How do you feel about thank you cards?  We’ve certainly started to use technology in a lot of new ways, but thank you cards are still the same old tradition that our grandmother’s did when they were our age.  Is that a good thing?

There is a big difference between cost and worth and they should never be confused.

Just because a shirt costs $990 does not mean it is worth $990, or anything near that!  There are so many examples of materialism where people pay so much more than the practical value of an item.  Even if you ignore the extreme situations and markups, look at how much time people spend shopping around for ANYTHING.  The fact that a bottle of medicine at costco is 70x cheaper than the same drug elsewhere, or a HDMI cable is $60 at Best Buy but $4 on amazon is ridiculous.

Whenever I have a job interview and they ask me if I have ever been fired from a job, I can’t help but laugh.  I can’t lie, but I can’t really say “yes” without giving the story.  The truth is, I’ve been fired from the same job twice.

During the summer of 2001, I had a job doing tech support for iOmega products at a big call center called CallTech.  It was a great job, it had great pay, and I learned a lot about technology and customer service.  I was taking summer classes to finish up my associate’s degree before I started at Pitt for my bachelor’s degree.  I enjoyed my job so much that I wanted to keep working their over the weekends when I moved to Pitt.  Towards the end of July, I put in a request to change my work hours, and it was approved.  I also either used some time off in August to finish up my degree, get all my stuff packed up and and moved to Pitt, and get a little acquainted with life on campus.  I think I had planned to start working on the weekends again sometime in early September.

Fast forward a few weeks, I’m at Pitt, and my mom calls to tell me that there were some voicemails for me at home from Calltech.  As luck would have it, just as I getting started at Pitt, CallTech put an abrupt end to their weekend support hours.  They sent an internal email employees that they would be scheduled for weekday hours and that employees were to make necessary changes to meet those new hours.  I had no clue.  The first voicemail on the machine was a supervisor [note: I had no 1 direct supervisor] asking if I was alright since I didn’t show up for work that day.  The second voicemail was the same thing, only with a warning that a third occurrence would result in a termination.  The third voicemail was that supervisor calling me that third day saying I had been terminated.

I mean, I can’t blame my mom for not being my secretary, certainly when the root of the problem exists with the company and the internal communications.  I ended up going in on a day I didn’t have class and asked what the heck happened.  Only then did I find out they stopped weekend hours.  After they admitted it was their fault, but that I couldn’t work for them during their hours, I did tell them I wanted to come back the following summer, so they simply changed my employee status to “on hold” or something.

Fast forward a few months, I’m back home for the summer and want to go back to CallTech.  I go in, talk to an old boss, and he is happy to get me back, but they’re just rearranging schedules so he’s not sure when I’ll work.  I forget whether I said I had a weird availability, or if it was just him wanting to get me started, but the verbal agreement we had was that I’d just come in when I wanted.  I’m sure there was something more official, like Tuesday and Thursday from 10 until 6 or something, but, there was definitely a level of uncertainty as well.  It was basically, come in when you can.  so anyway, I did.  Sometimes I put in 4 hours.  Sometimes I put in 8, and sometimes, I didn’t come in at all.  I mean, I needed money, so it wasn’t like I was just blowing it off, but no one was really giving me any direction other than we’re glad to have you.  This went on for a month or more.  FINALLY, the boss said, “hey, we’re going to go ahead and put you on this team, and your hours will be blah blah blah.”  I was happy to have a schedule.  So, I show up for my first officially scheduled shift, and I think I’m there for like an hour or more, when a supervisor pulls me aside.  He asks why I’m there.  I figured he just didn’t know that I had been given a new set schedule.  He told me I was fired.  …dead air…what?  Why?  Apparently, when they “put me into the group” that had a scheduled shift, it made it a retro-active shift.  All those “custom” work hours that didn’t fall into my new schedule flagged me as a no call no show.  I was sent home.

By this time, I had a 2 week vacation planned, then a week before having to go back to Pitt.  I couldn’t live with being fired again though, so I had to go back to CallTech, explain the situation to them, have them admit their faulty ways, and change my employee status from terminated to quit.  It really makes me wonder if any of the places I’ve applied for a job have ever called CallTech and asked them if I was employed there and if they had any issues with me.  I guess Calltech never really had to change anything in “my file” if they just wanted to get rid of me anyway.  I should call them and see what they have on file for me someday…

Our Church, The Open Door, hosts a stations of the cross art exhibit every year, and this year I volunteered to create a piece out of LEGO bricks.  I definitely hesitated until the last minute to speak up, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a couple years now, just never had the courage or ambition to take it on.  The station that was open was Jesus being denied by Peter.  I pulled up the related verses, Matthew 26:31-35 -

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

³¹ Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:

“‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’^[a]

³² But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

³³ Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

³⁴ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

³⁵ But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

Once I read that, I had a clear vision of the rooster in my mind.  I knew I couldn’t just sculpt a rooster and call it meaningful though.  I wanted the text “I will never disown you” incorporated in it somewhere.  Over the next few days I stirred up ideas of what to do with the text.  I had toyed with the idea of creating something like a 3 sided platform for the rooster, and on the 3 sides would be three different quotes of peter denying he knew Jesus, but the quotes would be too long to fit, and triangles are harder than anything in LEGO bricks.  I settled on a wall around the rooster.

I set off developing the head of the rooster first.  As luck would have it, I didn’t have to buy a single piece for this project!  That’s a first.  I had just bought 9 of the same Toy Story Pizza Planet Truck Rescue set for a class I taught that had the red bionicle 1×3 tooth that I had thought would prove to be useless in the future, but actually was PERFECT for the rooster’s crown!  The first time around on the rooster didn’t work out well for structural integrity reasons, so I scrapped that design mid way and started from scratch with a strict enforcement of adhering to ratios and spacing.  Simple is structurally sound I kept telling myself.

All told, it probably took 15 hours of work.  As far as pieces, there’s about 4,000 with all the bricks in the wall, all the technic connectors, and then all the plates for the rooster.  It’s 20″ wide, by 20″ long, and about another 20 some inches tall.

Honestly, this was one of the most rewarding, but also easy builds I’ve done to date.  Sure, there are a bunch of things I’d change, like trying to fill in all the holes in the exterior of the rooster, but some people said they really enjoyed seeing into it to appreciate the engineering work and how it all went together.  I was really nervous about 2 things before the exhibit.  First, I wondered how a LEGO work would be received by the community.  It’s not the oil on canvas or interactive piece that, I think, has become the norm.  Second, I worried about it being destroyed.  I had a 27 year old friend come over to my house, and when I showed him it, he immediately touched it and broke a piece off.  The same was done (and more so expected) when I showed it to my 2 nephews under 5.  I just envisioned people touching the piece throughout the day and rendering it a pile of indiscernible plastic, just waiting for me to come back and put it back together.  Not only did it hold up throughout the entire show, but they even moved it across the room from where I had set it up!  Brave souls who did that deed!  I had put effort in for originally planning to have the rooster balance solely on his 2 feet, which were purposely not rigid to display the horizontal details between bricks, but I decided against it in case someone decided to push it over.  Not to mention the uneven floor of the gallery space.

Here’s the “artistic statement” that went along with the sculpture:

Jesus had many supporters when he walked the earth, but he had to die on the cross alone.  I can only imagine what Jesus must have felt hearing Peter’s words but knowing full well that Peter would still disown him.  Christ not only forgives us when we fall short, but loves us without pause.  Even when his own disciples fall short after being in direct contact with Jesus, Christ still suffers and sacrifices for us;  God’s children.

Even though our words can build up confidence and pass off as strong wall against denial of our faith, our walls can still be shattered with just the slightest adverse push or pull; much like this delicate piece in front of you.

On that Good Friday, the rooster was pictured on the home page of the Post-Gazette, with a link to this story – http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/region/stations-of-the-cross-artists-create-their-own-interpretations-at-union-project-630228/

i just learned that diaper changing is warfare.  I thought it was merely routine maintenance before.  I took off her diaper, cleaned her up, bent down to toss the dirty diaper, leaving her exposed to the elements, but I didn’t realize I was exposing myself to the line of fire.  BOOM.  orange solids and liquids shot out of her anus in a stream that seemed destined for my being.  she got it all over the changing table, dresser, diaper bin, and carpet, and I escaped.  This time.  Seeing her attempt had failed, she let off the self destruct device; her bladder.  Urine covered her body and what was left of the changing pad.

You win this time, Juliette.  Your father will be more prepared in the future.

Don’t ruin a good story with the truth.

A new category for the blog!

I read an interesting article that a dad friend posted – http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/more-screen-time-for-kids-who-create-instead-of-watch/

It differentiates between simply consuming entertainment during screen time and actually being creative with screen time.  It reminded me about teaching the LEGO classes.  The students would love to just be given a pile of bricks and let them go to town.  Sure, they’re creating something, but a lot of the times they’re not being challenged or inspired.  A house with no doors or windows is simply a stack of bricks.  During the last classes, I usually do let them have a free build day, but they have to tell me what they’re building.  If I think they can do more than a house, I say, “Ok, you can do a house, but I want a chimney with smoke coming out of it too.”  Or, “Yeah, you can build a car, but I want to be able to lift the hood and see an engine.”  Back to screen time, the tool to limiting game time shouldn’t be time itself, but how that time is being used.

This perspective gels well with my pre-existing thoughts on computer time.  When I was a kid, my mom let me play games like tetris.  I eventually graduated to games like SimCity and the Civilization series.  These aren’t just ‘video games’.  There is a high tendency just to lump all video games or over indulgence in screen time as a bad thing, but I disagree, almost fervently.  Specifically with games like SimCity and Civilization, there are historical references and educational content that far exceed anything taught in a public school history class.  One of the most popular criticisms about history classes is that they’re boring and there is no way to learn hands on, like a chemistry course.  Well, SimCity and Civilization create that learning environment.  You know how I know that Darius was the prince of Persia and that Susa was part of his empire?  Because I burned Susa to the ground and he made me pay for it!  The Civilization teams creates such historically accurate and immersing environments, that you can’t help but learn something.

More so in SimCity, but still in Civilization, are the concepts of management.  Citizens begging for better schools, paying for road improvements, balancing the budget and making people happy.  The rule you learn is that you can’t make everybody happy.  If you spend money, someone will get mad at you.  If you don’t spend money, someone else will be mad at you.  You have to stop and think, what is the best thing to do for the city and what is they best thing for the citizens, and what to do if those two conflict with one another.  It also has a history component with technologies like subways and airports being discovered later in the game.  The great thing about both games are the physical landmarks like building the pyramids or other great architectural wonders of the world.  I can directly attribute my knowledge about and interest in engineering and at in part to these games and the hours I played them.

to that point…I played a lot.  I’m sure most parents would say there should be a static time limit on how long a kid should play games.  I would argue that pulling kids away from something they’re so involved in would have devastating effects on their attention span as well as their willingness to get passionate and commit themselves to achieving goals.  My solution is not to just let them do whatever they want, but to help them learn to manage their own time as well.  Set out your expectations of chores for them first, make them work for their computer time.  Once they’re in their computer time, make sure they’re setting and achieving their goals.  Don’t let them just play games, teach them to do something!

A musical act should be rated against this rubric to determine their quality:

Band’s name – 3%

Band’s aesthetics (clothes, make up, hair, physical attractiveness, showmanship) – 7%

Ability to attract listener’s attention (lyrical hooks, real life publicity, etc) – 10%

Instrumental proficiency – 23%

Originality/inspirational quality of lyrics – 26%

Ability to perform live (without production effects/mastering) – 31%

If we used this rubric, we’d prevent over saturation of pure entertainment acts being passed off as musicians and talented.  It also avoids the ostentatious personalities that think just because they can shred on a guitar means they are the best thing that happened to the world.

The tri-state’s largest summertime event, EQT Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, will commemorate its 35th anniversary year with five days of world-class entertainment featuring more power, more pyro, and more fun for the entire family… ALL FREE!
The nation’s largest inland regatta will run June 30 through July 4 complete with some first-time signature acts and activities including a nightly 30-minute laser spectacular in Point State Park, a 40’ x 100’ artificial ice skating rink…and add a new class of motorsport racing—the v-hulled, offshore powerboats of the P-1 Superstock series.
The event will also mark the return of world champion sand sculptor, Thomas Koet of Sandsational who, once again, will turn 150 tons of sand into a grand and gargantuan masterpiece of art.
For the third consecutive year, Regatta will host the F-2 and F-3 North American Power Boat Championships and, of course, as the city’s official Fourth of July celebration, the event will culminate with an “anniversary special” July 4 fireworks show by New Castle –based Pyrotecnico.
Plan now…to join the region’s most anticipated summer festival. More details coming soon. For continual updates about the event, visit www.threeriversregatta.net

Photo by Archie Carpenter

When they’re tired of the community faces,

Relying on everyone for everything,

When they just want to be left alone,

You’ll see homeless become suburbanites.

When they’re tired of the shared spaces,

Welcoming anyone to do anything,

When they want a fence around their home,

You’ll see children become suburbanites.

When they’re all armed with shields and maces,

Afraid of someone or something,

When they all retreat to their Thunderdome,

You’ll see us all become suburbanites.