No more teaching for me

Well, its official...I've given up on trying to teach again...after 5 long, exhaustive, arduous years of trying to get back into teaching...only to be thwarted and shot down left and right by the bureaucratic powers that be...I have a totally new job!

On Monday I will start training to be a Sleep Technician...who says old dogs can't learn new tricks?

In this horrid economy and the total weirdness of this little town, I know I am blessed beyond belief to be able to snag this job.

One thing about the teaching though...is that I was really good at it...won awards, and things like that...had great praise from students and parents alike...but I never could seem to understand most of the administration types that controlled the schools. Now, my first principal was brilliant...he was absolutely fabulous...but I left that school to take another position in my academic field. The next principals were all ridiculous. If people want to look into what is wrong with a goodly lot of our schools, take a long hard look at the administrators.

Ok, I got that off my chest, and I hopefully can bury that and move on to the next phase of my life.

One more little thing, I've been frequenting a web site for teachers for almost 12 years now. I made friendships and was mentored and nurtured by many wonderful teachers I met there. But, for several years now, there have been these people that visit that really have some hatred for teachers and take pot shots at (us) any chance they get. There are also these holier-than-thou know-it-alls that come in and attempt to discredit all teachers because they don't measure up to some weird, contorted view they've created of themselves.

I don't understand people that are so judgmental, so narrow in their view, and have such poor comprehension skills that they fail to understand or at least acknowledge the point or message that is being expressed. They get so frothed up with their own opinion and self-importance and are so ego-bound that there is no way to have an exchange of thoughts or ideas with them. Know anyone like that?

I will try to put all that teacher stuff behind me and move into a more technologically advanced and scientific world...what an adventure!

Mama Africa is gone...

Miriam Makeba recently died. She was known to many as Mama Africa. Her music was electric, sacred, beautiful...I first heard her Pata Pata song when I was around 12...that song was my entry into South Africa and the political and human situations that were too long endured there...Rest In Peace Mama Africa.

http://www.miriammakeba.co.za/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/11/miriam-makeba-obituary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pygqt0uwnuc&feature=related

Dr. Stan Ulam...My Brush With Greatness

Dr. Ulam

I'm not exactly sure when it happened. It may have been as early as second grade when I contracted a series of childhood illnesses that finally resulted in Rheumatic Fever. Reportedly, I suffered high fevers and was very ill...missing almost a year of school. I recall never feeling quite the same as I had before I was sick...and I know that after this I had some difficulties with things academic...math being the biggest and most perplexing problem. I would avoid most things mathematical for years after... numbers frustrated and perplexed me.

Fast forward through the years and I find myself attending the University of Colorado at Boulder and working as a student assistant in the Mathematics Department. The irony did not escape me...what did escape me at the time was that I was working in the office of a truly brilliant mathematician. I worked for his Administrative Assistant and was aware at the time that he was a "famous" man, I did not realize how famous. Dr. Ulam was one of the scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project.

When I worked in his office I was only aware that he was this really nice man, who was patient and kind to me. I recall be invited to lunch to celebrate his birthday...he was always so approachable and quick to smile and laugh.

I'm not exactly sure when I found out who exactly was Dr. Ulam was and his impact on our world...it was after I left CU...but I will at times think of him, and how it was probably a good thing that I really didn't know at that time how important he was as it might have changed the way I interacted with him.

Below, find links to websites for more information:

http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/S_Ulam.shtml

http://library.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/getfile?00326865.pdf

http://nuclear-history.org/history.html

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/U/Ulam.html

Annie Lennox And The Fight Against AIDS/HIV

Hello there...its been quite sometime since I've taken the time to post. I've been a fan of Annie Lennox since Sweet Dreams...whilst checking out her Songs of Mass Destruction album I read about her SING A Voice For HIV/AIDS Women and Children campaign. Please take some time to visit her website to find out about her efforts in the fight against AIDS/HIV http://www.annielennoxsing.com/sing.php

Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)
The TAC's objectives are as follows:

Campaign for equitable access to affordable treatment for all people with HIV/AIDS.

Campaign for and support the prevention and elimination of all new HIV infections. Promote and sponsor legislation to ensure equal access to social services for and equal treatment of all people with HIV/AIDS.

Challenge by means of litigation, lobbying, advocacy and all forms of legitimate social mobilisation, any barrier or obstacle, including unfair discrimination, that limits access to treatment for HIV/AIDS in the private and public sector.
Educate, promote and develop an understanding and commitment within all communities of developments in HIV/AIDS treatment.

Campaign for access to affordable and quality health care for all people in South Africa.

Train and develop a representative and effective leadership of people living with HIV/AIDS on the basis of equality and non-discrimination irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, sex, socio-economic status, nationality, marital status or any other ground.

Campaign for an effective regional and global network comprising of organisations with similar aims and objectives

“This Is A Call For The National Implementation Of Mother To Child Transmission Prevention Programme In All The Maternity Hospitals In South Africa…”

Sing by Annie Lennox

Sing My Sister… Sing!
Let Your Voice Be Heard
What Won’t Kill You Will Make You Strong
Sing My Sister…Sing!
You Don’t Need
To Disrespect Yourself Again
Don’t Hide Your Light Behind Your Fears
My Women Can Be Strong
You’ve Known It All Along
What You Need
Is What You Haven’t Found
So…
Sing My Sister… Sing!
Let Your Voice Be Heard
What Won’t Kill You Will Make You Strong
Sing My Sister…Sing!
Women Are The Mothers Of The World My Friend
I Tell You Womankind Is Strong
Take Your Beautiful Self Up To The Heights Again
Back To The Place Where You Belong
So…
Sing My Sister… Sing!
Let Your Voice Be Heard
What Won’t Kill You Will Make You Strong
Sing My Sister…Sing!
C’mon My Sisters Now
Sing Loud And Sing Proud
Sing My Sister Sing
Use Your Voice To Call Out
Let Your Voice Be Heard
Use Your Voice
For Freedom
Let Your Voice Be Heard
Everywhere You Go
For Freedom
Yes Freedom
The Generics – Jikelele/Globally
“We Know Azt Globally
Call: Azt – We Know It. It Is Protecting Children From Hiv Globally
Response: Globally
Call: Mtct
Response: Prevention
Call: We Know Nevirapine. It Is Protecting Children From Hiv Globally
Response: Globally Until”

Elie Weisel - Nobel Prize Winner

"I've had my moments of crisis, which have led me to study and argue with G-d, at times dramatically...Hasidism teaches that no heart is as whole as a broken heart, and I would say that no faith is as solid as a wounded faith."

~Elie Wiesel



These words from Elie Wiesel have touched my heart and renewed my faith.



Read more about Elie Wiesel and his life and works:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/HOLO/ELIEBIO.HTM
http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wie0bio-1

Margot Fonteyn

In my dreams, I can still piorette, grande jete, and even partner with Rudy and Mischa...in my dreams...I dance like Margot Fonteyn...ah, to sleep and perchance to dream...and dance and to be young again...

Please visit this wonderful site...

http://www.ballerinagallery.com/fonteyn.htm

Cyndi Lauper...Time After Time

My sister has surgery tomorrow...she has pericardial effusion and we must find out what is causing it and the excess fluid needs to be drained. Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time has been running through my head all day...

“if you're lost you can look--and you will find me time after time if you fall I will catch you--I'll be waiting time after time”

For a good portion of my sister's life, I've been there to catch her...I only hope that if anything negative happens I can be there to catch her this time.

I've also been thinking about many friends that are no longer around...most of them gone because of HIV...Cyndi had a link on a website to make a pledge regarding the need for equality for gay people. If you are so inclined, you may want to sign it too.

http://community.pflag.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=573&srcid=573

Websites to gather the latest news about Cyndi:

http://www.cyndilaupermusic.com/

http://www.cyndilauper.com/uniquecirx/home.php

Time After Time on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZYxsUDZQ4Q

Robert Heinlein

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

~Robert Heinlein

I'm just a bit tired of all the experts with whom I've been working lately...they don't seem to listen...they just babble out memorized rhetoric... to those who might be a bit dull or are unable to think for themselves...they lap this stuff up like cream...and continue to drink it down in spite of curdled aftertaste...I listen, and then do what I know is right and proper.

http://www.heinleinsociety.org/

This is the official Heinlein website...although I find it a bit cluttered and difficult to navigate it is full of information.

My favorite Heinlein works:

Stranger In A Strange Land - Man, did I ever have a crush on Michael Valentine Smith when I was 15...

Podkane Of Mars - I wanted to have her as a friend when I was about 12...

Friday - Lived vicariously through her a few years ago...

Parallel Universes and Michio Kaku

Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and popularizer of science. He's the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory), and continues Einstein's search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory.

Visit Dr. Kaku at: http://www.mkaku.org/

Our Universe will die in ice rather than fire. Our Universe eventually, trillions and trillions of years away from now, will reach near absolute zero making intelligent life impossible. Therefore, we may have to escape into hyper-space if we are to survive the death of the Universe.
~Michio Kaku

Tiny particles form the seen and unseen in our universe...are there worm holes that make time travel possible...what if Einstein's Relativity theory is more than theory? All this fascinates me to no end...the possibilities are excruciatingly delicious...had I not been such a science fiction geek as a child, I don't think I would still have the desire to know more about the infinite possibilities of what is "out there." Kaku discusses the theory of parallel universes which is both exhilarating and disturbing...

Musing On Truman Capote

“A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.”
~Truman Capote

The NYT Obit for Capote:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capote-obit.html

My parents had this gigantic walk-in closet. On the right side hung my mother’s clothes, on the left side hung my father’s clothes. They were ordered according to the season. It must’ve been summer when I first read Capote’s In Cold Blood, as I recall being propped up in the back of the closet surrounded by heavy clothing. The wool coats and suits would have been soft and comforting in the chill of winter instead of being a bit stifling in the heat of summer. I corrected that state by turning up one of my favorite creature-comforts, air conditioning

I had taken the habit of retreating to that closet to read; I would read non-stop starting on Friday evening and reluctantly emerge on Sunday to rejoin the real world. My goal was always to finish entire books during the weekend. I wasn’t allowed this pleasure every weekend, as my parents were afraid that my pallor would turn a ghostly-white and I would be deprived of some vitamins that my mother said only came from exposure to sunlight.

That closet was my refuge from the frenetic pace of my sisters and their often noisy activities. I would occasionally allow our dog to enter for a nap, otherwise no one except my parents knew where I had secreted myself.

It was in that closet that I first read a book by Truman Capote entitled, In Cold Blood. His account of murder was raw and savage, and pained me so emotionally...my reaction was so visceral that my personality was forever altered. To this day, stories of murder force me to respond in the same pained, visceral way.

Regarding In Cold Blood, Capote said, “No one will ever know what 'In Cold Blood' took out of me. It scraped me right down to the marrow of my bones. It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did kill me.”

A precious young woman was recently murdered in an adjoining county. It has been impossible to ignore the media reports. Her murder has shaken me and everyone in our community. I feel the need to retreat to a closet for refuge and take solace in some insipid comedy to mask the sick feeling that keeps bubbling up from my gut.

In Search Of Inspiration...Bessie Coleman

I suppose we all have someone who is a source of inspiration...some well-known, others...not so much...Many of those that have inspired me are people that were the first do to something...Bessie Coleman is one of those...the first Black Female Aviator

Find out more about Bessie at http://www.bessiecoleman.com/

I believe this quote says it all...

I refused to take no for an answer.

~Bessie Coleman

Somewhere...out there...Deep in the Cosmos

Carl Sagan
Astronomer
1934-1996


I was captivated by Carl Sagan's 1980s PBS series Cosmos. I have always spent time looking into the sky, dreaming and imagining what could be out there...I plan on revisiting Dr. Sagan starting with the website http://www.carlsagan.com/



In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
~Carl Sagan

Today's Search Has Led Me To Rumi

Jelal'uddin Rumi, the 13th century mystic poet was born in what is present day Afghanistan in 1207, he produced his master work the Masnawi which consists of over 60,000 poems before he died in 1273.

Here is his poem Guest House

Being human is like

a guest house.

Each morning a new arrival.

A joy,

a depression,

a meanness,

some momentary awareness

comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought,

the shame,

the malice,

meet them at the door

laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

More From The Dalai Lama

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.
~His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

http://www.dalailama.com/
Here is a link to The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Don't try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist; use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are.
~ His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

The wisdom of this man amazes me...

Today's Search Has Led Me To The Dalai Lama

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.
~The Dalai Lama