Website: October Brings New Accolades to Randal's Sanctuary

October has brought new accolades to Randal's Sanctuary. Our award program, Writing Matters Web Excellence Awards, is now once again rated 3.0 by Award Sites! I also published an article on Award Sites!, "A Common Purpose." The award program also obtained a level three rating from Alice Pandora's Award Ratings, shortly before she closed her program due to personal illness. We now have a rating of 2+ with UWSAG. I will now focus on serving my applicants by critiquing their sites and helping them to improve their writing. Applications have definitely picked up after receiving the ratings noted above, so my appreciation goes out to the evaluators.

I remember in college my friends used to laugh at me when I would inform them of things which I found unjust, or perhaps just grossly inefficient or irritating. One of those things which I have noticed lately is the practice of the local McDonald's charging for condiments. McDonald's is the only fast-food restaurant I have encountered which will not give you sauce for your fries without charging for it! There are no exceptions, and the staff acts like you are asking them for a twenty-dollar bill. They will call their manager who will be quite hateful with you. I should have known better, because the little red sign on the drive-thru speaker clearly states that, "in order to keep our prices low..." or similar phrase that all stores use right before they are getting ready to rip you off. It wouldn't bother me if they would just come out and tell the truth. "In order to make our profits higher..."

My creative writing class I spoke about last month was canceled this semester due to lack of interest. I am hoping to teach the same class during the spring term. On a positive note, I have finally received my permanent teaching certification, having passed both Praxis tests and finished all education requirements. The first quarter of school is winding up for us on the 17th, I am excited about the change in curriculum a new quarter brings. I am also looking forward to adding a curriculum section to this site where you can borrow my thematic units for 9-12 grade English.

For this site, I find the American Civil War has touched my academic life in several ways, so I eventually will be adding a page about the war in relation to my education and my reflection on its continued fascination to so many. I will continue improving this site as time permits.