Part II: Another Story in the "Spirit" of Halloween

Why my dad believes in ghosts:

My dad enlisted and served with one of his best friends, a guy named Richard Tung. My dad now believes that Mr. Tung was some kind of medium. Read these stories and decide for yourself.

Both my dad and Tung were sent to basic flight training at Randolph, Texas. They couldn't get a nonstop flight to Texas, and since they were recruits, they had to wait a long time between connecting flights.

While waiting in the terminal of some sleepy airbase in New Mexico, Tung suddenly nudged my dad and pointed.

"Gwai," he said (Gwai is the Chinese word for ghost).

My dad looked where Tung was pointing and saw what looked like a wisp of smoke drifting across the room, except this wisp had a face and was wearing a very old fashioned dress.

After the war, Tung rented an old 2 story house in San Francisco. My dad helped him move in.

The first thing they heard upon entering the house on moving day was the sound of water running. It was coming from the upstairs bathroom.

Tung went upstairs, opened the bathroom door and shut off the water. Then he and my dad went outside to get more stuff to bring into the house.

When they returned, the water was running again.

Tung went upstairs and found the bathroom door closed.

He opened the door, shut off the water, and came back downstairs.

As he waited, my dad went into the kitchen, unpacked a glass and got himself some tap water.

Tung came into the kitchen and told my dad what happened. They looked at each other, shrugged, then went outside to get some more boxes.

When they returned, the water was running again.

This time, they both went upstairs. They found the bathroom door closed again.

They opened the door and shut off the water.

As they walked down the stairs, the bathroom door slammed shut. Seconds later, the water started running again.

Both men ran back upstairs. They opened the bathroom door, shut off the water, then searched the upstairs rooms for an open window or something else that might have caused a draft strong enough to close the door. They found nothing.

They went downstairs and started to go back outside, but as they passed the kitchen, Tung stopped.

"Let's get the h&*% out of here," he said, pointing.

My dad's glass had been put back into the box.

A Story for Halloween

My Dad is what is known as a straight arrow. He doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs. He was a boy scout and a fighter pilot. He doesn't have much of an imagination and is usually all business. If you knew him, you wouldn't think that he was the type of person who believes in ghosts or UFOs (flying saucers). But he does.

Here's why he believes in UFOs:

My dad joined the US Air Force, then known as the Army Air Corps, near the end of World War II. He became a fighter pilot and remained in the Air Force after the war ended.

Since most fighter pilots were no longer needed, my dad started to fly transport planes (big planes which carried cargo). Some of his flights took place at night.

One night, my dad was flying something called an RD-4 from Los Angeles to Marin. He was flying over the ocean near the Marin Headlands when he looked out his window and saw an orange ball just off the plane's wing. He nudged his co-pilot, a guy named Rice.

"What's that?" my dad asked.

"I don't know," said Rice, "Maybe it's a jet."

"Can't be a jet," my dad replied, "it doesn't have running lights, it's too close and it looks like a ball..."

Just as Rice was about to reply, the ball flashed from orange to white. It was so bright that both pilots had to shield their eyes. Then, the ball pulsed back to orange, then to white again.

Then, in the blink of an eye, it dropped straight down, made a sharp right turn, flew towards the hills, made a sharp left turn, flew along the hills then went straight up and disappeared into the night.

"@#$%!" shouted my dad, "Ever see a jet fly like that?"

"I don't know what the %$#@ that was," said Rice, "but it wasn't a jet."

"Should we call it in?" asked my dad.

"And say what?" said Rice, "that we saw a white ball that can turn on dime and fly a million miles an hour? They'll never let us fly again!"

They never called it in, but the next day people kept asking my dad what happened to him.

That's because both he and Rice had sunburned faces.

The Pump

You set out on a week long journey across the desert. You are alone and on foot. On the fourth day, you run out of water. You keep going because you are closer to your destination than to your starting point, but you know that, if you don't find water soon, you will die of thirst.
On the morning of the fifth day, you stumble upon an old wooden shed. Inside, you find an old fashioned mechanical water pump. You try it. Nothing happens.
You look around the shed an find a small bottle of water. It isn't enough to get you across the desert, but you think: "maybe if I'm really careful..."
Then you read the label on the bottle. It says: "Primer. The pump is connected to a well which can give you all the water you need, but it needs to be primed in order to work. There is just enough water in this bottle to prime the pump. Use it wisely.
What do you do and why?

A Perfect Day...

Today I had a perfect day; a day where everything I did was really satisfying and with a couple of nice surprises, too.
Won't bore you with details but got me thinking: what's your idea of a perfect day? When's the last time you had one?

Disaster Drill solutions

There are no right or wrong answers to this really, as long as you keep these goals in mind: do everything you can to save the victims without putting your team in unnecessary danger.

Now, that said, there are a few things to keep in mind while analyzing the situation:

1. You have a very limited amount of time because:

• the building is very unstable due to the earthquake
• earthquakes are usually followed by aftershocks
• there is the possibility of a fire or explosion due to a gas leak

2. You know that there are 2 victims
3. You are carrying a stretcher and a radio
4. There are 2 search and rescue teams

When you found the first victim, you discovered that, even though seriously injured, she was stable, meaning she wasn't going to get any worse. That meant it was reasonably safe to call the fireman in charge (aka FIC), notify him of the victim's location, and continue your search for the second victim. If a backup team was available, the FIC could've send it directly to the 1st victim's location.

In this scenario, the only other team available was the team searching the ground floor, so a decision needed to be made: should the FIC pull the second team off of its search and send it to the known location of a victim?

The FIC could decide on the basis of the names of the missing. Knowing the names of the missing gives the FIC a good idea of where to look for them, for that information would let him figure out where they normally would have been at the time of the earthquake. If the second victim would normally be on the second floor, the FIC would send the ground floor search team to rescue the first victim and tell the your team to continue its search. For the purposes of this discussion, let's say that that is what happened.

Your discovery of the second victim just as part of the building collapsed made things much more complicated. Your decision here would be based on your background and training.

If you are just someone who works in the building and who volunteered for the search and rescue team, you would follow the FIC's instructions and get out of the building asap. You've already saved one victim, so you've done a good job and don't want to put anyone else in danger, like your team, or anyone who might have to come and rescue you.

On the other hand, if you were a member of a highly trained search and rescue team like those that work for the fire or sherriff's departments, you've been trained to determine how much danger you are in. If you decide that your end of the building is stable enough, you may try to continue your rescue effort. You might even call the other team and tell them to come back in and help you after they've safely removed the first victim from the building. As a person who was specially trained for this job, you'd be willing to put yourself at greater risk in order to save another person's life, especially if that person were a child.

Survivor

Do any of you guys watch Survivor?

If so, what did you think of the last two episodes?
Like last week's decision by one team to purposely lose the challenge?
And this week's decision by the other team to give James one immunity idol and tell him where the second one was?
And finally, how the whole plan blew up?
Wasn't that food challenge disgusting (for you non-watchers, contestants had to eat chicken hearts, eels, baby turtles including shell, chicken fetuses and 1000 year old eggs)? I thought so, and I'm Chinese!

Disaster Drill continued...

After finding the victim, you determine that her injuries are not life-threatening and decide to continue your search. You call the fireman in charge, make sure the victim is stable and as comfortable as possible, assure her that you will be back for her, and move on. Down the hall, you discover another victim.
This time, the victim looks like he's been hit on the head for he is unconcious. He is also bleeding and worst of all, is partially buried under a huge pile of debris. As you are deciding what to do, you hear part of the building collapse, but it sounds like it's on the end farthest from you. Then, the radio comes on and the fireman in charge says "All personel must get out of the building immediately!"
What do you do?

Disaster Drill

Hypothetical situation: You are a member of one of the two search and rescue teams sent to a building damaged in an earthquake. There are three people on each team. The teams are equipped with a radio, a first aid kit, a stretcher and a crowbar for moving debris.
When you arrive on the scene, you discover that the two story building is in such bad shape that it is about to collapse. You can also smell gas. The fireman in charge tells you that there are two people missing. Your job is to find them and bring them out of the building. The fireman also says that the building is going to fall down any minute and that, to guarantee your team's safety, you must get in and out of the building as quickly as possible.
Your team is sent to search the second story. The other team searches the ground floor. You quickly find one of the missing people. She seems to have a back injury and a broken leg. She is also in shock. She obviously needs to be carried out. What do you do?

Kid Nation

Don't know how you or your parents feel about TV, but there's this show called Kid Nation on Wednesday nights that I've been watching and which might be fun to talk about. It's a reality show about 40 kids who spent 40 days in a "ghost town" and are left to govern themselves. It's been interesting to me because you get to see the different ways kids handle responsibility, make decisions and communicate. Ties into some of the things we talk about in class. The show is on Wednesday nights at 8 pm on CBS. Check it out if you can.

Tinikling, anyone?

Did you guys have fun with Tinikling?

It was fun for me to watch. I was surprised at what a good workout it was.

I think I'm going to use it with my basketball teams, cuz it looks like it would help with quickness and jumping ability.


The steps we did were only the beginning. I'll show you more this week, but if you want to see some video on Tinikiling, check these out:


youtube.com/watch?v=T7gScrUXoq8


youtube.com/watch?v=HP9nslxAAUk


youtube.com/watch?v=9LhsWFyHDow


Mr T

Welcome!

Hi Guys!


Welcome to my blog. This is a work in progress, so bear with me...


Ever wish we could continue talking about the subjects that are brought up in PE? Well here's your chance!


Here are links to recently discussed topics:


Orienteering: us.orienteering.org


Brain eating amoeba: msnbc.msn.com/id/21034344


Superbug: msnbc.msn.com/id/19403351


I look forward to hearing from you,


Mr T