B-Town – Page 3 – lee-lawmaster.com

Trashy

Since around Thanksgiving I have seem to been accumulating trash. The orange trash bags required for the system of trash disposal I use seem to have been a unicorn around here.

It’s a good system, a system I have used and been involved with my entire life, ran by my county’s solid waste district. They sell rolls of these orange bags at local retailers. They also provide many recycling options. They even have an area where you can leave things that still have use for others to pickup and take.

I try, and always have to recycle as heavily as possible. With the recent holidays however, the amount of trash in this house has become too much!

I had a conversation with other people on the social media site NextDoor about this, which made me no longer feel like I was going crazy. Through them, I discovered that I was right. There was only 1 retailer in the county that seemed to have any, and they were literally a 30 minute drive away.

People have since posted images and stated they have been seeing them at closer locations to me, so I shall venture out to once again try to find these mysterious Orange Bags.

Once I accomplish this task, I hope to get back to working on the IROC. I want to get the installation of these speakers completed. I also might remove that sagging headliner in preparation to recover it. I then have to take my little piece of sunshine back to her mothers, something I loathe but such is life.

Flying Through Time

I wanted to do something big for my 30th birthday. The original plan was skydiving, but I weigh too much. My fabulous wife found something almost as good, a guy in Madison Indiana flys people in his open cockpit bi-plane. With him you can just fly, do some aerobatics, and even take “the stick” and fly the plane.

Unfortunately with our hectic schedule, making this a reality became too much for us to handle and that idea was eventually scrapped.

Fortunately our airport often hosts airplanes that travel the country and offer flights. These are not just cessna’s, but historical airplanes. Last fall we checked out the WWII B17 bomber. While I would have loved to, we could not afford the flight as the $450 price was just too much.

It’s an amazing piece of avionic history. We actually climbed through the plane, which has very tight quarters. It was made even more difficult by to us carrying a 1 year old through it.

Last month a Ford Tri-Motor came, and this time the price was very reasonable.

This plane was one of the planes that started commercial aviation, just to have the opportunity blew me away. This was also the first time I had ever flown from my local airport.

Our flight path was simple and took less time than I had expected. We flew to the south side of Bloomington, near where old 37 and new 37 meet. We then turned north and headed to 2nd street where we flew between 2nd and 3rd street back to the airport.

Due to the proximity of my home to the airport, I got a picture of my neighborhood(if you look at the hi-res version you can see fires & tree damage from the tornado)! We see planes take off and come in for landings all the time, but I had never got to see the plane’s perspective before.

Planes today hold hundreds of passengers, this one only held 9. The cabin was tight, but I felt more comfortable in this plane than in our modern counterparts. I was sitting in the very back, a seat that was reserved for the “steward” was the only thing behind me.

I was busy while we were in the air. I had my camera and an iPhone; I was utilizing all of their capabilities. I even tweeted mid-flight!

I say this often, and I can’t reiterate it enough. Without the past, we have no future. I have to give thanks to the EAA AirVenture Museum for giving me this opportunity. I greatly appreciated it.

I’ll leave you with our landing. If you notice when we touch down, the wheel on my side doesn’t touch for a while!

The Little Girl Isn’t Dead

This is a continuation of my last post, The Little Girl is Dead.

While on our short vacation, my mind refused me the opportunity to forget about what was going on at home. Instead it kept thinking about that phrase that was etched into my mind that night. I kept running scenarios in my head about my girls; I didn’t like to, but I had to.

I felt bad for everyone who had been affected by this storm, especially the less fortunate ones who lived in that trailer court, right next door to me. They had lost everything, and probably didn’t have insurance. There were many children living there, so many that the schools had 2 buses come for pickup and drop off. We would see them all waiting for the bus in the mornings on our way to work. I still see their faces, and imagine what they must have went through on that eventful night.

I received two phone calls that Saturday while we were in Michigan, our power had been restored! It had been out for around 3 and 1/2 days. We don’t know how many utility poles had to be replaced in total, but it was a large number.

Since I had Internet access, I was always keeping up on the news. Our township trustee had organized a volunteer day, to help with tree & debris cleanup. This made all of us happy, and was the first step in putting my heart and soul to ease. In the end there were a total of 3 volunteer days, but the news that an IU student had disappeared shifted the focus, and the volunteers.

We returned from Michigan on Memorial day, and reality set in. While I had no damage to my home, we had lost about 10 trees; including our beloved apple tree. Many of these trees formed a ‘natural’ fence along my property line. They provided large amounts of shade and oxygen, they were also wrapped in vines. Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m a “jack of all trades.” I have had experience in cutting trees since I was about 12, when I helped my then step-dad do just that for a living.

We had already lost our weeping willow tree and a maple tree due to wind and ice storms that occurred earlier in the year, we purchased a chain saw so I could clean them up; I was prepared. Little did I know how difficult the task would be when vines were involved. This was a task I couldn’t handle, this task needed a quantity of experience people.

We decided to get estimates from tree-trimming businesses. I called around 5 companies, only one showed up and gave me an estimate. It was more expensive than we wanted to pay, and under our homeowners insurance deductible. I wasn’t going to feel at ease until this was taken care of; I was literally stuck between a bunch of trees and a hard place.

I turned to our township trustee’s office. I called them and asked for assistance, but let them know that I should be placed on the bottom of their list. I let them know that it was simply downed trees that needed to be cleaned up, there was no damage to my home and that it shouldn’t be a priority. While we could have paid for the cleanup; it would have presented a financial burden that we might have not recovered from.

A few days go by and as I arrived home from class an Mennonite looking fellow was at my house. He said he was surveying what needed to be done; he was assembling a crew. The next day when I arrived home, the trees were almost cleaned up! It was a group of boys and a man. At the time I presumed they were Mennonite, since they used technology. It turns out I was wrong; it was the Worthington Amish Youth Group. I thanked each one of them personally, and asked if they needed anything at all. They requested some water, which I promptly fetched and then they went about their business.

With all the property damage and the trailer court in ruins, I was blown away that they decided to help ME. My whole family is in their debt and are working on a way to pay it forward and show them how much we appreciate what they’ve done for us.

After they finished cleaning up the trees, a larger group, including women went over to the trailer court and assisted cleanup.

The effects of this tornado will be felt and seen for many years to come. Not just from the people (like me) who live where it happened, but by the thousands of travellers that take that section of Highway 45. I went through many years of emotional issues as a child, which I thought had toughened me mentally. I learned the hard way that I was wrong.

While we are mainly healed from this event, our souls will never forget it. That storm took something from me. Even though I don’t exactly know what “it” is, I feel incomplete inside. I don’t know how to move on from this experience. Writing this has certainly helped.

The Little Girl is Dead

Those are the words my mind tricked me into believing were true. I heard a fireman say something that sounded like that on the night of May 25th, the night a EF1 tornado touched down very close to my home.

My wife, a person who is always concerned with the weather told me that the night was going to be a rough one. I hear this on a fairly common basis, but something told me that I should stay on alert that night. She had radar from WRTV 6 up on her computer, and we had a combination of the local weather and The Weather Channel on our TV the entire night.

I remember the exact moment when I knew we were going to be in for something. While watching the TV, they were showing all of the tornado warning/watches in Illinois. The state was covered in red; meaning the state was covered in tornado warnings.

Around 10:19pm our power went out, and almost instantly after that our weather radio went off; it was a tornado warning for us and we knew that this was serious. My wife headed for our basement and told me to grab Amelia from her crib if I thought it was appropriate. While I knew this was a serious situation, I had to see it for my own eyes. That’s when I picked up my flashlight and looked at the large maple tree in my backyard. It’s large canopy was swirling in a clockwise motion, something I had never seen before in that large of a tree.

I immediately ran to grab Amelia from her room and rushed to our utility room where Rachel was waiting. Even though I had experienced a similar event when I was 12, I had never felt the urgency or threat that I felt at that moment. It was the first time we had ‘ran for shelter’ from a storm. While in our utility room, we could hear the intensity of the storm. There was no sound like a train, rather the sound of a large volume of air moving at a high rate of speed. It went away after a minute or so, but we decided to stay in our safe place for a few minutes, just to be sure.

Immediately, I went outside to inspect for damage. The first thing I noticed was that a large limb from one of my trees had broken and fallen on my neighbor’s fence. I called him to let him know, and that was when my mental state took a dive that it hadn’t had in a very long time.

He told me that his daughter had called him and by listening to the scanner, she had heard that the trailer court right next to our neighborhood was completely wiped out. I felt a tremendous urge to go see what I could do to help. I got in the Kia and discovered that a war zone now existed less than 1/4 mile away from my home; I was also trapped in our neighborhood.

I discovered another one of my neighbors outside, I asked him what he knew. He said that there were several children trapped in one of the trailers. He told me that he offered his assistance, but they didn’t want anyone who wasn’t trained in search & rescue to help out of the fear that they might also be hurt.

I then heard those words that I couldn’t get out of my head, “the little girl is dead.” I had to run back home, I couldn’t help and I could barely hold my tears back.

Out of what seemed to be pure survival instinct, I started tweeting. Besides our land line, it was my only way of communicating with the outside world at that point. Here they are:

I’m a prisoner in my own neighborhood and there are people dead less than 1/4 miles away from me
Trailers stacked on top of trailers, it’s a sickening sight! If I only had a line to the outside world besides this
I can’t sleep knowing that my poor neighbor children lost everything, almost their lives tonight. I also confirmed with the fd, no death …
I now wish it would stay dark so I cannot see the remains of what was #didthisreallyhappen
I’ve only lost a few trees, which I loved -I feel bad for mentioning it, but I think it should be noted.
Please put the children who just lost everything in your thoughts and/or prayers. They really didn’t deserve this
You never realize how much you appreciate freedom until that freedom is taken – quote me

I then went back and found a larger group of my neighbors. One of which had a friend over who is a policeman. We went back and actually did some searching with the fire department. I snapped some photos on my phone, but due to the atmospheric conditions, they didn’t turn out too well.

I went back home and told Rachel that I couldn’t go to sleep, and that I was going to leave as soon as I could. I felt disconnected from what was happening, I needed information. Around 3am, I started seeing headlights from cars driving around our neighborhood – the road must have been finally cleared. I packed up my laptop, phone and associated cables to charge everything and headed into the unknown. My destination was the IU Wells Library, but I wasn’t sure if I would make it. I had to try.

The journey is only about 6 miles, but it seemed like 50. The entire west side of Bloomington was pitch black. No stop lights or street lights. When I finally made it to campus it was even worse. Trees were down everywhere, what is normally a somewhat linear route ended up to be a criss cross puzzle.

I finally felt okay. I sat with some of my TCC co-workers and briefed them of the situation. I logged onto a computer and started my hunt for information. I printed every article I could find, from the Herald-Times, to the Indy Star to even MSNBC.

Once everything was charged, and my search for information was complete I headed back home. Little did I know that the drive home would be even more treacherous than the drive in.

Still no lights or businesses open. It was daylight now, I what I had feared was true; it had to have been a tornado that came through. While there were spots here and there in town and on campus that had tree damage, there was a defined path of destruction starting just west of Curry Pike/Leonard Springs Road on Highway 45. This defined path followed me on my journey home, and that’s when I encountered the sheriff’s deputy blocking the road to my home. “And where do you think you’re going?” he asked me. “Home” I passionately stated. He let me through.

The next day we left on a planned vacation to Michigan. We felt it would be better to leave the sadness and destruction, than to stay and be constantly reminded of it.

I’ll continue this tale in my next post.

Catching Up

It has been too long since my last posting. I’m going to sum up what’s happened since my last post, and then write individual posts for the more important things later on.

A EF1 tornado hit my area. It started a few hundred feet away from my home and travelled a couple of miles east. Nobody was killed thankfully, but some were injured. It wreaked havoc on my family’s emotional state for a period of time.

Our beloved family member Oreo lost a battle he could not win. Over the past several months, he lost a lot of weight. So much so that we decided to take him to the vetinarian. After doing some blood work, it was discovered that he was in renal failure. To make it worse, there wasn’t anything we could do to cure him, we could only try to make him comfortable. We still miss him greatly.

We’re now into Summer Session II at Indiana University. Session I went very well for me. I took a computer science course which was an introduction to Python. I am now taking a Survey of Hip Hop & Rap cultural studies course. While I’ve never been a large fan of the genre before, I’m beginning to enjoy all aspects of it!

This That and the Other

I haven’t had a chance to post anything for a while as my life has became quite full lately.

This week is spring break at Ivy Tech and IU. It’s been a nice break from the organized chaos that has become my life. So I thought I would write about the goings on lately.

Backup, Backup, Backup!

I finally got a stable backup file server going. My original one died and I’m in the process of parting it out. If you’re looking for some cheap computer parts you can find ’em right here. I finally gave up on linux and went with Windows Server 2003. It’s essentially XP with additional goodies for server functions. I only have one step left, and that is setting up the RAID configuration. That’s for a safety net should a hard drive fail.

ROX Update

While I haven’t had much time to concentrate on ROX, I have started recording episodes that still play on CATS. I have many of the episodes on VHS, but capturing them straight to a digital format makes things much easier. Given the advanced development of my daughter I might be able to start working on ROX again and finally get season one released in a few months.

Amelia

She is growing and developing at an alarming rate! She is now eating solid foods every night. She is also starting to move around on her own, she isn’t crawling yet but very close. She has learned that she has a voice and likes to use it often. I would say her favorite activity is getting mommy and daddy wet when she’s taking a bath. She’s a hoot and a very happy baby. We couldn’t ask for more.

The Semester From Hell

This semester I’m taking a class I’ve failed before (MATH-111) and a class that interests me (CINS-102). My math class is great, as the instructor does his best to ensure everyone in class understands the concepts and can do the work. 85% of the final grade in this class is based upon test scores, something I’ve never had to deal with before. Right now I’m earning a solid B, which makes me very happy. I plan on thanking him at the end of the semester for being such a good instructor, all teachers should be reminded how much they’re appreciated when they do a good job! My other class is a completely different story however. While I’m learning some much needed skills in this class (XHTML & CSS) the instructor seems to use the class has her way to release frustrations she has. There aren’t many people in this class, and many don’t seem to have the skills required or aren’t putting forth the effort required. The class has opened my eyes to the world of web programming, but it’s almost impossible to swallow her totalitarian attitude.

Give Me The Fiber

If you live in Indiana, you might have heard about what Smithville Telephone is doing. All of their customers are receiving fiber to the home. It’s exciting to say the least. Last year I rewired the phone lines in my house and installed a LAN in anticipation. This week we were “pre-wired” for it. This consisted of them installing a new network interface on the outside of my home, installing a battery backup system in my home, and installing a data jack. My area, called the “Fullerton Remote” should be completed by the last quarter of this year. With this upgrade broadband Internet download speeds are rising from 1.5mbps to 20! They are also adding television services which beat all it’s competitors, but that’s my opinion. This upgrade is amazing to say the least. Do you know anyone who has access to 100mbps download speeds at home? That will be their fastest rate, and I’ve seen it work. It’s almost like comparing a 14.4 modem to a 56k, a world of difference.

Spring is in the Air

Spring is upon us here in Indiana. The grass is becoming green again, and the temperatures are rising. That means the honey do list starts back up again. I listed what we want to get done around the house in an earlier post. Now it’s time to get into gear and get those items checked off the list!

Save Our Children’s Future

With the “Great Recession” the economic outlook in Indiana has been downright bleak. It’s so bleak that the state has been forced to cut funding to K-12 schools and all publicly funded post secondary schools. This is primarily due to the cuts in property taxes passed several years ago, which is where our public schools get their money. A decade ago, I didn’t really care, as my time in school was horrible at best. I have a daughter in 4th grade now, and another who will be in school before I know it. It’s important to me that they have the same opportunities to enrich their lives that I had.

While the post secondary schools can handle these cuts by many different means, our public (K-12) schools have very limited means to deal with the lack of funding.

Many are closing or consolidating schools, requiring payment to ride a bus, adding fees for extra-curricular activities. This is almost all options our public schools have, and it really ticks me off.

While I’ve been hearing about school systems around Indianapolis having meetings and public forums to discuss how they are going to handle these shortfalls, it didn’t hit home until our local school system, MCCSC (Monroe County Community School Corporation) brought up the subject. They are proposing to eliminate many of the programs and services that make our school system diverse and great.

There has been talk of a referendum that if passed, would help eliminate that shortfall. I’m all for it, but I don’t know how much support it really has. My property taxes are so low, that it wouldn’t bother me at all to pay a little extra to help my childrens education. Property tax caps are the reason for this mess in the first place. Thank you Mitch Daniels, you’ve done a wonderful job ruining the surplus our state had.

Here’s a list of the proposed cuts:

• Increase class-size ratio, generating approximately 45 certified staff (teaching) cuts.

• Eliminate elementary and middle school media specialists.

• Eliminate middle school foreign language.

• Eliminate middle school Family and Consumer Science.

• Eliminate one assistant, part-time athletic director at each high school.

• Reduce high school assistant coaches (no specific numbers or areas revealed)

• Possibly reduce extracurricular activities (brain game, spell bowl, etc.) at high schools and middle schools.

• Eliminate six elementary assistant principal positions for 2011-12.

• Eliminate the unfilled assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction job and the secretarial job for that post.

• Eliminate the healthy school coordinator position.

• Freeze all administrative salaries.

• Reduce school board salaries.

• Consolidate Aurora Alternative High School into an existing high school with some reduction to staff.

• Close the Teen Learning Center.

• Close Alternative to Suspension.

• Close Youth Outreach.

• Eliminate the Bradford Woods.

• Eliminate Honey Creek School.

• Eliminate elementary strings program.

• Drain the high school pools out of season.

• Eliminate Batchelor Middle School pool and fill it in.

• Eliminate substitutes for building secretaries.

• Eliminate summer school.

While some of these cuts make sense to me both financially and logically others do not. Here is a list of the programs/services that should be saved in my opinion.

Elementary and middle school media specialists (librarians). This is a bad move, really bad. As a child I loved books, and I believe librarians are the reason why. Without librarians, our children won’t receive the proper knowledge, appreciation and enthusiasm about books. This seems like a gateway to eliminate libraries altogether.
Reducing some extra-curricular activities. Some kids aren’t athletic, some kids like to expand their minds through some of these activities. Why punish those kids while leaving the ones who enjoy athletics alone? Why some and not all?
Consolidation of Aurora. I’m a little on the fence about this issue. My generation was the first to use this invaluable resource. Some kids don’t learn well in normal learning environments. Aurora allows these kids to learn on their terms. In many cases these kids would simply drop out. While consolidation may help the bottom line, it’s not beneficial if it hurts the education of it’s students.
Alternative to Suspension. Is this “In-school suspension?” That’s what the alternative was when I went. It should be saved so those students don’t fall farther behind, this is essentially turning your back on the students who need help the most.
Eliminating Bradford Woods. When I went, it was a week long event. It’s now only a day or two I believe. While I understand it’s not completely necessary it is a nice treat to get away and learn about nature and your surroundings.
Eliminating Honey Creek School. This astounds me. This school is a two room schoolhouse that is used as a learning lab for elementary students. They get the opportunity to act as if they are living in the 19th century. If you don’t appreciate your past, you’ll never appreciate what the future brings.
Eliminating the Elementary Strings Program. This program is dear to my heart, as I was in this program in 4th and 5th grade. Without this the only interaction children have with instruments is the recorder in 4th grade. It’s really an eye opener to the world of music. Without this program, I don’t think I would have played the violin in the school systems’ orchestra from 7th grade until I left high school. I can’t wait for the day I can get my hands on another violin and start playing again. Music is essential to creativity, something that doesn’t transmit on paper.
Eliminating Summer School. Hello? Seriously? I don’t even think I need to explain this one.

I hope the community will rally behind our children. They are our future! If you want to voice your opinion, the MCCSC has a web page you can visit and let them know. I’ll be sending them a link to this posting. Do the same! As Spock always said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

Feel Like a Number

While I am used to feeling like a number in our quantity over quality soceity, something just happened that I have to share.

I attend Ivy Tech Community College, and have since 1999 off and on. In that time they have exponentially grown to become the school with the largest enrollment in the state of Indiana, with currently over 110,000 students enrolled. As the state has lost it’s large manufacturing base of employment, people (like me) have went to school to help us find new careers.

Over the past couple of years, communications from the school have went downhill as far as information goes. Most communications are either a weekly job or volunteer posting, informational updates, or the one that really puts a thorn in my side, “Pick Ivy Tech.” Essentially an advertisment sent to students. Why are they wasting money sending letters and emails to people already enrolled asking them to pick Ivy Tech? Haven’t they already?

This last incident is the “straw that broke the camel’s back.” The Bloomington campus has outgrown it’s space, and until they can build additions they have leased annex campuses. While this can be great for situations such as this one, it can also be a nightmare. The Liberty Drive campus does not have adequate parking. While it is a pain, I’m not complaining. I work at IU where parking is sometimes not even a possibility.

This email was sent to all Bloomington students:

Additional Parking Options for Liberty Drive:

1. Park across the street from the Liberty Drive campus. The spaces
reserved for Ivy Tech students are located in the parking lot previously
occupied by the MCL Cafeteria; across the street and just south of the
Liberty campus.

2. Park at the main campus and take the Rural Transit shuttle to the
Liberty Drive campus.

Click the link below to download the Rural Transit schedule:
http://services.bloomington.ivytech.edu/media/pdf/academics/IvyTechBus.pdf

For more information about Rural Transit, go to:
http://www.ivytech.edu/bloomington/about/shuttle.html

While these options are helpful, they create equal if not larger problems. For those of you who know the area, Liberty Drive is a busy road that has many large businesses on it, and it is a major thoroughfare for the west side of Bloomington. Also crossing a 4 lane road is a dangerous affair, as a student in high school I remember students being severely injured and even killed on occasion trying to do the same thing to get lunch. Due to this, MCCSC closed their campuses and upgraded their cafeterias. There is no intersection near that has a crosswalk, and the road curves at this point as well making visibility for the drivers an issue as well.

I felt a response was necessary to highlight these potentially fatal flaws. While hindsight is 20/20, I could have left a couple paragraphs and a few remarks out. I was mainly trying to give them constructive criticism, and point out alternatives.

Here is my response:

While the additional options you have listed are helpful, please let me remind you of the hazards and reasons why these options are not feasible.

1. Park at MCL. While there is plenty of parking at that location, and in the scope of things, close, it is also very hazardous. It is hazardous for the same reasons why Bloomington High School South closed it campus. People were hurt and died. It is dangerous for people to cross 4 lanes of traffic at any time on that road, let alone rush hour. I hope your recommendation does not lead to serious injuries or death for anyone.

2. Park at the Main Campus and take the Rural Transit. While this option might be okay for full-time students, but for people like me who work full time and take classes when they can, this is impossible. I can barely make it to class on time, let alone wait for a bus that comes once or twice an hour.

My wife brought up a great idea that would really ease the parking situation at liberty drive. Perhaps you could lease (through your agreement with IU) one of their buses to use as a shuttle during the hours when it is needed most. This dedicated shuttle would be a better option than the rural transit, and make the students really feel like they are cared for.

I for one am tired of the “stupidity” in the communications from this school. The email you sent was “the straw that broke the camels back” for me. I don’t need pointless communication, I need real communication.

While this may not be your area, I must say the emails that say “choose Ivy-Tech” are pointless when I’m already attending. What am I going to do? Move to another state to attend a community college?

Respectively,

Lee Lawmaster

As I stated, hindsight is 20/20. Some of my comments were a mistake, but I was emotionally charged at the time. I would send an apology for some of my remarks, but as you are about to see it would only make the situation worse. I sent this email to the person who sent it, and I CC’d the Chancellor of the Bloomington Campus. I thought it seemed worthy of skipping any chain of command due to the safety issues involved.

Here is the response from the Chancellor:

Lew: You copied me, so let me respond. Your message was signed “respectively” and I assume you meant “respectfully”. It was neither. If parking is an insurmountable problem for you, I believe a full tuition refund is still available to you through Friday. Contact Jennie Vaughan in students affairs and she will assist you with your withdrawal. This concludes responses from campus staff to you on “stupidity” of “pointless” communication on this matter.
————————–
Please excuse any spelling errors. This message was sent from my PDA.

Whoa! From everything I’ve heard about this guy, he’s the nicest guy you’d know. I didn’t mention having a problem parking.

In the end I said some things I shouldn’t have. I do realize that. Although you would think a person in that position would see through that and see the serious safety issues with their plan. Since Ivy Tech has a monopoly on 2 year degrees in Indiana, I don’t have a choice of seeking another institution for education that is affordable. I know from talking to my fellow students that communications with the school are sub par though. I guess they just don’t want to listen.

I’ve learned where I don’t want my children to go when they reach college age.

One other note: I received a mailing yesterday, I made the Dean’s list for the Summer semester of 2009. While that’s great, I think this overshadows anything I could accomplish at this school.

No Matter What

I will achieve a degree.

Starting school again has become a mini-series of drama in itself. My past has finally caught up with me to make it hard to go to school.

I started going to Ivy Tech State College in the fall of 1999. Here it is the beginning of the spring 2009 semester and I have only attained 3 credits towards a degree.

The reasons why are various and run the gamut. The main reason why is because of opportunity. Whether it be a job, or just a reason to leave. I was sure to find it, and find it quick.

This is the 4th and last time I am enrolling in a particular math course, MAT050 – Basic Algebra. If memory serves me correctly, this course wasn’t hard – but engaging the last time I took it. This time, it’s almost an insult to my intelligence. Our first homework assignment – adding negative numbers. This course is so easy that you have to want to fail, just to fail.

School was never a good time for me, but the good time that I did have was while in high school. I took my math courses at IU, the county school systems did not offer calculus or finite yet. But since I never used those tools, they have been lost just like an angel’s share of whiskey.

This is where the drama comes in. Since I have enrolled and withdrawn as many times as I have, I am on what’s called Financial Aid Termination. Meaning I cannot receive financial aid, and since our household income is above some imaginary number that only changes when you ask for help, the state will not help either.

So this time, it has to come out of our pockets directly. But there are specifics, I must take at least 6 credit hours (2 classes) and get a grade of C or better in both courses. If not, I will still be on “termination.” If I achieve this I will be switched to Financial Aid Probation because I have shown the college that I am trying.

I am also appealing this decision regarding financial aid. This process includes counseling with an academic advisor, a letter to the college explaining all withdrawals and F grades. Also giving reasons as to why this should be appealed.

Even after through all of this, I still want to go.

No matter what I will attain a degree, and the sooner the better.

Ban the Ban

Today on the Herald-Times website there has been a serious discussion regarding IU’s smoking ban which went into effect last January. It started with a reporter searching the campus for smokers and placing updates on their website, she then spoke with administrators and wrote a full article.

The ban has not been enforced in any way, and as a smoker it bothers me on fundamental levels. As an employee I could be terminated for violating this policy (which I try very carefully not to), while students face very slight (if any) consequences.

In my opinion, this smoking ban is going to be just like the ban on alcohol on IU’s campus, not spoken about. I was blown away to actually find out that alcohol is actually permitted on campus for university events if students or others under the age of 21 are not going to be in attendance.

The online discussion on the Herald-Times website opened my eyes up to a few things that I hadn’t known before, and I thought I would pass those along to everyone out there.

All of these “smoking bans” that we see today can trace their roots back to 1930’s Germany. Read here for more information. It’s really shocking to me, and confirms my ideas about the subject since day one.

Did you know that over a lifetime, medical costs for obese and average people are more than that of smokers? Read here for the article. This information “threw a bucket of cold water” into what everyone thought. I’m a firm believer that we have been sold on the idea that smoking is “more” unhealthy than it really is. I’m not trying to say that there are no health risks – I’m just saying as a country I think we’ve been duped.

These two articles really opened my eyes regarding this issue that has been raging in this town for almost 15 years now.

I have been a smoker for more than half of my 28 years on this earth. I know it’s not the healthiest of things to do, but I do it anyway. I’ve taken chantix, nicoderm and the commit lozenges to try to quit. The reason I have not succeeded in quitting is because smoking is part of who I am. Without it I do not feel like myself, while that is “normal,” I don’t like feeling that way.

While I know it is a chemical addiction just like drugs and alcohol are, that does not bother me. I have other addictions that I think are worse. To name one, it’s my endless addiction to technology.

That’s a whole other story that I’ll leave for another time.