Inside the Head of a High School Work-A-Holic

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Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:21:12 -0800

RT @BreakingNews Yale president says university may reinstate ROTC after repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' policy - New Haven Register http://bit.ly/fmkGcc

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Sat, 18 Dec 2010 11:26:41 -0800

BAL

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Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:12:14 -0700

BreakingNews: Drug-sore chain CVS to pay $75 million civil fine for selling key meth ingredient - AP http://ping.fm/Pky6K

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Woman Calls Tech Show When Her Stolen WiFi Disappears

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:58:32 -0800

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This is just too funny and too stupid for words. Just watch the vid and you'll see what I mean...

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Interesting Facts About The Blogosphere | MakeUseOf.com

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:43:06 -0800

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This is one time that I am glad to be a statistic LOL...

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Is This The Safest House In The World...?

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:21:25 -0800

provided by

It wasn't so long ago that panic rooms were thought of as little more than a plot line for a Jodi Foster film or an expensive eccentricity of the paranoid. No more.
More from MainStreet.com:
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%u2022 Investors Beating Out Homebuyers With Cash
Nowadays, increasing numbers of homeowners are spending big bucks to have panic rooms, safe cores and other sorts of high-tech security systems installed in their home to ensure their family and possessions are kept safe from intrepid intruders and other calamitous events.

Hurwitz James Company

One residence, located high in the hills above Los Angeles, goes several steps further than a simple but effective panic room. The lavish and luxurious appointments of the sky-high mansion discreetly hide and disguise a security system so tight that it just may be the safest house in the world.
Modern-Day Fortress
The modern-day fortress was designed and built in 2002 by Al V. Corbi, a renowned authority on residential and yacht security. Corbi's stock in trade is designing integrated systems with detection, deterrence, defensive and offensive options. The heavily fortified and super secure residence occupies an easily defended promontory with 360-degree views. The well-defended dwelling stands five stories tall, measures almost 8,000 square feet and includes 32 rooms that all sit atop a virtually impenetrable batcave-like garage that will hold six, preferably armored, cars.

Hurwitz James Company

Safe and Luxurious
When not aiding the defense and security of its occupants, the fortress-like home functions like any other well-appointed mansion with deluxe creature comforts such as an elevator for whisking folks from the garage level to the living levels, a gourmet kitchen with granite counter tops and commercial grade appliances, two offices, a wine cellar and a home theater.
Buy Some Peace of Mind
The home's real luxury is, of course, the ensured safety of its inhabitants. Should an intruder manage to breach the extensive exterior security measures that include comprehensive surveillance abilities, there are two hidden panic rooms and two architecturally invisible "safe cores."
The safe cores consist of entire sections of the residence that can be isolated from the rest of the home and where the homeowner can retreat in complete safety -- not to mention luxury -- from an outside threat that might include an intruder, a natural disaster or even a nuclear, biological or chemical attack.

Hurwitz James Company

The homeowner declined to discuss some of the specifics of the heavy-duty security set up out of obvious concern that it could compromise the overall system. This means they're not going to tell this writer or anyone else but the next owner that the property is equipped with semi-automatic weaponry that can be remotely controlled from the panic room(s). It may not be, but then again, maybe it is.
Room for Refugees
In addition to the handicap-accessible guest suite, the seriously safe house has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms including a master suite with panoramic views, a fireplace, a luxurious bathroom and a custom-fitted dressing room that would satisfy any clothes horse with a penchant for high-powered security systems.
Whirly-Gig Accessible
The sprawling and tiled terrace on the roof takes full advantage of the 360-degree views that include Mount Baldy, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean. There is also a built-in barbecue center and a spa situated under the heliport designed for emergency evacuations in the event of a home intrusion or for fire emergencies.
The Price of Safety
While it can be tough to put a price of the safety and security of one's family, in this case the tab is $7.25 million.
For more information and details on the safest house in the world, contact Bob Hurwitz (phone number (310) 477-8865 ) at the Hurwitz James Company in Beverly Hills, Calif.

via finance.yahoo.com

I really think it is. When most of us think of safe, we think "boring" and "unexciting", but actually, this home manages to provide peace of mind and luxury for the owner and his/her family. This 5-story, 32 room fortress is located in Los Angeles and rests on over 8000 square feet and gives the inhabitants a 360 degree view of one of California's busiest cities. Security features include extensive surveillance throughout the interior and exterior of the home. Should a thief mange to pass that, the family can safely retreat to the two hidden panic rooms or the "safe cores", which are architecturally invisible. While its hard to put a price on security, this home sells it for $7 million dollars. Who's going to cut the check?

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Google Granted the Right to Buy and Sell Electricity

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:18:58 -0800

Google, Green Tech
Google Granted the Right to Buy and Sell Electricity
by Terrence O'Brien %u2014 Feb 19th 2010 at 3:40PM
Back in December, Google took steps to form Google Energy, a subsidiary created for the express purpose of buying and selling electricity in bulk. In January, the company filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to enter the market, and yesterday received permission to purchase and resell wholesale energy (PDF).
Google says it made the move primarily to better manage its high electricity costs, but also to give it more flexibility in pursuing the goal of becoming completely carbon neutral. "We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can," a representative told CNET news. A company buying and selling energy to help it manage costs isn't unusual, but -- then again -- Google isn't your typical company.

There is some expectation that Google will actually enter the energy business at some point, whether it sells direct to consumers or partners with existing utility companies. Back in January, the same representative told CNET, "We want the ability to buy and sell electricity in case it becomes part of our portfolio." Then there was the announcement that the company was developing low cost mirrors for use in solar panels. And, of course, there's the Google PowerMeter, which allows users to track electricity usage, as long as they have the proper equipment to upload the data.
Google has extended its reach across almost every type of Web service into the world of smart phones, announced a plan to (at least experimentally) enter the ISP business, developed a netbook OS, and now has implied that it may attempt to enter the consumer electricity market. With each passing day, those folks previously dismissed as paranoid for comparing Google to Big Brother seem a little less crazy. [From: CNET and ITworld]
Tags: electricity, energy, google, google energy, GoogleEnergy, isp, netbook os, NetbookOs, top
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Interesting... I like the idea that Google wants to become carbon neutral.

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NCHS TSA & I

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:17:00 -0800

In honor of my first OFFICIAL post on my blog, I decided to dedicate it to the great people of NCHS TSA and the wonderful organization of Georgia TSA. I hope everyone enjoys reading this post as much I enjoy serving a member and local officer.

Hello.
My name is D.A. (David) Whatley and I'm President of the North Clayton High School Chapter of the Georgia Technology Student Association.

After being Secretary from '08 - '09, I obtained the office of President in May 2009, succeeding my great friend and mentor Darrel and promising my fellow members to continue the charismatic nature of NCHS TSA spearheaded by him.

Another thing on my agenda was to get the message across to all my fellow members that I value the opinions of all my members, not just a select few and that I would treat each and everyone of them with the same respect that I would want. In return, I asked for them to do the same.

It wasn't too much of a daunting task and everyone quickly became peers.

This made my job a whole lot easier knowing that I could serve as President without having my Parliamentarian interrupt meetings every minute to stop fights .

Being a member of a highly mismanaged football team in middle school and "business" club in high school, I know how it feels to be overruled or left out by the voices of a few people and being treated without respect.

For those that don't know (or that are nosy), here's the rationale of why I'm so critical of my middle school football team. Feel free to skip if you don't want to read:

With the football team, the vets, primarily the captain, got their way. To be fair, the captain actually played like he deserved to have his opinion valued more than others. Also, the assistant coaches on the team were also balanced in making the decisions. However, the head coach, along with the other players who were in his circle, had other plans. The coach allowed them to choose who started and could pretty much do whatever doing practice and actual games. It's no wonder why we were 0-7 on the season. . .

I also experienced the same thing when I arrived in high school and was looking for clubs to join. I was trying to join this club that prepares students to become future business leaders...but that didn't work out either because of the aforementioned reasons - biased and unjust leadership. (Read about this matter on my post here.) If they hadn't acted the way they did, I probably never would've joined TSA. Now that I look back, I'm glad they did.

At that time, I thought to myself that these two moments would never benefit me but now that I'm President of NCHS TSA, I use these situations that I've faced, that I've dealt with, to design my leadership style - open and inviting.

What's President Obama without his Cabinet?

What was Martin Luther King, Jr. without his followers?

What was George Washington without his army?

The people that I lead make me and the decisions that I finalize make them. With that said, I need to get every opinion from my members so that I can make the best decision - and I do.

During all of our meetings, whenever I feel that another member is trying to take control during a discussion or interrupting and/or criticizing a suggestion by another member, I bang my gavel and stop it - end of discussion. How can we become a better chapter if were fighting amongst ourselves?

I'm am ecstatic to be the President of this 9 year old chapter and I appreciate all of my members and my advisors, for being such wonderful people and friends to me.

NCHS TSA has become a second family to me. We are very diverse consisting of anime fans, sports fanatics, GPA mavericks, divas, and so much more across several races. Although we don't have the memberships of chapters like Riverdale, Parkview, and Toombs County (Kudos to all of y'all for your outstanding work!), we're only a group of 15-20 and we do whatever we can to make a positive impact on our school, community, and State. I'll be the first to say that NCHS TSA has one of the lowest memberships out of any CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organization) or other organization in our school. However, I will also be the first to say that NCHS TSA's membership consists of students that appreciate one another and are always ready to work.

I would take 20 students that are dedicated and willing to embrace the motto of TSA, "Learning to live in a techical world", instead of 60 that are only dedicated to themselves ANY DAY!

For our school we've work with our school's Anime Club, an organization that brings together students that like to watch and/or draw Anime (another term for "animated cartoons"), to provide our annual Game Night, where students can come and participate in video game tournaments, play freely, or just watch others and get a few tips.

For our community, we've decided to take some time away from our families on Christmas Day 2009 and provide the less fortunate with free meals by partnering up with HOSEA Feed The Hungry.

For our State, we've done this by participating in the annual Georgia TSA State Conference and finish high in the rankings - last year we finished 8th in the State and this year were aiming even higher!

I wouldn't want to be a part of any other organization other than Georgia TSA and my only regret is that I didn't join sooner.

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Spotlight on My Life: Preparing Business Leaders

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:10:00 -0800

I'm not sure I really want to call this a post but more like an spotlight on my life or SML for short. Posts like these will be indicated by the Italic text, as you see below, preceded by a synopsis. SMLs may be funny, sad, inspiring or something else and for the most part, will be set around past events in my life, but at the conclusion of reading one, you will have a little more clarity on why D.A. Whatley is D.A. Whatley. Enjoy.

This post is about when I tried to become apart of a club at my high school that about preparing students to become future business leaders.

I joined the club because it's one of my lifelong dreams to start my own business so I thought to myself "Why don't I join a club that teaches the foundations of business ownership, management, and entrepreneurship?" I joined and payed my $10 membership and attended the first meeting, which allowed everyone to sign up for the club's first fundraiser - a Halloween night for kids. Now I love working with kids (get that ugly thought out of your mind) because they have so much potential and have yet to face the realities of this cruel, cruel World, so I decided to volunteer.

At the event, I had a station where the kids would come by and race to put a skeleton together and the kid that finished first won a prize. I ran out of prizes 30 minutes into the night and the kids were still coming - just to have fun! I enjoyed myself and the kids did too - one even brought his mom back to play. However, my night was turned sour after I was chewed out by one of the club's advisors, who arrived at the event 30 minutes before it was over. She thought that I was just chilling there so that I could get some free community service when actually, the kids had grew tired of the game. Not to be cocky but I had the best station there, well, next to the facepaint, so I'm not surprised that the elementary kids grew tired of playing.

After seeing her hoop and holler for about 3 minutes straight, she waddled her large anatomy to the food station and after a making a rather, eh, large, uhm, nice sized plate, she calmed down. Now your average, typical Black person, would've snapped on her and probably slapped her. Let's get one thing straight - that thought seriously came to mind. But considering the kids, the butt-whooping I'd get from BOTH of my parents, and my image, I decided against it. Instead, I gave the advisor a simple "Yes ma'am", cleaned up my $1 Family Dollar skelton puzzles at my station, got my free plate of food (after waiting 15 minutes behind for her to make her's), and left. I decided that that would just be $10 lost because I promised myself to never attend another function affiliated with that club... EVER.

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Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:17:04 -0800

Poker.org sold for $1 Million, Most Ever For .org Domain http://ping.fm/CisKb

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Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:11:44 -0800

Bus Brawl: Wild Fight Caught on Tape - ABC News http://ping.fm/PHgZq

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Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:24:18 -0700

I love mac and cheese...

#food

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Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:46:22 -0700

Venus Williams is a BEAST!!! She lost the first set 0-6 and then came back to win the second set 6-0! Go VENUS!

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Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:23:20 -0700

#StatsI said that once Chris Brown had that incident Rihanna that other male R&B artist would rise up... Drake, Trey Songz, Ne-Yo

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Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:36:49 -0700

rip was AWESOME as well...

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Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:00:44 -0700

Happy 48th President Obama!

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Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:18:39 -0700

LOL... RT @zaynnie: http://ping.fm/Jvc9s - she worked my shit =]

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Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:08:03 -0700

RIP Aunt Mae... 94 years of peace, love, and happiness... Thank you for blessing my life with your wisdom, insight, and love...

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TOTAL FAIL

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:26:00 -0700

Why would you have this as a tag...? LOL...

see more Fail Blog

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My Favorite Quote

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:06:00 -0700

My favorite quote is "The main thing is to keep the main the main thing." by Stephen F. Covey. Why? This quote applies to my goals, my family, and life in general first. By keeping my goals "the main thing", I'm always focused on acheiving my goals and keeping the negativity and the pessimism at bay. By keeping my family "the main thing", I'm working on maintaining, sustaining, and developing my relationships with my family members and making sure we see eye to eye. Last, but not least, by keeping my life "the main thing", I focus mainly (mainly being 90% w/ fam and friends taking up the remaining 10%) on me, myself, and I. Don't get me wrong now, I do adore those that God has placed in my life but that my friends is the ugly truth.

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