Terence Tsao

 Terence’s Tsao memorial service will take place on Wednesday, December 28, 9:00 a.m to noon, at Wah Wing Sang Funeral Corp, located at 26 Mulberry Street, New York, NY 10013 (phone:  212-962-0273).

An old student sent me the picture of Terence – that’s how he always looked to me – radiant.

Terence’s Tsao memorial service will take place on Wednesday, December 28, 9:00 a.m to noon, at Wah Wing Sang Funeral Corp, located at 26 Mulberry Street, New York, NY 10013 (phone:  212-962-0273).

You may make donations in honor of Terence Tsao to the New York Organ Donor Network: http://www.donatelifeny.org/take-action/contribute-to-the-donor-network/

Terence Tsao a Stuyvesant student was killed by a drunk driver in Brooklyn on Friday night.

More here. 

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RIP Terence Tsao

Reading the news that someone I know has died always hurts…..reading that MY former student died stings because he was 17 and had his whole world ahead of him.

My eyes glanced over the picture of a caravan which caused the accident. I scanned the caption’s words…..drunk driver… Brooklyn teenager killed. Terence Tsao. I thought…please don’t let it be my Terence Tsao. I googled his name and many papers covered the accident. When I saw the words ‘A 17 year old Stuyvesant student,’ I knew he was ours and tears didn’t stop falling from my eyes. I logged into Fb. Terence’s former and current classmates had begun to make posts expressing their sentiments and memories.

I taught Terence for one year. He was a hard working, bright, gentle young man. He was quiet, kind and part of a wonderful class 2008. I always looked forward to having this class because they were fun, kind and wonderful people.  I only knew Terence a short time, but I remember Terence was a good writer. We had a forum on Ning and Terence wrote about about his parents. I believe they were both teachers.

Reading that a drunk driver caused his death made me angry. In 2011, there shouldn’t be anyone driving after they were drinking. I wrote more here, but I deleted it today because Terence was a kind person and he would have forgiven this person. And that’s why he is with God now.

RIP Terence – the world lost a remarkable young man. Many prayers for his Terence’s parents and younger sister.

The picture above is not mine. A former student sent it to me. If you are the photographer, please let me know and I will give photo credits to you for the beautiful photo. I’m so glad to see a photo showing how radiant he was.

12/29/11 Edit:  I was getting the lab ready to close up before Christmas vacation. I had put some things in the empty file cabinet so they would be safe. As I went to close the file cabinet drawer, it wouldn’t close. Something was in the back blocking it from closing. I reached my hand in and it was a folded brochure. I closed the file cabinet drawer.  As I walked over to my desk, I looked down at the paper. It was a student brochure…..at the bottom was his name…Terence Tsao. The brochure was perfectly made (I’m a computer teacher) and I kept it to show to future students. I’m not sure how it was alone in the empty file cabinet this long. It must have come loose from the folder it was in.  How did such a small brochure stop the file cabinet from closing.?And why wasn’t the paper crushed or damaged……I’ll take it as a sign that Terence wanted to let us know he is watching over us. RIP my sweet student.

I looked online and found that Terence wrote the letter below on the Stuy website.

Dear Stuyvesant Alumni Association,
Thank you for purchasing copies of the textbook, “A History ofModern Europe from the Renaissance to the Present” by John Merriman, for Stuyvesant High School students. I am currently using this textbook in myA.P. European History Class. This textbook is a fabulous reference to use, containing a rich, well- organized collection of information all relevant to my class’s subjects. It is also a textbook written at a higher college level in comparison to many of the ordinary history textbooks I’ve used, before taking A.P. European History class, which will help me prepare for higher education. Thank you again for your purchases of the textbook, *A History of Modern Europe from the Renaissance to the Present.*
Sincerely,
Terence Tsao, 2012

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NY Police Auctions

New York police auctions are always interesting to people. Have you ever seen propertyroom.com  Property room has items like tools, computers, equipment, jewelry, boats and cars. The NYPD have seized some of these items. Designer bags like Louis Vuitton are being auctioned on the site as well. This site not only has NY police auctions, it also has California police auctions.

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Caroling in Brooklyn

I love living in Bay Ridge. We went caroling tonight and it was so much fun! I sang and laughed and really feel that Christmas spirit coming alive inside of me!

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Elf knee huggers

2017 Update on knee hugger elves here

Pretty creepy ornaments, right? Some say that it looks like an old version of elf on the shelf. But these are my second favorite Christmas ornaments. My grandmother had these hanging all over her living room. I didn’t like them back then. I found these two on ebay a few years ago and when they arrived I wanted to kiss them. Strange, right? It’s funny how a simple ornament can bring back so many memories.

My grandmother loved Christmas as much as I do, maybe even more. She threw a Christmas party every year and invited her friends over for sandwiches, salads, coffee and desserts. It was a fancy party and she had fancy dishes to serve the food and beverages. I loved everything about her parties, especially the excitement and anticipation she had in preparing for the party.

So these little guys sit close to my doorway and I love seeing them every morning because they remind me of the type of grandmother that every child deserves to have.

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A Wool Scarf

My scarf had a terrible accident this weekend. I thought it might be ruined. I read the wash label and realized the scarf was 100% wool. I put it into the washing machine and hoped for the best.

Later that day, I returned to see the washing machine door open. “OHHH NOOOO,” I thought – Lee must have put it in the dryer. If it took a few turns in the dryer, it would have been ruined. I shifted my head and saw the scarf clipped onto a hanger hanging nearby. Ohhhhhhhhhh thank goodness. I wondered how Lee knew that it couldn ‘t be dried.

When I asked him about the scarf, he said of course he knew it was wool (I didn’t until I read the label). Then I tested him with my scarf collection. He knew what most of them were made of.

I am thankful that Lee’s mother and nieces taught him to be careful with their clothes! If they didn’t, I would have been left with a ball of wool.

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An Old Student’s Gift

Last night my bed rang at 8 pm. I was surprised to see an old student on my doorstep. He’s in college and he stopped by because it was the last day of his first semester. I taught him 5 years ago and he wanted to visit the school, but since they aren’t allowed, he found out where I lived and stopped by.

He came by to share his good news – he’s majoring in engineering. He was so proud and I loved that he was so proud of himself. I am *very* proud of him because he was one of those students who we all got to know well.  He’s also working on forming a new team at the college which I think is absolutely amazing!

I loved that he spoke well about all of my colleagues because he understood how much we all wanted for him.  While at my school, he hit bumps in the road and had gotten into trouble, but he understood now much we all cared for him.

He was grateful and very happy.

I told him my current advice –  Don’t worry about what everyone thinks – worry about what you and the people who are important to you think.  So much time & energy is wasted on what people who don’t even matter think.

I’m grateful for his visit for so many reasons. So Christmas came early for me because there is no better gift than the kind words he spoke to me on a Thursday in December.

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Mercy First Hazmat

Mercy First (formerly Angel Guardian Home) located at 6301 12th Avenue had fire department Hazmat and EMS trucks on 12th Avenue around 2 pm because employees came in contact with a substance that was delivered with the mail.

Later in the day it was reported that the director received the letter with the white powdery substance. Thankfully it was non-toxic.

The Home Reporter got the story here.

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Turducken in Brooklyn

I heard of a turducken before, but I never actually seen one or knew of a place which sold them. Today we went to Yore Meat Market on Fort Hamilton and 71st Street. On the counter was the flyer to order your holiday Turducken!

A turducken is a turkey stuffed with a deboned chicken and a chicken stuffed with a deboned duck. We talked to Gary,  the butcher about his turducken and apparently it is very popular. Gary is going to be featured on Channel 1 making his turducken.

So I am thinking about ordering one. I’ve never had it before and I am not sure what our family will think, but maybe this will become a holiday classic for us. I don’t love chicken and I don’t eat duck, but our guests do and there are a lot of men in our family so this might be a possibility…..or maybe I just like saying turducken.

Yore Meat market is a classic meat store. I love stores like this. There are so few of them in Brooklyn because of the big grocery stores, but I like the personal service so much better.  This store was very busy for a Thursday afternoon as many women stopped in to get fresh meat for their dinner. Gary knew most of them by name! If you are ordering, Facebook fans get $5 off  Yore Meat Market  (Gary doesn’t know me because I have only been there once but I figured I would post the coupon in case you are shopping there).

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Angelea Preston Disqualified from ANTM

America’s Next Top Model disqualified Angelea (pronounced Anjalee) because she posted something on Facebook about this season and she was in the top 3. The info she posted hinted about who was in the top three. The post has been deleted from Fb, but it was in her contract that she couldn’t say anything.

Angelea’s website is here: http://angeleaonline.com/

And she tweets here: https://twitter.com/#!/AngeleaPreston

Her facebook is here: http://www.facebook.com/AngeleaPreston     Her all star page: http://www.facebook.com/AllStarAngelea  and her fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Angelea-Preston

Yup I love America’s next top model.

The winner of the ANTM All Star is Lisa D’Amato. Lisa is 30 years old (born in 1981) She’s beautiful, full of personality and confident. Tyra likes that she didn’t have to be a victim of her circumstance. Allyson Harvard with the huge blue eyes lost because she had a problem with taking close up pictures because her eyes were so sensitive.

Yet, I was hoping that Angelea would have won so I was sad to see that she was disqualified over a Facebook comment.

Anjalee ANTM Season 14

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Reflecting on Seasons

I love the holidays.

And then again, I don’t.

I love Thanksgiving because it’s a fun, easygoing day.

Christmas is just too busy for me. But I love meeting up with everyone for the holidays. And of course each time we have get togethers it makes me reflect – on how grateful and happy I am…..and on how fast life is changing. I wish I could slow it down just a bit.

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Font with dots

What is the font with the dots on the end of each word? or Is there a font that has cute dots on the ends of letters?

There are three font I know of that have dots on the end or edges.

Tinkertoy is a simple print font with dots (here)

CoolDots Font has dots on the end and hearts over the i and j (download here)

My favorite is the cute comic sans type font with dots on the end called Janda Scrapgirl Dots by Kimberly Geswin (here)

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