Professional

Today I decided to have some of my pictured printed to update the pictures on my walls. I decided to print the pictures then take them to get matted and framed. I have never done that to my pictures before, usually just put them in 8X10 frames and put them on the wall. I have a couple of pictures that I really like. One thing no one knows is that when I lived in Germany I took many pictures and I sold a few. I was surprised that people wanted to buy them, after all they could take the same pictures and I didn't have that great of a camera, but some of my friends and some people I had never met before requested I sell my pictures. I always wondered if I should have tried more, or taken a class on how to take great pictures. Today, I got the same kind of feeling. When I went to pick up the pictures I had printed, the man working at the photo place asked me if I was a professional. I asked him what he meant and he told me that their policy was that a professional had to sign release statements not to hold the store responsible for printing problems. I told him I wasn't a professional photographer, and he asked me if that was true. I asked him why he thought I was selling my pictures, he said that the pictures I had sent were so good I should think about selling them. Well, we will see if I can sell them now! (they look a lot better in print than on the computer)

Bodies

Yesterday I took my youngest daughter, Sarah, to see the VITAL HUMAN BODY. This was a display at the Tech Museum of bodies of real people (dead of course) that they showed the muscles, bones, and organs. I had heard the controversies of this exhibit for a long time how the bodies were gotten from China and people were not sure how the government may obtained the bodies. I had never really wanted to see this exhibit, but Sarah needed to go for extra credit. After getting to the tech museum we walked around for 20 minutes and found other people walking also trying to find the entrance for that one exhibit. We had to walk out of the building go around the corner and enter another door. We were looking for so long there ended up being a group of 10 to 15 people together. After we got into the exhibit it was interesting to see the bodies and how they had the skin off and showed the muscle and the organs and the tendons and all the other parts of the body under the skin. Sarah had a paper to fill out so I just walked around. Truthfully, I got a little sick to my stomach thinking that these were real people and they were filleted to demonstrate how the body worked. Sarah took about an hour to fill out the pages,sometimes asking for my help. I was very glad to leave that exhibit area. It made me think of the first time I had seen a dead body. When I was a freshman in college I was going to my geology class, which as in the science building. As I was walking down the hall I saw a huge wooden box sitting next to a door. I peeked in the box and there was a cadaver. It was the first time I had seen a dead body. It was a greenish gray color, but I didn't see the eye color. I was traumatized. I went to class, and then went back to my dorm room. I couldn't get the sight out of my head. I wanted to forget, but couldn't. I thought of that for years, how could they just leave a cadaver in the hall way, you never know when a freshman might walk by and look in the box!!!

Crying Babies

Today I was supposed to drive up highway 101 with a friend, but the friend cancelled and I ended up driving to Napa and took some pictures. I then met all three of my daughters and we went to the movies. Unstoppable was GREAT!! At the movies there was a little baby outside in the hallway crying. Wow, I am glad I don't have to do that again. The third baby, Sarah, was great, she didn't cry often and never very long. The other two were not so good. Sometimes they would cry for hours, and sometimes if they were hungry or if they were cold and sometimes just because they were bored. When my oldest daughter, Lindsey was one year old when they went to Korea the first time and my wife wanted to show her family the new baby. Lindsey cried all the way. My wife knew that the way to stop the baby from crying was to walk with the baby in her arms. So, she walked up and down the aisle of the plane all the way to Korea. I always joked that she walked to Korea. When we took Lindsey and Jayne to Korea to go live there for a few years I wanted to put alcohol in their milk so they would sleep all the way.We didn't, but it sure was tempting. Come to think of it we went to Korea with a one year old baby, and came back 7 years later with a 3 year old baby. Which is worse, to sit in a plane with a crying baby behind you or sit in a movie theater with a crying baby behind you?

Traditions Come and Go

Today is Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving! I was planning on joining my sister's husband's family with my kids as we have over the past 2 years, but things didn't work out. Since my plans were changed this morning at 7am I didn't have time to cook turkey. I just stayed home alone (if I can be alone with 2 cats) and watched football and thanksgiving specials on TV. My day was nice. In the past when my kids didn't come over at all I would cook a turkey for myself and then eat leftovers for a long time. It was funny that one of the things everyone looked forward to was my turkey soup. For many years I have bought 4 turkeys before Thanksgiving. I originally started this because my freezer was always empty. I had read that a full freezer used less electricity than a full one, so I figured if turkeys were only $5 each during Thanksgiving it would make sense to fill up my freezer with frozen turkey. I at one then put three in my freezer. I had one around Christmas time, one in the spring and one in the summer. It was funny because I often forgot to eat the last one until a few weeks before Thanksgiving, so I had to cook the last one to make room for the next year's turkeys. It got to be a habit ... or was it a tradition? Everyone that knows me has heard of my little tradition. I would have turkey at the strangest times of the year. Fourth of July turkey dinner. Turkey for my birthday. Valentine's Day turkey. My youngest daughter got to the point of asking me when I was going to make soup yet. She would tell her friends that I made the best soup, and she would always want more. It made me feel special. I started making chicken soup, using the same spices to make it taste like turkey... that is a little funny, making the chicken soup taste like turkey soup! I have been doing this for 6 or 7 years. Even when I didn't eat at my house for Thanksgiving these past two years I bought 3 turkeys just to put in my freezer. This year was different. I went to buy the turkeys and found out the price has gone up, from $5 to $8. This is still cheap compared to $30 which is the normal price. But, it lost its spirit this year. So, the tradition is over. This year I had peanut butter and jelly for Thanksgiving dinner because I hadn't had enough notice to buy a turkey and thaw it for the 3 days before Thanksgiving. I wonder if I have just stated a new tradition, back to being alone for Thanksgiving and now eating peanut butter and jelly.

How to say nothing in five pages!

Today I drove to pick up my daughter to bring her home from Thanksgiving weekend. I had to rendezvous with the girl that was driving her up from San Diego. The friend was driving to Lodi, near Sacramento, so I met them in Los Banos (that means "the toilet" in Spanish) which is a town about an hour from where I live. Because it was a long drive I listened to another audio book. Today's book was Plato and a Platypus Walked into a Bar. This book tried to describe philosophy using jokes. The one I remember the most was an optimist say the glass is half full, a pessimist says the glass is half empty, and a realist says the glass is two times too big. Listening to this book made me think about writing college papers, when I was asked to write a five page paper to explain something that I could discuss in half a page. Fluff was necessary to expand the paper to meet the requirement. Listening to this book seemed like the author wanted to tell some jokes and he needed a medium, so he compared them to philosophy. It was really a boring book to listen to, except for the jokes. As I was listening to the boring book and all the fluff I was thinking about a paper I wrote for Art History in college. I have never liked Art, not only because I have never been very good at it (you can ask my mom about the horse that looked like a llama), but also because I don't understand it. When we studied abstract art we were told to get an abstract picture from the library and take it home. We were supposed to live with the picture for a week and then write a five page paper that described the picture and what it was supposed to represent. I went to the library and got a picture that I thought was getting an abstract picture. It wasn't wild, just a picture of a house and the door was open and there was water right outside the door. So it looked like a house was floating on a lake. I thought it was abstract because a house can't float on a lake. I put the picture on the wall, for a week, and then wrote the paper. I wrote five pages on this simple concept, and I thought I was doing a good job. I was sure that I understood the assignment, so I fluffed up the paper and wrote about how this picture made me feel like I was in a floating house and felt free of all earthly encumbrances when I looked at the picture. When I got this paper back I got a "C-". I was surprised and asked the teacher why I got such a bad grade. The teacher scowled at me and said, "that was a picture of a house with the door open and water outside, not anything more". She caught me writing a five page paper about nothing! Do you think I did that again? You're right, it didn't keep me from fluffing more papers ... like the guy that wrote the book!

Cat Gas

Today I spent most of my day teaching high schools students in San Jose about careers. All of the students today were studying to go in the medical field, so I slanted my talk to medical careers. One thing we talk about is how our interests should be in line with our work. We talk about 6 different interest codes and today we looked at all the different occupations in the medical field and how the different interest codes can all have jobs in the medical field. Even the interest codes that deals with working with your hands and working out doors has a medical field, either EMT or a physical therapist. I had a good day at work until the afternoon when I was teaching math and I had to tell one guy that I didn't think he would be able to join the military because he would never be able to pass the test. I have never done that before, squashed someone's dream ... but I would rather tell him now then have him waste his time trying to do something that he will not be able to do. I gave him another road to his dream, so maybe that was good! I suggested he take college classes for a semester, get 15 units, and then apply again. I suggested he take a Math class.

My two cats keep me learning different things. Tonight I googled the strangest question, "do cats fart?". I know that they must, but I just wanted to see what I could find. What do you think the answer is? Well, this is the problem, I have 2 cats, and sometimes I am just sitting in my chair and one all of a sudden I smell what smells like cat poop. I used to spend 10 or 15 minutes looking for a "secret pile" that I figured the cats didn't make it to the litter box in time. I then realized that I could never find the pile, and the stench would only stya around for about 5 minutes before dissipating. I realized that the one cat, Simon, would be sitting on the cat thing near my chair and must be farting. It is a terrible smell that almost drives me out of the room. It happens every night, or maybe every other night. I would be so embarrassed if I was that cat. I hope he learns to leave the room when it happens, or maybe he comes in the room when he knows he is going to fart. Life has many lessons when you have cats! What's next?

November Oxford Class

This month's class was interesting and fun. Last month was 4 students this month was 10. I haven't had such a big class in a long time. The students were eager to learn and showed a lot of growth over the month. What the nice thing is that they learned to lean on each other and helped each other through the final class. This class seemed a little difficult at first, so much diversity, but at the end, there was no diversity, everyone had one goal, to be successful as a teacher. They all had their own way of doing things, but each had a little of my style. It felt good to know that I could influence them and they will always carry a little piece of me with them when they go to Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Taiwan, France, Czech Republic, and maybe Ghana. 3 students didn't know exactly what they would teach even on Wednesday. They emailed me and asked for my advice. I pointed them in a direction and they took it from there. They don't know how realistic that is until they go overseas and find out that they have to come up with 4-6 classes every day, 5 days a week. It isn't always easy, and I think my students have found resources on line and within themselves to give their students great classes and keep themselves, and their students entertained! Good luck Ashley, Deborah, Usman, Daniel, Maddy, James, Abe, Long, Art, and Kate!

Sleep and Dreams

Yesterday I drove from home to Santa Barbara then sat in a meeting went to dinner. This morning I had to be in a meeting at 9am, finished at 11am, then have to wait around till 4pm to get my picture taken with my coworkers, go to a fancy dinner, then drive home and will get home around 1am. Tomorrow is a big day for my students and I have to be "up" for them to do their best and get confidence in themselves.

When I travel I usually listen to audio books. I drive a lot so I listen to a lot of books, usually a mystery novel or a war book, something that will make me forget I am driving and makes me want to stay in the car longer. This drive I decided to do something a little different. I decided to listen to Dreams by Sigmond Freud. It was only 5 discs, but I could only listen to 2 before it realized I couldn't concentrate on what the book was saying and my driving. I was very interested in the book, I think I need to sit down and read it. It was interesting to hear how they did experiments when someone was sleeping and they pinched his neck, and he dreamed of a shot ... I would have waken up and been upset! One time they dropped some water on a guy's shirt, and he dreamed he was he had run a long distance and was all sweaty ... how many of us would have waken up because of the water? Or it reminded me of putting a sleeping person's hand in warm water and making them pee all over themselves. Ok, parts of this book I think were crazy, I really think a lot of this is some guy rambling on to think of things to write about. How many of us really remember our dreams, and can tell others what we dream. My part I will remember the best was when they were really talking about sleep. The book talked about the importance of sleep. It is not just a time to rest your body, but to rest your mind. Sometimes when I have stressful jobs I take the time to close my office door, or lay down in bed for just 15 minutes, complete silence and as dark as I can, just to rest my mind. When I teach people that want to be teachers I tell them to take a 10 min break and be by themselves, away from all students, and just NOT be a teacher for a while. I know no one listens to me and they have to find out on their own. As I was listening I was thinking about when I was in college and often went to be early, my roommate tried to change my habit and had me listen to John Denver as I was in bed ... didn't change me! I think wondered if sleep balanced out in the end, If you sleep early when you are young, are you more adept to sleep late when you were older, and vice versa? Are you only allowed so much waking hours and when you max those out do you die? I love to sleep, and don't like getting up! You know the saying, "Do you live to eat, or eat to live"? I have another saying (I am starting today), "Do you live to sleep, or sleep to live"?

Private schools

Today the major thing I did was go to a meeting with people from all the military services. We talked about recruiting in schools. It is very interesting to hear all the services talk about how hard it is to get into the service now. If you want to go into the army is fairly easy. If you want to go into the Air Force you must wait at least a year. If you want to go if the Navy is almost impossible because they don't meet many people, you need people to go into the seals and some nuclear engineers. The Coast Guard takes your name and they might call you. The Marines are also not in need of so many people. The funny thing is all of these people are working for recruiters. So the question is what should the recruiters do when the services don't need any people? The recruiters have a saying, make mission go fishing. But the problem right now is they have not reduced the requirement, mission, that the recruiter has to bring two people in each month. So what is the recruiter supposed to do when the services are not accepting people? This is so stupid! These days their mission is fishing. I'm glad my job is to work with schools and not to do recruiting, or I would never be able to go fishing! Oh, I want to go fishing next weekend, I hope I can find someone to go fishing with me.

Yesterday I went to a private school in Santa Rosa. I was so impressed with this private school and the kids there were polite. I think I'm supposed to say that about private school children, but the truth is that the kids were more disruptive than some public schools, and some continuation schools that I've been to recently. I think schools are starting to get a bad rap, just because kids go to public schools doesn't mean that they are any worse or better than people that go to private schools. I went to a public school, most of my friends went to public schools, so the best people I know have gone to public schools! When I go to private schools the only exception is there wearing uniforms. That's it. It's Monday and Tuesday I went to an occupational school in San Jose. The kids there, the teachers there and the staff there were great. Every one of the kids that I met at that school were very polite, and they made me feel happy to be there. The counselor I was working with worked three times as hard as any other teacher saying for a long time. You could tell that she really was concerned about the future of the kids in the school. My kids go to public school, in fact these days I work very closely with the administration school and some of the teachers and I'm very proud of the school they go to. I wish people would quit giving schools such a bad reputation, just because there are some people that don't want to be at the school doesn't mean that all of the children that go to that school don't want to be there. I think my kids are getting a great education, learning how to be good adults, and being prepared for life in their public school. I understand why some parents want their kids to go to private schools especially if they want them to go to a religious school but I don't think it's needed for everyone. When we start comparing our education system to other countries we are not taking into consideration that those other countries have different education systems. We are comparing all of our children, including the ones that don't want to be in school, with kids in other countries the only one to go to college. We don't compare our kids in school to the average kids in school and other countries. I'm not saying everything is great in our schools, but I disagree with those people that think everything in our schools is bad.

(this is the first posting I tried to do using my microphone and me speaking while the computer types what I say!)

Long Drives

Today I drove to a school 3 hours away. I was supposed to go to another school that was 5 and a half hours, but someone did that for me. I enjoy driving long distances, people ask me why I ask and I realize I just don't think about it. When I drive I listen to a book and I don't even realize the time is going by. Sometimes I get someplace on time and stay in the card to listen to a little more of the story. I also travel with a camera and often stop to take pictures of interesting things. Even if nothing is interesting it is around I like to take pictures of normal life things and say it is interesting. Today I took pictures of some trees that were changing colors and then as I was driving up to the Golden Gate Bridge the fog was rolling in and it was so wonderful to watch. I was able to take pictures where there was no fog, then the next pictures the fog was thick. A helicopter even flew by, first over the bridge then turned around and was over  the bridge again. I enjoyed the drive today and look forward to the next long drive. Let me know if you want to see more pictures!!

Classrooms with a Purpose

For the past two days I have been teaching students about careers in the San Jose Central County Occupational Center (CCOC). I had never heard or known about this center before last week. 35 high schools from Santa Clara County send students to this center to learn many occupations from vet assistant, diesel mechanic, air conditioning, among many other skills including website design and animation. I have been working with some very dedicated people in the school. I expected the students to be rude and unruly. In fact they have been the most polite students in any I have been to. I expected the equipment to be old and the teaching methods to be boring. The teachers really care and seem to be up to date on teaching methods and knowledgeable about the latest technology. My experience at this school site was fantastic. I have worked with 8 classes already and will be working with 16 more. The counselor that I am working directly with has bitten off more than she was ready for. She thought she would offer this opportunity to the students and maybe 20 or 30 students would want to take advantage of this. As she let the faculty know what this offered students they signed up their classes and instead of 20 or 30 she tested over 300 students. That caused her many hours of more work, even though she had other things to do. I admire people like that. She is truly affecting lives and putting others before herself. Sometimes I think about the fact that you can give so much of yourself that you hurt yourself more than you help others. I have gotten in trouble over my life because people misunderstood my reasons for doing things. In Korea I used to live on the fifth floor with no elevator. It was the top of the stairs, and there was one other apartment at the same floor next to us. New neighbors were moving in and I was watching people take stuff off of a truck and walking it up the stairs. I realized I was just sitting and watching them and so I went downstairs and picked up something and walked it up the stairs. I dropped it off in the apartment and went down to get another box. I did that for about half an hour without saying a word since I don't speak Korean. I asked my wife to explain to them what i was doing, just being neighborly, and she yelled at me that I was stupid and being "so American". She told me that me helping strangers wasn't polite in Korea and I should stop immediately. I stopped, realizing that if I had kept helping them I would be doing the opposite of what I was attempting. Sometimes helping others can be counter productive!

Teaching ESL

This weekend I spent the days teaching for Oxford Seminars. I teach a course to certify my students to teach English in other countries. This month I have 10 students in my class. A wide variety of students, in age and background. I have fun showing them how to teach, then watching them attempt to teach a class ... watching them make mistakes in choosing what to teach, mistakes in their own English, mistakes in how to write on the white board, mistakes in how long a time it takes to teach the lesson they want ... etc. I enjoy watching my students grow in their ability and their confidence. As they gain knowledge and experience they become better and better. The little mistakes eventually get ironed out and things are smooth after a while. I look forward to hearing about their job search and then them getting jobs. One of my students from last month had 3 job offers from 3 different countries and had to decide where he wanted to go. When my students go overseas it is like a little part of me. I have taught 19 classes and have sent about 200 students to other countries to teach English. If each of those teachers have a hundred students in the time in another country I have affected over 20,000 students. That is amazing!!

I'm a Veteran

I was an Army officer from 1979 - 1988. My mother and sister, Betsy, pinned my gold bars on me in December 1978. My father was in Saudi Arabia so he couldn't be there, I will always be sad about that. In January my sister, Sue, and I drove from California to Maryland where I went to my initial schooling at Aberdeen Proving Grounds for three months then I went to Redstone Arsenal, Alabama for six months to finish my training as a Missile Maintenance Officer. I was trained in managing soldiers that repaired missile systems that were in the army. These included TOW and Dragon (pocket rockets for tanks), Chaparral and Vulcan (for aircraft), HAWK and Nike Hercules (high altitude aircraft), and Pershing and MLRS (used by the artillery). I also had to be trained in nuclear weapons because two of those systems were used to carry nukes. Most of the maintenance was on the electronics so the people that worked for me were very highly skilled and some of them had to go to school for up to a year. By the time I was sent to Kitzengen, Germany I had already been an officer for nine months where most officers had been in training for only three or four months. When I got to Germany I found out that the position I had been sent to Germany, and gone through all the advanced training, for had been postponed for two years. That meant essentially I had no job in Germany. I was "excess" and that meant I was available for every job no one else wanted to do. I remember my first week at the job they told me to, "...answer the phone and answer any question that comes up, that is the way to learn what is done around here." I was totally frustrated. I learned to change the paper in the copy machine (which was a new style and had a roll of paper and then a razor blade would cut the paper), I was in charge of ensuring all the back lights of the trucks had been upgraded to the larger size, I rode on a helicopter every day for two weeks carrying an empty box (except sometimes the box had cookies for some of the men in the field) because I was an officer and it gave credibility to using the helicopter. I started to understand the Army way. I was "excess" for a year then and a half and then they sent me to the unit I was supposed to go to and I did a job that I was actually trained for. After 6 months there I was sent to a new job in Wuerzburg (where, in fact, I was born). I really enjoyed my new job and I worked for the General Staff. It was a real experience because when we went to the field I was on duty from 10pm - 6am. What that really meant was when the general slept I sat in the command tent and kept his seat warm. I made sure the maps were up to date when the general came back in the morning and answered questions when requested. Really, I didn't do much because there were many senior sergeants there that told me what I should do (usually what I shouldn't do). It was interesting for me since I was a maintenance officer and had never been taught about infantry. I still laugh thinking of the time a colonel came into the tent at 2am looking for the officer in charge. By then I was a FIRST Lieutenant and I hurried over to him. He saw that I was a maintenance officer and only a Lieutenant and he started yelling at me, and then at the senior sergeant that he was a colonel and wanted to talk to the person in charge. I sheepishly said I was the senior officer for the night shift and asked him if I could help him. He yelled more and I told him if he wanted me to I could wake the general. The HE sheepishly said that wasn't necessary. He told me his problems and I helped him with the solution and he went away. I didn't have to wake the general. Six months before I left Germany I was given another job and had additional training on the first M1 tanks in Germany. After Germany I was sent for morning training in Alabama. After the one year of training I stayed in Huntsville, Alabama for another 3 years where I was in charge of writing evaluation tests for new equipment the Army wanted to buy. Many years later I saw the Army had the forklifts I had helped to write the evaluation test for. I also worked on testing the Sgt York which was a new weapon they were going to put in the Army to shoot down aircraft. While I was there they had the only six systems the army had to test. I remember hearing the news on the radio that they had decided not to buy Sgt York for the Army then I walked to the windows overlooking the systems and there were soldiers walking over to the six Sgt Yorks and turning them off and locking them. I also did some preliminary work on Directed Energy Weapons Systems (DEWS). I was asked to write an article on it and I did and it was published. After Alabama I was sent to Korea. In Korea I spent 2 months at the headquarters and then went to the missile maintenance company and was the commander. After Korea I went to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas and was there for two years until I got out of the Army.

Ideal Woman

I have been single for a long time, and sometimes I wonder what I'm looking for in a woman. Looks, brains, personality? I have never really thought about it, i just figured I would know when I met the girl. Why should I make a list when the woman I meet won't necessarily meet all the things I list. Of course I want a woman that I'm attracted to. I don't think she has to be the most beautiful woman I meet, because then I would worry about her whenever she meets another man. I would like a smart woman, but if she is smarter than me it would feel uncomfortable. Book smart is a little important, but more important is worldly and street smart. I agree that opposites attract and I would like a woman that has experiences that I don't and can open my eyes to new things, and is excited to learn new things from me. I need this "ideal woman" to want to do things, and want to do a variety of things. I think the most important thing is that I can talk to her for hours and not even realize that hours are going by. Even the most beautiful woman becomes normal after a while, when she is always around, but if the conversation can go on for hours it is the most important thing. I don't mind if she agrees with my way of thinking as long as she is open to listening to other ways of thinking. Does this woman exist and will I ever meet her?

Support the Troops!

Today I dropped off my car and picked up my work car at the National Guard armory. I was talking to the sergeant that is always there that takes care of the building daily. I was asking him about the people I saw get on the bus last week, and their cars parked at the armory. He said they were in southern California for 2 more weeks finishing their training. They will come back and have 2 weeks then go to Texas and get issued their equipment and do some more training then come back for a week and then go to Afghanistan. I asked when the unit will go and he said they would be leaving for Afghanistan about December 15. I said it was too bad that they couldn't wait until after Christmas. He said many of the soldiers thought the same thing until the commander reminded them that they would be gone for exactly a year. If they leave before Christmas then they will come back before Christmas. I thought about what I would rather do, and I agree with their thinking. It made me think of the some of the Christmases I spent overseas in the Army. My first Christmas I can remember in Germany all the families got together to sing around the community Christmas Tree. It was great, they had a ceremony and the families all tried to make the soldiers feel less lonely. I was an officer, so I had to support the families efforts to make the people feel less lonely. I felt worse, I had to put on this facade to make everyone think I was happy when inside I was crying. I was happy when it got dark, because I could allow my tears to flow. I felt so depressed, and couldn't let anyone know! I remember when I was a company commander in Korea and it was Christmas. Again, I had to make everyone forget they were alone in Korea and that they all had family, each other, and support each other. I got a party together with the senior sergeants and the junior officers. I made an appearance at the party and then left. I knew that no one could be comfortable if I was around, since I was the senior officer. I left the party and went downtown. I remember it very vividly in my mind right now. I walked downtown, it was very very cold and snow, just like Christmas is supposed to be. I was walking around downtown and there was a cute little white church. I stopped outside and listened as the church choir was practicing for the midnight service. I couldn't understand the words, but I remember they were singing the Korean version of Silent Night and O Come All Ye Faithful. I can remember standing outside that little church and listening. I wanted to walk in, but didn't know if it was ok, so I stood outside! I stood there crying, thinking about the first Christmas in Germany, and how I was just as lonely as I was that night 6 years previously. I hope I am never that lonely again, and I hope I can prevent people from having that feeling also!

Goals

Today I worked in Salinas. I visited two schools, Salinas High and Alvarez High. I worked with 8 students in each school and I enjoyed working with them. How difficult is it for kids to decide what they will do after high school? The young people that I worked with today were really interested in planning their futures. Usually I work with kids that have no idea what they want to do, they have had one goal for 12 years, to finish high school. After they do that it is like a vacuum where there is a complete void of any goals. I think life is about goals, and then more goals. If goals are ever achieved then you don't have any future goals. We need to always have something to reach for, whether it is a new job, getting a better car, improving our relationships, or making a relationship. What is your goal?

You can't learn if you can't laugh

I started a new class today. I teach people that want to go overseas and teach ESL. I always tell my students that there are three things that are important for a successful class. First is Variety, second is team building, and third is laughter. You need to vary the things you teach in class, and the style you teach. If you use games to teach one day, the next day you need to have more conversation, then the next day you need to give lecture. If you always do the same thing then students get bored. I tell them about the time I taught in Korea and every Friday was game day. Students enjoyed it and I had fun teaching. Then one month I decided to have a Game MONTH. I had a variety of games we played every day for a month. Word games and other language games. Everyone got bored, they begged me to teach a lesson. Team building is essential for ESL classes. The students need to understand that they can take a risk without the rest of the students criticizing them or laughing at them. I talk about how the class needs to be a cocoon and feel safe to the whole class. I teach them how to do icebreakers and how important it is for the class to learn each others' names. Building a team is very important. Students must respect each other, at least during the class time. If a student feels that they are safe taking a risk they will attempt to speak English. Then the important thing is to keep the class relaxed and try to reduce the stress. If a student stresses they close their mind a little. Think about cramming right before a test and how short term what you learn stays with you. I believe if you get the students to laugh they remember things longer. They open their minds and allow more information to enter their minds. How is the best way to learn numbers, memorize the numbers, or play "go fish" and play with the numbers.

Well, the cats are dancing on the keyboard so I need to wrap this up!

Learning Styles

Today was a busy day ... I went to a school to see if I was supposed to be there today or tomorrow, of course that means I was supposed to be there tomorrow, no problem. Then I drove over to Gavilan College and met with a friend for a little while, really a guy I work with but he is someone I really enjoy being around. I then went to tutor a young man that needs to pass this test before he gets kicked out of the house and then to Westmont High School to talk to the students about careers and then helped two more people study. Then, go home to spend some time with Simon and Theodore.

Working with these three guys really brings home the fact that we all learn in different ways. I start off with them emphasizing that I started at a 52 and increased my score to 96 (maximum of 99) by studying the way I teach them. Of the three guys I worked with today the first guy has no patience and just wants to know what the answer is, after he knows the answer he wants to work backwards and know how I got it. I like working with him because he is very quick at understanding how things work, even though he doesn't like to go through each step. The second guy wants me to go step by step, he takes very detailed notes and repeats everything until he understands each step. The third guy can look at a problem and just knows the answer, he doesn't even know how he knows the answer but 80% of the time it is correct, which is about the same for the other two styles. It is fun to work with different kinds of learners it keeps it from getting boring. And ... I always tell my class of teachers, "you must laugh to learn!".

It is taking longer to write these nightly blogs since Simon has decided that if he seems me on the keyboard he should be on it too!

North Salinas High School

Yesterday I spent the whole day at North Salinas High School and today half a day. I worked for a day and a half helping the seniors practice interviewing skills. I interviewed 20 seniors, there were another 20 people with me from around the community that wanted to help. I have done this before in a few schools so it is always something I look forward to. I then had to go to Santa Clara High to attend a School Site Council meeting. The Site Council is the approving authority for how money is spent and to oversee the school programs. I am honored to be able to sit on this council. Then I bought a scratching post for the cats and spent the night trying to keep them off my lap while I was typing.

The contrast of the two schools is dramatic. The biggest difference between the students is the racial mix. North Salinas was almost 90% hispanic, I only saw 3 asians in a day and a half. I talked to kids whose parents work in the fields, and the kids sometimes go to help. I talked to kids that have parents that never finished high school. I talked to kids that were very cautious about their futures, because the family needed their help. I really could feel that those kids appreciate help. Santa Clara has a lot of asians, and many of the parents are engineers and the kids are expected to go to college. I like seeing both parts of society, it helps me feel grounded!

Staying Busy!

Today I woke up in Monterey and then drove to Salinas to help a school there teach their students how to interview for jobs. I did mock interviews from 8:30am - 3pm. I then drove to visit my cats (they are doing great) and then went to my daughter's last volleyball game of the season. Then I went to run an information seminar for my weekend job in Santa Clara, and now I'm back in Monterey. This sounds like it was a hectic day, but I enjoyed it. I have had times when I was looking for something to do all day and I would much rather stay very very busy. Can you imagine what it would be like to have to go to an office at 8am and then sit at a desk and type on a computer until you get to go home at 5pm! Can you imagine what it is like to look out the same window, or even worse not even have a window to look out of, every day of the week! Some people think I work long hours, but it isn't work if you are having fun, and the hours aren't long unless what you do is monotonous! I like staying busy and visiting people all over this wonderful state. Yesterday I helped 3 people study, today I directly helped 16 high school seniors prepare for life after school, tomorrow I will help another 12 high schools students directly and indirectly over the 2 days 240 students. Thursday I will be visiting Westmont High School in Campbell and working with tutoring again. Friday I will drive to Kingsburg, about 3 hours away. Next week it is another 2 schools in Salinas and then Fairfield. The week after I will be visiting a few schools in San Jose, then Ukiah, Fortuna (5 hours north), and maybe McKinleyville (2 hours north of that), then back to Mountain View then Santa Barbara. Rather than think I'm busy, I like to think that I am productive~!

Quiet Day

Today wasn't so bad. I was 30 minutes late to my 9am appointment and the person wasn't there. I don't know if they came and then I wasn't there so left, or never showed up. I was doing him a favor by meeting him, so I was kind of disappointed that he left without trying to contact me. Then I went to see Anthony to see if he had more schools for me to visit. He told me I needed to go up to Fortuna High School in Fortuna, CA. that is 5.5 hours north, and the day before I need to go to Santa Barbara which is 4 hours south. That will be a long week of driving, thank goodness for audio books. Then I went to teach for an hour or so and then helped a couple of people with Math. One guy had dropped out of school when he was a senior, that is something I never understand, and the other guy was "special ed", at least that is what he told me. One caught on real quick and the other struggled to figure out how to do long division. I am not a miracle worker, guess which one caught on and which one couldn't do long division... I introduced my daughter Sarah to Simon and Theodore. They liked each other, and I guess I was sort of jealous that another person was in the two brothers' lives now. I still enjoy them being in the house with me ... but gotta get a scratching post for them.

Nocturnal Animals

I got the two cats, they are brothers. Theodore and Simon are 6 months old and look identical, I think I will be the only one to tell them apart, at least for a while. Originally I thought Simon was the adventurous one and Theodore was the snuggler, as time goes by I find that Theodore is the snuggler and the adventurous one and Simon just likes to be by himself. I brought them home Saturday morning and locked them in the bathroom where there litter box is and have food and water in there for them. It was nice that I could come visit them when I wanted and they always greeted me with purring. Sunday morning they escaped and I lost them. I spent the whole day looking for them, until the football game, then the world series. I couldn't find them! Around 10pm I walked into the kid's room and when I got close to the bed I heard purring from under the bed, behind the box in the corner. I found out where they were hiding and also found out they couldn't hide when they were awake because Theodore purrs when I get near. Just automatically like one of those cars that start honking when you get too close. It was funny, I was testing out my theory ... I would let them run away ... then walking around the house I found that the purring got louder and more steady when I got closer, like the game we played when we were kids saying people were "warmer" or "colder" depending how close they got to an object we hid. So, when I went to bed I realized what "nocturnal" means, it means they are very active at night. If I didn't give them attention, because I was trying to sleep, I had one or the other or both, cats rubbing against me or sitting on my face. OK ENOUGH!! Now I have cat hair EVERYWHERE, even on the keyboard as I type here. Now I understand why the rollers to remove hair from your clothes was on the necessary list of owning a cat, along with litter box (another long posting) and food and water dishes. Life is a learning process! Nocturnal also means when I wake up in the middle of the night one of the cats will be lying there just looking at me, seemed to be a lookout as the other brother was getting into mischief. When I woke up this morning everything was back to normal, the cats hidden away and the food gone and had to clean out the litter box, I guess I know my daily morning duties from now on!

I also now need to date only women that don't mind cats!