Posts tagged live
News and Notes for St. Augustine – October 5, 2012
Oct 6th
Pink Up The Pace 5K will necessitate traffic disruptions
Event slated for Saturday, October 6 @ 8:00am
The annual Pink Up The Pace 5K on Saturday, October 6, will necessitate the closing of some streets and some intermittent traffic disruptions in the downtown area.
Starting at 8:00am on S. Castillo Dr. in front of The VIC, the race will continue south on S. Castillo Dr./Avenida Menendez, south on Marine St., west on South St., south on Oneida St., west on Cerro St., north on Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., east on Park Pl., north on Cordova St., east on Cathedral Pl., north on St. George St., to the finish line at Orange St. The race is expected to end at approximately 9:30am.
A map of the race route is available at www.pinkupthepace.com.
St Augustine Spanish Wine and Food Festival holds closing event tomorrow.
Still time to get tickets for the Grand Tasting Event
There is still time to secure tickets for the final event of the inaugural St. Augustine Spanish Wine and Food Festival, the first in a series of annual events honoring St. Augustine’s Spanish roots.
On Saturday, October 6, the Grand Tasting Event, held at The VIC, will start at 3:00pm offering three hours of sampling fine Spanish wines, light hors d’ oeuvres and tapas with each ticketed guest receiving a collector’s commemorative glass. This event is limited to 250 guests.
Tickets for the Grand Tasting Event are available at www.staugustinespanishwinefestival.com until 5 pm today, Friday, October 5 for $30, or tomorrow, Saturday, October 6, at the door for $40.
For more information about the St. Augustine Spanish Wine and Food Festival and other activities of the 450th Commemoration, visit www.staugustine-450.com or call 904.825.1053.
Monday is last day to register to vote
Supervisor of Elections Office extends office hours to aid in registration
Monday, October 9, is the last day to register to vote for the 2012 General Election. Voter registration applications are available on the St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Office website at www.votesjc.com. You must print out the application, sign and mail to the office. Applications must be postmarked by October 9 if you wish to vote in the General Election. You can also register to vote at any Driver’s License Office and any Public Library.
Voters who are uncertain of their registration status should visit the Supervisor of Elections website and click on “Voter Lookup” to verify your record. You may also call the Elections Office at 904.823.2238.
Extended hours
To aid in registrations this weekend, the Supervisor of Elections Office will be open tomorrow, Saturday, October 6 from 8:30am until 2:00pm and on Tuesday, October 9 from 8:30am until 7:00pm.
Vote your 2-page ballot by mail
Since General Election ballots will be very long, some voters may find use of an absentee ballot preferable to going to the polls on Election Day. It’s important to note that absentee ballots ARE NOT forwardable, so the ballot will be returned to the Elections Office as undeliverable if your address on file is not current. All voted ballots must be received in the Supervisor of Elections Office no later than 7:00pm on Election Day. To request an absentee ballot, available to all registered voters, contact the Supervisor of Elections Office.
Can’t wait? Then vote early.
And if you can’t wait until November 6 to vote, then there is the opportunity to vote early. For dates and locations, click here.
This week on The Break Room: Utility projects will improve water quality
Waterline replacement projects in Lincolnville and Lighthouse Park are just a few of the topics Marcus Pinson, Utility Engineer in the city’s Public Works Department discusses with host Paul Williamson on this week’s edition of The Break Room. The waterline replacements are all part of the city’s ongoing effort to resolve the problems of “red water.” Read more about the Lighthouse Park area project here.
Precautionary boil water notice rescinded
The October 1 precautionary boil water notice issued for utility customers in the vicinity of Mizell Road and nearby subdivisions, which includes Anastasia Lakes Subdivision, Islander Subdivision and Lions Gate Subdivision, has been rescinded following the satisfactory completion of the bacteriological survey showing that the water is safe to drink.
The notice was issued following repairs to the water line at Mizell Road and Fish Island Road
For more information, call the Public Works Department at 904.825.1040.
Each week the friendly and informative style of The Break Room offers the community an opportunity to know a little more about how their city works by getting to know those who do the work every day. The Break Room airs Wednesdays at 5:30pm and Saturdays at 8:00am, and each program is archived at www.breakroom.info as podcasts available for download anytime. To listen to this week’s program immediately, click here.
4 Ways 2 Stay in the City-Info-Loop
The city’s Public Affairs Department strives to keep the city’s constituents informed by making information
readily available and does so in a number of formats. In fact there are four ways to stay in the information loop. To learn what they are read this new story on the city’s web site by clicking here.
Six weeks until Light-Up! Night
Nights of Lights‘ 19th season begins on November 17
Have you seen your neighbors checking their holiday lights? Seem a little early? Not really when you consider that the 19th season of Nights of Lights is only six weeks away.
Recognized as one of the Southeast’s major seasonal events, Nights of Lights has brought holiday excitement to the Nation’s Oldest City annually since 1994. The 10-week long event begins each year with a simple flip of a switch on the Saturday before Thanksgiving known as Light-Up! Night. To read about last year’s opening night, click here.
Don’t be “left in the dark” when the Nation’s Oldest City is transformed into an enchanted city of light. For guidelines to participate in the Nights of Lights by adding displays to property in the city’s historic districts, click here.
For visitor information including dining, shopping, lodging, attractions, and tours, during the ten weeks of Nights of Lights, contact St. Augustine/Ponte Vedra on Florida’s Historic Coast by calling 800.653.2489 or visiting www.nightsoflights.com
Opportunity to serve: Code Enforcement, Adjustments & Appeals Board
The City Commission is accepting applications to fill vacancies on the Code Enforcement, Adjustments & Appeals Board. Interested individuals who reside within the city limits of the City of St. Augustine are invited to submit applications for this volunteer board. Applications are requested by Friday, November 30 with appointments tentatively scheduled for the City Commission meeting of Monday, December 10. For information concerning qualifications and applications please contact the City Clerk’s office at 825-1007. The application form is available on the city’s web site by clicking here.
Agendas
City Commission meets on October 8. The agenda is available here.
The Code Enforcement, Appeals and Adjustment Board meets on October 9. The agenda is available here.
The Historic Architectural Review Board’s October meeting date has been rescheduled from October 18 until October 30. When available, the agenda will be posted here.
All agenda, minutes and GTV info
Agendas and minutes for all city meetings can be found at www.staugustinegovernment.com with a schedule of upcoming meetings listed under City Calendar. City Commission meetings are broadcast live via GTV (Comcast Channel 3 in St. Augustine) each second and fourth Monday at 5:00pm. Commission meetings are also recorded and rebroadcast as are Planning and Zoning Board and Historic Architectural Review Board meetings. For a current schedule of all programming on GTV, click here.
Source: City of St. Augustine
How to Change Someone’s Mind
Sep 17th
Here’s what gets me.
Throughout our lives, we encounter many situations in which we try to change someone’s opinion to match our own.
As children, we tried to persuade our playmates to agree with us as to what to play, where to go, what to do.
Occasionally, we tried to persuade our parents to let us stay up later, buy us a particular toy, let us watch television.
As teenagers, we might have had younger siblings to convince to let us have our way, best friends to agree on which movie to see and sweethearts to persuade that we were being honest and true to them.
As adults, we sometimes have a fellow juror or a spouse we try to persuade to agree with us, a co-worker we want to do things the way we want and our own children to persuade that what we want is best for them.
But have you ever examined the art and process of changing someone’s mind? Have you ever thought about your successes and failures and drawn any conclusions about what works and what doesn’t? Have you ever taken the time before an argument to determine what you want to achieve, what the best persuasive evidence is to present and what characteristics your adversary has that might help your cause?
Childhood arguments are simple. We either reach a mutual agreement about what we want to do or one of us walks away in hurt or anger. With our parents, if we don’t have a convincing argument to prove our point, the larger, more powerful person wins.
Teenage disagreements are more complicated. We can usually win an argument with a younger sibling based on our broader knowledge and experience, but we have to be aware that an arbitrary, selfish decision might be used against us later in life. With best friends and sweethearts, we are on equal ground, and logic has to come into play along with our emotions.
Adult arguments are the most complicated of all, and yet society wants us to conduct them in the most logical, dispassionate manner possible, as adults, without violence.
So, what is the best way to change someone’s mind, so that not only do you achieve the result you want, but all parties are also in nonresentful agreement afterwards?
The best approach is to use logic. For example: “If all A is B, and C is A, then C is also B.”
Who can argue against that? If you don’t agree that C is B, then you have to disprove either “all A is B” or “C is A.”
“All politicians are crooks. Richard Nixon was a politician. Therefore, Nixon was a crook.”
The problem with logic is that the opponents have to agree that the premises are true. (“Two neighbors were arguing over the backyard fence, but they couldn’t reach an agreement, because they were arguing from different premises.”)
Humor can be useful in arguments, because it can break the tension, put things in a different perspective and sometimes allow you to save face and agree to change your opinion in an argument that isn’t really important.
However, unless the parties agree to the truth of the premises, no amount of logic is going to change anyone’s mind.
Pro-life people believe “All abortion is killing. Killing is wrong. Therefore, all abortion is wrong.”
Pro-choice people disagree with either “all abortion is killing” or “(all) killing is wrong,” and therefore they will never agree with the conclusion “all abortion is wrong,” unless they can agree to live with something they believe is wrong.
The pro-choice argument is “Women can do what they want with their bodies. Abortion is an act of doing what you want with your body. Therefore, women can have abortions.”
The pro-life people disagree with “women can do what they want with their bodies.” And until the two sides get in the same backyard and argue from the same premises, no amount of logic is going to change anyone’s mind.
When logic fails, threats can sometimes work, followed by force or else sometimes just force without the threat.
“If you don’t give me that ball, I’m going to punch you in the nose.”
“If you don’t go to bed right now, I’m going to give you a spanking.”
Threats and force, however, don’t change minds; they just achieve results in a childish fashion and always cause resentment.
Logic works better, as long as we’re all playing in the same backyard.
I rest my case.
“For a Good Time, Call…” Don’t Even Bother
Sep 16th
“Don’t Even Bother”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
For a Good Time, Call… is a small movie that was shot in only 16 days, and it shows.
It also has a subject that not everyone will find appealing, much less amusing, and that shows, too.
And finally, its crude subject is portrayed crudely, and that shows three.
The story is about two women and their mutual gay friend, Jesse, played by Justin Long, whom you will recognize from many other movies, but all he does in this one is embarrass himself.
Or maybe not. After all, he did take the money, assuming there was enough money in the budget to pay the actors for making this piece of crap.
Katie is living in a nice apartment in New York City, but due to circumstances that I won’t bother to go into, she has to get a roommate to help pay her rent.
Meanwhile, Lauren is living with her boyfriend, Charlie, but Charlie is moving to Italy because of his job, and Charlie breaks up with Lauren, saying he is bored with their relationship.
So, when Katie and Lauren tell their woes to Jesse, he says to them, “Why don’t you just live together for the summer and see how it goes?”
Well, when Lauren moves in, they discover that they had met each other ten years ago at a college party, the meeting didn’t end will for reasons that are too distasteful to go into here, and so they immediately don’t like each other.
Then Lauren loses her job, and wouldn’t you know it, she finds out that one of the many jobs that Katie has is as a phone-sex operator, but Katie isn’t making very much money at it.
So, more as a plot point than anything else, Lauren advises Katie on how she can make more money, one thing leads to another, and she and Katie start their own phone-sex business.
Well, Lauren becomes intrigued, and she decides that they can make even more money if they double their operators, and so she starts accepting calls from horny men, too.
Then we have to watch Katie train Lauren, then we have to watch various phone calls that are really unpleasant with cameos from some actors you might know, and then it still isn’t over.
For a Good Time, Call… isn’t even worth the call.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
