The Gods Were Angry

This is the "Tiki Mon". Last night in the middle of our fireworks show he decided to be difficult, tipped over and shot his guts in the wrong direction - namely toward the spectators. Luckily no one was injured, but it made for a memorable fourth. I haven't seen Christy move that fast since she found a raccoon lurking in the backyard.

We got the last laugh, though... We ended up using his carcass as a launch pad for several other fireworks. I threw in some strobes and bloomers, and his eyes lit up with fire! I am a little nervous about retribution. This is kind of like that Brady Bunch episode from Hawaii where they found the tiki god necklace and were cursed. I'm sure Alice will step in if I'm in danger...

Fourth of July, Yo!

I like this holiday. Any day that combines parades, old cars, fighter planes, a lot of noise and explosives is my kind of day. Although I'm definitely a cynic, my heart swells a little on the fourth and I'm really proud to be an American. Christy's still in recovery mode, so the kids and I attended the Ashland Fourth of July parade this morning. We're just spectators this year (literacy will not be celebrated with our local library). Ashland's a small town, so this parade is a big deal around here.


I like to do fireworks (for the kids, of course - wink, wink) and we're having the Inadacheks over tonight for a little BBQ and show. It's not likely to match last year's Tiki Punch Festival and Yard Fire, but I've got some tricks up my sleeve. Happy fourth everybody!

Live Hospital Blogging!

11:23am - I'm hanging out with Christy at Ashland Community Hospital - she's having carpal tunnel surgery today. I'm blogging from my iPhone. Texting is hard for an old guy like me! Anyways, Christy is excited for the procedure. Typing is next to breathing for her, so today should bring some relief. I'm actually looking forward to spending some time with her around the house during recovery. More news as it happens!

8:42pm - A long day. Christy's surgery went well although she won't admit that the painkillers are affecting her at all (methinks otherwise). The sad truth is that she has to hold her hand above her heart for the next week. When she sleeps we tape two pillows around her forearm so that the hand stays up in the air. Its like she's constantly trying to get the attention of a waiter... and I am her Jeeve's.

SkillsUSA Nationals Day 5: Awards

Friday was our last day of the conference. Our students met with the competition advisors and judges in the morning to debrief the contest. It was interesting to see what the judges had to say. They were really good about identifying good and bad trends in people's work, and laying out next steps for their careers. In the evening we attended the closing ceremonies at Kemper Arena - it was nuts! Thousands of students all bouncing around in near 100 degree temperatures and humidity. Here's a movie clip of our view from the floor of the arena.


Every competition is announced and students go on stage to receive gold, silver, and bronze medals. Many of the top 3 finishers get full-ride scholarships to excellent colleges and trade schools. It's cool to see all of the emotion from the kids who win - it's a big deal. Unfortunately, our student were not medal winners but they still did really well. As they say, you're a champion for just being at nationals. We had a great time this week, and I think the students learned a lot about their respective fields of work. Already we're talking about which competitions we should enter next year. I'm so proud of these students - they are incredibly talented, mature, and ready for a successful life after high school. Good job guys! Here's a little montage I put together this morning in my hotel room using Picasa. Apologies for the cheesy soundtrack, but it was the only audio clip I could find on my laptop.

SkillsUSA Nationals Day 4: Competition

Today was the big competition for our district students. We had a contestant in Advertising Design, Architectural Drafting, and Computer Maintenance Technology. All three students spent 8 hours competing in their different areas along with 50 other students. Everyone did a great job, although it was hard to watch these guys suffer through all the tasks - it's intense. My co-worker and I spent the day touring the competitions, meeting with colleagues and generally fretting over our student's success.

My student, who was competing in Advertising Design had to create an energy drink juice logo and package, along with a complicated mechanical reproduced from an original ad. All of our students did a great job and I'm really proud. Tomorrow we'll debrief with the judges on each contest and attend the closing awards ceremony in the evening. Here's a pic from today's Ad Design competition.

SkillsUSA Nationals Day 3: Setup and Testing

Today was less intense for most of our team. We had a little issue last night at 1am with a registry file and had to burn a DVD and install Windows 7 on one of the laptops. Luckily everything was up and running by the time we hit the convention center at 7:30am. We started the morning setting up our computers in the competition areas, making sure that everything was working correctly. Later I toured the main competition floor - and wow! It's pretty massive. There are 16 football fields of space in which students are competing! I'll post some pics later in the week.

I attended two classes in the afternoon. The first was a presentation on the future of graphic design and digital media by Brian Alves at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. Brian's presentation focused on key skills that the designers of the future need, as well as a model for the creative process. He's launching a new program next year based on the research of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and Adobe titled, "Defining the Designers of 2015". Digital design is becoming so fragmented and crazy, it was refreshing to see that someone had spent some time doing research and figuring out an appropriate program of study for students - lots of thought provoking ideas, and some good fodder for my graduate class with Miles Inada at SOU this summer. I'm know where I'm headed next year with my curriculum.

The second class was in regards to the Adobe Certified Associate program. Adobe tests and certifies students in Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver. I'm going to get certified this year, and then become a testing center so that my students can do so as well. This will be a great way to validate their skills and knowledge with potential employers, and it may allow me to award a ton of college credit during high school. Many community colleges offer 6 credit hours or more when a student get certified.

KC is under siege! Lots of heat warnings over the last two days and night thunderstorms like I've never seen before. It rained so hard tonight we got soaked walking twenty feet from the rental car to the restaurant. The streets are rivers... flash flood warnings... why hath God smoten KC? I'm stumped, good night!

SkillsUSA Nationals Day 2: Opening Ceremonies

Busy day, and still hawt as h-e-double-hockey-sticks. We spent the morning touring the booths at the Techspo (technical expo). Lowes dropped a sweet backpack on every attendee, pretty impressive shell out I must say. We also attended an orientation session that covered the 8 hours of competition my student will go through on Thursday of this week. The advertising design contest is highly detailed and creatively brutal. These kids really have to be on their game. Apparently, Hallmark Cards is headquartered out of Kansas City so they will be judging a lot of the competition. It was kind of a shock to see 50 students at the orientation, dead serious, focused, taking notes and asking intelligent clarifying questions. At the conference there is an insane tradition of trading state chapter pins with other attendees, which results in all kinds of hucksterism. More on that in a future post...

Later in the evening all conference attendees whooped it up at the opening ceremonies in Kemper Arena. It was a crazy soup of corporate promotion, motivational speaking, high tech multimedia, and all things SkillsUSA. The cult of the red jacket was at full throttle! I feel like we're in a vocational ed version of High School Musical. I'm kind of at a loss for words, so I'll just let you watch this clip which shows the lead-in to the first set of student speakers.