Was I right to have been upset about this?
4 minute read
August 7, 2018, 6:18 PM
While participating in a discussion on Reddit, it conjured up the memory of something that happened in my junior year of college that left me a bit unsettled at the time, and on which I never got any closure. Before I begin, be advised – the events described here occurred more than 16 years ago, so at this point, this discussion is purely academic.
While I was a resident advisor in Potomac Hall in 2001-2002, there were two occasions where I was asked to swap office duty shifts near the end of the year. On the first occasion, the person who wanted to switch with me told me that it was for a family emergency. In that instance, I agreed to switch days without question, because I would expect the same thing for me should a similar situation arise for me. I remember seeing that person in the building that night, and thought, I thought that you had a family emergency, but dismissed it, because that really wasn’t my place to judge. Then on the second occasion, a different person asked me to switch duty days so that they could attend an awards ceremony. I said no, because I didn’t want to trade days, and an awards ceremony wasn’t an emergency. I held my ground on that, but later relented after my hall director, Mecca Marsh, whom I’ve written about previously in this space, turned the colleague’s request into an order from the boss. So I was a bit annoyed about that, especially since I knew that Mecca would have never taken my side like that should I have been in the same situation. But in the end, I did as I was told.
Then fast forward a month or so later. The colleague who swapped shifts with me for the awards ceremony brought a video over to show me. The video depicted a probate ceremony for an historically black sorority on campus. I learned a lot from the video, which both of my colleagues were in, because prior to this, I didn’t know anything about how historically black Greek letter organizations worked. My colleague did a great job in explaining to me what was going on, why it was going on, and the significance of it all. Then they went on to explain that sorority events were the real reason for the “awards ceremony”, and the other person’s “family emergency”. They couldn’t tell me what they were really doing because they were sworn to secrecy.
Continue reading…Finding my old fifth grade teacher on Facebook…
14 minute read
June 4, 2018, 2:30 PM
Recently, a very familiar name came up in my friend suggestions: “Sharon Payne Bradley”. In other words, this person:
Categories: Arkansas, Childhood, Elementary school
When you just hate recognition that much…
4 minute read
May 15, 2018, 11:05 PM
People are always amazed when I tell them that I hate receiving recognition. I just don’t like it. I don’t find it enjoyable. In fact, I find it incredibly awkward all around. I don’t know what it is, but it just isn’t a fun thing. This came to mind recently because of two discussions that I had with colleagues in the last few weeks. One was about an operator competition that my employer was having, and another was about an employee of the month program that my specific division has.
In the case of the former, where train operators go out and demonstrate their skills for judges, I couldn’t see any way to get a satisfactory result for myself as a participant. If I don’t place, I’m kicking myself for not doing better. If I place, then I have to deal with a whole bunch of unwanted recognition. Not participating at all seems to take care of both concerns, and I have no problem attending as a non-competitor and watching others compete. I’ve done that before at a similar event for the bus, where I was there but didn’t compete, and I had a blast. Besides, I have the most fun just being myself while operating the service.
In the case of the latter, a coworker brought up the idea of it, and how I would possibly be a good candidate for the employee of the month award. I was honest about it: if I ever were to get the award, I believe that my response would be, “Thank you very much, but please give it to someone else.” In other words, I would probably decline it. I just want to do my job and call it a day, and a whole bunch of unnecessary attention just gets in the way of my being awesome.
My old college bulletin boards, fifteen years later…
13 minute read
March 21, 2018, 10:45 PM
It has been nearly fifteen years since I lived in a dorm at James Madison University. I lived on campus all four years, and worked as a “resident advisor” (RA) for two of those years, 2001-2002 and 2002-2003, in Potomac Hall. Part of the duties as an RA involved creating bulletin boards for our sections, which were supposed to be educational and entertaining. Fifteen years later, they are clearly the work of a much younger man, but they’re kind of cute. It’s funny to see what I found interesting back in those days, and how things have changed – and also how much they haven’t.
In Potomac Hall, due to the design of the building, we had to do two bulletin boards per floor, with one at each end of the hall. The boards were about 4′ x 4′, and had a wooden accent panel behind them, offset to one side. I would typically make one board more artful, while the other one would be more of a quick staple-up with facts and such.
This was the first dorm bulletin board that I ever did, August/September 2001. This followed a building-wide theme that Mecca Marsh, our hall director, came up with: “SS Potomac“. I believe that I took the theme most seriously out of all of them (passenger ships have been an interest of mine for some time), and used life rings and ship’s wheels for the resident nameplates to follow the theme. My ship is in Cunard Line colors, i.e. red (orange) and black, with two stripes at even intervals along the funnels. I think that I was trying to base it off of the RMS Queen Elizabeth. But the hull is a little bit iffy when it comes to time periods. The bow is supposed to be raked (angled), but curves upward to become straight, like I couldn’t decide whether to go with 1910s styling or 1930s styling. Then the stern is a counter stern, which is clearly pre-World War I, whereas the Queen Elizabeth had a cruiser stern.
Categories: JMU
A principal has egg on her face…
6 minute read
June 14, 2016, 6:10 AM
As someone who was on the receiving end of some pretty unfair punishments in school, and having witnessed school officials blatantly flout the rules on a number of occasions, it’s good to see someone get called out for a punishment that’s out of step with policy. This was the culmination of a controversy regarding several students’ drinking alcohol on prom night at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School‘s senior prom, and the reversal of a decision that would have prevented them from attending their high school graduation.
The situation, as I understand it based on a Bethesda Magazine article and a Washington Post article, began with a policy set at the school level regarding consequences for students’ showing up for prom while impaired by alcohol or other various substances, or becoming impaired by the same over the course of the evening, encompassing the prom itself as well as the official after-prom party. The school’s policy was that anyone who either was caught drinking at prom-related activities, or showed up to same already drunk, would not be allowed to walk at the school’s June 1 graduation at DAR Constitution Hall. This is supported by a prom guest application document from the school’s website, where the relevant section, near the bottom of the second page, reads:
Students and/or guests who are suspected of being under the influence of alcohol, inhalants, illegal drugs or controlled substances will not be admitted to Prom or After Prom. Students attending Prom or After Prom who show signs of being under the influence of such substances, or who are found to be in possession of such substances during either event, will be subjected to the consequences set forth in the B-CC Student Handbook, and their parents will be notified. If the student is part of an athletic team or other school-sponsored activity, the coach/sponsor will be notified as well. Note that any senior who is determined to be under the influence or in possession of such substances when arriving at or during the course of Prom or After Prom will not participate in the on-stage distribution of diplomas at B-CC’s graduation ceremony.
Categories: DC area local news, Events, Montgomery County, School
A visit to JMU…
18 minute read
April 12, 2016, 10:36 AM
Recall that on March 30 and 31, my friend Elyse and I went on a road trip to Stuarts Draft and such. On the 30th, we visited Afton Mountain, my ex-store in Waynesboro, and Staunton Mall, among other things. On the 31st, we visited JMU, as the plan was to show off a bunch of vintage elevators and fire alarm systems on campus. Plus JMU was planning to build a new dining hall to replace the current one, so a final visit to D-Hall was a must.
The first order of business on our trip to JMU was a visit to Zane Showker Hall. I took many classes in that building over the course of my college career. We came to Showker to update a very well-known photo in higher resolution with my Nikon SLR. Specifically, this one:
Categories: Elyse, Family, Fire alarms, JMU
Where has the time gone?
6 minute read
March 23, 2016, 10:00 AM
So today, March 23, 2016, marks Schumin Web’s twentieth anniversary. Twenty years ago, the Internet first got to know Ben Schumin. I was 14 years old, and a freshman in high school. This was the photo that I used to introduce myself to the world:
This photo was taken of 13-year-old me at my old middle school in 1995, about a year prior to my starting the website. We took it with a Connectix QuickCam. Back then, after all, getting photos on the computer was a little harder to do. Digital cameras were expensive, so were webcams, and so were scanners. And the resolution was kind of low on all of them. After all, it was the nineties.
Categories: High school, Schumin Web meta
Fun with music…
3 minute read
December 20, 2015, 12:41 PM
This past Thursday, among other places, Elyse and I checked out a store called Bill’s Music in Catonsville. What a wonderful place this was, with professional-grade equipment for sale at professional-grade prices (but you’re paying for quality). The store has every single piece of musical equipment that you could imagine, including some stuff I hadn’t seen in years, like real xylophones and such. Elyse actually knows a thing or two about music, unlike me.
The first thing that we discovered was a metallic xylophone (metallophone?). I hadn’t played one of these since sixth grade music class, a six-week “exploratory” course at Stuarts Draft Middle School. It was pretty awesome, working not so much with singing, but mostly with musical instruments – primarily xylophones. We learned some very basic songs on them, and apparently I still remember a couple of them:
Categories: Baltimore County, Elyse, Middle school, Music, Today's Special, WMATA
Preserve community heritage, and keep names local…
5 minute read
July 23, 2015, 3:23 PM
In the wake of the June 17 church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, a movement has come up to remove things related to the Confederacy from places of honor, and relegate them to history.
That said, if things go that way, a lot of things named for people who fought for the Confederacy will be up for renaming soon. Among other things, there is discussion about renaming Jefferson Davis Highway in Virginia. In addition, there has been longstanding discussion in Staunton, Virginia about renaming the city’s public high school, currently named for Robert E. Lee, if it moves from its current, dated building to a new building on a different site.
Now as far as I’m concerned, history is where the Confederacy belongs. I mean, the south lost the Civil War 150 years ago. It’s time that people stopped fighting it, already. However, when it comes to naming places for people, there are different ways to go about it. One way is to name things for a prominent national figure, either current or historical, and the other is to search for someone with a direct connection to the area. If the title of the post didn’t give it away, I support the latter more than the former.
Categories: JMU, State and local politics
Here’s a blast from the Internet past…
4 minute read
November 20, 2014, 8:28 PM
So for Throwback Thursday, here’s a little blast from the Internet past: my old AOL Instant Messenger away messages! Yes, AOL Instant Messenger, otherwise known as AIM, i.e. this:
I was recently shuffling some files around on my computer, and found these, which I had preserved as a backup in February 2007, when I moved my computer from the Gateway to the Dell. I want to say that I used AIM for about fifteen years. I started using it the summer after I graduated high school, and stopped using it earlier this year, telling the two people that I still talked to primarily via AIM (both in-real-life friends) that I was dropping AIM and for them to use Facebook chat to get a hold of me.
Categories: JMU, Social media
Sometimes you have those weekends where you just have to get out of the house…
12 minute read
June 11, 2014, 6:06 PM
Ever get that feeling of “I just have to get out of the house”? I recently had that feeling, where I just needed a change of scenery for a little bit, and so I planned a weekend trip down to Stuarts Draft to visit the parents, going down Friday, and coming back Sunday. They were, as always, delighted to see me, and on the whole, we had a good time. I also made some extra space in my house, as, on Mom’s request, I brought my sister’s old bicycle back to my parents’ house. Gave me some practice in “beheading” a bicycle by removing the front wheel, and then reattaching it at my destination. But it travels much more easily without the front wheel:
The freshly-liberated front wheel.
Categories: Bicycle, Companies, Driving, Family, Fire drills, Harrisonburg, Middle school, Reddit, Stuarts Draft, Walmart, Waynesboro, Weather
Ten years after I graduated college, I’m going back to school…
3 minute read
December 23, 2013, 4:08 PM
First of all, yes, it really has been ten years since I finished college. I finished up at JMU a little more than ten years ago, and then they mailed me the diploma not long after that. I can’t believe that it’s been that long. Doesn’t feel like ten years have gone by, that’s for sure.
That said, a lot has happened lately. I am now the proud holder of a commercial learner’s permit, which I got on Monday at the MVA in Gaithersburg. That was a stressful time, but probably not in the way you might think. I got in there, got my number, and then sat down, figuring that I might as well get comfortable. I took this picture, and then posted it to Instagram:
So there I am, fast asleep, staring down a fire alarm…
4 minute read
November 11, 2013, 12:09 AM
I graduated from high school in 1999. That means that I have been out of high school for fourteen years. The question I have is, why am I still having fire drill dreams? I had one of these on Saturday night, and I don’t get it.
In this dream, I was going to Stuarts Draft High School, which is where I actually went to high school. Back then, the school had a Simplex system, but the school has since been renovated. It now has a Notifier system with System Sensor horn/strobes. The take-home point on this, however, is that the school now contains a horn/strobe in every classroom. And I am acutely aware of this. When I was in school, I only shared a classroom with a fire alarm horn once. That was in kindergarten at Southside Elementary School in Rogers, Arkansas, but the kindergarten room was the size of a basketball court with a really high ceiling. At Grimes Elementary in Rogers, and Stuarts Draft Middle School and Stuarts Draft High School in Virginia, I never shared a classroom with a fire alarm horn except for in shop classes (where I never had a fire drill) and Phys. Ed, where we did have the occasional fire drill. However, in middle school, two Edwards horns in a big gym weren’t very loud, but four Simplex 4040 horns in the gym in high school were extremely loud. But outside from those situations, there were no horns in the rooms where I had class (the horns were out in the hallway).
In this dream, I was sitting in a modern-looking classroom on the first day of school at Stuarts Draft High School. And across the room from me was this:
Categories: Dreams, Elementary school, Fire drills, High school
I still don’t consider myself much of an artist, but I guess I can let you decide…
5 minute read
May 24, 2012, 12:07 AM
So I was doing some scanning work for Falcon this evening, and decided to finally scan some drawings that I did in high school. I’m believe that these are from the fall of 1996. And so away we go…
Yes, that is exactly what you think it is. You are looking at Lord Zedd from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, standing in his throne room. It’s true. I was a nerd even back then. And I was pretty detailed. I got the pedestal, I got Zedd, I got the throne, I got the fan behind the throne, and I put a couple of putties in there.
Categories: High school, Myself, Power Rangers
Campus candids…
2 minute read
April 19, 2012, 12:46 AM
Categories: Amusing, JMU, Photography