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New Blog!
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I've decided to retry blogging, but using a little bit more user-friendly setup. I'm not really too sure what I want to do with this current website, but you can see the new blog here.
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Posted on Tuesday, Jan. 8 2008 at 6:30 pm by brian
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Joe's Goals
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I'm using an online web-app called Joe's Goals (reminds me of Eskimo Joe's) to keep track of some goals this year. One of my goals is more writing activity on my website, hence this post. I will add this, though:
I found out my Computer Systems class today is also a teleconference/class with OSU-Tulsa. I thought the whole thing was pretty neat except that teleconferencing is only good at letting the people on the other end know that they can't hear you or see the documents you put on the screen.
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Posted on Tuesday, Jan. 9 2007 at 12:34 am by brian
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Hope Not Hate
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Last night I went to an event OSU organized. It was called (something like) "US-Muslim Relations: Hope, Not Hate." (I went to get extra credit for my American government class, but it was still an interesting topic. I thought it was a good discussion/lectures that sort of mirrored my feelings from a TV show I recently watched. It was Morgan Spurlock's (from SuperSize Me) 30 days. If it's an older show and isn't on any more, I apologize (I don't know because I don't have cable and rented it through Netflix). In this episode, a middle-aged Christian man lived with a Muslim family for 30 days and had to adhere to all their cultural traditions. It made me realize there is a lot of misinformation out there as well as a lot of unnecessary stereotyping of Muslims. I have taken note of this and have been trying to be especially careful about what I think when encountering Muslims/people of Middle Eastern decent. The OSU lectures basically mirrored the same thing -- stereotyping and realizing that not all Muslims are terrorists. The question that kept occurring in my mind was, "Why aren't we hearing more outcry from the Muslim community about these outrageous acts?" Maybe it's a problem of perspective...I mean, if some group of radical Christians went around bombing places (such as abortion clinics), I think it'd almost go without saying that I don't approve of those actions. I don't need to be protesting every day against it. In fact, looking at CAIR's website, I found this page.
I thought the lectures ended on a somewhat sour note. One of the closing statements was about Muslim dislike of the Colonial occupation one hundred years ago. It almost sounded like someone was holding a grudge of hate. :\
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Posted on Friday, Nov. 3 2006 at 9:07 pm by brian
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Sadness is...
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I am very sad that we got no trick or treaters last night.
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Posted on Wednesday, Nov. 1 2006 at 4:04 pm by brian
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Going through Norman is 30 more miles
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In case anyone wants to know, if you drive from Stillwater to Lawton through Norman, it's 30 more miles than just going through Oklahoma City.
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Posted on Monday, Oct. 2 2006 at 10:11 am by brian
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Diff Eq
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Note to everyone: Differential Equations is HARD. But it pays off to study for the test.
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Posted on Friday, Sep. 29 2006 at 11:32 am by brian
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The State Fair
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Happy 100th, State Fair. I haven't been in a few years and it was great to go. Something about the food is so spectacular...the roasted corn, funnel cakes, cotton candy...I'm hungry. It's a great time to people-watch, as well. All sorts of people come out and enjoy the activities. I noticed quite a few OSU fans as well. :)
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Posted on Thursday, Sep. 28 2006 at 2:34 pm by brian
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Update
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In case anyone didn't know, I've transferred to Oklahoma State University. And it rocks.
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Posted on Saturday, Sep. 23 2006 at 10:54 pm by brian
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Freakonomics
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I finished Freakonomics last night. It was a good book, but not something that I felt was really all that "revolutionary" as some made it out to be. The book was a few examples of some good economic principles and techniques at work, but nothing else really. I still found it a good read.
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Posted on Saturday, Sep. 23 2006 at 10:52 pm by Brian
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Why I don't have a Flickr Pro account
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Besides the money, of course. When I had bought my camera, I had opted for a UV filter, as I read it's a great way to keep your camera lens clean and protected. When it arrived, I couldn't fit the lens on the camera. I thought they had sent me the wrong size and put the lens away. Today I started thinking about it and got the lens out again. This time I turned it around and it screwed in perfectly. D'oh.
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Posted on Monday, Jun. 26 2006 at 12:35 am by Brian
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I've disabled commenting
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Sorry everyone, but I was starting to get spammed pretty bad from having the comment form open, and it's currently disabled for a bit, until I can find a better solution.
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Posted on Monday, Jun. 5 2006 at 6:25 pm by brian
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Some more photos
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I've updated my flickr page with some photos from the Altus AFB Air Show that I went to last week. The temptation to upgrade to a pro account is very tempting.
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Posted on Thursday, May. 25 2006 at 8:11 pm by brian
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Springboard 2006
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Our church's annual youth rally, Springboard, is this weekend. I encourage you to come if you can.
Yes, I designed the website and it's quite a bit different from what I'm used to. I'm not too happy with it. These things seem to always get dropped on me when I'm busiest with school and other things. At least the venturing into light on black was interesting.
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr. 25 2006 at 12:57 am by brian
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My feeble attempts at photography
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For my birthday I bought myself a new camera, and have been playing with it when I get the chance. I've got to shoot some different things, like Sarah's niece (more of my favorites: 1, 2, 3, 4), and sunsets, various night/long-exposure shots, Sarah at night, and others. See all my photos on my flickr page. Comments welcome, more coming soon.
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr. 25 2006 at 12:11 am by brian
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You know you're in college
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You know you're in college when a majority of your happy birthday greetings come through facebook.
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Posted on Monday, Apr. 17 2006 at 8:02 am by brian
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Nice Shirt, dude
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No comment.
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Posted on Sunday, Apr. 16 2006 at 12:42 am by brian
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Jon Simpkins has a blog
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I can't believe I forgot to link to this. Link Jon Simpkins is a super-genius, by the way.
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Posted on Saturday, Apr. 8 2006 at 12:20 am by brian
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Some thoughts
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My dad said that he finds it amazing that we can have days like today where the wind blows and who knows how many millions of cubic feet of dust is blown into the air and no one cares, but if there is a grain processing plant the EPA and everyone around is up in arms about a bit of dust it might put out.
I made the observation the other day that if you want to get really good in CS class, you have to spend some time on your own developing programs and figuring out just what you can and cannot do. I suppose this is the same with everything.
I heard a car drive by playing rap music and heard these lyrics, "Got a buddy in Iraq / I'll drink to that / I'll drink to that." Not really sure what the rest of the song was about, but I think that nod to the soldiers right there is a lot more than most of us would do.
Have you ever thought about Microsoft Word? It's been used to write wonderful essays and weird poems, speeches for Republicans, speeches for Democrats, letters from an anarchist and letters from a capitalist. So versatile.
I ironed a few clothes today for an upcoming talk in Wichita Falls I'm going to. I found a simple joy in taking a break from all the running around and being busy...and just doing something mindless and repetitive. Everything in moderation, I suppose.
I bought 4 pairs of pants today for $45.
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Posted on Friday, Apr. 7 2006 at 1:04 am by brian
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Math Pedagogy throught the Years: 1950 – Present Day
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This is great. Math Pedagogy throught the Years: 1950 – Present Day
Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and as she went for my change, I pulled 8¢ from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and three pennies, while looking from her screen to the register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this? because of the evolution in teaching math from the 1950s to the present day.
Teaching math in 1950.
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
Teaching math in 1960
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
Teaching math in 1970
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?
Teaching math in 1980
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Underline the number 20.
Teaching math in 1990
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. Topic for class discussion: What do you think of this way of making a living? How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? There are no wrong answers.
Teaching math in 2005
Un hachero vende una carretera de madera por $100. El costo de producción es $80. Cuanto hizo de ganancias?
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Posted on Thursday, Mar. 30 2006 at 1:48 pm by brian
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Lesson for today
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Today I learned that if you have a package to send and it barely fits into one of the UPS dropoff boxes---DON'T FORCE IT IN!! It will get stuck, and you'll have to call UPS to come out and help you, and they will not be happy. But, you can still get your package out with minimal damage to the box by using the jack tools that come with your car at the expense of looking like a criminal trying to vandalize a UPS dropoff box (which happened to be right outside a bank, by the way).
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Posted on Tuesday, Mar. 28 2006 at 9:38 pm by brian
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My short writeup about the Mexico Scouting trip
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This past week I got the opportunity to travel to Monterrey, Mexico to take part in the “scouting” trip—that is, setting up for our multi-church effort to be temporary missionaries in July. It’s a valuable experience; one that I would recommend everyone to take if they get the opportunity. While our mission trip during the summer is a great experience, I gained a great deal of behind-the-scenes knowledge this past week. These are the findings I discovered on this trip.
This is a good church to be a part of. Many churches in the States are now touting the way of the “cookie cutter” mission trip approach—a short trip to do some work and feel good about it, but often the “church” set up in its wake shortly withers away, like the flower planted in the shallow soil. The church in Monterrey and Monte Krystal is an established church in good soil (almost quite literally) that is truly concerned about the people of Mexico. This is evident in the free medical services provided to the community by the church in Monte Krystal. Also, 2006 will be our sixth year working with this church.
This is a church with vision. As Harley might say, these are “doers” and definitely not “slackers.” Arnufol Santillian, the head minister of the Iglesia de Christo (Church of Christ) in Monterrey, is a devoted servant with vision. Within one or two years, the church compound at our worksite will be across the street from a 2000+ government housing development. Talk about opportunity for growth! The area of Monte Krystal is quickly growing and the church there is gaining members by the dozen. In fact, our latest project is to build a 400+ member auditorium with a two-story building of classrooms. Those who went with us last year will remember the hard work going into each of its 22 foundation posts.
While our trip is only one week, the planning is a year-long adventure. An immense knowledge of the inner-workings of Mexico is required to pull this trip off. It may seem that a few phone calls may set up everything we need for a few weeks, but it requires a little bit more effort in Mexico. People/management/circumstances change, and more is required than a simple agreement over the phone. Not to mention, getting seven identical white Ford F-350 cargo vans across the border requires a skill an order of magnitude higher than flying an F-16 fighter jet while solving a Suduko puzzle. Next time you see Mark, the other youth ministers (Kevin and Bobby), our elders and deacons, or anyone else involved in this mission, give them a pat on the back.
Passports make things a lot easier. Speaking of getting across the border, having a passport makes the crossing much easier. They take a while to get, so get yours now!
One thing I did notice was that after a few days, the language barrier seemed to dissolve. I couldn’t exactly understand everything being said, but I began to pick on up on a few words and body language. I began to feel a personal connection to the people and the work in Monterrey, one that I hope will continue to grow after five years going strong. I hope it’s one that you can feel as well.
-Brian Schettler
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Posted on Monday, Mar. 27 2006 at 5:27 pm by brian
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I'm really liking del.icio.us
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I'm really liking delicious. It just seems to help keep things I find on the web more organized. Even though it's just a glorified version of keeping favorites/bookmarks, there is so much more you can do with it. Just like flickr, you can add tags and search for different tags to find many different types of websites. I like it because it gives me a history of sorts of my web usage. I hope that this will solve the problem of "Well, I saw that one website so long ago, but I don't remember where it was at!" Now I can just search for it!
I'm always finding neat things, so make sure to look at my delicious links.
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Posted on Sunday, Mar. 26 2006 at 12:29 am by brian
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Google releases Google Financial
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I noticed Google has a new tool: Google Financial. This sure would have come in handy in Market Analysis! Dang! It makes some pretty charts, too.
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Posted on Friday, Mar. 24 2006 at 1:09 am by brian
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I think I shall try this...being an early riser
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This is making the rounds: a set of posts on waking up early in the morning. I've definitely noticed the effect...on days when I get up early I seem to be much more productive.
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Posted on Friday, Mar. 24 2006 at 12:34 am by brian
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New...things
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I've added two new things in the side bar to the left. One is a link to my del.icio.us links, links which I think are pretty neat or maybe just to keep track of. Secondly is a link to my flickr photo set. I don't know why I haven't put these up here before.
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Posted on Friday, Mar. 24 2006 at 12:28 am by brian
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One Million
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I got an email talking about our debt and it got me on a search for large numbers. I've found a pretty cool book, that consists of only dots counting up to one million. There's also the MegaPenny Project which gives you a nice visual representation of very large numbers. And for sticker shock, see our current US public debt.
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Posted on Friday, Mar. 24 2006 at 12:04 am by brian
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I'm in Mexico again
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Photos are here. We had a good crossing, only a few minor mishaps. Somehow we always seem to get off the wrong road leaving Wichita Falls...we wanted to take highway 281 but it isn't marked very well (45 minutes lost). In compliance with Murphy's law, the wrong vehicle was marked when trying to register our vehicles for crossing into Mexico (1 hour lost). And lastly, it seemed the hotel thought we were coming tomorrow, so we didn't rooms exactly how we planned (30 minutes lost). It worked out in our favor, though, as we each got our own single room. It's not that bad. :)
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Posted on Friday, Mar. 17 2006 at 1:05 am by brian
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Interesting article/experiment about the perception of time
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link.
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Posted on Friday, Feb. 24 2006 at 10:13 pm by brian
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Comment Spam
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Well, I'm getting comment spam now since I've done nothing to lock down my comment form (things like CAPTCHAs would solve the problem but I don't know how to do them [yet]). It's all a matter of time because I have plans to revamp the whole website and make it BETTER, ie user logins, automatic email updates, an RSS feed, etc, but I school+job puts me in a pinch.
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Posted on Sunday, Feb. 19 2006 at 6:06 pm by brian
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I used to garment steamer the other day
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It has saved my life twice now. Amazing.
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Posted on Sunday, Feb. 19 2006 at 5:53 pm by brian
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Man says no to selling to Walmart
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Interesting article on Fast Company. The CEO of Snapper lawnmowers says no to selling to Walmart for fear of a future decline in product quality. Way to go, and it gives me hope. Every time I shop at Walmart I feel like I just gave a little piece of myself up, never to get it back. It's like there's a bad taste in my mouth after shopping there, but I continue to do so for the low prices (what is a poor and lowly college person to do?).
(I think Fast Company is against Walmart because the only other article I've read from them was about Walmart as well. It was the one about the gallon of pickles, a good read as well.)
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Posted on Sunday, Feb. 12 2006 at 1:00 am by brian
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Big company ad execs should be impaled.
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I didn't think the superbowl commercials were very good. Or, at least I heard they weren't. I didn't waste my time this year. I heard that all the commercials were for was new/old ABC shows. What did you think?
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Posted on Monday, Feb. 6 2006 at 12:25 am by brian
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Enjoying the sky
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Last night whlie at a birthday party for my cousins, my uncle brought out his very nice telescope and gave us a tour of the skies. It's quite interesting to see everything up close from so far away. Some interesting things I learned:
-It's best to view the moon when it is not full. This way you can see the mountains and valleys along the terminator--the place where the shadow ends. Since the moon changes phases constantly, you get a nice little tour of the moon every night.
-Most of the pictures you see of faraway galaxies have vibrant colors, but the colors are absent or very faint when looking at them in real life. This is because those photos have very long exposure times to collect the color
-It's best to look straight up because you're looking through less atmosphere.
I enjoyed it and my favorite was probably Saturn. Even though it's not quite as magnificient as you'd see in the pictures, it is still very neat to look at--a small planet with a small ring. My uncle also pointed me to a nice PDF publication at universetoday.com, a 365-day tour of new things to look at each night. Even though I don't have a telescope, it is still an interesting read.
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Posted on Sunday, Feb. 5 2006 at 5:46 pm by brian
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Oh Amazing Garment Steamer
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I am thankful for this amazing garment steamer. Today, I had to speak in front of a large number of people. I was running a little late and the shirt I grabbed had some bad wrinkles, so I plugged in the garment steamer and it worked fantastically. Thank you, amazing garment steamer.
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Posted on Sunday, Feb. 5 2006 at 3:20 pm by brian
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What bothers me a bit
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You have probably heard of Google censoring China’s search results. All I see to hear is wailing and gnashing of the teeth from those who think this is such an atrocity. Yes, it is bad, but like Google points out in its blog, it is better to have a censored Google than no Google at all. To me, this brings to light the people who are so caught up in their ideals of freedom, censorship, privacy, whatever (note this can be both sides of the political spectrum)…they become so caught up in their ideal world that they lose the ability to see both sides of the issue. That bothers me a bit.
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Posted on Friday, Feb. 3 2006 at 3:25 pm by brian
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A friendly email
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I got this email the other day: READ THIS VERY SLOWLY... IT'S PRETTY PROFOUND.
Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because
they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't
know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who
passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut
back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't
suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed?
Does the word "refrigeration" mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while
you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, "How about going
to lunch in a half hour?" She would gas up and stammer, "I can't. I
have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known
yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain." And my
personal favorite: "It's Monday." .She died a few years ago. We never
did have lunch together.
Because North Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to
schedule our headaches.. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make
to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve
toilet-trained We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet.
We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of
college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter,
and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we
awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm
going to," "I plan on," and "Someday, when things are settled down a
bit."I'll go on the diet after Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter,4th of
July Laborday, Halloween,and lastly when hell freezes over!!
When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to
adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new
ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for
five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of
Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's
just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a
spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped
the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on
the way home, I would have died happy.
Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to......not
something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and
had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what
would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to
the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic
flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through
each day on the fly? When you ask "How are you?" Do you hear the
reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred
chores running through your head? Ever told your child, "We'll do it
tomorrow." And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let
a good friendship die? Just call to say "Hi"?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened
gift....Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the
music before the song is over.
It's National Friendship Week. Show your friends how much you care.
Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND. If it comes back to you,
then you'll know you have a circle of friends.
I looked it up. THERE IS NO NATIONAL FRIENDSHIP WEEK. Tell your friends.
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Posted on Thursday, Jan. 26 2006 at 11:53 pm by brian
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An Essay I wrote for Comp2
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Public Schools – Principles and Principals
Since their inception, public schools have always been the target of public critique. Because the American people realize the importance of a good education, it is demanded fervently. But the goal sought after and actions carried out to achieve that goal can be very different. Even though school systems have their own set of problems, these can be traced back to the source. A vast reorganization of our priorities is in order if we ever want to achieve the goal of a good public education.
Many believe that bureaucracy is an inhibitor of school excellence. Bureaucracy seems to be the catch-all phrase thrown at schools as being the cause of all problems, the root of all evil, etc. Despite some shortcomings, bureaucracy does have a positive effect on some outputs of school performance. Studies have shown that in general, a larger bureaucracy is more effective at keeping students in school. However, the gut of the problem is schools are expected to perform many functions at once (Smith 278). They are expected to increase many outputs all across the board, when in reality, limited resources (inputs) dictate that for some outputs to increase, others must decrease, a simple principle of economics. The example of bureaucracy keeping students in school has an adverse effect on test scores, a common measurement of school performance. Usually, “at-risk” students in danger of dropping out do not make as high test scores as do their non-at-risk counterparts. When the “at-risk” students stay in school, their low test scores harmfully affect test averages. Compromises like these should be recognized and factored into a school’s performance rating.
A second conflict of interest is the accountability of the administration. Like a monopoly, the school district can ignore the requests and demands of their consumers (students and parents) and focus more on their own goals. The school system’s consumers have no recourse against this monopoly; it is difficult to leave and choose another “company,” and they are required by law to consume the monopoly’s “product.” However, school districts do respond to ones that have little to do with their product—higher-up government officials and committees. And as such, school administrations spend more time trying to maximize their inputs (money) from their superiors than paying attention to the wants and needs of the parents and students (Smith 729). In economics, a better product creates more demand, higher prices, and more profits for the company. The way our current system set up, performance is not tied to “profit,” and there is little incentive to increase that performance. In fact it is almost just the opposite—a failing district warrants more money to “fix” the problem. It produces a vexing conundrum—failing schools need more money to fix problems, but this is a disincentive for excellence. Likewise, a school rewarded for excellence tends to become a drain on resources…more students and money start flowing into an excellent school and out of the poorer schools, creating an imbalance not only in the school system but the community as well—housing prices, population growth, etc. Perhaps a majority of the funds (say, 95%) should be spread out as evenly as possible, meaning that per student spending is fairly even across the board. The other 5% could be used as a reward for excelling schools, but not so much that it causes a major sway in the economics of the school system and community.
Adding to this confusion is the widening gap between administrators and teachers. While teachers are focused on the learning process, administrators are focused on maximizing their inputs (getting more money) to solve problems, and not actually solving the problems themselves. Since leaders are disconnected from the task to which they were selected to lead, problems do not get solved. Bureaucracy starts to breed more bureaucracy—more programs and committees are created to try and solve the problem. This produces “‘excessive bureaucratic influence,’ with administrators increasingly divorced from the realities of the classroom and preoccupied with the goals that are secondary to the primary mission of quality education. The ultimate result is that bureaucracy acts as a drag on school performance.”(Smith 730). Even more drag on performance is the fact that for a teacher to move up the ladder in the school system, he or she must quit doing what they set out to do—teach. In this environment, the higher up a person goes, and the more power he or she has to change things, the less connected this person is to the ultimate goal of the organization. To change this, new policies should be implemented to keep every big decision-maker grounded in the classroom.
Fueling these flames to strive for excellence is the hotly-debated No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. In the act, schools are held accountable for their actions—excelling schools are rewarded and failing schools are sanctioned (Bush 2). While this is a step in the right direction, the shoe is on the wrong foot. NCLB uses standardized testing as the primary means of gauging school performance. As the example illustrated above with at-risk students and test scores, multiple outputs are produced in the school system and test scores are just one of these outputs, among others—drop out rates, student/parent satisfaction, student-teacher ratios, class size, percentage of college-bound students, etc. In this example, a school district could be focusing on keeping more students in school, surely a dignified goal, yet as a consequence, average test scores are lowered. Under NCLB, this school is failing.
This also sets up another side-effect: passing tests become the focus rather than true learning. President Bush allowed states to use their own accountability tests (Marshak 3). As such, each state can set the bar—as low or as high as they’d like. In dire circumstances, a “D” can become a “C” and the percentages of “excellent” schools increases. In fact, some states have already started doing this (Marshak 3). Take a look at a recent Texas high school exit exam:
At a candy store, chocolate costs $0.35 per ounce. Hector bought 8.25 ounces, Jeanette bought 8.7 ounces, James bought 8.05 ounces, and Shanika bought 8.42 ounces. Which list shows these weights in order from least to greatest?
A. 8.05 oz, 8.25 oz, 8.42 oz, 8.7 oz
B. 8.42 oz, 8.05 oz, 8.25 oz, 8.7 oz,
C. 8.05 oz, 8.7 oz, 8.25 oz, 8.42 oz
D. 8.7 oz, 8.05 oz, 8.25 oz, 8.42 oz (Humes 357-358)
The skills required to answer these questions are usually covered in the fourth or fifth grade, but questions like these “and others of similar difficulty are being used to identify college readiness.” (Humes 358)
An underlying problem of our schools is that they are set up to be assembly line-style factories. A student spends some time here with teacher X, another here with teacher Y, and yet the school district is able to exactly quantify the amount that that student learned. What a student truly learns is a fuzzy amount (tests are inaccurate indicators because they only measure short-term memorization). Our current measurements cannot define exactly what a student learned, and thus, and how well the school district is doing. Even so, this is what school systems consistently do. Scores of demographics are assigned numerical values and used to assess the efficiency of our schools. Is it possible that another dimension of learning is going unevaluated?
With such a vague meaning of “school excellence” and the finger on the wrong pulse, no wonder our schools are having trouble. The NCLB dictates that even if a small subgroup of students fails to make the mark, the entire school is put on the failing list (Bush 8). This leads itself to some interesting possibilities, such as a school receiving both the Blue Ribbon excellence award and a failing grade under NCLB (Thomas & DeBarros). Under such pressure to perform, an administrator doesn’t matter if a program is ineffective or is a horrible tradeoff for a majority of students; she just wants to raise scores of a certain group to make sure her school meets NCLB standards. The effect is especially pronounced on small, rural school districts (Reeves 1), but hurts others as administrators start cutting “non-essential” programs such as band or the arts in favor of beefing up their core courses, a stricter requirement under the NCLB.
Schools were also set up in an industrial era where many students were designed to be left behind and take up low-skill jobs (Marshak 1). It should be decided whether we take the approach ideally or realistically. Ideally, everyone can be equal and achieve the same success. However, not everyone will be a rocket scientist. (Note the difference here between can be a rocket scientist and will be a rocket scientist. Everyone has the potential, but not everyone has the drive and determination to succeed. It might be said that class or natural capabilities play a part, but the most disadvantaged person can far exceed expectations because the will to succeed is present. Even so, not everyone will be a rocket scientist, just as everyone cannot be a toaster salesman, because then we’d have no person to bake us bread to put in our toasters.) If we are to believe that everyone is equal, then reform the classroom environment around these ideas and create a more personal, “mentor-like” environment that encourages students to grow and chase their dreams. Create smaller class sizes [although some studies indicate this does not improve performance (Humes 355)], and let teachers evaluate and guide a student on his high school and college paths, not some guidance counselor who only knows this student by name and number. A teacher who spends 180 hours a year with a student is more likely to know the abilities and weaknesses than a guidance counselor who spends maybe two hours a year with the same person. But, if we’re to believe that not everyone will achieve the same amount of success, then schools should support that decision as well. Internships and programs could be created to remove students out of school and into the workplace. Of course, a program like this would not exist in the first or second grade, but as an option to perhaps high school juniors or seniors. And even so, these programs may in fact encourage students to stay in school after it becomes known what awaits them when they don’t have a proper education.
Many decry the fact that U.S. schools lag terribly behind their other developed country-counterparts. Even though the United States puts everyone through school, not just the “cream of the crop” as in other countries, there is some validity to this statement. Of the developed nations, the U.S.’ 180-day school year is the shortest. Public spending per student as a percentage of GDP per capita ranks us 51st in the world (UNESCO). Compared to the rest of the world, U.S. teachers are not as highly regarded, and U.S. teachers require fewer years of study and training to become a teacher than the rest of the world (Humes 361). Perhaps the most condemning words come from Edward Humes, author of the book, School of Dreams, an account of a top-ranked American high school, where he opines on the state of importance of education today:
A majority of Americans say they find little or no time to get involved with their children’s schools and would do so only in the event of a major crisis. Yet few make the connection between this lack of involvement and poor student achievement. (Humes 361)
Even more frightening is the U.S. Department of Labor’s consumer spending statistics for 2003: $2,211 for eating out, $3,732 for vehicle payments, $2,060 on entertainment, but only $783 for education (which includes college tuition!). The lowest category the Department of Labor surveys at $127 per year is… reading. Could anyone imagine the leaps and bounds we could make if we could reverse that pyramid? If spending on reading materials and education was in the thousands?
The picture becomes clear. Many realize the importance of education and thus become highly critical in order to improve it. This induces unsuccessful measures such as No Child Left Behind to be passed, and school teachers and administrators fail at keeping up with such strict measures because they receive no help from the parents, who criticize education but at the same time do not participate in the basic measures to help their children succeed. A child spends 12.3% of the calendar year in school. Where is the other 87.7%?
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Posted on Wednesday, Dec. 14 2005 at 4:29 pm by brian
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IBC and "Merry Christmas"
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I asked my friendly teller at my local (actually it wasn't local...I had to go across town to get a signature guarantee that wasn't available at my local bank) IBC Bank if they're allowed to say "Merry Christmas." She said, "Only if the customer says it first."
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Posted on Tuesday, Dec. 13 2005 at 8:05 pm by brian
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Flickr photos updated
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Link.
I have some more on my phone, but I'm at work now waiting for my next final at 1pm. I found out today that I can't write about poetry before 10am. It's a law.
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Posted on Tuesday, Dec. 13 2005 at 11:19 am by brian
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Glenn Beck's Christmas Tour
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This sounds bad. Wednesday night church was cancelled. Mark, my youth minister, had tickets to see radio talk show host Glenn Beck's Christmas Tour in Oklahoma City. We decided that the tickets would go stale if we stayed home, so we made the trek in the *snowy* weather to go see him. It was a great show.
The first half was stories of his past Christmases and about the true meaning of Christmas. The second half got very serious about some of the serious things that had happened to him and about the real gift of Christmas--redemption from Jesus Christ. I was amazed it switch gears to such a serious tone (and was halfheartedly waiting for the other shoe to drop...I felt that at any moment he could turn a serious moment into a joke). But in the end, he didn't, and it left a powerful message.
I got to take a picture of him, Mark, and Mark's little baby, Alex, in the lobby after the show. I felt priviledged.
The next day on his radio show he commented about the crosses formed in the large office buildings of OKC, and felt that it was amazing they would do something like that in the age of political correctness. I felt proud to be an Oklahoman.
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Posted on Sunday, Dec. 11 2005 at 1:24 am by brian
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How to make a million dollars
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I found this interesting article on how to make a million dollars. I realized it's excessively optimistic though, and doesn't mention anything about laws and lawyers and competition and other things like that.
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Posted on Thursday, Dec. 8 2005 at 3:59 pm by brian
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I beat Halo
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...on the PC, that is. I really liked it. In fact, I liked it so much, I wrote a poem about it:
Halo is a mysterious ring,
a curious place where Gregorian chanters sing.
Com'on, Master Chief, grab your assault rifle,
a group of marines is under fire and their message stifled.
Quickly now, sensors say the Covenent Hoard
has penetrated the ship, they're now on board!
Captain says our ship, the Pillar of Autumn,
is under attack and may soon by forgotten.
For when things look as if they might be breif,
we have our only hope, the Master Chief.
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Posted on Tuesday, Dec. 6 2005 at 10:34 pm by brian
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More neato videos!
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"You might also enjoy this movie i made of a large-scale painting project. The elapsed time is approximately a month and a half. My methods are a bit unusual so I felt that this would be a good way to document them." Link to video (22.9MB). This makes me want to paint and draw more. I seem to be stuck in a left side of the brain funk lately, though (at least I think it's the left brain...the one that is not artistic, the more numbers/science oriented side...I'd look it up but it's late and wikipedia is so slow lately).
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Posted on Wednesday, Nov. 16 2005 at 1:26 am by brian
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Bouncy Ball Commercial
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This makes me happy. Link. Note: You need QuickTime 7. I don't think previous versions will work.
While we're at it, I like this commercial, too. Probably the best one I've ever seen. Update: Link Fixed.
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Posted on Saturday, Oct. 29 2005 at 5:37 pm by Brian
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Last book I read: The Endurance : Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
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Last book I read: The Endurance : Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition. It's a good deviation from some of the more non-fiction books I’ve been reading as of late. I really enjoyed this one though...I've always sort of had a fascination with Antarctica and that sort of extreme climate.
In around 1914, the Endurance and her crew set out to be the first to trek across Antarctica by foot. Before they even reached land, however, their ship got stuck in large ice floes by Antarctica. They set up camp to wait out the several months it will take for the ice to float back around, break up and drop them in warmer waters. After some time, they are sort of there, but the immense pressure from the gigantic masses of ice causes the ship to break apart and sink. The crew camps out on the ice and then makes a daring boat journey to Elephant Island. Shackleton, the captain, takes a few people and makes the most amazing open boat journey ever…nearly 800 miles to a whaling station in South Georgia in a small, 22ft boat. Shackleton then finds a boat and rescues his men and the amazing part is after nearly two years on the ice, none of them died. I heard that a group in the early nineties tried to make a similar expedition with all the high-tech gear and barely made it through, making Shackleton’s adventure all the more awe-inspiring. I liked the book and the pictures were very cool. Literally!
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct. 19 2005 at 12:05 am by brian
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Oops, I think I neglected to mention...
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The van has been parked out in the country. On my uncle's land. Out in a field. Redneck style. It's been out there for a month or two...I'm just now getting over the emotional trauma so I can talk about it. I checked it out the other day, and it started up just fine on the first time. Good ol' van. There are a lot of stickers on the ground nearby (for protection from vandals) and my uncle says that the cows really like it...sometimes they lick it.
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Posted on Monday, Oct. 17 2005 at 12:28 am by brian
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I had the most peculiar feeling the other day...
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I got up the other day and I put on my socks, and I had the distinct feeling I had another foot to put a sock on, even though both feet already had socks. Weird.
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Posted on Monday, Oct. 17 2005 at 12:24 am by brian
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Finished "Everything Bad is Good for You"
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I just finished Everything Bad is Good for You by Stephen Johnson. It was a pretty good read. Very interesting ideas put forth, but I kind of felt that it was somewhat repititous. However, I may just be below the targetted reading audience since it was more "researchy" reading than "fun" reading. What may be repititous to me could be thorough to someone else.
The idea is that popular culture (video games, movies, TV) is actually making us smarter. If you take a look at any medium from then and now...The Sims vs Pong, Lord of the Rings vs [some old movie here], The Sopranos vs Starsky and Hutch. Even reality TV shows require more cognitive effort than shows of yesteryear. Video games are more demanding, they not only require good reaction skills but also require you to explore -- the author calls this probing and telescoping -- your environment and mentally map out your objectives to obtain your goal. Usually there's no right or wrong way of doing something (Grand Theft Auto) and no bright and flashing arrows telling you where to go and what to do. Just like in the real world, you have to explore, gather information, and make choices based on that information. TV shows also require more effort, especially reality TV programming. In reality TV you must keep track of multiple variables...who likes who, who did what to whom, etc. It's much more mentally demanding from the scripted storylines and gags-a-minute shows from a few decades ago. Characters and subplots are far more numerous and often requires much thought and discussion -- just look at some of the online discussion boards talking about a certain episode. Also, movies are deeper and often require multiple viewings before the full meaning is grasped. All in all, it's pretty convincing and I think the author is right. Why is the joke about, "the 10 year old can program the VCR but the parents with their college degrees can't" so prevalent? Because it's true. The 10 year old hasn't memorized every VCR manual out there, but rather he old is used to the concepts of exploring limitations of hardware and understands the basics of the technology and can use these concepts to figure out how the task is performed. All in all, a very good read, and recommended if you're into popular culture and its effects on people. A little slow in places, but still a good and informative read.
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Posted on Wednesday, Sep. 21 2005 at 10:51 am by brian
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Hooray!
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As you can clearly see, this map shows Hurrican Rita hitting Lawton, Oklahoma at approximately Monday morning. I'm excited! I'm ready to get my $2000 debit card from the government!
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Posted on Wednesday, Sep. 21 2005 at 10:33 am by brian
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Arr! Talk like a pirate day be today matey!
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Tis me fav-o-rit holiday, arrr. link, shiver me timbers.
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Posted on Monday, Sep. 19 2005 at 4:37 pm by brian
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Found WWII photos
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This kind of stuff is so cool. Guy buys a book at a public library auction and finds arial WWII photos hidden within. Very neat photos.
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Posted on Saturday, Sep. 10 2005 at 12:36 pm by brian
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Photos from Astrodome
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Link. More photos from NOLA.
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Posted on Thursday, Sep. 8 2005 at 5:08 pm by brian
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Hurricane Katrina Satellite Photos on Google Maps
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Woa.
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Posted on Wednesday, Sep. 7 2005 at 10:43 am by brian
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Bad Usability hurts EVERYONE
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Take a look at a page from my online class:
(click for larger)
See anything fishy? Look at the "DUE THIS WEEK" section. Whenever someone says something is due this week, when do you think it's due? At the end of the week? Friday? Well now look at the due date beside each assignment. Due Monday. At the beginning of the week. Not very user-friendly in my view, and I missed turning in assignments because of it.
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Posted on Tuesday, Sep. 6 2005 at 11:01 pm by Brian
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My Reading this past summer
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I’ve read some really good books this summer. Here they are:
Michael Chricton – State of Fear
This is probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. I was somewhat disappointed with his last book, “Prey,” because someone pointed out to me that it read just like a movie script (although when I read it I greatly enjoyed it…so maybe I was just swayed). Anyways, this book is about global warming and is written fantastically. In it, Chricton basically says that it’s very difficult to get the true picture of what is going on in the world, because everything is so biased. It’s hard to dig through the muck of scientific “reports” out there, because you’re able to buy your results. Studies have been done with scientists who were told to do surveys or experiments, then given an idea of what the outcome should be. In all these tests, the outcome was always close to what they expected it to be. Chricton suggests that scientific studies need some sort of tenure-like system so they won’t be afraid of funding being cut if the results are unfavorable and also double-blind experiments to weed out a researcher’s bias. This doesn’t really have to do with the plot of the book, but it’s what he hints at throughout the book, and then says in the notes at the end. I wonder if book is a accumulation of frustration when Chricton is researching the subject matter for his books, having to deal with the false and stupid reports that are blatantly obvious.
Richard Feynman - Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman!
Pretty interesting semi-life story of Mr. Feynman, one of the worlds greatest physicists. He was a very smart dude and always very curious (and usually to our enjoyment). I enjoyed reading about all the crazy stuff he did, and it sort of makes me want to be more curious…spend my days researching something, or taking up something completely new.
Matthew Yeomans - Oil: Anatomy of an Industry
Very thought-provoking book about the oil industry. The author has sort of a liberal/environmentalist slant to the subject matter towards the end, but the history of the oil industry (the first half of the book) is a must-read. Oil is a growing problem and every bit of knowledge about the subject benefits everyone, instead of people just running around like their head’s cut off screaming what we need to do when they don’t really understand the underlying principals beneath what’s going on.
Preston Gralla - Windows XP Hacks
Hacks for XP. The book was alright, I knew about most of the stuff, except for a majority of the registry tweaks. When I told people I was reading this book, they got a skeert expression on their face, like I was some terrorist. Then I’d explain that “hacks” is a widely-misused term, all it means is that you’re taking something and making it do something that was not originally intended. If you took your blender and made a rotating Christmas tree out of it, that would be a “hack.” But, doing things that are bad (what people normally think of) can fall under this definition as well.
Bernard Goldberg – 100 people who are screwing up America (and Al Franken is #37)
Pretty good book about…well, the people screwing up America. Outrageous stuff people are doing in there. I enjoyed the first 50 pages are so, which isn’t “The List”, but rather short 2-3 page summaries of problems in America that not really one person is to blame for its existence. For me, towards the end of the list you know the pattern that develops, so it gets sort of tedious. My reaction was, “What? Another guy like this? Reminds me of number yadda yadda…”
I’m currently reading: Stephen Johnson – Everything bad is good for you
In this book Johnson has a revolutionary idea: that the TV we watch and videogames we play are actually making us smarter instead of dumber, as most people are screaming. He calls this the “Sleeper Curve” after an old Alfred Hitchcock episode were scientists from the future are baffled at the fact that the current day society missed out on the nutritional merits of cupcakes and ice cream and fast food. It’s pretty interesting. I’m curious to see what he has to say for Reality TV. I can understand video games (they’re interactive, not just in the hand eye coordination department, but induces real thinking and problem solving skills, not just rote memorization). I started the chapter on TV the other night, and he’s talking about how TV has become much more complex, with varying plots and characters and increasingly demanding storylines that require more thought to remember and figure out what is going on.
I’ve also got quite a few books that I’ve started, but are reading very, VERY slowly:
Simply Einstein – A book about Einstein’s theory of relativity. It looked pretty interesting and I don’t know that much about it.
Max Lucado – Come Thirsty – My nightly reading, although it’s kind of dry after coming off of C.S. Lewis.
To Read:
Al Franken- Lies and the Lying liars who tell them
Dick Morris – Rewriting History
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Posted on Sunday, Aug. 28 2005 at 7:40 pm by brian
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College
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Different, in a good way. I greatly enjoy just going to classes for 2 hours a day, but I still do a lot of reading and homework…a LOT of reading and homework. I think I’m pretty lucky this semester…I don’t really have a problem with any of my professors, although there is a great percentage of them that are foreign.
Class Breakdown:
Calculus and Analytic Geometry I: I took this class in high school, so I’m familiar with everything. But, I think if I hadn’t, I would probably struggle. My professor is pretty….different, some of the things he says are really funny. The class is pretty long though, since there is nothing new. I have it for an hour every day, so that doesn’t help either.
Intro to Computer Science I: Basic C++ stuff, stuff I’m already familiar with. The class isn’t going fast enough.
Operating System Utilties I: This is basically learning Linux. Again, this class isn’t going fast enough. I don’t think one hour a week will cut it, especially when we have to use our knowledge of linux in Intro to CS to program.
English Composition II: Professor seems alright. I think the writing assignments are going to come fast and hard. Not my idea of fun. I finally got the book in though, so I’m glad.
Principals of Economics I: This is my online course, and it will be very easy to get behind. I think I’m going to have to read a lot. I’m on page 8. No where close to where I need to be.
Sometimes when I look at everybody that lives on campus, I feel like I’m looking in on a party I wasn’t invited to, and it makes me a little sad. But then I realize that I’m saving a bunch of money by living at home (and switching my car insurance to Geico…) and that I’m not really the partying type.
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Posted on Thursday, Aug. 25 2005 at 5:44 pm by brian
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Yesterday I saw Tom Coburn at a public forum thing
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Yesterday Tom Coburn came to Cameron and had a public forum. He talked a bit about an energy bill and a few other things, then opened the floor to questions. It was pretty interesting.
He talked about the immense government waste today. He put a bill through the Senate that would require Senators to KNOW what’s in the bill they’re voting on. It failed, only 33 voted yes. He gave an example of aid to Africa…they allocated some $80 million to Africa, but only $4 million got there. The rest was eaten up in accounting and bureaucracy costs. He said that the real government deficit is much larger than the recently released some $302 billion---it’s really closer to $600 billion. Washington and the press up there doesn’t want you to know that. They get around this by not counting some programs, like social security and Medicare and things like that. I got the impression that he feels this is a very important issue that’s been downplayed in recent years. He said a day is coming when other countries will no longer lend us money…what happens then? What happens when crude oil is no longer traded in US dollars? He thinks that our fiscal policies are important…it’s like our reputation. He said that he’s on a committee that oversees the federal debt and he wants to get out of Washington (where those views are stifled) and tour around the country bringing attention to this problem. I thought it was a good idea.
He is a proponent of the FairTax by Neil Boortz and the other guy. I felt good about that as well. I still haven’t got to read that book yet, but I want to soon.
Someone asked him a question about Native American benefits and I thought he had an interesting proposition. I know it made some people in the audience mad, but he said that if you’re a quarter Native American, then you pay ¾ of your medical expenses and the government gives you the rest. It’s not fair that a 1/256 Native American can go in and get treatments, pushing out a full blood. Yeah, they’re 1/256 Native America, but they’re 255/256 something else.
I think he said he felt good about John Roberts, that he felt that Roberts reflected Oklahoma values.
When asked about stem cell research, Coburn felt that there were ways to avoid the ethical issues, and to be uniters, not dividers. Research is coming out that we can get stem cells from other places instead of embryos.
My memory is blanking on some of the other things he talked about. But all in all, I felt that he was very forward looking, focusing on the long term instead of the short term and wanted his fellow Senators to do the same. I admire him for that. I agreed on most everything else he said, too.
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Posted on Thursday, Aug. 25 2005 at 5:15 pm by Brian
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I plead the 5th
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I think Computer Science guys are some pretty nasty people. We're all proud of what we know and are ready to show it off. Case in point: today in class someone says, "I'm pretty computer illiterate, what does FTP mean?" And several people nearly jumped out of their pants to scream "FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL!!!!" with that aire of superiority. I know I've probably done something like that before, and seeing it from the outside makes me realize how disgusting it really is. So, I'm going to keep my knowledge to myself from now on.
More on college soon. It's keeping me pretty busy so far.
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug. 24 2005 at 1:05 am by brian
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Bah
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I think my comments form is starting to become spam-attractors. I think I'll move to a register/login system so you have to be registered to post comments (I'll include an option to post anonymously as well). It's just...bah! Evil of the world!
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Posted on Friday, Aug. 19 2005 at 1:46 am by brian
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I knew it would happen...
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Hollywood's next offering: terrorism. And guess what side of the fence they sit on?
It kind of troubles me, because I think these movies will reach out to a demographic that's been historically hard to reach in the political realm: the 18-35 year olds. Most of people I've talked to my age are against the war. You ask them why and they say, "Well war is whack (bad)! I've got a friend over there and I want him home!" But when you sit them down and explain the reasons behind the war, how it's better to squash this threat over there instead of when it grows to over here, they realize the war isn't as bad as what they first imagined. And I use the word "imagined," because most do not want to find the facts. They don't want to search out the accounts of the soldiers and people on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan; they want some small, compartmentalized tidbit of propaganda to ingest, with no regard to neutrality. It reminds me much of the way books became in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, where as time went on people wanted condensed versions of books, then summaries of the condensed versions, then summaries of the summaries of the condensed version, and so on and so on. So what do these movies do? Many will now see a skewed account and base their decisions off that. Movies are a powerful media…many won’t remember a news article or blog entry on the war, but the imagery of a soldier holding his fallen brother in his arms, the emotion conveyed through a scene like that is far more memorable.
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Posted on Monday, Aug. 15 2005 at 1:44 pm by brian
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I was thinking
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I was thinking about this article I read some time back. The gist of it was that a college guy (I think he was from OU) was drunk and wandered into the wrong house, thinking it was his, at 3:00AM. It scared the tar out of the people who lived there.
I think the bigger question here is, why did they have their doors unlocked? I think it is for the sense of security. You would think that he would be secure by locking his doors, but think about it...wouldn't you be secure if you knew you lived in a neighborhood where you didn't have to lock your doors at night? That would be the ultimate security. But the catch is you have to really believe it, not just unlock your doors and hope no one comes in and burgles you.
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Posted on Saturday, Aug. 13 2005 at 4:15 pm by brian
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Way to Go Coburn
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I'm reading the 6-month checkup on Tom Coburn's website when I found this little gem (emphasis mine): I have introduced S. 1279, the Parents Right to Know Act of 2005, which requires parental notification before federally funded clinics can distribute contraceptive drugs or prescription devices to a minor. If a child needs a permission slip to take aspirin at school, I think parents should be notified before their children receive prescription contraceptives that could have long lasting health affects.
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Posted on Monday, Aug. 8 2005 at 11:19 pm by brian
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Need Photos printed? You might try clubphoto.com
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Shameless plug alert. Well, maybe it’s not a shameless plug, but it’s a service I use and like, so I thought I’d share it with others.
I would probably be considered a 100% digital guy, but I like paper products too, every now and then. Digital photography is one of those areas. There’s something special about flipping through photo albums that you don’t get by looking at images on a monitor. There is a wide array of inkjet printers, specializing in photo printing, but I have never been quite satisfied. I can usually spot the professionally printed photo and the home-grown photo. Sure, you can get all sorts of high quality papers and printers and ink, but in the end, you’ve spent more if you would have just got them printed somewhere professionally. The “convenience” isn’t worth that extra to me.
So I started looking around. Sam’s Club and Walmart would probably be the cheapest to get photos printed (11¢ and 12¢, respectively), and you don’t have to pay for shipping costs, since you can pick those up in the store. But there was one problem, and it’s pretty specific to me: they don’t offer 3.5x5 inch prints. I like those size because that’s what I get printed when I turn in REAL film (it’s cheaper than 4x6) and I also made a photo grid out of a bulletin board and thumb tacks arranged in such away that a picture can be slid in and held in place. It’s arranged for 3.5x5 inch photos, so I need those size prints.
I’ve done a few orders from Club Photo and I think they’re pretty good. Print quality looks very nice. They’re 19 cents a print, and once you factor in shipping and handling, I think it goes up to about 25¢ or 26¢. BUT every now and then they run specials with 15¢ prints and free shipping, so it’s good to buy then.
Some other things: they do glossy and matte printing. Some like glossy, some like matte, I like to choose (mostly matte, though). They have a format called “4XD” which is pretty helpful when printing digital photographs. Digital pictures are usually shot in an aspect ratio of 4:3, four units wide and three units tall. This is slightly different than your standard 4”x6” print, which can be reduced to three units wide and two units tall (grr…they’re backwards…screens are in the format WxH but photos are HxW, although I guess it really doesn’t matter if you tilt the pictures the right way :P ). 4XD printing prints images at 4”x5.33” instead of 4”x6”, preserving the aspect ratio and preventing heads from being cut off or things like that. They’re a little bit more square than usual, but it’s not really that noticeable. And since they’re smaller and not larger, they should still fit in your photo album without much trouble.
So I like using them, as long as I can catch a special. They’re based out of Texas, too!
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Posted on Monday, Aug. 8 2005 at 5:27 pm by brian
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Gosh
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It's just pictures like these that make me want to be an astronaut.
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Posted on Saturday, Aug. 6 2005 at 2:10 am by brian
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College Experience
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A few things I recommend to seniors in HS this year to get the ball rolling on the whole college thing.
-Start doing a little bit at a time now so it doesn't all pile up right before the February 2nd deadline.
-Start thinking about all the things you've done, like organizations you've been in, awards received, special honors, etc, and writing them down, like a resume.
-Go to website of the college of your choice (or choices) and print off an application. You might print off an extra copy of the essay questions, because those usually take the longest. Carry it around with you and if you have an extra 10 minutes in class, you might think about it.
-Go to fastweb.com and register, and fill out as many applications as often.
-Do campus tours early. They only accept so many people per tour per day.
-FASFAs are stupid! You have to have done your tax returns to fill it out, so you have to do it after April 15. Don’t try to do it before, because you’ll end up stopping and forgetting about it (like I did).
If you’re kind of lazy, don’t worry too much, because you’ll be pushed along (or you’ll push yourself along when the Feb 2 deadline looms). But the more prepared the better.
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Posted on Thursday, Aug. 4 2005 at 11:09 am by brian
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Rest of the photos uploaded on Flickr.com
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Link below, because I'm lazy.
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Posted on Thursday, Aug. 4 2005 at 11:01 am by brian
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I maxed out my bandwidth on flickr
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Almost all of the Mexico photos are here. I'll get the rest next month when my bandwidth resets.
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul. 27 2005 at 6:57 pm by brian
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A little bit more on Mexico
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I always like to hit two birds with one stone. I’m doing this year’s video for Mexico, and I’m creating a timeline of what all went on, so I’ll just share that here. When I wrote my previous post I don’t think I was in the mood to write.
Saturday: We drove all day, making several pit stops along the way. When we got to the very southern tip of Texas, around King’s Ranch, it started raining pretty good, and we got to thinking about Hurricane Emily. It kind of got everybody shook up a bit. But the rain was quick and we were soon out of it. We saw several cars that had slid off the road after that. We also saw some illegals jumping the fence around here. They knew there was a border checkpoint ahead, and the car they were riding with must have said, “Hey, jump this fence and I’ll meet up with you a few miles down the road” and I guess that’s what they did.
We got to our hotel that evening, and made a trip across the border to get our visas. It’s hardly ever a quick process, since someone almost always never has their paperwork. We got back pretty late and hit up McDonald’s for dinner. I feel like the guy from “30 days” at the end of the trip, although for me it’s more like seven.
Sunday: It’s decided that instead of getting up and usually going to church, we’re going to go to Monterrey. The reason for this is that in the past, people have complained that we don’t get to spend enough time with church in Monterrey. Usually on Sunday it’s too late by the time we get to Monterrey to go to their evening services. So this time we leave early and are able to go to their services.
Coming in to Monterrey is always awesome. Usually we go through Laredo, but because of the political problems on the Mexican side of the border, we went through McAllen this time. Coming in from Laredo is very scenic though, you get to go through the mountains and all of that, and BAM! There’s the city. This time we kind of came in from the side, but it was still pretty neat. There were clouds that were hugging the tops of the mountains. I realized when capturing the mountains with a camera you really lose the sense of scale they have. This is because with the photograph you’ve eliminated the depth of the object you’re shooting. When you’re moving, you realize how massive those mountains really are because you’re speeding down the highway at 70 miles an hour and those mountains aren’t moving an inch. They’re huge!
The service is Monterrey was good. It was two hours long. Everybody seems to talk about that. To me, it only felt like an hour; maybe that’s because I was occupied with filming somewhat. It was all in Spanish, but I sort of followed along by leaning behind me and point to different verses in the Bible. St. Juan is the book of John, for instance. That was interesting. I read those verses many times, because I didn’t know what was being said on the podium. Also, I recognized quite a few songs, but they’re hard to sing when you only have the tune and not the words. But I was never really that tone friendly…that’s why I play the drums.
That night we ate at the hotel I think. There is a very nice restaurant on the lobby of the hotel. There was a potato soup that I thought was good, but no one else really liked it.
Monday: I realized the hazards of sharing a bed with someone. My guy liked to sprawl out right in the middle of the bed. One time, I tried to wake him up. I pushed and shoved and kicked him but he wouldn’t wake up. But I kid you not, as soon as I gave up and tried to go back to sleep in my little corner of the bed, he rolled over on his own.
We made our way to the worksite, and we were kind of nervous because I don’t think we had taken our big bus down there before. Most of the road is paved, but there’s about a mile or mile and half of the last way that isn’t paved, and usually the road is washed out or flooded. We got to drive all the way, except for the last 500 feet or so, so we parked the bus elsewhere and drove in another bus. By the end of the day the road had dried out and we could drive on it.
At the worksite there were only two big jobs to do this time. One was hauling cement to the roof of the medical complexes, to finish them. The other was digging some 17 to 27 (I counted 17 holes, but someone else said there were 27, but that might be the final number and I just didn’t know) holes for the foundation of the NEW, BIGGER church. They have about a 25 foot by 14 foot (wow, I just realized I way overestimated the size of this thing, sorry if I told you different) pavilion that they used for worship services. Their church has been growing so much that they can’t fit the 65-70+ that are coming there now. Plus, the government is coming in by that area and putting government housing, improving roads, and getting power to that community (in the years past there were hundreds of wires going through the trees and the road and the mud puddles. People would just go outside their homes at night and “borrow” some electricity from a guy that borrowed electricity from a guy that paid for it), and building highways and all sorts of things. They’re growing, and they need a bigger church. I’m proud to say I helped dig the first foundations for it. We dug whatever number it was holes for the foundation. They were about three feet by three feet, and the depth varied. At one time, we were told to dig until we hit rock. Then it was dig until we reached yellow dirt. Whatever it was, the ground is not very dig friendly. I remember last year I was on the crew that helped dig a much larger hole (although it was just one), for burning trash in. It was good about 3 feet down, then we hit rock, and it took forever. We rotated crews, a crew to pick axe the rock, a crew to shovel it into buckets, a crew to lift the buckets out of the hole. This time it was much of the same thing, except for more, smaller holes. I think I liked more holes better, because if I got tired of one hole, I could just go to another one and it might be a little better. We weren’t very lucky on some of our holes though, some only had six inches of dirt before reaching rock. Also, there was a water line that went through about five holes, and it got an average of one puncture per hole, but it got fixed.
We put in a huge day. Usually the first two days are not so bad and then our last day (Wednesday) is a killer, because we want to get everything done. Monday was a Wednesday. We worked from about 7:30 or 8 to 5:30. Usually we leave after lunch time, but we wanted to finish the roof of the medical complexes, so everyone helped haul buckets of cement. I put sunscreen on only as far as my arms could reach, so my back got pretty crispy, and is still peeling today. I tried talking with a local I was working with. We enjoyed it so much when the clouds blocked the sun, so when the next cloud passed over I jokingly held up my hand, palm to the cloud and said, “Alto! Alto!” which means “stop.”
I think that Monday we ate a very nice Italian restaurant. It’s great, usually you’d never be able to afford a place like that. But Mark is excellent about arguing and bartering, so he can use his bargaining power to get a group of 60 people in there and get us a decent meal. It was pretty nice, although I didn’t care too much for the Italian dressing on my salad. I found this out after I had already poured quite a bit on there.
Tuesday: More of the same work, except we didn’t work as long. Also, I can talk about lunch. Lunch is my favorite. I know that at least three days a year, I will get some real, authentic Mexican cooking. The ladies from the church come and make us all lunch, and it is the greatest thing ever. On Monday we had tamales. Tuesday was more of a general stuff, with rice and beans (well, rice and beans is every day), and some other things as well, but I forget. I remember on Monday we have this green things, and I think it’s cacti. There was a cheesey spaghetti mix too, and it was good, but had a strange aftertaste. I couldn’t eat very much of that.
I must talk about the beans, or frijoles. These are the best beans you’ll ever eat, period. They’re refried beans, but unlike any other. It’s just a consistency…it’s almost like whipped cream. And they’re sooo good. I could eat a ton. Unfortunately everyone else knows this and they go pretty quickly.
For dinner, we went to Carl’s Jr. It’s okay. I think the first year I went, I noticed the meat had a slightly different taste, but not much. This year, I couldn’t tell the difference, I think because we don’t have a Carl’s Jr. in Lawton anymore, so I don’t have anything to compare it to. We always go to this particular Carl’s Jr., and sit in the same place, too.
Wednesday: It starts to rain. We can’t go to our worksite, so we go to the church instead, and paint all the walls and ceilings. Personally, I don’t think they needed painting, but we had to have something to do. It didn’t work out very well, because there wasn’t very much space and not everyone could do anything. But no one wanted to do one of the easiest jobs, which was just going around with a rag and wiping up any spilled paint. I painted the tops of the walls around the ceiling. The ladies came and brought us tacos, and a very very very very good frijole soup. It is one of my favorites of Mexico as well.
We didn’t go to their church services that night, and instead stayed and had a devotional to ourselves. A few of us shared testimonies, and I thought it was very moving and very powerful. We had sandwiches afterwards. I noticed that in Mexico they never have regular chips. It’s always two weird flavors mixed together, like cheese and spicy chili for Cheetos. There’s never any “original” and that kind of bothers me.
Thursday: Thursday is usually our fun day where we tour Monterrey and the surrounding area. We usually go to Cola de Caballo, which is a very beautiful waterfall up in the mountains. Also around this area is a hotel/restaurant that is right on the mountain, on a cliff almost, and has huge, beautiful windows and you can look out across the valley at the mountains. Unfortunately this year, the rain caused the road to be washed out, and we couldn’t go. Also we usually hit the markets, but the road was washed out there, too. We went to a nice mall in the morning, and spent the afternoon back at the hotel.
We went to the best restaurant in Mexico. It’s called, “Tinaja’s” in a suburb of Monterrey, close to the worksite. We like it because it has goat cheese!! You get to eat like a king! The first round is chips and salsa. Next, they bring out a plate with the best guacamole on it, and some flat, three or four inch diameter flat bread, I guess for dipping. Then you get some goat cheese. It comes out hot on a frying pan, with some hamburger meat on top. It’s delicous. Next is a bowl of the same frijole soup that we got at the worksite. And finally, corn and flour tortillas, and some of the best beef and onion fajitas ever. The meat is so tender and so full of flavor, it’s unbelievable. It’s one of those dire situations, where your body tells you you’re full, but your mouth just wants more and more. For desert, there is this little pecan/caramel/chocolate candy that you get and it’s pretty good.
We got our shirts that night. I think everybody really liked the design this year, although there weren’t enough smalls and mediums. That made me sad.
Friday: We left Monterrey at 5:00AM and had trouble at the border. We spend two and a half hours waiting on border security. The actual process of running us through and checking our stuff only took fifteen minutes, but it was waiting on the five charter buses full of people ahead of us that was a problem. We recommended an express lane for American citizens, although then you’d need an express lane for the people who really ARE American citizens out of those claiming to be citizens, and so on and so on. We got to San Antonio and walked around downtown. I found a used bookstore and found a copy of Michael Chrichton’s Timeline (a hardcover!) for only $4! I was ecstatic. We saw the Alamo, but everybody had already seen it and we went through very quickly. I always like to read the things and look at the actual buckshot, and the old belt buckles and knives and everything, but I was rushed through. I guess some can only take so much.
We walked around town and ate…actually, I can’t remember where we ate. I think people might have already been full because we didn’t eat breakfast until 11 or so from the border patrol mishap, and then consequently didn’t eat lunch until much later, so I guess we didn’t eat anything in San Antonio.
I got to meet up with my good friend Jon in SA as well. Every year we always try to meet up, and each year more and more people remember him! He was actually supposed to go this year with us, but it didn’t work out in the end. Ah well.
By this time in the trip, I’m really getting tired of filming. And I’m starting to not see the point in San Antonio. Our groups have split up, and now they have to sit through the DVD and watch what only WE did? I’m not too sure about that. But I still filmed anyways. But if I run into time constraints, that will probably be the first thing I cut. I did end up shooting nine hours, after all. That means I’ll only use one in nine minutes that I shot. Hmm.
Saturday: We moseyed around Saturday. Drove around and realized that the McDonald’s was only a few blocks away from our hotel (ooh, I forgot about the hotel), and we could have walked and saved our parking spot, but oh well. The hotel: In San Antonio we stayed in the Crowne Plaza. It was the nicest hotel I’ve ever been at, I think. Everything is new, and it seems like they really but much emphasis in sleeping. They have extra soft and extra nice beds. Five pillows on each bed. A VERY nice clock radio ($60) with a neato touchscreen and also with a “how to go to sleep” CD. It was all very nice.
Anyways, the rest of the morning we walked around the mall down by the Riverwalk, and it was nice, but I’ve seen it before. I enjoyed walking around with Jon; he was with us again. Then we decided to leave, and Jon abruptly said he ought to go as he turned a corner, so I said bye. We started the eight hours back to Lawton, and I didn’t feel like filming very much anymore (again). I decided that for the end of the video, it will just be a shot of us driving out of San Antonio, a clock-like transition sweep, and then we’re in Lawton. Easy enough.
We got in right at 8:00, unloaded and left. Back to the real world.
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul. 27 2005 at 1:37 am by brian
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I'm back
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It was a good trip. We got a bit more rain than usual, but it was still fulfilling. Every time I go down there I always seem to fall in love with the country. It seems like everything is simpler, there’s more culture, and people just seem more content with themselves in general. Of course, I’m probably wrong. How would I know what people think without even speaking the language? Places always look better from a distance, but once you’re there, they’re not as great. Even so, I still want to try a learn a bit more Spanish than last year so I can talk a little bit more than “muoy bueno!”
I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all the pictures. All of them are a bit much for flickr (even resized), and I don’t have all that much space here on my site. Humm.
I started serious work on the video today, and it’s coming along nicely. I’ve actually loosely planned out the video, so hopefully it won’t be too hard. I just want to get it done, so I don’t have to worry about it anymore.
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Posted on Tuesday, Jul. 26 2005 at 9:01 pm by brian
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Flickr Updated
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Link. Check back often.
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul. 20 2005 at 4:35 pm by brian
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What I don't like about Mexico
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Last night, I'm in the business center with my laptop. The AC is on, and there is this girl sitting next to me, and I'm wondering if she's getting cold. So I pull up my laptop to babelfish and translate "Are you cold?" into Spanish and show her my screen. She looks at it for a few seconds, looks at me, then nods. I go over to turn off the AC behind her, and she says, "You know, I speak English."
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Posted on Wednesday, Jul. 20 2005 at 4:34 pm by brian
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Here's where we crossed the border
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Google Maps link.
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Posted on Monday, Jul. 18 2005 at 11:41 pm by brian
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More Photos updated
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On Flickr.
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Posted on Sunday, Jul. 17 2005 at 11:54 pm by brian
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Made it to McAllen, Texas
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I guess I didn’t make a “goodbye” post. I suppose I got busy and forgot. Well, I’m on my annual mission trip to Mexico. We left at 6:00 this morning and I felt we made good time.
We didn't have a problem making it to McAllen, Texas today. We ran into a good amount of rain, and it looks like we’re going to hit the tail end of hurricane Emily on Wednesday. Hopefully we’ll have most of the work done by then (we should, it sounds like we’re just putting the finishing touches on the preaching school). We saw some real life illegals jumping fences just a few hundred yards from a border patrol checkpoint. That was pretty neat, but it happened so quickly I couldn’t get my camera out to capture the action.
We also crossed the border this evening to get our passports and visas taken care of. As usual, there were issues getting our vehicles and drivers registered, but Mark handled it like a pro. It seems we’re going to take a change of plans tomorrow. Instead of going to church in the morning, we’ll head out to go to Monterrey. That way we can get there and have enough time to go to Sunday evening services with our church down there. I like that idea.
I’ve mainly been video taping, so I haven’t taken very many pictures. I did take some, and uploaded them to my flickr account.
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Posted on Sunday, Jul. 17 2005 at 1:27 am by brian
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AOL Alerts
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I'm signed up for AOL Alerts on my phone to let me know of top news stories. Although, I really wonder how they choose their stories. Case in point: I received a notice that Chief Justice Rehnquist is not stepping down from the bench, but I didn't get anything on the London bombings. It always seems to do things like that.
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Posted on Friday, Jul. 15 2005 at 6:19 pm by brian
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Oh how painful
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Warning: another bad experience with a cellphone company ahead: We've been with AT&T Wireless (Cingular) for many years. Our contract has run out. Me, my sister, and my mom are all on a shared plan. My phone suffers from the horrible battery memory syndrome, where the longest it can hold a charge is for 20 minutes. So, it's time to upgrade. My parents get on the phone with them, and it's just painful to watch. They don't really know what they're talking about, or what they want or anything, so it's like listening to nails on a chalkboard. I would have been much more forceful. I would have said, "Now, tell me if this doesn't make sense. You give us three $50 phones for free. You're out $150. However, you get to keep us as a customer for the next two years, which gets you about $2000 at our current rates. But if you don't want to give us these phones, then we'll go to someone else who will. You've just lost a customer." What's so difficult about that? I'm bartering for my phones. But alas, my phone skills suck.
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Posted on Thursday, Jul. 14 2005 at 5:08 pm by brian
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Weird
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Okay, I'm doing this years Mexico video. I've read up on working with digital video, and it's been my own experience that you should "stripe" your tapes before using them. I probably will get some of this wrong, and those who know please correct me, but it is my understanding that the camera creates a timecode, that 00:00:00 you see at the top of the viewfinder on the tape. Ever notice how it doesn't always go from 0 to 60 minutes when you play back the tape? It might go up to 23 minutes (or any amount really), and all of the sudden, it resets back to 00:00:00. This is called "breaking the timecode." Well, when you're importing this video into your computer, these breaks in the time code can mess up the capture process, so you have to rewind a little bit and start it over again. This results in multiple copies of the same clip, and not good when space is a premimum (I'll probably have 10+ hours of video to look through after the week is through). So, I read of a process called "striping" the tapes, and all it is is rewinding the tape to the beginning, putting the lens cap on and hitting record and let the camera record an hour of nothing (well, except audio, I guess) to the tape. This is supposed to create one timecode that shouldn't be broken. I suppose I shall test it out and see.
Anyways, the weird part of it is that I have 8 tapes to stripe, and the past several tapes that I've looked on to check on the progress, the timer is always around the 26 or 27 minute mark. Isn't that weird?
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Posted on Thursday, Jul. 14 2005 at 2:18 pm by brian
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The "t" word
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Meanwhile, we can't even get the words straight.
Bomber, attacker, insurgent, militant - all are fine by the Beeb because they carry no "emotional or value judgments". And heaven forbid anyone get emotional about the deaths of at least 52 people in the London bombings last week.
I've noticed that lately the media is more in the media than the things they should be reporting on. I think I'll start just watching CSPAN.
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Posted on Thursday, Jul. 14 2005 at 1:14 pm by brian
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Hmm...What's important?
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I don't get the uproar over Karl Rove. If he did something wrong, then he should be punished. Let the guys that are figuring that out figure it out. Put an end to the media conjecture. But now isn't there a more important thing we should be talking about? Wasn't one of the largest cities in the world just bombed like, uh, a week ago? Shouldn't we be trying to find those guys? Where's the uproar over that?
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Posted on Thursday, Jul. 14 2005 at 1:08 pm by brian
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Mexico Mission Trip 2005
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Someone asked some questions about our mission trip, so I thought I’d answer them here.
Every summer we’ve taken a mission trip to a small suburb of Monterrey, Mexico. Usually it’s the 3rd week in July and my church is part of a three-church group that goes down there every year. Usually we average about 60-80 people (although I’m not 100% certain). We stay in a hotel in downtown Monterrey and travel to the worksite by van each morning. The trip is a week long. Usually we have a day going down there, three days at the worksite, a day for recreation (going to see the sites of Monterrey and the surrounding area), and then two days coming back. We usually spend the night in San Antonio on the way back, which works well for me because I have a good friend in San Antonio I like to see every now and then.
We’ve been working with a church down there for over four years now. The actually history has gone back further, since my youth minister has been working with this group since before he moved to our church. Since then we’ve helped complete their church.
Their church is an actual compound that covers about an acre, I think. It has a pavilion for worship. It’s got a doctor’s area that serves the local community, and also is home to a preaching school. There is also a small 2-story apartment designated as housing for the student preachers. Also on the compound is a small orchard with various fruit trees, a well that provides water for everything, and a soccer…erm, futbol…field. Keep in mind these buildings are made mostly out of cinder blocks and concrete, amazing stuff.
Also another little tidbit is that nothing will ever look finished. Almost every building you see will have re-bar sticking out of it. Why? Because the tax on unfinished buildings is lower than the tax on finished buildings. Hence, the building is never finished.
Mexico is always a treat for me. The trip provides a break away from the normalcies of life and truly provides for a different perspective. The first year I went to Mexico I was floored by the difference between our two countries. At the same time, I was greatly thankful. I must admit, the impact of that realization lessens each year, but it is still a strong, powerful reminder to me.
The next thing about working in Mexico is the chance to turn “talk” into “walk.” It’s finally a time to put our money where our mouth is, and do the action we often talk about doing in Sunday morning services. Simply put, it’s servitude. I’m taking time out from my job, my familiarities, sometimes my comforts (O dear Internet access, how I adore thee…), to serve. I must admit, however, it’s not like we’re doing Superman-esque work. It’s only three days out of a week. We’re there from about 7:30 in the morning to about 2:00 in the afternoon, when it starts getting hot. And, usually the majority of us aren’t very experienced in construction work, so we’re somewhat limited in that aspect as well. Probably the most strenuous activity is mixing concrete, putting it in buckets, and passing them up the line to the men working on the roof. Also, digging a DEEP hole can be pretty demanding, but people take turns and watch out for each other so it’s not too difficult. Water breaks are fairly often, of course. And there is almost always some people just wandering around, avoiding work at all costs. I guess that’s always the case wherever you go.
Even so, our Mexico Mission trip is an exciting experience. Perhaps the greatest things about the trip can be found by just a little reflection on the differences in our cultures and languages, yet we’re still one body under Christ.
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Posted on Monday, Jul. 11 2005 at 11:58 pm by brian
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Like that one Twilight Zone episode
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Does anyone ever wish they had an indefinite amount of time to devote to projects and just things they want to do? Because I know I do.
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Posted on Friday, Jul. 8 2005 at 12:58 am by brian
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Finished Shirt
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Maybe somebody wants to see the design. I rather like it:
Click for larger versions.
Front:
Back:
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Posted on Friday, Jul. 8 2005 at 1:00 am by brian
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Why are Iranian children vaccinated against smallpox?
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Very interesting.
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Posted on Monday, Jun. 27 2005 at 10:51 am by brian
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Mexico Mission Trip 2005 Shirt
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In the making. Click for larger version. Comments welcome.
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Posted on Monday, Jun. 27 2005 at 1:16 am by brian
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Still enjoying Flickr
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I think it's the user interface. It's really easy to use, and I like things that are easy to use. I've put up some pictures from my recent hiking adventure.
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Posted on Sunday, Jun. 26 2005 at 6:22 pm by brian
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Playing with flickr...
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I'm enjoying Flickr, the photo sharing website. You can see my photostream here. I'm divided if I want to use it for my main photo storage, instead of my onsite gallery (located here, and I just realized I never really made a "formal" link to it). Flickr is much easier to use and edit, but I can only put so much on there monthly, and the size is limited. Onsite pictures will stay there forever, but it's more difficult to upload, there's no commenting (actually there is but it is a pain), but I run into size limitations as well (only 50MB on this server, I believe). Decisions, decisions...
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Posted on Friday, Jun. 24 2005 at 1:07 am by brian
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I wonder...
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What if you could keep adding the "new skin" liquid bandage stuff so that you could create a new appendage? Like a sixth finger or something...that'd be strange.
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Posted on Thursday, Jun. 23 2005 at 1:15 am by brian
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Thought Provoking.
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Especially for me, since I'm on the lookout for an extra job this summer. Link.
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Posted on Monday, Jun. 13 2005 at 11:12 am by brian
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Last Month's Cereal of the Month
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I've got the pleasure to experience the latest from Cap'n Crunch...it's like a berry berry crunch that turns the milk blue. It's really good, and I like it...but when I drink the milk at the end, it makes me feel like I've just drank half a gallon of gasoline. It's like the concentrated sugar and color dyes sinking to the bottom of my stomach in a digestive process that mere mammals weren't meant to process.
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun. 8 2005 at 1:22 am by brian
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This…is college
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Today was “Gold Rush” at Cameron. Verdict: informative.
We all got into the theatre in the morning for welcomes and skits. I think the same thought went through everyone’s mind when the first skit came on: “Omigosh, I’m still in high school.” So yeah, I suppose that not everyone becomes stoic and, as one put it, Ghandi-like, after high school. But no matter. I think the goofiness in skits is good, because it’s more memorable. That’s what they want…for us to remember the information. Good deal.
I enjoyed the strenuous walk through the campus. Lots of interesting stuff, and I think that no matter what college you go to, it’s exciting to see all the activities, stores and shops and such they have to offer students. It seems so much that you’d never get bored, but I’m sure that’s not the case. :) I know one thing is for sure though, I’m getting a good backpack and not using my trusty messenger back anymore. I like the messenger bag (man purse? European handbag?), but it gets too heavy and I’m sure I have back problems now. The only reason I used it was to get around the “no backpacks” rule at school. It’s not really a backpack, mkay?
I did enjoy th | | |
