A Few Oswego Selfies

These were taken in Oswego. I am sure you knew that...

My Husband and I were there 4 days, but because for 2 days we were desperately driving back to Oswego during the sunset, we managed to only catch the start of the one that happened on Friday evening, just before the Torchlight ceremony. We had the original drive up on Tuesday evening, but because we spent quite a bit of time at Fort Totten, we were running late. The next day we did a run to Buffalo and the same thing happened, we were riding between Syracuse and Oswego, when the sun set.

2 down 2 to go.

Thursday evening we spent in the hotel room. Our room didn't look out on the water and the bad weather that had been predicted all week, finally began. Another opportunity lost, but in good news, we had left overs from The Anchor Bar and we got some Rudy's clam chowder and onion petals, to add to it. So we had no sunset, but I at least had Rudy's!

All we had left was one day and the forecast was ominous.

As we drove back from Syracuse (there were no rooms at any hotel in the Oswego area for the night before graduation) to attend the Torchlight Ceremony, we parked in my favorite lot, the teachers lot right on the lake. The sun was beginning it's nightly ritual and it got down under the cloud cover and gave us a sunset! Woot!

It was still too high up for good photos, but here are 2 selfies of us.

Joyously happy that we had the time and the sun to even give us something close to a sunset. We couldn't stay til the end, because the Torchlight Ceremony beckoned, but we got some wonderful early sunset shots.

We were content!

Another Instructor and A Goodbye To Snygg Hall

This post is kind of a coda to yesterday's really loooong post about my instructors. Thankfully, it will be fairly short.

This photo is of me and another instructor I had in Oswego.

The reason he was not mentioned yesterday is that he taught us for 3 sessions in our Integrated Media class. Dr David Vampola is a genius and probably legend, in the Computer Science Department. He understands coding for websites, like CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), for example and he showed us the basics of such things. He had set ups on the computers in the classroom, that we could work with and learn from. I totally enjoyed my time with him on an academic level, of course, but the surprise came almost from the first moment he introduced himself. He grew up in Los Angeles!

So we totally had a huge connection that made this transplanted homesick Angelino less homesick. After class we must have talked for a half hour about common things we both knew about. Things like: when he left LA and when I came to LA (in case you care, our time in this city didn't match up at all). It was a wonderful experience and it made me happy, to talk to someone who understood LA.

One of the things he mentioned to me, was that when he saw my application for the Graduate Program, his comment was, this person is exactly who we must have. I personally agree with him. :-)

Fast forward to the present. My Husband and I were taking photos around our newest building, Shineman Center for Science. As we walked around, I not only found Damian and introduced him to my Husband, I found Dr. Vampola. I was so happy, because last semester I went looking for him to say goodbye and he was not in his office at that moment. So I left a note on his message board at his office door. It felt like I was leaving something unfinished and I was right.

When we saw each other, we joyfully started conversing and my Husband joined in. While this was going on, I could actually see that his office has the perfect view of our old Science building, Snygg Hall, as it is being dismantled. Here is a photo I took of it, to the right.

Being the two buildings are within about 5 feet of each other, one was definitely coming down, since they decided to not rehab it. It will become a parking lot, which is so very needed. Remember all the times I bitched about the lack of parking for Commuters. Hopefully, this will help.

Both Damian and David had stories about move day last summer. Even though both buildings are close to each other, they really aren't and moving so much science equipment was a royal pain.

I am sure they are both happy they don't have to repeat the exercise this summer.

As you can probably figure out, I am going to miss all my teachers. Thank goodness for Facebook. :-)

My Teachers, My Mentor

I had several teachers in Oswego, but none as central to my learning, then the head of the Integrated Media program, Dr. Ulises A. Mejias.

My first class with him was online only and I loved it!

Social Networks and the Web brought me exercises and projects such as: The Social Life of a Wikipedia Article, which I showed you, HERE.

The big project for the class was the Facebook Map I had to make in Gephi. I showed it off, HERE.

I found the teacher, the book "Linked" by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi and the class itself, so enlightening, that I got an A+ (which translated to an A in my transcript).

As relative contemporaries, I think we linked in that class in the way of how far we have traveled through the years of our lives. He would converse on subjects that our group was working on, pointing us to areas we might not have explored in our brains and all around making the online class better than it could have been.

In a funny aside, one of the students in that class came up to me and Dr. Mejias right when the photo you see below, was taken. She said we had been in a class together. So I immediately said to her, Social Networks and the Web and she went YES! She loved that class. Yep, me too.

So, with his help, I applied to Graduate School and got accepted. I looked forward to having him in 2 classes for my semester at campus.

Well, then along came the fall and I loved being in Oswego in the fall, but I hated being all alone and away from my family. I was basically chained to my apartment, to do all the work I had to do for KCET and that made spare time...well, rare.

I had Dr. Mejias in a course called Technology and Culture and the highlight (or lowlight) was the Finch Dance off. If you remember, I had to program the Finch to "dance" to a song. I am not the world's best computer programmer and it showed. I did get the thing to work and it did perform that day and I got a vote. Victory, from the jaws of defeat. My teacher was proud of me.

I had a Powerpoint presentation about the 6 Media Companies that dominate the media landscape and I thought I did that pretty well, highlighting a program we air on some of our channels at work: Shadows of Liberty.

What didn't work well for me, were the discussions on the readings. Most students would wait til the last moment to comment or respond and so I ended up being in HCI Class and missed out on the final discussions. Our team lost 13 out of 14 of the reading competitions during the course of the semester. The teacher didn't grade them until the very end and that is when I found out how bad that fact impacted my grade. There was literally nothing I could do about it and I got a B.

Integrated Media was the class to prepare us for the final project, which we were going to do in the spring. We each had to do a Resident Expert presentation about something. I was to present audio and since I had extensive experience working with audio in a Church setting, I did quite a bit about all that. What I did not know at the time, was that Professor Mejias wanted me to show the class how to do a podcast. Oops, major mistake that I did take care of, later in the semester and you can see my (and listen) to my attempt to do one, HERE.

The big project for the class was a website and so I designed a website called The Steely Dan Show. I created it and my teacher wasn't happy that friends were clicking things on Facebook. He wanted to see my social media presence right there on the website. So I made a plea to my Steely Dan friends and I got things going on the site itself (via THIS post). One of the things needed on the website, was a video slide show and I did it via Soundslide. Unfortunately, Youtube is showing me that I used a copyrighted song for the project and that is a no-no (though the record company is letting it stay up). Live and learn, I guess.

We also had readings to do for the class and again, not my best thing. When it was all finished, I got a B in this class, too. In both this class and the Tech and Culture Class, I thought that Dr. Mejias was not happy with me or my work and I was incredibly sad about that. The thing is, I also realized that as much as I did learn, there were so many times I was robbing Peter to pay Paul and his classes seemed to get hit the hardest. I think he did expect better from me. These 2 classes were my biggest regret, leaving Oswego. I felt that I had let him down.

So there I was, back in Los Angeles and working full time at KCET. I had to Skype into his class each Tuesday and it worked for me. It was kind of hard to hear what was going on sometimes and I did get frustrated occasionally, but I did the best job I could, with the information at hand. I always felt guilty making him Skype with me, but he did it and we showed it could be done.

My project for this Integrated Media Projects class was to write posts for KCET about the 50th Anniversary. I wanted to specifically target the over 50 crowd and I luckily got permission to have some of my posts forwarded over to our members list, in which most of them are indeed, 50 plus. Great, so I had access to some of the audience and the younger crowd via something the New Media Department sends out, called The Digital Download. I also had some posts sent out via the KCET Facebook page. I am unsure if anything was sent out via their Twitter page.

So I started writing and this is what it started out as. My first post.

As the semester wore on and people were leaving KCET, I decided to move all my posts over to a website of my own making. You can see it, HERE. That way, I feel that I have a permanent record of what I did for the class.

The stats for the project are the part that I am the most proud of. I am sure that Dr. Mejias is too, since he gave me an A in this class. I did not get to do everything I wanted to, but look at those numbers! Way beyond my wildest dreams and I just heard in a meeting that they do intend to continue to use me, moving forward at work. Cool.

My last thing I want to bring up is my going up to Oswego for the final week of classes. When Dr. Mejias heard that I was coming, he set up a reception for us all and a photo op, to get pictures of us presenting and then a group photo. I know it was mostly PR, but I totally enjoyed seeing each one of my classmates and friends presenting their project to the group. You can see the final class photo, here.

I did show off both my other main teachers, as they taught class. The first one was my Human Computer Interaction class, with Damian Schofield. An incredible academic with widely divergent interests, that so match some of my own. I had an excellent time in his class, except for the 8 thousand word report on Internet Identities. I got an A from him and I was so happy. A great teacher and the social life of Oswego, double win!

The only other class that I did not have Dr. Mejias as my instructor, was Graduate Multimedia and I also showed you a glimpse in that class. Cara Brewer Thompson is a wonderful teacher who works in all sorts of digital art and she taught us so many things along the way. I went through some of it, in this post. I still think about taking another art class at some future date, but lack of money is the big problem there.

Well, I went through all of this (and if you got here, congratulations), to kind of give this video I just found, some context. I was one of several students interviewed (back in December) about our experiences in Integrated Media. I have been dreading seeing this, but here it is, for better or for worse. Check it out, HERE.

I had some of the best teachers I have ever had, this past year. Through good times and bad times I have enjoyed learning from them all, especially Dr. Ulises Ali Mejias, my Mentor.

Friends For Decades

Our friend from Phoenix has known my Husband since back in the 60's, when the two of them were in the service together. We have spent more Thanksgivings at their home, or they in ours, over the decades. I came along when their son was 1 year old. To say the least, I know this boy well.

Now days, of course, he is a man and has a daughter of his own.

On our way out of town a few weeks ago, he saw that we were leaving NYC and he asked us to make an impromptu stop at the Fort Totten area, right by the approach to the Throgs Neck Bridge.

We agreed to do so and ended up exploring an unknown area of Queens (at least to this Long Islander).

I will show off Fort Totten and other photos taken during our time together, but for today, this is a photo that makes my heart sing.

My Husband and his best friend's son. They look quite content with each other.

I love seeing him (especially since he follows me somewhat in his career). He has a BFA (updated, thanks Shawn) in Theater Arts and works lighting for events and shows.

It is a friendship that has withstood over 34 years.

We love you, Shawn and are so proud of you.

The Transcontinental Railroad 145 Years Old

On our trip across the Country, we ended up on tracks that were part of the original Transcontinental Railroad. We passed through just after the 145th Anniversary, though I did not know this at the time. Here is a bit of history, though there is much more to the story.

In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific Railroad (Crocker, Stanford, Huntington and Hopkins) and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, and tasked them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, the two companies would race toward each other from Sacramento, California on the one side and Omaha, Nebraska on the other, struggling against great risks before they met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.

I found these two maps online and they both show the original route which by the way, was not always what we took. You can see on the first map, the meeting point is highlighted. I never knew where this location was, or why it was chosen. This is what I learned. When then President Grant threatened to withhold funds, until they named a meeting point, they decided on Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake; some 690 track-miles from Sacramento and 1,086 from Omaha. The reason for the huge discrepancy between miles of track laid, was (of course) the Donner Pass area through the Sierras.

We did not go through that area of Utah. The train nowadays goes through Salt Lake City and normally right through the Rockies, in Colorado. Due to our detour, we actually did ride near some of the Wyoming stretch and we (of course) went through the Donner Pass, which is the only tracks through that area. I think we may have been on part of it in Nebraska, though we almost dropped down to Kansas at one point, so I think we were not always on that original route.

No matter what, a huge hit of history for this girl, who lives in a state where those 4 Railroad Tycoons are part of everyday life. Crocker used to be a bank, back in the 80's. Stanford University still exists. Huntington Library is in Glendale, California. We have streets in our Industrial Center, named after all 4 of these tycoons and I would bet we are not the only ones.

A vacation and history, all rolled into one.

More on the train trip, when I have time to write about it.

Bridgeport Marketplace Photo Two

My Water Post For Today.

Here is the second photo from the Bridgeport Marketplace.

I promised you some birds and so you get some ducks and geese in this photo. You also get the wonderful sculptures that look like sail boats.

I like how it has evolved, over the years. Even to a machine with duck food. The food looked suspiciously like Cheerios and cost a quarter. The ducks ran right over to me and tried to show me the food, but I ignored them. :-)

Enjoy a day at the little lake.

Memorial Day 2014

Happy Memorial Day weekend to you. Hope you are enjoying 3 days off.

I thought this photo was appropriate for the day.

We saw this train car during the 75th Birthday and National Train Day, at Union Station a few weeks ago. My guy, my vet, posed in front of it.

The car honors all veterans and Memorial Day honors all Veterans, both living and dead.

In kind of a serendipity thing. We spent about 20 minutes in Denver station, on our way home and guess what car we saw on an ajoining track? Yes, this one.

Really cool to see it again.

A Few Graduation Photos

I can't believe it has been a week already. It feels like yesterday.

Here are 2 photos taken at my graduation. The first one was taken in the reception area, after the ceremony.

My professor and mentor, took the photo of my Husband and I.

Can you tell how happy we are?

I am sure I was smiling so much because I had found my teacher, who came to the ceremony just for me.

He has a 70 mile commute from Ithaca, no less.

This second photo was taken just before I walked down the aisle and got my diploma (or certificate).

You can tell I was having serious trouble with my bangs and the cap was making it worse, because it just wouldn't stay on. Sigh.

In spite of that, it's a record of the day and I am glad to have something from it.

An Interesting Article About The Integrated Media Program

For some reason (read Angel is trying to find her grade posted officially), I was looking around the Graduate pages on the SUNY Oswego website. During my travels I found two articles that made me happy. The first one is about the Integrated Media Certificate. They interviewed several of my classmates and they used a photo of ME!

I was so impressed. Check it out, HERE.

So then I wondered if there were any other articles on some of the other programs and that's when I found an article about the Human Computer Interaction Masters program, which had 2 friends of mine. You can see both Trish and Carly HERE.

I had heard from Carly that she was teaching middle school students about robotics, so it was cool to get to see her in action.

I am still just so buzzed about this whole experience, I can't tell you how fulfilled it makes me feel.

States Update 2014

In an overview of the past 2 weeks of my life, there were a few things of note.

We decided to travel back to LA via AMTRAK, so we ended up selecting a line we had never been on...The California Zephyr.

Even though we started in Syracuse, we basically ended up traveling straight across the entire nation, on this journey. It took 3 full days...plus.

During that time, we visited 12 states. In my case, Nebraska has been added to my States Visited map. We had a detour along the way, basically bypassing most of Colorado, after Denver. They sent us through the state of Wyoming (a new state for my Husband, who is now up to 40 States) to get us around the problem.

So here is my current map. I have 3 states to go!

I feel that I will eventually get to Hawaii, but the others are a bit up in the air.

We are both happy we spent some quality time doing this, but now we are broke. Oh well. :-)

I highly recommend rail travel and am so happy to have been pampered by the crew, over the past 3 days. Now back to the real world of work.

I Obsess About Deer

Hopefully we made it back home last night. I am currently on the final California leg of the long journey. We are due home at 11:30PM, if all holds to time.

Here is a post to keep you going, until I can hook up decently, once again.

I obsess about deer, after my near miss with three of them last semester. I thought that was it, but I was wrong.

As we came back to campus for the Torchlight Ceremony on Friday, 2 young deer were standing by the fence to the President's House on campus, Shady Shore.

They were so quiet, I thought they were statues, at first.

I had my camera out and so I actually could take a few photos of them.

I obsessed all the way back to the hotel, after the encounter, too.

Do you know how many deer crossing signs there are on the roadways? :-)

The Torchlight Ceremony 2014

We are still on the train until tonight, so here are the last photos I have, of the celebrations in Oswego. Friday night's Torchlight Ceremony.

They decided to move the ceremony inside, due to the pouring rain we had on the morning of the event. It did eventually let up and we had no trouble driving back to Oswego (there was no room for us in town and so we booked a room in Syracuse.)

It was a very moving ceremony, with an alumni from 1990 (who earned a Broadcasting degree and works in Los Angeles) as the mistress of ceremonies. She did a fabulous job.

President Deborah Stanley also gave a wonderful "go forth" speech to the Undergrads, telling them to use their fellow alumni, to reach out and get those first jobs that they seek.

I got my first via an alumni and so I am totally on board with that. :-)

We then lit the torch and from that one light, we passed on of the light of knowledge to every person in the room. It is always very moving.

Glad that I took the time to attend.

Bridgeport Marketplace Photo One

My Water Post For Today.

I took this photo a few weeks ago, when I shot the photo of the tree that is no more. Bridgeport Marketplace is the location of the waterscape and it has grown very lovely and photogenic.

Due to the fact that Santa Clarita is so hot in the summer, one of the developers decided that adding water to their developments, makes things cooler. It may not work, but it does give a delightful interaction between the people enjoying the water and the birds who call it home. The birds will show up in next weeks post.

This particular photo shows 2 waterfalls and I love the way it looks.

I hope you do, too.

Riding The Rails Once Again

Well the pomp and the circumstance of graduation is now over and my Husband and I packed up our things and drove over to Syracuse. We hopped on an AMTRAK train, for our journey back home.

The first leg of the trip will be an overnighter on the Lakeshore Limited to Chicago. We have done this trip before. To save a bit of money, since it is just from 10PM at night to the early morning, we booked a coach seat. When we get to Chicago, we will be transferring to the California Zephyr, where we booked a Roomette. Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Northern Nevada and of course, Northern California (including the infamous Donner Pass) will be on the agenda. We leave the train in Sacramento and transfer to the San Joaquin. It will travel through central California and drop us off at Bakersfield, where a bus will take us the remaining way to our home, Santa Clarita.

It should be a pretty cool trip and the last main line across the West, that I have never been on. In a major big event for me, I will add Nebraska to my list of States I have visited!!! Woot!

To check out where I am on that list, read THIS one and then go back (via a link) to my original post about States.

See you on the flip side.

This Is It! - Happy Graduation To Me

After all the classes, meetings and activities, this is the day I have been working toward. I will receive my Masters Degree Certificate in Integrated Media and Social Networks.

No hood for this girl, since I did not earn the full Masters and after looking at the full degree, I am fine with what I have. I would have loved to work an Art Class or two into my life, but that is not to be, due to lack of finances, but ultimately, I am just fine with what I have learned. I would have had to take another 19 credit hours, which is another year of study. I just can't do that again.

I spent some time this week visiting and thanking each teacher I had. As I mentioned yesterday, I did do the Torchlight Ceremony last night and it was a moving ceremony. Just before the Ceremony, I got to see one more sunset, with my Husband and that made me happy, too.

So today, I walk across that stage. I thought I would be doing it all alone, but thanks to the bookstore, I heard that Andrew and Kyle will be walking with me. So out of our class of 8, we will walk as 3. I am happy to have company, as we do this together and shake the hands of the people who guided us to this day. In case you care, my final grade was an A and so I did get a 3.5 GPA. I refused to leave here with less than I had last time. :-)

There will probably be no photos, until I return home on Tuesday night. We will be training it home (via AMTRAK), later on today.

Goodbye Oz, this is finally it!

Torchlight 2014

It is the oldest ceremony that takes place on our campus. They say the first time they have record of it occuring, is 1937. I have absolutely no memory of this ceremony, from my undergrad days. Or if I did, I ignored it because it was for the top students and I wasn't one of them.

Since I took part in the candlelight ceremony back in September, I decided that I will attempt to be there for the passing of the torch to the next class.

The lateness of this post gives you a hint as to the weather today. It is raining and will continue to do so til tonight. The ceremony will be taking place on the north lawn, by Campus Center and (of course) the Lake. They put up a tent yesterday and the rain that was forecast, arrived with lots of thunder and lightning. I decided to shut off my computer, so I am now writing this in the morning.

I actually have a photo of the candlelight ceremony from last fall. I found it to be an inspiring event and I was glad I was there, to light a candle with thousands of Freshman from the class of 2017. By the way, those Freshman will graduate 40 years after I did. :-)

Standing in a room with lit candles signifying knowledge and the passing on of same, is wonderful. I hope it goes well, outside in the rain. If we attend, pictures will hopefully come later on.

The Anchor Bar (Buffalo, New York)

There is a long and probably boring story that goes with these photos.

Many years ago...maybe 2002, my family finished with Oswego business and then took the NY State Thruway to Buffalo, NY to see Niagara Falls. We spent the day and then the night on the Canadian side of the falls. When morning came, I was driving all the way to Cleveland, OH. Not an easy trek.

When we drove over some elevated highway in downtown Buffalo, my Husband pointed down and said, "Wait, we didn't go to the Anchor Bar!"
Folks, it was 11:00AM and I was not stopping to go to some bar.

A missed opportunity that my Husband has never let me live down. :-)

So when we were planning this trip, I said to him "Why don't we drive to Buffalo and get the Anchor Bar off our Bucket List?" He agreed and so we chose the best weather day we could find, in a week of potentially crappy weather.

I had a meeting to attend with my Professor and so I left my Husband with the laundry and off I went to my meeting. We ended up getting out of town by around 11:30AM.
3 1/2 hours later, we were at the Anchor Bar.

We knew we would be hitting potential thunder storms after 4PM, so we knew not to stick around after we had our fill of yummy Buffalo wings and some Genesee Creme Ale. Personally, I liked it all and would visit it again, if we spent any time in the Buffalo area.

I would also say that it was worth the trip, but probably not something everyone would find doable.

Presenting The Class Of 2014

I made it back to Oswego, for the final few days activities.

While I was on Long Island, my teacher posted the official photo of the first Integrated Media class. 7 out of 8 of us were there for the photo. Andrew was missing, due to work commitments.

Presenting the Class.

Top row: Me, Kyle, Carly, Liz, Jamie and Dr. Mejias

Front row: Azania and Laura

I am so proud of all of us. They ended up being a wonderful group of Graduate Students and I am honored to have learned with them.

Some Friends I Managed To Visit This Trip

It has been 40 years since some of us have graduated High School. This made a friend of mine think of getting a group together and meeting up on Long Island, the place we were raised.

I knew that I would be on Long Island this week and so I suggested that whoever wanted to meet-up, to come to our favorite breakfast get together. It has become a tradition for me, my sister, our Husbands and our childhood friend to see each other and catch up.

One person took us up on the offer and she flew to New York and attended our meet-up.

It was great to see her, since the last time we did, she had no children and my son was 6 months old. Now days, her children are almost all grown up, as is my son.

The other one (the one who suggested it) could not make it and that saddened me.

In good news, I saw her Mother and her sister on Sunday (Mother's Day, if you forgot) and so I was able to catch up with her family, before I had to run to the City and pick up my Husband at the airport. An unexpected treat that I will always cherish. Especially since her Mom is the only one of our parents who is still alive.

Back in the day, our 3 Moms would play cards (Mille Bornes) at my house, and I distinctly remember those days. The kids would go in and out of the house. Playing with each other and doing kid things. It was a different time, a more innocent time...before 2 of the Moms ended up going to work, to make ends meet.

A nice visit to Long Island. Now back to Oswego, for the final week and lots of rain. Glad I have a car this time.

Puget Sound

My Water Post For Today.

Up the coast from California and Oregon, is the beautiful state of Washington.

In the Seattle area, you have a wonderful body of water called Puget Sound.

Everything that is anything, hangs around this area.

Of course the most notable thing that is there, is The Space Needle.

This photo was taken from the top of the Space Needle, in 1989.

It was sunset and the water is so clear and beautiful.

I hope you enjoy.

Tales Of The Saugus Cafe

I have mentioned the Saugus Cafe before. My family has been going to eat there for the past 30 years. It's well over 100 years old and has had a colorful history.

Back in the day, the cafe had its history right on the back of the menu. It was written by former SCV Historian, Jerry Reynolds. He was a very nice man who used to write for our local historical society. He died back in 1996 and we miss terribly. He compiled the history of the Saugus Cafe, from things like newspaper clippings and you get a real feel for how rural the area used to be.

I love eating there and enjoy the fact that for once, LA has some history.

Check it out, if you have never read about the Presidents and famous people who have raised a glass at the Saugus Cafe.

Tales of the Saugus Cafe.

On Long Island, Once Again

So I made it down to Long Island, safe and sound. Thank goodness.

I am here at my sister's place and hope to spend a few days seeing my family.

The trip had drizzle, but not rain and for that I am also thankful. You can see the extent of it in this picture of the Tappan Zee Bridge. Mostly just hazy and little bits of mist.

A kind of sad thing is that the bridge is slated to be replaced soon and people riding on the bridge can see the supports coming out of the water, off to the left of the bridge.

The bridge is so much a part of my childhood, that I am definitely going to miss it when it's gone.

A Sneak Preview Of My Graduation Outfit

Here it is, just a selfie.

I finally got through the paperwork and managed to make it happen. I will be walking down the aisle next Saturday, as the first recipient of a Masters Certificate in Integrated Media and Social Networks.

Being it is not a full Masters, I will not get the "Hood" that comes with a Masters, but I have the ropes for the School of Communications Media and the Arts. I am happy with that. I also have a tassel with the green and gold. I was surprised at that, because back in the day, we had black tassels and only the ones who graduated with honors (Magna, Summa, Cum Laude etc) received the green and gold. I have mine, because I did graduate Cum Laude (thank you Stereo 1.) :-)

The full Masters Degree is almost available and yes I intend to, at least check it out. I have no idea if I will take them up on getting it, so that is why I am going to walk this time. Between being broke and not sure how much more that Masters will take in time and money, it is doubtful I will finish it.

I will be driving Downstate to my family today. After I pick up my Husband, we will return for the final week of Graduation related stuff.

The Integrated Media Stats For My Class Project

Since I had to compile this report for class, I thought I would post it here for you to see. If you clicked on any of my posts from the past 2 months, your numbers are in there. Thanks for that.

Here are the stats:

1. Huell & Luis - 4,903 total page views (the vast majority of them coming from Facebook), Facebook Likes 2.9K, (E-Blast sent out on 3/2)

2. That’s Amazing! Huell Exhibit at Chapman - total page views 4,721, Facebook Likes 3.4K (E-Blast sent out on 4/1) (Digital Download sent out on 4/6)

3. Huell Food - 1,075 total page views, Facebook Likes 555 (E-Blast sent out on 4/15)

4. KCET and Star Wars 784 total page views, Facebook Likes 235 (PBS Engineer’s Chat had quite a lovely discussion going on after I posted the link. They were trying to figure out what type Grass Valley Switcher it was.)

5. Videolog Reunion - 412 total page views, Facebook Likes 371

6. Clete Roberts - 516 total page views, Facebook Likes 233, (E-Blast sent out on 3/14)

7. Cosmos - 413 total page views, Facebook Likes 94

8. Penn & Teller - 283 total page views, Facebook Likes 17, (Digital Download sent out on 3/23)

9. History of News Pt. 2 - 278 total page views, Facebook Likes 40

10. American Bandstand - 143 total page views, Facebook Likes 132, (Digital Download sent out on 4/27)

11. HTT Steambath - 139 total page views, Facebook Likes 4

12. Pledge Drives Past - 160 total page views, Facebook Likes 44

13. The Flying Wing - 92 total page views, Facebook Likes 5

14. History of News Pt. 1 - 38 total page views, Facebook Likes 2

15. Holiday Show - 15 total page views, Facebook Likes 4

16 History of News Pt. 3 – No Web Stats (It posted on 5/2), Facebook Likes 12

The Grand Total of Page Views 2/24/14 to 5/1/14: 14,250

Yes, it is not perfect, but I am happy with what I accomplished in 2 months.

The Trip I Didn't Take

So my trip to Oswego began uneventfully. My flight was on Jet Blue, where they advertise that the first checked bag is free. I rarely check bags, so this is normally not an issue with me. Well, this trip I decided to take advantage, since I KNEW the plane to Syracuse is small and my bag won't fit. Thus, I stupidly decided to check it. The one good thing I did was, I took out a change of clothes and my sleeping pajamas. I figured that would guarantee that the bag made it to me, with no problem. Man plans and God smiles.

I arrive at Syracuse Airport and the baggage comes out. There are only about 20 or so people on the flight, so the baggage distribution went very quickly. Unfortunately for me, I turned out to be the only one without a bag.

A woman immediately came up to me and took me over to the baggage claim office and we filled out a form. At the time of the claim, she mentioned that there were 2 emails about bags in Fort Lauderdale. We both ignored those, since I was traveling nowhere near Florida. Well, it looks like the bag had other ideas.

My idea of what happened.

The bag was mishandled right from the start. It was routed to Ft Lauderdale, instead of with my flight. (Even though it says SYR)

Flt 100 LAX 9:49P arrives FLL 5:45A

Flt 502 FLL 8:45A arrives JFK 11:30A (This is fact, as you can see on the bag tag)

Flt 316 JFK 1P arrives SYR 2:07P (slow delivery to me)
Or
Flt 1515 JFK 535P arrives 7:04P (really FAST delivery to me)

Bag here around 7:30P.

Halleluiah! I don't have to go shopping tomorrow.

Spaghetti And Meatballs My Way

First off, I am writing this post in the Jet Blue Terminal at JFK. Definitely a favorite, when I travel. :-)

One of the last things I did before I left LA, was cook some home made spaghetti and meatballs. Over the years, I have actually changed how I do this typical Italian dish and I thought I would mention some of it, here.

In my old age I have tried to put more "healthy" options into the dinner, so I can sneak some veggies into my families diet. (shhh, don't tell them that.)

What you see here on my counter, is some of what I do.

1 can of tomato puree
1 can of tomato paste
1 can of (low salt) V8
about 1/3 of a bag of baby carrots
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion (chopped)
1/2 a box of chopped mushrooms (cut them small)
about 2 tbl of olive oil.

So I brown the onion, mushrooms and garlic in the olive oil (garlic goes in last) add in the chopped carrots toward the end. When all is brown and lovely, I add the puree, paste and V8.

Cook for about 15 minutes and then shut off the heat for a bit. Puree the mixture, with my immersion blender, when it has gotten cooler, until all the veggies are gone. The carrots are the hardest to remove, but it happens.

After this is done, I turn on the heat again and add the spices.

2 Bay Leaves

2 Tbl Basil, Oregano, and Parsley

Black Pepper, to taste

For the meatballs, I usually do the usual, which is:

A lb or so of Ground Beef (at least 80 or above)

About a cup of bread crumbs (Italian seasoned)
If you want, substitute some Panko Bread Crumbs. I used both this time.
2 eggs
2 Tbl of Cheese (your choice) I used Kraft :-)
A bit of Pepper, to taste.

Fry in 2 Tbl of Olive Oil and brown on all sides. Drop into the bubbling sauce and cook for at least an hour or so.

Seriously, it doesn't get better than this.

Enjoy.

Morro Rock At Sunset, Central Coast

First off, Happy Cinco De Mayo!

My Water Post For Today.

Morro Bay, just north of San Luis Obipso, is a wonderful place. Small town America, with a big rock and power plant in the harbor. You can't beat it for quirkiness.

This photo was taken at sunset and the rock gives it a very dramatic look.

A very peaceful place to spend some time.

I hope you enjoy.

A note to all, I fly out to New York tonight. Next time we talk, I will be back at my old school. See you then.

The Scene Inside Union Station's 75th Anniversary

We made it to Union Station in time to enjoy the party that was going on, in honor of its 75th Birthday.

We only had 2 hours to check everything out, but that ended up being enough time. Thank goodness.

First off, they had areas of the station open that are just about never open to the public. This was the first one.

You see it in commercials and movies all the time, but it is closed off to the public. It is the old ticketing area of the station. A beautiful area of Union and you can see it looked great, as the welcoming area for the public.

This next area is only something you can only peep at through windows.

It is an original Harvey House Restaurant and it is just as stunning as the ticketing area.

I found that there were booths in a back room, that reminded me of booths in a rail car, and a bar area, again reminiscent of rail car lounge areas.

My favorite photo. The two brothers in front of a Railway Express Agency truck. It is lovingly restored and fully operational. It normally lives in Travel Town in Griffith Park, but they brought it over to harken back to the old days of rail.

Did I mention that their father worked for Railway Express? Well, yes, he did. So I thought this photo was important to take.

In other things, there was the most rolling stock on the train tracks then I have ever seen. We went through 2 out of three displays and enjoyed showing my brother-in-law the cars we have slept in on our trips across the country.

They had more paperwork and souvenirs then I have ever seen in one place, too. I loved it all!

It was well worth the price...which was free. :-)

Happy Birthday Union Station - 75 Looks Good On You

Union Station turns 75 today.

Since it is right around National Train Day, they decided to combine both events into one big party!

That makes my Husband and I interested and so we asked his brother to come along and hopefully that is where we are today.

More when I know it.

Happy Birthday Union!

The Cactus Garden

Last month I mentioned that we went to the Ethel M Cactus Garden. If you missed my original post, you can catch up, HERE.

They have a very wonderful exhibit of many styles of cactus, that can (for the most part) be found in our deserts. Mostly California, Nevada and Arizona's cactus and plants.

One of the most impressive things for me, was this wonderful Acacia tree.

I must admit that I don't think I have ever seen one before, at least not in Los Angeles. It had fern like branches on the tree and being it has such an unusual shape, it is known as a Twisted Acacia.

Most of the rest of the garden is filled with prickly pear cactus (including Cow Tongue Cactus) and Saguaro Cactus.

Some Cholla Cactus (including Jumping Cholla) and Joshua Trees.

Quite a group of plants and a pleasure to wander through.

SoCal Connected Returns

We are in the final countdown for our relaunch of SoCal Connected. It will hit the air on May 14th, when I am in Upstate New York.

Our show will be very different from last year. The stories will be web based and if you look at the logo, it's different there, too. I haven't seen the animated version yet, so I hope that helps.

HERE is one of the articles announcing it. It has a better photo attached to their article, so you get to see it.

When I saw the photo that the LA Times article chose, I was shocked. If you really want to see that one, you will have to find it yourself. :-)

It does feel good to have our News Department ramped up once again.