Monday, January 31, 2005

almost home

STS 107 - Columbia

16 minutes. That's how close they were to a safe return home. But 'the foam did it'. I was living in Yucca Valley, California and I actually had gone outside to see it overhead. The crisp air of that February morning made the sky so clear. I never saw the contrails overhead so I headed into to see it land on TV. It never did.

The previous summer I went to the NASA Ames Research Center as part of an internship. I got to see experiments that were going up on STS 107, I talked with the scientists who had invested years of their life into the research. I felt like I was somehow minutely involved with it all. And when it broke up on re-entry, I felt the loss that the NASA family shared. February 1st, 2003.

Rick Husband
Willie McCool
Mike Anderson
Ilan Ramon
Kalpana Chawla
Dave Brown
Laurel Clark

Thursday, January 27, 2005

"touched the face of God"

STS 51L - Challenger

January 28, 1986. Do you remember where you were?

I was a sophomore at Firestone High School in Akron, Ohio. 20 years earlier, Judy Resnik walked the same halls that I did during her senior year. She would go on to be the second American woman into space.

The impact on our school was tremendous. Teachers wept when they heard that their former student was gone. Students shuffled along as if they had lost a classmate. We didn't know Judy but she was one of us and that's what hit home.

It was also later on that the significance of Christa McAullife became more of interest to me. The Teacher in Space program started and ended with her and that fireball over the Florida sky. But there is hope, NASA has rekindled the idea with Mission Specialists that are educators. My mentor for my NASA internship is now one of those astronauts.

Dick Scobee
Mike Smith
Judy Resnik
El Onizuka
Ron McNair
Greg Jarvis
Christa McAuliffe

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

first loss

Apollo 1

Anyone who knows me is keenly aware that I am a NASA junkie. I would have loved to have been in the space program but I fear that two things would stand in my way - I am too tall and I'm probably not quite smart enough.

The crew was killed on the pad while doing a pre-flight check of the Apollo Command Module (CM). After the fire, major renovations were made to the CM to avoid such problems in the future. Unfortunately these three lost their lives as NASA learned how to go to the moon. It has been argued that without this tragic fire that perhaps we (mankind) would not have made it to the lunar surface. I hope that their loss paved the way for our gain.

This week is one of remembrance for NASA. It starts off with the loss of the Apollo 1 crew on January 27, 1967.

Gus Grissom
Ed White
Roger Chaffee

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

compassion

Its slightly past 10pm and I just got home from a very long day at work. The usual stuff but with a school board meeting thrown in at the end of it all, it made for a long night.

But at the end of it, one of my fellow teachers made me a wonderful gesture that I couldn't refuse - a ride home in her SUV. With temps below freezing and snow/ice scattered about, the ride home on the bicycle would have been nasty. But this kind woman asked if I wanted to pack my bike into her car and get a warm & comfortable ride home. She didn't have to, I have the clothes to wear for the chilly conditions but she doesn't think that way.

I find that expats tend to help each other out in many ways - more so than would happen in your native country. Since I lack any mode of 4-wheeled transportation, I am reliant upon others for rides in cars. As many of you know, life can be much easier if you have a car.

But I have noticed that expats are often quick to help with whatever you may need, even if you don't ask. They offer me their car if I need it, invite me to family events while mine is not here, or pull me aside for a complimentary beer with lotsa fun conversation put in for good measure. I appreciate this community of expats and I know from personal experience that it isn't just those expats here in Holland. From my travels around the world, I find expats to be my extended family who does so much more than would ever be expected.

I am amazed and awed and grateful for the families that take me in as they do. They give so much and never ask for anything in return. But that's what this community is all about, and I do enjoy it so. Its one of the things that I would miss about living back home and it is one of the reasons why I will continue to stay abroad.

My thanks Christine for the warm heart and car tonight. She is just one of the many who do so much for me. I love those little things dearly.

Friday, January 21, 2005

i miss hockey

Remember when?


Do you remember the Miracle, even before it was a Disney movie?

And yes, I own the DVD. A friend of mine knows what it takes to make me happy...

old college days

I am currently sitting in my classroom while Health class is going on. Mr A is teaching and they are currently talking about what you should do if bitten by an animal.

Mr A - "If you are bitten by an animal, you should go get a tetanus shot."
Student R - "What if you are bitten by a human, should you go get a shot?"
Mr A - "Yes. People are animals and if they break the skin, you should get a shot."

So I am forced to apologize to the Jennifers from my past that I punctured their behinds. Don't ask why I did it, just know that it was intended to be a show of affection (sick and twisted, I realize). If I had only been in this health class, then I would have known that I should have recommended to them that they go get that wonderful shot.

In any case - sorry Jennifer (both of you). Maybe you should go see a doctor about that bite from 15 years ago...

Sunday, January 16, 2005

zen and motorcycle maintenace

Yesterday was a great day for getting cuts and scratches all over my hands. It was also a day to throw out the tech manual and go with my simplfied technique of motorcycle maintenance.

I own two motorcycles currently, one in the US and one here in Holland. My Dutch bike is actually British by make - a 1993 Triumph Trident 900. While in the jolly land of fish 'n chips, I picked up the Haynes manual on it with the expectation that someday I would need to break out the spanners (aka wrenches) and do some tinkering. A few weeks ago the purchase of that manual became wise as the starter on my bike went to the big part bin in the sky.

So I busted out the Haynes and got to work on getting to the heart of the matter - pulling out the starter. Now the manual tells you how difficult it is but fails to tell you the time required to do so. FYI - the starter on my bike is located behind the triple pistons of the bike, underneath a protective shield, underneath the carbeurettors, underneath the gas tank. So the wonderful people at Haynes tell you how to get it out for replacement. Here's the abbreviated version.
1. Take off the seat
2. Disconnect the battery
3. Remove back fairing (bodywork)
4. Remove aux air inlets
5. Disconnect all fuel lines
6. Remove gas tank
7. Disconnect main air box
8. Disconnect choke cable from carbs
9. Disconnect throttle cable from carbs
10. Remove carbs
11. Drain coolant system
12. Remove main coolant tubing
13. Disconnect and remove starter

So I started the above list and go to the part where you need to remove the carbs before I just gave up. Something was messing with my zen and I really wanted to start whacking the bike. So I came up with my adjusted list of how to change the starter.

1. Remove main coolant tubing. Have coolant drain into a pan when you take off the bolts.
2. Disconnect and remove starter.

Much easier, eh? Too bad I didn't think of this before I ripped everthing apart. Now I get to spend today putting the monster back together; the monster that I probably shouldn't have ripped apart in the first place. If I had just gone after what I needed and avoided all that extra crap, the job would have taken me an hour. But no, I was defying the typical male stereotype and doing what the manual said to do.

And women wonder why men fail to read directions...

Monday, January 10, 2005

ladies and gentlemen...

In honor of today's date, I proudly present "the most exciting band in the land, the Ohio University Marching 110."


What can I say? I am a band nerd. But damn, what a band it is...

back with the dutch / ranting about my job

Ok, so I have been a bit slack and haven't posted for a while. I didn't want to miss out on quality time with my family while I was in the US. Wouldn't that be a shame if I spent time writing on the blog when I could have been spending time with my niece? I would be viewed as a horrid uncle indeed.

Even though I have been back for almost a week, I have been entertaining myself with a newfound toy - another computer game. Anyone who knows me is keenly aware that I do enjoy 'blowing things up' on my computer. Whether it is the teenage-typical first-person shooter Quake to military strategy with Age Of Empires, I love to kill computer generated evil. My new campaign of destruction includes my venture to the middle ages in Neverwinter Nights. A blend of strategy and hacking the undead to pieces, it is doing me just fine. I found myself staring at this damn computer screen for 12 hours this weekend in my quest to finish a particular section. And no, that's not 12 hours during the weekend; that was 12 hours in ONE DAY!!! I am a computer nerd, I can admit it. I just hope that I don't ruin that laser eye surgery that I had a few years ago in my bloodthirst for killing my AI enemy. But at least the world is a safer place...

Today was back to work and a lack of killing AI ghouls is getting to me. The kids were fine today and I once again cannot complain with my students or my school. After working public schools in the US, I am quite content with dealing with the wonderful kids that I have in my international school. We all shared stories about what we did on vacation and secretly we were all glad to see each other again. No one publicly admits to like being in school in fear that they would be riddiculed for whatever reason. I can admit it because I am a teacher. Teachers are supposed to like school, right? I mean, it is our profession and we chose it of our own free will.

Which brings me to what I hate most about how some people view teaching (as a forenote, my sister does not view my profession this way). My sister and I were talking while I was back in the States and she is enamored with the idea of doing what I do. She currently works in "the industry" of TV/movies in LA and her brother is off living in Europe doing a cool thing with teaching in Holland. She likes it so much that she is considering the options about what it would take for her to become a teacher in an international school. As she said, "I could fall back on teaching after this career dries up."

I hate it when people say that.

I love my sister to death. However, I despise people who enter my profession because they didn't know what else to do. We have all met teachers before who were in it for the paycheck and became a teacher after UPS fired them for being incompetent. "Hey, teaching looks easy and anyone can do it!" Bullshit. Most people who don't have kids really don't think about 'falling back' into teaching and what it means.

Think back; who are some of the influential people in your life? Somewhere along the line a teacher has had a profound impact on your life. Mrs Rogers was my third grade teacher and this tender-hearted woman still holds a sacred place in my soul. How to explain her... I can't really - there was just something about this woman that made me believe that I was someone special. Mr Ulrich, my high school band director, taught me a lot about what it is to be a quality person and treated me like an adult (probably before I was ready for it) when few others were.

As a parent, I would be fearful of having someone who has the impact on children that a teacher does to be in that position because they couldn't think of anything else to do. I would want someone to be there because they have a burning desire to see a child succeed and make each and every one of their students a better person.

If you want to 'fall back' into something, try cleaning toilets or flipping burgers. At least then we can get good quality people in front of our kids to do the important jobs out there.



p.s. I am not mad at my sister for saying that but I do wish that she had used a different phrase. And I dunno what kinda teacher she would make, she could be as good at it as I am. Who knows?