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This is it, life, plain and simple.
The original flight simulator.
The following article from the Washington Post describes a situation that happened to me when I moved back to the United States my senior year of high school. In short, a young girl is suing for an apology from her school for getting in trouble for not participating in the Pledge of Allegiance.
For some that may not know, I grew up outside of the United States for better part of my childhood aware years. The country is Hong Kong, China from the ages of 8 to 17. I attended a private Lutheran faith international school called HKIS, which taught a curriculum comparable to the United States — ie our history classes were all about the US, except for world history.
My family decided in 2000 to move back to the United States after being away for 8 long years. This meant that my senior year of high school I was starting at a brand new public school where everyone has known each other since kindergarten.
The first day of classes did not go so well. I was reprimanded by the homeroom teacher for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance. This was a very serious matter that I could not quite grasp. At HKIS they did not require the Pledge to be said, so over 8 years of my life is missing this requirement. I was sent to the principle’s office not because I got in trouble, but because I needed to be explained by the principle about the pledge requirement.
From that day, I did the song and dance of standing up, holding my hand over my heart, and saying the pledge for the 30 seconds every morning. I am not tainted by the pledge, it doesn’t bother me, but what bothers me is that their is no choice not to say it (later I learned what the teacher did is actually illegal).
It bothered me that there was this forced conformity within a school. I went from a Lutheran school, which consisted of 70 nationalities and a variety of religions to the US public school where is forced to be the same without a choice. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the illegal action that had occurred, but I understand what this middle school student went through. I hope that she gets her apology.
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There is an article in the March issue of Runner’s World titled ‘Sky’s the Limit’. It describes three friends that work at NASA (no mention if they are actual rocket scientist). They have taken a life long journey together, which is to run a marathon on every continent — including Antarctica. The coldest continent and they have a marathon on it.
I have recently decided that my next running venture would be a marathon. I want to choose a nice simple and scenic one to start off on. I have no idea which one to start off on, but I for sure know which one I want to follow.
It has been a life long dream to make it to Antartica and then seems as good reason to go.
My personal website has not been a reflection of my ideas, work, and simply myself for quite some time. In my tradition, I am starting over with a new slate.
I will still maintain a technical journal, but this will be separate from the standard jtarchie.com. As a blog is not necessarily the best place for code to live, please follow my latest works on github.com/jtarchie.