Panda pictures and plans did not develop

Panda chengdu research project china ONE
Originally uploaded by davidcutts1

We have finally wandered into the top 10 most used labels in the initial 300 posts of this here blog.

# 10 Daviver's Travels

While we are not one of those families that vacations every year, we do enjoy travelling and when we do travel whether it be a field trip, a day trip, or a weekend getaway, I like to post about it here.

Today I'd like to talk about completing my panda trilogy earlier this year. And as most really good trilogies go, it has 4 parts. But to be technically correct let's call the 3rd part an interlude.

Part I:In the late eighties on a whim, I travelled by bus from Illinois to Mexico. While on the trip, I visited an old pastor who was currently a missionary in Mexico City. I also visited an ex-girlfriend who was studying in Monterrey for the summer. While I was in Mexico City I went to the Mexico City Zoo and saw the pandas among other things. I took some great pictures of the pandas but those pictures, not unlike my plans to patch things with the ex-girlfriend, did not develop.

Part II: A few years later, the summer I graduated college, I was accepted on a 2 year missions assignment to teach English in the Chengdu province of China. Chengdu is the area in China pandas are indigenous to. The above picture was taken at the Chengdu panda reserve. In my interview process, one of the missions staff introduced himself as the person you never want to receive phone calls from. There was a 2-3 month period between my being accepted and my leaving the country. During that time I worked in my father's office. One day at lunch I called home to check the answering machine and lo and behold, I heard the voice of the man you never want to get calls from. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say the Chengdu job did not develop either.

Interlude - Not all things develop the way you want or expect them to. Even though the girlfriend thing, the mission thing or the panda thing did not develop, other better things did. 3 months after China being closed to me, I was in Russia teaching English, starting churches and sharing the love of Christ in ways I could not have in China. Incidentally, Russia did not open up for visitors like myself until after I had been accepted for China. About a year after the Mexico trip, I ended up meeting the woman who would become the love of my life. Even though that picture took some time to develop.

Part III. This spring, about 12 years after Amy and I got married we visited Washington D.C. Amy had never been to D.C. and it was a long awaited and very cherished trip. On that trip we as a family saw pandas at the National Zoo; they were surprisingly active on the day we went. That visit did not turn out exactly the way we had planned it, but like the adventures depicted here, better than I could have imagined.

Next Time: 7 word September ends

Pictures of memories of family apple picking.

For More Wordless Wednesday click here

Next Time: Daviver's Travels

Fall TV 2010: My likes and dislikes

I kept track of the labels I used most in my initial 300 blog posts on this here blog. I have been counting down the top 25 labels thereof since then. Today we are bubbling under the top 10 with # 11: Television.


Even though I am unable/unwilling to watch broadcast television in its traditional venue on a television, that is not to say I do not watch television. Thanks to DVD sets I borrow from our library system and websites such as Hulu, I consume many television programs. I then in turn blog about some of them here. Many of my television posts are about the phenomenon that is Chuck. So much so that it has its own label in the top 25. Today's post will not be about my favorite nerd herder/super spy. Today's post will be about an over 30 year passion of mine.

I love the new television season. Even in the years that I consumed no television at all in any venue, I have followed the television season with much anticipation. The new television season reminds me of a new season in professional sports. You will have some winners and losers; you just can't be 100% sure of who they are going to be.

Something I have noticed over the years is that the t.v. programs often change a little after the initial or pilot episode. Sometimes it takes a show a little while to find it's way. This has taught me to give a show a second or third look even if I wasn't too thrilled initially. There are some shows however, when one look is one too many.



Thanks to Hulu and CBS.COM I have been able to watch many of the new t.v. programs for this year. In today's post I will give a quick review of each show I have so far consumed. There are some shows I have not watched yet like The Event and some shows like No Ordinary Family and Law and Order Los Angeles that have not yet premiered. Here is what I've seen so far:


Hawaii 5-0 CBS - I don't remember ever watching a full episode of the original 5-0 back when I was a kid. I of course knew the characters and the taglines and the theme song. I did watch a number of episodes from Season 2 of the original to get ready for the new one. One thing I noticed is that my 4 year old really enjoyed watching these old shows with me. I enjoyed them alright but nowhere to the point that I thought I misspent my youth or anything like that.

The new show wants to put a 21st century spin on the franchise. Here's a hint: if you want to put a 21st century spin on a show, don't hire anyone from Designing Women to play the Governor of Hawaii. It is not Smart (pun intended) casting. The first episode had some merit. I wasn't all that wowed with the plot, or action but there is a good deal of chemistry between Dan-o and McGarrett and I could imagine being there next week, aloha.

Running Wilde - Fox. I haven't been a regular viewer of a Fox comedy since Duet in the network's inaugural year. Running Wilde will not be next. While the first episode didn't exactly impress me, I did not loathe it either. The romantic coupling of an egocentric and a save the world girl is not a new thing. It has been done many times and often better than this. There is some quirky humor and it is possible I might watch it again, although highly doubtful.


Undercovers - NBC. I like spy action shows and I also like romantic comedies. So I gave this a shot. Aside from the comic relief of an assistant spy, there was not much I liked about this show. Chuck, Covert Affairs, Burn Notice and Human Target all do this genre much much better. I will give it another chance but if it continues to be Hart to Hart with action sequences, I will pass.

Chase - NBC. This is 2 shows in a row where NBC is throwing out shows that are currently being done much better. I did like Chase, but isn't this show an awful lot like In Plain Sight? One Marshall chases criminals the other relocates witnesses. The difference is that In Plain Sight so far does it with more pathos, humor and originality. I certainly will watch this one again, but I am not going to hunt it down every week.

Outlaw - NBC. A new show with Jimmy Smits definitely got my attention. I like law shows and this one showed a lot of promise, until I watched the first episode. There is just too much sex and innuendo in this show and not enough law. I decided that I would not watch a second episode but my wife said that the 2nd episode had more merit than the first. She was right. She also said something very telling: she said all the people on Smits' staff add nothing to the show. She was right about that as well.



My Generation - ABC. There are so many t.v. shows these days that are fake documentaries that it is difficult to keep track of all of them. This one stands out. in that it is a drama rather than a comedy. I didn't think that much else stood out about this show that catches up with a bunch of Austin, TX high school students from the class of 2000, 10 years later. It's an okay idea, but so far not very intriguing.


Detroit 1-8-7 - ABC. Of all the new shows I have seen,this is far and away the best. It takes the cop genre to a new level. The show had good writing, believable characters, humor and some innovative ways of telling a story. I thought I knew how the pilot would end. I pride myself on being able to figure how loose ends will be tied up in a 1 hour episode. I knew the episode would end with a certain ring tone. It was the minute before the ring tone that blew me away. I am looking forward to watching this groundbreaking show again and again.


Next time: Apple Picktures

The Best Annie I Have Ever Seen

I grew up with the musical Annie. I remember when I was a kid, watching a program called In The News (a 2 minute newscast for kids in between cartoons on Saturday Mornings on CBS) about the Broadway premiere of the show. My mom used to play the songs from Annie on her piano and sing them as well. Besides the movie, and several t.v. versions I have seen Annie or it's kid's version Annie Jr. at least 5 times. These 5 times were not including seeing it performed last night.

Last night's production was a little unusual in that it was performed by a troupe from the Penguin Project. The Penguin Project started in the Peoria, Illinois area and is theatre performed by children who are handicapped or have other special needs. The Peoria Troupe has spun off two additional troupes since then both in Illinois, one in the Bloomington/Normal area and this weekend in the Sycamore/Dekalb area.

I attended last night because my nephew who is a 4th grader was one of the artists in the production. The Penguin Project calls all their special needs performers artists. They pair each artist with a mentor, a student without disabilities who performs alongside the artists. Now if you think this would turn out like special ed students in a play with 1 on 1 aides you could not be farther from the truth. The mentors blend into the background and besides some limited physical assistance and a few line prompts were indistinguishable from the rest of the troupe.

Yesterday's performance had to be the best version of Annie I have ever seen. These kids could really act and sing and within 5 minutes you were not watching a performance of Annie with a disabled cast, you were just watching a performance of Annie.

Anyone familiar with Annie knows that the juiciest part of the show is not Annie, it's Miss Hannigan - the director of the orphanage. This version's Miss Hannigan was hands down the best I have ever seen and I say that meaning no disrespect for Carol Burnett. The girl who played her showed excellent comic bravada and a tremendous singing voice to boot. I could go and tell you which disability or special needs he and each other performer had, but the strength of their performances was what they could do and not what they could not.

Besides seeing a terrific rendition of a favorite musical was being able to see my nephew involved with it.. I have never felt of him as disabled even though he falls somewhere in the autism spectrum. This was his first acting role and he played various New Yorkers throughout the show. He did a fine job and more importantly really enjoyed himself. It was bittersweet as I know how proud his father, my brother, would have been if he would had lived to see him on that stage.

Here is my nephew getting congratulated by his sister as his mentor watches over him.

Next Time: Fall T.V.

Summer Reading Ended Before Summer Actually Did

Summer drew to a close at 3:o9 a.m. GMT 9/23 for the year of 2010. In good old Central time that is 10:09 p.m. 9/22. Summer is over and it is now time to report how I did in my Summer Reading. The answer is I did lousy. I hoped to read 20 books and read less than 10.


This is the book that did me in.



















I have heard for many years how the book was far superior to the movie. So instead of watching the movie, I got the book from the library. I found the premise of the book very captivating. Time travelers in literature, are a generally glorified lot. The idea of time travel as genetic defect is very intriguing. From the excellent prologue on, this book shows the time traveller and his wife both with many adverse effects of his disease.


I really did enjoy the dual narration from the principal characters. I especially liked when they were both describing the same scenes from differing POV. I also liked how the story moved in and out of time but still maintained a chronal cohesiveness.


However, at times the cohesiveness would slip and I would not know when or where the characters were forcing me to go back and read again. The book is also quite lengthymhich is okay when done right. The secret of a great book is no matter how long it is, when you are finished you still want to know more. If you make the book over long you run into the possibility that the reader may stop wanting to know more even before they finish reading. Or in this case, I ended up needing to have been told more than I actually was. Unanswered questions after 500 pages are in my mind never a good thing.


I often will read several books at a time and I read Time Travellers Wife in fits and spurts. In between those spurts I started several other books but only finished one.





















I am a big David Rosenfelt especially his Andy Carpenter series. Dog Tags is not one of Rosenfelt's or Carpenter's better efforts. I don't mind if his plots go to the dogs but I'd hate to see his writing head there as well.

As a whole it was a pretty good book. But there were some things on a book level and a series level that I found unsettling. On the book level, I am used to twists and turns of the legal and illegal worlds that Rosenfelt sometimes makes us privy to. However, I thought the subplot concerning the jury was either underdeveloped, poorly conceived, extremely unrealistic, or all three. on a series level, while I liked the addition of a new 2nd chair lawyer, I don't like the direction Rosenfelt seems to be heading with some of the other ensemble characters. Willie's role in this book was far too contrived. Also, I miss song talking!


So, there we have it. While I have not achieved my goal of 10 books read, I have achieved my goal of reviewing each book I did read and posting those reviews here. Sometime later this fall I hope to put up a Summer Reading 2010 page on this blog so you can have all the reviews in one more manageable place.

Next Time: Fall T.V.

In which I give away Mavis Beacon.

It's been a little while since I participated in WFMW and it's also label time here at Home School Dad. Today we complete the 3 way tie for # 12 with Crazy Dave's Giveaways.

One of the things I first noticed when I started reading blogs were the cool give-a-ways. I love winning things, but more importantly I love to give things away. The problem has been that for many of my give-a-ways I have had too few people participating, even though I linked it to several give-away sites, some that are now defunct.

Even when I did get a winner, I sometimes had trouble getting the winner to come forward. This has kept me from expanding this section of my blog and Crazy Dave has gone into semi-retirement.

Today he comes out of retirement to offer areal cool product for any one willing to enter.

About a year ago my Dad called me up and wondered if I wanted a typing program he had on CD ROM. My Dad and I are very similar in that we don't mind clutter. We are a little different in how we don't mind it. I don't mind it because If I had my own way I would collect every scrap of anything on the off chance I might need it again. My Dad doesn't mind clutter as long as it's not in his house. So, he calls me up every couple weeks with something he wants to unload on me. Now my wife likes to curb my propensity for clutter by putting my clutter on the curb. So we have come to an understanding. I say no to my Dad as often as I can. My Dad just moves on to the next child in his Rollerdex. (Yes, our last name is Roller, and that was a bad pun.)

On this occasion, I said yes to my Dad because Amy and I had been talking about getting the kids involved in a typing program. My Dad gave me the disc and I put it somewhere and moved on with my life.

Fast forward to June 2010. Amy and I are at the Home School Convention and we remember that we want the kids to take typing. So we bought a CD Rom called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. I forgot all about the fact that I already had a copy of it that my Dad gave me.

About a week later I found the copy my Dad gave me and the 2 oldest kids and I started using it. It is a fantastic program that allows children and adults to progress at their own pace. What I like best about it is that the kids just love using it.

Here is what the opening screen looks like when my oldest starts her lessons.

Here is a sample lesson that I have been working on.

That is why Mavis Beacon works for me. I'd like it toy work for you also. We are using version 15 and I am offering an unopened copy of version 18 to the hundredth caller. I have been advised I do not have a radio show and have not given out my telephone # so I will go ahead and give this copy to a random commenter. If you post about this giveaway on your blog or Facebook page or other social media, leave another comment with the link. Also, if you are a follower of my blog just say I am a follower on your comment and I will give you one more entry. If you are not a follower of my blog, this would be a good time to do so.

This give-a-way will end at 6 pm central time Sunday October 3rd. So please leave a comment and join my give-a-way. I will believe it will be just your type.

For more of the Carnival of Homeschooling click here. To get back to WFMW click here.

Next Time: Summer Reading