What a phrase!
In common vernacular it means doing it with the group.
Its very appropriate for this week.
The district is worrying about three years from now and going broke. So.. the tapped their greatest resource of greatest expense and offered a buyout for their ready or almost ready to retire employees. I do mean employees.
Offered through the PAR corporation who has 3.1 million beneficiaries, it buys a 403 b annuity for those people over 55 from funds provided by the district. It amounts to roughly 70% of your current salary. It can me taken in 14 ways from straight 5 year payout to life. It also can me "rolled over" into your own 403b or it can have survivor benefits.
At the meeting this week it was rumored that 147 of individual packets were prepared by this organization for our district. A large crowd of eligible people attended, looked over the figures and took them home to discuss with those that are near and dear.
Dead line for the decision is March 15th.
It looks pretty good to me.. so I will take mine in cherry.. thank you very much.
Love
Pat
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Olympics Tell Your Eyes Fall Out!
I am a sucker for the spectacle. Yep.. every two years the Olympics provide a fix for this spectacle. A multi million dollar presentation is on tap in every one of these that allows the host country to "educate" the world about its culture. What could be better than that? Artistry of visual and cultural art from that country speakeing about that country is displayed. Without the art and the culture, the Olympics could be held in the same place time after time and it would not matter.
The press is always hard pressed to cover such an event. There is the classsic "space shuttle talk" approach which is too much commentary and too little action. There is a lot of "critique" commentary. This approach compares it with previous events. There is the reporting that tries to make sense of it without the press guide.
There was evidence of all of these reporting styles in the latest Vancouver coverage of the opening ceremony. All it misses the mark.
The spectacle of all the nations coming together for a parade with different winter fashions is pretty cool. The projections of Orca whale pods that actually spouted from a flat floor was pretty cool. The story of the country culture from one side of Canada to the other was amazing. The dancing and the art of set design on that scale was amazing. The lighting and projection off the white parkas was a technological beauty. I loved the trees and the prairie, and the "stompers" and even the poetic blogger. The aboriginal Indians were highlighted with amazing clothing. Overall it was an incredible show.
So what did the press report? One of the pillars in the torch did not come up. The NPR reporter reported that he lost the significance of the prairie, but latter picked it up in the press guide he did not read before the event. The NBC commentators tried to compare it to the summer spectacle in Beijing.. different season different world.. really. The reporting about what was going to happen next on the floor was made in a sort of cynical manner that made the spectacle somewhat diminished. On top of this there was a continual reminder of the wired concept of the a medal tote. Who even cares? Its great that we have some wonderful atheletes in these areas that do not get much coverage every year while every four years we get reintroduced to our own homegrown product.
I don't care what others think. The Olympic opening ceremony is a class A spectacle that should not every be lost in the the other parts of the games. Art lives!
The press is always hard pressed to cover such an event. There is the classsic "space shuttle talk" approach which is too much commentary and too little action. There is a lot of "critique" commentary. This approach compares it with previous events. There is the reporting that tries to make sense of it without the press guide.
There was evidence of all of these reporting styles in the latest Vancouver coverage of the opening ceremony. All it misses the mark.
The spectacle of all the nations coming together for a parade with different winter fashions is pretty cool. The projections of Orca whale pods that actually spouted from a flat floor was pretty cool. The story of the country culture from one side of Canada to the other was amazing. The dancing and the art of set design on that scale was amazing. The lighting and projection off the white parkas was a technological beauty. I loved the trees and the prairie, and the "stompers" and even the poetic blogger. The aboriginal Indians were highlighted with amazing clothing. Overall it was an incredible show.
So what did the press report? One of the pillars in the torch did not come up. The NPR reporter reported that he lost the significance of the prairie, but latter picked it up in the press guide he did not read before the event. The NBC commentators tried to compare it to the summer spectacle in Beijing.. different season different world.. really. The reporting about what was going to happen next on the floor was made in a sort of cynical manner that made the spectacle somewhat diminished. On top of this there was a continual reminder of the wired concept of the a medal tote. Who even cares? Its great that we have some wonderful atheletes in these areas that do not get much coverage every year while every four years we get reintroduced to our own homegrown product.
I don't care what others think. The Olympic opening ceremony is a class A spectacle that should not every be lost in the the other parts of the games. Art lives!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Classical Music
I am going through a classical music stage.
On NPR I heard a beautiful swirling piece composed by Franz Liszt. I went home home to see if I could download it in my e-music budget.
Franz composed a number of pieces made for opera. Some of the opera were Verdi and others were Wagner.
Its amazing what the piano can do as a musical instrument. These are not your usual piano pieces, but rather thundering and wistful melodies that work together to conjure great numbers. Talk about playing with feeling. I don't see how a pianist could play these without getting lost in the emotion.
Another classical hunt sent me looking for classical underpinnings of Wynton Marsalis. He has some very important position at the Lincoln Center. He is known in many circles for his jazz interpretations. I used the same service,(emusic) and found some very brilliant recordings of classical "pop" selections such as the Flight of the Bumblebee and Carnaval of Venice (their spelling). Also there were a few Allegros and other classic numbers by Haydn, Mozart and Hummel otherwise known as the trumpet concertos. Overall pretty cool stuff.
There was a U-tube video of Wnyton Marsalis with the rock violin player, Lucia Micarelli. So.. of course I had to have an album of that.
So off I go into the classical music jag.. Kind of fun.
: ) Pat
On NPR I heard a beautiful swirling piece composed by Franz Liszt. I went home home to see if I could download it in my e-music budget.
Franz composed a number of pieces made for opera. Some of the opera were Verdi and others were Wagner.
Its amazing what the piano can do as a musical instrument. These are not your usual piano pieces, but rather thundering and wistful melodies that work together to conjure great numbers. Talk about playing with feeling. I don't see how a pianist could play these without getting lost in the emotion.
Another classical hunt sent me looking for classical underpinnings of Wynton Marsalis. He has some very important position at the Lincoln Center. He is known in many circles for his jazz interpretations. I used the same service,(emusic) and found some very brilliant recordings of classical "pop" selections such as the Flight of the Bumblebee and Carnaval of Venice (their spelling). Also there were a few Allegros and other classic numbers by Haydn, Mozart and Hummel otherwise known as the trumpet concertos. Overall pretty cool stuff.
There was a U-tube video of Wnyton Marsalis with the rock violin player, Lucia Micarelli. So.. of course I had to have an album of that.
So off I go into the classical music jag.. Kind of fun.
: ) Pat
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Using the Facebook "Chat"
Way back in the day...
Kelly, my sis and I would communicate using AOL in chat rooms. It was pretty fun. We could type back and forth and have a great chat without the worry of the huge expense at that time of phone calls.
Our technology has changed things and also it has come back again in a more intimate way. Whereas we had to pick a "room" and jump in.. Facebook allows a personal written communication through typing with anyone that is identified as your friend and happens to have Facebook open. In the last week I have been picking people off my friend list and communicating through their chat line. Francisco in Rome is just a live chat away. I picked him up browsing through facebook at about 1:30 in the morning his time and about 5:30 our time. We had a great chat and added his sister to my facebook friend list as a result of it. A student in one my classes is also on my facebook as a friend. I had a nice post Christmas conversation through typing in the IChat section too. Kelly has been there and we have continued the typing chat tradition.
In the old AOL format she could carry on conversations with as many as 6 people at once through this method. I am not sure that she is doing the same thing now but the thought is intriguing. We used to get in a public room and ask inside questions back and forth. It drove some other folks in the rooms nuts. I would anticipate her response and have it typed up so that when it came through there was a quick reply. If the response was not what was expected then I would delete what I had written and re do another. What fun.
So you facebook people give it a try.. its really neat.
Kelly, my sis and I would communicate using AOL in chat rooms. It was pretty fun. We could type back and forth and have a great chat without the worry of the huge expense at that time of phone calls.
Our technology has changed things and also it has come back again in a more intimate way. Whereas we had to pick a "room" and jump in.. Facebook allows a personal written communication through typing with anyone that is identified as your friend and happens to have Facebook open. In the last week I have been picking people off my friend list and communicating through their chat line. Francisco in Rome is just a live chat away. I picked him up browsing through facebook at about 1:30 in the morning his time and about 5:30 our time. We had a great chat and added his sister to my facebook friend list as a result of it. A student in one my classes is also on my facebook as a friend. I had a nice post Christmas conversation through typing in the IChat section too. Kelly has been there and we have continued the typing chat tradition.
In the old AOL format she could carry on conversations with as many as 6 people at once through this method. I am not sure that she is doing the same thing now but the thought is intriguing. We used to get in a public room and ask inside questions back and forth. It drove some other folks in the rooms nuts. I would anticipate her response and have it typed up so that when it came through there was a quick reply. If the response was not what was expected then I would delete what I had written and re do another. What fun.
So you facebook people give it a try.. its really neat.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Costco Book leads to new Iphone Games
I saw a new mag at Costco that lists the games and rates them for people like me interested in added this dimension to their Iphones.
As there are over 10,000 apps for the Iphone its hard to know which ones are good and which ones are not even worth the 99 cents.
Looking through this mag/book I found a few that look pretty promising. Each one is a real winner.
There is one called ipingpong. Its a very neat 3d program that lets you play ping pong with an imaginary player. You can select the level of competence of the player that you play. There are practice choices and game choices. You finger moves the paddle on the sceeen. Its cool its worth it.
I found an interesting game shooting ducks as in a carnival for the second game. The directions were not too intuitive.. but tilting the iphone around and taping the screen when the circle was over the ducks seemed to work just fine. Its a winner.
The third one is called Removem. The book recommended the free one..but for a very small fee you lose the adds and the constant do you want to purchase the paid one reminders. So do it you will like it. It is one of those games that you try to pick the dots that are continuously the same color and double clicking on them eliminates them and allow the next rank or color drop into place, There is a tote for accumlated scores and other cool features.
All three of these are winners. There are somewhat in the roll the bb around the dots kind of game that you get at the 5 and 10 cent store.. but still.. maybe thats really what you want when you are killing time with your iphone.
Best wishes for a great holiday season.
Pat
As there are over 10,000 apps for the Iphone its hard to know which ones are good and which ones are not even worth the 99 cents.
Looking through this mag/book I found a few that look pretty promising. Each one is a real winner.
There is one called ipingpong. Its a very neat 3d program that lets you play ping pong with an imaginary player. You can select the level of competence of the player that you play. There are practice choices and game choices. You finger moves the paddle on the sceeen. Its cool its worth it.
I found an interesting game shooting ducks as in a carnival for the second game. The directions were not too intuitive.. but tilting the iphone around and taping the screen when the circle was over the ducks seemed to work just fine. Its a winner.
The third one is called Removem. The book recommended the free one..but for a very small fee you lose the adds and the constant do you want to purchase the paid one reminders. So do it you will like it. It is one of those games that you try to pick the dots that are continuously the same color and double clicking on them eliminates them and allow the next rank or color drop into place, There is a tote for accumlated scores and other cool features.
All three of these are winners. There are somewhat in the roll the bb around the dots kind of game that you get at the 5 and 10 cent store.. but still.. maybe thats really what you want when you are killing time with your iphone.
Best wishes for a great holiday season.
Pat
Friday, December 11, 2009
Setting up a New Iphone is Daunting
Sue got a new Iphone.
There were certain requirements that she had to have.
It had to be red.
It had to retain the photo of fassie.. or Maffsa the cat we lost two years ago. A photo on her flip phone was the last remaining daily photo.
It took the people at ATnT, (3) of them, 30 minutes to do it. The phone that Sue had been using was one of the first "pink" flip phones. It was rather unique because it was made half of one run that had one color of pink and the start of another that used another color of pink.
Its day was over since we are now more into texting. Having to sort through the triad of letters to pick out the best one was slowing her down.. and limiting her responses. She has also wanted to have wiki power in her pocket. So.. she was playing the martyr, mom is always the last to get the cools stuff.. Yeah but mom is the first to say.. I like it the way it is.. plain food! Ha!
The problem was that the photo was not contained in the sim or memory chip. It resided deep within the memory of the phone itself.
It was accomplished.
As for the red portion.. the cover for the phone was much more to her liking with a slim pink one. So she was happy with the hot pink cover that was silicon based.
Then the battle began to get this phone come capability.
All of my ITunes purchases and choices sync right over to her phone as we were use the same Itunes account. The facebook account was anothe matter.
As I registered her up for facebook, They needed a unique email account for her registration.
I signed her up for a g mail account through google. That worked out rather quickly. The only problem then was to get the Iphone to recognize the email for gmail and not the mail from the pac bell account. That had to come from eliminating my email account from her phone and selecting the banner with google as the supplier and then it worked.
So after a little bit of configuration, Sue is has her own email account and her own facebook account. I have been recommending many of you to her as friendss,
: ) Pat
There were certain requirements that she had to have.
It had to be red.
It had to retain the photo of fassie.. or Maffsa the cat we lost two years ago. A photo on her flip phone was the last remaining daily photo.
It took the people at ATnT, (3) of them, 30 minutes to do it. The phone that Sue had been using was one of the first "pink" flip phones. It was rather unique because it was made half of one run that had one color of pink and the start of another that used another color of pink.
Its day was over since we are now more into texting. Having to sort through the triad of letters to pick out the best one was slowing her down.. and limiting her responses. She has also wanted to have wiki power in her pocket. So.. she was playing the martyr, mom is always the last to get the cools stuff.. Yeah but mom is the first to say.. I like it the way it is.. plain food! Ha!
The problem was that the photo was not contained in the sim or memory chip. It resided deep within the memory of the phone itself.
It was accomplished.
As for the red portion.. the cover for the phone was much more to her liking with a slim pink one. So she was happy with the hot pink cover that was silicon based.
Then the battle began to get this phone come capability.
All of my ITunes purchases and choices sync right over to her phone as we were use the same Itunes account. The facebook account was anothe matter.
As I registered her up for facebook, They needed a unique email account for her registration.
I signed her up for a g mail account through google. That worked out rather quickly. The only problem then was to get the Iphone to recognize the email for gmail and not the mail from the pac bell account. That had to come from eliminating my email account from her phone and selecting the banner with google as the supplier and then it worked.
So after a little bit of configuration, Sue is has her own email account and her own facebook account. I have been recommending many of you to her as friendss,
: ) Pat
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
A Story that left us Rolling on the Floor at Lunch
We have a crazy lunch time group and sometimes we are really out of control. We are loud and we have too much fun for a therapy session.
Today's topic took us out. We read the story in our local Sun Star and the implications just drove us over the edge.
Now you have a chance to do the same:
Merced County Main Jail inmate's stashed 'shank' is surgically removed
Prisoner had hidden the weapon inside his body cavity.
By VICTOR A. PATTON
vpatton@mercedsun-star.com
Don't try this at home -- or in jail.
An inmate at the Merced County Main Jail had a homemade knife surgically removed from his body cavity last month, according to Merced county Sheriff's officials.
He now faces concealed weapons charges.
This 5-inch plastic weapon was recovered from Rance Johnson, a prisoner at the Merced County Main Jail, after surgery at a Modesto hospital.
The inmate, 19-year-old Rance Johnson, approached corrections officials Nov. 18, complaining about an item stuck inside his rectum, causing pain, according to Deputy Tom MacKenzie.
Even worse, Johnson told deputies the improvised weapon -- known in jailhouse slang as a "shank" -- had been inside his body for three weeks.
He was taken to an emergency room in Modesto, and the 5-inch-long plastic shank was surgically removed, MacKenzie said.
"The taxpayer money does cover actual stupidity; hence this guy did have to have this surgically removed," said Sheriff Mark Pazin. "It's unfortunate, but it's a mandated surgery."
MacKenzie said Johnson told investigators he had no idea what the item was, that he'd found it in an interview room and tried smuggling the weapon by inserting it into his rectum. The item was wrapped inside tissue paper and placed in a sandwich bag before it was inserted, MacKenzie said.
Johnson is being held at the jail on suspicion of shooting a 17-year-old male near Castle Airport in September.
In addition to the concealed weapons charges, Johnson is facing an enhancement for allegedly committing a crime while participating in a criminal street gang.
My additions:
Yes the poor Dr, that took it out.. he didn't know sh
The defense attorney. " He didn't know..."
The jury.. Listening to the details
The judge.. trying to keep a straight face
Today's topic took us out. We read the story in our local Sun Star and the implications just drove us over the edge.
Now you have a chance to do the same:
Merced County Main Jail inmate's stashed 'shank' is surgically removed
Prisoner had hidden the weapon inside his body cavity.
By VICTOR A. PATTON
vpatton@mercedsun-star.com
Don't try this at home -- or in jail.
An inmate at the Merced County Main Jail had a homemade knife surgically removed from his body cavity last month, according to Merced county Sheriff's officials.
He now faces concealed weapons charges.
This 5-inch plastic weapon was recovered from Rance Johnson, a prisoner at the Merced County Main Jail, after surgery at a Modesto hospital.
The inmate, 19-year-old Rance Johnson, approached corrections officials Nov. 18, complaining about an item stuck inside his rectum, causing pain, according to Deputy Tom MacKenzie.
Even worse, Johnson told deputies the improvised weapon -- known in jailhouse slang as a "shank" -- had been inside his body for three weeks.
He was taken to an emergency room in Modesto, and the 5-inch-long plastic shank was surgically removed, MacKenzie said.
"The taxpayer money does cover actual stupidity; hence this guy did have to have this surgically removed," said Sheriff Mark Pazin. "It's unfortunate, but it's a mandated surgery."
MacKenzie said Johnson told investigators he had no idea what the item was, that he'd found it in an interview room and tried smuggling the weapon by inserting it into his rectum. The item was wrapped inside tissue paper and placed in a sandwich bag before it was inserted, MacKenzie said.
Johnson is being held at the jail on suspicion of shooting a 17-year-old male near Castle Airport in September.
In addition to the concealed weapons charges, Johnson is facing an enhancement for allegedly committing a crime while participating in a criminal street gang.
My additions:
Yes the poor Dr, that took it out.. he didn't know sh
The defense attorney. " He didn't know..."
The jury.. Listening to the details
The judge.. trying to keep a straight face
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)