the widgets on my computer?also has a dictionary feature. Did you know that if you can?t spell a word you can?t find it on a computer dictionary? But if you Google it, and get close, it will ask ?Did you mean...?? and give an option that is usually correct.

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Our collective plan for the county for this year and every year thereafter should be to find a way to increase enrollment in our schools.

What that means is finding a way to keep our young adults from leaving, having them return with children, or recruiting young people beyond our borders to make Marion County their home.

Say what you want about priorities, but this one has to be at the top of the list.

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I saw a commercial on television recently that blew my mind. Net Zero was suggesting that you change to dialup to save about $300 per year against the cost of faster Internet connections. If someone actually decides to do that, I?d like to be the first to know.

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I?ve had my fix on bowl games already. I?m proud of our sports guy, Andrew, whose principles didn?t allow him to watch the bowl games because of the way the BCS system works.

He did miss a couple of high-energy games where Ole Miss tore down Texas Tech with too much speed and intensity, and Utah stuffed Alabama by jumping out early and not letting them back in the game.

The Rose Bowl doesn?t need to be played anymore. Just chalk up the win for the Pac 10 and USC.

My Jayhawks looked good against Minnesota and Tennessee (football and basket?ball, respectively). In the future, I?m going to have to watch with the sound turned off when Jay Bilas is announcing basketball. All he could say was how bad Tennessee was playing, and didn?t give any credit to KU for causing them to play that way.

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Jack Schultz?s Boomtown USA blog is reporting another interesting innovation.

In 1969, a juvenile judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., looked at a kid standing in front of him in court and knew that a sentence in standard juvenile justice would be the end of any bright future the young man might have.

On a hunch, he called a friend who was the director of a marine research agency asking for a favor. He asked the friend to take this young man, put him on a boat, work with him as a marine biologist, give him responsibility and keep him away from his neighborhood. A month later, the friend called back asking for eight more kids.

From that first delinquent, Associated Marine Institutes has grown into 57 programs in eight states. The programs have expanded include environmental programs, farming, dog training for the handicapped, horse training and even programs for girls with babies.

To date, more than 80,000 students have gone through the program, with 70 percent of them never having more problems with the law.

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