Pop Quiz 7-14-10

Do you know who this guy is?  I'll even give you his name - Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta.  What is he famous for?

Answer is after the jump.

BONESHAKER

Great summer read.  Wil Wheaton recommended "boneshaker" (probably on a tweet) and I found the book in a bookstore in Boston the same day.  Karma.  Had to purchase it.  Was a quick read.  Steam Punk and zombies - couldn't be to bad?  Turned out to be good.  Nothing high brow here and nothing earthshaking (pardon poor humor) or extremely novel.  Just a good solid story about a young man trying to find out about the father he never knew and a mom trying to protect same child.  Throw in a fictitious steam-punk version of Seattle, zombies, airships, and a diverse set of characters and you get some fun.

Shelfari Page for BONESHAKER 

(Boston) New England Aquarium - Part the Third

I mentioned before how the center of the aquarium is this huge (I'm guessing a bit, because the walkway spiraled around it) 4 story tank.  It had lots of cool sea life.  The sharks were . . sharks!  There was an eel that was a bit of a camera snob, stingrays that seemed content to just swim around and around and around, blowfish, and lots of others.  But my favorite were the sea turtles.  I think I want to go swim with them someday.

Tony and the SHARK! -

And Tony with the Sea Turtle.  Plus more after the break.

(Boston) New England Aquarium - Part the Second

The aquarium has several rehab facilities.  There is a whole section that is like an ER and hospital/rehab for sea turtles.  No pictures allowed :-(

I did get some pictures from the "fish hospital".  This poor guy has a bubble over his eye.  He is in the "Critical Care Ward".  He doesn't look very happy.

(Boston) New England Aquarium - Part the First

The New England Aquarium was our first stop on our first full day in Boston.  As with most of the attractions we visited, I could have spent a whole day here.  Sea Lions have an external wall on their tank and are the first critters to welcome you to the aquarium.  If you look real close, you can see them in the photo just left of center. (click on pictures - they are stored in hi-res and you can blow them up big!)

The facility has a four(?) story walk around tank in the middle of the building with large (think Sharks!) sea life in it.  The bottom "floor" of the building is a gigantic penguin pool with hundreds of penguins.

Picture taking was a problem.  People using flashes kept getting nice pictures of themselves.  The flash turns the glass walls into mirrors.  I had my best success shooting in video mode.  First video clip has Seahorses, a crab, an urchin, and these strange 5 armed creepers that look like something from a SciFi movie.  There are three more videos after the jump (click the "read more")

Nerd, Geek, or Dork

I took the test and here are my results --



Your result for The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test...

Pure Geek

48 % Nerd, 57% Geek, 26% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek.

It's not that you're a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don't really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren't quite mainstream. Perhaps it's anime, perhaps it's computers, perhaps it's bottlecaps, perhaps it's all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don't quite consider yourself "of that crowd." Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal.

Which, you are. Congratulations!

Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Take The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test at OkCupid

Sam would be proud

I remember when Wal-Mart first came to PA.  I remember the ad campaign.  Wal-Mart promised "Made in the U.S.A.".  That stopped shortly after Sam Walton went to the great Super Center in the sky.

FlowingData has a map that shows the growth of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club over the best 40-some years. Very cool to watch (in a War Games kinda way). Interesting if you pan around the map or zoom out. There are several Wal-Marts in Puerto Rico. Hawaii seems to dig Sam's Clubs.

Check it out at -- http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/

Morning Joe

During the school year I wake up to "Morning Joe"  with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, and a whole slew of regular guest commentators.  The show runs 6 to 9 AM and has a very contemporary feel.  The bumper music is usually 70's and 80' tunes.  Guests wander in and out of the show through-out the morning, almost like they have stopped by to grab their caffeine and then coincidently get drawn into the conversation.  There is not a lot of fluff and the hosts (Joe and Mika mostly - Willie is more of the useless trivia/news/comedy guy) do not always agree with each other, let alone their guests.  Discussions can get very heated.  True, each individual may have a bias on any topic, but due to the wide range of guests and opinions, at the end of the conversation you truly do get a balanced view of the news.  Honestly, it's about the only cable news I watch anymore.  Most of the cable news I cannot stomach.

There is one thing about "Morning Joe" that I cannot stomach -- Their Starbucks blend of coffee.  I was so excited when I found it on the shelves of Wal-mart, I took the bag home and took pictures of it next to my coffee mess.

Then I ran a pot . . .

I spent 6 years in the Navy.  I drank a lot of bad coffee.  I have stomached some of the most dangerous grounds ever percolated in a Boy Scout Camp.  I consider myself a professional on bad coffee.  I admit, I don't have the range of taste buds to appreciate the subtleties of better brews.  I didn't need to with this stuff.  It can't decide if it is a French Roast, a dark roast "wake-me-up", or a base for all the fancy slurryups coffee houses like to dump into otherwise perfectly good coffee.  I like my coffee sans everything.  If the brew can't go down on its own, it is no good.  I understand now why Joe always has creamers, flavored syrups, sugar, and ice in his coffee.  It is the only way to make it palatable.  Morning Joe Coffee - failed.

Buy a bag anyway and put it on your shelf.  It does look cool and I believe part of the proceeds are marked for charity (not sure - can someone find out?)

Errors and Corrections

Friend Jason Kramer, who happens to be a pharmacist and e-friendly small business owner (two links in there), corrected my error of thinking Adderall was not a C-II drug.  It is.  Good news(?), Zyprexa is not and it costs more than Adderall - making it an even bigger waste of money!  Sweeter.

You may want to go back and re-read the revised post (or not).  Argument is still the same.

Thank you Jason.

You don't know JACK!

Had a decent Father's day today.  My son Dan, one of my foster sons, and Mia went up to my fathers for dinner.  Mia made chicken and shrimp kabobs for the grill, along with macaroni salad and deviled eggs (potentially a stinky situation with all the eggs involved).  At my request, dad made a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing - yummy!  Cathy came over for dinner.  All-in-all a very laid back and pleasant day.

But tonight, as I was finishing reading "Deadline" by Chris Crutcher ( a whole separate trauma) I was IMd by my friend Jack.  He is an Air Force Medic serving with the First Battalion, 110 Infantry Brigade at FOB Bullard.  I often catch him on Facebook in the evening, which is the morning for him.  Once, he hurriedly typed "things are starting off fast today" and "just found an IED have to wait for EOD".  He signed off shortly after that.  He has also described some of the gorier casualties he has had to deal with.  He's even mentioned a few fatalities.  Until June 11th, they had always been Afghan Nationals and, not that it should matter, I felt relief to know that these were not American Soldiers dieing in his unit.

June 11th that changed.  Army Staff Sgt. Bryan Hoover and Army Sgt. First Class Fike were killed by an IED.  Not that you can intuit much emotional context out of a text message, it is obvious that this loss has played heavy on my friend - as it should.  And it should effect us at home more as well.  There have been 35 American fatalities in June (as of the 20th) and I have not heard nearly as much about this disaster as I have heard of the oil spill in the gulf, the silly debate of defending the American Border in Arizona (silly in that there is already Federal precedence to check a suspects immigration status if it is suspect, so who cares if a State wants to in-act their own similar legislation.  Read all three answers.), or Armani Underwear airbrushing out Megan Fox's Abs (worth two seperate links btw).

If you want to see who has died in service to our country, check out --

• http://icasualties.org/OEF/Index.aspx
• http://militarytimes.com/valor/index.php
• http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf
• http://freedomremembered.com/index.php/category/states/pennsylvania/ (this link is just for Pennsylvanians - there are write-ups for both Hoover and Fike)

And there it is!  Not that I will dwell on these thoughts, but I will be more anxious as I wait to see Jack log on to his Facebook account.  Please, keep him, as well as all of the other great Americans who serve on our behalf, in your thoughts and prayers.  And, do not forget those who have fallen.

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. - General Douglas MacArthur

R2Egg2

I bought a Motorola Droid the day after Christmas this past year.  It was part gift for myself and part gift from others.  I have fallen in love with it.  I have become one of those people I used to make fun of.  I always have it with me, am always reading texts and emails, and struggle to put it down when dining out with friends.  It is like an addiction.  A social networking addiction?  Maybe.

I started a Twitter Account because of my droid (R2Egg2 - yes, I named it).  Egg2 has opened up other social networking applications to me.  I just started "foursquare" and I "Yelp*".  I get my daily doses of Facebook directly to Egg2.  My Google (Gmail) mail, calendar, task list, and documents sync together, so I am never without access.  My favorite podcasts (Slate political Gabfest, Radio Free Burrito, and NPR All Songs Considered) load directly to the Droid.  Egg2 plays my music, holds my pictures, and shoots video (streaming live to http://qik.com/kurteeck or the bottom of this blog).  I've even used it as metal detector at work (Tricorder App!).  It is the coolest toy ever (for now).

Plus, now that I have posted this, you can click through the links and hit me up from the net or SMS me at 570-486-4443.

Later.

A bitter pill to swallow

The amount of money wasted on medicine for foster kids is amazing.  Sometimes it seems I destroy almost as many pills as I administer.

Here is an example.  Child goes to med clinic.  Dr. prescribes a certain med.  For this example, lets say 10 mg Adderall XR Zyprexa.  He writes out a 30 day prescription with two refills.  The Dr. also puts the child on a schedule II drug, which  can only be scheduled out for thirty days and cannot be refilled without another appointment.  (This also helps feed the coffers of the Doctors who do these med clinics)  I go and fill both prescriptions for the first thirty days.  Someone screws up and doesn't schedule the next med clinic within 30 days.  (This happens more often than it should as well)  I run out of the schedule II drug but do refill the Adderall XR Zyprexa, which has refills.  Three days into the 30 pills of the refill, we get into see the doctor for the schedule II drug.  While talking to the child, the child mentions to the doctor that he doesn't like the way the Adderall Zyprexa makes him "feel".  In turn, the doctor decides to take the child off of the Zyprexa and put him on something else.  I end up with 27 capsules of Zyprexa.

Thirty 10 mg capsules of Zyprexa costs around $475.  (http://tiny.cc/p2ti2) What am I to do with them?  I have to destroy them.  Who pays for the wasted meds?  You do!  All kids in foster care in PA receive their health care through Medical Assistance, which is funded with your tax dollars.  Sweet.

(Friend Jason Kramer, who happens to be a pharmacist and e-friendly small business owner (two links in there), corrected my error of thinking Adderall was not a C-II drug.  It is.  Good news(?), Zyprexa is not and it costs more than Adderall - making it an even bigger waste of money!  Sweeter.)

Take A Pill!

It is no secret that I am not a fan of behavioral meds; especially when it involves kids I have in my home or at school.  It's not that I am totally against their use.  My father, depending on which doctor you ask, is either schizophrenic or manic depressive.  You wouldn't know it.  When he is on his medication he is as "normal" as the next person.  But get him off his meds . . . 


I was classified as a hyperkinetic child when I was in elementary school.  My parents nor my teachers (I just used "nor") gave me pills.  And, as much as I would like to say they did, they didn't apply a 2x4 or a paddle.  I did miss quite a few recesses.  There were some early bedtimes.  I was allowed to pace back and forth as I read books in fifth grade.  And I survived school.  


Most of the students I get that are labeled ADD/ADHD do just fine if they are given a little extra structure and, at times, leeway.  Same with foster children.  I've had kids, Thomas for instance, who have shown up on my doorsteps so doped up that they are doing a damn good impersonation of a zombie, except they can't even work up enough energy to growl "Brains".

WWdN: In Exile

Another summer has come and I look at my poor blog and realize how neglected it has become.  Fear not!  I am revitalized.  I have found my muse.  And it is not a feminine sprightly muse.  It is the youngest officer of Starfleet, "The Gordo" from "Stand By Me", the kid from that movie "Toy Soldiers" -- what was his real name?

I didn't think about him as having grown up.  I didn't know that he had (re)created himself as one of the most popular bloggers of the past decade (Forbes.com awarded him "Best Celebrity Weblog" in 2003 and in 2009 ranked him as the 14th most influential celebrity blogger.  He's been nominated for lifetime achievement awards in blogging and has been compared to blog powerhouses like Fark and Slashdot.); and then turned his blogging into authorship.  I'm not even sure how I stumbled onto his web site - WWdN: In Exile.
I just know that I did stumble upon it around Easter and have been letting his musings and anecdotes fill the few empty places I have left in my brain.  I even bought one of his books --

I finished it the same day it arrived.  The "He" is Wil Wheaton.  And he is much more than the characters he played years ago.  He is the geeks geek.  He writes about all the cool things my friends and I did when we were his age - Star Wars, Star Trek, Car Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, Pac-man and Dig-Dug.  And it is readable.  And enjoyable.  And - very human.

The motivating part - I did write a 50,000 word novel in November as a participant in National Novel Writing Month.  I have learned to shed my inner editor and put my thoughts into type.  I just haven't had the spirit to write (nor the time, thanks to conditions at work).  My "muse" was gone.  Wil Wheaton has shown me that it is also ok to shed the cloak of self-doubt.  They are voices in his head that he (and his wife) have learned to ignore.  I'll write.  I'll post.  If people like what I have to say, great.  If not, I will be none the worse for the effort.

I will ignore the voices of self doubt.  It is time for round three (if your counting) for the Egg Bros primary web presence.  I hope some readers come along for the ride.

Two of my favorite things.

Sorry . . . I couldn't help myself. My inner geek took over and made me post it. (Think about it. Star Wars AND Legos)

Safe Schools

I'm not sure how I've avoided venting on this issue for so long. I probably feared that I might offend someone or violate some protocol or requirement. Now that school is almost over for the year and after reading about another incident in another Alternative Ed. Program, I've decided to vent. I will avoid mentioning specifics myself and instead will let the news articles stand (mostly) on their own. Then I will gripe about the overall inefficiency of "The System" in regards to these events.

Most recently, students in my class mentioned that they heard a "teacher" at "Five Star" had been fired for beating a student. I immediately assessed this at about 5% chance of being accurate (or 95% BS). Googled it. Found --

Cops: Student choked teacher

By Amanda O’Rourke
The Daily Item

SUNBURY — A Winfield teenager faces assault charges after he allegedly choked a teacher at a city school Wednesday morning.

This is local news. Not something happening in the big city or on the west coast. Granted, Five Star is an alternative ed. program similar to the PATH AEP where I work. We get troubled kids with lots of anger issues. Still, it is not expected that they will just attack teachers. Why is this happening? And what is to be done?

Our program has had a similar incident.

Cops: Mom kicks man's face
Middleburg woman attacks son's teacher

By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item

MILTON -- A Middleburg woman kicked a fallen teacher in the head and face, and pulled his hair, after her student son had gotten into trouble over a cell phone, Milton police said.

Obviously, I was there. The story is not entirely accurate. I didn't get kicked. Mr. Matt did. We did restrain the youth. No one was hurt. From the PATH end, we acted very professionally.

The question, again, is "how have we gotten to the point were students and parents have no qualm with assaulting teachers"? I have heard that Five Star had an incident about two weeks after mine that involved a parent. And if you google "student attacks teacher" you'll get (drum roll please) thirty-four million hits. Why?

Our judicial system, which is suppose to provide an expeditious and timely trial, is bogged down. In my case, the assault happened in mid-February. The preliminary hearing is scheduled for the 10th of July. I suspect that the result of that hearing will push the trial back into October. By the time anything is resolved . . .

I'd like to blame national apathy. Perhaps this trend is due to a swing back towards moral relativism. My students often justify their behavior by claiming that they don't feel like they have to treat us (the teachers) with respect because we don't treat them with respect. Maybe the confusion is in understanding what "Respect" is?

(TBC)

Bull or No Bull!?

Sometimes you wish the bull would beat the bullfighter. This time the bull did win. Be warned -- this is kinda 'gory'! (only the first minute of the video has the bull winning - after that . . .)

YMCA Day Camp Training - annual recharge

I really enjoy this time of the year. Not only is school almost over and the weather getting great, but I get to go to the Sunbury YMCA, meet some old friends, make some new ones, and share some of my ideas and knowledge in the annual Day Camp training.

And again, this year was great. I feel like my motivational battery is recharged. What a great program we have in the Greater Susquehanna Valley YMCA!

This year we focused on emergency procedures, child development and effective discipline, and song leading. It all went well. I had fun teaching everyone "singing in the rain" with additional motions added in. The last verse of the song is sung with everyone dancing with their elbows together, their knees together and bent, body bent, and tongue stuck out. I figure, what better time to get out the camera?


I ended the session with a large group team building exercise that involved jig saw puzzles and blindfolds, as well as a devious trick.


Everyone worked well together. Quality staff members. I get the feeling there will be lots of happy campers this summer.

Cross Curriculum

In an attempt to maintain our high rate of cross curriculum activities, Mr. Matt integrated the social studies current events material with the rocket portion of the physics class.

Steven Rodriguez' accused murderers get day in court

An update - the three assailants in the Steven Rodriguez murder had their first day in court. read about it in the Dialy Item -

"Steven M. Rodriguez was shot dead in his apartment May 11 after he stole marijuana from one of the three men accused of killing him, a friend and witn . . ."