I really thought this was an interesting story. I think everyone heard about the Carnival cruise ship "Splendor" floating out in the Pacific Ocean without power last week. There was a fire on board the ship that fried out all of the electronics on board. That happened on Monday, the day after it left the dock in California. It took two tug boats to bring back the dead ship in the water. While they were out of power, the people on board had to suffer without lights, running water, no refrigeration, no AC or heat, and other essentials that normal people take for granted.
While researching the things that went on board, I read a blog that the Carnival's Senior Cruise Director wrote during this time of crisis. I laughed at his sense of humor about the goings on during that time. Here is the funniest part of his blog: "I don't smell of roses at the best of times, but as the laundry is not working and I only have 2 pair of underpants I smell like Paris on a hot summer's day.....That's Paris the city not Paris the ......person."
It was also stated during this time that quite a few of the passengers were singing Gilligan Island type songs comparing their cruise to the SS Minnow's 3 hour cruise.
I thought it was admirable that the passengers and the cruise director had a comical look over a strange and somewhat harsh situation. John Heald, the cruise director did say that some of the people on board did call the voyage "The Cruise From Hell."
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Final Revision: The Day the Music Died
It was a normal day in 1980; High School was in progress, I was working part-time in a grocery store after school, and life seemed perfectly normal. There was something different happening in my life, though. One of my favorite singers just came out with a new album and I had just purchased his single the week before. I will give you a hint; he was a former Beatle. I was really excited that he had put out some new music for the first time in five years. Also, there were rumors that he might get back in the studio to work with his old band. The former Beatle was John Lennon and the date was December 8th, 1980.
The single I had just purchased was “(Just Like) Starting Over. I really liked this song because it seemed so different than the music that was popular while John’s career was in hiatus. Disco had ruled the charts for several years up to this time. I was not a fan of Disco at all! To me it was mindless dribble with a boring beat. It needed to die a quick death and some of the new music like new wave and Punk were going to help kill it off!
I was beginning to like some of this new music. The Punk music had anger and emotional lyrics while new wave had cool music and interesting lyrics. To me, these were the baby groups coming from the Beatles and their solo careers. The Fab Four and especially John were going to come back together again and really put the stake into the heart of Disco!
That day I had my regular senior classes and I had my after school job stocking shelves at the local I.G.A.
When I was finished work, I cruised around in my car playing my new cassette player that I had recently installed. I was listening to Devo’s “Whip It”, Gary Numan’s “Cars” and of course some Beatles music and John’s latest songs. To me, around this time, life seemed to be hectic and out of control, especially it being my last year in high school and preparing for college, but I would put in some cool music, especially John’s new stuff that it made me feel like the future would be a breeze!
That night my family and I watched some TV after supper. Then at 8 pm, Monday Night Football came on. My mother wasn’t a big fan of football, so she would go read a book. My father was a huge fan of football and would watch every Monday Night game. I would usually watch the Monday night game with Dad, but tonight the game was showcasing two AFC teams. My favorite team was the Green Bay Packers, and I liked the NFC, but I really didn’t care for the AFC teams. So I would sporadically watch the game, while I was also listening to some new records I had just picked up the following weeks.
During this time most people played their music on record players. It was the old standard and the music was pretty outstanding back then, especially the bass! I wasn’t a big punk fan, but I did like a few of the new wave groups. There was Billy Joel’s “Glass House” album that I had, and Hall and Oates “Voices” too and of course I was spinning John’s new single, too. His album just came out and I was saving money to buy that to add to my record collection, too! The future looked very bright and I was feeling that the end of 1980 was bringing a great end to a weak musical decade!
Around 10:30 that night, I was getting ready to hit the sack and I wanted to find out the score of the game before I went to bed, so I went out into the living room to see how the game was going. While I was waiting for the score, Howard Cosell who was one of the announcers for the game said he had an important announcement that the former Beatle John Lennon had been shot and killed in front of his apartment in New York. I just stared at the TV and I was in total shock. My mind was screaming, “This couldn’t be happening!” I raced to my bedroom and turned in my radio to see if Cosell was wrong. The 11:00 news came on and the first thing they announced was exactly what was on the TV a half hour earlier. I was really confused. These facts would not leave my brain. All I could think of is why would someone kill John Lennon? I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or just smash something in anger. He never hurt anyone and he put out the greatest music in my lifetime. I found out the next day that his killer was Mark David Chapman, a former fan that was psychotic and felt like he needed to kill him. Then I thought, “Great, some crazy guy who should have been locked up murders John”. That’s the first time in my life where I felt that anything can happen.
I spent quite a bit of time feeling kind of lost and a bit depressed. There were so many memorials on TV about his murder and about how so many people were upset by it. I think it must have felt the same way when John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King was murdered. On Christmas, my oldest sister gave me the John Lennon album that I wanted earlier in the month for a Christmas gift. I would have loved receiving this gift earlier, but after what had happened, I didn’t really feel like listening to it. I smiled and thanked my sister for the present, but deep inside I knew I didn’t want it. I waited until the next day to play it and the songs were upbeat and full of love. I listened to it once and put it away into my collection never to play it again.
The hardest part of being a big fan of a musical artist is when you think so much of them for such a long period and all of a sudden they are gone forever, it leaves a huge void in you. This was something I haven’t had to experience before, almost like a death in the family.
From all of this, I knew I had to move on and pick myself up. I started to listen to more and more of the new music that came out. Disco did die off completely, which did make me feel better and it seemed like there were a lot of new bands coming out that would fill the void left from John’s death. I matured a lot that summer. I was getting ready to go to college and go see new people; big changes for me!
I started opening up to new music; although it won’t replace John’s music, they did influence me! I glad I was able to do this and I will never forget how John’s music inspired me!
Every so often, I will remember that day in my life and think of the good times and bad. Then I think that I never really got the song “American Pie” until John Lennon was murdered. I guess I felt the same way that the fans of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper felt in 1959 when their plane crashed and ended their brilliant careers.
Looking back at this time, I can now see John Lennon was to my generation as the members of the flight in 1959 were to the 1950’s.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Day the Music Died
It was a normal day in my life back in 1980; High School was in progress, I was working part-time in a grocery store after school, and life seemed perfectly normal, almost too normal. There was something different happening in my life, though. One of my favorite singers just came out with his solo album and I had just purchased his single the week before. I will give you a hint; he was a former Beatle. I was really excited that he had put out some new music for the first time in five years. Also, there were rumors that he might get back in the studio to work with his old band. The former Beatle was John Lennon and the date was December 8th, 1980.
The single I had just purchased was “(Just Like) Starting Over. I really liked this song because it seemed so different than the music that was popular while John’s career was in hiatus. Disco had ruled the charts for several years up to this time. I was not a fan of Disco at all! To me it was mindless dribble with a boring beat. It needed to die a quick death and some of the new music like new wave and Punk were going to help kill it off!
I was beginning to like some of this new music. The Punk music had anger and emotional lyrics while new wave had cool music and interesting lyrics. To me, these were the baby groups coming from the Beatles and their solo careers. The Fab Four and especially John were going to come back together again and really put the stake into the heart of Disco!
That day I had my regular senior classes and I had my after school job stocking shelves at the local I.G.A.
When I was finished work, I cruised around in my car playing my new cassette player that I had recently installed. I was listening to Devo’s “Whip It”, Gary Numan’s “Cars” and of course some Beatles music and John’s latest songs. To me, around this time, life seemed to be hectic and out of control, especially it being my last year in high school and preparing for college, but I would put in some cool music, especially John’s new stuff that it made me feel like the future would be a breeze!
That night my family and I watched some TV after supper. Then at 8 pm, Monday Night Football came on. My mother wasn’t a big fan of football, so she would go read a book. My father was a huge fan of football and would watch every Monday Night game. I would usually watch the Monday night game with Dad, but tonight the game was showcasing two AFC teams. My favorite team was the Green Bay Packers, and I liked the NFC, but I really didn’t care for the AFC teams. So I would sporadically watch the game, while I was also listening to some new records I had just picked up the following weeks.
During this time most people played their music on record players. It was the old standard and the music was pretty outstanding back then, especially the bass! I wasn’t a big punk fan, but I did like a few of the new wave groups. There was Billy Joel’s “Glass House” album that I had, and Hall and Oates “Voices” too and of course I was spinning John’s new single, too. His album just came out and I was saving money to buy that to add to my record collection, too! The future looked very bright and I was feeling that the end of 1980 was bringing a great end to a weak musical decade!
Around 10:30 that night, I was getting ready to hit the sack and I wanted to find out the score of the game before I went to bed, so I went out into the living room to see how the game was going. While I was waiting for the score, Howard Cosell who was one of the announcers for the game said he had an important announcement that the former Beatle John Lennon had been shot and killed in front of his apartment in New York. I just stared at the TV and I was in total shock. My mind was screaming, “This couldn’t be happening!” I raced to my bedroom and turned in my radio to see if Howard was wrong. The 11:00 news came on and the first thing they announced was exactly what was on the TV a half hour earlier. I was really confused. These facts would not leave my brain. All I could think of is why would someone kill John Lennon? I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or just smash something in anger. He never hurt anyone and he put out the greatest music in my lifetime. I found out the next day that his killer was Mark David Chapman, a former fan that was psychotic and felt like he needed to kill him. Then I thought, “Great, some crazy guy who should have been locked up murders John”. That’s the first time in my life where I felt that anything can happen.
I spent quite a bit of time feeling kind of lost and a bit depressed. They had all these memorials on TV about his murder and how so many people were upset by it. I think it must have felt the same way when John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King was murdered. On Christmas, my oldest sister gave me the John Lennon album that I wanted earlier in the month for a Christmas gift. I would have loved receiving this gift earlier, but after what had happened, I didn’t really feel like listening to it. I smiled and thanked my sister for the present, but deep inside I knew I didn’t want it. I waited until the next day to play it and the songs were upbeat and full of love. I listened to it once and put it away into my collection never to play it again.
The hardest part of being a big fan of a musical artist is when you think so much of them for such a long period and all of a sudden they are gone forever, it leaves a huge void in you. This was something I haven’t had to experience before, almost like a death in the family.
From all of this, I knew I had to move on and pick myself up. I started to listen to more and more of the new music that came out. Disco did die off completely, which did make me feel better and it seemed like there were a lot of new bands coming out that would feel the void left from John’s death. I matured a lot that summer. I was getting ready to go to college and go see new people; big changes for me!
I eventually moved on musically and found artist that could also make me feel good and inspire me to do positive things. I glad I was able to do this and I will never forget how John’s music inspired me!
Every so often, I will remember that day in my life and think of the good times and bad. Then I think that I never really got the song “American Pie” until John Lennon was murdered. I guess I felt the same way that the fans of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper felt in 1959 when their plane crashed and ended their brilliant careers.
Yes, indeed, it was “the day the music had died.”
The single I had just purchased was “(Just Like) Starting Over. I really liked this song because it seemed so different than the music that was popular while John’s career was in hiatus. Disco had ruled the charts for several years up to this time. I was not a fan of Disco at all! To me it was mindless dribble with a boring beat. It needed to die a quick death and some of the new music like new wave and Punk were going to help kill it off!
I was beginning to like some of this new music. The Punk music had anger and emotional lyrics while new wave had cool music and interesting lyrics. To me, these were the baby groups coming from the Beatles and their solo careers. The Fab Four and especially John were going to come back together again and really put the stake into the heart of Disco!
That day I had my regular senior classes and I had my after school job stocking shelves at the local I.G.A.
When I was finished work, I cruised around in my car playing my new cassette player that I had recently installed. I was listening to Devo’s “Whip It”, Gary Numan’s “Cars” and of course some Beatles music and John’s latest songs. To me, around this time, life seemed to be hectic and out of control, especially it being my last year in high school and preparing for college, but I would put in some cool music, especially John’s new stuff that it made me feel like the future would be a breeze!
That night my family and I watched some TV after supper. Then at 8 pm, Monday Night Football came on. My mother wasn’t a big fan of football, so she would go read a book. My father was a huge fan of football and would watch every Monday Night game. I would usually watch the Monday night game with Dad, but tonight the game was showcasing two AFC teams. My favorite team was the Green Bay Packers, and I liked the NFC, but I really didn’t care for the AFC teams. So I would sporadically watch the game, while I was also listening to some new records I had just picked up the following weeks.
During this time most people played their music on record players. It was the old standard and the music was pretty outstanding back then, especially the bass! I wasn’t a big punk fan, but I did like a few of the new wave groups. There was Billy Joel’s “Glass House” album that I had, and Hall and Oates “Voices” too and of course I was spinning John’s new single, too. His album just came out and I was saving money to buy that to add to my record collection, too! The future looked very bright and I was feeling that the end of 1980 was bringing a great end to a weak musical decade!
Around 10:30 that night, I was getting ready to hit the sack and I wanted to find out the score of the game before I went to bed, so I went out into the living room to see how the game was going. While I was waiting for the score, Howard Cosell who was one of the announcers for the game said he had an important announcement that the former Beatle John Lennon had been shot and killed in front of his apartment in New York. I just stared at the TV and I was in total shock. My mind was screaming, “This couldn’t be happening!” I raced to my bedroom and turned in my radio to see if Howard was wrong. The 11:00 news came on and the first thing they announced was exactly what was on the TV a half hour earlier. I was really confused. These facts would not leave my brain. All I could think of is why would someone kill John Lennon? I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or just smash something in anger. He never hurt anyone and he put out the greatest music in my lifetime. I found out the next day that his killer was Mark David Chapman, a former fan that was psychotic and felt like he needed to kill him. Then I thought, “Great, some crazy guy who should have been locked up murders John”. That’s the first time in my life where I felt that anything can happen.
I spent quite a bit of time feeling kind of lost and a bit depressed. They had all these memorials on TV about his murder and how so many people were upset by it. I think it must have felt the same way when John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King was murdered. On Christmas, my oldest sister gave me the John Lennon album that I wanted earlier in the month for a Christmas gift. I would have loved receiving this gift earlier, but after what had happened, I didn’t really feel like listening to it. I smiled and thanked my sister for the present, but deep inside I knew I didn’t want it. I waited until the next day to play it and the songs were upbeat and full of love. I listened to it once and put it away into my collection never to play it again.
The hardest part of being a big fan of a musical artist is when you think so much of them for such a long period and all of a sudden they are gone forever, it leaves a huge void in you. This was something I haven’t had to experience before, almost like a death in the family.
From all of this, I knew I had to move on and pick myself up. I started to listen to more and more of the new music that came out. Disco did die off completely, which did make me feel better and it seemed like there were a lot of new bands coming out that would feel the void left from John’s death. I matured a lot that summer. I was getting ready to go to college and go see new people; big changes for me!
I eventually moved on musically and found artist that could also make me feel good and inspire me to do positive things. I glad I was able to do this and I will never forget how John’s music inspired me!
Every so often, I will remember that day in my life and think of the good times and bad. Then I think that I never really got the song “American Pie” until John Lennon was murdered. I guess I felt the same way that the fans of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper felt in 1959 when their plane crashed and ended their brilliant careers.
Yes, indeed, it was “the day the music had died.”
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
To Vote or Not to Vote
Has anyone noticed that there are elections coming up in less than a month? If you watch TV at all, I’m guessing that you might have seen about 20 political ads in an hour. Some of these politicians are probably ok people and might even know a little about the job that they are running for, but if you seen these ads, it makes them all seem like they would be worse than Saddam Hussein or Bin Laden. For example, there was a negative Scott Walker ad on recently. He is running against Tom Barrett for Governor of Wisconsin. Tom Barrett’s spin doctors put out ads which make Walker look like a worse stoner than Cheech and Chong. I personally do not like Scott Walker, so I thought it was funny, almost like some moron skit from Saturday Night Live. The sad thing was that it wasn’t. These ads are attacking people’s character and are pretty nasty.
I also heard that Wisconsin has the highest amount of political ads in the whole US right now. And you thought Freddy Kruger was scary! At this point, I would almost vote for Freddy, I think he would probably be more honest than the politicians out there that we have to vote for. Here is another scary thought; I have a young lady who is 26 years old that is in one of my afternoon classes. She was talking to me and some other classmates a few weeks ago that she needed some work experience to pad her resume and was looking for some volunteer work to do. She read online that Russ Feingold was looking for volunteers for his campaign. She applied for the job and was called back that same day to see if she would accept the job. She seemed pretty excited about it. Then that’s when the scary part happened. She asked us if Feingold was a Democrat or Republican. We all kind of looked around in a stunned glaze and said he’s a Democrat, and he also a Senator. She seriously did not know. Luckily for Feingold’s campaign, she took a paying job that was also offered to her that same day. That was a real Jay Leno people on the street’s moment!
Well, anyway, I am done rambling. If you have any feedback on all these political ads or how your favorite politician is doing, I would like to read it. Later, Mike.
I also heard that Wisconsin has the highest amount of political ads in the whole US right now. And you thought Freddy Kruger was scary! At this point, I would almost vote for Freddy, I think he would probably be more honest than the politicians out there that we have to vote for. Here is another scary thought; I have a young lady who is 26 years old that is in one of my afternoon classes. She was talking to me and some other classmates a few weeks ago that she needed some work experience to pad her resume and was looking for some volunteer work to do. She read online that Russ Feingold was looking for volunteers for his campaign. She applied for the job and was called back that same day to see if she would accept the job. She seemed pretty excited about it. Then that’s when the scary part happened. She asked us if Feingold was a Democrat or Republican. We all kind of looked around in a stunned glaze and said he’s a Democrat, and he also a Senator. She seriously did not know. Luckily for Feingold’s campaign, she took a paying job that was also offered to her that same day. That was a real Jay Leno people on the street’s moment!
Well, anyway, I am done rambling. If you have any feedback on all these political ads or how your favorite politician is doing, I would like to read it. Later, Mike.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Tinkering School
I watched this video on Gever Tulley’s approach to learning and quite honestly, I was VERY bored by it. I think it’s great if you have a young school aged child and would like to try this different teaching technique, but I think when you hit a certain age, say 12 years and older, this would not be the route to take for a learning course. I think most older children like to have some kind of constraints laid out for them. This kind of teaching would only bring out anarchy in a young teenager. As for trying to teach this way in college level schooling, I have a lot of doubts that this would be helpful at all. I have seen in some of my classes where the teacher is a little laid back in class and all hell breaks loose. I think this would happen in a lot classes. I’m sorry that I sound like a hard ass, but this is my opinion of it.
I think the way we are taught here at WTC is done in a professional manner. Everyone has to remember when we are out in the real world and are practicing what we have learned in school that we have been taught in a professional manner that shows some respect and wisdom. We can go to the next level and show the world that we listened to our teachers and can use our knowledge to better ourselves and the world around us.
Going back a few steps here, I will say the tinkering school would be o.k. in younger children where your imagination is at probably at its zenith. This would probably be very useful in children during the summer months where they might not have anything better to do than play video games or watch TV. So with that I will put on here the link to the tinkering school video: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gever tulley' s tinkering school in action.html.
Now, I would like to add some of my tips that I have picked up that have helped me here in school. First of all, I really use the academic success center a lot. They are really helpful in most of the classes I have had, especially anything that has to do with blackboard and report projects. The second place I spent a lot of time in was the math lab. It is right next to the ASC lab. I was getting a lot of business math homework to do and I had problems with it quite a bit. It was nice to know that they have math instructors there all day that can help you out with math problems. I got an A in my class and I don’t think I would have been able to get that kind of grade without the help from the math lab. The same goes for the ASC lab. Also, these are good places to take your tests. The ASC has private rooms with computers so if you like complete quiet while taking a test, this is the place to go on campus!
Well, I am all done raving (LOL!) I hope some of my ravings can be of some help to anyone who reads this. Chow!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Labor Day weekend
I had a very fun weekend. First, I got to see my younger brother, Scot. We watched the Packers play Thursday night. We drank a lot of cold beverages to go along with some chips. After the game, I left his place and went bar hopping. I got to meet a lot of old friends and I drank more cold beverages! Friday, I just hung around my brother’s house and he cooked some steaks for dinner. After dinner we hung around and watched some more football games. Saturday we went to the Lady Luck Casino and did some gambling. I came out just about even, but my brother lost $200.00. He had to take the long walk of shame from the boat. That night the Wisconsin Badgers had a football game with the University of Nevada Las Vegas in Las Vegas. I was really anticipating watching the game on TV. The Big ten network usually carries the Badgers games, but Saturday night, for some ungodly reason, The Versus network covered the game and Dish does not carry them. I was not a happy camper! We ended up listening to the game on the radio. The badgers did win, 41-21.
Friday, August 27, 2010
In the beginning............
From the beginning…………
Hello everyone, my name is Mike Wolford. I am in my second year of the Business Management program. I have never blogged in my life, so please bear with me if I make some mistakes. I live in La Crosse, but was born and raised in Prairie du Chien, WI. Some of my hobbies are fishing, camping, and watching sports. My favorite team is the Green Bay Packers! Go Pack Go!!!!! During the winter months when it’s slow, I enjoy reading, watching horror and comedy movies, and listening to music. I think this will be an interesting class and I hope to improve upon my writing skills.
P.S. I just bought "Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones. This was first released in 1972. They just remastered this album and it is awesome! If you like hard rock and the blues, you will love this album!
Hello everyone, my name is Mike Wolford. I am in my second year of the Business Management program. I have never blogged in my life, so please bear with me if I make some mistakes. I live in La Crosse, but was born and raised in Prairie du Chien, WI. Some of my hobbies are fishing, camping, and watching sports. My favorite team is the Green Bay Packers! Go Pack Go!!!!! During the winter months when it’s slow, I enjoy reading, watching horror and comedy movies, and listening to music. I think this will be an interesting class and I hope to improve upon my writing skills.
P.S. I just bought "Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones. This was first released in 1972. They just remastered this album and it is awesome! If you like hard rock and the blues, you will love this album!
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