This week I was waiting for Sue to finish selecting her books at the library. The last light of the winter afternoon was casting an interesting color off of the Merced County Courthouse museum.
I snapped four photos that I am happy to share with you on the Flickr side of this blog. When you look at them you will notice the classic error of most amateur photography of buildings.. keystoning.
The buildings seem to sway away from you as see them in the photo. This is why architects often shoot with bellows. This corrects for the parallax of the lens. See these sent me digging into the Kelby books to find the way to correct such a deficit. The way it is done is my running a vertical guide through the photo and aligning it with something that should be straight such as a corner. Then with all of the image selected the photo is skewed to line up with the straightness of the guide. The final step is to "unsquat" the photo so that a compressed photo do not result and consequently do more damage than the alignment. It sounds pretty complicated but really it isn't. The results are tiny but overall it makes a difference.
The suite is loaded.. The next thing to do is to order up ILife 09. I am supposed to be able to get it for ten bucks.. because of the new computer purchase. We shall see.
Love
Pat
A written expression of a 65year old plus retired Speech and Language Specialist in the Central Valley of California.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
"Deal"
I just watched a really funny movie.. "Deal"
It stars Meg Ryan and William "ginger Fargo" Macy. According to the reviews other places that movie did not make it to the big screen. It was a big hit at Sundance however. Here is a small review of it from Lexgo on the web:
But the movie is not without merit. Or to put this more positively, its DVD release this week provides viewers with a chance to see the movie, which is at times funny, suspenseful and engrossing.
The Deal continues the longtime Hollywood tradition, as practiced in Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. and Robert Altman's The Player, of biting the hand that feeds. Based on novelist Peter Lefcourt's satirical farce about deal-making and movie production in modern Hollywood, the film was brought into being by Macy, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Steven Schachter and stars as has-been Hollywood producer Charlie Berns.
Despondent and suicidal, Charlie is about to end his life when his nephew Lionel (Jason Ritter) shows up unexpectedly at his falling-apart L.A. bungalow with a screenplay. Although Lionel's story appears to be on a rather unlikely subject for a feature film — 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and the tariff laws of 1876 — Charlie gets a brainstorm. Reading in the trades that rapper-turned-movie-action-hero Bobby Mason (LL Cool J) has converted to Judaism and wants to make movies with Jewish themes, Charlie meets with Bobby's rabbi (Elliot Gould) and convinces him that he has a great project for Bobby.
And before you can say “I'll take a percentage of the gross instead of a salary,” the screenplay has become a modern-day action-thriller titled Ben Disraeli — Freedom Fighter, a big Hollywood studio has committed to it and a studio development director (played by Ryan) has been assigned to work with Charlie on the project. Although Ryan's Deidre Hearn quickly figures out that Charlie is scamming the studio and essentially making everything up as he goes along, she's intrigued by Charlie's chutzpah and finds herself being drawn to a man she originally had viewed as a loser.
The Deal isn't the most original Hollywood satire. Its riffs on agents, studio execs, the entertainment media, and the egos and extravagances of movie stars are hardly new. And the romance between Charlie and Deidre is hard to accept, even within this farcical setting. But I must admit to having laughed, or at least smiled, my way through the movie.
I enjoyed and laughed with this movie. Its pretty funny in parts.. clearly worth the rebbox buck but don't be late..its not worth the late charge.
It stars Meg Ryan and William "ginger Fargo" Macy. According to the reviews other places that movie did not make it to the big screen. It was a big hit at Sundance however. Here is a small review of it from Lexgo on the web:
But the movie is not without merit. Or to put this more positively, its DVD release this week provides viewers with a chance to see the movie, which is at times funny, suspenseful and engrossing.
The Deal continues the longtime Hollywood tradition, as practiced in Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. and Robert Altman's The Player, of biting the hand that feeds. Based on novelist Peter Lefcourt's satirical farce about deal-making and movie production in modern Hollywood, the film was brought into being by Macy, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Steven Schachter and stars as has-been Hollywood producer Charlie Berns.
Despondent and suicidal, Charlie is about to end his life when his nephew Lionel (Jason Ritter) shows up unexpectedly at his falling-apart L.A. bungalow with a screenplay. Although Lionel's story appears to be on a rather unlikely subject for a feature film — 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and the tariff laws of 1876 — Charlie gets a brainstorm. Reading in the trades that rapper-turned-movie-action-hero Bobby Mason (LL Cool J) has converted to Judaism and wants to make movies with Jewish themes, Charlie meets with Bobby's rabbi (Elliot Gould) and convinces him that he has a great project for Bobby.
And before you can say “I'll take a percentage of the gross instead of a salary,” the screenplay has become a modern-day action-thriller titled Ben Disraeli — Freedom Fighter, a big Hollywood studio has committed to it and a studio development director (played by Ryan) has been assigned to work with Charlie on the project. Although Ryan's Deidre Hearn quickly figures out that Charlie is scamming the studio and essentially making everything up as he goes along, she's intrigued by Charlie's chutzpah and finds herself being drawn to a man she originally had viewed as a loser.
The Deal isn't the most original Hollywood satire. Its riffs on agents, studio execs, the entertainment media, and the egos and extravagances of movie stars are hardly new. And the romance between Charlie and Deidre is hard to accept, even within this farcical setting. But I must admit to having laughed, or at least smiled, my way through the movie.
I enjoyed and laughed with this movie. Its pretty funny in parts.. clearly worth the rebbox buck but don't be late..its not worth the late charge.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
A Great Night Out
My former TA who has now graduated from Chico in Communication Disorders and her boy friend (Sheriff) met us at Applebees for dinner tonight.
The meal and the company were beyond approach. We had a nice chance to talk speech path, and her future in grad school. She is currently doing some substituting in the Elementary Schools and going to Fresno State to pick up some undergrad electives that escaped her when she was going to Chico.
Sue had a chance to get out and talk to someone besides her family. We had a great steak and shrimp with Parma cheese melted on it. The veggies were really good.
To top it all off, Sue had a go at the 99cent store, and Ross after. I made a run to pick up some eye drops for her.
I am still trying to get my printer to print.. its one of the last pieces of the new computer switch over.
In classes I am showing "What's Up Doc" the old Barbara Steisand movie. The students are cuing in to follow the plaid luggage. I can hardly wait to get them to the part where the chase occurs. Rolling down the hills on the cart is something to behold. I love the part of the cement finishers that get the job done three times as the cars roll through it. The plate glass window is a great gag too.
Take care : ) Pat
The meal and the company were beyond approach. We had a nice chance to talk speech path, and her future in grad school. She is currently doing some substituting in the Elementary Schools and going to Fresno State to pick up some undergrad electives that escaped her when she was going to Chico.
Sue had a chance to get out and talk to someone besides her family. We had a great steak and shrimp with Parma cheese melted on it. The veggies were really good.
To top it all off, Sue had a go at the 99cent store, and Ross after. I made a run to pick up some eye drops for her.
I am still trying to get my printer to print.. its one of the last pieces of the new computer switch over.
In classes I am showing "What's Up Doc" the old Barbara Steisand movie. The students are cuing in to follow the plaid luggage. I can hardly wait to get them to the part where the chase occurs. Rolling down the hills on the cart is something to behold. I love the part of the cement finishers that get the job done three times as the cars roll through it. The plate glass window is a great gag too.
Take care : ) Pat
Monday, January 26, 2009
Big Day for Fed Ex Ground and Ups Ground
Today was a big day for both of the carriers.
I have been tracking the progress of a couple important items across the country for a week..(isn't tracking nice). The memory for my new computer.. it will be up to 4 gb of ram arrived by ups.. no signature required.
The adobe Design suite required a signature. Luckily Sue was up when the man knocked on the door from Fed Ex Ground. The label said that it came from Elk Grove but the tracking on the order said that it was coming from the East Coast. My only resolution for that was that they were out of Academic versions and they were waiting for the bulk replacements of the treasure. If you order the computer and the software together through Apple there is a 1200 dollar savings on the combined shipment of both. So it finally arrived this afternoon and it is installed. The way it works on this version is that they send you the academic version without a serial number. When you supply the verification of your academic workplace they send you by email your serial number. Without the number your version that took about 45 minutes to install is toast.. and I don't mean the program.
Its been a bit of major pain because the only access that I have had to photos and images has been through the old computer. I haven't set up the communication cord to go to both at once, although it is possible. So I have been moving the ethernet cord from one to another as needed and been working with the new one to get used to it whenever possible. There are some drivers that have to be downloaded from the web for everything to work as well as it was working on the old 20 incher.. non intel based.
Mom finished up the rest of the mac and cheese for lunch today. She admitted that she had met her tolerance for it.. remember, she is the one that called for it in the first place.
It was pretty bitter cold today, with just enough wind to make you cold no matter where you were. This is nothing compared to what is going on East of here in the mountains or on the East coast.
Thee was no rain however. We have just had about enough of that rain stuff for a while.
Hope your Monday was good
Pat
I have been tracking the progress of a couple important items across the country for a week..(isn't tracking nice). The memory for my new computer.. it will be up to 4 gb of ram arrived by ups.. no signature required.
The adobe Design suite required a signature. Luckily Sue was up when the man knocked on the door from Fed Ex Ground. The label said that it came from Elk Grove but the tracking on the order said that it was coming from the East Coast. My only resolution for that was that they were out of Academic versions and they were waiting for the bulk replacements of the treasure. If you order the computer and the software together through Apple there is a 1200 dollar savings on the combined shipment of both. So it finally arrived this afternoon and it is installed. The way it works on this version is that they send you the academic version without a serial number. When you supply the verification of your academic workplace they send you by email your serial number. Without the number your version that took about 45 minutes to install is toast.. and I don't mean the program.
Its been a bit of major pain because the only access that I have had to photos and images has been through the old computer. I haven't set up the communication cord to go to both at once, although it is possible. So I have been moving the ethernet cord from one to another as needed and been working with the new one to get used to it whenever possible. There are some drivers that have to be downloaded from the web for everything to work as well as it was working on the old 20 incher.. non intel based.
Mom finished up the rest of the mac and cheese for lunch today. She admitted that she had met her tolerance for it.. remember, she is the one that called for it in the first place.
It was pretty bitter cold today, with just enough wind to make you cold no matter where you were. This is nothing compared to what is going on East of here in the mountains or on the East coast.
Thee was no rain however. We have just had about enough of that rain stuff for a while.
Hope your Monday was good
Pat
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Swearing off the Box
Lindsay, Sean, and Heather were over this weekend.
They have all gone back to their homes. The white manx cat Georgie is happy to see them go.. we are not
Lindsay made the most wonderful mac and cheese from scratch. Its enough to swear off ever opening the big blue and orange Kraft box.
She made a delightful white sauce where she slowly added the gated cheese (coastal white English cheddar) that was breaded with panko.. ala Cooks illustrated. Seasoning was fresh nutmeg and laural. Yummie Yummie. We had several goes at it and there was enough for her to take home. She especially enjoyed my 3 quart magnalite sauce pan which now has a new home north in Sacto.
We took the required trip to Target. She bought a wefit. It is an exercise game on the Wii. She was very happy about that. They have been in short supply. I am still twenty pounds over its weight liimit.. so I have a goal.
We had a great walk this morning without rain. This evening the rain has returned. Heather was able to come down the three hours on Amtrak because her boys (two very large black Maine coon cats) are no longer in need of twice daily shots of insulin. Before a trip to Merced neccessitated a drive over to pick her and the boys up at the Bart station in Dublin (about 2 hours a way) then drive home. Then another two hour drive back to Merced repeated later in the weekend with the same 4 hour round trip. I am pretty happy that she could just get on the Amtrack and do this without the Dublin freeway driving. I must admit that I would be happy to do this every day if she could come to see us. We love our girls so much. We are especially happy that they get along with each other so well.
We are all looking forward to some family time together when we depart for the Mexican Rivera on the NCL Star on February 14th. We will all go down together on the Friday the 13th (we are not superstitious) and stay overnight in Long Beach. We will board the ship and head to Cabo, Mazatalan, and Puerto Valarta.. muy cool. We all need the vacation,
Sean (Linzi's husband) helped me get some light back into the garage. Light is provided by cheap hanging florescent light. Slowly those plugs that the lights plug into are wearing out. We temporary solved the problem with an extension cord to an outlet that actually had some power and the florescent lights came on again.. wonderful.
I helped dad get rid of the excess email entries. Go Daddy has a wonderful "purge" command on their email client. Just hit the button and everything that is check marked is instantly gone. Most email clients require a 2nd or a 3rd step. We got down to 38 percent and he wanted more gone.. I finally found that there was a copy of everything that he had sent including email going back to 2002 in the sent folder. Since he didn't send photos, there really wasn't much there.. except 38 percent of his capacity. I upped the amount he can have in his e-mail with a a twenty spot for two years so that should reduce the anxiety somewhat and allow us to send him photos and he will be able to send us photos.
They have all gone back to their homes. The white manx cat Georgie is happy to see them go.. we are not
Lindsay made the most wonderful mac and cheese from scratch. Its enough to swear off ever opening the big blue and orange Kraft box.
She made a delightful white sauce where she slowly added the gated cheese (coastal white English cheddar) that was breaded with panko.. ala Cooks illustrated. Seasoning was fresh nutmeg and laural. Yummie Yummie. We had several goes at it and there was enough for her to take home. She especially enjoyed my 3 quart magnalite sauce pan which now has a new home north in Sacto.
We took the required trip to Target. She bought a wefit. It is an exercise game on the Wii. She was very happy about that. They have been in short supply. I am still twenty pounds over its weight liimit.. so I have a goal.
We had a great walk this morning without rain. This evening the rain has returned. Heather was able to come down the three hours on Amtrak because her boys (two very large black Maine coon cats) are no longer in need of twice daily shots of insulin. Before a trip to Merced neccessitated a drive over to pick her and the boys up at the Bart station in Dublin (about 2 hours a way) then drive home. Then another two hour drive back to Merced repeated later in the weekend with the same 4 hour round trip. I am pretty happy that she could just get on the Amtrack and do this without the Dublin freeway driving. I must admit that I would be happy to do this every day if she could come to see us. We love our girls so much. We are especially happy that they get along with each other so well.
We are all looking forward to some family time together when we depart for the Mexican Rivera on the NCL Star on February 14th. We will all go down together on the Friday the 13th (we are not superstitious) and stay overnight in Long Beach. We will board the ship and head to Cabo, Mazatalan, and Puerto Valarta.. muy cool. We all need the vacation,
Sean (Linzi's husband) helped me get some light back into the garage. Light is provided by cheap hanging florescent light. Slowly those plugs that the lights plug into are wearing out. We temporary solved the problem with an extension cord to an outlet that actually had some power and the florescent lights came on again.. wonderful.
I helped dad get rid of the excess email entries. Go Daddy has a wonderful "purge" command on their email client. Just hit the button and everything that is check marked is instantly gone. Most email clients require a 2nd or a 3rd step. We got down to 38 percent and he wanted more gone.. I finally found that there was a copy of everything that he had sent including email going back to 2002 in the sent folder. Since he didn't send photos, there really wasn't much there.. except 38 percent of his capacity. I upped the amount he can have in his e-mail with a a twenty spot for two years so that should reduce the anxiety somewhat and allow us to send him photos and he will be able to send us photos.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
WE are all here having fun
Lindsay and Sean came down with their car from Sacamento.
Heather took the Amtrak to Merced from SF.
So we have been having a good time together.
We had lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Winton.
Lindsay and I had the Grandma Brown favorite, chili rellenos, yum. Sue shared with Heather the carnitas plate..
It was great.
Hope you are staying dry this weekend\
Pat
Heather took the Amtrak to Merced from SF.
So we have been having a good time together.
We had lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Winton.
Lindsay and I had the Grandma Brown favorite, chili rellenos, yum. Sue shared with Heather the carnitas plate..
It was great.
Hope you are staying dry this weekend\
Pat
Friday, January 23, 2009
Its Friday in the middle of a Pineapple Express
The weatherpersons always have such colorful language.
We were deluged with rain today. The rain came from the Pacific off of Mexico. The original forcast was for light showers these days.
It rained all night.. pretty gently. I started my walk at 5:30 this morning with just a light fleece. When I got to Starbucks about 15 minutes later the skies opened up and it started to rain ferociously.
We have campuses that were hurt in the 80's because the state used the overhangs to count as classroom space. The (new) school, constructed in occupied in 1996, has no such overhangs.. so when it rains, it really rains on kids and everyone else. The rain comes off the roof in torrents.
How does the song go? It never rains in California.. but oh don't they tell you, when it pours it really pours.
Girls area headed over here this weekend.. that is the plan. Sean is scheduled to come too. Maybe even the bunny.
Hope your weekend is good
Pat
We were deluged with rain today. The rain came from the Pacific off of Mexico. The original forcast was for light showers these days.
It rained all night.. pretty gently. I started my walk at 5:30 this morning with just a light fleece. When I got to Starbucks about 15 minutes later the skies opened up and it started to rain ferociously.
We have campuses that were hurt in the 80's because the state used the overhangs to count as classroom space. The (new) school, constructed in occupied in 1996, has no such overhangs.. so when it rains, it really rains on kids and everyone else. The rain comes off the roof in torrents.
How does the song go? It never rains in California.. but oh don't they tell you, when it pours it really pours.
Girls area headed over here this weekend.. that is the plan. Sean is scheduled to come too. Maybe even the bunny.
Hope your weekend is good
Pat
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Spritz not to me confused with the cookie
It Spritzed today.. just a sprinkle of rain.
The teacher had a leftover word up on the board today.. lawsuit
One of my Autistic students who notices everything asked me "What is a lawsuit." I had answered the question the day before so I could not resist the cheeky response. The other adults in the room chortled under their breath.
The Mr. Brown answer to the question of what is a lawsuit..
Its the clothes the lawyer wears into court... where do these come from?
I spent most of the day doing a speech eval, writing a report and emailing it.. and writing another report and gettting it ready for inclusion.
One school came up with a detailed list of about 17 things that I need to do with their time. That will be a real help. I am sure they looked at it like a punitive thing. Its only punitive if you want to look at it that way.
Life is so much better if you don't project punitive assumptions.
Love
Pat
The teacher had a leftover word up on the board today.. lawsuit
One of my Autistic students who notices everything asked me "What is a lawsuit." I had answered the question the day before so I could not resist the cheeky response. The other adults in the room chortled under their breath.
The Mr. Brown answer to the question of what is a lawsuit..
Its the clothes the lawyer wears into court... where do these come from?
I spent most of the day doing a speech eval, writing a report and emailing it.. and writing another report and gettting it ready for inclusion.
One school came up with a detailed list of about 17 things that I need to do with their time. That will be a real help. I am sure they looked at it like a punitive thing. Its only punitive if you want to look at it that way.
Life is so much better if you don't project punitive assumptions.
Love
Pat
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Inaugration and such
My students in the class were mesmerized by the Obama inauguration. I am always amused at the hearing reporters drone on about nothing and when there is something they let the vents develop without interpretation.
At the first high school the coverage was coming through Fox news. At the other school we were watching the parade part through ABC. ABC was letting the parade progress while Fox news was listening for a peace message to the right leaning part of the United States. They were more than satisfied when they heard references to the private sector as the engine behind the greatness of the country. They were also pleased to hear the references to the military. It might be just different parts of the process but the approach looked different.
One of my students in my afternoon classes was sure that females were not strong enough to be in the military. What is more interesting is that my co teacher in the afternoon was a former marine officer. He was pretty surprised to hear this. He was further surprised to find out that she was in the 98th percintile in strength among all of her class in bootcamp.
It took some interesting support for him to undertand that there could be women in the military. He also had to come to grips with the thought that they might be stronger and could fight to support the men who are not as strong as some women.
Recently I have been testing the most needy of the speech students. Needy in the since that their I.E.P. triannials are coming up soon. There is a whole different rhythm in testing than in teaching.
Classes at one school are pretty much ready for the change. The classes at the other school are still in flux as there has to be para support to move students from one class to another and to get them ready at the right time for leaving school.
I am confident that that will be worked out soon.
: ) Pat
At the first high school the coverage was coming through Fox news. At the other school we were watching the parade part through ABC. ABC was letting the parade progress while Fox news was listening for a peace message to the right leaning part of the United States. They were more than satisfied when they heard references to the private sector as the engine behind the greatness of the country. They were also pleased to hear the references to the military. It might be just different parts of the process but the approach looked different.
One of my students in my afternoon classes was sure that females were not strong enough to be in the military. What is more interesting is that my co teacher in the afternoon was a former marine officer. He was pretty surprised to hear this. He was further surprised to find out that she was in the 98th percintile in strength among all of her class in bootcamp.
It took some interesting support for him to undertand that there could be women in the military. He also had to come to grips with the thought that they might be stronger and could fight to support the men who are not as strong as some women.
Recently I have been testing the most needy of the speech students. Needy in the since that their I.E.P. triannials are coming up soon. There is a whole different rhythm in testing than in teaching.
Classes at one school are pretty much ready for the change. The classes at the other school are still in flux as there has to be para support to move students from one class to another and to get them ready at the right time for leaving school.
I am confident that that will be worked out soon.
: ) Pat
Sunday, January 18, 2009
5 hours later
This is the first post from the new computer.. and what a fine one it is. Thanks to a 2K grant from my dad I am punching out a message on the new computer.
Its really fast.. but alas it does not have everything that the old one had. I am still renewing the subscriptions to all of those handy little pieces of software that help the creative process. A new snapz pro.. a new tangerine. a new transmit.
The new "office" works nicely as well as the new "IWork." I will still have to wait for the new Ilife 09 as it was not ready for Mac World. The Creative Suite did not ship with the new IMac so I am pretty much not able to do the photoshop thing. I have been enjoying the use of the new Aperture that came with the computer. I have plowing through the Lyndia. com to learn as much as I can to learn how to use this powerful program. So much to learn it is exciting.
At school they have installed a projector in the classroom so that means that I will be able to use some PowerPoints for my lessons. I had contemplated getting a lap top instead of this beauty. I am hoping to get one of those to move the creation in other places.. but I am not ready to give up the monitor and the power of a desktop model.
I am enjoying the music of Tom Paxton this weekend..
Check out the blog of Tom Russell another folk singer referrenced at the bottom of this blog. He has a very clear voice interesting blog.
Hope your 3 day is going well.
Pat
Its really fast.. but alas it does not have everything that the old one had. I am still renewing the subscriptions to all of those handy little pieces of software that help the creative process. A new snapz pro.. a new tangerine. a new transmit.
The new "office" works nicely as well as the new "IWork." I will still have to wait for the new Ilife 09 as it was not ready for Mac World. The Creative Suite did not ship with the new IMac so I am pretty much not able to do the photoshop thing. I have been enjoying the use of the new Aperture that came with the computer. I have plowing through the Lyndia. com to learn as much as I can to learn how to use this powerful program. So much to learn it is exciting.
At school they have installed a projector in the classroom so that means that I will be able to use some PowerPoints for my lessons. I had contemplated getting a lap top instead of this beauty. I am hoping to get one of those to move the creation in other places.. but I am not ready to give up the monitor and the power of a desktop model.
I am enjoying the music of Tom Paxton this weekend..
Check out the blog of Tom Russell another folk singer referrenced at the bottom of this blog. He has a very clear voice interesting blog.
Hope your 3 day is going well.
Pat
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Walking the Walk
Its a beautiful cool Winter morning in the Central Valley today.
I wore my big puffy down coat and discovered that it was way too warm for the 2mile plus walk I took.
The manager was working my Starbucks cup of cap.. and it was great..19 second pull. I printed the signature page for the shipment that is due today via Fed Express ground. It has been traveling all night long. It went to Sacramento and was checked in at midnight. Then it made a quick run to Stockton where it was loaded on the local delivery for today.. I hope.
One of my TA's of years gone back is applying to go to graduate school for speech pathology. She asked me to write a recommendation.
This is how it works in today's academic world. She sent me an
Acrobat file with all of her information filled out. I printed it and will send 5 copies of it to the schools she is applying to.. San Jose State and Fresno State. I really hopes she gets in. She went to Chico State and did the undergraduate bit in CH. She has taken off a semester and ready to go after it again in grad school. Both of her parents are teachers and her sister is a speech and lang in the elementary school.
Linage is important to long term survival in the school business.
Have a great Saturday!
Pat
I wore my big puffy down coat and discovered that it was way too warm for the 2mile plus walk I took.
The manager was working my Starbucks cup of cap.. and it was great..19 second pull. I printed the signature page for the shipment that is due today via Fed Express ground. It has been traveling all night long. It went to Sacramento and was checked in at midnight. Then it made a quick run to Stockton where it was loaded on the local delivery for today.. I hope.
One of my TA's of years gone back is applying to go to graduate school for speech pathology. She asked me to write a recommendation.
This is how it works in today's academic world. She sent me an
Acrobat file with all of her information filled out. I printed it and will send 5 copies of it to the schools she is applying to.. San Jose State and Fresno State. I really hopes she gets in. She went to Chico State and did the undergraduate bit in CH. She has taken off a semester and ready to go after it again in grad school. Both of her parents are teachers and her sister is a speech and lang in the elementary school.
Linage is important to long term survival in the school business.
Have a great Saturday!
Pat
Friday, January 16, 2009
Checking it out at the UC
At coffee today I ran into the manager at the UC in town. He is runnning the numbers for me this morning to see if he can do my computer purchase at a better price.
Admittedly I have a complicated order.. so. But he says that he has a tricked out Mac laptop for 1300 dollars for sale..hmmmmm. I might need both.
Its really nice to have a prospect in your future.
No fog today..no ice today..
Its Friday..
Working today with my Firejumper kids.. there is a fire.. I need to put it out.
Worked with one yesterday...dysfluency..or is it dyslunacy? The student is in a school that most people in town don't even know exists.. even the educators.. its a SELPA school for the Emotionally disturbed.. and criminally.. you know the rest. Nice kid.. tough enviorns...
Have a great day..
Pat
Admittedly I have a complicated order.. so. But he says that he has a tricked out Mac laptop for 1300 dollars for sale..hmmmmm. I might need both.
Its really nice to have a prospect in your future.
No fog today..no ice today..
Its Friday..
Working today with my Firejumper kids.. there is a fire.. I need to put it out.
Worked with one yesterday...dysfluency..or is it dyslunacy? The student is in a school that most people in town don't even know exists.. even the educators.. its a SELPA school for the Emotionally disturbed.. and criminally.. you know the rest. Nice kid.. tough enviorns...
Have a great day..
Pat
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Buying a New Mac
Dad has agreed to buy me a new Mac. He has promoted me into getting it soon.. so
I went on line and bought one.. almost
He thought that I should get one like his. A 24 inch intel chipped IMac. The current speed in 2.8mhrz. The problem that I have had is that getting one of these beauties would also require getting a different set of software to run it. Everything is working well with my current set up.
Apple and and Adobe combined to work a pretty amazing deal. If you buy the Creative Studio Premium (which includes Photoshop and other great Adobe programs) you will save over 1300 dollars in educational discounts with the software and computer.
So I ordered it up through the Apple store like I thought you were supposed to do. Then I called the apple 800 number and ordered the CS4 to go along with it. Well... you were supposed to order on the phone and not online to get the discount. Doing it the other way is about 600 dollars more.
The apple person on the line canceled my online order and wrote me a new one for the additional software.
There were some choices that had to be made. I always bet a bigger hard drive than basic. It came with 350 GB. For 45 dollars more you get to 500 gb. I needed the Microsoft Office for students and education too. It can come loaded on for $145. There was an option for Aperture 2 to be installed for another 175. Might as well get IWork. The new Ilife will cost me an additional 10 bucks when it comes out the end of this month. The CS4 was $345. I will have to send in my proof of academic eligibility within a month to maintain it on the computer.
So.. bottom line this venture is 2799.07. That seems like a lot of money. The guys around around the lunch table didn't think so. They all remember their Si's or even our original Macs that cost at least 3K and that was in that years economy and we were all making a whole lot less per year.
So all of this messing around with the order, cancellation and reorder, sent my credit card company into fits. They had an automated call to me right after the order to see if I had actually made the order. The power on their connection was so poor that I couldn't hear what they had to say.. so the credit card company canceled the order.
This morning I called the number on the back on the card and an automated response computer read all of the recent transactions. I okayed it with the press of the 2 key and it released the card to gather more activity.
The apple confirmation showed that I had a problem. It had a place for the customer to resend to the previous card. I did that and this afternoon I got a congratulations letter via e-mail.
So I am hoping that the new computer will hit.. or rather slide gently on the porch next week. Hard to say with so many people taking time off to enjoy the inauguration of our new President on Tuesday. Monday we have MLK day off. So will many others.
Trash is out so it must be Thursday.
Love
Pat
I went on line and bought one.. almost
He thought that I should get one like his. A 24 inch intel chipped IMac. The current speed in 2.8mhrz. The problem that I have had is that getting one of these beauties would also require getting a different set of software to run it. Everything is working well with my current set up.
Apple and and Adobe combined to work a pretty amazing deal. If you buy the Creative Studio Premium (which includes Photoshop and other great Adobe programs) you will save over 1300 dollars in educational discounts with the software and computer.
So I ordered it up through the Apple store like I thought you were supposed to do. Then I called the apple 800 number and ordered the CS4 to go along with it. Well... you were supposed to order on the phone and not online to get the discount. Doing it the other way is about 600 dollars more.
The apple person on the line canceled my online order and wrote me a new one for the additional software.
There were some choices that had to be made. I always bet a bigger hard drive than basic. It came with 350 GB. For 45 dollars more you get to 500 gb. I needed the Microsoft Office for students and education too. It can come loaded on for $145. There was an option for Aperture 2 to be installed for another 175. Might as well get IWork. The new Ilife will cost me an additional 10 bucks when it comes out the end of this month. The CS4 was $345. I will have to send in my proof of academic eligibility within a month to maintain it on the computer.
So.. bottom line this venture is 2799.07. That seems like a lot of money. The guys around around the lunch table didn't think so. They all remember their Si's or even our original Macs that cost at least 3K and that was in that years economy and we were all making a whole lot less per year.
So all of this messing around with the order, cancellation and reorder, sent my credit card company into fits. They had an automated call to me right after the order to see if I had actually made the order. The power on their connection was so poor that I couldn't hear what they had to say.. so the credit card company canceled the order.
This morning I called the number on the back on the card and an automated response computer read all of the recent transactions. I okayed it with the press of the 2 key and it released the card to gather more activity.
The apple confirmation showed that I had a problem. It had a place for the customer to resend to the previous card. I did that and this afternoon I got a congratulations letter via e-mail.
So I am hoping that the new computer will hit.. or rather slide gently on the porch next week. Hard to say with so many people taking time off to enjoy the inauguration of our new President on Tuesday. Monday we have MLK day off. So will many others.
Trash is out so it must be Thursday.
Love
Pat
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Just a little Respect
What does a teacher need?
A place to work.
Some students to work with.
Something to teach them.
What happens when you don't have these basics.. its pretty hard.
Thats where I am. No place to work. Yet expectation to teach them. No defined students yet expectations to find them.
Its hard to explain. But if I did, it sounds like I am complaining. When teachers complain, there is a little switch that goes off. People don't hear.
We had to move to two different rooms because the office didn't schedule me in for the new year. The student was a home school student, that had to come back on the campus that he left to home schooling. Then navigate through the 2800 student campus to the back, and when he got there, we had to move our session twice to get some work done.
I am supposed to get some testing done. All of the students are supposed to have their files examined and testing will proceed to bring us all into compliance. My relief teacher has not been found (or not informed of the change) and so I am still teaching my afternoon classes as they still keep coming.
This afternoon I received an email from my boss asking for a report on my progress to getting this testing done and lists that were made.
First the horse... then the cart.
Pat
A place to work.
Some students to work with.
Something to teach them.
What happens when you don't have these basics.. its pretty hard.
Thats where I am. No place to work. Yet expectation to teach them. No defined students yet expectations to find them.
Its hard to explain. But if I did, it sounds like I am complaining. When teachers complain, there is a little switch that goes off. People don't hear.
We had to move to two different rooms because the office didn't schedule me in for the new year. The student was a home school student, that had to come back on the campus that he left to home schooling. Then navigate through the 2800 student campus to the back, and when he got there, we had to move our session twice to get some work done.
I am supposed to get some testing done. All of the students are supposed to have their files examined and testing will proceed to bring us all into compliance. My relief teacher has not been found (or not informed of the change) and so I am still teaching my afternoon classes as they still keep coming.
This afternoon I received an email from my boss asking for a report on my progress to getting this testing done and lists that were made.
First the horse... then the cart.
Pat
Monday, January 12, 2009
A simple Statement a Complex Man
In a calm sea every man is a pilot. John Ray 1627-1709
From the Wikipedia:
One of the most eminent naturalists of his time, John Ray was also an influential philosopher and theologian. Ray is often referred to as the father of natural history in Britain.
John Ray was born on November 29, 1627, in the village of Black Notley, Essex, England. His father was a blacksmith, and his mother was known as a healer and herbalist; perhaps it was from her that Ray gained his love of nature, and especially of plants. Entering Cambridge University in 1644, Ray rapidly became expert in languages, mathematics, and natural science; he became a Fellow in 1649, a Lecturer in 1651, and a junior Dean in 1658. In 1660 he was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church. Soon after, for political reasons, he left Cambridge. Between 1660 and 1671 he made many trips throughout England, and one trip to Europe, to collect plants, animals, and rocks. He also did experimental work in embryology and plant physiology; among other things, he proved that the wood of a living tree conducts water. His researches received so much renown that Ray was inducted into the newly-formed Royal Society of London, one of the world's first scientific societies, in 1667. Poor health eventually restricted his travels, and he spent the last decades of his life corresponding with the leading scientists of his time, such as Oldenburg, Lhwyd, Lister, and Hooke, and writing book after book on languages, theology, and natural history. He died on January 17, 1705.
Starting in 1660 with his Catalogue of Cambridge Plants, and ending with the posthumous publication of Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium in 1713, Ray published systematic works on plants, birds, mammals, fish, and insects, in which he brought order to the chaotic mass of names in use by the naturalists of his time. Like Linnaeus, Ray searched for the "natural system," a classification of organisms that would reflect the Divine Order of creation. Unlike Linnaeus, whose plant classification was based entirely on floral reproductive organs, Ray classified plants by overall morphology: the classification in his 1682 book Methodus Plantarum Nova draws on flowers, seeds, fruits, and roots. Ray's plant classification system was the first to divide flowering plants into monocots and dicots. This method produced more "natural" results than "artificial" systems based on one feature alone; it expressed the similarities between species more fully. Ray's system greatly influenced later botanists such as Jussieu and de Candolle, and systems based on total morphology came to replace systems based on only one feature or organ system.
A devout Christian, Ray expounded his belief in "natural theology," the doctrine that the wisdom and power of God could be understood by studying His creation, the natural world. This doctrine can be traced back to the Bible, but Ray expressed it so fully and clearly that he started a long tradition of natural theology in England and abroad. As Ray wrote in 1660:
There is for a free man no occupation more worthy and delightful than to contemplate the beauteous works of nature and honour the infinite wisdom and goodness of God.
From the Wikipedia:
One of the most eminent naturalists of his time, John Ray was also an influential philosopher and theologian. Ray is often referred to as the father of natural history in Britain.
John Ray was born on November 29, 1627, in the village of Black Notley, Essex, England. His father was a blacksmith, and his mother was known as a healer and herbalist; perhaps it was from her that Ray gained his love of nature, and especially of plants. Entering Cambridge University in 1644, Ray rapidly became expert in languages, mathematics, and natural science; he became a Fellow in 1649, a Lecturer in 1651, and a junior Dean in 1658. In 1660 he was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church. Soon after, for political reasons, he left Cambridge. Between 1660 and 1671 he made many trips throughout England, and one trip to Europe, to collect plants, animals, and rocks. He also did experimental work in embryology and plant physiology; among other things, he proved that the wood of a living tree conducts water. His researches received so much renown that Ray was inducted into the newly-formed Royal Society of London, one of the world's first scientific societies, in 1667. Poor health eventually restricted his travels, and he spent the last decades of his life corresponding with the leading scientists of his time, such as Oldenburg, Lhwyd, Lister, and Hooke, and writing book after book on languages, theology, and natural history. He died on January 17, 1705.
Starting in 1660 with his Catalogue of Cambridge Plants, and ending with the posthumous publication of Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium in 1713, Ray published systematic works on plants, birds, mammals, fish, and insects, in which he brought order to the chaotic mass of names in use by the naturalists of his time. Like Linnaeus, Ray searched for the "natural system," a classification of organisms that would reflect the Divine Order of creation. Unlike Linnaeus, whose plant classification was based entirely on floral reproductive organs, Ray classified plants by overall morphology: the classification in his 1682 book Methodus Plantarum Nova draws on flowers, seeds, fruits, and roots. Ray's plant classification system was the first to divide flowering plants into monocots and dicots. This method produced more "natural" results than "artificial" systems based on one feature alone; it expressed the similarities between species more fully. Ray's system greatly influenced later botanists such as Jussieu and de Candolle, and systems based on total morphology came to replace systems based on only one feature or organ system.
A devout Christian, Ray expounded his belief in "natural theology," the doctrine that the wisdom and power of God could be understood by studying His creation, the natural world. This doctrine can be traced back to the Bible, but Ray expressed it so fully and clearly that he started a long tradition of natural theology in England and abroad. As Ray wrote in 1660:
There is for a free man no occupation more worthy and delightful than to contemplate the beauteous works of nature and honour the infinite wisdom and goodness of God.
Backing up the Emusic
Yesterday I backed up my E-music folder on 7 Dvds.
E-music is a service that for a price will let you download a certain number of tracks a month. My current number is 90 downloaded tracks a month. Many of the albums are not ones that you would normally come across in your normal Walmart CD racks. My collection is very eclectic. There are many jazz and blues selections. There are folk singers and players of a single instrument. I have a nice collection of classical tuba tracks.
The country is there too. Some singers such as Taylor Swift have albums that are available on both the popular market and are available as downloads on E-Music.
An interesting group of downloads often occurs quite by accident. This happened recently with the Ettas. I download some Etta Jones who is a wonderful lounge type jazz singer, Then quite by accident I could not remember the last name or a screwed it up in my mind and downloaded a bunch of Etta James. She is a classic blues performer.
So sometimes serendipity can occur when the library is big and the memory is a bit eschew.
: ) Pat
E-music is a service that for a price will let you download a certain number of tracks a month. My current number is 90 downloaded tracks a month. Many of the albums are not ones that you would normally come across in your normal Walmart CD racks. My collection is very eclectic. There are many jazz and blues selections. There are folk singers and players of a single instrument. I have a nice collection of classical tuba tracks.
The country is there too. Some singers such as Taylor Swift have albums that are available on both the popular market and are available as downloads on E-Music.
An interesting group of downloads often occurs quite by accident. This happened recently with the Ettas. I download some Etta Jones who is a wonderful lounge type jazz singer, Then quite by accident I could not remember the last name or a screwed it up in my mind and downloaded a bunch of Etta James. She is a classic blues performer.
So sometimes serendipity can occur when the library is big and the memory is a bit eschew.
: ) Pat
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Testing not Teaching
As a country we are going to spend more time testing than teaching. This is sort of a sad state of affairs.
Even in my job after a lengthy interview with my boss, it became clear that the diagnostic skills of the speech therapists are going to be used more than their teaching skills.
My afternoon classes will be taught be someone else, and I will be evaluating for the rest of the year in the afternoon. It is important that each student, in the caseload be requalified for their services.
And so it goes. Why should we expect to be much different than the rest of the world of education.
Pat
Even in my job after a lengthy interview with my boss, it became clear that the diagnostic skills of the speech therapists are going to be used more than their teaching skills.
My afternoon classes will be taught be someone else, and I will be evaluating for the rest of the year in the afternoon. It is important that each student, in the caseload be requalified for their services.
And so it goes. Why should we expect to be much different than the rest of the world of education.
Pat
Friday, January 9, 2009
Mac World with Dad
They say that this could be the last MacWorld.. it could be.
I picked up Dad when I went to MacWorld on Thursday. I dropped off lesson plans and took some of my comp time. I headed over the hill and picked him up at 10:40. We sailed into the city with the traffic not slowing us down.
We were there by noon. I parked the expedition on the top floor of the parking garage about two blocks from Moscone Hall. After locating our bar coded, emailed free passes, we headed into the exhibit hall.
MacWorld occupied both sides of Mascone.They did not house half of the convention in the West Wing like they had the year before. We dopped down on the elevators and it looked like we were in the vertical software section. It was the side that didn't have Apple. There were a couple of cool cars to look over, including an Acura race car from formula one.
We prowled around a little and decided to head to the other side through the underground tunnel. The other side had the Apple booth. It was pretty big, but not as big as in previous years. They had big posters of ILife 09. We watched a demo of IWork and Pages on the big thetre stage. I told dad that we really needed to look at the new IPhoto to see the changes. We buttonholed one of the presenters and he did an update for us on IPhoto with the new face detection software... very cool considering the number of digital cameras out here and a need to organize our assests. He also ran over the latest innovations on IMovie. Since Dad and I have spent a few hours invested in the old IMovie, were were interested in the latest version. What was cool was the ability to seemlessly stitch two versions of the kid jumping into a single segment.
We stepped outside the area, and got a sandwich each and a water and a soda and gathered up our energy to go back inside and find the area where we could buttonhole another presenter and show us some of what he knew about a photo program called Aperature. Dad has been studying it through the online service called Lynda.com. We a support person from St. Louis who provides the 99 dollar yearly service on all Mac software products. He was able to show us alot about Aperature. Most of which dad knew already.
I bought dad an overlay for his keyboard so that when he is doing Aperature, he will have all the key strokes available to him right on top of the keys.
I found this guy selling some interesting non photoshop software on the floor. It looked like it had great promise for doing photoshop portrait work. Dad bought it.
We were off and out of the center by 4:30. I was home in Merced by 8'oclock and change.
It was quite a day.
No big vendors were at MacWorld. No Adobe. The photo companies had very small booths, and so did the print vendors, HP and Epson.
There really wasn't much new to report. The usual pooled sellers were not there. The book salesmen were there but with much smaller displays.
There were many booths that had names hung on the sign, but no both materializing. The economy may have taken them out after they had paid for their book.
The whole show was much more vertical.. software that fits a niche. It was still worthwhile in the sense we were able to get up close and personal service.
Love
Pat
I picked up Dad when I went to MacWorld on Thursday. I dropped off lesson plans and took some of my comp time. I headed over the hill and picked him up at 10:40. We sailed into the city with the traffic not slowing us down.
We were there by noon. I parked the expedition on the top floor of the parking garage about two blocks from Moscone Hall. After locating our bar coded, emailed free passes, we headed into the exhibit hall.
MacWorld occupied both sides of Mascone.They did not house half of the convention in the West Wing like they had the year before. We dopped down on the elevators and it looked like we were in the vertical software section. It was the side that didn't have Apple. There were a couple of cool cars to look over, including an Acura race car from formula one.
We prowled around a little and decided to head to the other side through the underground tunnel. The other side had the Apple booth. It was pretty big, but not as big as in previous years. They had big posters of ILife 09. We watched a demo of IWork and Pages on the big thetre stage. I told dad that we really needed to look at the new IPhoto to see the changes. We buttonholed one of the presenters and he did an update for us on IPhoto with the new face detection software... very cool considering the number of digital cameras out here and a need to organize our assests. He also ran over the latest innovations on IMovie. Since Dad and I have spent a few hours invested in the old IMovie, were were interested in the latest version. What was cool was the ability to seemlessly stitch two versions of the kid jumping into a single segment.
We stepped outside the area, and got a sandwich each and a water and a soda and gathered up our energy to go back inside and find the area where we could buttonhole another presenter and show us some of what he knew about a photo program called Aperature. Dad has been studying it through the online service called Lynda.com. We a support person from St. Louis who provides the 99 dollar yearly service on all Mac software products. He was able to show us alot about Aperature. Most of which dad knew already.
I bought dad an overlay for his keyboard so that when he is doing Aperature, he will have all the key strokes available to him right on top of the keys.
I found this guy selling some interesting non photoshop software on the floor. It looked like it had great promise for doing photoshop portrait work. Dad bought it.
We were off and out of the center by 4:30. I was home in Merced by 8'oclock and change.
It was quite a day.
No big vendors were at MacWorld. No Adobe. The photo companies had very small booths, and so did the print vendors, HP and Epson.
There really wasn't much new to report. The usual pooled sellers were not there. The book salesmen were there but with much smaller displays.
There were many booths that had names hung on the sign, but no both materializing. The economy may have taken them out after they had paid for their book.
The whole show was much more vertical.. software that fits a niche. It was still worthwhile in the sense we were able to get up close and personal service.
Love
Pat
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
My Dad is 83 Today
I just got through calling dad.
He lives with mom in Morgan Hill. His birthday makes him 83. He is lucid and doing all kinds of things.
My sister Kelly, brought him a chocolate cake. When he was in the navy, his mother would make him a cake, and at his request, send him each of the four corners of a square chocolate cake... So I asked him if he got the four corners. He said that alas the cake was round. His idea tonight was to give everyone a small slice and he would be able to nibble on it for a longer period of time.
He went to the heart doctor today and all of his tests were great. He is happy that their is a pill for cholesterol. He claims that is what is giving him good numbers.
Today I went back to school. The students were there to get some instruction. I had Pao explain his Rose Bowl parade experience. They also performed in Disneyland. He got to meet a lot of students from other bands across the country and around the world. He was given two pins from Golden Valley to trade to others to get some of their pins. One student documented in the paper, traded for a grass skirt off a band member from Hawaii. Pao traded for one other pin from another band.
While they were down there they got a chance to go to the Snoopy Land and Universal Studios. They had a great time.
Some of my students got some very nice things for Christmas, but overall I would judge that the economy has become kind of a scrooge for presents.
This week we are starting to learn the vocabulary of entertainment.
Artists, directors, distribution, production, actors/actresses. choreographers, and scripts. Most of my students don't have any of these words at their disposal.
Have a good one.
: ) Pat
He lives with mom in Morgan Hill. His birthday makes him 83. He is lucid and doing all kinds of things.
My sister Kelly, brought him a chocolate cake. When he was in the navy, his mother would make him a cake, and at his request, send him each of the four corners of a square chocolate cake... So I asked him if he got the four corners. He said that alas the cake was round. His idea tonight was to give everyone a small slice and he would be able to nibble on it for a longer period of time.
He went to the heart doctor today and all of his tests were great. He is happy that their is a pill for cholesterol. He claims that is what is giving him good numbers.
Today I went back to school. The students were there to get some instruction. I had Pao explain his Rose Bowl parade experience. They also performed in Disneyland. He got to meet a lot of students from other bands across the country and around the world. He was given two pins from Golden Valley to trade to others to get some of their pins. One student documented in the paper, traded for a grass skirt off a band member from Hawaii. Pao traded for one other pin from another band.
While they were down there they got a chance to go to the Snoopy Land and Universal Studios. They had a great time.
Some of my students got some very nice things for Christmas, but overall I would judge that the economy has become kind of a scrooge for presents.
This week we are starting to learn the vocabulary of entertainment.
Artists, directors, distribution, production, actors/actresses. choreographers, and scripts. Most of my students don't have any of these words at their disposal.
Have a good one.
: ) Pat
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Eagle Eye and Suffer,Dude
Two quick reviews of a couple of redbox offerings.
Eagle Eye was everything that my sister Kelly wrote in her review. This is an action movie from the start. The car chase scenes were great with a couple of amazing crashes. This is a big brother gone wild kind of movie. The huge computer Eagle Eye, decides to have a mind of its own. Its amazing how integrated we are with the server machines.. in many ways that we have little notion of their connectivity. This is also a movie that combines gone in 60 seconds with Deja Vu. It was interesting and well worth my buck. This weekend the Redboxes in Merced were out of the movie. I think that I lucked out with one that was returned.
The second movie, Surfer,Dude, is one you can pretty easily save your buck and don't even rent it. Staring and produced by Matthew McConaughey, its about a surfer that won't sell out to the corporate types that want to buy his name and his surfing skills. Then along comes a drought of So Cal waves. He tries all kinds of superstitious behavior to bring the waves back.. to no avail. Finally he seizes on the idea that the waves have not come because of his lack of involvement in corporate image. There are some interesting cameos of Willie Nelson and the star of Woody Harrelson, of White Man can't jump fame. And there is some eye candy and some adventure shots out on the surf.. but this movie despite its seven years in production probably shouldn't have been made. It is in short supply also in the Redbox.
Happy Redboxing.. Pat
Eagle Eye was everything that my sister Kelly wrote in her review. This is an action movie from the start. The car chase scenes were great with a couple of amazing crashes. This is a big brother gone wild kind of movie. The huge computer Eagle Eye, decides to have a mind of its own. Its amazing how integrated we are with the server machines.. in many ways that we have little notion of their connectivity. This is also a movie that combines gone in 60 seconds with Deja Vu. It was interesting and well worth my buck. This weekend the Redboxes in Merced were out of the movie. I think that I lucked out with one that was returned.
The second movie, Surfer,Dude, is one you can pretty easily save your buck and don't even rent it. Staring and produced by Matthew McConaughey, its about a surfer that won't sell out to the corporate types that want to buy his name and his surfing skills. Then along comes a drought of So Cal waves. He tries all kinds of superstitious behavior to bring the waves back.. to no avail. Finally he seizes on the idea that the waves have not come because of his lack of involvement in corporate image. There are some interesting cameos of Willie Nelson and the star of Woody Harrelson, of White Man can't jump fame. And there is some eye candy and some adventure shots out on the surf.. but this movie despite its seven years in production probably shouldn't have been made. It is in short supply also in the Redbox.
Happy Redboxing.. Pat
15=2 cups= 1 tray x6 trays
This year's bumper crop of lemons is just too great to waste.
I bought a lemon juicer on E-Bay a couple of years ago. It has a lovely handle that cranks out the juice from the lemons.
I decided to get it out and crank out some lemon juice from my trees. So I brought each dish of lemons in and washed them. Then I cut them and cranked them through the machine. It does a great job. I quickly used up all of the ice cube trays I bought at the grocery store and still there are many lemons on the tree. Wow.. you can see how many lemons I picked off of this "dwarf" tree by doing the math above. And still there are at least that many more lemons on the tree.
I think that the real key is to make sure that the air and the light can circulate around the tree. If it gets jammed up with too much foliage, it will not produce as many lemons.. but then again you won't have to find the ice cube trays and the lemon juicer.
When life gives you lemons.. freeze them in zip lock bags.. Check out new additions to the flickr photostream to pick out the set up.
: ) Pat
I bought a lemon juicer on E-Bay a couple of years ago. It has a lovely handle that cranks out the juice from the lemons.
I decided to get it out and crank out some lemon juice from my trees. So I brought each dish of lemons in and washed them. Then I cut them and cranked them through the machine. It does a great job. I quickly used up all of the ice cube trays I bought at the grocery store and still there are many lemons on the tree. Wow.. you can see how many lemons I picked off of this "dwarf" tree by doing the math above. And still there are at least that many more lemons on the tree.
I think that the real key is to make sure that the air and the light can circulate around the tree. If it gets jammed up with too much foliage, it will not produce as many lemons.. but then again you won't have to find the ice cube trays and the lemon juicer.
When life gives you lemons.. freeze them in zip lock bags.. Check out new additions to the flickr photostream to pick out the set up.
: ) Pat
Jonathan Winters and the Quote for Today
Jonathan Winters was an amazing comedian of the 60's and 70's. He broke the mold in many ways. He was not the skinny vauldevillian with the one line joke. He was not gender specific, as he played Maude, the little old lady as well as the General with his medals prodly worn. He had complete vocal control and used it to elicit a laugh about almost everyhing. He was prolific on the TV.
He started in radio and was a morning talk show host. He worked himself up the comedic ladder to be an major entertainer in the late talk show circuit. He was a regular on Jack Parr's show and the Tonight Show. With his talent for voices we remember him for his voice over for crotoons: The Smurfs, The Little Prince, The Christmas Carol, Paul Bunyan, Little Dracula, Ed Grimley Show, and Peter and The Wolf.
Who could forget him on Hollywood Squares? He hosted a variety show on TV that was the first to use color tape. He was on many Bob Hope Shows.
Currently he lives in Santa Barbara and paints and writes. He is working on an autobiography.
From the Most Brillant Thoughts of all time (in two lines or less) comes today's quote:
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it! Johnathan Winters, 1925-
: ) Pat
He started in radio and was a morning talk show host. He worked himself up the comedic ladder to be an major entertainer in the late talk show circuit. He was a regular on Jack Parr's show and the Tonight Show. With his talent for voices we remember him for his voice over for crotoons: The Smurfs, The Little Prince, The Christmas Carol, Paul Bunyan, Little Dracula, Ed Grimley Show, and Peter and The Wolf.
Who could forget him on Hollywood Squares? He hosted a variety show on TV that was the first to use color tape. He was on many Bob Hope Shows.
Currently he lives in Santa Barbara and paints and writes. He is working on an autobiography.
From the Most Brillant Thoughts of all time (in two lines or less) comes today's quote:
If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it! Johnathan Winters, 1925-
: ) Pat
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Unexpected Results in the Wild Card Games
If you didn't see the Saturday Wild Card games you may be surprised to hear that the Arizona Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers both won their games. They were both teams that were not expected to win... So I suspect that the casinos are having a blast at the sports book.
San Diego has had to win every game for the last month to get in. The Arizona Cardinals won their division early and coasted to consecutive losses for the last month and a half.
It was a battle of the quarterbacks. Payton Manning of the Colts can hit a receiver from anywhere on the field. Rivers, the San Diego quarterback has an impressive running game even with their team's star LT of Campbell's soup fame mostly out with an undefined groin pull.
That was Grandma Neelly's chief physical complaint in her later years. I have this pull down in my groin. Hell I didn't know what a groin was at that time. Maybe thats a good thing. I suppose kids now would know what that was with the advent of so much publicity in sports medicine.
Arizona was playing that Atlanta team with the unbelievable rookie of the year quarterback, Matt Ryan. His nickname is ice. He was going up against the quarterback plucked from the grocery story checkout lines for the St. Louis Rams, Kurt Warner. The Wylie coyote In this case the experience of Kurt held up against the raw talent of the newcomer. Why? fewer mistakes.
Both games were fun to watch. The Colts/Chargers game went into overtime. That always makes for an interesting conculsion. The winner of the coin toss usually wins in overtime. Tonight was no exception. Good by Colts and Falcons in the playoffs.
I hope the games on Sunday will be as good.
: ) Pat
San Diego has had to win every game for the last month to get in. The Arizona Cardinals won their division early and coasted to consecutive losses for the last month and a half.
It was a battle of the quarterbacks. Payton Manning of the Colts can hit a receiver from anywhere on the field. Rivers, the San Diego quarterback has an impressive running game even with their team's star LT of Campbell's soup fame mostly out with an undefined groin pull.
That was Grandma Neelly's chief physical complaint in her later years. I have this pull down in my groin. Hell I didn't know what a groin was at that time. Maybe thats a good thing. I suppose kids now would know what that was with the advent of so much publicity in sports medicine.
Arizona was playing that Atlanta team with the unbelievable rookie of the year quarterback, Matt Ryan. His nickname is ice. He was going up against the quarterback plucked from the grocery story checkout lines for the St. Louis Rams, Kurt Warner. The Wylie coyote In this case the experience of Kurt held up against the raw talent of the newcomer. Why? fewer mistakes.
Both games were fun to watch. The Colts/Chargers game went into overtime. That always makes for an interesting conculsion. The winner of the coin toss usually wins in overtime. Tonight was no exception. Good by Colts and Falcons in the playoffs.
I hope the games on Sunday will be as good.
: ) Pat
Win Win
Another quote from the Most Brilliant Thoughts
The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let other people see clearly that it is in their best interests to promote yours. Jean de La Bruyère 1645-1695
This is an early philosophical response to getting things done. It shows up in Dale Carnige's "How to influence people" and it is rock solid at the table. It also what we try to get our students to do in therapy. Put yourself in their place. What would you say. How can you get them to see what you want unless it is in their best interest.
My favorite home tale about this is the story of the ice cream trip.
It was a hot afternoon in Merced. Linzi decided that she wanted an ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins at the Mall, about a mile away from our house. She did not drive or have a boy friend that could scoop her up and take her to the mall for her treat. So she asked be about 3 times. I kept putting it off. It didn't seem in my interest for the her urgancy. Before long a pair of shoes were dropped beside my feet. A set of keys were found and put in my hand as she helped me up off the sofa and guess what? We were headed off to the mall to get an ice cream.
I wasn't oppesed to the idea. It just had to be brought up to my conscience. She made her interest mine and we both had a nice ice cream at the mall.
win win..Jean de La Bruyère
Love Pat
The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let other people see clearly that it is in their best interests to promote yours. Jean de La Bruyère 1645-1695
This is an early philosophical response to getting things done. It shows up in Dale Carnige's "How to influence people" and it is rock solid at the table. It also what we try to get our students to do in therapy. Put yourself in their place. What would you say. How can you get them to see what you want unless it is in their best interest.
My favorite home tale about this is the story of the ice cream trip.
It was a hot afternoon in Merced. Linzi decided that she wanted an ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins at the Mall, about a mile away from our house. She did not drive or have a boy friend that could scoop her up and take her to the mall for her treat. So she asked be about 3 times. I kept putting it off. It didn't seem in my interest for the her urgancy. Before long a pair of shoes were dropped beside my feet. A set of keys were found and put in my hand as she helped me up off the sofa and guess what? We were headed off to the mall to get an ice cream.
I wasn't oppesed to the idea. It just had to be brought up to my conscience. She made her interest mine and we both had a nice ice cream at the mall.
win win..Jean de La Bruyère
Love Pat
Friday, January 2, 2009
Congratulations Linzi!
Its Linzi's 28th birthday.
She has survived the throws of being a ginger. Even an assistant principal calling her "Lizard." At least she was known in a positive sense (according to the assistant principal).
She is always one to push the envelope. I think that is why she will help the world become more green and better planned. She expects the best from everyone around her and often gets it.
We love her spirit, her creativity, and her drive.
When she was little she loved the ocean. She could not understand why she couldn't be in it and explore it all the time. We took a family trip to Hearst Castle, down near Cambria. She wanted to jump off of William Randolf Hearst's dock and see what was in that ocean. Mom had to explain to her the dangers of doing that and who would have to jump in there and get her and who would have to jump in there and save the person that was jumping in to get her. It was at least a 30 foot drop into the ocean.
We were talking the other day about her trip out to see her kin in North Carolina. She had a great experience traveling with her mom and grandmother. It was nice to meet kids a little closer to her age when they got out there. And ones that were different than the ones in Merced.
Linzi has always been up for the adventure. She has been able to see and do so much in her world and in worlds that we can only speculate about. She is perfectly placed in a job where looking out for the future is basic. She recently said that when they are considering projects they consider them for 7 generations ahead.
Congratulations to a wonderful 28 year old!
Love You Linzi
your dad
She has survived the throws of being a ginger. Even an assistant principal calling her "Lizard." At least she was known in a positive sense (according to the assistant principal).
She is always one to push the envelope. I think that is why she will help the world become more green and better planned. She expects the best from everyone around her and often gets it.
We love her spirit, her creativity, and her drive.
When she was little she loved the ocean. She could not understand why she couldn't be in it and explore it all the time. We took a family trip to Hearst Castle, down near Cambria. She wanted to jump off of William Randolf Hearst's dock and see what was in that ocean. Mom had to explain to her the dangers of doing that and who would have to jump in there and get her and who would have to jump in there and save the person that was jumping in to get her. It was at least a 30 foot drop into the ocean.
We were talking the other day about her trip out to see her kin in North Carolina. She had a great experience traveling with her mom and grandmother. It was nice to meet kids a little closer to her age when they got out there. And ones that were different than the ones in Merced.
Linzi has always been up for the adventure. She has been able to see and do so much in her world and in worlds that we can only speculate about. She is perfectly placed in a job where looking out for the future is basic. She recently said that when they are considering projects they consider them for 7 generations ahead.
Congratulations to a wonderful 28 year old!
Love You Linzi
your dad
The Most Brilliant Thoughts
Plowing through the offerings at Barnes and Noble I came across an very interesting book. It is titled The Most Brilliant Thoughts of all Time, (in two lines or Less)/ It is edited by John Shanahan. I thought that I might share some of these are the blogs go on.
Men despise great projects when they do not feel themselves capable of great successes.Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, 1715-1747
There is a certain amount of negative envy from people who cannot do great projects. It is one of those reactions that we all have to deal with. It can also stiffle great projects.
In the 80's I had a mentor project in the High School. Many teachers were interested in getting into computers as a way of "cleaning up their act." I applied and received 8 projects of support and execution of desktop projects throughout the district. I provided one on one in services and supported many teachers and started many very interesting projects that teachers continued to do.
Thee were a number of teachers that could not do what I was doing and started a backside negative program. I heard from these people that they were verbally wondering why a speech and language teacher that had no classroom of his own (I still don't) could ever be worthy of a "mentor" project honor. One teacher who was on the selection committee went so far as to tell me that I was crazy to apply since computers were the work of the devil. One teacher told my friends that I shouldn't have it since I would be paid for pursuing my hobby.
Within six months of the end of my project this fellow teacher wanted help with this outside business. I was able to help him (setting aside my inside knowledge) and he helped my by paying for my services.
We all have to make sure that those who can't don't get in the way of those that dream and can.
Love
Pat
Men despise great projects when they do not feel themselves capable of great successes.Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, 1715-1747
There is a certain amount of negative envy from people who cannot do great projects. It is one of those reactions that we all have to deal with. It can also stiffle great projects.
In the 80's I had a mentor project in the High School. Many teachers were interested in getting into computers as a way of "cleaning up their act." I applied and received 8 projects of support and execution of desktop projects throughout the district. I provided one on one in services and supported many teachers and started many very interesting projects that teachers continued to do.
Thee were a number of teachers that could not do what I was doing and started a backside negative program. I heard from these people that they were verbally wondering why a speech and language teacher that had no classroom of his own (I still don't) could ever be worthy of a "mentor" project honor. One teacher who was on the selection committee went so far as to tell me that I was crazy to apply since computers were the work of the devil. One teacher told my friends that I shouldn't have it since I would be paid for pursuing my hobby.
Within six months of the end of my project this fellow teacher wanted help with this outside business. I was able to help him (setting aside my inside knowledge) and he helped my by paying for my services.
We all have to make sure that those who can't don't get in the way of those that dream and can.
Love
Pat
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Mom is into Seal
This afternoon in the middle of football games galore, NBC was one of its counter programing offers. The figure skaters were skating to Seal. There were some surprising performs. Brian Boitano and Karen Kadavie. What was interesting was that the live performer that they were skating to was Seal. Sue had no knowlege of his music. She did know, unlike me, that he was married to Heidi Kloone. Please forgive the spellings here a spell checker is of no vaule.
She also discovered that Seal is a common singer for many of the routines that the skaters perform. If fact... as far as fact goes, that Kristie Yamaguchi went back into training to be a part of the performance when the promoters told her that Seal would perform live. She gave a very credible performance. She didn't do her every jump like she did for Stars on Ice many years ago, but she did do some jumps.
The upshot of the show was that she has a new singer to follow. I downloaded a collection of his songs on ITunes that will bring us up to 2004. The reviewer noted that Seal did not really develop a recognizable consistant sound in this era although there are many songs that were recognizable. So we are going to go through them together and decide which are going to make it to the Suzie channel. Its kind of a narrow band of tolerance.
I made a big roast beef for New Years day. Its the easy recipe where a bottle of red wine is dumped in with the roast and 2 and half hours later the roast is plucked out and a gravy is made from the drippings. Peeled potatoes were added in the last 40 minutes. They could have been cooked a little longer. Overall its an easy dinner with lots of leftovers that doesn't require a lot of careful cook's attention. The wine was a simple 2 buck chuck from Trader Joe's. The cabernet makes a perfect cooking wine because it is not one that you wouldn't drink.
Have a great 2009. Tomorrow is Linzi's birthday.. wow!
Love
Pat
She also discovered that Seal is a common singer for many of the routines that the skaters perform. If fact... as far as fact goes, that Kristie Yamaguchi went back into training to be a part of the performance when the promoters told her that Seal would perform live. She gave a very credible performance. She didn't do her every jump like she did for Stars on Ice many years ago, but she did do some jumps.
The upshot of the show was that she has a new singer to follow. I downloaded a collection of his songs on ITunes that will bring us up to 2004. The reviewer noted that Seal did not really develop a recognizable consistant sound in this era although there are many songs that were recognizable. So we are going to go through them together and decide which are going to make it to the Suzie channel. Its kind of a narrow band of tolerance.
I made a big roast beef for New Years day. Its the easy recipe where a bottle of red wine is dumped in with the roast and 2 and half hours later the roast is plucked out and a gravy is made from the drippings. Peeled potatoes were added in the last 40 minutes. They could have been cooked a little longer. Overall its an easy dinner with lots of leftovers that doesn't require a lot of careful cook's attention. The wine was a simple 2 buck chuck from Trader Joe's. The cabernet makes a perfect cooking wine because it is not one that you wouldn't drink.
Have a great 2009. Tomorrow is Linzi's birthday.. wow!
Love
Pat
New At Starbucks
On my long walk. I stopped by my usual Starbucks.
It was quiet. Either everyone is out of town or they had a tough time last night.. or maybe both.
Its overcast today, but no ground fog. A new barista was learning the ropes at Starbucks. The Trainer was telling bim, he comes in and always needs a ceramic cup. He orders a couple cap short. There is another guy you will meet that always comes in, his name is Bob. He orders a double mocha with room for whipped cream.
The new barista greeted my and wished me a happy new year. I returned the favor. He said that we was really happy working earning money today. Thats a good attitude. He is sharp looking African American male. He will be a good addition to our confident staff.
Its interesting to be a "regular" that no one knows your first name. Oh well.
Pat
It was quiet. Either everyone is out of town or they had a tough time last night.. or maybe both.
Its overcast today, but no ground fog. A new barista was learning the ropes at Starbucks. The Trainer was telling bim, he comes in and always needs a ceramic cup. He orders a couple cap short. There is another guy you will meet that always comes in, his name is Bob. He orders a double mocha with room for whipped cream.
The new barista greeted my and wished me a happy new year. I returned the favor. He said that we was really happy working earning money today. Thats a good attitude. He is sharp looking African American male. He will be a good addition to our confident staff.
Its interesting to be a "regular" that no one knows your first name. Oh well.
Pat