Those Were The Days

Rating: NSS
I’m not close to retirement age yet, but I still find myself bugging my students with “back-in-the-day” reminisces. Of course, they remind me of my age sometime. Just try singing “California Girls” to a bunch of 5th and 6th graders. A plethora of blank looks (and not because of my singing, mind you).
The other day Radio Heartland’s blog “Trial Balloon” had a post on TV and its humble beginnings. I don’t remember when television was new, but I vaguely remember getting a color set. I remember having 5 channels from which to choose—ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and one independent. Most of the time the independent station and ABC came in clearest. The other three, not so much.
This got me reminiscing some more about the time I was in elementary school. Lutheran Schools have and have not changed a whole lot over the past 20(!) years. The school I went to is now down to about 5% of the student population it was in my day. Still, the education was good, and my teachers taught me much more about the Lutheran faith than I realized they were.
Technology has changed, but the struggle for Lutheran schools to keep up hasn’t changed. Our school had purchased two computers—Apple 2Es—and put them on carts so that they could be rolled around to classrooms. We could use them during free time. Our favorite game was “Oregon Trail.” The point of the game was to get from Independence, MO, to Oregon without dying or starving. There were no graphics; a player actually had to read the screen to figure out their progress. To hunt, one had to type the word given. It’s amazing how quickly I learned to type “blam.” Ah, the good old days.I’m not close to retirement age yet, but I still find myself bugging my students with “back-in-the-day” reminisces. Of course, they remind me of my age sometime. Just try singing “California Girls” to a bunch of 5th and 6th graders. A plethora of blank looks (and not because of my singing, mind you).
The other day Radio Heartland’s blog “Trial Balloon” had a post on TV and its humble beginnings. I don’t remember when television was new, but I vaguely remember getting a color set. I remember having 5 channels from which to choose—ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and one independent. Most of the time the independent station and ABC came in clearest. The other three, not so much.
This got me reminiscing some more about the time I was in elementary school. Lutheran Schools have and have not changed a whole lot over the past 20(!) years. The school I went to is now down to about 5% of the student population it was in my day. Still, the education was good, and my teachers taught me much more about the Lutheran faith than I realized they were.
Technology has changed, but the struggle for Lutheran schools to keep up hasn’t changed. Our school had purchased two computers—Apple 2Es—and put them on carts so that they could be rolled around to classrooms. We could use them during free time. Our favorite game was “Oregon Trail.” The point of the game was to get from Independence, MO, to Oregon without dying or starving. There were no graphics; a player actually had to read the screen to figure out their progress. To hunt, one had to type the word given. It’s amazing how quickly I learned to type “blam.” Ah, the good old days.

Important Notice

Rating: CNS

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog to inform you that one of the ads on my email today was for a french fry Spam casserole. Out of curiousity, I looked at the recipe, which included the following ingredients: frozen french fries, cream of chicken soup, cubed Spam, and crushed corn flakes. Don't get me wrong, I like all of those ingredients, but I can't picture them concerrently as a casserole. Sounds like an excerpt from the Jeff Foxworthy cookbook. . .

How Did It Get To This?

Rating: MS
So I've been trying to lose weight. I've done pretty well, so far, but I've found that now that I'm down to where people notice and I feel rather impressed with myself, the motivation starts to slip. I've blamed it on the holidays (see previous post); I've blamed it on the weather. Who wants to get up and exercise that early in the morning when the choice is a cold house or a warm bed? It's a classic battle of will power. Which will win? Laziness or Fitness? I'm rooting for fitness, mostly because I like the way I look and I gave away all the other clothes!

Christmas Dinner

I think I gave up the diet for Christmas--at least this, I believe, is the reason I put pencil in hand and composed this little poem to the tune of Jingle Bells.

Turkey, turkey, ham,
Green bean casserole
Pickles, olives, yams,
Butter on my roll,
Gravy on my mashed
Potatoes, if you please,
Darling, pass the cranberries,
And the bowl of peas.

Gingerbread, gingerbread,
Peanut butter kiss
Raisins in persimmon bars
These cookies never miss

Now some mincemeat pie,
And the apple too.
Pumpkin with fresh cream
Whipped up with love by you
I am really stuffed
I won’t eat for a month!
That was Christmas breakfast—
I wonder what’s for lunch. . .

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Radio Unexpected

Rating: NSS
More than once I have found myself staying in the car in the driveway to hear the end of the song on the radio. I have even stayed in the car listening to a song I own on a CD--to this I could listen anytime. Yet, there is still something pleasingly unexpected about hearing a favorite song on the radio. Radio will not lose its appeal for me for this very reason--never knowing what one may hear next. CDs are a little too predictable.

Random Stuff (sorry, Mrs. Mills)

Rating: NSS
If you run out of ideas of things to look up on the internet, here are a few (with editorial comments).

First stop, this quote of Albert Einstein from Quotations Page: “If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”

Apparently I need more Z in my life! (That's Z, not zzzzs.) Ergo, I have TWO blogs. . .

It was theme song day on 106.5 the Arch yesterday. At 5:32 pm they played “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay, which is the theme song to Issues, Etc; at 6:37 they played “Who Are You” by the Who, which is the theme song to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Check it out for yourself. Just type in 11/20/2008 and 5:32pm.

I bemoaned the fact that The Morning Show on MPR was ending in December. Apparently they’re planning on keeping the format as a webcast and on an HD station. Whew. The good news is, it’s not going away; the bad news is, it will be a 24-7 format. Sorry, people in my office!

If you’re truly bored, you can read the news story and watch the newscast segment about the first female “Catholic” priestess to give birth. Apparently she is part of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, which is not recognized by the pope. The priestess’ husband is a pastor at a United Church of Christ congregation, which makes their son truly ecumenical.

The Last of the Season?

Rating: NSS
I took probably the last bike ride of the season around Forest Park today. It was a bit chilly, but an otherwise lovely ride. I did see a few unusual things on my trek around this metropolitan park.
I saw a dog with no hind legs. It had its hindquarters in a sling-like contraption with wheels. I almost hit a duck crossing the path. I told it to move, but I guess the duck didn't understand English. I know the ice-skating rink opened for the season recently, but it did seem odd to see ice skaters out on a pleasant afternoon.
A lovely fall day for the waning season.