Week 8 (2 of 2)

On Monday after telling Shannon Happy Birthday and dropping the girls at school, Becca and Skylor took me to the airport.  I flew out of Montgomery, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia and then onto my final destination of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Upon my arrival in Philly I went to the parking garage and found my truck with a dead battery.  This was not a surprise to me, since my truck had been in the parking garage for 5 weeks during winter and not started once.  After an hour wait, I finally had a service company show up to jump my truck off.  I drove over to my rental house in Toms River, New Jersey.  It was about a two hour drive and sucked because I would always talk to my dad on this drive.  However I made it through the drive and today was my first day back to work after a five week hiatus.  I am the project manager on a construction project at Fort Dix.  We had our final walk of the project today and it went well, so that is the good news.  The bad news is I am over a month behind on day-to-day paperwork and I also have tons of closeout paperwork to complete.  I will persevere through it, but it is going to make school that much tougher until I get caught up at work.  I usually work 10 to 11 hours a day, but for the next two weeks I will probably be working 14 hour day to include both days of the weekend.  It should be fun…

Week 8 (1 of 2)

On last Wednesday my wife and I flew back home to Alabama to tell the girls about Poppa passing away.  The girls were pretty upset, but luckily they had only seen him a couple of times in the past couple of years, so there was not a huge attachment.  Wednesday night was pretty tough, but Thursday was better and by Friday we were back to our normal routine, spaghetti, meatballs and movie night.  We watched Wreck-It-Ralph and everyone had a great evening.  On Saturday I went and got a tattoo to celebrate my father’s memory.  Sunday morning I took Molly shopping for some clothes and new tennis shoes, we also had to get some sandals to match a dress we picked out for her.  We ate lunch at McDonalds and went back to the house to ride over to the bowling alley with everyone else for Shannon’s birthday.  Shannon turned 7 on Monday the 18^th.  After a rousing game of bowling we played in the arcade for about 45 minutes and headed home for hot dogs.  Then Shannon opened her presents and we had cake and Ice cream.  Shannon’s favorite present was an MP3 player for music, she loves to sing.  It was an awesome distraction and a great weekend…

Week 7 (2 of 2)

Today was the first truly productive day I have had in about a month.   I felt pretty good and I had all day to begin catching up on my school work.  I have come to terms with the fact my father is gone forever and I only have memories of him for the rest of my life.  Logically I understand death is a part of life and it will visit us all at one point or another, however emotionally it just flat out sucks.  I am sure over the next several weeks or even months I will have a roller coaster ride of emotions, due to the fact of the great relationship my father and I had being gone forever.  But I know he would want me to move on and continue being a productive member of society, a father of my own, a husband, and a generally all around good person.  While this time in my life has been extremely difficult, my family and I were strongly touched by the outpouring support of my father’s and our friends and extended family.  Compassionate remarks have even been posted to some of my previous blogs.  The funeral was held in Kansas and we had people travel to pay their respects from: Washington State, Louisiana, Texas, Rhode Island, Missouri and all over the state of Kansas.  My future posts will return to what I began the class with, while it will still be family based, my future posts will pertain more to my wife and our four daughters…

Week 7 (1 of 2)

If you have read any of my last posts spanning over a month, you know I have been out of pocket with my dad’s health and two weeks ago he passed away.  So I am now trying to catch up on everything and it makes the interaction of this assignment tough, because all of my classmates have moved onto week 8.  However I really enjoyed learning how to build forms during the week 7 assignment, the html coding we have worked on is really fun.  My form page is completely functional and it is pretty neat to have accomplished such a feat.  I like how the lesson was compacted into brief code and with the conjunction of the JotForm.com website we can receive responses from people which visit our form page.  My speculation on the feedback I would receive from my peers is my page is functional and it accomplishes what the page set out to do.  I do not have any pictures or interesting scripts on my page, so perhaps it may be seen as a little mundane in comparison to some of the other pages, but it works well.  This was another fun assignment and I look forward to seeing what adventure week 8 holds…

Week 6 (3 of 3)

Last semester in one of my classes we downloaded a free distributed image editor called GIMP. Once you learn how to navigate and use GIMP, it is really enjoyable software to use for editing images. I used this software to make 3-d images as part of a class project, it allows a person who is not very artistic to become somewhat artistic relatively easy. Also it has tons of editing features which rival Photoshop and other editors, but it does not have the associated price tag. I would recommend this product to everyone in the class. Below please find the link to GIMP:

http://www.gimpshop.com/

Their Website states:

With millions of users worldwide, GIMP has a huge community available for support, new free tools & plugins, and full support available across dozens of languages.

A comprehensive help library and full tutorial section has been built-in to the Gimpshop 2.8 workspace, so you are always just a couple of clicks away from step-by-step guidance on hundreds of photo and image editing techniques.

Invited to participate in Google's "Summer of Code 2012", GIMP has joined the ranks of other highly popular, bleeding-edge Open-Source development projects and has confirmed it's status as a world-wide leader in photo editing software.

And as an Open-Source program, GIMP is 100% FREE. Click the Download button and install the Latest Full Version of Gimpshop 2.8 in under a minute.

Week 6 (2 of 3) My Funeral Speech

A good Free Web Application should be created to help people write funeral speeches, I could not find one, so below is the speech I wrote and delivered at my Dad's Funeral:

Dad, we saw you getting tired and a cure was not to be. 

So, God put his arms around you and whispered “come to me.”

We loved you immensely, but could no longer make you stay.

With tear filled eyes, we watched you pass away.

A humble heart stopped beating and ceased to exist.

You were one of the greatest and will be cheerfully missed.

Your diligent and hardworking hands have been eternally laid to rest.

God broke our hearts, to prove he only takes the best.

Thank you all for taking time out of your busy lives to come here today and pay final respects to my father.  He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, uncle; a hard worker and a true friend to us all.  In a church full of so many great men, he was one of the greatest.  Ben lived life with an unmatched zest for happiness.  His journey through the realm of mortality began in Cork, Ireland with his birth in December of 1948.  Ben lived in Ireland for a couple of years before his parents relocated their budding family to Rhode Island.  He grew up with a family consisting of his father, mother, two brothers and three sisters.  Ben played numerous sports as a child and he exceled in baseball and golf. 

During the Vietnam conflict, Ben enlisted in the United States Army and completed two tours of duty.  At this point in his life, Ben was not yet an American citizen, but he defended America’s freedoms as an Irish national citizen.  After fighting in Vietnam, he separated from the Army and pursued a career in the construction industry of Rhode Island.  During this time, Ben worked as an electrician and also as a mason.  Although he exceled as a construction worker, he truly missed the feeling of being a soldier in the United States Military.  Ben as you all know also had an immense sense of duty and at this time he was not complete with his service to America.  So Ben reenlisted in the Army, was retrained as a ground pounding 11 Bravo and was given orders to report to Fort Riley, Kansas. 

It was because of golf, one of his passions in life, that he came to meet Jill at the Fort Riley Golf Course.  A petit, intelligent, fireball from Quincy Massachusetts, Jill became the love of his life and mother of his children.  They were married and given orders to relocate to Germany.  “Ich komme aus Weisbauden” I come from Weisbauden.  In 1977 I was born in Weisbauden Germany and Ben and Jill began their new adventure of parenthood.  We left Germany and moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky.  The family was blessed with the birth of a daughter, Kellie.  From there we moved again and this time the Army Post was Fort Benning, Georgia.  While they were stationed at Fort Benning Ben and Jill had their last daughter and child, Kerrie.  While we lived at Fort Benning, Ben began his true calling in life.  He became a mentor. 

He wore a round brown, Ben was a drill sergeant and he began molding young men into the future defenders and leaders of our great country.  Whenever he brought up Fort Benning, Ben always spoke about the fact- he was stationed there while Tank and The Green Berets were filmed.  The Green Berets starred Ben’s favorite actor of all time- The Duke, John Wayne.  Once again orders were received and the family was again relocated to Germany.  This time we were sent to Illeshiem, Germany.  This time spent in Germany, is filled with some of my fondest childhood memories.  Almost every weekend we went on Volksmarches or hikes if you will.  We would travel as a family, to a different German town and walk 10 kilometers, during the walk you had a card which was stamped at check points and at the end we received a beer mug, plate, medal, or some other commemorative item naming the town and year of the hike.  We also had a lot of enjoyable times going to see castles, eating at German restaurants, and going to German carnivals.  At this time in his life, my dad was my baseball and basketball coach for organized teams on post.  We left Germany when my Dad received his final duty station orders. 

Those orders were back to where it all started, Fort Riley Kansas.  Then in 1990 we had the scariest event of our lives up to that point occur.  Dad along with many other brave soldiers received orders to go to war during Operation Desert Storm.  He gave me a hug and told me I was the man of the family and to take care of mom and the girls.  I cried as the front door of the house closed, not knowing if I would ever see my dad again.  A year later we met him at a hanger on Marshall Air Field, it was one of the happiest days of our lives, he made it home safe.   After the war, Ben retired as a First Sgt.  In the Army First Sgts are all called “Top” To us he was always our Top Dad.  Shortly after coming home from Desert Storm, Ben began a new phase of his life. 

He became a civilian and the only trades he had, outside of being a solider were construction related.  So like many others in the construction industry already knew, Ben learned you have to go on the road, to follow the work, to provide for your family.  Sometimes Ben would be home on weekends and sometimes not home at all for weeks at a time.  Ben sacrificed his whole life to provide for his family.  Ben was a selfless man, I can really only think of three things he ever bought for himself.  Those few things were two sets of golf clubs spaced out over 20 years and a big screen television.  Everything else he earned went to the family.  After several years of Ben working on the road, it was time for me to leave the home I grew up in.  I joined the Air Force and left Dad, Mom, Kellie, and Kerrie behind.  They were gone from my daily life but not forgotten. 

Graduation from basic training was one the proudest moments of my life.  My parents and sisters drove down to San Antonio and attended my graduation.  The pride was because while I was standing at attention, during the star spangled banner, I looked into the grandstand and saw my father, with longer hair and few more years on him, not saluting the flag like the soldier I had known for so many years, but rather I saw a gentler man with his hand on his heart.  I was proud for the person he was and the soldier he had been.  I had a tear roll down my check, while thinking to myself, that great man is my father and I am following in his footsteps. 

After about two years in the Air Force, I began to realize the values and ideals my father instilled in me as a child were real.  I was at point where I was excelling in my Air Force career and this was a testament to the love and direction both my parents provided to me growing up. 

This is the time in my life where Benny became my friend and while he will always be my father and I will always be his son, this was the beginning of a bond and friendship I will cherish for the rest of my days.  Over the years, there were marriages and grandchildren born and our little family grew into a bigger happier family. 

In 2007 I began working with Ben at MW Builders.  We had the pleasure of working on several projects together.  I was now a father to three children of my own, it was remarkable to be able to work and share this time of my life with this great man and friend.  As you all know, over the last several years Ben’s health began to fade and this past year he was approved to receive a new heart.  Ben received his heart and for reasons unknown to the Doctors, his lungs quit working.  Last Tuesday we made the toughest decision of our lives and had to let Ben go home to the Lord.  From today forward- let us not mourn Ben, but rather let us all celebrate his life and carry his memory into the future.  I will now leave him and you with a reading of the Irish Blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be ever at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again, May God hold
you in the hollow of his hand

Week 6 (1 of 3)

My topic for blogs this semester was family, in particular it was supposed to be about my daughters, however my father became gravely ill and passed away a couple of weeks ago and the theme of my blog had changed then.  Therefore, while it is still family based, I now have a more expansive them for my blog.  This is a link to my Dad’s obituary: http://m.penwellgabeljunctioncity.com/obituary.aspx?obitid=65640&EMSessionID=-1&Source=choice&fname=MSG+(RET)+Benjamin+N.+O%27Sullivan&city=Junction+City&ST=KS&pgsrc=obituary Taking this class and thinking about applications which pertain to my theme, lead me to complete research on digital graveyards, if you will.  There are numerous ones readily available with the yahoo search engine, however all of the sites I visited where very unattractive sites.  I think it is a great idea and if it was done tastefully it could be a great place to have videos and pictures of your loved one with a synopsis of their life and a message board where people could write memories or just random thoughts.  The thing I like about the idea is, anytime a person has an internet connection and as long as the website is up, at your fingertips would be a digital place you could visit your deceased loved one from anywhere in the world.  I like the concept of being digitally eternal…