One more week
This is the last Monday of my required two month break from work. Why did I have to take this two month break? Because I am a "seasonal" employee. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. I don't like being off from work for two months, my clients don't like it and frankly I suspect my boss doesn't like it. She doesn't get a two month break.
I haven't received the schedule of which "advanced" classes I'll be teaching. I do know that I'm teaching one section (which is enough, since it meets three times a week) of the initial tax course, starting on September 10th. To be honest, teaching two to three times a week (the class is scheduled for three times a week but there are a number of sessions that the students will work from their home computers and I'm not required to be in a classroom or otherwise involved in their "computer practice) plus an occasional advanced course and working one day a week may be more than I can handle. Time will tell. I will admit to being afraid I've bitten off more than I can chew. I do have a tendency to do that. It's a bad habit.
* * *
Much will be made of the newly released fact that the pilot of Asiana Flight 214 had only 43 hours in the Boeing 777. He is a very experienced pilot who had thousands of hours of flight time in other aircraft.
So should his lack of experience be a major issue? How else do pilots learn to fly aircraft that they don't have lots of hours in, without getting training time?
The answer is, they can't get that experience without actually flying the plane. Flying in a simulator is good training but it doesn't substitute for the take-offs and landings that a pilot needs to become expert at. Now the flight characteristics of a 777 are different than other airplanes that the pilot has flown. There's much speculation about everything here. The Glide Path system being switched off. A steeper than normal angle of approach. The plane apparently coming close to a stall while landing. Were the plane's flaps at the proper setting?
We won't know anything for weeks, maybe months. Even with the loss of a plane, two deaths and a whole bunch of injuries, hopefully judgment won't be made until all the evidence is examined.
* * *
This business about doctors in California state prisons sterilizing women, without official authorization, and apparently only after they coerced at least some of the women into submitting to the procedure is very frightening.
One woman reported that when the OB/GYN caring for her as she prepared to give birth learned she had five kids, he pressured her into having a tubal ligation.
Federal law prohibits the use of federal funds for sterilization in prisons because of the issue of potential coercion. CA Department of Corrections uses state funds for these operations, but the doctor is supposed to get approval in advance.
* * *
Some NYPD officers are in trouble for allegedly misusing the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) database. One detective is accused of looking up data on two of his fellow officers without their knowledge. Nosy, eh?
NYPD tracks usage of the database by assigning unique logins to each sworn officer and the FBI does its own compliance audits on occasion.
Should I be worried? Back in the early 1980s, when I was working as a military cop, I got curious. I ran one name through the NCIC. Mine. I was just curious to see what would come back. It told me I had no criminal record (not a newsflash) and that my driver license was expired (yes, it is driver license here in CA, not driver's license...check www.dmv.ca.gov if you don't believe me). It wasn't really expired but it showed that way in the database. In those days, if you were on active duty on the date your license expires, as long as you are stationed outside the state of CA, your license did not expire. After I got out of the Air Force, I immediately renewed my license (I had to take the written exam, but not the driving test).
I suspect I have nothing to worry about in terms of having used the NCIC to check myself out.
* * *
This Date in History:
On this date in 1099, 15,000 (roughly) starving Christian crusaders stage march around Jerusalem as Muslim defenders watch.
On this date in 1497, Vasco de Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.
On this date in 1730, an earthquake estimated to have a magnitude of 8.7 causes a tsunami that ravages the coast of Chile.
On this date in 1876, white supremacists kill five black Republicans in South Carolina.
On this date in 1889, the first edition of the Wall Street Journal is published.
On this date in 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits the lowest point during the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.
On this date in 1947, reports indicate a UFO crashed near Roswell, NM.
On this date in 1948, the U.S. Air Force began accepting female recruits, into the Women in the Air Force program. WAF was phased out in 1976, when women began enlisting on an equal basis with me.
On this date in 1960, the Soviet Union charges Gary Francis Powers with espionage.
On this date in 1970, President Richard M. Nixon delivers an address laying out Native American self-determination as official U.S. policy.
On this date in 1982, an attempt to assassinate Sadaam Hussein fails.
On this date in 1994, Kim Jong-Il begins his reign as ruler of North Korea following the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Frederick W. Seward (grab a Seward's Folly burger at the West Rib in Talkeetna, if you can eat a five pound burger)
John Pemberton
John D. Rockefeller
Alfred Binet
George W. Romney
Nelson Rockefeller
Billy Eckstine
Faye Emerson
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Roone Arledge (the man behind this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2AZH4FeGsc)
Jerry Vale
Marty Feldman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3vtk7hd2XI)
Steve Lawrence
Phil Gramm
Janice Pennington
Jeffrey Tambor
Kim Darby (married five times)
Wolfgang Puck
Angelica Huston
Anna Quindlen
Kevin Bacon
Joan Osborne
Billy Crudup
Michael Weatherly
Beck
Milo Ventigmilia
Sophia Bush
Today's movie quotes come from the excellent film "The Last Days of Disco" by Whit Stillman; in honor of Michael Weatherly's birthday. His role is very small, but it's a great film:
#2
Des McGrath: Do you really think the neurological effects of coffee are similar to that of cocaine?
#3
Jimmy: There's something deeply ingrained in human biology: women prefer bad over weak and indecisive... and unemployed
Josh Neff: I don't know about that.
Jimmy: You think they do prefer weak, indecisive, and unemployed?
#4
Des McGrath: 'Yuppie scum'? In college, before dropping out, I took a course in the propaganda uses of language; one objective is to deny other people's humanity, or even right to exist.
Jimmy: In the men's lounge someone scrawled 'kill yuppie scum'.
Des McGrath: Do yuppies even exist? No one says, "I am a yuppie," it's always the other guy who's a yuppie. I think for a group to exist, somebody has to admit to be part of it.
I haven't received the schedule of which "advanced" classes I'll be teaching. I do know that I'm teaching one section (which is enough, since it meets three times a week) of the initial tax course, starting on September 10th. To be honest, teaching two to three times a week (the class is scheduled for three times a week but there are a number of sessions that the students will work from their home computers and I'm not required to be in a classroom or otherwise involved in their "computer practice) plus an occasional advanced course and working one day a week may be more than I can handle. Time will tell. I will admit to being afraid I've bitten off more than I can chew. I do have a tendency to do that. It's a bad habit.
* * *
Much will be made of the newly released fact that the pilot of Asiana Flight 214 had only 43 hours in the Boeing 777. He is a very experienced pilot who had thousands of hours of flight time in other aircraft.
So should his lack of experience be a major issue? How else do pilots learn to fly aircraft that they don't have lots of hours in, without getting training time?
The answer is, they can't get that experience without actually flying the plane. Flying in a simulator is good training but it doesn't substitute for the take-offs and landings that a pilot needs to become expert at. Now the flight characteristics of a 777 are different than other airplanes that the pilot has flown. There's much speculation about everything here. The Glide Path system being switched off. A steeper than normal angle of approach. The plane apparently coming close to a stall while landing. Were the plane's flaps at the proper setting?
We won't know anything for weeks, maybe months. Even with the loss of a plane, two deaths and a whole bunch of injuries, hopefully judgment won't be made until all the evidence is examined.
* * *
This business about doctors in California state prisons sterilizing women, without official authorization, and apparently only after they coerced at least some of the women into submitting to the procedure is very frightening.
One woman reported that when the OB/GYN caring for her as she prepared to give birth learned she had five kids, he pressured her into having a tubal ligation.
Federal law prohibits the use of federal funds for sterilization in prisons because of the issue of potential coercion. CA Department of Corrections uses state funds for these operations, but the doctor is supposed to get approval in advance.
* * *
Some NYPD officers are in trouble for allegedly misusing the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) database. One detective is accused of looking up data on two of his fellow officers without their knowledge. Nosy, eh?
NYPD tracks usage of the database by assigning unique logins to each sworn officer and the FBI does its own compliance audits on occasion.
Should I be worried? Back in the early 1980s, when I was working as a military cop, I got curious. I ran one name through the NCIC. Mine. I was just curious to see what would come back. It told me I had no criminal record (not a newsflash) and that my driver license was expired (yes, it is driver license here in CA, not driver's license...check www.dmv.ca.gov if you don't believe me). It wasn't really expired but it showed that way in the database. In those days, if you were on active duty on the date your license expires, as long as you are stationed outside the state of CA, your license did not expire. After I got out of the Air Force, I immediately renewed my license (I had to take the written exam, but not the driving test).
I suspect I have nothing to worry about in terms of having used the NCIC to check myself out.
* * *
This Date in History:
On this date in 1099, 15,000 (roughly) starving Christian crusaders stage march around Jerusalem as Muslim defenders watch.
On this date in 1497, Vasco de Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.
On this date in 1730, an earthquake estimated to have a magnitude of 8.7 causes a tsunami that ravages the coast of Chile.
On this date in 1876, white supremacists kill five black Republicans in South Carolina.
On this date in 1889, the first edition of the Wall Street Journal is published.
On this date in 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits the lowest point during the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.
On this date in 1947, reports indicate a UFO crashed near Roswell, NM.
On this date in 1948, the U.S. Air Force began accepting female recruits, into the Women in the Air Force program. WAF was phased out in 1976, when women began enlisting on an equal basis with me.
On this date in 1960, the Soviet Union charges Gary Francis Powers with espionage.
On this date in 1970, President Richard M. Nixon delivers an address laying out Native American self-determination as official U.S. policy.
On this date in 1982, an attempt to assassinate Sadaam Hussein fails.
On this date in 1994, Kim Jong-Il begins his reign as ruler of North Korea following the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Frederick W. Seward (grab a Seward's Folly burger at the West Rib in Talkeetna, if you can eat a five pound burger)
John Pemberton
John D. Rockefeller
Alfred Binet
George W. Romney
Nelson Rockefeller
Billy Eckstine
Faye Emerson
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Roone Arledge (the man behind this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2AZH4FeGsc)
Jerry Vale
Marty Feldman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3vtk7hd2XI)
Steve Lawrence
Phil Gramm
Janice Pennington
Jeffrey Tambor
Kim Darby (married five times)
Wolfgang Puck
Angelica Huston
Anna Quindlen
Kevin Bacon
Joan Osborne
Billy Crudup
Michael Weatherly
Beck
Milo Ventigmilia
Sophia Bush
Today's movie quotes come from the excellent film "The Last Days of Disco" by Whit Stillman; in honor of Michael Weatherly's birthday. His role is very small, but it's a great film:
Charlotte Pingress: Did people ever really dance in bars? I thought that was a myth.
#2
Des McGrath: Do you really think the neurological effects of coffee are similar to that of cocaine?
#3
Jimmy: There's something deeply ingrained in human biology: women prefer bad over weak and indecisive... and unemployed
Josh Neff: I don't know about that.
Jimmy: You think they do prefer weak, indecisive, and unemployed?
#4
Des McGrath: 'Yuppie scum'? In college, before dropping out, I took a course in the propaganda uses of language; one objective is to deny other people's humanity, or even right to exist.
Jimmy: In the men's lounge someone scrawled 'kill yuppie scum'.
Des McGrath: Do yuppies even exist? No one says, "I am a yuppie," it's always the other guy who's a yuppie. I think for a group to exist, somebody has to admit to be part of it.
posted by me at 1:16 PM
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