Source: NASA/Amanda Diller
Archive for May 2010
Capturing the Moment — Atlantis Leave a comment
Source: NASA/Amanda Diller
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Kenneth Harris’ Retirement Party 5 comments
This past week, Kenneth Harris entered the ranks of the retired. Some of his friends and family were able to celebrate the occasion in the usual Ken & Mary style, 
plenty of food, drink, great conversation and the best blues this side of the piney-woods. After listening to John McVey and Sonny Boy Terry’s first blues set, people gathered to march behind Ken to the burial site to bury his job. Only Ken would create such a rite!
As always, the music was great! Sonny knows how to always surround himself with the best blues guitar players in the business, this time bringing John McVey out to Ken & Mary’s.
kenne
p.s. I was able to get some video, which I will be posting later.
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“Gonna Spend Some Time In Tucson” 25 comments
Joy and I will be moving to Tucson around the 20th of June. The plans have been in the works for a while now and things are have really picked up speed now that we have a contract on our house, with a closing date of the 18th. We will miss our friends, neighbors and family located here in the Houston area, but we will be back now and then. However, we do expect to have plenty of visitors coming to the desert southwest.
People have been asking about our new home, so I have put together a video of clips and photos taken during our February visit to Tucson. At the time, our townhouse was one of several homes at which we were looking, so I limited the video on each home, therefore not capturing a comprehensive view of each. You will note that since it was winter in the desert, some of the vegetation was in a dormant state.
kenne
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Capturing the Moment – The Last Meeting of SLAVE Leave a comment
SLAVE (Society of Learning in Adult & Vocational Education) – 1979
While at Texas A&M working on my doctorate, I was involved in forming a graduate student organization in the College of Education, which went by the name SLAVE (Society of Learning in Adult & Vocational Education). Although we may not look like productive group, we put out a newsletter, held “brown-bag” luncheon seminars and student symposiums. This is an image taken at our last meeting, which we chose to have on the highest point in Brazos County.
kenne
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Capturing the Moment — Texas Johnny Brown @ Billy Blues 1 comment
Texas Johnny Brown at Billy Blues – 1999 — Image by kenne
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Capturing the Moment — Lake Woodlands, 20 Years Out 1 comment
Image by kenne
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To Our Friends & Comrades in Bolton, Lancashire, England 3 comments
Michael Robertson – image by kenne
Like good wine, good poets get better with age — therefore, so too does the Montgomery County Literary Arts Council (MALAC) annual birthday celebration of America’s greatest poet, Walt Whitman. However, our event in Conroe, Texas, is but a baby when compared to the annual birthday celebration the people of Bolton, Lancashire, England have conducted since the 1870’s. Dare I say, Whitman may also be England’s greatest poet. If not, the people of Bolton are the true disciples of Walt.
As already noted in a previous posting, titled Worshipping Walt Whitman, our guest lecturer for the afternoon session on the campus of Lone Star College – Montgomery, was previous guest, Michael Robertson, author of the recent publication, Worshipping Walt – The Whitman Disciples. As part of his presentation, Michael set the stage for the Conroe event to give homage to our friends and comrades in Bolton. “The Lancashire Whitman celebration is unique, a product of the English fondness for the outdoors, intense interest in local traditions, the continuity of a democratic socialist tradition, and an openness to Whitman’s prophetic dimensions,” writes Robertson.
Worshipping Whitman brings to mind Emile Durkheim’s dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, which captures the universality of Whitman’s very being. No wonder he is revered by so many. But as Robertson writes, “More than any other poet, I think, Whitman evokes not just admiration but love. The disciples felt that love in the Leaves, they sought it from the man, and although things did not always turn out as they expected, none of them was entirely disappointed.”
kenne
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Capturing the Moment — Mr. “D” Leave a comment
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Capturing the Cartoon – Speaking My Language Leave a comment
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Mary Ann’s Retirement Party 1 comment
It was a time for tears and a time for laughter, all mixed together in the fond memories Mary Ann and her co-workers were sharing. We are please to have been able to capture the moment.
kenne
Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
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“The Good Life” 2 comments
Here’s a link to a very inspiring video by Romik Kimor, “The Good Life.” The theme is old, but never loses its newest!
Just another reminder that life is all about choices.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=126276440299&ref=mf
kenne
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A Nurses Nurse 4 comments
As long as I have known Mary Ann, she not only wanted to be a nurse, but to be the best. After years of practice, she is retiring from her full-time position at St. Joseph’s in Bryan, Texas. Today, friends, peers and family will be gathering to celebrate her service to people and a profession she loves dearly. Mary Ann is truly the “poster-child” for people who love their job, which is way I have referenced her often in my years of career counseling.
This is not to say that she hasn’t been looking forward to this day, for she has been counting the days. Although she is about to start a new life phase, she will not be turning her back on her life’s profession, which will make her new life phase the best of both worlds. The position Mary Ann has held will be filled, but no one can replace her devotion to caring for others and to sharing her knowledge and skills.
kenne
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Exercise for the Mind Leave a comment
I try to include physical excercise every day. I also try to do the same for my mind. One good form of mental exercise is reading the blog, Larval Subjects. Today’s posting is very stimulating. But, be forewarned, if you are not into philosophy, don’t waste your time. You may want to seek another form of mental excercise.
kenne
Image source: Greetings Earthlings
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Capturing The Moment – Kiko’s Place Leave a comment
Image by kenne
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Lena Horne – “I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.” Leave a comment
Lena Horne was born the same year as my mother, 1917, passing away this past week at 92. Sometimes I wonder why I remain so influenced by music, only to be reminded by the passing of greats like Lena Horne that I was born at the right time is the last century, a time when so many talented musicians were singing and playing to our heart and our spirit. I remember many a night going to sleep listening to late night jazz & blues music in Chicago. What a time!
One of those musicians was Lena Horne. I not only was influenced by her music, but also her activism. Lena was blacklisted in the 1950′s due to her political beliefs and her loyalty to other lefties like Paul Robeson.
The other evening, the PBS News Hour covered her death by playing a segment recorded on her 80th birthday:
“My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman, I’m not alone, I’m free. I no longer, I say I’m free because I no longer have to be a credit, I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don’t have to be a first to anybody. I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else. “
Lena Horne, a great musician, a great American!
kenne
(Image source: http://www.kenyada.com/lena.htm
