Educational Excellence

The Monday after a long weekend in my case … probably a few other folks.  I left you all in “peace” on Friday … That was “Good Friday” … as I slept in and just enjoyed NOT having to get up and get ready to go out and drive to work.  Hopefully, you all didn’t mind too much!  I have been dealing with a virus again … this time … a computer virus … not my three to four week stomach virus that plagued me just a few weeks back.  This thing caused my computer not to open up and simply continued to spin the “Welcome” greeting once I logged on to the internet.  I even left the darn thing spinning on “Welcome” all night one evening until the next morning!!

Finally, I decided that I needed to get some closure … or price and costs and details on what was wrong.  You guys know how important it is for me to write these e-mails and blog posts.  So, I wanted to do everything that I could to get back up and running, for the blog’s sake.  I ran my laptop over to Office Depot last weekend where the tech told me that I had a virus that was attacking my operating system.  Either I could install an anti-virus/malware type program or simply operate in “Safe Mode”.  Operating in “Safe Mode” was what I had chosen for a while after meeting up with another computer savvy friend in Pembroke Pines last Sunday.  It was a journey!!  I mean,  no sound prompts nor music in safe mode.  The font and print size was humongous!!  I had to figure everything out posting onto the blog and uploading photographs as well as not being able to create documents in word format.  Finally, it dawned on me Thursday at work when one of the IT guys that maintains the software in the marketing office where I work wished me Happy Easter … to ask him what to do.  I did … He told me to uninstall AVG Security programs and install Avast.  I did it … and voila!!  We’re back in business!!  “Don’t mind if I do!”

It is often better for me to try … and try … and try again!  That … is the learning process!  That is “knowing thyself”, if you will.  Needless to say, the tech at Office Depot began stating prices for “replacing the operating system” starting at $125.00!!  I am not an “it” person, but I can navigate my way around a bit more than I imagined!!  When I was first introduced to using the computer while teaching at White Plains High School in 1979, I never thought that I would be able to do the things on the computer that I can do today!

Yesterday was a beautiful day for me … I didn’t plan it out.  I usually like to go to an Easter Service somewhere like Calvary Chapel or Christian Life Center nearby where I live.  Instead, I slept in … listened to the televangelists … got up to make breakfast of sausage and French toast with Chai tea and felt a strong tug from my mother.  I remembered the days that my parents used to take us to Bethel Baptist Church on Easter Sunday.  We were all dressed up there in the Winbrook Apartment Complex, streaming from “one” of the “Five Units” as the “Projects” had come to be called by “us”!  We had our own little Easter Parade there while families chose the church of their choice, be it Allen AME, Calvary Church (yep, there was one in White Plains, too!) or Bethel Baptist, where my family went.  I was at peace.  I sent messages to friends and received a few.  I ran out to Walmart as Publix was closed; picked up some snacks, got back home, washed and dried and folded my clothes while watching NBA basketball games.  It was a peaceful day … one of those days that … “I don’t mind if I do” … every now and then.

Have a great day, and, stay focused!

Peace,

John I. Cook, Director