Thursday, November 19, 2009

Teaching

Teaching
I went to school last night for a faculty training session. It was about lesson plans. I have heard the presentation before. But, I got credit for my professional development; that is important for accreditation purposes. Since the program presenter loves my current lesson plans, I didn’t learn very much.

We also got fed. Instead of the usual pizza, we had spaghetti with tomato sauce, grilled chicken, I went with the un-spiced version of the grilled chicken, a kind of Caesar salad, and soft bread sticks. There was no dessert. I missed the dessert part.

I shrugged off the lack of dessert because I knew about the post bachelors’ thesis presentation celebration. There had to be something sweet there.

My department chair spoke to me and asked if I was interested in teaching two more classes in the December term. I said sure. Then, I asked what the classes were. He said Project Management. I said he could count me in for those classes. Now, I will have a full teaching load of five classes for a part time instructor.

I will have evening classes on Tuesday through Friday and then a Saturday morning class. The Friday evening and Saturday morning class sequence is the most difficult one for me. I had done this type of schedule before but never on a weekend. I know that I will have to struggle with attendance for these two classes.

I had a chance to look at the two new course syllabi before the training session. They appear to be brand new courses and I don’t think that they have been taught at the school before. On the plus side, there are the same six students for each class so we ought to have a very intimate class; I am thinking that this class should work well in a seminar environment. Learning these students’ names ought to be easy for me.

The bachelors’ thesis presentation went well in my mind. A couple of the students seem to run long on presentations that could have been better with judicious editing. These students have not had any formal training in making a professional presentation and their work showed. Some students had dark blue backgrounds with black type fonts and that was close to impossible to read.

Four of the six students were former students of mine. They did well; I had expected as much.

I had to make an evaluation of the students’ presentations. I thought I graded fairly, based on the criteria on the evaluation sheet. Two students received a score of 65 from me and two received scores of 80 and one received an 85. I also wrote a bunch of comments so the instructor and department chair would understand why I marked the students the way I did.

I think I surprised the department chair with my comments. I don’t think other instructors have been so wordy and detailed. The chair liked that part because he will put all of the evaluations in a file that the accreditation committee will look at sometime in the future.

Then, there was the after presentation celebration.

The food was much better than what we had for the faculty meeting. The cold sandwiches were from Subway and we very good. This was the first time that I have had a Subway sandwich. I usually go to Giuliano’s for my sandwiches.

The best part about the celebration was the chocolate cake with a milk chocolate frosting. That was great. I was also glad that I had my periodic blood tests completed last week.

I was speaking with the department chair. He told me that he was planning on having me teaching a Business Law and Regulation class for his paralegal studies students sometime next year. I love that class and I am so looking forward to teaching it.

I got home a little after 11:00 PM and crawled off to bed quickly. I was tired. I slept very well and didn’t wake up until 6:20 AM when I rolled over and went back to sleep.


Be well and stay happy.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

President Clueless or I'm sure glad that I didn't go to Harvard

President Clueless or I’m sure glad that I didn’t go to Harvard
Have any of you been paying any attention to the gaffs that our current president has been making lately? So far, November, in my mind, has been gaff city for him.

First, there was the Veterans’ Day gaff. The photo has been all over the Internet by now and if you haven’t seen it you must have no friends. The photo was taken apparently during the playing of the National Anthem at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans’ Day, that would be why the generals were saluting and the other civilian in the photo with President Clueless had his hand over his heart.

President Clueless, in a pathetic attempt to start a new trend, had both of his hands clasped together in front of his body. I learned that you place your hand over your heart when our National Anthem is played when I was a student at Stoneman Elementary School.

So much for a Harvard education.

I was watching one of the Korean language channel’s news program last night [Korean Broadcasting System, November 17th evening news broadcast] after I watched the History Channel’s World War II in High Definition episode. Watching the History Channel made me feel very good and proud to be an American.

Anyway and more to the point of our stumbling President Clueless.

The news program spent, I think, three to five minutes on President Clueless and how he embarrassed America; that was the only conclusion I could draw from the segment. They showed him bowing deeply to the Emperor of Japan when he was in Japan last week.

Then, the program compared his greeting to that of President Hu Jintao of the Peoples’ Republic of China and President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of South Korea greeting the Emperor.

Neither President bowed at all, not even a slight nod.

To make things worse from our point of view since the program was broadcast throughout the Korean peninsula, the news broadcast dug out an old file photo of General Douglas MacArthur who had Emperor Hirohito standing next to him, looking incredibly meek. The contrast to President Clueless was clear and unmistakable; he was being ridiculed by one of our nation’s allies as being either stupid, clueless [my choice], or a buffoon. You can also insert your own adjective of choice here. The United States still has freedom of speech and expression.

I learned, probably in a Naval History class in Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps at my beloved University of Utah, that a United States warship does not lower its flag first to any nation I think the phrase was something like, “the United States lowers its flag to no nation.” That was probably said by someone like Stephen Decatur or Isaac Hull. Our Navy will acknowledge when another nation’s warship lowers its flag first.

I also learned that our diplomats do not bow to foreign rulers. I wonder why President Clueless never learned these concepts; after all he is smart, he went to Harvard.

I know that George W. Bush and John McCain would have never stumbled like President Clueless.

Then, as if to highlight the gaffs, the news broadcast had a sport feature of Yung Kim, a South Korean skater, who just won the women’s skating gold medal at Skate America on Sunday. I think the feature purposefully included a shot where Ms Yung had her hand over her heart as they played the South Korean National Anthem.

An athlete, Ms Yung got it right.

So much for a Harvard education.

President Clueless, no one will think of you as a great or even a world leader if you continue to kowtow and act as Stepin Fetchit.


Full and Fair Disclosure: I am a veteran and I proudly served as an officer in the United States Navy. I volunteered to serve my country. I love my country and everything that it stands for. Some of President Clueless’ closest advisors think people like me are dangerous perhaps because we love our country so much.

The 1,000th Post

The 1,000th Post
I did this because I wanted a simple memorial to my almost five years of blogging. This blog started out in January, 2005, primarily as a curiosity more than anything else. I think I have been modestly successful since the blog has reached over 50,000 readers, not all at once though.

I do appreciate all of you who have supported the blog by stopping by from time to time. Thanks.


Be well and stay happy.

Maybe it;'s not so bad after all

Maybe it’s not so bad after all
I took a look at the football rankings after Utah’s loss in Fort Worth to Texas Christian University on Monday. Things were not as bleak as I thought they might be. Of course, Utah did drop in the standings with the loss. But, we are still in the Top 25 in all four lists.

Here is an interesting thought, assuming that Utah finishes with a 9 and 3 record, it would be eligible for a post season bowl game and could end up playing my Brother’s University of Southern California as their season continues to implode. The last time these two schools met in football was in 2001 at the Las Vegas Bowl; underdog Utah won.


Be well and stay happy

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Friday the 13th all over

Friday the 13th all over
It seemed to me that Friday the 13th followed me all over the weekend.

I had a string of bad luck on Friday.

Friday was the regular oncology clinic blood test day. My day started off on the slow side but not that badly for me. Just after I left the flat things turned bad for me. I drive to the hospital using the most direct path possible; it saves both time and gasoline.

I got stuck in traffic between the cars behind mine and the railroad crossing guard rail when the guard rail came down. I had to sit and wait and watch while a slow moving 90 car freight train rolled through the intersection in front of me. I could not get out of the traffic; I was hemmed in.

Things did not improve when I had the blood drawn from me. The technician, who has drawn my blood several times before without any significant pain or discomfort for me, required three tried to find my blood vessel. That was painful.

I had to go see Doug before school on Friday. I left in plenty of time but ran into trouble because the usual way to the freeway was blocked by unplanned road repairs. This resulted is me getting stuck in traffic as everyone else in the area had to deal with the same mess.

Utah Football
The overflow of Friday the 13th hit our beloved Utes when they played TCU on Saturday. They played well but were outclassed by a much better team. TCU is likely to end up with a 12 win and no loss season and stay ranked at Number 4 or better in the BCS system. Utah is now holding on to a 9 and 2 record.

Utah will end up with a good record of either 10 wins and two losses or nine wins and three losses. All of its losses so far have been to teams, Oregon and TCU. which are ranked higher in the BCS.

Utah will play San Diego State University in Salt Lake this weekend. The Utes should prevail over San Diego State but only if the motivated Utah team shows up for that game. They will finish up their season on November 28th with a trip down I-15 to play BYU in Provo. The BYU – Utah game will decide which team will represent the Mountain West Conference as the champion in post season play since TCU, the likely conference champion, will be playing in one of the top BCS games.

The Princess and my Brother will be unhappy because their USC teams also lost this weekend.

On the plus side, my old high school team finished second in its conference and will go into the high school football playoffs starting next Friday.

No. 4 TCU sends a message after rout of No. 16 Utah
Horned Frogs deliver a 55-28 win to state their case for a BCS bid.
Associated Press
Fort Worth
Now that the hometown fans are finally taking notice of No. 4 Texas Christian, maybe the rest of the nation will also realize that the BCS-hopeful Horned Frogs are for real.

Utah certainly can't disagree.

In probably its last significant hurdle to an undefeated regular season, TCU scored three touchdowns in a 2 1/2 -minute span early in the second quarter and beat No. 16 Utah, 55-28, on Saturday night.

"If the nation didn't think that this was enough style points, then I don't know what is," Coach Gary Patterson said. "We're just going to go about our business."

The Horned Frogs (10-0, 6-0 Mountain West) stretched their winning streak to 12 games since a last-minute loss last November at Utah (8-2, 5-1), which had won 22 of 23. TCU also has won 13 in a row at home since losing when the Utes last visited two years ago.

With a record crowd of 50,307 -- a sellout at 79-year-old Amon Carter Stadium without the benefit of an instate opponent -- and representatives from the Orange, Rose and Fiesta bowls watching from the athletic director's suite, the Horned Frogs put on quite a show. Fans stormed the field when it was over.

Matthew Tucker had the first and last touchdowns (runs of 41 and nine yards) for TCU, with five teammates getting into the end zone in between. The 55 points were the most given up by Utah since 1996, a lopsided game that even caught TCU by surprise.

"Not in my wildest dream," defensive end Jerry Hughes said. "I figured it was going to be a dogfight."

Even without guaranteed access to the Bowl Championship Series, the Horned Frogs have changed the question about if they can be a BCS buster. Now it's can they be the first outsider to play for the national title?

TCU is fourth in the BCS standings, the highest a team from a conference without an automatic bid has reached. They trail only Florida, Alabama and Texas -- all winners Saturday.

Ed Wesley ran for 137 yards and a touchdown and Andy Dalton threw for 207 yards and a score. TCU had 549 yards overall, its third straight game with at least 500.

Utah's Eddie Wide, who had posted six straight 100-yard games, was held to 25 yards in 14 carries.

"It was one of our worst performances," Utah linebacker Stevenson Sylvester said.

The Horned Frogs, 10-0 for only the second time since its 1938 undefeated national championship team led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Davey O'Brien, play next weekend at wobbly Wyoming. They close the regular season Nov. 28 at home against New Mexico (0-10).


Visitors
We had another average week with the blog. We had 149 visitors who viewed 176 unique pages. We did have some soldiers drop by to check out the young women in skimpy bikinis. The blog is doing its part to support the men and women in our armed forces. The blog is partial to sailors and marines though.

Doug
Doug stopped by on Saturday on his way to see his girl friend. We talked for a while as we watched one of the college football games.

The Utah – TCU game was being broadcast by CBS College Sports, a service that I do not currently have. Doug suggested that I could call in and sign for the service in time to watch the game. I said that I would pass; I didn’t want to pay an extra USD$20 or USD$35 just to watch one football game.

Doug said that I had a point.


Be well and stay happy.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Veterans' Day

Veterans’ Day
Veterans’ Day was originally known as Armistice Day to celebrate the end of Great War or World War I as it became to be known as. Later, politicians did what they always seem to do, compromise. They changed the name to Veterans’ Day in honor of all veterans of our Nation’s wars except for the Civil War which has its own national holiday of Memorial Day.

I am so very proud to have served my country as an officer in the United States Navy during our war in Vietnam. Unlike toady’s veterans, veterans from the Vietnam Era never have received anything that amounts to real recognition and thanks from our Nation.

I don’t know anyone who served then who wanted to go to war. We had our orders and we all swore the same oath to “protect and defend the Constitution” and to follow the “orders of those above us” in the chain of command. We followed orders and did what we were told to do.

Remember if you can read this, thank you teacher.

If you enjoy your freedom, be sure to thank a Veteran because your freedom exists only because Veterans like me and countless others served and defended our Nation. Freedom is not free nor has it ever been free.






May God continue to bless the United States of America.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

United States Marine Corps

United States Marine Corps
The Few.

The Proud.

The Marines.

Today, the United States Marine Corps celebrates the 234th anniversary of its founding at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since 1775, the Marines had been proudly providing an opportunity for the enemies of the United States and its people a place to die for their country.

As a United States Navy officer, I was so very proud to have had the opportunity to serve in the United States Marine Corps Reserve for a year and to be able to lead Marines.




Semper Fi Marines.