Padd Solutions

Here is a trivia question for you. Who won the Tri-State Fair Canned Foods in 2007?
That would be humble ol' me. Let me tell you how that happened.

In the summer of 2007 my mother brought me a bushel of Colorado peaches on a visit here during the summer. I was perplexed on what to do with so many peaches. So I froze and canned the bushel over the weekend.

I was entering a black and white photo in the Photography Contest and thought that entering something else would be good too. So I grabbed a jar of the peaches and entered them. The peaches got a blue ribbon.

I am going to enter something again this year. So today when the Golden Spread Farmers Market opens I'll be getting some vegetable and fruits.

If you really want to get a good taste of the local market head to the market. The local Panhandle Coop of farmers harvest the crop on the day before and then sell them the next day. The market opens a 6:30 until everything is sold out. It really is best to get there on time if you want the best choices and avoid lines at the corn and watermelon farmers stand.

There are other things that the farmers sell beside the crop. There are fresh cut flowers, seasonal decorations and some canned items. The Potter/Randall Agriculture Extension usually has a table with information on local growing tips.

Are there any other foodies out there? I am always looking for good recipes and cooking tips.

Several news outlets today reported that a Dallas Dollar Tree customer made a purchase of a banner of an American Flag. There were some issues with the banner that the customer noticed and made a complaint. The flag banner had 61 inverted stars all clustered in the blue background. The red and white strips were placed incorrectly top to bottom. The flag banner was made in China.

It's just a banner. It is not a real flag.

So why the big deal? Would there really be an issue if the July 4th Holiday was not upon us?

The American Dream has become a bad diet of consumer economy debt feed to us by commercial materialism from large corporations who are trying to live the dream of Capitalism. Is it really all that bad? We as a nation have really lost sight of our goals.

I can not think a colonial farmer who would spend all their time and money to have a green front lawn like modern city folk do.

So what is the American Dream? If I relied on consumerism to tell me the definition is anorexic and shallow.

You get an education, to get a better job, to buy stuff.
But the stuff never lasts.
It isn't so cool to have the cool gadget of last month.
The style changes.
The music gets stale.
The ipod will die.
The computer will get a virus or the OS changes and all your games no longer work.
Worse, you drop your phone in the toilet.

I am just sure I can not buy into this American Dream. I really would rather talk face to face than twitter my friends. I would rather really kiss my wife than emoticon xoxo's.
Don't send me a youtube video of you jumping your bike down at the canyon. Tell me the exhilarating experience over a cold one. Show me the scraps and cuts too.

There is the human experience that we have taken out of the staple of this American Dream.
What do you do to bring the American Dream into reality? You could really help a parent
who is being pressured to buy a teenager a new ipod. Just because the "black one doesn't have
as much gigabytes as the white."

After making a decision that I need to move through my college curriculum at an accelerated pace I am going to CLEP some of my core hours. English 1302 will challenge my grammatical and style ability. I hope to avoid some prevalent violations that I commonly catch myself doing. Here's a look at 8 of my common writing glitches:

1. Its vs. It's No big surprise by this one. It has plagued my writing because common sense nudges me towards seeing the apostrophe as a possessive instead of a contraction. Commit to memory this phrase. It-apostrophe-s has one meaning -- a contraction for it is. Everything thing else is its.
2. Then instead of than I tend to over use than, misplacing then, in my fictional writing.
3. Cliches Not including the accent over the 'e' doesn't go the whole nine yards on this puppy. For me it is just a sign I am getting lazy in my writing.
4. Overuse of 'that' It gets overwhelming to see how many times that is used when trying to make a point that needs some supporting description or evidence. Try to read the sentence again with the 'that' taken out and see how it sounds. Does it have to be there? If not, nuke it. Also, don't confuse who and that.
5. Comma Splices There is phenomenon that I try to stay away from, once I have delivered the subject-verb-object content of sentence structure. Instead of attaching a comma to a butt end of a sentence. Just end it. Don't even go a third or fourth time. Writing a sentence needs not be a buffet experience to fill the paragraph.
6. One word vs. two words Some common mistakes with adjectives and nouns are to use a one word version instead of the proper two word version. I blame laziness of email and everyday usage of the advertising media. Billboards, menus, and ads full of slogans that promise "Everyday Value", or "Everyday Freshness." Everyday is an adjective. When will Walmart start promising savings or freshness everyweek or everymonth.
7. Acyrologia Nope not a horrible disease. Though I am sure there are many english professors who would disagree. Acyrologia improper use of a word. The prescribed treatment is a Dictionary/Theusarus combination paperback. Use often. I often see this kind of examples in the sports section of the newspaper.
8. Dangling Dependent Run-on Sentences I work really hard to avoid these things in my writing. I already have too many dependents who dangle their run-on sentences with emoticons I don't understand in txt messages I rarely understand. Why create more?


I know I have more writing issues to work on and through. I know the CLEP will not be easy, in fact, it might be easier to take the class than to test out of it. Got to give it an attempt. What are your writing or grammar issues? If you need to find out more about the CLEP you can visit the Testing Center on campus and pick up a brochure.

My name is Brandon Carpenter and I will be adding my Amarillo College experiences to the AC blog. I plan to tell you, not in a cloyingly cheerful way, what you can expect here at Amarillo college through what I experience.
Let's finish the introduction.
The economy and technology advances have created an opportunity to change. I am a returning student, changed my major, to a degree that has more possibilities. I am a husband, father, step-father, full-time student, somewhat employed. With my degree plan in Mass Communications I plan on working in New Media Journalism.
I still get to keep doing some of the technology I have been using in the workplace and to continue to write. Hopefully to even get paid for writing.
For my summer classes, I decided to fill plate with Government in Texas, Oceanography, Intro to Mass Communication and the TV Workshop. All my classes are online classes, except for the TV workshop.
The TV Workshop focuses on screenwriting. There are eleven students in the class, all I think are Mass Comm. majors. I will have to let you know more about the class and what the results will be. There just might be Quentin Tarantino on campus.
Oceanography does have complete kit and manual. The online lessons heavily use the American Meteorological Society and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration websites.
The Government in Texas is quite insightful. There is no physical textbook, the online lessons contain the reading material and lecture notes. I still think it could use some audio or video links.
The Intro. to Mass Communication has been revelatory. Opening my eyes to media ethics, entertainment buzz and insight about the industry. That class is taught by Jill Gibson, who is 2010 dual recipient of the John F. Mead Award.
Of course all these classes take lots of study time, but I do schedule some time with family.
Follow along and I will share insights and helpful tips at the AC campus.

How do you feel about food here in Amarillo? I used to think that small town equals small food choices, but lately I've been finding some truly good eats in our panhandle city. Here's a few of my favorites so far.

Hey guys! Long time no update. I really apologize for my absence around here. Things got crazy over spring break and they're just starting to settle back down a little bit, so hopefully I can catch you up on some things.

In my "Writing for Electronic Media" class, one of our semester projects is a job shadow assignment. We are required to spend between 4 to 8 hours gaining "insight into the expectations and responsibilities of a working communications professional and to make contacts in the media industry". At least that's what my assignment paper says.

Last Saturday my girlfriend B and I woke up early and met with her family who was driving through Amarillo on their way to Durango, Colorado. We followed them there during the 8 hour drive which felt surprisingly shorter than I expected. On arrival, we picked up a few groceries we would need for the weekend and went to possibly the worst Wendy's ever. The staff didnt know how to ring up an order with more that 4 items, then one of the employees spilled a full drink OVER the counter and all over the floor where we were standing waiting for our food. Somehow they got all our order right the first time out though, so I give them credit for that.

This week I finally solidified my spring break plans! On Saturday, my girlfriends family will be driving thru Amarillo from the DFW area, and we will follow them from here to Durango, CO. I have never been there so I'm pretty excited! Brittany's family will be skiing, but she and I will find something else to do because of knee injuries we both have. Hers from skiing on a family trip with me last year in Santa Fe, and mine from a snowboarding accident.

Thanks to those of you who made it out to the show this last Saturday! We all had great performances that really made the crowd move. I somehow managed to injure one of my turntables on the drive home, so hopefully I can get that fixed soon. One of my upcoming posts this week will have a link to the recording of my live performance that night so keep checking back!