Family time, karate style

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - April 28, 2010


PHOTO: Acelynn, Amanda, and Reece Thomson find practicing karate together makes fun family time.

“White, yellow, orange, green blue, purple, red!”

Acelynn Thomson confidently rattles off the order of ranking belts for her Hill Country Karate classes. Acelynn is all of 4 years old.

Yet she is learning skills that will serve her a lifetime. Acelynn is a student in the Hill Country Karate program, along with her brother Reece, age 5, her mother Amanda, and sometimes her daddy. A family that plays together, stays together, according to mom.

“As far as all the family activities we do, this is the one that really gets us together,” Amanda said. “We are all involved and part of it, not just spectators.”

Mother Amanda had no plans to study martial arts at first. She sat on the sideline as her son took classes last summer. Soon she was helping out, holding up pads, helping adjust belts. It was an easy step to sign up for the adult class and start learning.

“We started for self discipline for our son,” Amanda said. “Then I started because I thought it seemed a great way to learn self defense and get exercise. But to be involved and part of what our children are doing is a huge family activity. We can practice together and go to tournaments together.”

Amanda appreciates how the class encompasses more than just the physical part of the form. The instructor - Mr. Mitchell - teaches the history of karate, and a bit about the weapons. Similarly, the benefits ripple beyond the gymnasium walls.

“We are taught to have a good attitude. The parents and teachers have to sign off before a child tries to rank up to the next belt.”

“Yeah,” said Reece proudly. “You have to make your bed and clean your room.”

“If you don’t make your bed,” Acelynn added, “you have to do some pushups.”

That’s what Nick Smith, Director of Hill Country Karate, likes to hear. He manages dozens of classes throughout the area, working with schools and recreation departments. “Our program is about offering affordable martial arts training to as wide a base as we can,” he said. “Working with children once a week allow them to also participate in baseball, swim, and band, while giving them the confidence, self-esteem, and exposure to positive role models that helps them succeed in other parts of their lives.”

To the Thomsons, the whole attraction of karate is “doing” instead of “watching.” Amanda makes the effort to get other adults off their chairs and into a “gi,” or karate uniform.

“When you sit on the side and watch the class, you wonder how come the students are having difficulty with a certain technique,” she said. “But when you do it yourself, you see how hard it is. You can really appreciate the challenge when you are in the class.”

Right now, son Reece outranks his mother. She is a yellow belt, and Reece is a green belt. But that is not an issue for mom.

“I recommend this, absolutely. We really like that we are a part of this whole organization.”

XXX

The next session of Hill Country Karate begins June 7. Club Ed offers summer camps and classes for kids and adults. To sign up, visit www.clubed.net or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes with 3000 enrollments. The fall session begins in September. To sign up, ask a question, suggest a class, or apply to teach, call 830-895-4386, or visit www.clubed.net. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Computers for “non-computers”

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - April 21, 2010


PHOTO: John Lee, Club Ed computer instructor, helps introduce another new user to the world of computers.

Can you imagine not using a computer in your work or social life? What’s that? You still don’t use a computer? Then John Lee is the man to see.

Lee is a long time computer instructor who specializes in introducing the reluctant learner to the wonders of computers and the Internet. He started working with the machines back in the days of DOS and 10-megabyte hard drives. If you don’t have any idea what those terms mean, then Lee really is the teacher you want.

Lee’s specialty is guiding beginners - especially adult beginners.

“I get the most satisfaction out of helping people who are afraid of computers,” Lee said. “The first thing I do is to open up a computer and show them there is no little man inside that machine with a hammer ready to hit them when they touch the wrong key.”

The word most students use to describe Lee is “patient.” He makes sure his students understand a step before moving on. Some classes they will spend lots of time on “external digital controller mobile dexterity practice” - how to move the mouse.

Even though Lee had an extensive background in computing, he was reluctant to teach at first. He ran bulletin boards in the early days of the Internet, and built databases that were used in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. But it took a friend a year to talk him into trying his hand at teaching adult students how to use computers.

“I didn’t like talking to groups,” Lee explained, even though he used to speak to the press all the time in his role as a detective on the police force. But once in the classroom, he discovered he “loved teaching.”

“I love it because I like computers and I like helping people,” he said. “If you like those things it always helps.”

Lee teaches most beginning classes, including Introduction, Internet, Word, and Email. He has developed courses in protecting your data, dealing with spyware, and backing up hard drives. That leads him to a few top tips for computer owners.

First, backup your data.
Second, keep antivirus and spyware programs updated and allow them to run.
Third, use a program to clean off all temp files and defrag the disk.

Again, if you don’t know what any of this means, you should definitely sign up for a class. Even then, you will soon be unable to avoid using computers in your daily life.

“Using a computer now opens up so many doors,” Lee said. “I can’t think of anything you can’t do with a computer.” That includes telephone calling, texting, taking and sending pictures, and listening to music. Lee noted he even uses an application in his phone while on the golf course that tells the distance from the hole and suggests which club to use.

Lee also runs Lee’s Computer Works, where he sells, repairs, and refurbishes new and used computers. He even makes house calls.

As for that reluctance to teach? Well, Lee has taught since 1996 and in 1999 was named Outstanding Community Education Instructor by the Texas Community Education Association.

See what happens when you overcome your fears of trying something new?

xxx

Club Ed offers all levels of computer classes, including one-to-one training that can be scheduled at any time. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Cooking on the road

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - April 14, 2010




Leaving behind your home kitchen for the lifestyle of a full-time RVer does not mean wandering in the culinary wilderness. Downsizing your cooking space does not mean downsizing the quality of your cooking, according to Didi Ajax.

Ajax is a self-proclaimed “foodie” who created a new Club Ed class called “RV Cooking!”

As project manager for a private company, Ajax has done quite a bit of training. But this is her first attempt at teaching cooking. It came about as a result of her job with a software company. Ajax found herself living in campgrounds and RV parks for months at a time.

“One thing I had to do was go install software and train operators in how to use it,” she said. Over five years and 1000 campgrounds she “got to know a lot of people in the camping arena.”

Ajax always related her hobby of cooking to the nomadic lifestyle. Campers, she discovered, tried to bring the comforts of home to their RV, but had to overcome the limitations of the environment - lack of storage space, limited cooking surfaces, restricted access to ingredients.

“I started looking for tips, tricks, and ideas to make them more comfortable in a mobile cooking environment, and came up with the class to maximize use of the RV environment and still cook things we like to eat.”

The average rig has an oven with two or three burners, and a microwave oven. Her goal is to try to maximize the efficiency of cooking in such a cramped kitchen. She covers all the tricks in her class, but Ajax shares a few of her favorites.

“You don’t have room to travel with all your cooking items,” she explained. “My home kitchen has a gazillion tools, gadgets, and bowls. But on the road you have to minimize and find tools that are multipurpose.”

One of her favorite gadgets is the hand blender. “With the whisk attachment I can make a puree or soup, mix a milkshake, or blend salsa. It is great for this kind of thing.”

Another “go-to gadget” is the lowly toaster oven.

“They are really great. You don’t have to use propane, and as RVers like to eat out, you can use it to reheat leftovers.”

Not all of Ajax’s cooking happens on the road. She also teaches “Butters, Gravies, and Sauces” and “Weekend Brunch.”

“The weekend brunch is just for fun,” she said. “It is actually for folks who want to get up and cook something special when everyone is at home.”

But when you are not at home, you still can have wondrous culinary adventures.

“You can’t do a 9-course meal, but you can certainly pull off a 4 or 5-course meal,” Ajax said, noting she has prepared everything from chicken piccata to home-rolled sushi. “It’s all in the preparation and tools you choose.”

xxx

Didi Ajax will teach “Butters, Gravies, and Sauces” on April 17; “Weekend Brunch” on May 1; and “RV Cooking!” on May 15. Her classes meet at the Silver Sage Corral Senior Activity Center in Bandera. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Technology?

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly - April 7, 2010


Can you imagine swapping your SUV for a horse and buggy?

Your microwave oven for a wood stove?

Your vibrating Barcalounger for a stone bench?

How about your cell phone, Internet, email, and Facebook for... well... for silence?

That last scenario happened for many of us living west of Boerne last week.

Returning from lunch on that Wednesday, we automatically fired up our web browsers, downloaded the news, and checked our email.

I received one from a colleague with the subject line: “Food for thought on social media.”

The link took me to a YouTube video. It was a fast-moving, four-minute show on how our interconnected world, especially the so-called social networking movement, was changing the way we lived, thought, and worked.

“By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers.”


“If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest.”


“Wikipedia has over 13 million articles.”

The factoids whizzed past at the speed of light.

“35% of book sales on Amazon are on the Kindle.”

Fascinating, I thought, at the speed of flesh.

Then something happened. The computer show “hiccoughed.” The downstream stopped streaming. In technical terms, my computer froze.

“The phones don’t work!” came a cry from another room.

“I can’t read my email,” came another.

“Retry, resend, reboot,” I said. I might as well have added, “Resurrect,” because it wasn’t happening.

That of course was the day our web unraveled. All five cell carriers went down, no long distance telephone calls went through, and outgoing email went round and round, chasing its digital tail.

Later we learned that a line had been severed west of Boerne, hurling vast reaches of the hill country back to the dark ages of the early 21st century. For the rest of that day, our communications was limited to those within range of our vocal vibrations. We could not teleconference, video conference, page, text, beep or tweet.

We could only talk, and listen.

The ripples went wider than conversation. People could not use ATMs, buy gas, or take online courses. Stores could not ring up sales; banks could not receive deposits.

The impact affected all ages. After school, I saw forlorn youngsters sitting on doorsteps hoping mom remembered to pick them up. Girls at the dance studio - usually busy texting between classes - were sitting in groups and giggling face to face. One even was writing a note using pencil and paper! The loss of signal was an event for them, like canceling school because of snow, or hauling out the kerosene lamps when the electricity goes out.

Thankfully the system was up by the time we went to bed that evening. If it had lasted longer than a day, we might have had to take extreme measures to communicate, such as writing and mailing actually letters.

And no, the irony of losing our social network in the midst of viewing an online stream of how social networking was changing the world did not escape me.

And perhaps there are all kinds of lessons and aphorisms that could arise from this event.

Like the fact that all communications for our entire region travels through a piece of fiber no larger round than a quarter.

Or how quickly we move from “what is a cell phone?” to “I would never need a cell phone” to “I can’t leave home without my cell phone.”

But the big lesson?

Sometimes the lights go out. Sometimes the phones go dead. Sometimes the car breaks down.

But I never want to go back to hitching up the horse every morning.

xxx


Club Ed offers classes from social networking to hitching up the horses. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Golf: A good walk, improved

by Phil Houseal as published in the Kerrville TX Community Journal & Boerne TX Hill Country Weekly March 31, 2010


Mark Twain’s observation that golf is the best way to ruin a good walk is simply not true, according to Matt Trevino, Head Golf Professional at Riverhill Country Club in Kerrville.

Trevino is seeing full rosters in both adult and childrens beginning golf classes he is conducting with Club Ed. Last week he welcomed a full class of twelve students with three on the sidelines waiting to get on the green.

“A round of golf is actually a leisurely walk,” he said. “If you play tennis, or basketball, each court is pretty much the same everywhere in the world. Not so in golf. Every golf course is different. Most have trees and water. We have hills and tall trees; others are flat with no trees. Each is a new challenge.”

But folks are not just out there to enjoy the scenery. Trevino touts golf as a way to get the blood pumping.

“I think people underestimate how tough the game can be,” he said. While it doesn’t require running or jumping, playing nine holes will have you walking four miles. Without having to go to gym, you are stretching out your swing. And you must have some basic coordination, because the skill challenges are never-ending. “People don’t realize how many parts of the game there are. You have 14 clubs you can hit, there is putting, chipping, irons, and woods, and lots of rules to learn.”

So that’s what Trevino works on. He introduces adult beginners to the long game, the short game, putting, and golf strategy and etiquette. And perhaps like no other casual sport, the “game” of golf transcends the final scorecard.

“Golf is a great business tool. In no other sports can you carry on a four-hour conversation with someone while you compete. Golfers have a connection... no matter what they do for a living.”

Molly Adams was seeking that connection when she signed up five of her family members to take the class. Adams, who is CEO of Bank of the Hills, was “looking for things we can do together.”

“Most of us play a little bit,” Adams said. “We want to sharpen our skills. I’m getting better, but I’m not at that level yet where I can invite a customer out on the course for a round.” (She was surprised and pleased to get reacquainted with a former high school classmate who was in her class.)

Trevino admits that some think golf is stuffy, or time consuming, or expensive. But he is working on making the experience accessible to all ages and backgrounds.

“There are courses and facilities in all different price ranges,” he noted. “A beginning golfer can go to a range and invest eight dollars in a bucket of balls, then go chip and putt for an hour and a half. For this class, you don’t even need to buy any equipment.”

As a PGA professional, one of Trevino’s goals is to grow the game. That’s why he also works with junior golfers, teaching kids camps and spending time at elementary schools.

Adams already has purchased a membership at her local club, and is eager to hit the links as the weather gets nicer. Time is not an issue.

“If you are with your family and outdoors in the hill country, life can’t get any better than that!”

XXX

Matt Trevino will teach the next Adult Golf Clinic beginning Wednesday, April 21. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.