End semester II

Tonite is the last class at STCC (thank goodness). The final is May 3rd. Friday afternoon we are loading up the Durango and heading for South Carolina. I haven't seen my son for several months and we plan on spending Sunday together. He has to be in school Monday and we are heading back to Memphis so McKenzie will only have to miss one day (though she doesn't mind missing!). The price of gas appears to be holding at around $2.79 to $2.89 throughout most of the southeast. I hope it stays there until our return trip. The Durango is a bit tough on gas, with a 25 gallon tank and around 18 or 19 mpg on the highway. While in SC, I will most likely take Zach to a USC baseball game and then we will play some golf. He is getting a lot better at golf and my game is going the other way, so he beats me occasionally. Oh, the days of yore, when I used to let him win as stuff sometimes to boost his self esteem!

Sunday I had my second trolley ride and my family's first. After Church, we came down to my job and worked out at the gym, then afterwards, hopped on a trolley to downtown and had a few brews and some lunch at Jillians. It is a cool place with TV's and sports everywhere, pool tables and upstairs is a huge gameroom for kids of all ages. The service is rather slow, but with ball games to watch and a tall glass of beer to sip on, I was fine. I am working on my patience a lot and am getting better. I think my time in the Caribbean helped me with that. Being impatient on Nevis is a tough way to go, so you learn to wait and when you finally get into the flow of time and life on Nevis, it helps you be more patient back in the US too.

Got to get online and try to find a piece of luggage that straps to the top of a truck. We pack so much when we travel, even the back of the Durango may not be big enough, plus, we bring back more that we take!

So adios and Good Day!

trolly

Rode a trolley in Memphis for the first time this morning. We had a seminar to attend at the Forum this morning, so instead of fighting downtown traffic a paying for overpriced parking, a colleague and myself parked on campus, hopped on a trolley for a buck and got to the seminar easily. The FedEx Forum is just off Beale St and at lunch about 10,000 seminar goers hit Beale. Lines for restaurants were well out into the street. Me? I got on the trolley, went back to my office and had McD's. Normally, I would have settled in somewhere for a couple tall brews, but I have a class tonite so that's a no go. The seminar was more business oriented and about success. The first guy helped build HP up and he was kind of boring, but then Zig Ziggler, which is apparently well known, talked and he was really good. He is a motivator and had some really good jokes. Turns out he is 79 years old and still gets fired up for a crowd. After a short break, one of Zigs disciples, a guy from India, talked and he too was funny and good. Then a self made millionaire investor told us his story, but the bottom line was, to invest and get rich like he did you need to pay 6K for the software and website privileges. His system seemed like it would work, even when the market is down, but I didn't happen to have 6K handy. Finally, and really the main reason I went, Jerry Lewis was up. They started with a video display of some of his younger comedic moments, then he came on and made us all laugh. He is 80 now and looks a lot different than when I used to watch him when I was young, but he is still funny. Overall, it was worth the $225 for a ticket (which my division paid for), but I cut out at the lunch break. The ex-governor or mayor of NY or NYC or something like that was supposed to be there this afternoon along with some other folks I hadn't heard of, so I decided I had seen all I needed when Jerry left the stage.

Got the taxes filed. I have used TaxAct the past few years and do a paperless submission, so the days of making copies and running to the USPO are over! Always a relief to get that done. We are due some money back again this year, but I owe Uncle Sam some from years ago, but we might be about even now (Yeah!). This might be the last year I get money back, since my income as gotten back to where it was before I stopped being a full prof a few years ago. Went through some tough times, teaching part time, delivering USAToday, being a convenient store clerk, teaching Pre-Meds in the Caribbean (man, what a bunch of cry-babies), but I have landed on my feet in Memphis and hope to stay this way a good while!

Nap time, so until later,

Good Day

Happy Easter

May be a little late, but I haven't been to my office in a few days. We took my daughter and a friend of hers to the Memphis Zoo on Friday, had a picnic and all that stuff. It was a nice time at the zoo, but we were all tired after 3 hours of walking around that place. We were one of the last families to leave and the only bummer was by the time we got around to the 'cats', they were all inside for chow. I really like the lions, tigers and bears (oh my). The huge gorillas they had looked so sad and I wondered if God really intended for us to capture the wonderful creations of his and lock them up for our viewing pleasure. That always reminds me of the Planet of the Apes, which of course my daughter and her friend never heard of, but I tried to explain the concept. Saturday we went shopping and everyone got something for Easter. McKenzie had 4 or 5 of her friends over and they all made Easter cards and baskets and had an Easter egg hunt. Of course, after paying for it all and hiding the eggs, I hit the road and went straight to Abuelos, our new favorite Mexican restaurant, for beers and to watch TV. I didn't want to hang around a bunch of girls doing Easter stuff all afternoon! We tried a new church yesterday, an I guess Easter is not the best Sunday to check out a new church. Service was nice, but it lasted way too long for me! We will try it again next Sunday and keep looking until we find a home church.

I have my annual review in a few minutes with my supervisor. Basically, since we are part of a corporation, they have these forms and management evaluation junk we all have to do to get our raise each year. But, if you do your job and do what you say you will do each term, then it is pretty easy, but unnecessary paperwork as far as I am concerned.

Good day

Issues

Yes! Finals over for another term! I gave my APII final today, have those graded and am waiting for some lab grades to be able to post all my final grades for Spring 2006 term! Yeah!

Now for some boooo! What the hell is it with this country? How can it be that people in our country ILLEGALLY are demanding their rights!?!? If you are here illegally, the only damn right you have is to leave or go to jail! At least that is one simple-minded college professor's view point. If I break any law and get caught, I have to pay something for it! Why is it that we have so many illegal aliens in the country to begin with, making money that a legal citizen should be making, NOT paying their taxes, yet are out there marching for justice or equality! Does this make absolutely NO SENSE to anyone but me? These people are ADMITTING they are illegal, so why aren't they being rounded up and their asses sent the hell back to where they came from! Whooa, sorry about that, but the stupidity and lunacy that is rampant in the US drives me crazy sometimes. Hope I didn't offend anyone, but you can rest assured, that by voicing my humble opinion, I have hurt someone's feelings!

Let be get away from that nonsense! Hopefully, some logic and sanity will prevail (but don't bet on it).

Enjoy the spring and Good Day

Finals R here again

Trimesters: Good thing is they are over sooner that a regular semester, bad thing is the next one starts May 4Th! I have my last final at BCHS Wed, but the semester at STCC, where I am an adjunct for an APII course, doesn't end until April 26 and the final over there is May 3rd. I have done the grades for my 2 patho classes and only had to fail (D)3 students. Probably should have been more, but the way I have my grade assignment model set up, exams only count 65% and I gave several easy take home assignments, so several "close calls" in the low 70's probably didn't learn enough to pass, but they did the work and passed. Two of the D's have already made appointments to come see their grades, but I can't change anything now, but I will show them. They only have 2 times to make it through this course or you have to leave the college.

First appointment in a few minutes.

Good day

SEC, SEC!

Sad, but NCAA bball is over for another season... my UK Wildcats sucked from day 1, the mighty Memphis Tigers went out in the round of 16 w/ a whimper, but, an SEC team won it all! For all you not-so-sports-minded fans out there, it makes the teams of the conference look better if one of your own wins the championship, even though UF beat us twice this season, we could have one at least one of the games. And what about the 6 teams that beat Florida this season (ie South Carolina 2x)? Does that mean they are indirectly champs also? Good question, eh. South Carolina didn't even make the "dance", but went on to win the NIT championship for a second year, so since they beat UF twice, shouldn't UF have to beat them once more to be the undisputed champ of NCAA basketball? I certainly think so, but I am sure no Florida fans or players would like the idea!

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY OF CLASSES for this trimester! Of course, my class at STCC lasts until April 26th, but at least I can give my finals here, calculate the final grades and mark off another semester. The end of the spring term is my favorite time of year. The weather is nice, without being too hot/humid, and, unlike the fall term, Christmas is not just a week or so away! You know I love the holidays, but it seems each year, the ads and music start earlier... I predict that by the year 2020 if not sooner, Easter be the start of the "Christmas holiday season" and families with have their decorations up all summer and fall! Then, by 2050 (if not sooner), the "holiday season" will kick off with the New Year's celebration and last all 364.25 days of the year! Thank goodness, I won't be around long enough to see that!

Well, need to go grade some lab exams to get the final grades out.

Good day

Best 2 still standing?

Tonite is the ultimate for NCAA basketball, the national championship game! But the 2 teams left are clearly not the best in the nation. Six combined losses, only one was in the top 10 rankings when the tourny started (UCLA) and one didn't even when the regular season championship of their conference (UF). Anyway, I do hope that Florida wins, which will make our conference look good (SEC) and will keep UCLA from adding a 12th championship. You see, Kentucky is in second place all time with 7 and as long as UCLA don't add anymore, I still hope we can overtake them in my lifetime. I think Indiana is third with 5 and the fourth place team only has 3 (don't recall who).

Had some really bad storms yesterday and last night. I sat on the porch and watched the power and beauty of Ma nature as the lightning in the distance (N of us) was lighting up the sky. I am always reminded of how powerless we really are when I see the awesome power of nature (GOD) on display. Apparently, several tornados touched down in northwest TN, northeast ARK, southeast MO and even near Indianapolis, where the NCAA championships are being held. We only got some strong winds and rain, but other folks were not so blessed. I didn't realize it until I read the paper this morning, but we are at the peak of tornado season in this area of the country I didn't even know there was a "tornado season", but I guess we traded "hurricane" season for tornado season when we came from SC to Memphis. Oh yeah, we are near a major fault line up near St. Louis that experts say is due to "fault" sometime soon! I think getting hit by a hurricane or tornado might just be a matter of "bad luck", but being in an earthquake is a matter of where you live! I just pray that it doesn't happen, and that if it does, it is so minor that no one is killed.

Need to get started on my final exams. I have one to give Thu nite and another Friday afternoon (patho), then one next Wednesday (APII). My last APII lab final is tomorrow, but I have that one already set up.

Good day.