Randy Ingle » Education and Personal Growth

Not that I’d want to adopt them

Randy — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:46:41 +0000

I found this video of polar bears playing with huskies quite amazing. Makes me wish that polar bears were domesticated!

The communications market

Randy — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:50:32 +0000

When I was in the public school system the students were given a choice of two different foreign languages to study as a prerequisite to attending college. One was French and the other was Spanish. Once in college students were given the opportunity to study other languages. The college I went to did not have a wide variety of foreign languages to study. If I recall correctly the other courses offered were German and Russian.

I think it’s wonderful that college students are now given the option to take many different languages as a course of study. I’ve always had an interest in the history and culture of China and it would be like a dream come true if I had the opportunity to work as a translator in China at one of the translation company/companies in China.

With the economic and political growth of China, I expect that there will be an increased demand for translation services in China as more foreign countries decide to expand their businesses in China.

Plants make aspirin

Randy — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:58:49 +0000

I was reading in The Discovery News website that it has been discovered that some plants generate an aspirin-like chemical when they are under stress. The article goes on to explain that this discovery was an accidental one, it was discovered near a walnut grove. Scientists were monitoring the air (it doesn’t say why) when they discovered that the trees were emitting this gas. Then the article goes on to explain that aspirin was originally made from the bark of willow trees. I didn’t know that! You learn something new every day!

Corn syrup

Randy — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:17:19 +0000

I’ve been noticing some commercials on the television lately where the point of the commercial is to get consumers to rethink the attitude that high fructose corn syrup is bad for you. In recent years high fructose corn syrup has been broadly considered bad for the consumer, linking it to diabetes and obesity. I’ve never believed that it is any worse for you than regular table sugar. And yes, regular sugar can also lead to diabetes and obesity – if too much is consumed! So the point is that we all have to be responsible for our own health and not eat too much of anything! High fructose corn syrup is not the enemy!

Native American Indian Way of Life

Randy — Sun, 22 May 2011 01:51:12 +0000

A place for everything

Randy — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:13:00 +0000

I can remember visiting my grandmother when I was a child and she would try to find ways to keep me busy and entertained. She always tried to make it educational in some way too! For example, she had several different kitchen spice racks in her old farmhouse. She had one small wall spice rack right within arm’s reach of her stove, and a larger built in spice rack in a cabinet over by her preparation center island.

What she would do, with the spice racks (and me) is take all of the spice bottles and cans out of the racks and throw out the spices that she said were too old. Then she would have me take a marker and write that day’s date on some new bottles and cans that she bought and put them back in the racks, in alphabetical order. And of course all of the ones that were going to be kept got cleaned as well. We would have fun while making sure that they were in alphabetical order, by singing the alphabet song while we worked.

Afterwards she would let me have a cup of warmed spiced cider, asking me to help her get the spices ready for the mulling, and letting me put the spices back away again.

Keeping up with technology

Randy — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:27:03 +0000

I find it interesting how many people are carving their living out of the technology created by the Internet. When I was in high school the personal computer did not even exist yet! There is so much to learn about computers and the Internet. And not just about how to send emails and buy things (although that’s fun!) but if you want to run a business and utilize the Internet to help grow your business then you need to either learn all you can about web hosting. Sooner or later you will need to make some decisions about whether to use a host with managed hosting and/or colocation hosting.

I swear, it is enough to make an old man cringe and want to pull the covers up over my head! And that is exactly why the younger generation has a great advantage over us older folks; they are growing up with the technology and are comfortable with it all. Heaven help them, though, if they ever need to change their own flat tire!

On the Net

Randy — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:52:09 +0000

I’ve been really lucky in that I have a nephew that helps me with my blogging. He has helped me from the beginning, to help me learn how to buy a domain name, find a wordpress host, and set up my theme. I’m still actively learning things about blogging and the Internet on a daily basis. There is so much to learn, and technology moves so fast!

I can remember taking a college course in computer sciences but that was so long ago that I know that my knowledge is obsolete at this point! So I am grateful that there are a lot of great tutorials available, and good friends and family members that are good hearted enough to lend a hand when I have a question or an issue that needs to be resolved. The advancing technologies are evolving so fast it makes my head spin!

To go to college, or not

Randy — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:01:17 +0000

One of the things that annoys me about the Internet is how many pop-up ads that appear on my screens about how President Obama is trying to encourage everyone to get more Education. And there is a strong encouragement for the unemployed to get more education. The theory behind this encouragement is sound, to a point. In general, having a good education can make you more attractive to prospective employers. But people have to understand that just because you have a college degree does not guarantee you a good paying job!

And according to a recent article in The Chronicle, tuition costs are rising, making it more difficult for the needy to go to college. Yes, scholarships and grants are available (to a point) but many of these people need a means to support themselves and their families at the same time that they are going to school. Sometimes, going part time to an online school like Walden University helps, but working and going to school while tending to a family is a very difficult thing to do. Who really wants to devote their entire lives to work and studies and not be able to enjoy watching the children grow up, missing their recitals, and basically ignoring the emotional needs of their family? There really needs to be a better plan to help support the family while the parent(s) are going to school.

Interesting find

Randy — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:05:06 +0000

Glass lantern slide from Keystone View company

My sister came over today for lunch and she brought with her some glass lantern slides she had bought at a flea market that she stopped at on her way over. She had never seen anything like this before, and we hopped on the Internet to see what we could find out. We found out that people on Ebay are selling similar items for $10.15 each, and that a Museum in California has a collection of slides made by this company. We shot off an email to the museum, inquiring if they could help us to learn more about them, such as how old they were, and the value of them. I wonder if we’ll hear from them!