Rothacker Reviews

Help Kids at All Children's Hospital

Do you have to pick up some books for holiday gifts this year?  Or maybe pick up a few for yourself? You could help kids who are treated at All Children's Hospital and you could also help the All Children's Hospital Guild Tampa Branch (Rosemary and I belong to) by simply mentioning the code noted below. This particular effort is over on Saturday, December 5th. Remember, it won't cost you a dime more than you intended to spend. Please consider helping out!

Barnes & Noble Book Fair
-and-
Holiday Book Drive

Here's how it works:

During the dates of Friday November 27, 2009 to Saturday, December 5, 2009 you can go in to any
Barnes & Noble store throughout the United States. By using our coupon code: 10049625

a percentage of the sale will be donated to All Children's.

During the dates of Sunday, November 1, 2009 through Thursday, December 31, 2009 you can purchase an age-appropriate book, toy, game and/or stuffed animal at the Carrollwood Barnes & Noble store:

11802 N. Dale Mabry Highway
Tampa, Florida 33618

The books, toys, games and stuffed animals will be donated directly to the
All Children's Specialty Care Center of Tampa and the Hospital's main campus in St. Petersburg.

Last year we collected $645.00 in cash and $3740.00 worth of books, toys, games and stuffed animals.  Send our coupon code to everyone you know and ask them to stop by their local
Barnes & Noble during the week of November 27th.
It's an easy and fun way to support our kids!!

Who are you voting for?

"Hello, I am Frank from USA Today. What is your name? Who are you voting for today?"

"I am voting for candidate X."

"Why are you voting for candidate X David?"

I was approached by the above USA reporter as I went to vote in last year's presidential election. Five minutes before he asked me who I was voting for, I learned who I was going to vote for. It was the same person who Rosemary was voting for. Why? Because it was who she was voting for. Fortunately I had asked Rosemary why she was voting for this candidate. I simply repeated verbatim to Frank, Rosemary's answer.

I have never felt like a bigger idiot in my entire life.

It's a darn good thing Frank didn't ask me who the vice-president of the United States was on that day. I read over one-hundred non-fiction books per year. I read two to three newspapers per day, subscribe to ten magazines per month (down from an average of twenty for twenty years), and spend more time than I care to admit reading on the Internet. And that doesn't include the roughly four-hundred hours per year that I invested in career education - for twenty-five years.

I tuned politics and government out however, like a TV commercial. Years ago I had put both down to an over-infested, insincere lot of lier's and cheats. To me, these people smiled, shook your hand, told you what you wanted to hear and then did whatever was in their best interest. 

I lost my job nine weeks after the election and in doing so, stepped off of the hamster wheel. Suddenly, life began to come into my face again. I read a political article in the newspaper and remembered back to that embarrassing day in November. I thought, "dude, there's a reason that you can vote, speak in public and bear arms - matter of fact, there's hundreds of thousands and they are dead now. And there are tens of thousands more over seas right now, all fighting for and protecting our freedom"

So I decided to tune in. The first thing that came to mind was President Obama and how he got elected. I've always had this habit of noticing something like this, and then backing out for a wider view. So before I even had time to contemplate Obama's platform and viewpoints, I became infatuated with the circumstances that drove a cause to rally people online and then move them to vote.

I made a mental note that it didn't necessarily have to be a political cause for people to rally around and take action. But this was really about my lack of civic knowledge and I needed to do something about that. I am now on that journey. My goal is to be more educated on a civic level and to be a more responsible citizen. In case you are interested, here are a few resources that I'm beginning to use:

Learning About the United States

Center for Civic Education

America the Owner's Manual by Bob Graham. A quick note on Bob's book here. Although I've just begun to read it, I have a really good feeling about it. At this time it's just a gut perception, but it seems to be chipping away at my stone cold armor, the one that says,  "What's the use? I can't make a difference."

On this Thanksgiving Day in the year of 2009, I am thankful for my family and the privileges that we enjoy because of the men and women of our country who have sacrificed their lives and those who continue to fight for our honor and our freedom.

Hope, Love and Remembering my Dad

My Dad passed away on the fifth of November. He was seventy-nine years old. I wrote a remembrance and recited it at St Joan of Arc church, located in Streetsboro, Ohio, on November 11th. My sister Debra, encouraged me to post it here.

Debra, our brother Michael and myself were the victims of parental(s) alcohol abuse as children. It is important to reveal this personal detail because as you read through my words, you will not come to this conclusion on your own. Growing up was hard, damn hard. And the demons that visited the doorstep of our youth sunk their talons in and rode our backs into adulthood.

Respect and love paralleled the abuse. This took our brains and emotions and, with bone crushing centrifugal force, distorted our reality. In the end however, respect and love prevailed.

The end began in the mid-seventies. But first, here are my words:

Hillsborough County Schools Receive Gates' Foundation Money

Titled "Intensive Partnership for Effective Teaching," Hillsborough County Schools received a $100 million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The entire grant totaled $290 million dollars with the balance awarded to: Memphis City Schools, Pittsburgh City Schools and The College-Ready Promise.

The Hillsborough County School weathered a year long application process, competing with other school districts throughout the United States. Melinda Gates said, "These communities have shown extraordinary commitment to tackling one of the most important educational issues of our time. We must do everything we can to understand what makes teachers effective and cultivate those qualities across the profession, in every school and classroom, so that all students can benefit." Melinda's comment here supports our school district's effort to help our kids.

The HCS district, school board and teacher union leadership worked together to make this happen. It will be interesting to watch this program unfold. I suspect that there will be a contingent of teachers who protest. After all, it is they whose effectiveness and performance will be evaluated, and ultimately dealt with.

I say this with cautious optimism, but it is good to see that the teacher's union supports this.  We are not dealing with the handling of factory widgets here, we are dealing with our kids' future. Pay particular attention to those teachers who do oppose this plan. Listen carefully to their arguments. Evaluate how their case benefits your kids and their education.

The Gate's Foundation is also including the HCS in a $45 million dollar grant titled Measures of Effective Teaching.

Congratulations to all those folks who worked hard here to provide a better level of education for our kids!

Hillsborough County Schools press release

Go Greyhound, and leave the driving to us

Random dave bus facts:

• I never rode a yellow school bus to school
• I rode in a ton of them when I went canoeing
• I rode city buses to school
• I rode city buses to Cleveland Indian ballgames
• Once, a pack of us 8th graders took a bus to a ballgame. We missed our bus coming back. We navigated our way to the light rail (rapid transit) station in the middle of downtown Cleveland and took a train out to the suburbs. The train didn't go to our suburb so we had to call our parents to pick us up.
• I thought riding in a Greyhound bus was the coolest thing in the world. That same 8th grade class traveled to Washington D.C. in one. 

Check out the new Greyhound Bus design: 

More on the new Greyhound

Greyhound the early years -Download Greyh1

Greyhound the early years - Download Greyh2

Coyote in Flatwoods Park

I am riding on the back side of the seven mile loop yesterday, one mile before the two mile cut-off to Bruce B. Downs Blvd., when a ranger signals me over. He says, "you want to see something really cool?" He tells me to look right, down the service road at Clay's Gulley. He says there's a big coyote sunning himself about one hundred yards down.

So I get to Clay's Gulley and look left down the service road where I see three deers grazing. And then I look right, and see the coyote, and he sees me. I've never seen a coyote this big in my life. He trotted a few feet in the opposite direction and turned back to look at me. He repeated this twice more and then trotted out of site.

I get that coyotes are skittish and encounters with humans are generally rare. But the sheer size of this one... If you walk, bike, jog or roller blade in the park, make sure you are aware of your surroundings.

Ironically, last week in this very section of the park I ran over a pygmy rattler. I usually cruise at 11mph, but for twenty seconds in the middle of a long bike ride, I get the notion to crank it up. I came around this one turn and was on the snake before I could make an adjustment. It slithered off.

Three deers

 

One big coyote

How do you do? Why, I'd like you to meet my numbers.

Imagine... the cement deck off the mansion's south side is appointed with luxurious fountains and greenery. Tables topped with marble, draped in white linens and umbrella'd in shade dot the landscape. Servants dressed in silk blouses, short skirts and white gloves serve finger food and drinks. Socialites schooled in etiquette and branded in fashion politely converse on polite topics. A dashing young man approaches, intent on spreading good will and harmony says, "how do you do? Why, I'd like you to meet my numbers."

NOT!

You don't have to imagine - bands and bands of frustrated little men wearing gray suites, starched white shirts and boring ties bunch close together while jumping up and down while clutching their blackberries while talking to their minions on pieces of plastic jammed in their ears while jumping up and down, while jumping up and down -- in a mad frenzy while all looking straight ahead while worshiping the gods of their corporation while now yelling into their plastic ear pieces at their subordinates in a frenzied desperate pleading demanding pissing themselves voice, "meet my numbers! meet my numbers - before the end of the month, before the end of the quarter!"

NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Old People Who Run the World...............,

"We want to be doing great stuff that matters."     Umair Haque

Me too Umair, even though I'm kind of an old people. Rock on brother.

I think I'm with Jimi on this one:          

          White collared conservative flashing down the street,

Pointing their plastic finger at me.

They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die,

But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high...