Thats MR. BIG TEX to YOU

So i was at my internship today. For those of you who don't know, I have moved to Denver, CO recently. For those of you who also don't know there was a blizzard on Wednesday. So, when I went to internship and proceded to slip and fall on a piece of ice on the road. Right onto my back and left arm. But let me tell you you know what is more fun than that? Taking about 2 steps and falling again. And, yeah in case you are wondering, my left arm is still sore.



Anyway, so off to an auspicious(and painful start) to the day I headed to internship. Today I would shadow Mr. B. Mr B has been there for over 5 years and I thought he'd be a good person to shadow. After spending some time doing a mini orientation and reading about some comapny policy, Mr B took me to the Corrections center school. While there we sat in on a "student run group". The group in essence was one where each kid went around and said one way they were succesful in conteolling themselves utilizing a skill we taught them and one way they were not. Then they specifically mentioned one skill they utilized and one they thought they needed more work. It was an intersting expierence to see these peers discuss, assist, and encourage each other on.

The next group was a family therapy group where Mr B assisted Mr D. Mr B is bilingual and Mr D is not. While the kid was bilingual his mother was not. She could not speak English, so Mr B translated for Mr. D so that the mother could understand. It was an interesting site to see.


After that Mr. B had his own family therapy group. This time a mother, father, and son were there and this group ws conducted entirely in Spanish. Now, I took spanish in school and I have a decent sized vocabulary, but they were spekaing really really quickly. While I did not get every word, I did make out the following.

1. The kid pulled his pants down while in the gymasium
2. The kid likes to smoke weed
3. The father was visibly upset with the kid and talked about how the kid needs to take control of his life.
4. When finding out that the kid had smoked weed at the facility(yeah not smart), the father shook his head and the mother tried to smile (but was clearly tearing).
I didnt pick up the rest. Guess it was Lost in Translation.


Yeah, I know. Anyway, so from there i ended up having some free time on my hands. I had the oppertunity to either read up on DBT(dialectical behavior therapy)or talking to this cute intern who also happened to go to the University of Denver. Hmm, books or chick, books or chick, books or chick? Yeah, Im sire you know which way I went. Anyway, so she is a fun person with a great sense of humor. I have always been wary of office place romance, but I am hoping to at least make a friend outside of work from this.

Form there we had our typical Friday meeting. Lots of talk. Typcial committe meeting you have been to. I wont bore you with details. You can send me your thank you notes stuffed with $100 bills C/O BIg Tex!

So the last thing I did was what i was really looking forward to. Mr. B was having his VIOLENT OFFENDERS GROUP! Thats right every kid in this group has been charged with assualt, has anger managment issues, etc etc. This was an especially fun group. Mr B had the kids discuss anger and had them complete some fill in the blanks. In essence the kids put together a story and read them aloud. Each story was in essencedthe same: main character has choice to do something the wrong way or the right way. After discussing which option they picked we spent the rest of the group creating situaitons and asking the kids how they would react. It was a fun group for me and I defintily want to return to it again at some point.

After that, I headed out. A fun time had by all. Oh, and in case you are wondering, yeah I slipped on the ice while I walked ot my car.

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday Dear IPOD. Happy Birthday to YOU! Thats right folks. On October 23, 2001 the world saw the launch of the Apple IPOD. Thats right 5 years ago the term IPOD was unknown to the vast majority of people and the idea of having digital music was not maninstream. What a lot of people dont know is that the IPOD was not the first MP3 player.

That distinction can proudly go to the SaeHan Information Systems MPMan F10 in 1997, almost a full 4 years before the Ipod. The first mp3 player which had market success was the Rio PMP300 debuting in 1998.

The Rio became a very popular christmas gift but soon a "higher power" became upset with what they saw. It was in 1998 that the The Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA) filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers Diamond Multimedia. Diamond Multimedia won the lawsuit and the day for the digital music revolution. Unbeknownest to Diamond Media that court victory would start the Golden years for a file sharing system that passed music from one person to another. The writer of the program named it after his own childhood nickname and Napster was born.

While other music players would debut it was not until the Apple Ipod debuted on October 23, 2001 that the digital music revolution exploded. Working on some of the psotives and negaitves of previous products, the Ipod create3d a simple to use product. With the ease of its patented scroll wheel to naviage through your music, to the ease of one button operation, to the simplicity of transfering the music on your computer to your portable, the IPOD made a statment. It clearly demonstarted that you did not have to be some technofile to enjoy the IPOD, anyone could use it. It was this simplcity of ease and the true adage of "plug and play" that really made the Ipod popular. While many other devices such as webcams needed to have extra drivers downloaded or needed a fair amount of time reading the maunal, the Ipod was simple.

Frequent readers will know that Big Tex doesnt like to blow his own horn(ok fine I do)but he was one of the original Ipod users. In fact He purchased his Ipod on Dec 20, 2001. I still have that Ipod and was listening to it today. Compared to the ipod of today, it is certainly inferior. It does not play video, does not have a color screen, and has a microscopic 5 GIG drive. But it has accompanied me everywhere I go. It went with me to my internship at the psychiatric nursing home. It went with me as I scaled the Sears Tower. It went with me on my trips to Tokyo,Buenos Aires, Alaska, and Hawaii. It has kept me company on trains, planes, and automobiles from sea to shining sea and beyond. Here's to you Mr. Ipod: Happy 5th! Heres to another 5!

Politics and Morals dont go together

I find it amusing when people show of their bias for one of the two political parties. Something that is really funny to me is when people get really involved in their party and they jump on anything that makes the other party look bad.

Politics is an interesitng game. When a person in a political party does something wrong the other party usually wags its finger disapprovingly. Then when something similar (or worse maybe)happens to the first party, the second party admonishes the first.

Recently the Republican party has had very little to be happy about. What is funny is how some people who identify with the democratic paty have latched onto a certain story and have tried to bash them over it.

As we all know in 2006 Mark Foley(R) resigned from Congress on September 29, 2006 as allegations surfaced that he had sent sexually explicit instant messages to Congressional pages and former pages, including some who were minors. Now this is a pretty big deal and the democrats have been blasting the republicans about it. Quite frankly sending these types of messages to youngsters is disgusting behavior and quite frankly should not be tolerated.

However, as the sayings go: The Pot should not call the Kettle Black and people that live in glass houses should not throw rocks. Why? DOnt you know about Gerry Studds?

No? Well let me help you out.
In 1983, Gerry Studds(D)became the first openly Gay member of congress. He decided to acknowledge this becuase a former male page cliamed that they had a relationship in the past. Had this page not come out with this story who know if Studds would have made his declaration in 1983. Gerry Studds is the same that also acknowledged having sex with a 17-year-old male page in 1973 and making sexual advances to two others. He even admitted an error in judgment, but did not apologize for his actions.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/14/obit.studds.ap/index.html


So what did the Democratic congress do to Studds? He was censured in 1983 and continued to serve in Congress until 1997, almost 14 years later. Where were the blasts by the media to get this sexual predator out of office? If he had commited that crime today he would have been placed on the Sexual predators list. Where were calls for him to step down? None. Where were the protests of this man's character. None.


In my mind having sex with a minor is a whole lot worse then sending sexually explicit text messages. Yet the Democrats dance with glee as Mark Foley is dragged through the strets. I am not defending Foley, he is an ass and should step down. But Studds actions are far worse. Studds defended his sexual relationship with the minor as a "consensual relationship with a young adult." Not only did he get away virtually scot free but he had no regrets about his actions. The democratic party should be ashamed of this man. From what I have read, Foley regrets his actions and appears aplogetic. Studds on ther other hand thinks what he did was Ok.


For those of you who do not know, Studds died today Oct 14, 2006 in Massachestes. If you are a strong democrat and want to admonish Foley do so, but remember the far far worse actions of Gerry Studds. Never Forget his actions, his beliefs that having sex with a minor is ok, and the fact that he got away with it.