Class Final Project

WOOOHOOOOO, I did my final project and have it posted. I like some of the items I incorporated into my AFJROTC pages and there are some things that I definetly need to work on. Class was a lot of fun and I have learned a ton of information, hopefully because of my old age and incredibly Gray or is it Grey hair I will not soon forget how to access and use all of these wonderful new tools at my disposal.

I think Chris our Instructor/Professor/Mentor was incredible. (No I am not trying to suck up to get a better grade) however……. He did a great job of getting us started in web page design and I now feel comfortable enough to go forth and prosper! Yeah, yeah old cliché still fits though.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and for those of you who wish to remain politically correct have a Happy Holiday. It was fun, it was real and I learned a new use for my computer.

Cheers!

BEHS Cadets Compete and Rock!

This past weekend 24 of Ben Eielson High Schools finest competed at the Interior Drill Competition hosted by Lathrop HS Army JROTC. I am proud to say that these young men and women who gave up most of there Saturday and started out at the ungodly hour of 6:30 A.M. came away from the competition feeling very good about themselves and also carrying 4 fairly large trophies.

The First year cadets (who were very nervous competing in there first ever competition) beat up on three other teams and pulled out a Third Place finish. They proved themselves very worthy to call themselves Ravens and continued to carry on our tradition of excellence and the BEHS Motto; “Small, but Mighty and Proud”.

Our Regulation Drill team also pulled off a Thrid Place showing and missed out on First place by a mere 4 points. Not bad for the smallest school at the competition, in addition they fielded one of the largest teams on the drill pad.

The Armed Exhibition Drill Team also brought home a Third Place Trophy by completing some of the most difficult and exciting movements of the day. Unfortunately due to there size (Four Man Team) they took a big hit in penalty points for not fielding a complete Ten Man team. Well done gentlemen!

The biggest excitement and surprise of the day was the First Place award presented to our Unarmed Exhibition Drill Team. This group of dedicated cadets wowed the crowd with there precision and sometimes hilarious marching movements. They were a crowd favorite and the judges responded by giving them top honors for there routine.

The cadets now have a long month of practice, before they head down South to begin competition in the Anchorage area on January 19, 2008. They are up to the challenge and look forward to competing and once again bringing home the hardware.

Color Schemes (Way over DUE!!!)

I decided to surf and find JROTC pages that i would like to emulate for my final project. Upon searching these numerous sites I found just about every different color concept that we talked about in class:

Monochromatic  – http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/2149/

This site hurt my eyes very one dimensional with colors that do not necessarily compliment each other. Not my cup of tea.

Compimentary – http://www.lackeyafjrotc.com/

I really liked this site, Blue is my favorite color and if I can I want to use a lot of what this web page offers. The colors are easy on the eyes and very simple.

Analogous also  Monochromatic – http://www.pa022.com/

This would lead me to know that this is an Air Force site, okay use of colors but not really complimentary of each other . All the planes make me think of being in the Air, thus Air Force.

Triad Color Scheme – http://www.santa.com/

Okay not a JROTC site however lots of color, pleasant but not really eye catching.

Okay this next web page is just God Awful, Pink with military hardware in the background. I am going to go out on a limb here but I would be willing to bet it was designed with a slight female influence.

http://www.dsdk12.net/~afjrotc/index.html

All in all a lot of the pages that looked professional used very minimal color schemes. A good thing to note for me and to keep in mind.

YOU KNOW YOU’VE BEEN IN JROTC TOO LONG ….

YOU KNOW YOU’VE BEEN IN ROTC TOO LONG WHEN….
 You polish your Nikes.
 You look forward to PT.
 You sing “Jodies” in the shower.
 You wear your uniform to church.
 You square corners going to class.
 You get insurance for your uniform.
 You “square” your meals in the cafeteria.
 You call your girlfriend by her last name.
 You start putting everything in acronyms.
 You tell your girlfriend’s mother “Yes, Sir.”
 You shave your head to look like the Sarge.
 You ask teachers if you can go to the latrine.
 You repeat the Colonel’s jokes to your friends.
 You shout “At Ease!” to your annoying brother.
 You keep calling your math class to “Attention.”
 You start using 2200 in reference to your curfew.
 You make yourself do pushups when you tell a lie.
 You jump to attention when your alarm clock rings.
 You get “in step” with friends walking down the hall.
 You constantly check your gig line, even in civilian clothes.
 You burn a copy of the Air Force Song to your favorite CD.
 You hum “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” in the halls.
 You stand at parade rest when other teachers call you to their desk.
 You wear a bracelet that bears the initials WWSCD (What Would Sargent Corbett
Do).
 You set aside a certain portion of your allowance to pay for the flight
caps you keep losing.
 And finally, when reading this list you realize, “Hey, I’M ALL that
and more!”
Author unknown…

Copy Rights and the Internet

What a real source of pain this can be to anyone who uses the Internet, especially if they plan to use an item in a presentation. Lord knows I am guilty during one of my classes learning how to use and make an imovie I chose to make a piece on the pledge of allegiance. Having grown up in Indiana. Red Skelton was a huge inspiration to me. Not only in his comedy but also in his very stoic portrayal about the pledge of allegiance when he was in grade school.

Now his voice has been recorded for all of posterity to listen to  and yes I used his message in my imovie presentation along with dozens of images from all over the web. Was this illegal? Most assuradely I probably broke copyright laws unknown to me or because I just chose to ignore them. The presentation turned out to be awesome and something i hava used in class for numerous presentations to my incoming freshman/first year cadets. Unbeknown to them they were viewing an illegal program and yet here they were learning about our country, there heritage and what it meant to good old Red about our and his flag.

This is silly, I was not making any money off of any of the “STOLEN” property however should any of the photographers or the relatives of Mr. Skelton they have every right to make me remove my program and destroy it.

Is there an easy answer to this? Not that I see, our old concepts of a piece of art that is physical and can be touched does not apply to our date bits information highway. Making a hand painted copy of the Mona Lisa and then advertising it as the original may get you many laughs from the sophisticated art connoisseur,  however the trying to pass this off as an original work of art would get you thrown in jail. In this case though you were committing fraud and trying to make a buck. Is this the same though for someone who writes a story about the Mona Lisa and uses a web obtained picture, sells advertising space on there web site and is making a buck from there story, but is also using a forged copy of the picture, even though they are not trying to sell a forged copy of the picture. I am sure the legal system would frown upon there use of the photo, but did they intend to sell the copy?

My poor feeble mind and gray matter hurts just thinking about this. New rules and boundaries definetly have to be applied to  the information highway and this huge new tool to access mass amounts of information and data.

As for me, I will continue to use all and any available information to teach my cadets and hopefully do not turn myself into a felon in the process.

Greeting Cards On-Line

Okay, how many of you out there get a lot of BANG for your buck? For the past several years I have been using American Greetings on line and I simply LOVE this site. Yes, yes at one time it was free and you did not have to worry about paying to send greeting, birthday or any holiday cards. But I have to assume that just like any business costs finally added up or the CEO needed to make some much needed cash. (I Digress).

For a mere twenty five american green backs you get unlimited access to  thousands of cards which you can email to friends, family and coworkers. Call me lazy if you would like, however with the mere touch of a couple of key strokes I can send holiday greetings to hundreds of people in just a few seconds.

I look forward to coworkers Birthdays, I can let them know that someone is at least recognizing the fact that they have aged another year and are no longer the teenager they think they are. Some of the cards are quite funny and can bring a bit of humor to the receiver during there dull and boring day. Letting the boss know you are thinking of them is always a good thing.

As I said I really do Love this site. If I know my wife is having a bad day, it is very easy for me to get on the web site and send her a card letting her know I am thinking of her or  one with a peppy little message that helps brighten her day. No it is not Wine, Chocolate or flowers but my sentiment is there and she knows I am thinking of her.

For that small fee you are also allowed to have three different accesses to your greetings. So not only do I get to use it at work but my wife has access and we also can use it from our home address.

If you need a card in a pinch they have downloadable hard cards that you can print and physically give to someone. This works really well with my Cadets when they are leaving to go to another school or state. I can print one up with a cute or touching sentiment, have all the rest of the students sign it and now they have a small memento from our school to  take with them.

I am sure there are things that could be improved but for me the site is perfect and as I stated earlier “I LOVE IT”.

Check it our for yourself; www.americangreetings.com

Maybe next Year!

Okay, so the Cubs managed to get themselves dismissed from the playoffs in three games. Oh well, next year will be a century of futility, could that be our year and just what all Cub fans have been waiting for?

How about them Cubbies!!!

I am a die hard Cubs fan and have been for more than 40 years, (yeah that clues you in to just how old and decrepit I am). Hopefully Bartman is out of our lives forever and this is the year for the favorite downtrodden team of all professional sports to finally earn a championship banner.

I mean come on if the Red Sox and White Sox can shake there curse and win a Major League World Championship, surely it is time for the Cubs to take that pennant!!! I mean 99 years of heart break after heart break (no I am not that old to remember the last championship) is it not time and well overdue for us CUBS to win?

It is really all my Mom’s fault (God rest her soul)! When I was just a young wee lad, my Dad took us to our first ever Cubs game, yes both me and my mother. We set behind Third base and watched Ron Santo and Ernie Banks play in beautiful Wrigley field and my or my mothers life were never the same again. When we weren’t able to make it to the games Mom would have WGN tuned in on the Television watching the game and keeping score in her notebook. She became almost fanatical. I had never seen my mom become so obsessed by something other than her family. And there I was all innocent and not knowing any better than to support and root for a team that was destined for contentment to stay out of the pennant races.

Oh we had our moments and players that we loved to watch. Ernie Banks will always be the best First Baseman in my eyes. Our recent flirtation with the almost great Sammy Sosa, (Sammy you ripped out our hearts and then laughed in our face) Oh the agony of defeat once again. Please, please tell me it is over, that we have suffered enough! we don’t want to be the goat (pun intended) anymore!

I have to believe that Carlos Zambrano, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano will lead us to the holy land. I don’t know if I can take it if we should fail this go round. Please all you Cubby Fans get down on your knees and ask the good lord to bless the Windy City with another championship team in the same decade. Besides we all know that though the White Sox’s were Champions for a few days, that the city of Chicago lives and breaths Cub fever. The Bulls are just a memory and the Lake Shore could sure use a little pick me up. Come on if the Saints can have a winning season and almost make it to the big dance, then why not our Cubbies!

Here I will rest and wait for tonights game. I ponder what my Mom would have thought and how she would have had pencil and paper handy to keep track of the score and stats. Maybe that’s it, she is up there right now bending the good Lords ear telling him just what needs to be done; Tomorrow Headlines “Cubs Win”!

A Site That Stank

Okay, so I have to write about a site that is not user friendly. Unfortunately most of my surfing and reading over the Web has to do with school and getting assignments or information for my class. Most of the sites I use if they are not user friendly are not surfed again.

One site that really drove me nuts last year and caused a lot of grief among my fellow teachers and acadamiens (is that a word?) was Center Point. We were force fed this program by our school district and told it was the wave of the future and to get used to it. It was cumbersome, not user friendly and just about the time you would learn how to navigate and get what you wanted the site managers (evil little trolls at a computer terminal I am sure!) would incorporate an update and the pages you just used the day before would be no longer available. It was maddening and also added more stress to our No Child Left Behind mentality (Don’t get me started on this unrealistic goal of our government….)

After all the cursing and whining and sniveling by us noncomputer literate teachers, (Odd we use computers darn near 24/7 in our classrooms but do not know enough to tell the operators what we need, or they just chose not to listen to us.)  we were basically told to shut up and color. This was the wave of the future and the program that was leading the charge. Funny, when the company got gobbled up by another computer conglomerate Centerpoint disappeared and Power School came on line.

It was like a breath of fresh air, a program that did what we wanted, how we wanted, when we wanted it!! Hooray the day has been saved by someone (probably a former teacher) who knew enough to make the program accessible and user friendly. Not only for us teachers but also parents and the students. I know in my heart of hearts it was the elves who found those trolls and set their tails on fire and ran them all out of the bowels of computer purgatory.

Now if I can only find my gradebook  so I can transcribe the correct scores into my computer program the world will be saved for at least one more day.

Death….to Center Point!

Paying Respect