Ed Icionsub

My sister up in Virginia has pretty much given up trying to get work as a pharmacy tech. What a shame, as she had taken special classes to get certified. But after working at several different local pharmacies, she’s decided that she is just not well suited for this type of work. Now she wants to take different classes from WaldenU.edu and get retrained for a totally different type of career.

Of course, this is not going according to her plan at all. She thought that once she retired from her 25 years at the phone company that she was going to be able to stay home and just be a retiree. Maybe even a Red Hat Lady.

But, if you remember my mentioning it, her husband was in a terrible car accident about two years ago and has not been able to work since the accident. So my sister is back to being the breadwinner again. It looks like she is going to have to work for at least three or four more years. So she checked out the Walden University’s online degree programs for something different. She is looking for something that she can get certified in quickly and will have enough demand for her to be able to find work relatively quickly once she finishes the coursework and gets her certification. I wonder what she will choose this time?

For some reason I have never been exposed to the possibility of taking a class about photography. When I was in school, that was not a subject offered. When I was in college, it was not offered and even if it was I would not have been able to squeeze in a subject that didn’t relate directly to my major anyway.

I would like to take a couple of classes to learn more about cameras and the different settings and effects. Post processing is also something that I would like to learn more about. I think I have a pretty good handle on composition, but I would be interested in learning what is taught as compared to what I have figured out for myself.

A good photography is an artist. I can really appreciate a photograph taken by a skilled photographer and would like to do more of that myself. I often see things that would make a great picture, but don’t have the camera with me or don’t have a sophisticated enough camera to get the effect that I want – like the way sunshine coming through the tree leaves make them glow.

The school are all startg up this month for the 2011-2012 school year. There are some remote counties that went back to school over 2 weeks ago. That seems bizarre to me, as we always started school the Tuesday after Labor Day. But down here they start in August. In fact, the county were I live started last week for a one half day orientation and then started for real on Monday.

The stores have been pushing school supplies for over a month and there are some great prices on things like crayons, notebooks and pencils. I have seen hundreds of different ways to carry books back and forth from school. I wonder if the kids prefer backpacks or messenger bag? There are a great selection of styles and designs or both of them.

Personally, I like the idea of messenger bags, especially of your kids has to ride the school bus or ride in a car back and forth to school. If they have a backpack they cannot sit comfortably with a backpack on. But if they have a messenger bag, then its just a matter of setting the bag on the floor or on the empty seat beside you. Fast and easy.

Some well meaning but misguided parent group has decided to make an issue out of school serving chocolate milk in the cafeterias. They say chocolate milk is unhealthy and the schools should stop making it available to children. I say, Bull shit!

This is a prime example of do-gooders doing the wrong thing. I know for a fact that a whole lot of kids won’t drink milk at all if all you offer them is the plain vitamin D enriched white stuff. Studies have shown that overall milk consumption drops by over 30% when you remove the option of flavored milks. So all those kids are not going to get their calcium and other nutritional needs met if you withhold flavored milks.

I don’t care how “healthy” something is for you – you are not going to get the benefit of milk if you do not drink it. For 30% of the kids that refuse plain white milk – and I don’t blame them one bit, I can’t stand the stuff – you are robbing them of their milk by withholding chocolate and strawberry flavored milks. I say let the kids and their parents decide if they want to drink the flavored milks and the rest of you who just want white milk, fine. But keep your noses out of the affairs of me and my kids milk and food choices.