Murphy Oil Pledges $50 Million To El Dorado Graduates

This is to me an example of a corporation giving back to its community in a BIG way. I am seriously thinking of moving down to El Dorado now simply because my child will be able to go to teh school that fits his goals and not have to settle for one we can simply afford.

This is amazing:

Students in El Dorado will get a college education for free thanks to one of the single-largest private gifts in the history of Arkansas.

Murphy Oil Corporation has pledged up to $50 million to pay tuition costs of El Dorado High School graduates for the next two decades.

It's called the El Dorado promise. All students have to do is enroll in El Dorado schools and keep a C-average. They go to the college of their choice, and Murphy Oil promises to foot the bill.

Cheers erupted in the crowd of students as the reality that the burden of paying college tutition has been lifted sets in.

(Janease Traylor, El Dorado Senior) "I'm like overjoyed. I am like overwhelmed with this. I don't really believe it yet."

(Emile Turbeville, El Dorado Senior) "I couldn't imagine something this big happening to us. It's incredible to think."

(LeBryant Crew, El Dorado Senior) "Big money. It's extremely big money."

It's an even bigger commitment from El Dorado-based Murphy Oil. CEO Claiborne Deming says out of all the decisions the corporation's board makes, the one to invest in local students was one of the most obvious.

(Claiborne Deming, Murphy Oil Corporation) "With a 50-million dollar investment, we can make a huge difference in the lives of 4400 students...we can impact so many people so immediately, so directly."

Only students who attended El Dorado schools from kindergarten through 12th grade will get 100% of the scholarship. The last year to enroll in the district and still be eligible for partial funds is ninth grade.

The maximum amount paid is set by what tuition is the most expensive Arkansas public college or university--but students can take the money to the school of their choice.

(Melissa Eckart, El Dorado Senior) "It's one less thing to worry about. Now I can focus on finding a place that's perfect for me, not just for can we afford it or not."

The El Dorado Promise goes into effect this spring. The $50 million is expected to last 20 years.

Now isn't that one of the coolest things you have seen in a while? Of course it also tells me that these oil companies are indeed making tons of money, but the next question I have to ask is why aren't more local companies doing something similar? I hope that more companies in Arkansas follow Murphy Oil's example because it is an investment in the future of Arkansas, in their community and in the long run, thier business.

~ Terhune

Scooby Doo

Scooby Doo has to be my son's all time favorite cartoon - at the moment. I watched the old Scooby Doo when I was a kid and the new ones they have are interesting but just not the same. I guess I am just looking at it from an adult perspective and not with the open eyes of a child. A lot of the time I find Scooby Doo annoying.

Blasphemy I know, but it is true.

Nothing much else going on but the laundry. I got moved to a different shift at work and I still am lacking the information so that I can log into my WebCT course (online class) which is really making me nervous but I have e-mailed the instructor twice and spoken to her in person twice so what else am I supposed to do???

I started writing again, really writing and it is relaxing to say the least. It's like some kind of weight has been lifted from my mind and this story is just unfolding and its a story I want to tell and I can tell. I may post a bit of it later on when I get it done and have polished it a bit, then again I may not!

Who knows what will happen here, that's what is so great about life - the little unexpected things that happen!

~ Terhune

A Not So Typical Day at Work

I debated on if I was going to write about this topic but after talking to my wife and my family I figured it might help me out, velvet girl's comment also had a good point so here goes:

Friday nights are usually pretty laid back at the fire department. I usually grab one of the recliners and my latest book and settle in for a good read hoping that the alarm doesn't go off. So I had just got comfortable, shoes kicked off and a nice frosty Coke from the vending machine sitting beside me when the horn blared.

Our fire house is probably the only one in the entire state that doesn't get dispatched by an emergency operator. We actually talk to the people on the phone who call in to 911 with an emergency. So anyway the horn goes off. I struggle out of the recliner because it's broken and you sit way down in it for some reason. I take off down the stairs because we can't use the fire pole anymore because one of the new guys practically broke his ankle on it so now we have to use the stairs.

I get the address of the fire from my Captain while he is paging the fire out to let those people off duty know we have a fire then while he is doing that I grab the second line that goes directly to our #2 substation and I let them know what we got because it is in their district. (The city is divided into three districts, with one station to each district) We hop into our gear and roll out in the big red firetruck - it's about 7 pm I think because I didn't look at the clock so I am not really sure.

I put on the Self Contained Breathing Apparatus while the truck is driving to the scene because it's in the seat so it is no problem and its not dangerous. We get to the house and smoke and fire and shooting out the front window. As I am jumping out of the truck I hear one of the police officers yelling at us, "There's someone still inside!"

Crap.

Now I have helped pull out one other guy in my almost 7 years on the fire department here and at the time I wasn't having to really do anything like CPR or what have you. They told us younger guys to grab this or that and I was ok with that. This was different. This person was in the house and it was blowing and going. So I grabbed the other guy that was already scotted up (had his SCBA on) and we pulled a line off of the lead truck and ran toward the house.

They charged the line and I hit the fire from the outside at first while the other guy finished getting his mask on, plus the fire was all around the front door and ceiling and I wanted to knock it down somewhat before we made entry. So once he got his mask on we charged in. Fire was all in the front room to the right.

We couldn't really see anything because of the smoke and fire. We started spraying water and hollering for the person still in the building. I asked the firefighter standing outside to get the thermal imager so we could see. He got it and brought it to me. I swept it down towards the floor and that is when I saw the person's leg.

It's weird but at first I swore it was a mannequin. The thought even flashed through my head, why is there a mannequin laying on the floor. The sad part was that we had found the person trapped in the house. I had the guy with me check the body because he is an EMT and more up to date on the whole medical thing than I am.

The victim was dead. No sign of life at all. So I called for a tarp to drape over the body and we sprayed the body very carefully with water to cool it down because it had been on fire when we went into the building. From then on till we wrapped up the fire scene it was really anticlimactic. My partner and I had put the fire out within the first 15 minutes, we spent the next couple of hours checking for hot spots and waiting on the coroner and the funeral home to come get the body.

It was a rough night all in all. I am pretty sure I knew the gentlemen that died. I just couldn't recognize the face and names really don't do anything for me so for me that is good. We got together after it was all said and done and our trucks were back in service. Some of the younger guys took it a bit to heart and I can't blame them. Our job isn't an easy one, sometimes we have to confront death and we always confront loss. It can wear on you.

But that is just part of the job, you either learn to cope or you find a new line of work. I personally am glad that today we have smoke detectors and people are more educated about fire safety and prevention. I talked to a few of the retired guys about it a few days later and they said it wasn't unheard of to have many burn victims and deaths before the enacted all the education and new building codes and such.

So that was my not so typical day at work. Hopefully I will be out of school and in a new job teaching before something like that happens again. The bad thing is that I think that once you get firefighting in your blood its hard to shake and more than likely I will always be some kind of volunteer firefighter where ever I go, when I finally hand my full time helmet on the hook for good. But maybe that is not such a bad thing after all.

~ Terhune

School begins again and other things...

Well I went to school on Tuesday and went to my first class. The History of Social Thought, I am thinking it is going to be boring as hell but I could be wrong. The good thing is that I only have one book to buy for this semester and it only costs $112.75!!! I know that some people are paying $500 - $600 for their books this semester and probably more which sucks big time.

That reminds me though, here are some links on some Senate Bills in Arkansas that are aimed at lowering the cost of college text books all of these bills have been filed and referred to the Senate Committee on Insurance and Commerce:

• SB22 TO REGULATE THE SELECTION AND USE OF STATE-SUPPORTED COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS AND TO MINIMIZE THE COST OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS.



• SB23 TO REGULATE THE SELECTION AND USE OF STATE-SUPPORTED COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS AND TO PROHIBIT SINGLE-USE TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS.



• SB24 TO REGULATE STATE-SUPPORTED COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOK SALES AND TO REQUIRE PROMPT NOTICE OF THE ADOPTION OF TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS.



• SB25 TO REGULATE THE SELECTION AND USE OF STATE-SUPPORTED COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS AND TO PROHIBIT CUSTOMIZED TEXTBOOKS AND COURSE MATERIALS.



• SB26 AN ACT TO REGULATE THE ADMINISTRATION AND USE OF STATE COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO STUDENTS.



• SB27 AN ACT TO REGULATE STATE-SUPPORTED COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOK SALES AND TO PROHIBIT INDUCEMENTS TO REQUIRE SPECIFIC TEXTBOOKS.



• SB28 AN ACT TO REGULATE STATE-SUPPORTED COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOK SALES AND TO REQUIRE COURSE SUPPLEMENTS BE SOLD TO COMPETING BOOKSTORES AT COST.



• SB29 TO REQUIRE STATE-SUPPORTED INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING TO PERMIT PRIVATE RETAILERS ACCESS TO STUDENT SALES.



• SB30 TO REGULATE THE USE OF ROYALTIES FROM THE SALE OF TEXTBOOKS AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS OR PUBLICATIONS BY STATE-SUPPORTED COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES.



• SB31 TO PROHIBIT REFERRALS TO WEBSITES OF TEXTBOOK SELLERS THAT ARE NOT REQUIRED AND DO NOT AGREE TO COLLECT ARKANSAS SALES AND USE TAXES.

There is some opposition to these bills. There have been some articles in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and on some of the television news affiliates that I know of, not sure about the other major papers in Arkansas. Anyway, enjoy!

~ Terhune

Jason Bourne

OK, so today has been laundry day - all day. While doing the laundry I decided that it would be movie day for me and my furry side kick Kenja. (Pictures on the way soon - of the dog that is) So I dug around in my box of cinema goodies and I came up with Mat Damon's Bourne series.

I pop me some popcorn and drop the disk into the old DVD player and we are off to the races! I generally enjoy a good action thriller and I had read the books when I was younger and I had liked them as well. So I enjoyed the movies and got to thinking that it would be nice to maybe read the books again. Can't find them here at home - anywhere.

Will probably order them from Amazon.

Speaking of work related (I say this because I know you are probably putting off some kind of work while you read this) we had a bad fire the other day and a man lost his life in the fire. He couldn't get out and the smoke got him. I haven't really talked about it much but I have been thinking about writing about it just to get it out some. Maybe not though, I haven't decided yet.

~ Terhune

Interesting List

So I was surfing the net instead of writing my letter of interest for my scholarship - sue me, I am a great procrastinator! Well I was over at ktbuffy's blog which I like to read because I find her observations on many things to be interesting and entertaining and I saw where she had posted a list of genre books that she had found somewhere. You were supposed to bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you hated and put an asterisk besides the ones you loved.

I didn't do any of that, except for the bolding the ones I had read. honestly if I take the time to read something I usually love some aspect of it and for the life of me I can not remember ever reading a book that I hated. What can I say, I am picky. I think she has some more lists on her blog as well and I plan on checking them out but with no further ado..here it is kiddo's:

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

So I have read 27 out of the 50 books listed. I think that is pretty cool considering I recognize many of the books I haven't read as books that I plan on reading but somehow never can find when I think about it or I am reading something else that grabs my attention. Pretty cool.

~ Terhune

Lady in the Water

Well I just watched Lady in the Water and I thought it was a really good movie. I love the way that the Director (I can't spell his name right) always delves into myth and folklore for his movies. To me its not so much like watching a movie as it is experiencing a movie. Maybe I am not saying it right but all of his movies are to me like reading a good book.

They take you into their world and let you participate even if it is as just an observer.

Anyway, loved the movie. Now I am working on filling out scholarship papers. I hope I can get this scholarship because it will help out a lot. On Tuesday I am going to see about a Graduate Assitantship. The lady I talked to about the Scholarship told me they might have something available so I will go by her office and see. At the very least it will pay for my gas and look good on a resume.

~ Terhune

A New Year and a new resolve!

Well the new year has come and gone and there are lots of things going on.

I was switched to a new shift at work, but I am working on getting on another shift right now so that I can go to school easier. Go to school?? Yes, I said go to school. I have decided to go ahead and start work on my Master's Degree. I am going for a Master's of Science in Education with an emphasis in Social Studies at the secondary level.

I am working on a scholarship application at the moment so hoepfully I will get that, the lady I talked to at the school seemed to think that I had a really good chance of getting it. We shall see.

All in all I think that things are going pretty good around here now, if only I could find the remote for the television it would be like heaven on earth!

Oh, on a side note I have recently finished completeing a blog for my wife's second grade classroom. It's another tool for parents and students to stay informed. I tell you I am just amazed at the lack of technology in our local public school. The website is a joke and they don't offer the teachers any real access to technology for their classrooms - it is definately not even close to cutting edge enabled.

Here's the web address: http://mrswhitesclassroom.blogspot.com

~ Terhune