You are looking at posts that were written in the month of April in the year 2008.
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I took this as part of a group of photos for a client. They’re promoting custom jewelry for brides. This was a shot to show a sampling of the creations they have available. This was by far the hardest shot to take as it took a bit of work to get everyone to cooperate - you know how it is - everyone smiling and no one with their eyes close. 
Recently, I had an opportunity to tour the Engineering & Technologies Academy (ETA) at my former high school - Theodore Roosevelt High School in San Antonio, Texas (TR). The occasion was a tour that the Academy’s director, Bill Sturgis, offered to the TR Brunch Bunch.
The TR Brunch Bunch is actually an organization of former teachers from TR. I never taught at TR, I was a student. But a couple of years back, the TR Brunch Bunch extended an invitation to the members of TRx to join them. TRx is made up of TR alumni, faculty (present and former) and friends, community leaders, parents and so on. Basically anyone interested in supporting and giving back to TR.
TR is currently under mega-construction - it is basically being rebuilt. ETA recently moved into their new home in Sabre Hall. I was told that it was in the general vicinity of the old “A Wing”. I vaguely recalled the A Wing, it had been a while. But, we were greeted in the parking lot by helpful ETA students who directed us to our destination.
ETA has a number of programs in areas such as Geographical Information Systems, Information Technology Applications, Tech World Manufacturing, Bio-Engineering and Bio-Technology. In our tour we learned that students completing the program are far ahead of other students entering college. ETA provides a solid foundation for students interested in engineering or technology.
Mr. Sturgis told us that some of his students actually work on computers within the school district. And that there is follow up to determine how the service was. Not only are they learning technology, but also customer service.
I was in awe of all that ETA had to offer. It was incredible the number of computers I saw. Some of which students were actually building. When I was at TR, there was a six-week period my senior year when we had a single terminal that connected to Trinity University’s computer. As far as I knew, that was the only computer on campus. If only I could have known how the world would change, I would have paid more attention to that computer.
It was a revelation to me that there were programs like this available for high school students. And it was encouraging to see such a caring faculty. The TR Brunch Bunch had taken up a collection and present Mr. Sturgis with a $500 check to be used for the ETA programs. It took Mr. Sturgis a moment to compose himself after receiving that check. It was an indication of his level of caring.
Lunch was at the Rough Rider Inn. That’s something else that wasn’t there in 1972. The Rough Rider Inn is run by Pat Porter. They have a kitchen that is very much state-of-the-art. The food was delicious and the service was wonderful. Except for Pat Porter, the rest of the restaurant ’staff’ were all students. It was clear that they were being trained in all aspects of a restaurant, not just the cooking. The food was delicious and the service was excellent.
During lunch, someone actually asked me why I had come on the tour. I suppose a student from 36 years ago seemed strange. All the former teachers had spent many more years there than the 4 years I attended. I guess he couldn’t understand why I would want to come back. I suppose it is because I have a lot of memories of that place. Some because of friends. But a lot because of what I learned.
I realized that there are 2 types of teachers that you remember. The really bad, and the really good. And of my 4 years at TR I have many more good teachers than bad that I remember. And I have good memories because of that. Much of what I’ve done since then was influenced by my years at TR.
After lunch, we went to the brand-new, still-smells-strongly-of-paint auditorium. From there they were heading to the English Department and such. I departed after the auditorium. As I was walking to my car I realized the song that had been running through my head since I got there. It was our Alma Mater:
Hail to thee, Roosevelt High,
Hail to the Red, White and the Blue.
Hail to these hallowed halls,
Alma Mater true….
It was both a nostalgic trip back in time as wells as a visit to a brand new world. Those hallowed halls still had an effect on me, even if nearly all of the halls were different than the ones I walked for four years.
So, Salute to you, TR High School - Students, Faculty & Staff. And a big salute to Bill Sturgis and Pat Porter. Bully for you!
It’s common for professors to give talks titled “The Last Lecture”. A lecture that they give as if it were their last. To ponder their demise and talk about what they feel matters most. But for Randy Pausch, a Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, he didn’t have to imagine the end of his life. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly, Randy’s days are quite numbered.
On September 18, 2007, Randy Pausch delivered that lecture. And now it can be watched online, downloaded. And now there’s a book:
I heard about “The Last Lecture” from my sister, who had seen a piece on TV. I watched the first 30 minutes of the video (when I should have been working) and was mesmerized. I went to Randy’s web site to find the video. But, it’s on YouTube and available for download as well. I also watched his video on Time Management, also available from his web site.
The book has proven a bit hard to find. When I first asked at our local bookstore, they had none and had a long list of people wanting a copy. My first check at Amazon said they expected it to be in stock in early May. Friday I was at another bookstore asking about something else when I spyed a copy. And grabbed it. A few minutes later, I heard someone else asking about it. But I had grabbed the last one. I had one on order at the first store, but had no idea when that one would come in. Turns out, it came in yesterday so there’s hope if you’re looking for it. I let them know that they could sell the copy I reserved.
I suspect the printer is now working overtime as this book that was released on April 8 is already a Number 1 Bestseller!
Go ahead - take a peek at the video. It’s amazing the vitality this man, who knows he is dying, has! We could all learn from him!
“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
–Randy Pausch
Down in San Antone…
My sister-in-law gave us an Amaryllis quite a few years ago. I think giving plants was “in” that year b/c we got plants from several people. The Amaryllis is the only one that made it. Now, that one plant has really grown:
I love this flower. Here’s a close up of just one bloom:
Do you know the signs that you’re over-stressed? We don’t always feel stressed even when we are. It requires some thought about how you react at times to realize the impact of stress.
Starting in the Fall of 1999, my body started a particularly strange stress reaction. It started as tiny little bumps that looked like blisters. Only on the palm of my right hand. They were very small, no more than about 1/16th of an inch in diameter. But there would be more and more of them. When there got to be a lot of them, they sort of merged into one large sore. It got so bad that I could barely use the hand to grasp anything. There were so many things that I couldn’t do.
I saw a couple of doctors about it. The first one had no real answer for it, but gave me a cream that had only a marginal effect. The second doctor diagnosed it as a “menopause-related” rash. That was sad, his nurse saw me first to get my history, reported to him, and he had his diagnosis BEFORE he ever saw me. I really wish I had walked out on him. I think 30 years ago he probably would have prescribed Valium.
That rash started at the same time that my husband decided to take early retirement and become a contractor. It continued for a while as I changed jobs, we sold 2 houses, we bought a house and moved from Houston to San Antonio. I’m not 100% sure when it went away. It lasted at least a year and then just faded. At its worst, it was miserable, but it did get me out of doing dishes for quite a while. 
Well, last Fall it came back, sort of. It started after my father fell and broke his hip. An injury he ultimately didn’t recover from. And being his executor, I had a lot on my plate. This time it is different. It starts on the little finger of my left hand. More on the side where the skin isn’t quite so tough. In bright light you can see the blisters, but mostly it starts by turning red and hurting. I looks and feels like a burn. It spreads down that finger and up my ring finger. When it’s at its worst, I can’t even wear my wedding ring. Eventually it stops hurting and then a week or so later it peels. And the cycle repeats. It had stopped for awhile, but came back recently as we were preparing for the military service at Fort Sam Houston.
I haven’t been to a doctor about it this time. I’m not sure they would have any better answers. It’s much more tolerable where it is now, though I wish it would just go away. I even gave it a name - I call it a strash. That’s short for stress rash.
Another way that stress affects me is that I can become immobilized. I can sit at my desk w/ a million things to do and can’t even decide what to work on. If this is due to too many things to do, it usually helps if I prioritize things. Some things turn out to be not as important as I first thought. I’ve also found that having a “To Do” list helps. But other times, I become immobilized because of other stress factors. At those times, I just have to work through it, somehow. Ironically, even realizing that it is stress that has me immobilized can help to relieve it.
Not everyone recognizes stress though. When I lived in Houston, I worked downtown. I worked with a woman who drove over 20 miles one way to work each day. If you know anything about Houston, you probably know that the traffic is horrible. Freeways or surface streets, it doesn’t matter. The HOV lanes help, but you have to have a passenger. She didn’t. She drove it alone. And she always insisted that it caused her no stress. Then she would also talk about how she was always so tired, how she would generally go to bed at 8:00 pm. But she never put the tiredness and the driving together.
I have a dear friend who has MS. She has never let it slow her down, although there may be times when she should. She’ll tell me that she doesn’t feel stressed with all her activities. But, whenever she gets very, very busy, her MS nearly always flares up.
Our signs of stress can be telling us different things. It might be telling us we have too much on our plate, or that the stress of our activity is wearing us out. Perhaps we need to slow down, or it could be that we need to find a healthy outlet for our stress. What is that outlet? Only you can answer for yourself. It might be taking a break, talking about what’s on your mind, slowing down, getting more exercise. Whatever it is, you need to listen to your stress.
Ever heard of the Leningrad Cowboys? I hadn’t either until a friend sent a link to this video of them singing “Sweet Home Alabama”:
Love those costumes! The Leningrad Cowboys are a Finnish rock band made up of 11 cowboys and 2 ladies. And that’s the Red Army Choir (Choir Aleksandrov) performing with them. It’s the same choir that served as the official army choir for the former Soviet Union’s Red Army.
And, if you have a bit more time to waste watch, here they are singing a song that always takes me back to high school when we could play this song (by Steppenwolf) over and over and over again.
I graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in San Antonio Texas in 1972. (36 years ago, for the math challenged) It was customary for the senior class to give a gift to the school. Our gift was a tree. At the time it was a small tree. As in you could wrap your fingers around its trunk. Trees are expensive. But they grow. Some people at school laughed at our scrawny gift. But we knew better.
Well, I was at TR last week and here’s that tree now. (Hint - It’s that BIG one taking up most of the picture.):
Recently, an organization I’m a part of moved their bank account to a new bank because of some issues they had with a former member. Soon afterwards, they got a notice from Old Bank that someone had attempted to log in. After 3 failed password attempts, the bank disabled the password and notified the organization.
As the online bookkeeper for the organization, I received that email. When I called the bank their response was “Well, since you’ve closed the account, now that the password has been disabled you have nothing to worry about. It was probably just someone w/ a similar user name who typed in the wrong information.”
WHAT? Even in spite of telling Old Bank that there had been recent trouble, they seemed unconcerned. No big deal. I would bet money that my bank would not have had such a cavalier attitude. (And no one that knows me would take a bet with me!)
What would your bank do?
I found a book online that had some interesting tips on Photoshop. So I applied 3 different filters to this photo:
and wound up with this one:
The 3 filters were Brush Strokes/Accented Edges, Brush Strokes/Ink Outlines, and Artistic/Underpainting.
