Gary Mendez on Youtube

A friend on Facebook shared this with me. I was not at Rio Hondo when Gary got elected so I can not verify the claims made in this video by Mr. Mendez. I am interested to hear your response to Gary. Please leave your comments on the blog, so everyone can read them.

An Excuses Becomes a Reality! Congratulation

I noticed the following tweet on the right hand side of the screen. This is a student at Rio Hondo tweeting about the exits being blocked at Rio Hondo by construction and she is thinking of her safety if there was a fire. However, she is not aware of the fact that the problem is much bigger than exits being blocked by construction.

Since January 2010 I have been asking for room capacity of the classrooms. After having no success with our old Director of facilities, a good friend of the President, I brought it up at the Planning Fiscal Council. Again nothing till I made a series of video showing various places students and faculty are likely to lose their lives if there was a fire. At a meeting with the president's office, he gave me the excuse of "the bottle neck is due to the construction". At the time there was NO construction so I picked up my little video camera and made the following video showing the real problem with those hallways. The problem is scheduling too many students in those little classrooms without considering the capacity of the hallways.

Thanks to robotbecca  now I know the President's excuse is reality now.  I know about realizing one's dreams but realizing one's excuses is something I have to see!

I want to thank robotbecca and let her know that I heard your tweet for help. I hope you will share your concern with your representatives on ASB.

NOTE: The following video was shot in April 2011. It shows the dangers of these hallways without construction.  I have to go to campus and see how the excuse given to me by the President of the college have become reality.

 

The Bridge and Natural Patina

I attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new bridge. The scissor did not work well and that was a little funny. The consultant said "Look how the students use this bridge as though it has been here forever." He was truly excited and I have to say that he got me excited about a project being completed too. Most of the people including myself asked "why isn't the bridge painted?" They (the consultants) explained that the bridge will turn red (brown) as it rusts. I think they used the word "natural patina".

I asked someone about the strength of the bridge as it rusts and they said that it is built of a special steal that only rusts on the surface. I will take my camera to take pictures of the rust and will post the natural progression of the rust here from time to time.

I have to admit that it made me feel a little philosophical, thinking about my own mortality and the changes taking place in my own body. It was a Zen moment. (Click on the Zen Link)