From the JoeBurnsBlog

This past weekend I had the rare privilege of attending a tribute to a retired German language teacher.  My Mother-in-law, BS, is a retired San Francisco high school language and art teacher.  A talented artist and fluent in German due to her family upbringing, her passion for these two subjects equals her education.  I married into the family late in life and didn't get to witness BS in her employed years, but knowing her now, I can imagine as a teacher she did things one way; her way.  I'm sure there were curriculums, but her students received something totally unique in public schools - life-lessons, reality, love and respect.  I know weird unh?  To actually teach young adults practical lessons and show them respect as humans and not cattle is contrary to a teacher's survival in today's world. 

The tribute was a surprise Oktoberfest party for BS on Angel Island, planned and implemented by her former students of nearly 25 years past.  My wife, BS's second daughter, helped coordinate a family picnic on this beautiful island State Park in Marin County.  The rest of the attendees waited at the party site some 2 miles from the ferry dock and surprised their "favorite teacher ever" with a BBQ of German Brats, German salads and beers, and fond memories.  I got to meet, for the first time, many of these past students and their families that I have heard about in various stories of classroom lore.  Why Angel Island for an Oktoberfest?  Because BS used to throw a similar party for her students, back in the day.  That's right, the German teacher took her students on a field trip across the bay for annual picnic celebrating the culture she knew and that they seek.  If you think that is unique, you'll love this; she also took her students to Germany on two separate occasions.  Not Germantown USA, but GERMANY. 

Various past students told me how their German teacher changed their life, set them on different paths or taught them lessons they still remember today.  Really, the German teacher?  I don't even remember my high school Spanish teacher's name, let alone a single thing she taught me other than ‘Como se dice'.   As one student described, "She taught us manners and how to set a table, while speaking German."  Another, "she was like our mom".

After these students graduated they continued to write and keep in touch with their German teacher, she attended their college graduations, they introduced their girl and boyfriends, they invited her to their weddings, and now, some 25 years later, they still include each other in social events. 

Teachers didn't and don't get paid much.  I've often asked why then do they choose that profession.  BS is why.  Nice work Mother-in-law.

Cigarette Butts are litter, they are fire hazards, they are eye sores and they are bad for the environment.   On, at least, a monthly occurrence I witness someone tossing a lit cigarette butt out their car window.  This is a lit object that often bounces recklessly on the pavement before settling in a shrub or foliaged area and is then fanned by the speed of the passing cars.  Nice.  I just don't get it, what is someone thinking when they do this?  Is it a lack of education?  The website wwww.cigarettelitter.org claims that many smokers know that littering is wrong, but they convince themselves that a cigarette butt is safe.  What I find even more ironic is these people choose not to have the retired butt in their own car's ashtray, so they flick it into the general public. 

I can tell a ‘flicker' before they commit the deed.  These are usually the smokers that hold the cigarette out of the car window while their smoking.  Kind of like they really don't want the thing smelling up their car.  They bring the cig to their mouth, take a hit and stick their hand right back out, slightly sheltered by the side mirror. (Objects may appear closer than they are).  Then blow the smoke out their window too. 

Now, I have my vices and I hate to come down on someone who began a bad habit for whatever reasons and now just cannot quit.  But, as a vice that does affect other people, how about keeping it a little more to yourself?  I will even go as far as supporting a smokeless public someday, with still allowing people to do what they wish in private.  If smokers had policed themselves a little better, then maybe I would have a little different opinion; but as long as the narcissism of smokers condones the impact of their habit on to me, then they lose my support. 

Cigarette Butts are litter and I encourage all citizens to politely say something when they witness an environmental assault.  Remind the litterbug that this is your town and it is not ok to litter an acetate filter on to the pavement.  Respectively let them know that these butts often end up in the water supplies and endanger aquatic life.  Fish may not know the difference between bait and dinner, but they do know enough to not smoke. 

We fall somewhere between Baby Boomers and Generation Xers.  We've been called Generation Cuspers, Generation Y and Generation Jones.  Do you know what we are?  Generation Computer-Illiterates.

I was born in 1965, graduated high school in 1983 and college in ‘88.  My ‘generation' missed two important milestones in the advancement of computers and the technology boom.  And this is very evident in today's social network pages and email correspondences.  Those of us currently between the age of 40 and 45 seem to be behind everyone else.

And here is why.  Desktop computers and word processing were not options during our educational years. In 1983, very few Apple and PCs had made it into high schools. By 1986, only 25% of high schools used PCs. Soon after we graduated, Apple IIs started showing up in libraries and dorm rooms across the nation.  As we entered the workforce in 1988, personal computers were already exploding, and by the time our ears were dry and we were ready for management the older workers (baby boomers) were already trained on this new phenomenon. Additionally, Baby Boomers were know-it-alls able to learn anything put in front of them. They act like they are the Wunderkid Generation.  Anyway, Generation CI (computer illiterate) missed the boat on both ends.  How lucky is that?  We were too old to experience computers in school and too green to hop on to them in the work world. 

Oh sure, there are plenty of exceptions and some Generation CI's were able to pull away from Miami Vice long enough to learn DOS, but as a rule many of us didn't.  I have proof too.  My friends from school are terrible at email.  Of course, it could be they just don't email me, but I really think they are overwhelmed with written communication. They surf the net well, seem to get by in their jobs ok, apparently download songs just fine, but try to get them to respond to an email or comment on a blog and they disappear like a donut in a title office. 

Is it me, or do other 43 yr olds feel the same way?  Did we cusp some kind of computer coronation and never catch up?  Hold on, someone I've emailed two hundred times is calling me back on my cell...

CEOs make way too much money for what they actually produce and should be paid less.  We should boycott their products and demand they are paid less.

The CEOs I'm referring of course to Celebrity Egocentric Opportunists, also known as Hollywood Actors.  Note these 2007 incomes: 

1. Will Smith - $80 million   
2. Johnny Depp - $72 million
3. Eddie Murphy - $55 million
4. Mike Meyers - $55 million
5. Cameron Diaz - $50 million
6. Keira Knightly - $32 million
7. Jennifer Anniston - $29 million

WOW!!   These incomes are HUUUGE.  Do you think that type of pay resulted in higher movie prices for the working stiff?  It isn't like they are providing an important product, they live in a world of make-believe and take 9mos of the year off to attend divorce courts and detox centers.  Consider for a moment how hard it is to run a Fortune 500 company or lead your team to a World Series and compare that to the difficulty of acting like someone else in front of some cameras. 

For the record, I think greed and over compensation exists in corporations and sporting leagues, but neither compares to the extremes found in Hollyweird. 

Where is the uproar over Actors compensation?

There are two types of people in this world.  Those who fill their cup with coffee, then add the cream and sugar, OR those who add the coffee to an already sweetened mug.  Which are you?

I love that coffee company from Seattle with the green logo... I can't think of their name right now, wait, let me look out my rural office window... oh yeah, there is one over there in the thicket of trees, 'Starbucks' I believe the sign says. 

Despite their recent closings, I believe this little Juggernaut serves the most tasty cup of me (Joe), by the most friendly baristas, in the most friendly environment this side of the Misis, Missipi, Mrs Sippe... um, Oklahoma.  Yet, I am perplexed because they hand me my piping hot, aromatic brew in a cup that has yet to be properly conditioned.  I don't know when it started.  Probably, when everything else uniquely odd about me started, my freshman year(s) in college.  We marched from our dorm room to the dining hall with our meal card in hand, straight up to the cup stack, then through the condiment line, to the 600 gallon, galvanized vat of luke-warm coffee.  If your cup hadn't been properly sweetened, you had to go back to the line, muscle in and grab the sugar and creamer. Not an easy task when your 5'6", 140lbs and hungover.

We didn't have time for individual sugar packets or measuring spoons, you had one shot to accurately pinpoint the pour with your one eye-ball not swimming in last night's Coors Light fest.  By pouring the white gold into an empty cup, you could easily determine the appropriate amount.  Same thing at the Denny's, you sit down, turn your mug over, add the correct amount of sugar/cream, then when the waitress poured in the coffee, viola, no stirring necessary and ready to go.  I've saved the State University system and Denny's thousands in not having to wash my stir-spoon. 

Now, with these new fangled cafe's, I have to remember to ask for 'room' when ordering the coffee, then head over to the elbow-knocker (that's what I call the 12" x 18" counter where 6 people simultaneously treat their coffee) and guesstimate how much sugar and cream will be sufficient.  Then stir the begesuss out it with a bent little popsicle stick, until I can take the first sip and verify my sweetening prowess.

What do you prefer to hit the mug first?   Sweetener or the Joe?

Joe