Reinke Faces Life

Shipped! Tme to start next week’s.

Shipped! Tme to start next week’s.

I’ve been distracted by a particular spinning plate in my life. My high school alumni activities have warranted some attention. Last week, I went galavanting to have dinner with a tad more than a dozen. It was a hoot, but I’m still trying to catch up. They did introduce me to a great restaurant in a “interesting” NYC neighborhood. As a result, the need for a memorial has some interest and I put up a wiki, specifically pbwiki, for that purpose, gave it some see content, and it’s having some traffic. In the process of doing that, I was shown a free web stat tool. I also created a button for one of the sites.

Several laffs; a few sad moments; no agenda; valet parking!; great food; lots of suggestions and good and not so good ideas. And I saw the moth fly out of a raccoon’s wallet! ;-)

No computer for an evening felt strange. So I am way behind.

Shipped! Tme to start next week’s. What improvements can I make this week? Be more methodical.

Drop Walt an email?

Have to nuke the stuff left hanging around.

Shipped! Time to start next week’s.

http://jasperjottings.blogspot.com

Switching the blog that I use for the Jasper Jottings sports stories over to the new google offering. I’m always up for some bleeding edge when it really doesn’t matter.

Http://www.jasperjottings.com

And, I was delayed by a young guy dying. Argh! Class of 1990. That ain’t supposed to happen.

Joe Neikro age 61.

very morose!

Last night, when I went to my “computer governance” meeting at my alma mater, the Intelligent Designed sent me a present.

I was in a real funk with life in general, and the death of a fellow I knew in high school and college. He was number 5 of the 91 guys I graduated high school with in 1964. Seems like ages ago!

So, I guess The Intelligent Designer sent me a “pick up your spirits”!

My best friend in high school died in a 1974 traffic accident. (I think he was #1 of those 91, I talked about earlier! Hell of a time for him to get out and lead the group.) I think about him from time to time. When I want to go back to simpler times, when I was smart, and “rich” (I felt like I was rolling dough), and thin. (Ok I have never been thin! But, I was only chubby then.) But, I had a job, money, a car, friends, places to go and things to do! It was a “better time”; remembered times ARE always better?

So, last night, at this meeting, I reconnected with HIS old girl friend. She had to remind me who she was. I was blind sided, shell shocked, and tickled all at once.

We had a ton of laughs. Remembering the crazy things we did, the weddings, the parties, the formal dances, and my old truck that everyone piled into.

I guess the laffs were pretty loud. When people asked me how I knew her, I explained that “She’s one of the few people that I know longer than my wife.” ;-) She, of course, told lies about me when we were both a lot younger and crazier. I don’t think I did half of those things she remembered. Her memory wasn’t so good … she forgot the group’s many outings to the Red Garter for a lot of singing and drinking. Or visa versa.

Baring any mishaps, I’ll see her at these meetings twice a year. She promised to dredge up forgotten memories for out next meeting. I promised to pick Frau Reinke’s brain ’cause she’s better at this stuff than I am.

It was a hoot!

When I got home, I played “You’ll never guess who I met?” with Frau. After the litany of names, she didn’t want to play any more. Frustrated by my “not even close” responses, she asked for a hint. I said “wrong sex”. And, guessed it right away. How DID she do that? I can think of a half dozen other women that she might have answered.

Was this an example of synchronicity? Or perhaps “empathic marital telepathy”? Or a good old fashioned lucky guess.

It was an interesting evening.

Another one of the fellows I went to high school and college with just “obitted”.

He didn’t die. I wasn’t there. I just read his obit. Makes it a little less unbearable.

He and I were always in different “sections”.

In my small Catholic high school, the sections were sorted by “smart” and “dumb”. It didn’t take us too long to figure that out! Might as well have put stickers on our foreheads. That established an unhealthy tension between the sections. With testy laden guys! But, he was one of the people I liked. From what I remember. I hated high school. All I can say is I survived it!

In college, it was alphabetic by last name. Equally dumb! But, not as demeaning.

He and I interacted mostly around the computer lab. Even in those days, I was a nerd’s nerd. I took to the computer as duck to water, … or a pig to s….!!! He used to joke that he had special influence with the College data center operators, cause he knew me, and always dropped my name to get of the front of the next input tray of keypunched cards going into the computer room. Sometimes, especially at crunch time, there’d be up to 40 trays waiting. After 40 the good Brother would “close” the window. That was fun! But, getting into the next tray in, meant he’d get his results quicker. And, in those days, I had “stature”, I was the Number TWO student systems programmer. AND, I had a real job in industry; even #1 didn’t have that. Would you believe that in those days, I was “somebody”. Any way, he and I used to laugh about that. I had the power to make operators miserable since I had input, or made all sorts of decisions. That was in the day when people !decided! things, not held a meeting to form a consensus about what to have for lunch. Any way, he’d drop my name — put fear into the heart of the input clerk (the lowest job in the computer center, short of the janitor and he was a real College employee!) — and get fast turn around. In those days, fast turn around meant leaving a reasonable hour, or not getting your class work done. It was a giant game! And, we laughed about it.

I didn’t even know he was in my geography.

I notified anyone in those circles of interest. Updated my high school alumni page and “his” page on the site. Messaged our college’s alumni office.

I am saddened by this.

Bummed out!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine

I first heard of the concept on MASH. When the fellow proposed it it seemed a suitable ending of an era in Catholic education.

Sadly.

http://www.martindale.com

Ahhh, never underestimate the power of an annoying alumni.

As you probably know I collect alumni for my Jasper Jottings ezine. It’s a thankless task but someone has to do it. I guess?

Anyway, the above site has Jaspers in it. But finding them, is next to impossible, because the site doesn’t offer to search by undergrad school.

So for the longest time, (I can be very dense when I am focused), I kept “shaking that particular tree” trying to get them Jaspers to fall out. I knew they were in there. Eventually, I gave up. I’d come back to it from time to time. Sort of like a dog with its favorite spot.

Finally the Intelligent Designer or the Universe decided I suffered enough and I had an insight.

Google!

Lawyers want to be findable. So Martindale probably encourages the Google spyder to visit. If that’s the case, then my search is possible. FROM GOOGLE!

Off to the Google search site, I craft a very complex query:

“manhattan college” site:www.martindale.com

Bang it into the web browser, and poof! Out rolls 153 Jaspers ripe for the recruiting and reporting cycle.

Wasn’t that easy!

http://home.comcast.net/~jxymxu7sn5ho9d/index.html

Republishing the Jasper Jottings Front Lot to fix format koed by isp.

The alumni redirection site doesn’t always have current email addresses and gives no feedback as to when the address was last good. Hmmm?

When I saw my friend’s alam mater getting its head handed to it in football (UofM playing WVa), I decided to yank his chain.

ME> Terps or twerps football? Hung over from bball loss to Jaspers? {SHORT MESSAGE} {NO REPLY REQUIRED}

HIM> Yup..told (his son) we would be lucky to score against WV

But then he decided to get out of the subject line and get personal!

HIM> Reply was necessary…and regarding the Jaspers, hell froze over, never to happen again! lol

So of course, now I had unlimber the “big guns”!

===

Yeah, yeah, and the reason the professional team, representing the UofM, could not beat a bunch of true student-athletes, from a Mid Major, barely NCAA-grade competition, was?

(a) Coach was defeatist with his Krappy attitude before the game (If I can’t be in the real tourney, then why should I be in any? Oh yeah, I signed a contract. Can you say “going thru the motions”?)

(b) Students didn’t come out to cheer on their pros. (It’s not about doing your best at all times; it’s not about exceeding your personal best for its own reward; it’s about bragging rights!)

(c) Gubamint edukation always fails. (Axiomatic! Immoral, ineffective, inefficient, and just plain wrong.)

(d) Greece can beat the NBA Amerikan team. (“I think I can” always trumps a “Swelled Head”!)

(e) Alums, who can’t do, invest themselves in an illusion that they have some role in another doing what they can’t or couldn’t or wouldn’t do. (Doing anything you value is infinitely better than watching some one else doing what they value! Technically, Quadrant 1 activity is much more important than a Quadrant 4 one. On the important / urgent scale.)

(f) All of the above. (Pontificating ain’t changing!)

===

I’m still pontificating. And, he got a good laugh out of my “umbrage”.

And, while I will kill some time watch the pros, millionaires play for billionaires, I have no illusions that I am accomplishing anything, except wasting presious time on the way to the finish line.

;-(

I shouldda stayed in bed!

But instead I’ll blog about it.

http://www.gojaspers.com/article.cfm?doc_id=6950

***Begin Quote***

“Manhattan College has canceled its fall women’s lacrosse season and first-ever spring break trip and imposed community service and other responsibilities on all team members in response to a freshmen initiation incident that occurred last October. Those individuals most responsible have graduated in the interim. The College has just completed a thorough investigation, which began immediately upon being notified of the incident last week,” said Brother Thomas Scanlan, president of Manhattan College.

***End Quote***

Can you revoke a diploma?

Where was the coach? Assistants? Faculty advisors? AD? Faculty?

And, where were the young adults who should have known better?

Dear Fellow Alumni,

I’m updating my address book using Plaxo. May I have your update?
Plaxo is a great free tool for keeping in sync. If you find it useful and sign up, then we will always be in sync without annoying update messages. Two Plaxo-ites don’t have to do anything to stay in sync. That’s perfect for lazy people like me! Don’t worry about strangers; to get connected in Plaxo, you must have the other person’s email address to start with.

If you don’t want to use Plaxo, I understand. But, please take a moment to share with me with your latest contact info. I try NOT to annoy people with this tool to often. Once or twice a year seems modest. When Plaxo “ages” your record or reports the email address is bouncing, then I have been known to pick up the phone and check up on people.

I hate “losing” people especially “anyone”. But I especially hate “losing” my fellow alums.

I don’t really mind if you decline, you have your good reasons, and that’s what works for you. Even if you decline, here’s my info for your use. If I can be of any help anytime, just yell. I’ve got a big rolodex that you can tap, I have contact information on about 6k of our fellow Jaspers of whom over a 1k read my weekly alumni ezine, about 500 headhunters, 800 LinkedIn contacts, and a slew of others.

I run a “turkey farm” for the unemployed, blog several notes each day, and put almost all all my stuff out on my web site for you to “steal”. My writing projects are just to bad to share. Maybe when I’m dead! Someone will publish my poetry!

Did I mention I’m a notary? Who’s a Type A.

Thanks for your patience and your time reading this. Best wishes.

A fellow alum

http://www.dennern.1go.dk/?p=16

Dennern does Philly

***Begin Quote***

Traffic was very dense around the New York area, but we finally got there.
We are staying at Manhattan college which is situated right smack in the middle of the Bronx. Let’s just say that it’s not exactly the Sheraton Hotel, the rooms are pretty crappy but I guess it’s ok. I wouldn’t want to live for several years while I studied, but I think that a lot of people in this area are pretty poor so they have probably got no other option.

***End Quote***

Like the Geico commercial (a US car insurance company) with some great ads, specifically one with cavemen, “you might want to do a little research next time”. The Manhattan College  http://home.comcast.net/~jxymxu7sn5ho9d/Manhattan_College_ology.htm is a small college with Irish Catholic roots and many proud alums. Most of those alums had numerous opportunities to choose from all sorts of schools. I personally selected Manhattan over Notre Dame, USC, and UCLA. While I wasn’t rich by any measure, I could have went to any of them. Manhattan made the most sense for me. So before you judge a book by the cover, or a campus by the rooms, you may want to see the spirit behind those rooms.

… … in of itself that’s not so surprising. What is interesting is that the same search input string yields different results. Not all search engines support rss, surprising. Search engines are “contaminated” by phony results (i.e., “manhattan college” is on the page but as an ad or other filler). Search engines have no way to just pull people out. So when I do my query, I get sports stories, sales sites, travel agencies, and liberally sprinkled thru the results are real alumni. Hmmm!

Arghh, just spent some time in my life that I’ll never get back, somehow, automagically, Yahoo is “helping” its group members out.

The domain part of the AT&T email address was orginally “@worldnet.att.net”. When someone at AT&T realized that this wasn’t the marketing coop that they thought it was, they allowed short addresses “@att.net”. DUH!

Somehow, from time to time, Yahoo goes thru and shortens group membership address as “@att.net”. DOUBLE DUH!!

This totally confuses people. Screws them up when they send email. And may screw them up depend upon how they sign on.

Then they say “huh” like the aflac duck and ask me to help.

Arghh! (directed at AT&T and Yahoo!)

… … and have twelve Jaspers in Strange Places.

http://www.gojaspers.com/article.cfm?doc_id=6845

***Begin Quote***

Lincoln, Neb. (June 4, 2006) – Miami completed a three-game sweep of the NCAA Lincoln Regional field to capture its 10th straight win in regional play and its 13th consecutive regional title with an 10-4 victory over upstart Manhattan at Hawks Field on Sunday evening. Manhattan ends its season with a 34-23 record. 

***End Quote***

Well done to those men!

Considering that Jack only slays every giant in fairy tales, this is a heroic effort. They did put a few of those giant state skoolz in their place along the way. The gnat can be annoying.

Well done.