Milwaukee Eisner Museum - Ads!

Took some time off to take a walk, do some errands, and stumbled upon (and then into) a remarkable, small, fascinating museum.
The Eisner Museum of Advertising & Design
see: http://www.eisnermuseum.org/

Several IKEA commercials were quite amusing - about the consequences of not tidying up (not having furniture that would enable you to do so). But for me the "star" was Kohler - as in plumbing fixtures! I never would have imagined, but that is the company that had the most memorable, moving video commercials and photographs. Let's see if I can show you one here:



If you don't see an interesting photo just above this sentence,or if you want to see a larger version, try going to this URL:
http://www.us.kohler.com/craftsmanship/mag_ad_detail.jsp?magAd=vase_large
The photo seems to be called "As I see it - Vase"

Berlin Wall in Dallas - You Never Know!

So, yesterday as I walked from the main hotel meeting area to the exhibit hall in the huge Wyndham Anatole's Hotel in Dallas, I saw:


And it turned out to be actual pieces of the Berlin Wall! No explanatoin of WHY it was in this otherwise fairly typical and dull convention hotel. This is what makes visiting these places interesting. Lots of nice people here from community colleges.
Here's the plaque about 10 feet in front of the wall pieces:

Building Bridges - A Wedding Story (for Dangerous Discussions initiative)

Here's a little piece from my Dangerous Discussions Website that includes a photo and description of part of the Steve/Sally wedding!

Strategies for dealing civilly and constructively with Dangerous Discussions issues:

- Select issues that are significant, controversial, and tractable

- Make essential info accessible

- Work through Dangerous Us/Them Discussions

- Use technology to support, not undermine, communication and collaboration


- Build something together
[See "Building Bridges Together - A Wedding Story"]

Jill's new phone and a blogger experiment

Nothing particularly facinating to report here. I got a new cell phone today and with it a new number: 773-573-2344. I'm Verizon and "In," so if you also have a Verizon phone I don't pay for your calls. If you are not Verizon, I am probably just lame and not very good at calling you back, so I don't pay for those calls, either. My new phone has a 1.3 megapixel zoom camera with video capability, a memory card slot that will eventaully allow me to play mp3s, a calendar/schedule feature, and makes mediocre cappuccino. Feel free to send me pix and video messages.
For a strange picture of my dog and me (taken with my new phone earlier this evening), click the target button bellow. This is mostly for Uncle Steve's technical benefit, but it's still a fairly entertaining picture.

Msg from Greece - Honeymoon of Julianne & George Saratsis

Forwarded by Susan Walters [walterssusan1591@sbcglobal.net]; photo added by Steve Gilbert

Subject: Greetings from GreeceDate: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 11:05:26 -0400X-OriginalArrivalTime: 08 Oct 2005 15:05:26.0539 (UTC) FILETIME=[B6F07DB0:01C5CC19]

Hello, all my dear friends!... and greetings from the Mother Land! :)

It's almost funny, but several people we've run into here, sales people and waiters and such, seriously claim just what the father in "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" proclaimed: EVERYTHING comes from the Greek :)

It has been beautiful weather, mostly wonderfully sunny with only a few occassional showers that last less than 10 minutes, enough to cool off the air. Athens is like many large European cities, narrow busy streets, tons of taxis and vespas (like Rome, you know), a cafe on every corner.

The village where George's family is from Kyparisia (please excuse the spelling) is beautiful: all white houses with red tile roofs, green everywhere, the mountains spilling down to the sea. Yesterday we visited Olympia, where the games once were held.... so much history in one place is breathtaking.

The biggest adventure, and the one that has inspired the most "Greek passion" at the moment, is that we DO NOT have our luggage! Apparently we flew through Paris on the first day of a massive strike by the city's public workers. It is now Day 6, and still no sign of 2 of our bags... one of them has wandered into Athens, waiting for us to pick up. Yes, it's been frustrating beyond belief. But again, the Saratsis family has been extremely generous: Thea (Aunt) Nikki has provided me with underwear and PJ's and socks. She also found some old clothes of George's father for him to wear, and another aunt found a pair of Dimitri's old jeans (a cousin). So we're getting by.

The "greek passion" comes in when all the family starts to discuss "tus valitzes" (the suitcases)... I have never seen such yelling and waving of arms! (It's a great way to learn Greek slang...) But it's comforting to know that these people would do battle on our behalf :)

PLEASE pray that the luggage comes back to us before we turn around to come back to the States - thanks! And please don't say anything when you notice that all of our pictures show us in the same clothes a million times over...We will keep you updated. In the meantime, we miss you very much, and we send our hugs and kisses. God bless you all!

With love,Julianne and George Saratsis

Testing another idea - photo slide show

Let's see how this works... Click between this line and the photo above and see if you get a slideshow about the virtual nursing lab at Valparaiso U! A remarkable facility (probably no more than 2 in the country comparable) for training future nurses... and they're just beginning to figure out how best to use this environment.
[Lots of other places have a FEW items of the kind you see here, but I'm told that this is a unique environment - having so many items, features, and surrounding the learners and teachers. I was impressed that "Valpo" is doing something philosophically like this also in its engineering school (virtual reality lab) and meterology dept (soon to be equiv of a major TV network weather installation).]

Msg from Dorothy [dottiedig@aol.com]

Hi Steve I have enjoyed your messages in the Blog!!! The pictures are terrific and so great to see pictures of the wedding and the wonderful picture of Nate and you. I tried to print it with no success. I also can"t send a message on the Blog, The family will just have to miss out on all of my spectaculer coments!!! Do you remember our yellow car with the top down in San Bernardino? Your dad insisted we buy one, It was fun in summer going up to the Arrowhead Springs Hotel but after Debra was born we sold it , Hot in summer, cold in winter. I am keeping busy looking at Retirement homes. Part of me wants to live in one and the other part doesn"t want to leave my house. Thats all for now I love you Mom

Yuri Yang visits Steve & Sally this weekend - 10/8

Yuri visits Steve & Sally sometimes when her dorm closes for various holidays or long weekends. Today, after MANY dry weeks, it is raining constantly and heavily. So Yuri and I are doing computer stuff in our dining room while Sally is out having lunch with her friend Ann Reifman and, hopefully, joining a gym.

Yuri's family lives in So. Korea, but this is her 2nd year as a boarder at Sandy Spring Friend's Schools - not too far from Takoma Park. Steve is a member of Sandy Spring Monthly Quaker meeting, and so are lots of people who are involved with the Baltimore Yearly Meeting Quaker camping program.

Pls note carefully the t-shirt Yuri is wearing!

Love,
Steve

Visit to Ann Arbor, Michigan Sept 30 to Oct 3, 2005

A few photos from our trip. VERY EASY TO UPLOAD THESE NOW WITH NEW BLOGGER ONE-CLICK (ALMOST) FEATURE! Don't be frightened by the ugly HTML code that appears where the photo will be when you're creating one of these posts! You can ignore it.


Of course, the main event of our visit was Julianne Walters' wedding to George Saratsis [Julianne is Vicky Gilbert's older sister]. It was another, the 4th, wonderful wedding for Vicky's siblings in 2 years. Seems that once they met Josh, they all wanted to get married!

Here's Vicky's brother John, his bride Jen, Vicky and their grandmother, Bobsha(sp?) who is 87 and drove herself to/from the wedding!

Similar group: Vicky, brother John, paternal grandmother (from Calif!) with Josh clowning in the background.

Post-wedding photo of bride and groom (Julianne & George), bridal parents (Dennis & Sue), and sibs Andrew, John, Vicky.

A rose by any other name?

Finally, Sally gets her wish! She talked the car rental company into upgrading us to a PT Cruiser convertible... and the weather cooperated by being unseasonably hot and sunny for the entire long weekend! [Remember, Sally graduated from U. Mich. a few years ago, so driving around Ann Arbor with the top down was even more of a kick.]

Julianne Walters Happy Wedding!

Dear Julianne,

I hope your Wedding day is happy and you new life is wonderful!
Love,Betsy Stewart