Lee.org

I spent an afternoon and dinner at the home of my old G&T teacher , Cassie Lewis and John Jordan on Saturday night. The company and food was soul-freshening. An image of Cassie’s fantastic lemon meringue pie being held out to me still lingers on my mind like a gentle dream. I think that the entire evening revolved around that piece of pie. The bread and cheese, the intelligent conversation, seeing John’s orchid photos, cutting red, yellow and orange peppers, laughing about Sally’s taxes, the wine, listening in on two interesting conversations at once, admiration. A fantastic evening!

I just got a callback from Assemblywoman Connie Myers about my letter concerning the YES Network (see Journal entry for 3-10-03). :-) She tells me that she was already opposing the bill and values my opinion. :-) Thanks for the callback, that’s very stand-upish! In the (boring) continuing struggle between the YES Network and Cablevision, talks broke down on March 28th, so it looks like we won’t be getting -any- YES network. Actually, the dispute won’t have a direct impact on my family. We’ve been planning to switch to Direct TV for a few months. It’s cheaper and the picture quality is better. Dish Network is less expensive still, but they don’t offer YES Network at all. [insert confused head gyration here].

I just read this article on ESPN where YES stopped simulcasting a WFAN radio sports program for 45 minutes because, mostly due to a minor scheduling issue, the president of Cablevision was going on the show before the YES Chairman even though YES asked to go on first. What friggin babies! “If I can’t go first, then I don’t wanna play!” Remember “Everything I Needed to know I Learned in Kindergarten”? The article was originally reported in Sports News Daily concerning the “Mike and the Mad Dog” radio show.

I’ve been using CoolEdit Pro to convert a bunch of my aunt’s older records to CD. The digital filters on this thing are sweet. After just a few minutes of configuring (and figuring out what all the pretty buttons do) I was able to run one filter to eliminate clicks & pops. Then I configured my own custom filter to get rid of some hums (likely from the turntable motor and/or a power supply). Filtering takes about 2 hrs per 30 minute album side; overnight batch processing to the rescue! The restored tracks sound just about great! I’m a little unhappy that the sound right off the record is a little muddy. That might be due to an old needle, or maybe that the records are like 20 years old and have been well enjoyed many times over that period. I know that chasing that beast could take forever so, you know what? They sound pretty darn good!

Ha! I got the .mp3 settings adjusted just so. The .mp3s are indistinguishable from the originals but only take 0.5 meg per minute… 15 meg per album side… 25 albums per CD! The entire collection will fit on one CD! Wow, you’ve come a long way, baby! I’m encoding at 64kbps mono. The albums are in mono, I considered sticking with stereo to keep the “fullness” of the sound but after carefully listening to some, the only thing I could hear in full stereo on the vinyl were the skips! I also thought about doing simulated stereo but that doesn’t do too much for opera.

I just wrote a review of some software from Eric Berntson’s company, Clonesoft. It is very practically named, “Customize Folder Shell Extension”. If you run Windows and use File Explorer, you really want this software. It’s the bees knees! Get it!

Today’s fun statistic: According to American Greetings, Women ages 35 to 55 purchase 92% of all greeting cards. So you know how your mom is always better at sending cards than you are and she always rails you about it? Well it turns out that she has a decided advantage, she’s genetically predisposed to purchase cards! Source: Baseline Magazine, March 2003, p. 44.

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A friend asked me, “And you? How are things?”
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I got a letter just a few days ago saying that the Hackettstown school system has approved my application to become a substitute teacher. :-). They say I’ll be teaching in 2 weeks.

I started my math and psych courses…

The Math class is hard. It’s really hard. I’m worried. This is gonna take a lot of concentration and work… a lot of hours of cursing my own stupidity during homework sessions. Well, at least I’ll have the psych class to balance it out!

I’ve been working a lot on my web page. I think it’s replacing some important social element in my life… like not getting out enough or having a girlfriend or somesuch. It’s a healthy enough and stimulating activity so I’m not too worried. Check it out at www.lee.org.

I’ve started playing chess online and with Chessmaster 9000. Even when set to high school level, little automaton “Carrie” still kicks my ass, but that’s what learning is all about. At least she doesn’t gloat about it. :-)

I continue to sell my bottles of Marilyn Merlot wine on eBay. See . Wine is gonna put me through college! (assuming my supplier doesn’t run out or figure out how -he- can make as much money as I am on these bottles!

My folks haven’t been in NJ now for a month and I’ve taken over the house. It’s nice. Though I have to say that even when they were here, it was pretty darn OK. They’ll be back for a week starting next week.

I’d love to have a partner to interact with, voice ideas with, and work with. I feel I’d be more happy and successful in life if I had one. I’ve thought this for years and I’m disheartened that for all my looking I haven’t found one. I’ve been a part of a whole, missing the whole for a long time.

My situation progresses at a pace… I’m starting school Tuesday so that by the fall I can enter a master’s program so that next fall I can apply to become a certified NJ teacher. With a significant amount of luck, I’ll be a certified teacher, in the classroom bending … errr shaping little minds in September 2004.

Potential schools right now include:

• East Stroudsburg University over the border in PA. Their Master’s of Education in Science sounds interesting… if their graduate studies people would just return my calls! Maybe they’re still out for winter break.
• Centenary in Hackettstown. If I can find a program that works for me. I had 1 meeting with them. I’ll have 1 more but it’s not looking good.
• Rutgers in New Brunswick. Maybe but it’s a long commute to New Brunswick!
• FDU in Madison: Maybe, though I might not make their entrance GPA requirements, and it’s pricey.

Also, by mid-February, as soon as the paperwork settles in the appropriate Nooks and Crannies ™*, I’ll start substitute teaching. Ironically, the training for being a sub consists of 2 sheets of paper and a map to the schools in the district. The notes on the sheets include things like: “#12. You must accompany your class outside in case of a fire drill.” and “#20. Try to get as many students possible to participate and become involved in the lesson activity.”

Ha.

And I did the math out… get into Grad school, I need 5 A’s before September… B’s don’t count and C’s are right-out. That’s 2 classes this semester, 2 first summer term, 1 second summer term. I’m going to have a busy summer! (and spring, and fall. Hurumph, my Tivo is gonna get lonely, though that’s not a too terribly bad thing)

In it for the long haul,
Or at least: in for ‘it’.

lee

*Yes, Thomas’ English Muffins owns “Nooks and Crannies”. Check the package.

(excerpted from a mass email to lots of friends)

After more than 10 months of unsuccessful looking for a Senior/Mgmt Software Quality Assurance position in or around NYC, I decided that a change of pace was in order. Money was getting a little tight and my resolve to stay in the dot-bomb industry was floundering.

Everyone keeps telling me that I’d make an excellent teacher so I started looking into it…. and I decided to give it a go! To get started, It’s going to take a couple changes… I’m getting ready to take a job a substitute teacher to get a feel for where I’d like to end up; no, subbing it’s often yucky work, but it’s a start in the right place. I’ve got to go to school for a while to qualify to teach, probably starting January at Centenary in Hackettstown. The program will take somewhere between 1 and 3 years; I’m figuring out the details now. I temporarily moved to my parent’s place in Hackettstown. The idea is that they will be away for most of the winter, I needed a place to regroup and get started on this second career. So I’ll be here until May. That’s when my snowbird parents arrive back in town.

I’ll certainly miss my old place. But I still say that the neighborhood is way too sterile. Having a doorman sure was nice though. Shara, my housemate of four years has stayed in Jersey City, moving to her own place near Grove Street. Our recent housemate Dwight went to a different building at Newport. And our long lost Pierre is still far and away; last reports set him sunning himself on the beaches of California.

Hackettstown is a beautiful change of pace. It’s a small town 20 miles from Pennsylvania and a 1 hour drive to NYC. Just yesterday we got 6 inches of snow and the lake behind the house froze over. The wintering geese don’t look happy about the ice but they’ll get used to it.

Be seeing you,

lee