Everyone back in the pool!

A member of the Optimalist health club hacks a hole into the ice covering a canal near the village of Viazynka, Belarus [Picture: REUTERS]

Seen anything crazy in the news lately? Nope, haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary myself…

Just wanted to throw out a quick post to say Happy New Year to everyone and let you know here’s yet another opportunity for you to “get back in the pool” and fire up your woefully out-of-date blog/twitter/facebook/reddit etc etc etc page. I’m also diving back into the pool for my third graduate course in Geographic Information Systems at Penn State. So if you’re one of my fellow classmates visiting my blog for the first time, enjoy the view!;-P

Back to School

I’m no Rodney Dangerfield, but I am heading back to school. I’m pursuing a Master of Geographic Information Systems through Penn State’s Online World Campus. I have been officially accepted by the PSU Graduate School and completed registration for Geography 482: the Nature of Geographic Information. GEOG 482 is the required first course.

The first assignment for the class is to create a personal web presence. That’s funny since I remember trying to explain the internet and world wide web to people back in 1995 when I created my first personal web page as an undergrad. The computer was a Macintosh Centris 610 and the place was a dorm room in Hamilton Hall on the University Park campus. My first foray into HTML with SimpleText is what led me to an independent study in web design and then to my career as a network admin and then on to GIS.

Since I already have been using this site to publish personal map projects, I figure this will also be where I publish my thoughts about the MGIS program and any portfolio-type stuff that results.

So, to bring things full-circle, from “Back to School”…. “Bring us a pitcher of beer every seven minutes until somebody passes out. And then bring one every ten minutes.”

Parting thought, since I’m enrolled as a student again does that mean I can re-join my old fraternity? Hmmmmm.

Simply Socks Drop Box – General Sutter Ave. & Golden St.

Gallery

This gallery contains 5 photos.

Today the Newman Family distributed Simply Socks fliers to all of the homes in the Sutter Village neighborhood in Lititz, Pennsylvania. The drop off location for this neighborhood is at the intersection of General Sutter Avenue and Golden Street. You … Continue reading

Genuine Concern

Scene: on the Tilt-A-Whirl at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, NJ. The ride is pretty much spinning like a top on crack because of the weight differential between a 250 pound Dad on one side and a 73 pound boy on the other side.

Dialogue:
Son: (Looks at father with concern) “Dad, are you feeling OK?”
Me: (through gritted teeth as I attempt to put on a brave face, failing miserably as the ride lurches into reverse again) “I feel fine…”
Son: (with a gleeful and wicked smile) “Well it doesn’t look that way!” (ends with long and maniacal laughter)