Random Thinking

In case you were following along with my posts about using SAP Portal you will be sad to hear that there won’t be any more updates. Because of the cost of development, the project has been cancelled (at least for now) and we are going to continue to support the existing system (standard servlet/JSP application). I can’t say this is a bad thing because I wasn’t convinced that the SAP Portal solution was a good direction in the long run. There had been a lot of thought about using it for internal applications in the intranet but there never seemed to be a good analysis to determine if this was a good direction for our external web site. It was more like, “We are going SAP for our applications so we are using SAP Portals no matter what.” Anyway, with the cancellation the floodgates have opened with all the projects that were put on hold because “that would be added to the SAP Portal version.” So we have lots of work to do and some of it looks like fun development.

It has been too long since I updated! Bad Tom!

OK, rather than discuss everything in one blog entry I will break things up. Last Tuesday (August 23rd) we brought Mikey to AHRC in Old Brookville to take the bus to Camp Loyaltown in Hunter, NY. This is about a three hour ride. Although Michel had doubts that we would get Mikey on the bus, I was optimistic. When we got to AHRC, there were just too many people around and Mikey was just too frightened to get on the bus. I tried to carry him on but he was struggling and crying. So Michel turned out to be right and we had to drive him up to camp. We did get to meet Mikey’s counselor (each camper has their own counselor) so that was nice. He is from Ireland and travels around the world doing things like being a camp counselor for disabled children.

We dropped Beth off at the grandparents’ in Brooklyn and drove up to Hunter. Mikey loves the car so he just sat back and enjoyed the ride. I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to get away once we got up there, but everything turned out fine. Mikey saw the pool and that was it. We handed Mikey to the counselor, dropped his bags off, and said goodbye. No tears from Mikey at all.

The one good thing about driving Mikey up was that we got a chance to see the camp. It is very nice. They have a big pool and a playground right by Mikey’s cabin. The counselors sleep in the cabin with the kids and the doors are alarmed so that if someone tries to walk out, everyone is alerted. There is a counselor awake during the night to keep an eye on things. As one of the administrators of the camp told us, “Camp Lose-A-Kid” probably wouldn’t be very popular so they make sure that all the campers are safe at all times. Mikey’s trip lasts from Tuesday thru Sunday so this gives us all a little break.

“The human heart was not meant to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that–a parent’s heart bared, beating forever outside its chest.”

-Debra Ginsberg, Raising Blaze…Bringing Up an Extraordinary Son in and Ordinary World

Mikey has been attending the Rosemary Kennedy School for the summer. We had hoped he would be able to stay in Plainview for the summer but that didn’t happen. As it turned out, it was a good thing that he went to RKS because we found out how much we hate it. A couple of weeks into the program, Michel discovered that Mikey was not getting the number of speech, physical, and occupational therapy sessions that are in his IEP. When she spoke to the principal, the response was that they can’t be expected to provide the full compliment of services in the summer because of staffing problems and that this problem has been going on for 28 years. Of course, no mention was ever made of this to us when we were looking for a school. Most importantly, providing the services in the IEP is not optional. RKS must provide the services as defined in Mikey’s IEP. We also found out that the computer in Mikey’s classroom was broken and that the teacher who fixes them is out for the summer. Working on the computer is something Mikey really enjoys and it is a great learning tool for him. When Michel called the principal about the computer she was told there was nothing that could be done. Michel called the office of our state senator Carl Marcellino and amazingly there was a brand new computer in Mikey’s classroom the next day.

All of this convinced us that RKS was not the place for Mikey and Michel started looking for another school. First, we went to look at The Center for Developmental Disabilities in Woodbury. It was a very nice school… very quiet and not far from home. The kids seemed very well behaved and on target. After seeing Mikey they told us that he wasn’t right for their school. This made me wonder because it seemed that since Mikey could be mainstreamed if his behavior was better, why does this school even exist? It seems to me that most of the kids at The Center could be integrated in regular classrooms if they can sit and attend and follow directions.

With The Center out of the running, Michel went to look at AHRC’s school and she liked it. The school isn’t straight ABA but Michel thought it would be a good fit and the teachers at AHRC thought Mikey would do very well there. They are more academic oriented than RKS so we look forward to Mikey learning to read. Now it is just a matter of talking to our school district and getting Mikey’s IEP updated which should not be a problem. Michel and I are both very happy that Mikey will not be at RKS much longer.

AHRC runs a summer camp called Camp Loyaltown in Hunter, NY and Mikey will be going there in two weeks. This is a sleep away camp and Mikey will be gone for 5 days. Since we have the medicaid waver this is being paid for by the state. It is going to be very strange not having Mikey around. We still don’t know what we are going to do with ourselves.

I should add that Mikey fell at RKS and got three stiches in his chin. His teacher tried to grab him but he wriggled out of her grasp and banged his chin into a bookshelf. They had to sedate him in the ER to get the stiches in and we were able to remove them at home while Mikey was asleep. It is healing very nicely.

References: Rosemary Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy (the sister of Ted Kennedy) was lobotomized by her parents because of behavior issues.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
by Robert Sullivan

This book is a fascinating examination of the eruption of Krakatoa. Simon Winchester gives a vivid account based on eyewitness testimony of the eruption itself and the destruction that the explosion of August 27, 1883 wrought upon the people living in Indonesia. The tales of ships trapped in pitch black ash, ships thrown miles into the jungle, waves 150 feet high sweeping people off cliffs that were thought to be safe, and skeletons found thousands of miles away on floating rafts of pumice all help to build a full sense of the horror and tragedy of that day. Almost 40,000 people died that day, most from the sea waves caused by the collapse of Krakatoa into the sea and Winchester’s writing and use of first person sources brings the events of more than 100 years ago to life.

The book covers much more than just that one day. Winchester brings the time to life by discussing the Dutch colonizers and the Javanese who lived under Dutch rule. We get to meet the people who lived at the time of the catastrophe and experience their lives. We also get to understand how geologically dangerous the land these people lived on was (and is) by examining how volcanoes arise in the first place. There are many twists and turns in the story, some fascinating and some less so. The author looks at the post-Indonesian world, briefly discussing the massacre of some Dutch by Moslem militants but doesn’t look more deeply. The last chapter looks at the new volcano that has arisen where Krakatoa once was and the return of plants and animals to the new Krakatoa and the surrounding islands.

Winchester is more than anything else a story teller and less so an educator. For example, his story of how the theory of plate tectonics was developed is very interesting but his explanation of the theory could have been clearer. Some of the book drags, for example Winchester spends 15 pages explaining how a telegram announcing the first eruption traveled from Batavia to end up in the Times of London. This was less than scintillating reading. The weakest part of the book is the diagrams, maps, and pictures. There are very few pictures of any of the main characters. The author describes the effect of the eruption on the island of Rakata in great detail but doesn’t give us a photo. When describing the magnificent sunsets that occurred after the eruption, the author shows us a copy of a painting of one of these sunsets but he gives it to us in black and white. The map of the Dutch East Indies in the book does not identify any of the towns mentioned in the text and is difficult to interpret.

Overall, the book is a very engaging read and although it occasionally wanders off, it is well worth reading.

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