JOE IS BACK AT THE ALTOONA CAMPUS

Well after 25 or more years in the computer business in the fall of 2009, I decided to come back to college. I was last here full time back in 1974. What a change it is both in my personal lifestyle and from when I was here at 17 years old.

Almost 2 years has now passed since I started back to college at 52 years old. It has been a really great experience and a lot of fun. I wound up switching my major from Software engineering to Security Risk Analysis. I really like the Terrorism parts of the courses so far.

I am really enjoying this new part of my life now. After working all my life it is nice to be able to concentrate on just learning new things and updating old skill sets. I did not realize how much time it takes to do the work.

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I used to laugh at my kids when they would say how much work they had to do for their college classes. Now they hear me saying the same things. My daughter who is now a senior at St. Francis is fond of telling me: "Welcome to my World".

I guess now it is time to start thinking about Grad School and also taking the GRE exams. I am giving some serious to got to St. Francis for my MBA and then back to PSU for a PHD in Computer Science. I would also like to put a Masters in Sociology in there somewhere but that part is up in the air at the moment.

I will post updates here from time to time and you can also check out my blog and comment on my forum. If it's a nice day ask me for a ride on the bike if you see me walking around campus.

The New Me (2011)

The Old Me (2009)

Fall Trout Fishing

I decided to take some time today (11.01.2009) and head for the river to try for some fall trout. Some things looked good and some didn't. The good points were that the water had been up quite a bit so the trout may have redristributed themselves to the bigger holes during the high water. The water was also just a bit cloudy so that was good too.

On the down side all I had left for live bait here were 4 month old nightcrawlers that were pretty skinny looking after being in my fridge for way too long. I was surprised they were still alive. (this is one benefit of being single guys.. bait can go in the fridge without you getting yelled at). Also on the down side was that I didn't see any other animal activity. A great sign of good fishing is seeing other animals active. Birds chirping, other fish jumping, squirrels running around, and just the general activity of animals around the stream. That wasn't happening today.

I still had a funny feeling about fishing so I got my gear all ready and headed for the stream. It took about an hour and i felt the strangest tug on my line. It didn't feel like a fish but it felt like someone had grabbed my line with pliers and was just holding it tight. So I left it go and lit up a cigar one handed expecting that if there was a fish there, in my impaired one handed state he would surely bite now. I was right. He started to run and I managed to hook him and save my cigar.

He was absolutely the most beautiful rainbow I have ever caught. The red, pink and orange of his gills and side looked like a salmon. He wasn't a huge fish, maybe 18 inches or so but he was really thick. I was able to release him unhurt back into the water and continued fishing. About 10 minutes later I brought in another rainbow. It was almost as pretty.

Then it was time to go home and get back to school work. It was a great evening on the water. I will continue to fish until the first freeze starts and then I will have to go through withdraws until spring break when I will head for South Carolina for giant catfish.

AMERICAN PIE - Don McLean - THIS WEEKS SONG CHOICE

American Pie is the title of a 1971 music album by Don McLean, best known for its title track about The Day the Music Died. The original 1971 LP is dedicated to the loss of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Jiles Perry Richardson (The Big Bopper) 3 of the biggest icons in rock history that were trasgically taken from us by a plane crash on Feb 03, 1959 in Iowa.. Feb 03, 1959 will forever be known as "The Day The Music Died" .. The day people lined the streets and cried and no churches would play any music.

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 February 3, 1959), known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll. Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll. His works and innovations inspired and influenced both his contemporaries and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, and exerted a profound influence on popular music for decades. Buddy Holly and his band The Crickets sang hits such as "That'll be the Day", "Blue Days, Black Nights", "Oh Boy!" and "Peggy Sue"

Richard Steven "Ritchie" Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 February 3, 1959), better known by the stage name Ritchie Valens, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. A rock and roll pioneer and the forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens' recording career lasted only eight months. During this time however, he scored several hits, most notably "Donna" which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Best Sellers chart; and, the flip side "La Bamba", which was originally a Mexican folk song that Valens transformed into a song with a rock rhythm. Both songs charted in early 1959, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement. On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as The Day the Music Died, Valens was killed in a small-plane crash outside Mason City, Iowa, USA, an event that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. (October 24, 1930 February 3, 1959), called JP by his friends but commonly known as The Big Bopper, was an American disc jockey, singer, and songwriter whose big voice and exuberant personality made him an early rock and roll star. He was drafted into the Army and served from 1955-1957. after his discharge he returned to KTRM as a disc jockey where he set the record for continuous on-air broadcasting 5 days, 2 hours and 8 mins.. during this he lost 35 pounds and after completeing the task, he slept 20 hours straight. He is credited for coining the term "music video" in 1959 and recorded an early example himself. However, his business venture in this area was cut short by his untimely death. He is best known "musically" for his recording of "Chantilly Lace". On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as The Day the Music Died, Richardson was killed in a small-plane crash in Iowa, along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.

The song also makes references to Bob Dylan "the Jester" and The Beatles "Helter Skelter", which both owe their start in music and musical influences to Buddy Holly. Also a reference to Elvis and Prescilla Presley "king and queen," because Buddy Holly got his start in music by opening for Elvis.

"The Winter Dance Party" was a tour that was set to cover 24 Midwestern cities in three weeks. A logistical problem with the tour was the amount of travel, as the distance between venues was not a priority when scheduling each performance. Adding to the disarray, the tour bus used to carry the musicians was ill-prepared for the weather; its heating system broke shortly after the tour began. Holly's drummer, Carl Bunch, developed a severe case of frostbitten feet while on the bus and was taken to a local hospital. As he recovered, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens took turns with the drums.

The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa was never intended to be a stop on the tour, but promoters, hoping to fill an open date, called Carroll Anderson who was the manager of the Surf Ballroom, and offered him the show. He accepted and the date of the show was set for February 2.

By the time Buddy Holly arrived at the ballroom that evening, he was frustrated with the tour bus and told his bandmates that, once the show was over, they should try to charter a plane to get to the next stop on the tour, Moorhead, Minnesota. According to VH-1's Behind the Music: The Day the Music Died, Holly was also upset that he had run out of clean undershirts, socks, and underwear. He needed to do some laundry before the next performance, and the local laundromat in Clear Lake was closed that day.

Flight arrangements were made with Roger Peterson, 21, a local pilot who worked for Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa. A fee of $36 per passenger was charged for the single-engined 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza B35 (V-tail), registration N3794N (later reassigned). The Bonanza could seat three in addition to the pilot.

Richardson had developed a case of the flu during the tour and asked one of Holly's bandmates, Waylon Jennings, for his seat on the plane; Jennings agreed to give up the seat. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." This exchange of words, though made in jest at the time, haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.

Ritchie Valens had never flown in a small plane before, and asked Holly's remaining bandmate on the plane, Tommy Allsup, for his seat. Tommy said "I'll flip ya for the remaining seat." Contrary to what is seen in biographical movies, the coin toss did not happen at the airport shortly before takeoff, nor did Buddy Holly toss it. A DJ who was working the concert that night made the toss at the ballroom shortly before they departed for the airport. Valens won the coin toss, and with it a seat on the plane that night.

Dion DiMucci of Dion & The Belmonts, who was the fourth headline performer on the tour, was approached to join the flight as well; however, Dion had heard his parents argue for years over the $36 rent for their apartment and could not bring himself to pay an entire month's rent for a short plane ride

They Call Me the Breeze

Lynyrd Skynyrd - 1976

One of the real classics. I used to LOVE playing this song.