Today, Tom Brokaw and Gen. Stanley McChrystal brought to life a clearer picture of how returning Veterans frequently struggle to reintegrate into society. With or without a downturn in the economy, Veterans–often out of real-life cultural circulation for several years–not only have to catch-up with current trends, but often carry the burden of educating the civilian workforce regarding their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Military members make great team players, and great employees. Take a look at this segment from MSNBC’s Morning Joe TV show. You will want to complete the story by watching the full interview of Army Staff Sergeant Charles Weaver by award-winning and noted journalist Tom Brokaw. Mr. Brokaw follows SSGT Weaver from the time just prior to his deployment to Iraq until after his military retirement, through unemployment, and finally to employment–covering a period of nearly ten years. The story is a powerful one of determination, disappointment, fulfillment, and finally victory: it showcases the hardships borne by many returning Vets, and highlights the actions of one employer who capitalized on Weaver’s hidden talents. This WIN-WIN scenario is a must see.

If you’ve never watched Morning Joe, you’re missing some really Great Television. It’s not just another news show, it’s a cacophony of wit, satire, politically correct and incorrect discourse, opined by well-known and some not so well-known guests. Discover the raw right, the extreme left, and the happy middle. Watch Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, and a host of 30 or more noted consultants, journalists, and news celebrities dissect, analyze, argue, and entertain as they bring you into current events rather than just expose you to them. “MoJo” is the only early-morning show to catch my attention since MSNBC fired Don Imus and cancelled Imus In The Morning. After MoJo, stick around for Chuck Todd’s “Daily Rundown,” you won’t be disappointed!

When I integrated my classroom with EDMODO, I provided three resource connections for my students to help solve their own problems. I used an open-forum approach. The three resources were; first, discuss questions among themselves using the virtual classroom both during class and after school to problem solve, secondly–use the Internet as a resource for information gathering, and third–pose questions and discussion issues with recommended solutions to me, so I could help broaden the discussion base. I was not surprised by how much more engaged my students were, in addition to the increased level of sophistication at which they began to think. They were no longer responding to me, but rather charting their own courses through the curriculum, asking questions where they needed clarification, and above all else, learning their way through the course material.

I would encourage anyone interested in this or similar approaches to join the now forming Peer Instruction Network.

If you want to share photos and manage your photos from #Google+ circles, then #Picasa might still be for you. The new system opens possibilities, especially when communicating with groups. If I were to use it for anything in the future it will be to communicate with my circles and specific interest groups; however, I will only store the photos needed rather than all of my galleries. For the remainder of my photos, I have switched to Flicker, and am building a private gallery on my website for future use. #Bye-bye #Picasa. For my use, #Flicker has more options for control and Web distribution than #Google+, not to mention a professional option.

Like the majority of those upset over the changes to Picasa on Googlesystem.blogspot, I too am very disappointed. Had I known such drastic changes were intended I could have made other choices. I made a fatal assumption believing Google would continue to improve Picasa as a photo management tool. As in all free services however, one must consider changes from a perspective of “how the company will benefit,” as opposed to “how the change will help the customer.” And change is always a possiblility, especially with Google. This leads one to wonder about the future of cloud computing and file management. How will other companies conduct business on the internet? If Google’s conduct is any measure, I caution everyone to remember, especially with “free” services, you get what you pay for. Caveat emptor!

Aside from Flicker, other photo-managing software is available from #StudioLine and #Pictmio for PC users, while Mac aficionados may achieve similar results with #iPhoto, #Aperture, & #Lightroom, or with freeware from #Photonator and similar programs. If you want to store your photos online, most of the software programs listed here will allow uploads to your Website in the form of Web-compatible albums. If you don’t have a Website, I believe free web-hosting services and development tools are available from providers like “www.000webhost.com,” and GeoCities (I am not affiliated with any of the companies or products mentioned). There are many more sites offering free hosting, although the advertised storage and bandwidth for free accounts is limited. I noticed www.000webhost.com boasts 1.5 GB of free disk space, enough for several thousand 500K image files. If you’re storing your entire photo collection of original files online you may need considerably more disk space.

Read the post thread for yourself at Google System Blogspot. Comments and information about popular online photo-management systems would be appreciated.

* TFL (TriCare for Life) is a Medicare Supplement Plan that retired service-members receive as part of their retirement benefits. When planning for retirement one must at least factor-in the costs of medical care, return on your 401k accounts or other passive or investment income, along with ones retirement stipend. Contrary to some popular views, the military retirement stipend is, in the majority of cases, not enough by itself on which to subsist.

Fueled by hors d’oeuvres with added octane from Jan’s pomegranate martinis the festive event began rolling about 5 p.m., as guests arrived with their specialty dishes and gag-gift contributions for Desert Song’s version of the White Elephant Gift Exchange. A great time was had by all and judging by the gift selection, or lack thereof, next year’s party could produce the re-emergence of a heretofore historic Gnome-type visitor–I’m just sayin’. For you insiders, this may give pause for reflection regarding your selection of your next gift. But, by this time next year most will have forgotten about this warning, and it will be FUN as usual at the Markus hacienda. You won’t want to miss the pictures of the event either, taken by none other than yours truly.

Help get the word out! This needs to be a topic of conversation for the general public. While Big Oil can spend Big$$$$ on advertising, i.e., Athabasca Oil Sands (Shell), little information reaches the average consumer on issues which have the potential for an equal impact; I’m talking jobs at the same time. Think about it! Every individual home in the country can generate some renewable power, and for an initial investment of less than one-dollar per watt, everyone can be working together–silently–to reduce the need for fossil-fuel-generated power. Can you imagine each and every individuals’ home or apartment connected and contributing to the power grid. Just like the Internet–the country would become much more energy interdependent. We could drastically reduce our collective demand on public utilities; our carbon footprint notwithstanding. It’s already late, but I see a need for R&D in the areas of energy storage and an improved infrastructure for energy distribution and managment. Let me know what you think.

Happy Holidays – Bob Hanshaw Photography