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38362012

About Me

I'm a writer, an engineer and a teacher -- not necessarily in that order.
I used to teach math in the public school system. A combination of high stress, low pay and painful experiences turned me into one of the over 40% of teachers who leave during the first 5 years.
It's not that that I didn't like teaching, or that I didn't like working with kids, or that I didn't get along with the kids. I liked all of that. It was the other stuff that made it impossible to continue.
So now I'm an engineer again. But I am fortunate to count as friends many of the students that I taught over the years.
I also have a webpage at http://ray.datech-net.com/ .

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

    John Denver, but he's dead.Neil Diamond. He's not dead yet.Peter Breinholt and Sam Cardon, musicians.Jon Nakamatsu, the award-winning pianist.Dr. Jack Horkheimer, the astronomer.Harrison Ford. On an informal basis.Kevin Spacey. I want to see if we really look alike.Scott Hamilton, the skater.Steve Allen, the television pioneer - no wait, he's dead too.The many Internet friends I've made over the years but never met in person.

My Blog

If you used to enjoy reading my blog entries on MySpace ...

Hi everybody,I used to get a lot of readers every time I posted an entry on this blog.  For various reasons, I discontinued blogging on MySpace, and I've gotten some inquiries from people about whethe...
Posted by on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:53:00 GMT

Say hello to Alice

Some of you know about the videogame company I started before I became a schoolteacher.  It wasn't really a videogame company, but we used videogame tools to create 3D simulations to be used for ...
Posted by on Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:39:00 GMT

The Last Lecture

.hmmessage P {margin:0px;padding:0px;} body.hmmessage {font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma;} A great man died last week.  His name was Randy Pausch, and he was a professor of computer science, bu...
Posted by on Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:14:00 GMT

Are you (even slightly) interested in being an engineer?

If you're (even slightly) interested in being an engineer, then have I got a website for you.  And no, this isn't spam.  I, that crazy math teacher (and seminary teacher) that you know so we...
Posted by on Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:24:00 GMT

Book review: Two nonfiction books

This is a review of two books, one old and one new.  Both are nonfiction, and both are intended for grown-ups.  There's nothing in them that kids will find objectionable, so you kids can rea...
Posted by on Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:03:00 GMT

Pi Day! (remember?)

Two years ago, my first year as a math teacher, Pi Day came and went before I had a chance to give it the notice it deserved.  Last year, we did it right.The theme for the day was pi.  And p...
Posted by on Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:40:00 GMT

Heroes

A lot of online profiles and email/MySpace questionnaires ask, "Who is your hero?"  I don't really have any heroes.I got soured on the idea of heroes when I was a young adult.  Revisionist h...
Posted by on Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:49:00 GMT

Funny things students say

(NOTE:  THIS IS AN OLD ENTRY, EDITED AND REPOSTED.)   I think I'll keep adding to this entry as time passes.  Funny things happen during the school day, and they need to be recorded som...
Posted by on Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:24:00 GMT

Book Review

Do you like to read?  If you answer yes, read this.  If you answer no, well, read it anyway, so I can change your mind.This is mainly for girls, but if you're a boy, read it anyway because t...
Posted by on Fri, 05 Jan 2007 10:11:00 GMT