Happy Birthday - A Social Experiment

Tomorrow, July 1, 2010 is Ron's birthday, but I won't divulge how many years he has roamed the earth. My challenge to all of you is to be part of my social experiment. What I would like is to see how many readers/contacts/friends I can get to send Ron a birthday greeting. 

It doesn't matter if you know him or not. Just send a note to ronschm@gmail.com, saying I heard it was your birthday and wanted to say hi or whatever you are up for. It really doesn't matter. What I am anxious to see is if he can accumulate at least one birthday greeting for each year of his life. Regardless of what you will say, it is bound to put a smile on his face. Here is a cute video to start the mood.

Please be a sport and play along. It will only cost you about 3 minutes time. Ron celebrates his Birthday Octave, so any greetings through the week after are still perfectly welcomed, so if you read this after the 1st, no worries. Ron will be "celebrating" his birthday in Iowa. How special can that be? 
; )

Facebook greetings are only cheating and don't count.

Oh, here is a clue. Ron is MUCH older than I am. : )

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Roaming Thoughts

Today in my e-mail was a note from our department head stating that since the university has not given our department any money for the last year, we are out of toner for both the copy machine and printers. Due to this fact, our department secretary bought the toner out of her personal money. She then asked all faculty members to donate 1,500 Huf to repay the secretary. Students wonder why I charge them for class supplies. Over the last few years, I bought a television, DVD player, laptop, scanner, projector, and printer for my office or classroom use. With the advent of computers, the television and DVD player are obsolete, but it was not too many years ago that less than 30% of students had computers at home. When I needed to show any video, I had to find it on DVD to show it. 

Now, there is the replacement of printer cartridges, paper, and the maintenance of the ten computers in our writing center. If anything happens to them, I will need to find the money or not have classes.

On another note, I bought this little book that I can carry with me to jot quick notes. I really hate my Nokia N96 in this regard. It is so cumbersome using the numeric pad to write in the mobile Word program. On the cover of the little book is a quote, which I quite like.

"You can't do much about the length of your life, but you can do a lot about its depth and width."

After doing an extensive search, there was no person to credit it with. If anyone has a clue, I would love to hear it. I added it to my signature in my e-mail.

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An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Are you are a chocolate lover? In my entire life I have only met two people who did not like chocolate at all or were allergic. For the rest of us, what I am able to share with you could change your waist line forever. Chocomize will change the way you eat chocolate forever more, because you can really have it your way any way that happens to be. 

Start with dark, milk, or white chocolate. Then you can add up to 5 ingredients from such categories as Nuts & Seeds, Fruits, Herbs & Spices, Candy (kind of overkill), Decoration (special events), and Other. With over 100 choices, the combinations are endless. For starters, I want milk chocolate with roasted peanuts and hot curry powder. For later, I would like a white chocolate bar with lavender. For me, too many ingredients would spoil any one flavor. All this goodness shipped right to your door. What more could one ask for? Well, maybe the Chocolate-A-Month Club membership. Anyone want to share a bar?

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Rod Stewart Performs in Free Concert in Budapest

Each year for the last fourteen years, T-Mobile sponsors a concert at Heroes Square. We saw Elton John, Lionel Ritchie, Santana, and so on there. I was just thinking I wonder when the next one will be. 

Rod Stewart will be performing on Saturday, June 26 from 9pm - 11:30pm at Hősok tere (Heroes's square). Be at the square or be a square.

• You're In My Heart, You're In My Soul
• Maggie May
• Reason to Believe
• Sailing
• Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)
• I Don't Want to Talk About It
• The First Cut Is the Deepest
• Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
• Baby Jane
• Young Turks
• Hot Legs

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All Creatures Hungarian and Small

The post about my neighbor brought lots of kudos here and via Facebook. If my mother were alive, she would say "You should thank your parents for bringing you up right." My feelings about those comments are best left for the therapist's office.

Today, I brought the garbage down to our double locked garbage room. Why it is double locked it beyond me. When I walked in, I could has sworn I saw something above bus size scurry across the floor starting from where I was standing. Part of me almost tested out my 6-month smoke free lungs to bring neighbors running from a full block area to witness the spectacle of who was being murdered. My rationale brain bits turned on the light. Only a few brain bits were functioning so I was not really prepared for what I would find. 

Two, not one, but two little sparrow type birds were racing to hide from me amongst the garbage containers. They had scared the crap out of me, but I did not leave evidence like the crap that was scared out of them and all over the floor.

There is a window in the garbage room that overlooks the courtyard. They must have come in that way, but why they did not leave the same way is a mystery? Perhaps like me, they are directionally challenged. They could fly out of my reach, but not out the window. It took me a good fifteen minutes to direct them out the door of the garbage room and then through the double doors to the courtyard.

Now I am pondering if my last days are upon me and these were the final tests to see which direction I will be heading once gone. I have been a borderline case with a number of things during my life, perhaps this is just another.

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Fulbrghters Read On

I don't know the connection, but for the blog post directly above this one, this article popped up as a related article. The reason I am posting it here is multi-purpose. Charity Sunshine was a Fulbright student here in Budapest. Her maternal grandfather was Thomas Peter Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in the US Congress. He was in the House of Representatives from 1981 until he died of cancer in 2008. On her father's side, her grandmother was Colorado's first female lieutenant governor, Nancy Dick. Her father died as a result of a car accident shortly after her grandfather passed away. Charity Sunshine is one of eleven children who were home schooled. Each one went on to university and professional careers. A documentary on the Mormons features the family.

Friday, June 25, 2010
Opera Soprano Sings Again After Double Lung Transplant and Open Heart Surgery

Submitted by Denise Reynolds RD EmaxHealth

Charity Tillemann-Dick, a world renowned opera soprano, was diagnosed in 2002 at age 20 with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, a serious condition characterized by abnormally high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs that often leads to both heart and lung failure. Last month, after receiving a double lung transplant and having open heart surgery that saved her life, the young woman sang “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “O Mio Babbino Caro” to her doctors and nurses at the Cleveland Clinic.

Ms. Tillemann-Dick, whose full name is Charity Sunshine, kept positive about her disease and the difficult treatment that followed. She even continued to sing on international stages with heavy makeup to disguise her sallow skin. “When you’re facing a challenge like this, it’s important to plow through and do the best that you can and do what you want to do that’s good.”

Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (IPAH) is thought to only affect about 5-10% of the population. It affects women more often than men. In many cases, the cause is unknown, but it is thought to have a genetic component.

Pulmonary hypertension is caused by a narrowing of the small arteries of the lung which makes it harder for the right side of the heart to circulate the blood to the lungs. Overtime, the right side of the heart may become enlarged and fail, called cor pulmonale. Symptoms include chest pain, dizziness, fatigue, and shortness of breath.

There is no known cure for IPAH, but several forms of treatment are available to control symptoms, such as calcium channel blockers and diuretics. Some patients are put on blood thinners to reduce the risk of blood clots.

Overall prognosis for the condition is poor; morbidity and mortality rates vary based on degree of the condition, the age of the patient, and the ability to respond to therapy. When treatment with medication fails, suitable candidates may be helped by a lung or heart/lung transplant.

After her own surgery, Charity began retraining her voice by humming and progressed to show tunes as her body strengthened. She has performed already this summer at the Swiss and Hungarian embassies. Dr. Ken McCurry, who led her nine-hour operation, said "It's always gratifying when you see a patient recover, but to have a patient recover this quickly and to this extent -- it is stunning.

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Going Postal

It is getting easier to understand why people "go postal" when the US Postal Service is only delivering crappy service. Point in fact: I ordered ten books that I needed relatively soon for my fall classes. Soon meaning I needed a friend to bring them over to save on postage here. The books were ordered at great expense, being college texts, but shipping them within the US was going save a bundle. 

All the books were shipped to this friend's TX address. Damn if she did not get married in the meanwhile and decide to spend time at her new husband's home two hours away from her own. Okay, my bad for not checking where to have them shipped. When I heard, I immediately contacted the various sellers to change the address. Mind you, this happened within 24 hours, but the books had been shipped by all of the seven sellers I ordered from. What is up with this efficiency? Something change in the book market since I left? All the books went to the wrong address; she arrived with no books. 

But, two books with the same author, same title, but from two different book vendors never made it to either TX address. This was to be the key text for my new MA Social Problems class. Lost in the postal system where services is not king. Okay, mistakes happen.

She flies elevated frequent flier status, negating extra luggage charges, so it would have been great for her to bring them over, but now she will not be returning until September. Too late, so I will have to bargain with the devil to have Ron cart them back praying he is not dinged for extra weight. With that in mind, I had her send the rest of the books USPS to Ron's niece. 

She mailed them. They never arrived. Out of desperation, I finally broke down and ordered one of the titles to be shipped here to the university.

Ron introduced me to this Australian wine called Hardy's Bin 343, which I quite like. I am not a wine drinker, usually sitting out the wine tastings in CA, South Africa, and Australia. Sometimes, I taste and dump the rest of the sample much to the chagrin of others. But with Ron gone, me left to handle things here, the weather being lousy, State Exams to put up with, and the stress of loss of books, I have enjoyed the nip of wine each evening. My nips seem to be progressing from small wine glass to larger wine glass, to large juice and then water glasses. I seem to have plowed through Bin 343 working my way to Bin 379. Who knew grapes could be so tasty.

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Erring on the Positive Side

I had a horrendous day at school as part of the thesis defense committee for twelve defenses. Finally at 3:30 I was able to get my worn out mind home to strip beds and throw linens in the wash.

As I was unlocking our door, I could not help but notice that our neighbor across the way had his doors open as well as the windows on the doors. He had been busy working on stripping his windows and doors for the last couple of weeks, so the thought that he was still working on them occurred to me. 

I keep the window on our door open in clement weather, so each time I passed could see his doors were still open, but no sign of him. By 7pm, I started to get concerned. When 8pm came and the doors were still open, it struck me as more than unusual for him. By 9:30, I was convinced he was on the floor somewhere in his apartment after a heart attack or stroke. He is a bit too old to be my father, but a bit too young to be my grandfather; one of those in-between ages. 

Using Google Translator, I typed out "I was concerned about your health because I noticed your door has been open since I arrived home at 3pm". I copied it and pasted it in Word to print out. Just to save time, I modified it for the neighbor alerting her to the fact that he was MIA. I has a plan and a contingency plan. 

Printed out, note in hand, I went to his door reluctantly. If he were alive and well, I did not know what the reception would be like. He came to the door after a few moments. I handed him the note. After he read it, he thanked me a dozen times, and then with body language and Hungarian, I realized he had varnished the doors. He was keeping them open to dry. Clearly he was overwhelmed by my concern. He kept putting his hand to his heart as he thanked me with a huge smile.

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Euro Poverty

If you read or will read the earlier post on stress, this is actually what preceded my thinking about how people react to stress. I read this new article in Realdeal.hu, a translation into English news portal. This was the title that caught my attention. 

Survey shows third of Hungarians face acute financial problems.

It is not only Hungarians that are having problems. Here are a couple of tidbits entice you to read the short, but interesting article at the site. "A third of Hungarian households struggle to pay their monthly overheads, according to a Eurobarometer survey released on Tuesday." The two ends of the spectrum are Greece on one side and The Netherlands on the others. "One in six Europeans finds it hard to pay the bills and three quarters said poverty had grown in their countries during the past year."

I just wonder how they would choose to have a stress-free life?

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Stress or No Stress, Which Do You Choose?

I subscribed to a Google web group of life coaches to see what they are dong, get tips, and so on. After six weeks of digests containing the week's postings, it seems that are all doing webinars, online web seminars. How I would love to be a fly on the wall or on the web as it were to see who is really attending these things. From what I can gather, they all seem to be marketing to each other. One coach tells another, she will Tweet the info to her 728 followers. What a false number our followers happen to be. Being enthused about Twitter at one point, I starting following a great number of journals and magazine writers, yet after the novelty started to evaporate it was only a rare occasion that I took the time to read their Tweets.

One post in a digest caught my attention. The author posed the question "Would you choose to live a stress-free life?" Now, before you say that is a no-brainer, stop and think about stress. There are positive and negative stresses. She did not clarify, lumping them all together. She asked for suggestions to make the newsletter better as it is now in its first year, third edition. Not much of a track record. For someone who supposedly is an expert in stress reduction, she is negligent in facts about stress. Here is a piece of what I wrote her.

There are some assumptions made in your newsletter and the word 'STRESS' has received a bad rap over time with an abuse of therapeutic terms tossed at its definition. There are positive stressors that are part of our make-up. The fight or flight syndrome is a positive stress reaction. Other positive stressful situations are preparing to get married, having a baby, buying a home, starting university, starting a new job, and so on. How many would choose to avoid those types of stress? Stress can either motivate us for change or move us from stressed to depressed.

As much as some others claimed, it is impossible to live without any stress, at least momentary stress. We may find solutions quickly to negate stress, but stressful situations cannot be excised completely or entirely avoided.

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Three Cheers for New Jersey

Everyone loves to be cruel to NJ. It if where a person, it would be the one who is everyone's' favorite scapegoat. I always felt it was poorly position so close to NYC, making it look like the poor stepchild. However, New Jersey and particularly my hometown was known as the Home of Seven Presidents. Seven US Presidents had summer homes in Long Branch and Elberon, which was a part of Long Branch back then. 

Budget Travel had this great article on the revitalized Jersey shore, including my home town of Long Branch. These things were invented in New Jersey The light bulb, phonograph, the first movie projector, and electric guitar. NJ had the countries first drive-in movies. 

The first game of baseball occurred in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1846 and 50 years later in 1896, the first basketball game took place in Trenton, followed by the first intercollegiate football game played in New Brunswick in 1869.

In entertainment, in The War of the Worlds radio prank, the martians landed in West Windsor Township, NJ. Other famous people who did not land from, but were born in NJ are Grover Cleveland, Buzz Aldrin, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Frank Sinatra. If that is not enough, go here for more.

And none of you would be reading this if it were not for Thomas A. Edison who had labs in Newark, West Orange, and Menlo Park, NJ.

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My Brother, My Brother

I had to send my brother a note via Facebook. He doesn't use e-mail any longer. I would not know how to call him. I found this note to someone else. Although we are full brothers, same mother, same father, we have two different last names. His last name is French, so you spot a Kevin French is the credits, it is my little bro.
 
"Yup I'm keeping myself busy for sure, but I haven't been keeping up with the FB updates lately...I guess I got lazy with it....I need to get caught up. I'm like the film guy now. I've been working on a feature film Can't Judge a Book (supporting role) in Philly and I was just given another supporting role in another Philly feature film... The Tea Man that should start filming in end of June early July. I just auditioned for another one in NYC called Stealing Suburbia but I don't have a good feeling about that one."

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You Made Me Love You...

When we were still in Modesto, CA Ron and I would meet during the day sometimes for what he called a "mini-vacation'. The destination was always a coffee house, many times a Starbucks due to access for parking. Likewise, we would many times meet after work for a coffee to discuss plans for dinner, but we always seemed to land at Starbucks for heavy duty life event conversations. 

Just like Pavlov's dog, Starbucks has conditioned associations for me that have yet to wear off. When they announced four years ago that a Starbucks would open in Budapest, I started drooling. After years of dehydration, I can now relish the fact that is has happened. They opened the first store in West End City Center and I was there. Yes, there was a line out the door, but it was worth it. The only part that was missing was Ron to have an intense discussion with, but hey, he is in Colorado. He is having a good time, so I deserve some fun too. 

Starbucks is similarly priced to the existing Coffee Heaven and Costa Coffee chains, but I have to admit Coffee Heaven has an affinity card and many more outlets. I probably will not be making to Starbucks too often.

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Your Age Is Showing

How often do we stop to think about how old the US happens to be? About once a year around the 4th of July is my guess. This is the 4th US Ambassador to serve here since we have lived here. I have received various invitations from all of them so far now that this has come in. With each one, I am again honored to be on the list.

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How Many Technicians Does It Take to Change a Modem?

How many technicians does it take to change a modem? Apparently for UPC, my cable company, the answer is two. When they asked me which of the two hour slots I wanted someone to by, I opted for the 11am to 1pm time frame. 

At 11am, my watch beeped the hour and the doorbell rang simultaneously. Two young English speaking technicians were at the door ready to change out the Internet modem from 60/6 Mbit/s to 120/10 Mbit/s with a fee increase of 1,000 Huf a month. Not bad to double your speed.

With the tools they were carrying and enough cable to wire the entire fourth floor, I had anticipated hours of interruptions. By the time I had the laundry strung out on the line, they were finished. Bravo, UPC. Now I have to change out the modem as the current one is not powerful enough to handle the speed. Oh well!

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The Condo is Rented

I received an e-mail from the property manager tonight during one of those freak moments when the Internet was working. Our condo has been rented for July 1st. They passed the inspections of the property manager and the Home Owners Association credit screening. 

As impatient as I can be at times, this really happened fast considering we have not owned it for 60 days yet.

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Hail Holy Internet

For a number of people, myself among them, the Internet is like a religion. I cannot live without it. I use it to share with friends via e-mail, research for articles I am writing, checking on the latest entertainment, getting the news, and tons of other things. When I don't have access to it, things get nuts.

Yesterday morning the Internet was flaky. E-mail was coming in but not going anywhere. It sat in my Outbox like letters to Santa Claus go to the land of the lost at the US Post Office. Firefox was not working, but Chrome and IE 8 were not either. My mail program was acting very strangely. It would open and immediately freeze the entire computer. The only solution was to manually turn off the computer to reboot.

After rebooting the computer, cable box, and router yet still not finding a solution, I ran the anti-virus program for a deep scan. It kept stalling at 37% with a Chrome extension. I could not find the extension, so I deleted Chrome along with all of the other recent programs I had installed, thinking there may be a conflict in software. After rebooting the computer again, the anti-virus ran fine taking 2 hours to do so yielding nothing amiss. 

When I opened the e-mail program again, a pop-up window stated that due to an Adobe Flash upgrade, the e-mail program may not work correctly, so here is a download to fix the problem. Well, finally! 

Unfortunately, that still did not fix the problem. Thinking wide, I tried the phone. No dial tone. Tried to make a call, nothing. Aha, it is the cable company, not me. Turn on the TV, sure enough, no picture. Too late last night to call the cable company, though they have 24 hour service, I don't have 24 hour patience to deal with them. 

This morning, nothing had changed. No phone, no TV, no Internet. Strangely, I could download mail, but not send a thing. Not only could I not surf the web, I could not even belly board or doggie paddle it. These are usually the times when I have a dozen burning questions pop into my mind that need  answers right then and there. Instant gratification is only playing with my mind. 

After calling the company, it turns out there is a problem in the neighborhood. They hoped it would be fixed by tonight. I can send e-mail from my mobile phone, but it is a pain trying to type on the keypad. While I was on the phone, the nice lady asked if she could ask me a couple of questions. Anticipating a survey on customer satisfactions, I agreed, ready to blast the service. Question 1 - Why are you still sending us money. You have a credit of 44,780 Huf. You could go four months without paying your bill and still have a credit. "Please do not send us any more money." I had always hoped to be able to say that to anyone. 2. We have new faster plans and they are actually cheaper than the plan you have. Are you interested? Sure, I want faster unreliable service. Sign me right up. Tomorrow, they are coming to install a new cable modem box. As least now I will know at a much faster rate when I don't have access to the Internet and pay less for the privilege.

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Interesting Tidbits 5

Five is my lucky number, so this will be the last tidbit I share. Normally, we don't think much about volcanoes until there is a major eruption; smaller ones generally go unnoticed by the media. When one does erupt, it is interesting to see the domino effect impact it has as this shows. If you are not Icelandic and can say this 3 times fast, I will give you a prize. Send me a podcast with your address.

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Interesting Tidbits 4 Book Rentals

If only I had thought of this while in school, I could have been a millionaire by 25 years old. Every American who has gone to an institute of higher education knows the cost of textbooks. 

It is not uncommon for one textbook to cost $50 to $150 and most  courses require multiple books. When I taught in CA, I would try to choose the required texts bearing in mind the cost of the books, knowing the financial pressures of being a student. It was not always possible. When students sell their books back at the end of the semester, they only get nickels on the dollar. This is a fantastic alternative. It still seems pricey to me, but then again, in comparison with new books, there is some savings.

Rent your college texts from Book Renter for 30 day increments or a semester. For example, the book I will be using in the fall semester for a new Masters class is called Social Problems. To purchase the book new is $118.40. However, a rental is $46.16 for a full semester. Not sure if you want to stay in the class? Then rent it for 30 days for $33.47.

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Interesting Tidbits 3 Mobile Phones

Some swear by the iPhone, but plenty of others are saying something differently with their purchasing power. Symbian phones are way ahead worldwide. Your little corner of the world may make you think otherwise, but here are the numbers. This is great information for those of you who travel also. You can see what will work where as you move about.

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Intereting Tidbits 2 Barbie

Some may equate this next post with the previous post. Barbie has it all. Barbie has had more careers than Walter Mitty. Check out the label that popped up for this post: The BLO.

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Interesting Tidbits 1 About Pornography

I have found fun and/or interesting (in my opinion) tidbits of information as I have been reading different computer zines today.  For those who may find find one tidbit of interest, there are others to sample. If you have Attention Deficit Disorder, you will appreciate the limited postings for a change.

Here is a recession-proof industry: Pornography. If you think this graphic is large, wait until you check out the numbers in it, especially the age of initial contact. Are you monitoring what you child sees on the Internet?

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A Picture is Worth 5,000 Huf

Never having used PhotoShop before, just opening the program is intimidating. After playing around for an hour, I decided I knew just enough to be dangerous to my prints. Since many contain wild beasts from safaris, I can honestly say "No animals were harmed in the process". 

My former photography teacher came over to give me a lesson. We arranged 5,000 Huf a the fee. Mentioning that I had version 5, while he was living in the past with version 3, did not seem to faze him in the least. The first thing I made him do was watch two YouTube videos on highlighting the new features of CS5. His attitude changed during the visuals, but really did a turn when he came face to face program. 

After an hour and a half, I at least have more confidence in playing with the program if not being able to do exactly what I had hoped just yet. Now it is time to buy the book.

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Blue, Depressed, Extremely Sad, Downearted

abasement, abjection, blahs, bleakness, blue funk, bummer, cheerlessness, dejection, desolation, desperation, despondency, disconsolation, discouragement, dispiritedness, distress, downhearted, dreariness, dullness, dumps, ennui, gloom, gloominess, heavy heart, hopelessness, lowness, lugubriosity, melancholia, melancholy, misery, mortification, qualm, sadness, sorrow, the blues, woefulness, worry. These are just some synonyms for depression.  

I happened across this chart; what surprised me was that Hungary was not on it. Interesting... 

If you are interested in the top 5 songs related to depression according to Health and Life, read on. Each one will bring you to a video.

1. Alone Again, Naturally (Gilbert O'Sullivan's hair could depress me)

2. Fire and Rain

3. Numb 

4. I hope tomorrow is like today

5. Rehab

My favorite get out of funk song is the Beach Boys Kokomo. I was working part-time as a travel agent in CA when it became popular. I wish I had a dollar for each person wanting to know where Kokomo was located and if there were package deals.

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Margaret Island Police Action

Today was another trek to the dentist on Margaret Island. It is becoming a place of surprises. When I arrived by bus, the area by the hotel was swarming with police with one of the large fields all roped off. 

The last time I can across something like this there was a dead body involved. That was when I was returning from the acupuncturist's office. Gingerly following the police tape, which was identified with "POLICE" not "Rendőrség" (Police in Hungarian), there were no dead bodies about nor anything obviously criminal going on.

I asked my dentist if she knew what was happening, but she said all she knew was what a previous patient has shared. The  grounds flooded causing concern that the tree roots may have been compromised endangering people who are nearby. If you enlarge the picture I took with my phone, you can see the large dark spots in the grassy area. Those are pools of water.

Margaret Island flooding

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Like a Stationary Bike

There are times when I feel like I am on a stationary bicycle, pedaling fast and not getting anywhere that I want to be. When times like this occur it reminds me of why people use life coaches. Coach, coach thyself. 

I thought I had come up with a great theme color-wise for my new website. Drawing on a Hobbit theme, the greens were spectacular, the decorations were simple, but great, yet best of all there was a rabbit hole full of metaphors to associate with it.

The one website designer who I have worked with for a number of computer issues, wanted $1,200 to $2,000 if there were no complications. From past experience, I know there are always complications with them, so that idea was nixed.

I can see the site in my mind, I just cannot execute it into html coding. Now, the designer I was just introduced to looked at the template I started with and called it cheap. We have some work to do, starting with his fees and we may or may not progress from there.

In the meanwhile I am getting Photoshop lessons on Saturday to snazzle up some of my old pictures. Out of the 6,000+ on my computer, thus far I have found about 200 that would be worthy of decorating a mug, mouse pad, greeting card, or t-shirt using a POD company. POD is print on demand. A few of them offer the creation of a virtual store where you can upload your photos or art, advertise your shop and they print the order as it is ordered handling the shipping too. Nifty!

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Dog Days of Summer

Those dog days of summer will soon be approaching, bringing invading thoughts of going to the beach for many people. Speaking of dogs, I have always exclaimed that the Hungarian dogs are the best trained that I have ever seen as a whole. Here is a beach time video to show what I mean.

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Educational Culture Shock

In some past posts, I have mentioned that I was asked to be on the doctoral committee for the very first candidate to graduate from our American Studies doctoral program.


Yesterday was her dissertation defense, which I had to attend being one of her readers. After 8 years in the university system, I thought my days of educational culture shock were behind me. Being naive enough to think I had seen it all, they still surprise me. This is how it played out.


Setting: two extra-large rooms, the outer set up for a celebratory reception (what would have happened if this did not go well?), the inner room had fifty chairs for the observers. At the very front was a table with 5 places for the officiating committee, including a secretary who had to take notes. In front of this table on one side, sitting behind a smaller table was the doctoral candidate Julia. She was placed so that her left side faced the committee and her right side was toward the audience. Directly across from her at room's length were her two 'opponents' another professor from Szeged and myself.


This was only in English: The committee chair started by greeting everyone and then asked the secretary to read the introductions. This introduction was the candidate's biography giving date and place of birth, elementary school through university schools, awards, accomplishments, followed by her marriage and the names and dates of the birth of her children. I had to maintain my composure because scenes from the very old television show This Is Your Life continually streamed through my mind. I was waiting for the voice to come from nowhere with some cute antidote of Julia's past and have her 3rd grade teacher appear from nowhere. 


Once everyone knew the intimate details of her life sparing how many hours she spent in labor with each child, we moved on to the opponents text. Thankfully, they provided me with the dissertation report I had written as I was expected to read the entire 6 pages out loud to all. This was followed by my fellow opponent doing the same. The defender then responded to all questions and concerns presented like a champion. She is supplied with all of them prior to the defense. Granted, she did not take this portion lightly, so we spend another thirty minutes listening to her responses. 


The committee chair then opened it up to anyone to ask questions of the defending candidate. Fortunately no one from the peanut gallery asked anything, but the committee members felt obligated to comment or ask questions. This added to the validation of the defense, so I was pleased that Julia could answer anything thrown at her.


At this point, everyone but the committee members were asked to leave and we had a secret ballot vote on her final defense grade. She received six 5's (equal to an A) and one 4 (equal to a B), so she received a 5. They don't do plus or minus grades, which is a shame. The secretary at this point has to fill in a comprehensive form detailing the entire defense, which we all have input on and then sign it. 


Everyone is then called back into the room. The secretary reads the entire document that was just labored over, but in Hungarian only. Clap, clap, clap! Then the candidate gives a speech again in Hungarian, but I did recognize a dozen thank yous. She immediately switched to English when thanking the other professor and myself. This portion almost took as much time as her biography. 


Everyone adjourned to the outer room for a toast and reception. I have to admit I am so very proud to part of the first doctoral defense of the Eötvös Loránd University American Studies Department.

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