Art Ideas

I was talking to a friend the other day who had a great idea for an art project using Google Earth.

NAEA NYC 2012

I thought I heard a voice say: "yes."
Was that me? Did I say yes in my "out loud" voice?
I must have because there was my name, plain as day:
Debbie Greh: 2012 Conventin Coordinator.

What was I thinking?

I admit it, I'm a MOD

A MOD is someone who suffers from Molly Obsessive Disorder; if you don't know who Molly is: where have you been this summer? She's a Barn Owl, and her partner McGee and their "owlets" have been an internet rage since February. I only found them this August, but I was hooked the first night. Yes, watching them is like watching ice melt most of the time, but it IS fascinating to watch. Molly instinctively takes care of the eggs and owlets; McGee comes and drops off food during the night. There's a language, and there's a relationship. In the picture, Molly and McGee are "defending" their clutch from some intruder. Isn't that amazing? And the person responsible for all this is a guy in San Marcos California named Carlos. A Soft-spoken retiree who is a great photographer and a great guy.
The owl box has been up on my computer for over a week... and I know much more about owls than I ever thought I would. is that really so bad?



if you want to take a look, go to the owl box

I had a great idea for a blog post!
Now I can't remember what it was

And now for a little Video Game History!

Happy Halloween

This Video was created by Christine Buonpane in Media Graphics, COM 2290

Immigration

Immigration

Last week, Dr Kenel, Dr Montiero, Professor Boegel and I presented a paper at the Business Ethics Conference on the Manhattan Campus, Entitled: Immigration, Beyond the Golden Door; The Blog entry above is a piece of that presentation.

You got friend in me

This is NOT becoming a blog about cats, but someone asked so:
Here's Maggie.
I did this in Blabberize, a fun app, and it's FREE!
Hooray!
To see (and hear) Click here! Maggie and Friend
(Hit the play button once you're there!)

Maggie

This is Maggie: she has a mind of her own.

adding links

A really great web site for all of you to go to and use as a reference is PBS.

links links and more links

I probably should title this: Easier said than done!
So here's my link to all my faves!
ALLMYFAVES


and what about a fun image?

Lead by Example

I'm guilty!
I haven't added to my blog in months yet I am requiring my students to write one about every week.
Lead by example.
And so the school year starts!
Next up: the partial text of the results of my "virtual search for God."
I was delighted to see the NYTimes weekend section (Septmeber 5) lead off with "Playing God" and the discussion that followed on SPORE. That's what really began all this: Video Games.
To be Continued....

Seond Life: In Search of God

I have always been a "techie." I enjoyed gadgets and robots and machines even as a child. When Pong came put I was spending the few quarters I had every chance I got; when my nephew (now almost 42) got this first Atari, I fought him for the controller! Truly, I was a master of Pong. Then along came Asteroids, and Missile Command and the response reaction times grew slower and my nephew was quickly beating me at every game we played. Forget Pac Man or Donkey Kong or Mario, I was just not good at these games.

But last summer a good friend had me over for dinner, and her husband challenged us to bowl on the Wii. My life has been forever changed! We fish, box, bowl and swim with the Wii, and later this summer, I will re-live my childhood and exercise with a hula hoop via the Wii-Fit!

Yes, I am back. But for the purposes of a paper I have to write/deliver, I'm not exploring the Wii but instead will be taking a different route: I'm entering Second Life in Search of God.
Stay Tuned

Privacy Rules!

I recently spent a good amount of time in a hospital (visiting!).

I was amazed at the rules and regulations they have now concerning privacy.
Patient Charts are no longer at the foot of the bed; computer screens are covered or the monitors go almost immediately into a screen-saver mode; the elevators caution care providers NOT to discuss patients while in the elevators:
CAUTION:
DO NOT DISCUSS PAITIENTS WHILE IN THE ELEVATOR!
It gave me confidence that a patient’s right to privacy was being respected.

At one point, my cousin (who I was visiting) had to have a surgical procedure.
When we went in to the waitng room, a woman asked us the patient’s name and then assigned us a number. She told us that to respect the patient’s right to privacy, we would now be referred to as #1; no names, Please! When the procedure was over, a doctor would “summon” us, and we would be referred to simply as #1. Families of other patients soon joined us (numbers 2-7, respectively).
And we all waited.

The phone rang: “OK, Thank you” I heard the receptionist say.
Then she called out:
“Number 3, Number 3 please!”
pause
“Reynolds family! Family of John Reynolds!”
So much for privacy… but wait, it gets better.

A few minutes latter, a doctor came out and called “Mrs. Reynolds…?”
Mrs Reynolds stood up and I could clearly hear WAY more information than I ever wanted to hear about Mr Reynolds stomach operation…
Ouch!

So: the not so private privacy rules go out the window for expediency.
I can’t imagine the number of embarrassing situations that arise from this!

Anyway: Privacy Rules are clearly not important in some areas of the hospital.

Whatever…

In Search of Scientific Truth

When I was a kid, I loved astronomy. My parents took me to the Museum of Natural History in New York and my favorite part of the trip was always the planetarium! The Dinosaurs were great… they were huge and frightening and the thought of those big beasts roaming the earth was mind boggling.
But they were the past and I always wanted to look forward.

Point me to the future and to the stars!
Sit back, look up and watch the stars swirl… the booming voice telling you that you are one tiny speck in a galaxy in a solar system in a universe that spans billions and billions of miles and years.

I memorized ALL the planets (and their moons):
MercuryVenusEarthMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNetptune and Pluto.

There was something wonderful about the possibility that in my life time even more planets would be discovered, that we would walk on Mars, that science and knowledge are indeed the resources to find truth, that belief in science and belief in God need not be in opposition; that we can one day …

What? No, you’re wrong.
Pluto is no longer considered a planet? just an ice ball? Not a planet?

Why?

(long pause)
Another truth is revealed: While logic and reasoning do indeed play an important part in science, it evidently is also true that in science (or at least planetary science) as in human nature, size matters (at least to the men determining this sort of thing).

I Just Want to Be Heard!

Note: I have not been fair to my fan base! Blogs will continue on a more regular basis

We all want our 15 minutes of fame.
Some of you reading this might be thinking: “No, that’s not true, I hate the limelight.” I disagree. We ALL want to be on American Idol, maybe not to sing (although is there anyone out there who doesn’t think they can sing better than Sanjaya?) but you do want to be in the center of the stage… You want to be heard!

Case in point:
Several Weeks ago I was in a meeting room at the State House in Trenton. The room is set up in a horseshoe and each member of the committee that meets in that room has a microphone. I was in Trenton as part of a celebration of elementary school children whose art work was selected to be shown at an art exhibit at the state house. At this evening event there were over 120 people, many of them were children. The children were draw to the microphones like bees to honey. The mics weren’t on, but no matter: if a child went by the mike, they stopped and spoke (or sang) into it. I’m not kidding, not one of them could walk by without leaning over and saying something into the mike, even though it wasn’t on.

Okay, you’re thinking, they’re kids!

Not so fast.
Once the children left and the adults were left to clean up, I heard several of my colleagues voices over the speaker system. They not only couldn’t resist the temptation, they had found the sound controls and turned the microphones on.
They were singing (badly) telling jokes (poorly) and altogether being silly.
Yes, they were just goofing around, but I think that deep inside each of them was this tiny voice saying: “Listen to me! I’m better than William Hung! I’m better than Sanjaya! I just want to be heard.”

Saturday, 8:45 PM

It’s Saturday and I went out to dinner tonight with my “Other.” You know the wine “swirling, sniffing, slurping, spitting enthusiast” noted in No More Whining.
We went to a local restaurant where you can BYOB. It’s very casual, the food is good and inexpensive. We go often.
But I digress.
This is really about the fact that it’s Saturday night and we ate early.
When we were almost done I said:
“Want to go to Shop-Rite after dinner?”
“Why, do we need anything?”
"Not really, maybe fat-free cookies?"
“Then why go?”
Long, long pause.
“Because I can’t think of anything else to do, and it’s only 6:30.”
Another long pause.
“Well, That’s your next blog!”

It was 6:30 on a Saturday night and I couldn’t think of anyplace to go but Shop-Rite .... to buy fat-free cookies.
I’m not sure what is most pathetic about this. That is was 6:30 and we had no plans, that it was 6:30 and Shop-Rite seemed like a normal thing to do on a Saturday night or that I was even thinking about fat-free cookies.
Wherever the pathos lies, I’m sure I’m much too young to think Shop–Rite is a destination on a Saturday night.
We did NOT go to Shop-Rite.
But here I am, writing a blog in an attempt to void grading papers; it’s 8:45 on a Saturday night.

Get me to a Subway

My nephew is an actor. A year ago, he and 7 other actors/writers wrote segments/scenes to a play whose premise was roughly this:

People get on a subway at Union Station in NYC, and the subway breaks down. Stuck on the Subway, they tell their stories, I guess to pass the time. Some were hysterical, some were thought provoking some were sad, but none was written by anyone over 35.

My question here is: Don’t people over 35 ride the subway? Or is the assumption here that people over 35 just don’t have anything worth saying?

The play was VERY good, but I have to say I was a bit annoyed.
I have things to say! I have stories, and some of them are quite funny. I don’t think we stop getting provocative or intelligent or humorous when we reach a certain age. Andy Rooney is still funny. So why wasn’t my demographic on that subway? Believe me, I know we aren’t walking and we can’t afford a cab; we’re on that subway! The director tried very hard to reach every other demographic: White, Hispanic, Black, Gay … but not “old.”

Does youth think it has a corner on creativity? You don't! We’ve got more money than most under 30 and if you want us to support your play, you’d better have at least one token AARP member. Maybe he/she could die early on in the play, and they could just slide that character out the door, or ignore her (which would be most appropriate). But come on, we have a weath of experience to draw from. Let us ride the subway!

Grab a Towel and Dance

I have long held that once a child reaches 13, they should be given over to the military until they’re 21 or 22.

Most cultures have a rite of passage at some point during the teen years. They leave a child out in the jungle or dessert or wilderness to fend for themselves so they can prove to themselves and their community, that they are mature adults.

In America, we shower teenagers with gifts: cell phones, ipods, and in later teen years, cars, credit cards and lavish parties as they turn 16. I don’t know when this started, but I’d like it to stop now. If the past 40 years have been a social experiment, it has failed miserably.

I know, you’re thinking that YOUR son or daughter is different: No way! They have merely learned to manipulate you into thinking they are different. If you are a parent, they think you are totally UN-cool, and stupid, and they will think this until after College (and in some cases, beyond).

A case in point.
I have lots of stores about teenagers, but I’ll give you this one now:
Several years ago, my friend’s teenage daughter actually asked her mother and my friend and I to leave her house because her friends were coming over to pick her up and we would embarrass her (we were SO un-cool). Note: they were just coming over to pick her up, they weren’t going to stay there… So I responded in an appropriate way: I grabbed a bath towel, placed it on my head and started singing Proud Mary, at the top of my lungs, while standing on her front porch. I sang the whole song… and danced.
Her friends thought I was very cool, and funny. She didn’t talk to me for weeks. Delightful.
So if a teenager gives you one of those looks or rolls his/her eyes, or stomps up or down the stairs…
Grab a towel, put it on your head and DANCE!