Idiotic People Redux

I just checked my email and the email letters about teachers are still flying around 24 hours later in my group. Some of the letters are supportive of teachers and some say that we are not teaching the kids anything these days. One of the more interesting ones I read said that teachers live in luxury and have ample time off. Uh-huh, ok, sure! My wife and I live in a luxurious little blue mobile home here. What luxury! I am sitting here looking at a worn out carpet, worn drapes, 8 cats waiting to be fed (also one angry bunny), and this is luxury??? Oh well, at least I have all that time off! Let's see... paying for courses and taking them in the summer to recertify another 5 years so I have the luxury of continued teaching. Making lesson plans, labs, and tests for the new books we will be using next year... this is luxury??? I must have a different definition of luxury from the rest of the civilized world.

I did get into this business for the love of teaching students. That is my only reason for staying in these days. It sure isn't the pay, the summers off, or the supposed 'luxury' I am living in. Also, it sure as hell isn't the gratification I get from the appreciative populace. The emails from my group is proof of that. (By the way, thank you for the two supportive emails I did receive concerning this. It did make me feel that there are at least a few people out there who understand and value what it is I do for a living. That means a lot to me.)

Technorati Tags: Teaching, Difficulty, Idiots, Work

Idiotic People

I have a low tolerance for people like those who are on an email list I belong to who state in email conversations that teachers are incompetent, overpaid whiners. I just had a conversation like that with several members of my email group and I lashed out strongly. I started at $7000 per year. I now make $52000 per year for teaching. That may sound like a lot but I did a study once and found that in this area I could get a lab job with my masters degree for a starting salary that was $8000 more than I was making after 26 years of teaching. Notice I said *starting salary* !!!

In the course of teaching I have developed ulcers and a perforated colon. They were both at least partly related to the high stress level of teaching. I've helped to educate people who have gone on to become lawyers, doctors, and other highly paid professionals and I am proud that I've had a part in this. All I ask for is a little more respect from the public and working conditions and wages that are competitive with my level of training and experience. I don't think that is too much to ask for. Let those who whine on in emails about teachers try teaching for a month. They would go screaming out of the classroom long before the month was up. Teachers damn well deserve more respect and more compensation for the job we do from the general populace. We do a thankless job as well as is humanly possible. It's about time that these idiots who send their whining, thoughtless emails wake up and realize that.

Technorati Tags: Teaching, Conditions

The MIDI Page and MIDI Composing

Hi all,

Well, I worked all day and finally finished the MIDI page! There are 30 MIDI songs on it that I've done over the years. Here is the link: MIDI PAGE. Listen to a couple of them and let me know what you think.

I have very mixed feelings about composing for MIDI. The most frustrating thing is that you have no control over what type of system the music will be played on. Some MIDI synths like the QuickTime plugin is simply horrible for MIDI. Their instrument bank makes some of my songs sound like they were made by a demented chimp. A decent setup with a good soundcard and MIDI player will really help recreate what I put into these songs.

Most of these songs are what I would call neoclassical. I went back and dug up several of my old jazz and funk songs for fun and put them up as well. If anyone is interested in using one or more of my compositions, especially for personal websites or animal rescue or spiritual websites, please email me.

Technorati Tags: Music, MIDI

I've just put up the webpage on dad's life on the website. The formatting is not perfect but overall it looks pretty good. I did expand the writing to include some additional anecdotes, a couple of which might be considered 'politically incorrect' and a little off color. I needed to include these since there is no other record of how off the wall his sense of humor truly was.

When I looked on the web for material on the 16th Mechanized Cavalry group I could find very little history so some of these personal anecdotes will be important to those out there who are looking for material about the group during WW2. Some of the rest will just be of importance to the immediate family. You can check it all out under the links section on the right. When you get to the Albin Family website, click on the "Dad's Life" section. Let me know how it looks.

Technorati Tags: Dad, Cavalry, World War 2, Texas, TVA, Florida

Meet the cats - Freddie Mercury

Here is Freddie Mercury. Freddie came from a no-kill group in Jacksonville, Florida. He was found as a kitten in a greenhouse and was raised with several other adoptees by a foster parent. His original name was actually Freddie and we gave him the last name in honor of Freddie Mercury of Queen. Freddie Mercury was a true lover of cats and kept several in his home.
Our Freddie is the most feral cat we have here. He will only let me pet him, and that has to be on his terms. He also has the longest tail of any cat we've ever seen. He is very elegant but is really extremely shy like his namesake.


Technorati Tags: Cat, Pet, Freddie Mercury, Queen, Animal Rescue

Meet the cats - Miss Kitty

Miss Kitty was our first cat we brought indoors full time. She was one of a group of cats living in a barn close by. Miss Kitty keeps the boys in line by occasionally bopping them on the head as they go by. Spoiled? You bet she is!

Technorati Tags: Cat, Pet, Animal Rescue

Meet the cats - Tommy

Here is our alpha cat, Tommy. You can read about his tragic beginnings at Tommy's Page.

Tommy was recently featured on a poem my wife won at the Oxbow Hay website. The photo on
that page was featured on the Ellen show in a segment called "Unlikely Pairs" for reasons that will be obvious when you see the picture!

cat
pet

Meet the cats: Beau

I've been slowly recovering from the sinus infection and have been lying around the house all week. With not much to do, I've been taking some shots of the cats and bunny here. Since I've already started on the "meet the cats" theme with Luvey I thought I would let you meet Beau, or as we call him, Crazy Beau. This set of shots is when I was getting the camera out to change batteries. Beau took advantage of my opening the dresser drawer to check things out and try to steal a sheet of paper from inside.

Beau is the son of Velvet. We adopted them about 1/2 a year ago from the local shelter we volunteer for. Beau's favorite toy is his sponge ball which he carries everywhere and plays 'fetch' with. He also loves to steal socks and underwear from the dirty clothes hamper and carry them through the house. From this description and the photos above you now understand where he got his nickname from!

Cat Personalities

Some people say that cats don't have personality. They obviously haven't met our Luvey!

I Made It Through The Class

Well, the computer education class finished yesterday. It had some interesting sections where we used PowerPoint and MS Publisher to create slide shows, brochures, and certificates. We also practiced merging data into certificates. I will be able to use a lot of the concepts in my teaching this Fall. Here is a photo of me at the workshop with a nice person I worked with on the programs.

My sinuses are still killing me today. It's turned into a bacterial infection now in spite of my efforts to keep the sinuses open. I will probably need to visit the doctor Monday for an antibiotic. Oh joy! I am going to get off now and go soak in a nice hot bath.

Still living

The sinus infection continues in full force while I medicate and then go in each day for my computer class. I'm hanging in ok so far but will probably have to go to the doctor this weekend.
Such is life.

Sinus Infection. Any Advice??

The past 24 hours I've been battling a blasted sinus infection. Absolutely 0 hours sleep last night and now it appears to be turning bacterial. I started a week long education class I have already paid for (for recertification) so I am stuck there all week with no chance to go to a doctor for it. Does anyone out there have any advice on how to treat this? I am miserable.

Neat Graphics Funnies

I found a really fun site called Comic Strip Generator that has a number of additional sign, book, etc... makers on it. The picture above was made with one of them. I can see a lot of uses for these generators for quick website retouched photos, ecards, and similar projects. Visit their site but only if you have awhile to spend playing with all of the fascinating generators there! It is really addictive.

My World of Fartwell Corners

I've had a running joke for years about a mythical town in Tennessee called Fartwell Corners. Every time we would see something impressive, for instance a Van Gogh painting, I would say in my best Gomer Pyle voice "Goooooly! We ain't got nothing like this at Fartwell Corners!"

Fartwell Corners is set in the foothills of rural Tennessee. It is very loosely based upon a tiny town I lived in awhile called Jasper, Tennessee, but is a lot tackier looking than Jasper ever was. Fartwell Corners is one of those wide places in the road where there is one stop sign, a gas station, a few decrepit houses and apartments with no sense of style or beauty, and the occasional animal wandering around. The countryside is beautiful but everything people added to the area is a blight on the eyes. Fortunately the town will probably disappear in a few more decades.

Fartwell Corners has come to epitomize everything that is tacky in the lives of some small towns. This would also apply to any tacky area such as the new housing developments down the road that have that "new age ranch" artificial look, right down to the transplanted palm trees.

Here is one picture I created of Fartwell Corners using Poser and Bryce. If you ever see a place like this, don't stop!

My Favorite 10 Movies

It's a quiet day here. I've been watching movies part of the day and I would like to give you my list of favorite movies and why:

1) "All That Jazz". Excellent acting and an imaginative, evocative storyline.
What more could you want from a movie?
2) "Blazing Saddles". From the insane mind of Mel Brooks comes this comedy gem. No
taboo is safe!
3) "Return of the Living Dead". I have always been a fan of the horror genre. This is
an outrageous spoof of the "Living Dead" pictures.
4) "For a Few Dollars More". Lee van Cleef was at his sneering, sarcastic best
in this classic of the old Western spaghetti films.
5) "Night of the Living Dead". Oh Barbara, they're coming to get you!
6) "Casablanca". Humphrey Bogart at his best!
7) "The Man Behind the Mask". A little known psychological thriller with that master
of angst, Peter Lorre.
8) "Horror of Dracula". Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing together in what was their
best horror film.
9) "Coconuts". The Marx brothers were true comic geniuses.
10) "The Devil's Rejects". Violent, disturbing portrait of a psychotic family.
Rob Zombie explores the worst aspects of human nature and makes us face
ourselves.

That's the list. There are many other movies I love but if stranded on a desert island these are the ones I would most want to have with me. Happy viewing!

Just Lounging With The Cats

It's been a very quiet day for me. I've enjoyed resting and just hanging out with the cats here. This is a photo I took today of Beau (on the left) and his dad Velvet lounging away as well.

Our Day at Cat Adoptions

Here are photos of some of the cats we were trying to adopt out from the Goliath and Bebe's World animal rescue group, working out of Petco.

The first picture is of Bowser, an 18 pound lapcat.


The other two pictures are of litters of kittens we got in from foster parents. We had a fair day Saturday with 2 adoptions.

When Did I Grow So Old???

I was looking through some recent photos and I came across this one of me and Sir Francis. I was shocked to see that some time in the past years I've managed to grow old. I mean, the grey hair, the few added pounds, the sallow complexion, the wrinkles that used to be dimples. Where am I in this picture? I don't feel as old as I look here. I feel no different from when I was 25 years old. Well, maybe I get tired a little faster but everything else feels the same. I still have the same curiosity, the same strange sense of humor, the same griping attitude that I've always had. So tell me, where the heck did I go in this picture? This isn't the 'me' that I feel inside.

Make Me A Millionaire!!

While working on the new webpages today my mind was wandering and something occurred to me suddenly. I could quit teaching this Fall instead of waiting for another four years to pass if I only had a million dollars to invest. I could live off of the interest from this and then when Karen and I die we would leave the principal to Goliath and Bebe's World, the local animal rescue group we volunteer for.

Here's the deal. You will probably never have a chance to become a millionaire and retire early. BUT if two million people each sent $1 or the equivalent in their money, I would have enough to pay off federal taxes I would owe and have that million dollars to invest! I could retire!! Wow, what a nice idea!!! So... with no promise of anything in return, start sending those $1 donations to my early retirement fund to:
Ken Albin
3000 A Pacetti Road
St. Augustine, Florida 32092 USA

Let's get me out of this job before I go completely crazy from the stress and give me the life of
luxury I deserve! Retire me before the school year begins this August and I can tell the administration which part of my anatomy they can kiss! Do it for all those little people out there like me who slave away their lives in education (26 years so far!) with no appreciation from the world. The more I think of this plan, the better I like it. Send your pittance today!!!!!

Well, back to working on those webpages.